Their incomes go up, but so does the tax bracket they're in and the real es- Rich Dad, Poor Dad tate taxes on their new large home, and their Social Secu- rity taxes, and all the other taxes. They get their large pay- check and wonder where all the money went. They buy some mutual funds and buy groceries with their credit card. The children reach 5 or 6 years of age, and the need to save for college increases as well as the need to save for their retirement. "That happy couple, born 35 years ago, is now trapped in the RatRace for the rest of their workingjdays. They workTbr the~owners of therTcomprryTfor the government paying taxes, and for the bank paying off a mortgage and credit cards. "Then, they advise their own children to 'study hard, get good grades, and find a safe job or career.' They learn noth- ing about money, except from those who profit from their naivefe and work hard all their lives. The process repeats into another hard-working generation. This is the 'Rat Race.'" The only way to get out of the "Rat Race" is to prove your proficiency at both accounfogand investing, ar- guably two of the most difficult subjects to master. As a trained CPA who once worked for a Big 8 accounting firm, I was surprised that Robert had made the learning of these two subjects both fun and exciting. The process was so well disguised that while we were diligently working to get out of the "Rat Race," we quickly forgot we were learning. Soon a product test turned into a fun afternoon with my daughter, talking about things we had never discussed be- fore. As an accountant, playing a game that required an In- come Statement and Balance Sheet was easy. So I had the time to help my daughter and the other players at my table with concepts they did not understand. I was the first per- son-and the only person in the entire test group-to get There Is a Need out of the "Rat Race" that day. I was out within 50 minutes, although the game went on for nearly three hours. At my table was a banker, a business owner and a com- puter programmer. What greatly disturbed me was how lit- tle these people knew about either accounting or investing, subjects so important in their lives. I wondered how they managed their own financial affairs in real life. I could un- derstand why my 19-year-old daughter would not under- stand, but these were grown adults, at least twice her age. After I was out of the "Rat Race," for the next two hours I watched my daughter and these educated, affluent adults roll the dice and move their markers. Although I was glad they were all learning so much, I was disturbed by how much the adults did not know about the basics of simple accounting and investing. They had difficulty grasping the relationship between their Income Statement and their Bal- ance Sheet. As they bought and sold assets, they had trou- ble remembering that each transaction could impact their monthly cash flow.