' 'I'd rather be happy than be rich,'" I replied. "Now do you know what I mean when I say you can see people's past, present, and future by listening to their words?" asked rich dad. Nodding, I said, 'And I noticed something else." 'And what was that?" asked rich dad. "You have the vocabulary of a businessman and an in- vestor. My dad has the vocabulary of a schoolteacher. You use words such as 'capitalization rates,' 'financial leverage,' 'EBIT,' 'producer price index,' 'profits,' and 'cash flow' He uses words such as 'test scores,' 'grants,' 'grammar,' 'literature,' 'government appropriations,' and 'tenure.'" Rich dad smiled as he said, "It does not take money to make money. It takes words. The difference between a rich person and a poor person is that person's vocabulary. All a person needs to do to become richer is increase his or her fi- nancial vocabulary. And the best news is, most words are free." During the 1980s, I spent much time teaching entrepre- neurship and investing. During that time, I became acutely aware of people's vocabulary and how their words related to their financial well-being. Upon further research, I found out that there are approximately 2 million words in the English language. The average person has command of approximately 5,000 words. If people want to begin increasing their financial success, it begins with increasing their vocabulary in a certain subject. For example, when I was investing in small real estate deals such as single-family rental properties, my vocabulary increased in that subject area. When I shifted to investing in private companies, my vocabulary had to increase before I felt comfortable investing in such companies. In school, lawyers learn the vocabulary of law, medical doc- tors learn the vocabulary of medicine, and teachers learn the 74 Rich Dad's Guide to Investing vocabulary of teachers. If a person leaves school without learning the vocabulary of investing, finance, money, account- ing, corporate law, taxation, it is difficult to feel comfortable as an investor. One reason I created the educational board game CASH- FLOW was to familiarize non-investors with the vocabulary of investing. In all our games, the players quickly learn the rela- tionships behind the words of accounting, business, and in- vesting. By repeatedly playing the games, the players learn the true definition of such misused words as "asset" and "liability." Rich dad often said, "More than not knowing the defini- tions of words, using the wrong definition to a word is what really causes long-term financial problems. Nothing is more destructive to a person's financial stability than to call a 'liabil- ity' an 'asset.'" That is why he was a stickler for the definition of financial words. He would say, the word "mortgage" comes from "mortir," French for "death." So a mortgage is "an en- gagement until death." "Real estate" does not mean "real" in English.