During lockdown, I re-read one of Robert Kiyosaki’s books. As with all the Kiyosaki books I’ve read, I’ve found them thought provoking. Some of the concepts really challenged me as they were in contrary to the thinking I’d had my entire life. The book spoke of what I now realise are the realities around wealth creation and the winners and losers during recurring economic events such as the GFC and other recessions. Suddenly, I find the concepts much more applicable as we are entering into the current truly global recession which has been hastened into existence by COVID-19.
The journey Fei Hsia and I have been on this past year has really opened our minds to reflect on decisions we have made, paths we have taken, and how we choose to live our life. The key elements of the book have had us take a look at the cycle of history repeating, and how that has applied to us.
As the people closest to us know, we’ve been through some tough times in recent years. For those of you who are currently in the financial stress zone, we’ve been there. When I was going through brain cancer treatment in ’14-’15 we found out what it was like to suddenly have the fortnightly pay stop. We didn’t know how long we had to financially sustain ourselves for, and didn’t know when the next regular pay would come in. We were fortunate that a few years earlier our banking adviser had encouraged us to take out a small insurance policy which we were able to cash in. If it wasn’t for this, we would’ve been below broke. Needless to say, that safety net, which we had never thought we would actually need, is no-longer available to us.
Over the past year we have kicked our understanding and mindset of wealth creation into gear. Our journey has taken us from the traditional employee mindset to ask ourselves the question of where we will be in 5, 10, or even 20 years if we keep doing what we have always done. The picture the answer to that question painted didn’t look as rosy as we were hoping.
Did we learn from our experience in ’14-’15? Yes, and no. Yes, in that we knew we needed to do something to protect ourselves from the next adversity, as one will absolutely show up. No, in that we’re still like most people, and remain reliant on the fortnightly pay cycle. Do we now have an achievable plan to change this though? Absolutely!
A quote that I have found really relevant to our former situation, and that of many at this time came to mind when I was writing this post:
“Take responsibility for your finances—or get used to taking orders for the rest of your life. You’re either a master of money or a slave to it. Your choice.”
Robert Kiyosaki
So I’m going to challenge you. We’ve made our conscious choice – master, or slave. Have you made yours? For if you haven’t, it has already been made for you.