Mentoring the Next Generation-By Robert Kiyosaki

Aug. 8, 2012 - PRLog -- Mentoring the Next Generation
Teach Your Kids to Be Rich
By Robert Kiyosaki

When I was nine years old, I changed schools. I moved from a school in a poor neighborhood to a school for rich kids. I did not know I was poor until I changed schools.

My new classmates lived on private estates, had second homes in the mountains or on the beach, and belonged to the country club and the yacht club. My family lived in a rental house behind the public library, my dad played golf at the public golf course, and we went to the public beach next to the yacht club. After elementary school, most of my rich classmates went on to private schools. I went to the public junior high and high school.

Needless to say, this change in schools changed my life. The good thing about going to elementary school with rich kids was that the rich kids inspired me to become rich. The bad thing was that I learned that going to school would not make me rich.

I knew this because my father had spent most of his life in school. He entered school at age five, eventually earned his PhD, and become Superintendent of Education for the state. He had six brothers and sisters, three of whom were class valedictorians and, in time, earned their PhDs. Two had master's degrees and one a bachelor's degree. Yet not one of these six children became rich.

So from an early age, I knew that, at least for me, going to school was not the path to becoming rich. This realization led me to seek out my rich dad, a classmate's father and local entrepreneur, a man who never finished school, but who would become one of the richest men in Hawaii.

My rich dad began teaching his son and me about money by using the game of Monopoly® as a tool. He often said, "One of the formulas for great wealth is found in this game." If you have played Monopoly, you know the formula: Four green houses, converted into one red hotel.

When I was 19 years old and attending college in New York, I returned to Hawaii for Christmas break. What did I see? My rich dad's big red hotel, right smack dab in the middle of Waikiki Beach. He had followed his business plan, which was to simply play Monopoly in real life.

When I completed my tour in Vietnam as a Marine Corps pilot, I began following rich dad's business plan. I took real estate investment seminars, and in 1974 began buying small "green" houses. Today I am a partner in a major resort hotel in Phoenix, Arizona with five golf courses. I also own apartment buildings, oil wells and other businesses.

Many of my rich classmates went on to good schools. A few did not go to college because they would never need to work. Many were trust fund kids who had the benefit of following their passions and doing what they loved, rather than working for a living.

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