As mentioned last week, the purpose of Wealth Building Wednesday is to help you become more financially free. My goal is that you will find places to save money but also, and more importantly, to build your wealth.
About a year ago, my wife and I began reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey together. We were impressed with the sound principles of budgeting and avoiding debt that Ramsey made so clear to us. I felt that something was missing from what he wrote though.
Around the same time, I listened to Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki, who explains how true financial freedom comes from being self-employed. Kiyosaki is also wise and experienced when it comes to money, and gives a lot of great tips on how to get rich.
For a while, it seemed like I was trying to listen to two differing views on money.
Credit-card cutting Ramsey says to avoid debt at all costs, while Kiyosaki tells you that leveraging debt can be one of your greatest assets.
“Make your money work for you” is one of Kiyosaki’s staples of financial freedom, while Ramsey hammers home the idea of budgeting wisely and snowballing your way out of debt.
It seems like Ramsey has no advice on the “how” part of getting rich, while Kiyosaki’s methods seem a tad too risky to work for most of us.
After months of rumination on both of these ideas, while at the same time working our way out of debt and building a side income that now pays the bills, it finally dawned on me what I was missing.
Neither Kiyosaki or Ramsey on their own, have all the keys of financial freedom and wealth. If you followed either one religiously on their own, you would end up not ever getting rich or taking too many risks that might cripple you financially.
So, I combined their ideas into a way of finding financial freedom that works best for me, and it’s worked wonders.
As mentioned, we followed the principles in The Total Money Makeover to “snowball” our way out of debt. We took our smallest debts and paid those off quickly, then put those payments towards the larger debts and repeated until we were debt free.
At the same time, almost unknowingly, we were also following Kiyosaki’s advice from Rich Dad, Poor Dad, to build a side hustle and grow it. Our initial goal was to make an additional $250 of income to help us buy a house sooner, but we quickly reached over 10x that amount.
When I lost my job just three months ago, we were debt free and living lean as Ramsey taught us, but also working hard to build wealth just as Kiyosaki helped us learn. I didn’t even qualify for government benefits because the money never stopped coming in.
While I appreciate the methods of both Kiyosaki and Ramsey, I still listen to others advice about money. No principle or author can stand alone; there are always helpful principles from others that can make what they say work even better for you.
We took the advice of these two guru’s and made it work for us, and I hope you will do the same. It’s led us to 10x our side income and seamlessly transition to self-employment.
I can only imagine how these books and what you’ll learn from them will help your financial life.
Actionable Advice: Head over to Blinkist* and check out the summaries for these two books. I recommend starting with The Total Money Makeover because it’s likely that you’re struggling financially because of debt.
First, make a plan to get rid of all your debt and get some savings stacked up. Then, and you can do this at the same time, check out Rich Dad, Poor Dad to get some ideas about how to start building wealth. More to come on these ideas next Wednesday!
*That’s an affiliate link. It means that if you choose to subscribe to Blinkist by clicking on that link, I get a small commission from Blinkist. It’s a nice, completely free way for you to help me keep this newsletter free and say thanks if it’s been helpful to you.
About Wealth Building Wednesday: Every Wednesday I’m going to give financial tips for families. Financial freedom is the third pillar of family life. Our family has been happy to learn from getting out of debt, starting and 10x-ing a side business, and budgeting consistently for over six years. We’ve not only survived recent joblessness but are thriving as well.
My goal for you is that you can see the wisdom in consolidating your finances to eliminate debt and increasing your earning potential. I also want to show you how we’ve learned to spend less and earn more and help you do the same.