The Entitlement Mentality

In the book Why We Want You To Be Rich - Two Men, One Message, Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump share their concern that Americans have become complacent.

People have come to expect the government to handle their problems and fix the future. Rich and poor alike expect government handouts. Big corporations are subsidized by the government. Farms and ranches would close down but for government handouts. The President of the US and members of the House and Senate expect retirement benefits from the government.

At the time of publication (2006), Social Security was in debt $10 trillion and Medicare, $62 trillion. It was projected that in a few years' time, the first of 75 million baby boomers would retire...and expect their government pension checks.

2 years on, the subprime crisis has thrown America into even greater financial straits. In such circumstances, how can the government possibly afford to take care of 75 million retirees?

The authors point out that the cause of this problem - our lack of financial resources - lies in a lack of financial education.

We have got to stop blaming others and expecting others to save us from the consequences of our own poor choices.

We have to start taking charge of our own situations.

We need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

To do that, we need to invest in our minds - our greatest asset.

Instead of relying on financial advisors or accepting unquestioningly the wisdom of the herd, we should take the time and effort to gain understanding.

Here are just a few suggestions from the book on the knowledge and understanding that we need to acquire:

• why the rich get richer
• the three types of investor and which one we are
• the four CASHFLOW quadrants, the values they represent and which quadrant we really want to belong in
• the difference between a saver and an investor
• the power of leverage
• good debt vs bad debt
• the financial challenges facing the US and the rest of the world and how they came about
• the history of the world
• the role of India and China in the world economy
• why diversification is not necessarily good financial advice
• why the middle class in America is shrinking