" If you wanted him to do something, just say, "I don't think you can do it." Mike and I learned more sitting at his meetings than we did in all our years of school, college included. Mike's dad was not school educated, but he was financially educated and successful as a result. He use to tell us over and over again, "An intelligent person hires people whojire more in- telligent than they are." So Mike and I had the benefit of splmoTngTTours listening to and, in the process, learning from intelligent people. But because of this, both Mike and I just could not go along with the standard dogma that our teachers preached. And that caused the problems. Whenever the teacher said, "If you don't get good grades, you won't do well in the real world," Mike and I just raised our eyebrows. When we were told to follow set procedures and not deviate from the rules, we could see how this schooling process actually discouraged creativity. We started to understand why our rich dad told us that schools were_designed to produce good employees instead of employers. Occasionally Mike or I would ask our teachers how what we studied was applicable, or we asked why we never studied money and how it worked. To the latter question, we often got the answer that money was not im- portant, that if we excelled in our education, the money would follow. The more we knew about the power of money, the 96 Rich Dad, Poor Dad emotions tend to lower financial intelligence. I know from personal experience that money has a way of making every decision emotional. 1. When it comes to houses, I point out that most peo- ple work all their lives paying for a home they never own. In other words, most people buy a new house every so many years, each time incurring a new 30- year loan to pay off the previous one. 2. Even though people receive a tax deduction for in- terest on mortgage payments, they pay for all their other expenses with after-tax dollars. Even after they pay off their mortgage. 3. Property taxes. My wife's parents were shocked when the property taxes on their home went to $1,000 a month. This was after they had retired, so the in- crease put a strain on their retirement budget, and they felt forced to move. 4. Houses do not always go up in value. In 1997, I still have friends who owe a million dollars for a home that will today sell for only $700,000. 5. The greatest losses of all are those from missed op- portunities. If all your money is tied up in your house, you may be forced to work harder because your money continues blowing out of the expense column, instead of adding to the asset column, the classic middle class cash flow pattern. If a young cou- J pie would put more money into their asset column earlyon, their later years_would get easier especially asjhey prepared to~send their children to college. Their assets would have grown and would be avail- able to help cover expenses.