Opinions?
I’ve been reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and wondering if it’s possible to follow some of his strategies in Taiwan…
Opinions?
Kenneth
I felt his books are more motivational and skimpy on the how to’s part. Every case you read it seems like the same formula is being used with the same 30,000 to 60,000 appreciation in the price of the house 3- 6 months down the line.
There is also someone that accuses Robert Kiyosaki as a fraud.
also check out amazon’s comments about his books.
I’ve heard of him from people who have read his stuff but never tried myself. What does he say? Is it good stuff?
The book didn’t teach me much I haven’t worked out for myself through a process of trial and error, but it came 20 years too late. If I had read it while in High School my life might have turned out a lot differently. I recommend it to anyone.
It gives you plenty of good principles, but doesn’t go into a lot of detail about specific ways of making money - but that’s hardly surprising is it? Making money out of property, for instance, requires intimate knowledge of your local market and Kowalski makes that clear. I think he also said that he’s focusing his energies onto other ways to make money these days.
There’s no formula that everyone can copy and follow easily, or else we would all be immensely rich until all the extra money in the economy caused sufficient inflation to balance things out again. Let’s face it, we’re all rich anyway. We have plenty of food, water, clothing, decent shelter, medical care, enough money to fly across the world and have a few beers when we arrive. In the eyes of many, that is unimaginable wealth. What you (and I) are seeking is to be more rich than everyone else - which means doing something different from everyone else. Buying a book with a magic formula that anyone can use is not going to achieve that.
As for property in Taiwan, apart from the legal and banking hassles, I have the impression that it’s not going to be a big earner any time soon. There are a lot of people sitting on properties that lost value a few years ago who are waiting for them to increase again before offloading them. And they probably know the market better than you or I. That should prevent any major price increases.
Also, it seems that no-one ever cuts their losses in Taiwan. Admitting to a loss seems to be just too painful. So you get very few people dumping bad investments onto the market. ie no bargains
My wife and I also read Rich Dad and got really excited about the whole idea about real estate investments. It made sense somehow. Then I read another book in the Rich Dad series which (I think) is called “Real estate riches.” It talks more specifics.
It says that one should look count on having to look at 100 properties before closing one. That’s the effort needed to find those good deals that are out there.
We only came to 25 before getting too busy with our other business, but the process made sense to me. Our knowledge about prices, mortgages, rents, costs, locations etc etc improved a lot I think it could work, but it is just a guess.
My experience from business is that it is too easy to say “if it was possible everybody would do it.” It is NOT easy to make money, it takes effort tennacity. Most people are just not willing to put in the effort necessary.
Other than that I do agree with the previous speaker, most of us are already rich and family and health is more important than money. So we better have our motives clear.
That’s my thoughts for the moment. Take care,
Elias
Enspyre
www.enspyre.com
Agreed. However, while there are greedy people in the world, and there are people who DEFINITELY have a lot more. In a search for my personal values, I came to realize that:
- working for someone else wasn’t the answer to my professional or financial goals, never mind my own peace of mind.
- I didn’t want to rely on 401K and pension plans and other ‘traditional’ means espoused by pension brokers,
- most financial products pedaled to us these days are just that: products. primarily designed to make the institution a profit NOW,
- stock markets aren’t the best investment, given volatility issues, risk of loss of capital, lack of meaningful dividends in most cases, risk and uncertainty.
So buying property wasn’t an issue for me of greed, or of not already having enough. It was a choice for a different kind of lifestyle, and a different kind of future from the general consensus.
It SHOCKS me that many people, even in the so called RICH world, fail to get their finances in order, fail to save even a 10th of their credit card allowances, and fail to understand the difference between an asset and a liability. Hiding this under the veil of health and family responsibility is in and of itself irresponsible. Your family are your responsibility and their financial well-being rests more often than not on the efforts, both at work, and after work. At work is obvious. But after work, if you don’t take care of your finances (now and tomorrow), WHO does?
Your employer? Give me a break.
Your bank? Should know better.
Your grandmother? Keeping your $ under the bed, still?
Your government? Hah, … that one is ridiculous. Most governments can’t wait to take your money (ie. taxes)
Who?
If you don’t know now,…
Kenneth
Yeah, you’re right, we are all responsible for ourselves (and to our families).
I still think the real estate thing is a valid investment idea. I don’t have time to look into it now but if I were an employee at someone else’s company right now with the occasional day off I would likely continue to look at apartments.
Elias