I believe in a Second Chance…don’t you?

Everyone, even animals (in my opinion) deserve second a chance…God modeled this for us!

I was given a second chance with a forever relationship and marriage.  Along with that came a Second Chance with our financial health too.  In my previous marriage our finances were a disaster.  Records were not properly kept, wants came before responsibilities and obligations and credit was large and in charge…lol…seriously!

This time around, my husband and I are committed to “getting ahead”.  We are both tired of the “9-5 mentality” and the opportunity to read and review Robert Kiyosaki’s new book  “Second Chance” came along at the most opportune time.  We are both over 50, facing our senior years without any retirement funds…at…all!  Previous marriages wiped those out.  We do own our current home and a nice piece of land in Texas, but now what?

“We are called to be architects of the future, not it’s victims.”

~R. Buckminister Fuller

Head on over and check out this extremely educational book HERE

We have so many things we wish to do in our “Golden Years”, not to mention we have children that I am sure will depend on us AND what about that future?  It doesn’t look so bright anymore.  Disaster and doom loom at every turn.  So what are we to do to get ahead?  And I am not talking living paycheck to paycheck here, I am talking real wealth.  Wealth that enables us to reach our goals, live our dreams.

John and I have been struggling with many financial questions, perhaps you have too:

How long will we have to work-we’re not getting any younger?

How do we create wealth that is sustainable-again, we’re not getting any younger?

Do we invest in stocks and bonds?

Is real estate or commodities a good way to invest?

How DO we think out of the box to create a healthy financial future?

How can we have a passive income?

Do we have time to make all this happen?

Let’s look at the overall content of the authors book for a moment.  He divides up his book into 3 parts; The Past, The Present and The Future.  I love this.  The reason I do?  I believe you cannot under any circumstances truly know where you are going if you do not know where you have been (the past),  learn from the past and with eyes wide open take stock of your present.  Only then can we move forward into our future.

The Past:  Go to school, get a job, work hard, save money, buy a house, get out of debt and invest for the long term in the stock market.  

Sound familiar?  This is what my generation was taught and we saw it in action from our parents and their generation.  Well, back then it actually worked.  Nowadays, not so much!  And yet, how many of us are doing all of those things, or maybe a few of them.  I know we are…buying the home, working WAY too hard, trying to save money, trying to get out of debt, WANTING to invest.

The Present: Are you sane or insane?  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over andover again and expecting different results ~ Albert Einstein

When I look around at people today, that is what I see…insanity.  We have trapped ourselves into boxes with sides so high…we can’t see our way out, we can’t even see that there IS a way out.  I will testify that my husband and I have been trying the “tried and true” ways, which have ended up not being so true for us today.  They just aren’t working.  We get a little ahead, and then BAM…we take 3 steps backwards.  What worked in the past is NOT working today.  

There are a few reasons for that:

Government Involvement

Economic Crisis

Victim mentality or Dependent mentality

The takeaway for me from Part 2: The Present is that NOW is the time to open our eyes to out of the box possabilities. NOW is the time to educate ourselves about our financial health and what we can do to improve it as we head into what may be hardest financial times of our life.  We need to stop and take stock of our finances with eyes wide open and put that down on paper.  We must…again, we must take a really hard look at our present situation so that we CAN move forward towards a healthy financial future.

RobertKiyosaki talks about 4 basic assets in Second Chance: 

Business

Real Estate

Paper

Commodities

I will just say here, that these 4 assests and the explanations and details given about each one…have totally challenged our way of thinking when it comes to gaining and building wealth!!  He suggests to start by choosing an asset that you love, one that you want to study and learn as much as you can about and that you can commit to.  These concepts are very eye opening, fresh and exciting!

The Future: If cash is trash…then what is Financial Education?

Part three brings up many thought provoking statements:

Does it make sense to go to school and learn little about money?

Does it make sense to work hard for money and be taxed to death?

Does it make sense to call your house an asset when it is really a liability?

Does it make sense to get out of debt when the rich are using debt to get richer?

Does it make sense to save money when the government is printing more?

Robert Kiyosaki challenges us to do the opposite of what we have been doing, to look to our past to see where it is pointing to in my future, what do I see that needs to be done, how much good is my work doing for the world.

The author wraps up SECOND CHANCE with these three points:

1. Rather than look for a job, look for problems that need solving.
2. Rather than work hard for money, work hard to serve more people.
3. Rather than ask god for help, find ways you can help god.

I think these are points we can all live…and prosper by!

Robert Kiyosaki’s new book Second Chance is a guide to understanding how the past will shape the future and how you can use this Information Age with its tools and insights to create a fresh start. This book is a guide to facing head-on the dangers of the crises around us – and steps and tips for seizing the opportunities they present. 

 What are you doing to build a solid and secure financial future? 

 Thank you to Rich Dad for sponsoring today’s post and inspiring me to create a fresh start – today’s post may have been sponsored by Rich Dad, but my love for his Second Chance book is all my own – Thanks Rich Dad!

This article may be hopping around the following Blog Hops: (mis)Adventures Mondays Blog Hop, The HomeAcre Hop, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Homestead Blog Hop, From the Farm Fridays, Simple Saturdays Blog Hop, Simple Life Sunday Blog Hop.