Get Rich Quick

Possible Applications to
Life and Laboratory
 Disclaimer
There is probably no worse person to advise
you on financial decisions, so I wont.

Advice is NOT the point of this lecture.

 Backing up my claim to
financial incompetence
1971 Soda jerk $1.17/hr
1974 Forklift driver & bean walker $1.73/hr
1976 married art history major
1981 Postdoc ($15K) instead of IBM ($30K)
1983 LSU ($24K)
1983 Sell house in tech boom state, buy lesser
house in oil bust state for more money.
1990s private schools
2000s LU, ATHM, BLDP
 Why?
PEOPLE CIRCUMSTANCES

Jack Davies Baby boomers

Sailors: Gale, End of industrial age
Aklonis, Jelinski Outsourcing
Wanda Walczak Rapid advancements
Wayne Mattice in technology of
Randy Cush finance and
entrepreneurship
Educational changes
 Circumstances
1970s 1990s and maybe 2000s

Cradle-to-grave with the same Rightsizing and a golden

company parachute
Industrial rotations Sink or swim
Hired because you had Hired because you can
learned how to learn contribute fast
Letters of recommendation Produce or be gone
sought earnestly Social Security questionable
Social Security secure Stock market may be down
Stock market rises eventually indefinitely
Our loyalty was to customers, Our loyalty is to stockholders,
employees and stockholders, period.
in that order.

*Vincent Corbo, Herculesa close paraphrase, not direct quote.

 Ulterior Motive
One can draw strong parallels between
professional opportunity and the things
Get Rich Quick people advise.

Some are true, some not. Either way, GRQ

schemes are a fun read that can stimulate
thought.
 Can you get rich by working for
someone else?
Define rich!

Academia
$100,000/year is not rich (Chemistry, 20 years)
$175,000/year is not rich (Engineering or MatSci, 20 years)
$500,000/year is getting close (Chancellor)
$1,200,000/year is rich (Football coach)

Industry
$90,000/year is not rich (start with postdoc)
$250,000/year is not rich (corporate scientist)
$5,000,000/year is rich (CEO)
Those big two arent all anymore
Academics National & International
Teaching-oriented Laboratories
Research expected Military
Medical
Commerce
Instrumentation
Entrepreneurship Industry
Consulting Big multinational
Inventing / producing Upstart
 We still have not defined rich
A rich person does not need to work
another day, secure that adequate
assets for his or her desired lifestyle
are in place.

Would that be a good thing?

What non-work could you pursue full-time?
Maybe they are essentially the same as work
If so, would it be even more fun without worry
about money?
 Do traditional virtues still work?
8000
7000

Thriftdeeply ingrained 6000

5000
into our culture 4000

The Thrifty Housewife 3000

2000

A Scout is. 1000

. 0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
trustworthy
loyal Download from STSC website: InvestmentProfile.XLS

helpful
Investing this way at 5% yields $200,000
friendly after a 30-year career. Big deal, but this is hardly
courteous an aggressive savings planand your employer
kind (when & if you have one) will tuck away more $$$
obedient for you through a retirement plan.
cheerful
thrifty
Bottom line: Yes! If you start saving early, you can retire
brave
rich at age 55 60. This risk-free path is available to
clean
academics, industrial scientists who never lose their job or
reverent.
divorce, and national lab scientists. Cool, eh?
 So, why do people need, or think
they need, GRQ?
Bad planning, worse execution.
College for kidstuition up 100% in some
states this year alone.
Living longersure, the house will be paid
off, but it only consumes about 12% of
takehome anyway. Wed miss not
spending the other 88%!
Maybe you wont live longer: pressure to do
stuff before you cannot.
Maybe one reason for GRQ is that people who have
eschewed school have done very, very well lately.

Got into Harvard

Will tell you he hopes to complete his education
Why hes richer than you:
http://philip.greenspun.com/humor/bill-gates

So, why? "There are probably more smart people per

square foot right here than anywhere else in the world,
but Bill is just smarter."
Mike Maples, executive VP at Microsoft

Apparently, still clips coupons to save $0.50 on Dove

Bars! And drives his own Mercedes!
 Dell, Turner, Edison, Ford all recognized changes in technology.

None were truly masters of it.more like owners of it.

All took risks, but not of the life-threatening variety that soldiers daily do.

Many people are choosing this lifestyle, especially males.

Many will succeed at some level.

This is NOT surprising: 100 years ago, only ~12% of Americans finished high
school.

That generation contributed enormously to Americas development.

If these school of hard knocks graduates do succeed, do we expect them to

fund education with tax dollars when their academic past was crabby old math
teachers who only delayed their success?

In most revolutions, academic elite are among the first to face elimination.
Educational Attainment, 1910-1998
(taken from http://ssocs.berkeley.edu/~olney/fall02/econ113/lect101702.pdf
who in turn cites Statistical Abstract 1999, Table 1426)

< 5 years school H.S. Grad College Grad

1910 23.8 13.5 2.7
1920 22.0 16.4 3.3
1930 17.5 19.1 3.9
1940 13.5 24.1 4.6
1950 10.8 33.3 6.0
1960 8.3 41.0 7.7
1970 5.3 55.2 11.0
1980 3.4 68.6 17.0
1990 2.4 77.6 21.3
1998 1.6 82.8 24.4
 People: two case studies:
what will people do for money?
Wayne Mattice
Left LSU and Baton
Rouge for.Akron!

It is possible to separate
research from work:
--- Jim Robinson.
Research: one of several
hobbies you do for fun.
Work: what you do for money.
Randy Cush
Poker with shrewd
Europeans and
polishing the boss
car did not work.
Earns a tad more
with his PhD than his
wife does without
one. What next?
 Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Robert Kiyosaki

If You Want to be
Rich and Happy
Dont Go To School
When a NY Times best-selling author
writes books with titles like this, it is time
to pay attention. Apparently, the book
was written well before Kiyosaki was
rich or a best-selling author.
CashFlow Game
A little more than the traditional
buy property with no money down
approach.
His main message: take responsibility
for your own finances.

Definitions of assets, put, hold, etc. that

are useful.

http://www.richdad.com
 Kyosaki in a nutshell
Lessons taught to him by his rich dad while
his poor dad languished as an academic
administrator/professor.
He kept great notes for a 9-year-old!
Alternative viewpoints is putting it mildly.
Assets, Cash Flow, Leverage & Optimism
A good exposure to the philosophy of
money-centered people. Sociopath?
 For scathing reviews of Kiyosake and
others, see: http://www.johntreed.com
Contempt for traditional education and the educated
The book is almost entirely contemptuous of formal education and
those who have graduated from universities. He wrote another book
called If you want to be rich and happy, don't go to school? On page
64, he delights in the fact that educated people now came at [rich
dads] beck and call, and cringed when he did not approve of them.
This is a bit sick. .. Kiyosaki takes the prize for the real-estate
guru with the most tangled psyche.

Maybe a little bit harshgraduates of the school of hard knocks are

often a little contemptuous of the well-educated. Example: Richard
Nixon
 More from
http://www.johntreed.com
(Kiyosaki) says, ...the main reason people struggle financially is
because they have spent years in school but have learned nothing
about money.

I disagree. The main reason people struggle financially is bad

decisions about getting an education, bad luck, too much spending,
too little savings and investing, too much reliance on organizations
for their livelihood, and not enough reliance on themselves.

Here, Kyosakis reviewer incorrectly

insists on an either-or position. People
ARE undereducated financially AND this
is why they do the things he identifies,
leading to bad luck.
 More from
http://www.johntreed.com
Kiyosaki says that our schools focus on preparing todays youth to get
good jobs by developing scholastic skills. He thinks thats a bad thing. Its
probably the right thing. Only a small percentage of people are suited to
entrepreneurship. Even future entrepreneurs usually need to begin as
employees to get their starting capital and to learn while they work.

I would be among the first to agree that traditional formal education is

lacking in many ways.
Elements of I attended
truth, butCatholic
spoken andlike
public
theschools,
West graduated
from college and got an M.B.A. But I also attended the School of Hard
Knocks Point grad &years,
for thirty-one Harvard graduate
and thats not such he is!educational
a hot
experience either. As someone said, in the School of Hard Knocks they give
the test first, then the lesson. That is a slow, costly, painful way to learn.
Unfortunately,
As its the only
Kiyosaki pointsschool
out,that teaches
most many were
people things you need to
know. Obviously, the best way to prepare for life is a combination of formal
entrepreneurs
traditional education, reading, just 100 years
seminars, ago, and
experience, if you
asking more
experienced people for advice.
count farming.

He does not point out that most were glad to

be shut of it for Fords factories & $5/day.
 Academic Platform to Wealth
Academic life is possibly the perfect platform
for carefully exercising financial creativity.
Job for life
Hobby for life
Sabbaticals
Summers to pursue other interests
Extremely ironic: if poor dad ever existed
at all, he may have been ideally suited to
be a rich man.
 Know thyself
Many of the people I have seen become
discontented with their financial situation
are very altruistic.
Still, there are all kinds of wealth.
 Rich Dad in the Lab
Financial World Research World
Cash Flow = net income Paper Flow = # of
on assets. articles on all projects.
(Legal) Tax Evasion Hmmm.avoiding
committee work?
Leverage = using and NSF, NIH, DOD, EPA
buying other peoples $$$ for students, staff
money, time & effort and postdocs
It is OK to fail Yup
 Rich Dad in the Lab
Financial World Research World
An exit strategy for Yup
every investment
Advice to the average There are easier and
investor: dont be more profitable
average. professions in which to
be mediocre.
Leverage technology. Absolutely.
Look for opportunities Yes!
along the way to goals.
 Rich Dad in the Lab
Financial World Research World

Dont look at risk, look at 1. OK when you are ready

risk to reward for it.
2. Univ. Admin. does not
see it that way.
Spread risks & keep Hmmm.
moving to new areas
Never say I cant afford it. Never say We cannot do
this.
Make it part of your reality to Make it your reality to do,
get rich. promote and publish great
science.
 Conclusions
Think about money sooner rather than later.
Believe people when they tell you getting
older costs money: kids, health, long
retirements all cost.
Separate education from earning.
Enjoy both.
 References
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Retire Young, Retire Rich
both by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L.
Lechter, C.P.A.
www.richdad.com