I work in a newsagency part time and part of my job (well most of my job) is selling lotto tickets. Last night was an OzLotto $30 Million Jackpot and I had loads of people buying tickets hoping to win it big.
It is one of my life goals to become a billionaire. I plan on doing this through investing in multi-family unit complexes. Both purchasing them and creating them. Now when your goal is to become a billionaire it really puts $30 Million into perspective.
I have always said that I don’t want to win the lotto. Whenever I pray to God the thing I ask for is wisdom, not money. Proverbs 16:16 says “How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver” or in my translation “How much better is it to get wisdom instead of inheriting easy wealth, to choose understanding over tonights winning lotto numbers”.
I am struggling to invest because I don’t have the capital I need to buy a property. I could get a job to raise the capital, but who ever became a billionaire by simply getting a job…if you can name one person I would really like to know. Instead I am trying to raise capital by convincing other people to invest with me. If I can’t convince someone to invest $7,000 with me on a low risk positive cashflow property, how can I be expected to raise the millions in capital I will need to my apartment complexes in the future?
If I won $30 million it would stop me learning what I need to earn in order to become a billionaire. I might be rich, but I want to choose wisdom and understand over easy wealth. Then, if I lose all my money I can get it back even quicker.
Plus I want the story of going from nothing to making it big time…and I don’t plan on doing it the easy way.
That is a really good point. I saw ad’s for that lotto jackpot and my wife tried to convince me to buy a ticket, but as you said, ‘Wisdom is more important.’
“who ever became a billionaire by simply getting a job…if you can name one person I would really like to know. “
You may not become a billionaire by ‘simply getting a job’ but even Robert Kiyosaki started off working full time to fund his ventures. I think it’s silly to assume you can skip that step – sure you may eventually get there but it’ll take you years longer to get the funding behind you.
(Btw we’ve gone from zero to half a million net worth in three years. We’ve not been focussing on it AT ALL, in fact when I ran our budget to buy our third house I was shocked to find out how much disposable income we’d gone through, but we’d *never* have done with without working to get the cash. We’ve still got a long way to go and we could have done better than we have but still – for three years of not really trying it’s pretty good. We’re aiming for a million in 5 years and that’s with me going part time to raise our baby in a couple of months. )
… having said that, sometimes it does bug me to know how much further we could have been if we’d really focussed. Or if I’d not got into debt in the first place. But all in all it’s a pretty good result I guess, and we’ve maintained a pretty nice lifestyle along the way as well.
Ok, I have read a lot from Robert Kiyosaki and just to clarify that is NOT how it went down.
Robert got a job a Xerox to learn how to sell (which is what his rich dad told him to do). When he became top salesman he left the company and started his nylon wallet business. That had huge success then went bust, he then built it back up but still lost A LOT of money.
When he met Kim they were millions of dollars in debt and were homeless (for proof read book #4 “Retire Young Retire Rich”). They had NOTHING behind them from their job, but were literally millions in debt. They did odd jobs to pay for food, but they built their entire wealth empire from scratch, using no capital from a job to do it.
So when you say that I am leaving that bit out I am not. It is not necessary. You can build an empire without capital from a job. That is exactly what Robert Kiyosaki did.
Yeah, I haven’t read as many of the RDPD books as you but I’ve read enough to see the inconsistencies in the story and it’s probable that Robert Kiyosaki is leaving parts out (it doesn’t take much digging to find out that timeframes and details don’t quite match up to what he claims). Anyway, that’s not where he started. That’s his recovery and by that time he had a lot of good business contacts and proven experience running business, which you don’t yet have. I don’t have my books to hand but IIRC he started investing well before that before the Marine Corps. Also he spent all that time working in his ‘rich dad’s business learning how businesses are run, which again, would have been invaluable and is a step you’ve skipped.
For another, more realistic, example of someone who gives actual advice on how to achieve the steps instead of a “rah rah be an entrepreneur do deals” take a look at Steve McKnight. I expect you’ve read From 0 to 130 properties in 3.5 years (or the update) as it gives actual concrete information on how to do what you want in our market. He worked as an accountant with the sole aim of that business financing his property purchases in the early years. And he had proven results before he started trying to get other people (other than his original partner) to invest.
To get back to your point, no of course you’re not going to become a billionaire by simply having a job. That implies you do no investing at all and just leave the money in your bank savings account, and is a kind of stupid statement. No one who is at all financially savvy would do that. It’s what you do with your earnings that matters.
Like I said, you can probably get where you want to be on a part time newsagents pay, but it will take you far longer so why do it that way? Although you’re not planning to. You’re planning to convince other people to give you the money to do it, which without a proven track record behind you or the willingness to do the work yourself will be hard (not impossible; there are lots of people who love glossy powerpoint presentations and you’ll probably find some of them). Personally, I think for you getting a job to earn the money to start up yourself would be the hard way.
Anyway. Everyone thinks they can be Robert Kiyosaki, but without experience you’re not starting from where he did, no matter how many books you read.
Lets face it, we live in different realities and neither of us can convince the other. But saying that, you don’t know me, all you know is what I write on this blog and I don’t appreciated you implying that I am some sort of con man just trying to get other people’s money with flashy power point presentations. Any one who knows me will tell you I am not like that at all and I am offended that you would even slightly imply that I am that sort of person.
Robert Kiyosaki talks about working to learn, not working to earn. The key takeaway though is that he did talk about working as being something that be leveraged to get out of the rat race, and that it’s not necessarily the sum of all evils.
That said, the security and predictability of a 9 to 5 can be kind of like falling asleep in a snow storm… it’s more comfortable to just sit and relax, but in the end it can kill you.
Tim Ferriss talks about working to fund external ventures in the 4 Hour Work Week.
You are right. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to do it.
If the 9-5 is for you, then good on you. But that doesn’t mean I need to work 9-5 in order to achieve what I want to achieve.
It is beneficial for some, but not all. Depends on your goals