Rich Dad Poor Dad

Today King passed me a book for my 'discipleship'. LOL, it's called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" I shall be blogging what i learnt and experienced in this blog so that,

1. I haf a place to refer back and look through whenever i need it.

2. Everybody who are willing to learn will hopefully get something out of it at the end of the day.

Simple as that. I hopefully think everybody can get something out of it at the end of the day. If you dun, no worries, it's just a lifestyle. I wun be sharing much into detail of the book, u can get the book yourself. I'll just be sharing some gist that i realised after reading.

Ok to start off, how many of you have actually given thought about your own future? What are you going to be? I have bizmen, bankers, investors, teachers, etc. among my midst. Yet, i do know some of them are clueless about their future. To them, now is just going for uni to get a degree. But anyone knows what comes after that? This is everybody's STEP 1. Proceed reading once u are clear of this question. =)

Remember when we're younger, or even right till now. Our parents only told us a goal in life,

"Study hard and hopefully you get a gd stable and secure job after u get a degree."

Once they see their kids hit this stage. They felt that the kids are secured for life. However, in this new era. Do you still think this mentality will still work?

No doubt about it. In their generation of baby boomers(kids after the WW2), their mentality forged by their parents at tt time was to study hard, and wif a gd academic qualifications, you will get a secure job to SUPPORT your family. Note their differences between the context then and now. In their generation, they want to support their family. Nothing more den tt. But can you safely say the same now? Come to think abt it, i bet many of you guys have heard about throwing a stone at anyone in the streets and ure very likely to hit a graduate that holds a degree. I mean, there are TONS of fresh graduates now, but how many of them actually have a job? Or a job that they like and enjoyed doing? Do take note that, even if u get a degree at the end of the day. You're just one of the MANY fishes in the ocean, prepared but INEXPERIENCED to fend for yourselves. So, do you still think the past ideology of study hard ensure a gd SECURE job for yourself?

One more issue i will like to address is this. What is ur goal in life? Is it just to SUPPORT your family needs? or live life comfortably and PROVIDE your family wants? It's very different if you give it some thought. Support is to gif sufficiently for their needs only. Providing family wants is giving abundently to what they desire(Europe tour, studying sth tt they like and not conform by society needs)

Someone once said this, "Money cant buy you happiness. But without money, there wun be happiness to speak of in the first place." I noe u drama mamas will go nooooooooo, love conquers all. But let's be realistic, can love buy u food to eat when ure starving? will u be happy when ure starving? Just give it some thought before you reply me, honestly.

Back to topic. Let's say, today you finally got a job with an income of 2.5k. to many. it's like WAH WAH WAH. 2.5k! But let's get back to reality. How much money do you really have end of the day?

Income - 2.5k - (I assume you dun take money from your parents anymore)
CPF deduction?(ppl say the money is still yours. pls. u tink u can get it back when u retired? u tink u can make it to the ever increasing retiree age? u tink it's enuff to cope till u die when u retire?)
Expenses - Varies according to your age and status. hp bills? food? entertainment(drinking/pubbing/clubbing/chalet) transport?(taxi, bus mrt) (If you're married, house installment, car installment, kids' needs etc.)
Parents - Even if you parents dun ask you for it, you got to give them some money for their daily livelihood(food, electrical bills, blah blah blah) Especially if they have retired, you will have more financial burden from them.
Other expenses - Varies on person. (medical bills blah blah blah)
End of the day - How much do you have? What are you going to do with the puny amount? to save? (dun even talk about invest)

Please do note that 2.5k is quite a huge amount that we think we can achieve for a fresh grad. So, after this, let's give it some thought. Do you think that the 2.5k you're holding now sufficient to provide your family needs? Can we even think about providing for your family WANTS from the remaining sum?

You know at times, we wonder, why are we learning stuff in school that we will never even use it in our friggin life after we graduate? (algebra, sciences) Common thinking will state that cos we wanna get gd grades and hopefully get a secure job for life. but is it always this matter now in this big ocean full of fishes that has similar or better qualifications den u? If you tink having the highest qualifications can get u a pretty gd job, have u wonder how old will u be then? How much time do u haf left before u make it in life? What the children needs nowadays, is not about sciences and algebras. It's skills to cope in this saturated environment. Financial literate, how to manage your finance. They need new ideas to help them compete with the society. New knowledge to give them an edge in the workplace. Not how the cells are make up and x+y=z.

In the book, there's 2 tracks in life that i will like to relate to. One track is called the 'rat race' This track is what your parents went through. i'll just provide a gist here.

Study hard. get a stable secure job. earn some money. the money is good. able to live life comfortably. able to provide all your needs and some wants. however you slog all day, finding no time to enjoy life. u tink u can enjoy life once u earned enough, cos ure saving up.

After that, u finally met sum1 u love. u decided to get married. it's really awesome. 2 incomes together is a bliss. You guys start to think about the future and started buying car, an apartment and have kids. Life's really good, though ur income is barely able to cover the installments for the car and apartment.

Your kids starts to grow up. You find ur burden increasing, with a NEED to prepare saving for their education to come, their expenses in the future(pocket money), the apartment and car is starting to take it's toll on you. Cos u used to haf enough for your apartment and car, now is so much more. SUDDENLY, ur parents retired! You find urself wif a new financial burden, to provide their daily livelihood needs as their pension(CPF) seems unable to provide sufficiently enough. With age comes illness. Medical bills are piling up, electrical bills, many many bills.

You will find yourself slogging just to make ends meet. Working harder, so as to climb to promotions to meet the increasing needs by day. U find that, you work to provide needs and u can no longer afford wants like u used too. You realised that hey! im so old alr. why am i still working? i shld be enjoying life like wat i planned out when im younger! Your savings never seems to increase, not like it used to. N you think to yourself, was the stable job rly worth it? hell i dun even enjoy it! Wad if? den again. It's too late for u to jump out of the track of the rat race. All your life, ure scurrying like a rat, trying to survive and make ends meet. Slogging as hard as u can, and even when u enter the grave. U never seem to enjoy life at all.

ouch.

For the other track, the Fast Lane. To be Continued. =) it's 4.39am and i want to dota.