Blog | Personal Finance

8 Ways to Become Rich

And only one is worth it

Almost everyone I meet would like to be rich. But did you know there is something more important than just being rich? It’s how you get rich.

Rich dad would tell me that there are many ways a person can get rich, and each one has a price.

You can become rich by:

Rich dad would scrunch up his face and say, “Both men and women marry for money, but can you imagine spending your life with someone you don’t love? That is a very high price.”

Rich dad would say, “It is so easy to become rich legally. Why would people want to break the law and risk going to jail unless they really enjoy the thrill of it? To risk going to jail is too high a price for me. I want to be rich for my freedom, so why risk going to jail? I would lose my self-respect and could not face my family and friends. Honesty is always the best policy.”

Rich dad would often say about his son, “Mike often feels like he did not earn his keep. He wonders if he could have become rich on his own. I have therefore given him very little. I have guided him as I guide you, but it is up to him to create his own wealth. It is important for him to feel he has earned it. Not everyone fortunate enough to inherit money feels fortunate.”

“It’s OK to buy a ticket now and then, but to bet your financial life on winning the lottery is a fool’s plan to becoming rich,” said rich dad.

Living your life with odds of one in a hundred million is a very high price to pay. Unfortunately, that is how many Americans hope to become rich. And even if you win, you don’t have a plan on how to handle the problem of too much money. Many lottery winners squander their newfound wealth and go back to being poor.

Rich dad would say, “I’m not smart, talented, good looking, or entertaining. So becoming rich by being outstanding is not realistic for me.”

Hollywood is filled with actors who are broke. Clubs are filled with rock bands dreaming of cutting a platinum record. The golf course is filled with golfers dreaming of becoming a pro like Tiger Woods. However if you look at Tiger’s life, you will notice he paid a high price to get where he is today. He started playing at the age of three and didn’t turn pro until he was twenty-years-old. His price was seventeen years of practice.

The world is filled with greedy people whose favorite saying seems to be, “I got mine and I’m going to keep it.” When people are greedy with their money and assets, it usually means they are also tight with other things. When asked to help or teach people, they often don’t have the time.

The price for being greedy is that you have to work even harder to keep what you want. Newton’s Third Law states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” If you’re greedy, people will respond to you in kind.

When I meet people who are struggling with money, I ask them to start giving money away on a regular basis—to their church or favorite charity.

This is the one that set rich dad’s blood boiling the most. He said, “The problem with becoming rich by being cheap is that you are still cheap. The world hates rich people who are cheap. That is why people hate characters like Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ famous story, A Christmas Carol. People like Scrooge give the rich a bad name.”

Being cheap doesn’t allow you to know how to make money work for you and become richer. All it does is allow you to miss out on a lot of great things in life. All you know how to do is to be cheap, and that is a great price to pay.

Rich dad said, “I think money is meant to be enjoyed. So, I work hard, my money works hard, and I enjoy the fruits of our labor.”

1. By marrying someone for his or her money

2. Through inheritance

3. By winning the lottery

4. By being famous

5. By being greedy

6. By being cheap

7. By being financially smart

As I learned to be financially smart, I began to harness the same investing power I had witnessed at the age of twelve standing on the beach looking at rich dad’s new piece of oceanfront land. Many people become rich by being very smart with knowledge from the B (business) and I (investing) side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant. Many of these individuals operate behind the scenes and manage, control, and manipulate the world’s business and financial systems.

As rich dad taught me, “There are people who buy tickets to the game, and there are people who sell tickets to the game. You want to be the one selling tickets.”

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