Cashflow Quadrant

Cashflow Quadrant (CQ) by Robert Kiyosaki is an extremely fascinating book on the subject of money. It will motivate you and may even provoke (stimulate) you to leave your current job to start your own business. So I just wanted to summarize it for all of you busy-bees out there who will never read it even after my multiple cajoling.

So here is a 3 minute primer on Cashflow Quadrant. Here how it looks like. What Kiyosaki suggests is that there are four completely different mindset and qualities that exist at the 4 quadrants of the CQ. And from his personal and empirical analysis, he has observed that people on the Right side are better off at escaping the rat race than people on the Left side.

Note that the arrows here are suggestive of how you can reach from the LEFT side of the quadrant to the right side. The directions are suggested so as to maximizing your chances of successfully reaching the 4th quadrant of Investor. This is suggested as it takes changing or developing some of your deep seated attitudes before hopping to another quadrant. Just to add to this, no quadrant is, per se, better off than another when it comes to making money. A high paying employee may be sometimes better off than an average investor. But in order to achieve financial freedom, one must have active incomes from at least 2 quadrants. And as I mentioned in the previous blog (Rat Race), your PI > Expenses. So your income coming from quadrant where you active involvement is zero should slowly catch-up and then cross your expenses.

Let me explain this with a simple example. Say your monthly expenses are 50K, so all you need to achieve first to get out of rat race is to generate 50K in passive income. Now you can make this with rents from property, dividends and interests from stocks and bonds, or best of all positive cashflows from your won business. I know it’s a tough call, but just imagine the results.

So I’ll leave that decision to you. I just wanted to introduce you all to the CQ. So if you want more juice, read the book. Else wait for my subsequent posts on money-making. Just to add a final note here. I have myself decided to be out of Rat Race by Dec 2011. So let’s race to hit the escape velocity.....

Happy Reading till next post.

Rat Race

You wake up in the morning, get ready & commute to work. You come back late at night, spend some time with family and you're back to work the next day. Work takes maximum amount of your time and in return you get salary for it. You get so dependent over the time to this salary, that you can't imagine risking it for any other thing. You start learning how to grow in your JOB, how to become a manager one day, how to grow your annual income so that you can buy a fancier car, house or any other gizmo. And then you get a baby, those little cuties that will now start its claims on your income in an exponential manner. Did it ever occur to you that you are running an endless race?

Let me call this a rat race. Did you imagine growing up to be rat like this who keeps chasing salaries at the end of every month for his sustenance? I certainly did not. I expected and still do that any man who is competent enough should have enough time at his disposal for all his pleasures; like spending time with your loved ones, kids, hobbies, movies, games and what not. Ahhh I know some of you will say well work is worship. Well don't read ahead if you're one of the work worshippers. I have better things to worship.

So let me unravel this simple formula to get out of this rat race.

If Your Monthly Income < Your Monthly Passive Income, you're in the rat race.

But if, your Monthly Income > Your Monthly Passive Income, tadaaa you're out of the rat race.

Once you're out of the rat race, you are a free bird. No more getting tied to your work like a donkey. NO more commuting to your office like a herd of sheep. No more accepting all the twits (read management) in your office. You are now a man who can be himself. You are liberated. And I truly believe that now onwards you will be more effective in everything you do, your boring job too if you still wanna do it. Or who knows you might one of those blessed ones, who truly love their jobs.

Let me demystify this further with a simple example. Say your monthly expenses are 50K, so all you need to achieve first to get out of rat race is to generate 50K in passive income. Now you can make this with rents from property, dividends and interests from stocks and bonds, or best of all positive Cashflow from your won business. I know it's a tough call, but just imagine the results. I personally have decided to be out of rat race by Dec 2011.

I'll be posting another blog on the subject of Cashflow very soon. So let's race to hit the escape velocity…….

Happy Reading till next post.

Money follows skills ....

It’s been some time that I've put up something valuable to the blog. So I'll pick something & just try to generate ideas. Well I’ve been gorging on information for last few days and so ideally I should synthesize a little of it for your consumption. Trust me, I hate being an indoctrinator, but thought garden is all about sowing some seeds & then waiting others to contribute to the thought process.

So I'll talk about this simple idea that I came up with in recent days. I know most of the ideas are often similar to something someone has said before. But then the good part is that you too have started to reach similar conclusions. specially when you find that these ideas are expressed in similar vein by some real prominent figures. I often say that its a great experience to relate with a great mind but greatness still has to be achieved.

So here is one such thought....

Money follows skills...
Money follows meaning...
Money follows value...

Now the first part is mine... the second is almost derived from Guy Kawasaki's (MD of Garage... a seed capital VC firm in Silicon Valley) speech, "The art of the start" ... quiet a man I must say... then the third line is derived from Richard Feynman (Nobel laureate in Physics and one of the most interesting scientists of all time).

I told u I've been gorging some information & the names suggest that I've been in some good company. Also perhaps it corroborates my ambition to be a scientrepreneur. So let me interlace these thoughts from different spectrum of work & find a common thread between them.

Now the matter... I feel loads of people are just bandwagon followers... they follow a particular trend & then expect to harvest a fortune out of it... most of the times when u get to know about a particular trend happening the curve is almost on a its maximum incline and is now going to become kinda static due to more supply pouring in(just like u getting in the flow now)... so its damn difficult to catch a trend during its formative years... we used to say that IT is hot... then BPO became hot ... and now retail is scorching... we should rather ask what keeps u hot... what ignites u & your passions... rest is a consequence....

Guy Kawasaki says the same regarding forming a company... the company u form shall be formed with the ambition of making a meaning & not to make money... Making money is corollary to the magnitude of your success on the first front of making meaning... adding value to your customer's lives or businesses...

Similarly Feynman says that Nobel doesn't bother him for it was a consequence of what he achieved... the real prize being the achievement itself... that is to have made the discovery of quantum electrodynamics... now don’t expect me to explain that. But ya u can’t design or create to please your contemporaries and everybody. Be your best critique & harshest judge. As I mentioned in my previous post that when u got to create future u can't seek its expectations & answers in the present.

So I'll leave with u these thoughts... munch on them... and do contribute with your suggestions to the forum ... don’t forget thoughts are the atomic units of pleasure.