Monday, July 14, 2008

Earl Flormata - Evolution of an Asset

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. - 1st Corinthians 13:11


Unfortunately for many people, as children - their parents never learned the ways of money and instead were taught to be workers for those that knew the patterns of the rich.

This is one of the reasons why I run Cash Flow 101 game nights. Robert Kiyosaki has created a spectacular learning and teaching tool within the game that allows everyone from every level to learn and grow.

From T. Harv Eker’s book – Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, Harv mentions the three most dangerous words in the English Language – “I know already”. I know that I’m guilty of uttering that phrase myself, so from time to time I do check and challenge myself to live by the adage of C.A.N.E.I. – Constant and Never Ending Improvement.

In that vein – I present to you, my readers and peers – my new understanding of the word “asset”. In the beginning, I understood that an asset to be something that which you own.

Asset



The dictionary says: “property owned by a person or company” – which does back up my original understanding and thought process. The banks had also cemented this original thought process by asking me to list my assets prior to obtaining a loan. Their definition of an asset was also something that I owned of value.

Then I read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, and that changed my life. The word ASSET soon changed meaning for me into something that puts money in your pocket. It took awhile to break from the mindset of having a house as your single largest asset to one of our largest liabilities, but eventually the thought sank in and I was able to reach financial freedom.

Then things took a turn for the worse and a few of my investments collapsed and my income dropped drastically alongside of this. Luckily I was taken under the wing of an investment banking group that again changed my perception of the world at large.

My learning continued and soon I understood the requirements for a stock to graduate to a senior exchange. With this path of thought, the bankers taught me to really take a look at “collateral” and that if something wasn’t leveragable, then the amount of value that it brought to the table was limited to a single dimension and prone to failure.

So what’s my new definition of an asset?

It’s moved from that which you own to that which you can leverage, AND brings in multiple streams of income.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

that quote is from 1st Corinthians 13:11. 1 Corinthians is a letter from Paul of Tarsus and Sosthenes to the Christians of Corinth in Greece.

May God walk you out of the valley from the shadows and into his light. May he bless you, your wife Janice and your newborn son, Erik.

Earl Flormata said...

Thanks for the info and the kind words Anonymous. God Bless!