Page 17 - Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money

Although he did achieve tremendous professional success and was
finally awarded his doctorate degree, I suspect not realizing his dream of

becoming a college professor haunted my father until his dying days. He
often said, “When you kids are out of the house, I’m going back to school
and doing what I love—teaching.”
Instead of teach, however, he eventually became the superintendent of

education for the state of Hawaii, an administrative post, and then ran for
lieutenant governor and lost. At the age of fifty, he was suddenly
unemployed. Soon after the election, my mom suddenly died at the age of
forty-eight due to her weak heart. My father never recovered from that loss.

Once again, money problems piled up. Without a job, he decided to
withdraw his retirement savings, and invested in a national ice-cream
franchise. He lost all his money.
As he grew older my father felt he was left behind by his peers; his life’s

career was over. Without his job as the head of education, his identity was
gone. He grew angrier at his rich classmates who had gone into business,
rather than education as he did. Lashing out, he often said, “I dedicated my
life to educating the children of Hawaii, and what do I get? Nothing. My

fat-cat classmates get richer, and what do I get? Nothing.”
I will never know why he did not go back to the university to teach. I
believe it was because he was trying very hard to become rich quickly and
to make up for lost time. He wound up chasing flakey deals and hanging out

with fast-talking con men. None of his get-rich-quick ventures succeeded.
If not for a few odd jobs and Social Security, he might have had to move
in with one of the kids. A few months before he died of cancer at the age of
seventy-two, my father pulled me close to his bedside and apologized for

not having much to leave his children. Holding his hand, I put my head on
his hand and we cried together.

Not Enough Money

My poor dad had money problems all his life. No matter how much money

he made, his problem was not enough money. His inability to solve that
problem caused him great pain up till he died. Tragically, he felt inadequate,
both professionally and as a father.