Robert Kiyosaki

Robert Toru Kiyosaki (?????????????, ?? ?, born April 8, 1947) is an investor, businessman, and author. He was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and served in the Marine Corps as a helicopter gunship pilot during the Vietnam War. After leaving the Marine Corps, he worked as a copier salesman for Xerox before embarking on a career of investing and teaching. He is married to Kim.

Assets vs liabilities

One of the basic points he tries to get across is to think of an asset as simply something that puts money in your pocket, and a liability as something that takes money from your pocket.

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Thus your own home is always a liability under this thinking, and only an asset for the bank, since the mortgage payments take money from your pocket and puts it in the bank's. Even after the mortgage is paid off, the home is still a liability because of rates and maintenance.

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Whether an investment property is a liability or an asset depends only on whether rental income exceeds the costs of interest, rates and maintenance.

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