Robert and Kim’s Story!

Robert and Kim’s Story

In Shooting the Sacred Cows, Kim and I share our story about how we met, were dirt-poor, and built our wealth together
as a team. We also share why we felt compelled to start The Rich Dad Company and why we feel financial education is so important.

Robert
Hello I’m Robert Kiyosaki, and I’m probably best-known for my book Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Kim
And I’m Kim Kiyosaki.

Robert
Kim and I met in Hawaii in 1984 when I was kind of between businesses.

Kim
I should say something. We met in 1984 and fell in love, and 1985 was probably the worst year of our lives.
We were broke and building a business, but we were homeless for a period of time, we struggled financially, and it was a really tough time to go through.

Robert
So, in 1986 I asked Kim to marry me because I figured if she had put up with me with no money, she’d put up with me
any time. I asked her dad and his first question was...

Kim
My dad’s first question was, “Does he have a job?”

Robert
The answer was, of course, no! But anyway, by 1994 Kim and I were financially free, and we did it without a job,without a retirement plan, and without government support.

Kim
Yes, and I think one of the most beautiful things about being financially free was that it was the first time we were able to ask, “What do we want to do with the rest of our lives?” Because, up until that point, we were so busy working day to day and paying the bills that we never had that luxury.
And that’s when we started The Rich Dad Company.

Robert
And in 1996, we created the CASHFLOW board game to give people the same financial education my rich dad gave me.


Kim
Prior to meeting Robert, I had very-little-to-no financial education. And what Robert’s rich dad taught him and what we learned on our journey to becoming financially free was not what we heard from financial advisers and planners. In fact, it was almost the opposite.
We found that lots of people were asking us how we achieved financial freedom, so we created the CASHFLOW game to teach people just what we did, which was quite the opposite of what many people are taught.

Robert
Today we’re in a financial crisis. Kim and I saw this crisis coming, and that was the reason back in 1996 that we created The Rich Dad Company—to provide financial education so people can learn to take care of themselves.
I was always taught the importance of teaching people to fish instead of giving people fish. Unfortunately, what our governments do today is give people fish rather than teach them to fish. And the more you give people fish, the more poor people you create.
The Rich Dad Company was formed to teach people what my rich dad taught me, but more importantly, to teach them how to fish.

Kim
Like Robert said, there’s a huge financial crisis going on right now. If something isn’t working for you financially today, then maybe you need to look for new answers.
And we’re always looking for new answers. That’s what Shooting the Sacred Cows is about—getting financially educated, taking charge of your life, and not depending on the government or other financial experts.

Robert
Our answer to the financial crisis is to get financially educated. Instead of starting out with learning how to fish, financial education begins by shooting the sacred cows of money.
Money does not start in your hands. Money actually starts in your head.
People hold to sacred cows, age-old Industrial-Age beliefs, such as, “Go to school.” Everybody says, “Well, you have to go to school.” Unfortunately, you don’t learn anything about money in school.
In Shooting the Sacred Cows of Money, we’re going to say some things that will challenge you. You might even say, “That’s not fair!” Well, we’re not trying to be fair. There is no fairness when it comes to money. Either you’re a winner, or you’re a loser.
We say hard things because they are the truth, but also because we care about your financial future. The lies of the sacred cows of money actually hurt people. A sacred cow is something that everyone accepts as truth—and it’s taboo to say anything bad about it or to the contrary. There are many sacred cows regarding money. They are serious, and they hurt people.

Today’s world is different than it used to be. The way things always have been done financially isn’t working, and it’s time that somebody stands up and shoots a few sacred cows so that people stop suffering.
A good analogy is the people who lived in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina. They knew they lived below sea level. They knew that it was only a matter of when, not if, a disaster like Katrina hit. Yet, they chose to ignore the potential consequences. And they paid the price. Today, we’ve got a lot of financial storms. You need to be prepared.
We have a solution—a very strong solution. By shooting the sacred cows of money, we hope to wake you up to start thinking differently. So, lock and load.