Cash flow and financial future from Kiyosaki's perspective

The second name in our series on financial literacy is Robert Kiyosaki. In this writing, I will share quotes from the book, notes on the parts that impacted me, and my thoughts. I wish you a good read in advance.

-We've all heard sayings like "You have to have a job", "You're taking too many risks", "What if you fail?", "Go back to school and regain your expertise", "Become a doctor, you'll make more money", "The rich are greedy", "Why is money so important to you?", "Money doesn't make you happy", "Play it safe, keep your dreams a dream". Because the people in our lives want our well-being, they think that it is best to follow the paths they and millions of others have followed, but at some point the chain has to be broken. Your parents' or relatives' perception of risk, psychological resilience and comfort zone may be different from yours, and you can achieve what they cannot achieve. Even if you take risks and fail, success will follow you as long as you have the mentality to get up again. Many people are doomed to fail, to remain poor, to not be able to enjoy life because they follow the limits that others have set long ago in their own minds. There is a very famous "Five Monkeys" story about this.

Five monkeys were placed in a cage for an experiment, and a banana was placed on top of the cage. Whenever one of the monkeys tried to reach the banana, a spray of cold water was administered. The monkeys faced punishment each time, and after several attempts, they realized that trying to reach the banana was futile and stopped trying. At this point, one of the monkeys in the cage was removed and replaced with a new monkey. The newcomer was unaware of the conditions and rules, and when it tried to take the banana, it was attacked by the other monkeys because no one wanted to get wet. In the next phase, the experimenters began to replace the monkeys in the cage one by one. Each new monkey was attacked by the previously wet monkeys and, in addition, by the monkey that had never been wet but believed that reaching the banana was a bad thing. By the end of the experiment, there were five new monkeys that did not even know what kind of punishment reaching the banana would lead to, yet believed that there were negative consequences, and none of them were trying to reach the banana.

Questioning the boundaries and rules set by others that you don't even understand the reason for, and even experiencing them, can allow you to explore what you shouldn't do as a "newcomer monkey", learn from your mistakes, and discover what you can do differently from before.

According to Kiyosaki, some individuals prioritize the need for security in their investment decisions, while others prioritize the need for freedom. People's need for security stems from their education, family experiences, and practical experiences up to that point. Many of us perhaps did not truly encounter money until we finished school, did not understand what it meant to support a household, and could not predict how expensive our life plans for the future could be. We did not realize how difficult it is to work from morning to evening, and how easy it is not to receive the value of our labor.

Therefore, all these have become mutually reinforcing and putting us in a vicious circle, and our need for security has started to come to the fore. In addition, the high cost of living has left people on the safe side. The capitalist system wants people to work and spend more, and the easiest way to achieve this is to put people in debt. The borrower cannot leave his job because he cannot pay his debts and continues to work in the same job for years. Otherwise, their perception of security will be destroyed. Moreover, the scenarios of borrowing are endless because there are so many things that culture expects from us (İyi going to school, getting married, having children, paying for children's school fees, etc.) and money is needed to make all of these happen. People who prioritize freedom have an awareness of these processes and an urge to take control of their own lives, to break many taboos in their lives and around them, and to gain their financial freedom. In order to achieve this, they improve their financial literacy, educate themselves, and try to leave the safe area in parallel with their risk perception.

-Kiyosaki emphasizes that people who are going to be investors should learn many features. First of all, you need to give yourself time. It is not possible to abandon the habits that have been going on for years and the practices of millions of people (Normlar) suddenly. There are many popular sayings such as "Rome was not built in one day, babies didn't start walking in one day, you can't eat an elephant in one go". Just as these examples are impossible, it is impossible to expect you to become a very successful investor or trader in a single day. If you want to eat an elephant, you can finish it off in time with small bites. If you want to walk, you start by crawling and then with small steps. Recognizing the mental and emotional side of things will help you stay on track and stay on track. It should also be noted that obstacles may come your way from time to time, at which point you should remember that the process is bumpy and it is something you have to endure to achieve your goal.

"It is much better to take action than not to take action. Taking action helps you question the reality of your fears." Evolutionarily, we tend to be in places that make us feel safe, to do things, and to choose people. For this reason, it is always difficult to do something new, to leave our safe space. In addition, the perception of "You should not make mistakes", which has been taught both in family life and in schools since childhood, causes people to have a very low tolerance for error and to take on a perfectionist structure. The learning process includes mental, emotional and physical learning. Taking action and making mistakes in a subject that you want to improve yourself actually leads you to learn something both mentally, emotionally and physically. For example, you see that you have lost a little money at most because of the mistake you made, you feel a little sad and observe your reactions in your body. On the other hand, doing nothing, constantly reading something and thinking that one day he will get a perfect transaction, but the fact that this is only in theory signals that the person will never succeed, and even if he can achieve it, he can reach it much later.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading movement carries risks, and readers should conduct their own research when making decisions.