In the last 2 years through my Entrepreneurial Education with the freedom collective one of my main learnings I take away is on financial education. It was like a slap in the face to see how little we learn on this topic and how little I knew.

People have lots of mixed messages about money, from it being the root of all evil, to just it being a strange and icky thing.

I’ve been learning (slowly but surely) to have a good healthy relationship with money.

Robert Kiyosaki teaches to learn to pay yourself first. This was a strange idea when I heard it but I’ve been doing it and it feels good. He teaches how people typically spend what they earn then maybe save a bit after that.

The trick is to always pay yourself first, before anything else. This is money which ultimately goes to work for you. Remember that an asset is something that puts money in your pocket. A liability is something that takes it out.

Robert Kiyosaki made the statement in his amazing book (read it just read it) ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ that ‘your house is not an asset’. This completely counters standard thinking but it makes sense. He never says don’t buy a house but just that it is silly to think of it as an asset. It is ultimately just something you enjoy and own which gives psychological comfort. Never something that puts money in your pocket. (unless you rent a room out obviously)

He speaks about his Rich Dad who tells him that Rich people invest in assets which make them money, the middle class invest in liabilities which they think are assets and the poor just pay expenses.

The key here is to simply know the difference between assets and liabilities and to start investing in assets. A great way to do this is to pay yourself 10% first. This teaching is spoke about throughout the Robert Kiyosaki books and also particularly highlighted in the book ‘The Richest man in Babylon’ you can get online.

It can be 10% or just something that stretches you. An asset to invest in can be stocks and shares, real estate, any kind of intellectual property eg books. The key is finding what appeals and just learning about it.

I have been enjoying investing in stocks and shares recently using sharesies.nz to invest and educating myself with books and online material from the Richdad.com site.

I also use a cashflow sheet (search online Robert Kiyosaki cashflow sheet). This is great to just see the income coming in, what expenses are, and seeing any passive income. To make sure I pay myself first I have started to take off the 10% from my income before it even goes onto the sheet. That seems to me the best way to start.

Have a play with the resources here and give things a go. It’s a wonderful feeling when you start to take charge of your finances like this.