Money Matters

Darshan Darshi
A wonderful book came my way just accidently. Whereas my accident may not amuse you, the book certainly will. “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert T.Kiyosaki is a personal finance book. A passionate advocate for financial education, the writer believes that present school education provides no learning about money. His lesson one: The Rich Do not Work For Money, they have Money Work for Them.
He rejects the old idea that you need money to produce money and propounds that ideas generate money. And he gives examples of many rich people who started poor but acting (and risking) with ideas which were bold and new, made money. His stress on the art of selling goes up to a ludicrous level but has a point. In order to prompt a best but un-selling writer, he advises her to join a sales school. And when the writer takes offence, he quips candidly:”You have yourself marked me as a best-selling writer in your notes. Mind you, best selling writer not best writer. I am not a great writer but I am a great salesman, because I studied in a sales school. You are a best writer and if you learn the art of sales, you can become best selling best writer.”
Unlike your financial planners, who advise you to save money, Kiyosaki advises to invest money. And  I think he is as similar in his advice as that old Indian farmer who gave his grain stock to his four sons to keep till his return from  his four month Teerath Yatra. Three sons stocked the grains safely so that their father receives them as good as those were at the time of giving. But the fourth son was brainy and willing to take the risk of investing rather than saving. He sowed the grains as seeds and yielded a return ten times over. And who did the father applaud on return. Not those who remained true to his advice of ‘keep till his return’.
Financial Literacy is a vital skill to build business. But it is not mere accounting. Understanding markets, tackling the issues of demand and supply or when and where to invest are the technical skills which require attention. However, seeing that which others miss is what brings the booty. Inner fire is what sustains the boxer to keep punching till the ringing of the bell. FEAR and FIGHT can never go well together. He appears to be giving lessons in treading unconventional paths when he says,”…to live a life dictated by the size of a monthly-pay-cheque is not really a life.”And he provokes us further by adding ‘thinking that a job makes you secure is lying to yourself.’ His belief lies in harnessing money’s power, to let money work for you and not the other way round. But he puts caution clause too.”Money without financial intelligence is money soon gone.”
His best advice appears to be: Converting ordinary income into passive or portfolio income. Ordinary income is money you work for and passive portfolio income is money working for you. This is one lesson which should have come to me many many years ago. WHAT then, enjoying the theory is also learning!! But all is not candy with this man. When he oversteps , he hurts my sensibilities. Entering into an intended argument about the accomplishments of his Rich Dad and Poor Dad, he unashamedly sides with the former who is poorly educated but is money making wizard. The latter, who happens to be his biological father too, is highly educated and learned man, but since he is not inclined to master financial literacy and is satisfied with a monthly salary, the son Robert.T.Kiyosaki is not  inclined to stay on the page of his poor Dad. Some may like to call this ambition, I don’t. Education should never be allowed to play a second fiddle to money, even when education too needs money. A greedy love of lucre is generally not approved by most of the world cultures even when Lakshami Pujan is a common practice among Hindus.
Well, it is true that most of us are trapped in a cycle of work, earn, spend and save; living under a constant fear of not having enough. To that extent money certainly appears to be running our lives. But man does not live by money alone. Emotion which is also called ‘energy in motion’ serves us in many ways and Robert’s sermon on emotion is unacceptable. He says, “Learn to use your emotions to think, not think with your emotions.” Does he want us to live in Plato’s Republic where poets (poetry is at once bracketed with emotions) had no place?  Using your emotion to think could mean that you keep your heart (and as a conquence love, affection and empathy) out of your thought process. Such system of thinking may generate more money for you but will encourage Machiavellianism.
Seeking new ways to make money and trying to chase away want is the need of the new emerging world of expanding possibilities, but if you find that you have dug yourself a hole …….stop digging. Japanese are said to be in love with three things: Sword, Jewel and Mirror. And we know that whereas, the first and second stand for power and money the third stands for self-introspection. So, friends keep digging Makah’s gold and endeavour to possess the finest sword, but never forget to keep a mirror in your pocket. Money is honey, but the beehive you extract it from must be clean. We Indians have a special predilection for fair (read white) skin, then why should we get attracted to black when it comes to money. Love money but only the white one!
Bankers’ old philosophy that ‘you take care of your pennies, pounds will take care of themselves’, is obsolete in this new world of capital economy. Making money like making love is in fashion and even communist CHINA is bitten by this bug. China Youth Daily reports: First June is celebrated as Children’s Day in China and parents take their children to museums and parks over the weekend. But this June more than three hundred parents took their children to visit a luxury holiday villa in southern city of Qingyuan, apparently in the hope that it will inspire the youngsters to seek riches when they grow up. Showing children the trappings of wealth in order to encourage them to desire success is aspirational tourism. I think, it is time for us to teach in our schools the subject called Money together with other subjects. Money matters now cannot be left at the mercy of Lady Luck. I regret for searching security in a monthly pay-cheque and thus leading an unadventuresome life. Let my children not do that. Working for wages in a government office for the best part of your life seems very unromantic in retrospect.
(Feedback: darshandarshijammu@gmail.com)
(The author is former KAS Officer)

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