The Quadrants

Robert Kiyosaki divides how people earn income into 4 different quadrants. The E stands for employee. S stands self-employed, I stands for investor and B stands for big business. Kiyosaki heavily suggests only doing the B and I quadrants because it allows you freedom. With people or money working for you, you are allowed the opportunity to pursue other things you are passionate about without having to rely on a job.

Building Systems

The biggest point of the entire book is told as a story in the beginning of the book. It tells a story of two people who are given contracts to bring water to a town. The first person gets two buckets and goes to work bringing the buckets to the town every day. They are happy to have the job, but it is a lot of work. The second person disappears for a while and finally comes back with a pipeline that brings water straight to the town without him having to bring the water himself. The pipeline is a business system that worked for the second person. Once his system was set in place, he wasn’t having to work hard every day. He did a lot of work up front, but was able to sit back and enjoy his cashflow after that point.

Being Financially Educated

Kiyosaki’s prior book to the Cashflow Quadrant is called Rich Dad Poor Dad. It is an excellent book that I also recommend. In that book (and in this one) he describes his biological father who is highly educated, but poor financially. His Poor Dad relied heavily on his job and had false beliefs about what it took to be rich. His best friend’s dad was not educated, but a very wealth man. He built businesses that didn’t require him to be there and had investments that had his money working for him. Just like in the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, Cashflow Quadrant drives home the ideas that being financially educated is the most important type of education.

Along the lines of being financially educated, Kiyosaki explains that if you are financially educated, risk becomes less of a factor in your financial decisions. You will start to realize that being on the left side of the quadrant (E and S) are actually the more risky ways to earn income.

Conclusion

There were plenty of “aha” moments for me during this book and it definitely helped open my eyes on certain things. I felt inspired to do things that would help move me from the left side of the quadrant (E and S) to the right side (B and I). It’s not a “how-to” book that is going to lay out exactly what you need to do to start a business, but will help you understand what needs to go on before you create these business systems. It will help you start to become a better business person by changing your mindset now. I feel like it has given me a bunch of ideas on how to move to the B quadrant and the courage to start taking the steps required to get there.

You can buy the book here: https://amzn.to/35SkY9W

To check out my other book reviews, go here.

I really enjoy this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to become wealthy in the simplest way possible. Collins lays out complicated things, like investing, into very simple terms and makes it easy to understand. I love everything he teaches and follow it closely. Here’s some of the main points of what he teaches and how we apply it.

Avoid debt

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but is always a good reminder. The main point that JL Collins makes is that debt will seriously inhibit your path to wealth and should be avoided as much as possible. “Carrying debt is as appealing as being covered with leeches, and has much the same effect.”

Build up “FU” money

FU money grants you the ability to have options and to be able to say “no”. This is probably my favorite concept of his. I love the idea of being able to have my options open and a good amount of money set aside.

The market always goes up

The stock market is a volatile but through those years of volatility, it has always managed to go up. If you view your investments as long term, you will be far better off than trying to time the market.

You can invest on your own, without an advisor

Collins suggests investing in Vanguard funds and doing it by yourself. With a little bit of knowledge about index funds, you can easily manage your own portfolio, without having to pay advisors. Collins suggest a total stock market index fund called VTSAX or a similar one (we buy VTI).

This book may be the only book you will ever need to meet your financial needs. It’s simple, yet gives you essential knowledge for wealth building. To buy the book you can find it on audible or with the link below. Leave comments if you have any questions or if you’ve read the book already.