Richdads-CASHFLOW-Quadrant-

Chapter Five
In 1973, my rich dad suggested I take classes on real estate
investing. He said, “If you want to be a successful capitalist, you must
know how to raise capital and how to use debt to make money.”
That year I took a three-day workshop on real estate investing. It
was the start of my education into the world of the capitalist.
A few months later, after looking at over 100 properties, I purchased
my first rental property on the island of Maui, using 100 percent debt
financing and still putting $25 cash flow in my pocket each month. My
real-life education had begun. I was learning to use other people’s money
to make money, a skill a true capitalist must know.
In 1974, my contract with the Marine Corps was up, and I took
a job with the Xerox Corporation in Hawaii, not because I wanted
to climb the corporate ladder, but because Xerox had the best
sales-training program. Again, this was all part of my rich dad’s
educational program to train me to become a capitalist.
By 1994, Kim and I were financially free, never needing a job or
a company or a government retirement plan. Rich dad was correct.
My education could set me free—but not the education found in
traditional schools.
When the markets began to crash in 2007, rather than crash with
the rest of the economy, our wealth skyrocketed. As the stock market
and real estate markets crashed, great deals floated to the surface, and
banks were more than eager to lend us millions of dollars to buy and
take over their investments gone bad. In 2010 alone, Kim and I
acquired over $87 million in real estate, using loans from banks and
pension funds. That year was our best year so far.
As rich dad often said, “If you are a true investor, it does not matter
if the markets are going up or coming down. A true investor does
well in any market condition.”
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