Blog of Kim Loon

I can’t help but to think there is some link between some of Scott Adam’s Dilbert Comic strips and Robert Kiyosaki’s concept for financial education, especially in his latest book, Conspiracy of the Rich. There are some lessons to be learned from Dilbert Comic Strips which are highlighted in Robert Kiyosaki’s books.

In 26 June 2009 Dilbert Comic Strip, there is this employee (Ted, the generic guy I think) who said “I can’t afford my mortgage because of my pay cut. The bank will take my house.”

Asok the intern replied: “I saved a bundle by being a renter. I should buy your house for next to nothing.”

Click here to view the comic strip from Dilbert’s Official Website

This comic strip highlighted some import lessons from Robert Kiyosaki’s books.

Robert Kiyosaki had been repeatedly highlighted that, the house we are living in is NOT an asset but a liability. The bigger the house, the bigger the liability it is. The reason is that, instead of putting money in our pocket, the house we are living in is taking money FROM our pocket. One day, when we have difficulty paying the mortgage, the bank will take it away.

This is what happened to Ted. When he suffered a pay cut, he could not afford the mortgage and ended the bank taking the house away.

Robert Kiyosaki also repeatedly advised that we should go for positive cash flow, earning passive income. No matter what happen to the economy out there, the positive passive income cash flow will continue to give us the financial income we need. When the economy turned bad, we can use the income to buy more assets which generate more positive passive income cash flow.

Asok, the intern, despite of his low salary, was not affected by the pay cut. This is because he has been getting positive passive income cash flow as a renter. Now, he can buy the house from Ted to get more rental positive income.

In 27 June 2009 Dilbert Comic Strip, Catbert the evil Director of Human Resource said, “You shouldn’t come to work just for money. You should come to work to avoid not having money.”
Click here to view the comic strip from Dilbert’s Official Website

This statement further highlighted the message from Robert Kiyosaki’s books, especially the latest one, Conspiracy of the Rich. In his book, he mentioned that the education system is designed to produce employees and specialists. These groups of people are trained to go for job security. There is this fear among the employees that, if they lost their jobs, they will lose their income.

Catbert the Evil Director of Human Resource was voicing out the fear in the employees, the fear of loss of income. And this was the fear that kept people working for money, for job security.

Based on these two comic strips, I can’t help but to link the relationship between Scott Adam’s Dilbert Comic Strip and Robert Kiyosaki’s books.