is the education of the future. Again, we advise kids to go to school to get a job and work for money, yet we teach them little or nothing about money.
The statistics tell a sad and sobering story: While 90 percent of students want to learn more about money, 80 percent of teachers do not feel comfortable teaching the subject. Someday, financial education will be part of the curriculum of all schools, but not in the near future.
My Story
My financial education began when I was nine years old. It began with my rich dad. He was not my real dad, but my best friend’s father. And he used the game of Monopoly® as an educational tool, and we would play the game for hours after school.
When I got home, my real dad, the one I call my poor dad, would ask, “What have you been doing all day?”
When I replied, “Playing Monopoly,” he would say, “Stop wasting your time with that silly game. You should be at home studying, doing your homework. If you don’t do your homework, you won’t get good grades, you won’t get into a good college, and you won’t get a good job.” Since I never achieved good grades—I was the eternal “C” student—my poor dad and I had this discussion on a regular basis.
My best friend Mike was rich dad’s son. We went to a school for rich kids. The good news was: we were poor kids. (My Rich dad was not yet rich… and my poor dad was successful, but never rich.) This caused rich dad to step up our financial education by playing Monopoly with us on a regular basis. He wanted us to become smarter, and richer, than the rich kids.
One day he took his son and me on a “field trip.” Rather than go to a museum or an art gallery, he took us to see his “green houses,” his rental properties. That was when I realized that rich dad was playing Monopoly… in real life. “One day,” he said, “these green houses will become my big red hotel.”
When I returned home and told my dad that rich dad was playing Monopoly in real life, my dad laughed. He thought the idea was ridiculous. His advice was to stop wasting my time with games and do my homework.
At that time, my dad was the head of education for the Big Island of Hawaii. A few years later, he would reach the top of the state education system and become the Superintendent of Education for the entire state.
My poor dad was an “A” student, class valedictorian, and class president. He loved school. He graduated with a four-year degree from the University of Hawaii in only two years. He also attended Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University.
My rich dad never even finished the eighth grade, because his father died so he had to take over the family business. Although his formal education was limited, he would eventually become one of the richest men in Hawaii. When I was 19, rich dad purchased his “red hotel” right on Waikiki Beach. In 10 years, his “little green houses” had become a giant “red hotel.”
At the time, I did not realize how profoundly the game of Monopoly and my rich dad’s education would change the direction of my life. Rich dad was using a game—Monopoly—to train me to think like a capitalist.
My poor dad and my rich dad were polar opposites. Both were very good men, but they never did see eye to eye. Their differences erupted when I was about 10 years old. My poor dad was not happy when I told him I had accompanied my rich dad to collect rents from his tenants in his “green houses.” My poor dad did not like the idea of me collecting rent. He was very upset. So was my mother. They thought it was a cruel lesson for a 10-year-old boy. To me, it was an eye-opening lesson about real life.
Later I would learn why my mom and dad were so upset. We were renters. They too had a landlord knocking on our door to collect the rent. A few years later, when I was in junior high, they finally saved enough money to buy a home.
My Unfair Advantage
A formal education was important to both dads. Both dads expected their sons to go on to college, and we did. Rich dad’s son graduated from the University of Hawaii, running his father’s business between classes.
My father did not have the money to pay for my college education. Once I graduated from high school, I knew I was on my own. That inspired me to apply to the military academies. Although my grades were horrible, my SAT scores were decent and I was a pretty good football player. I received two Congressional nominations—one to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in Maryland, and the other to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point in New York. I accepted the appointment to Kings Point and graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
Looking back, I can see how my time with rich dad gave me an unfair advantage in life, especially when it came to money. Between the ages of nine and 18, until I left for school in New York, I spent one or two days a week after school and two Saturdays every month working for free for rich dad. If you have read Rich Dad Poor Dad, you know how this disturbed my poor dad. My poor dad believed that my rich dad was exploiting us because he was not paying us. Being a member of the teachers union, I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear my poor dad muttering about “child labor laws.”
Rich dad never paid his son or me because he was training us to be capitalists. He did not pay us because he did not want to train us to be employees who worked for money. He was training us to be employers… entrepreneurs, capitalists who had OPT (Other People’s Talents) and OPM (Other People’s Money) working for them.
Rich Dad Lesson
“Games are better teachers than teachers.”
Obviously, rich dad’s ideas about “work to learn, not to earn” angered my poor dad, who was more of a socialist than a capitalist.
Pictured on the following page is the Cone of Learning developed by Dr. Edgar Dale, a professor of education. Dr. Dale (1900–1985) received his doctorate degree from the University of Chicago and taught for years at Ohio State University.
Source: Cone of Learning adapted from Dale, (1969)
Reprinted with Permission. The original work has been modified.
According to Dr. Dale, my rich dad’s use of Monopoly as a teaching tool, and then taking us to collect rent, was a very effective way of teaching his son and me about money.
Question: Does this mean that reading and lectures are not important?
Answer: No, at least not for me. The game of Monopoly inspired me to learn more. Today I read more, study more, and attend classes more because the game, the simulations of real life experiences, inspired me to want learn more.
Although I am a poor and slow reader, I plow through complex financial and business books few people would choose to read. I credit the game of Monopoly for giving me a solid foundation upon which to build my real-world education.
Entrepreneurship
Dr. Frank Luntz’s book, What American’s Really Want… Really reported that those surveyed:
• 81% say universities and high schools should actively develop entrepreneurial skills in students
