' A child today needs a more sophisticated education, and the There Is a Need 11 current system is not delivering the goods. I don't care how many computers they put in the classroom or how much money schools spend. How can the education system teach a subject that it does not know?" So how does a parent teach their children what the school does not? How do you teach accounting to a child? Won't they get bored? And how do you teach investing when as a parent you yourself are risk averse? Instead of teaching my children to simply play it safe, I decided it was best to teach them to play it smart. "So how would you te!ich~a~child about money and all the things we've talked about?" I asked Robert. "How can we make it easy for parents, especially when they don't understand it themselves?" "I wrote a book on the subject, " he said. "Where is it?" "In my computer. It's been there for years in random pieces. I add to it occasionally but I've never gotten around to putting it all together. I began writing it after my other book became a best seller, but I never finished the new one. It's in pieces." And in pieces it was. After reading the scattered sec- tions, I decided the book had merit and needed to be shared, especially in these changing times. We agreed to co-author Robert's book. I asked him how much financial information he thought a child needed. He said it would depend on the child. He knew at a young age that he wanted to be rich and was fortunate enough to have a father figure who was rich and willing to guide him. F. juration is the foundation of_sur- cess Robert said. Just as scholastic skills are vitally impor- tant, so are financial skills and communication skills. 12 Rich Dad, Poor Dad What follows is the story of Robert's two dads, a rich one and a poor one, that expounds on the skills he's de- veloped over a lifetime. The contrast between two dads provides an important perspective. The book is supported, edited and assembled by me. For any accountants who read this book, suspend your academic book knowledge and open your mind to the theories Robert presents. Al- though many of them challenge the very fundamentals of generally accepted accounting principles, they provide a valuable insight into the way true investors analyze their investment decisions. When we as parents advise our children to "go to school, study hard and get a good job," we often do that out of cultural habit. It has always been the right thing to do. When I met Robert, his ideas initially startled me. Hav- ing been raised by two fathers, he had been taught to strive for two different goals. His educated dad advised him to work for a corporation. His rich dad advised him to own tfiexolpofation. BotH life paths required education, but the sTIbjectslstudy were completely different. His educated dad encouraged Robert to be a smart person. His rich dad encouraged Robert to know how to hire smart people.