Increase Your Financial IQ Book Review – Part 1: Making More Money

The book starts by asking the fundamental question:

“Does money make you rich?”

Take a moment to answer that question.

Do you think money will make you rich?  Do you think winning millions of dollars from lottery will make you rich?  How about having a high-paying job from a lucrative profession like doctors, or lawyers, or IT professionals?  Does having a lot of money make you rich?

Many people have heard stories how instant millionaires lost their millions after a few years. Or how someone who was once rich and famous had his house foreclosed.  Or how a high-paying manager begged for his job back because he can no longer afford the lifestyle that he once had.

If not money, what then makes you rich?  According to Robert Kiyosaki,

“…it is not real-estate, stocks, mutual funds, businesses, or money that make you rich.  It is information, knowledge, wisdom, and know-how, a.k.a. financial intelligence, that makes one wealthy.”

What is Financial Intelligence?

Robert Kiyosaki describes Financial intelligence as that part of our mental intelligence we use to solve our financial problems. Financial IQ, on the other hand, is the measure of that intelligence.

What money problems do you have?  Are you having the problem of “not having enough money”? Are you

using your credit card whenever you’re short on money? constantly worrying about the rising cost of living? paying more in taxes after an increase in income? afraid of emergencies? receiving bad financial advice? waiting for the next paycheck to pay for last month’s rent?

While the rich do not have these problems, they too have their own money problems – “too much money”.  Some of these are

needing to keep their money safe and invested not knowing whether people like them or their money looking for smarter financial advisors raising spoiled kids worrying about estate and inheritance planning looking for ways to “legally” avoid paying excessive government taxes

Which problems would you rather have?

The 5 basic Financial IQs

According to Robert Kiyosaki, you need to learn the 5 basic Financial IQs to solve your money problems.  These are:

Financial IQ #1: Making more money Financial IQ #2: Protecting your money Financial IQ #3: Budgeting your money Financial IQ #4: Leveraging your money Financial IQ #5: Improving your financial information

Financial IQ #1: Making more money

How do you make more money?  The key according to Robert Kiyosaki is to “solve problems”.  People will gladly pay you money if you solve their problems.  I know I’ll be more than happy to pay you money if you can fix my broken LCD TV at a reasonable price. Would you gladly pay your doctor if they solve your ailing stomach? Would you pay your financial advisor if they can make you more money than what you pay them?  Or how about paying your “star” employees “millions” whenever they bring you “billions” in income?

Solve people’s problems and make more money.  As the famous quote from Zig Ziglar says

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.

Which problems do you want to solve?

Which problems do you want to solve?

Do you want to solve the problem of “hunger” by providing quality meals at an affordable price.  That’s what a lot of food businesses are doing.  Or do you want to solve the problem of “not having enough time to eat”.  That’s what the fast and “instant” food delivery businesses are trying to solve.

What are you naturally good at? Perhaps you can use any of your skills to solve other people’s problems.

Are you good in math?  Be a great financial analyst or an accountant and help people and businesses solve their financial or tax problems.

Do you like speaking to people?  Become a powerful speaker.  Share your message by leveraging your highly sought after skill of public speaking.  Inspire people to take action and solve their problem of a dull and boring life.

Do you love making great movies?  Learn to be a great director or a movie producer.  People will pay you to entertain them because you are solving their problem of “not having fun".”

Solving problems is a process

The key according to Robert Kiyosaki is realizing the fact that problems will never go away.  After you solve a problem, another problem will come up.  Only in this process of solving problems one after the other will you gain financial intelligence.

You have to go through the process of solving whatever money problems you are facing right now.  Don’t run from it.  Face it head on.  Use your mind to think of ways on how to solve your money problem.  As Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad says,

“You can quit when you win, but never quite because you’re losing.“

The reason instant millionaires end up poor after winning the lottery is because they want only the money but not the process of learning how to build their wealth.  This is the same thing as people wanting to get paid more than the value they are providing.  Their greed is making decisions for them.  Some people even claim that “greed” has caused the current financial crisis that we are in right now.

The other side of the coin is also dangerous - fear.  Don’t let fear hold you back.  Enjoy the process of learning.  Feel the fear and face it head on. This is the same reason why employees would rather gladly receive the small steady paycheck than take a chance at building their own fortune.  Take a leap.  Live out your dreams.  As Hellen Keller says,

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

Rich Money Habits Review Notes:

What I liked about the book is that it offers other (unconventional) ways to think about money. The book is not about financial advise, so it does not discuss any “how to” details on investing in real-estate or businesses. There are a lot of strong comments about the book so it is NOT for everyone.  My hope is that after reading the rest of the book review in the coming weeks, you’ll pick up a thing or two to help you with your money problems.

In spite of today's tough economic climate, when many industries are laying-off their employees or even shutting their doors for good, there is one industry that is booming. It is helping millions of people make money. Some diligent people are even making as much, or more, than they were at their regular jobs. Affording them the ability to leave their 9-5-work week behind and work exclusively from home.

Wondering what industry this is? It is Affiliate Marketing.

By nature, affiliate marketing programs are basic and simple. They are based on rewards. They reward the marketers for successfully promoting online products. The affiliates work on a commission system. Essentially, the affiliate receives a commission payment based on every customer that they successfully defer to the website of the company that they are promoting.

The marketing industry is one of the most gainful moneymaking opportunities available online, and the scope of products available for promotion as an affiliate is mid boggling. Affiliate marketing is a very cost effective way for companies, both large and small, to reach out to a much wider audience of prospective buyers. Companies are no longer limited to one website on which advertise their product, they can advertise on hundreds, if not thousands, of individual websites with no upfront cost to themselves.

The affiliate marketing industry provides a seemingly endless source of income for people who are willing to be assertive in the offers they promote. As the affiliate marketing industry continues to prosper, individuals have continued to bring in increasing profits. Through the consumers that they refer, affiliates can earn anywhere from 30%-90% of the profits from each sale, and the earning potential then increases with some affiliate programs offering regular monthly payouts for their products.

CPA (cash per action) marketing is the latest trend in online marketing. With CPA marketing individuals gain profit by directing traffic to specific sites and having customers complete simple tasks, such as filing out a brief form. CPA doesn't require the customer to make a purchase, therefore promising to keep the affiliate industry profitable and exhilarating for years to come.

There are no pre-requisites to becoming an affiliate. Unlike other businesses all you require to excel in online marketing is commitment to hard work, some basic Internet knowledge and a comprehension of how to approach research and promotion of a product for maximum commercial gain.

We all know that we are enduring one of the toughest economic recessions of the modern era, with traditional businesses closing on an unprecedented scale. There is one area of business that thrives during this global crisis, that of online marketing and in particular affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketeers are flourishing during these tough times and this is how it works:

Affiliates market a companies online product by a variety of methods mainly online. In return the company selling the product rewards the affiliate with a percentage of the sale usually between 50 and 75% of the sale cost.The affiliate can market as many different products from as many companies as they wish.The benefit to the company is the obvious increase in exposure of their products.

CPA marketing allows affiliates to earn money by just referring traffic, by having visitors do as little as completing a short online form even if no purchase is made. This is the latest trend in affiliate marketing and will ensure that this method of marketing will remain highly profitable for years to come.

Anyone with the drive to achieve results online and willing to learn new techniques and understanding of these methods can become very successful with CPA marketing. Just do your research and then begin promoting the top offers for max profits

This is an exciting opportunity for both new and experienced affiliate marketers to earn a substantial income from the comfort of their home office

There you go, the opportunities that are within CPA marketing/affiliate marketing are endless but you must take action to benefit from the said benefit.

It is a fact now, Facebook is one of the biggest time waster in the office. And with the new Farmville social online game, it is going to become much worst.

Who would have thought, wearing an overall and playing the life of a farmer can be so much fun. It is also very relaxing to see your crops and animals grow in the game. That is one of the factors why Farmville has such a big fan group.

When someone log into their Farmville account, the goal is to a fun and relaxing gaming experience. Even though you are playing a simulated life of a farmer, some concept of the real world does apply in the game as well. One good example is the idea of money.

To advance in the game, you will have to learn how to generate cash in your bank account. The following is 3 easy Farmville money making tips for sustainable income.

1) Take baby steps - When you live the life of a farmer, land plays a big role in your livelihood. When you have lots of land, you can plant crops and harvest them to earn your living.

However, plowing raw land and planting seed require money. The land would be of no use if you don’t have the money to buy seeds.

The key to sustainability is to grow your farm one step at a time and. Try not to expand too big or too fast or you will run into a cash flow problem.

2) Understand your crop - It pays to know the crops in the game. In the beginning stages of Farmville, your crop options are strawberries, eggplant, wheat and soybeans.

Each plant has different characteristics and benefits. Selecting the right crop to plant will depend on how frequent you log into the game. A fast turnaround plant such as strawberries will require constant care.

3) Know the harvesting time - Finally, know how long you will have to wait to harvest the seeds you’ve planted. Using the example of strawberries, it is ready to be harvested 4 hours after you plant them.

If you are away from your computer and are unable to log into your account, the strawberries will wilt after 8 hours. Know the right harvesting time so you won’t lose money because your crops failed.

Getting eliminated in a poker tournament is NEVER a good feeling, and the underlying idea is certainly to make it as deep as you can in every tournament you enter, but is that all there is to it? Of course you understand by now that poker is anything but a simple game, and tournament strategy requires even more layered thinking for long term success and profitability.

One of the most important factors when strategizing in poker tournaments is making the money. For some players, this isn't actually that important as their bankroll is at a level of comfort having 50, 100 and even 200 buy-ins or more, waiting in their account for the next tournament. A lot of rounders and pros will play more aggressively in this situation because they want to make the money with a healthy stack.

For most online players though, this simply isn't the case and making the money should be of paramount importance. The reason for this is because when you are actually building a bankroll, the best money to play with is that of your opponents, not your own. I call this OPM, or Other Players' Money, and if you are just starting out in online poker, then OPM is your only way to long term success, save for extraordinary luck.

The only way to start using OPM is to do your utmost to make the money in every tournament you play. It may not be optimum play for a large payout, but in the low limits it does work for several reasons. Firstly, there are enough donkey playing fools in online poker that will essentially put you in the money by virtue of their impatient, ill advised aggression.

Secondly, the attrition rate in low limit tournaments is quick sometimes, that you can count on your actually entry fee to be worth at least double what you paid.

Lastly, you can count on making the money about 15 to 20 percent of the time, and no matter how you play, the math is on your side that you will make the final table often enough to earn those higher payouts, no matter how tight you play.

Now adopting this philosophy normally requires tight-aggressive Harrington style play, but it's not so easy to stick to that style while witnessing the foolish players around you and their lucky, but growing stacks. Getting caught up in that though, means you are playing on your lack of emotional control, and not using a solid winning strategy.

It all comes down to numbers and probabilities. If you play tight aggressive, you will make the money often enough to build your OPM poker bankroll, and then play risk free forever more. Now, what do you really think is more profitable?