Retire Young, Retire Rich is the fourth book in the popular rich dad series written by Robert T. Kiyosaki. For those new to Robert Kiyosaki and his material, his books primarily advocate the teachings of a “rich dad”. The underlining theme behind the rich dad series is to help people rethink their idea of money, with a special emphasis on redefining their concept of themselves as employees who will gain financial rewards (aka: become rich) from conformity and education.
The main idea behind this book is about harnessing the power of leverage in order to retire early. Debt is advocated as a tool to be leveraged to allow the individual to work less but earn more. The difference between earned income and passive or investment income is also explained and emphasized.
To achieve this objective, the book is broken down into four sections.
Section 1: The leverage of your mind
In this section, Robert through the use of simple analogies introduces the power of leverage. The idea of utilizing leverage as a quintessential tool to retiring rich is established early. The reader is led to understand that the rich becomes rich through the effective use of leverage, by using other people’s time and other people’s money for example.
This section also talks about the importance of leveraging your mind. In particular, the concept of an individual’s perception of reality is discussed upon. It seems that one has to reframe his or her mindset to “think rich” instead of thinking from an ordinary person or “poor man’s” perspective. An example of this is instead of viewing starting your own business as a risky endeavour, we should view it from the point of its risk-to-reward ratio which justifies starting a business.
Section 2: The leverage of your plan
This section is about the planning process of acquiring wealth. It starts of by talking about the speed of your plan towards obtaining wealth. It talks about the fact that there are fast plans towards wealth and there are slow plans towards wealth, with getting a job and working hard being a slow plan with no leverage. This chapter also talks about planning for the future in terms of choosing your exit strategy and coming up with a plan to achieve it today.
In addition, it also talks about learning about and applying financial ratios that are applicable to your own live as well as leveraging the power of networks through a generous sprit.
Section 3: The leverage of your actions
Here is where the book all starts coming together. This section is about the actions one needs to adopt in order to be rich. It starts off by listing habits one should adopt in order to become rich supported by the material presented in previous chapters. This is followed by other “actions” such as leveraging your money, real estate, paper assets and a business. The reader is captivated as the concepts are presented in a simplified and clear manner through the use of numerous stories and examples.
Section 4: The leverage of the first step
This short final chapter revolves around a question. “What would you do if there was no risk and it required no money to become rich?” It once again involves a person’s context and his or her reality. The answer to the question on whether such a reality actually exists was never answered. The answer is based on what we decide for ourselves, and not based on what others say.
In conclusion, I personally feel that in this book, “Rich Dad’s Retire Young, Retire Rich,” the author Robert Kiyosaki has personally broadened my own horizons as well as the boundaries of my personal reality. I realize that most of us have what is known as a “poor man’s” mentality where we have been conditioned to avoid risk, and have learned to accept living in the rat race as something that is unavoidable. This book has definitively achieved its objectives through simple yet vivid examples and has made a definitive impact on my way of thinking. A highly recommended and engaging read.