Page 76 - Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money

So, before you turn your money over to a broker, choose your broker
carefully. At a minimum, ask the broker if you can call some of their clients

and talk to them. Remember, good brokers like Tom and John can make you
rich, and bad brokers can make you poor.

The Fourth B: Businesses

All businesses have something to sell. If they do not sell, they are out of

business. I often ask, “Is this business’s product or service making me
richer or poorer?” In many cases, the product or service does not make you
richer; it only makes the business richer.
Many businesses do their best to make you poorer. For example, many

big department stores have their own credit cards—the worst credit cards a
person can own. The reason they want you to carry their credit card is
because their company gets a kickback from the bank. The business that
issues the card is a broker for the bank. Notice that the pattern broker and

banker reappears again.

USING CREDIT CARDS TO BUY POOR PRODUCTS

One of the reasons so many struggle financially is they buy products that

make them poorer and then make themselves even poorer by paying for that
product for years with high-interest credit cards. For example, if I buy a pair
of shoes with a credit card and take years to pay off the credit card bill, I
remain poorer for years to come by continuing to pay for a product that

made me poorer, not richer. Poor people buy products that keep them poor
and take years to pay for those products, while incurring high interest
charges.
If you want to be rich, become a customer of businesses that are

dedicated to making you richer. For example, I am a long-term customer of
a number of investment newsletters and financial magazines. I am also a
customer of businesses that sell educational products and seminars. In other
words, I am a good customer to some of my competitors. I like spending

money on products or services that make me richer.