Page 99 - Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money

investing were a necessary expense to create a surplus, our first and most
important expense.

With the 70 cents from every dollar left, she was to pay taxes, liabilities
such as our mortgage and car payments, and then our bills such as
electricity, water, food, clothing, etc.
Needless to say, for a long time we came up short every month.

Although we had paid ourselves first, we did not have enough money to pay
others. There were some months Kim and I came up as much as $4,000
short. We could have paid the $4,000 from our assets, but that was our
money. The asset column belonged to us.

Instead of panic, Betty was instructed to sit down with us and let us
know how short we were each month. After taking a deep breath, Kim and I
would then say, “It’s time to get back to financial IQ #1: making more
money.” With that, Kim and I would hustle around doing whatever we

could to make more money. Kim, with her marketing background, often
called businesses and offered to consult with them on their marketing plans.
She also took modeling jobs and sold a line of clothes. I offered to teach
investment or sales and marketing classes. For a few months, I trained sales

teams at a local real estate company. I even made money by helping a
family move, and by clearing some land for another family.
In other words, we swallowed our pride and did whatever it took to
make the extra money. Somehow, we always made it; and somehow Betty

stuck with us and assisted us with our problem, solution, and process, even
though she worried more about us than we did.
Unfortunately, Betty could help us but was unwilling to help herself.
Last we heard, she retired and moved in with her single daughter. They

share expenses, using Betty’s payments from Social Security to pay them.
They do not have a budget surplus.

Investing Our Money

In 1989, Kim purchased her first rental property. She put down $5,000 and

made $25 in positive cash flow per month. Today, Kim controls a
multimillion-dollar portfolio and over a thousand rental units, and it’s still