There seem to be two types of people in the world: office slaves who very nearly treat work as a religion and who are in danger of neglecting the very families for whom they work so hard to provide; and people who have adopted more of a slacker mentality, convincing themselves that money isn’t important because they don’t want to be slaves to the workaday world.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad book series, has money and he doesn’t agree. “Anyone who says money isn’t important obviously has not been without it long,” he says in his book “Cash Flow Quadrant.”

He knows because he has been in both situations. For several weeks in 1985, he and his wife were so destitute, they were actually forced to live in their car, after which they moved into a friend’s basement for nearly a year. They took only odd jobs, because wealth, not job security, was what they were after.

After 4more years they did become rich – millionaires, in fact.

While money is important, it isn’t important in and of itself, and that is why Kiyosaki and his wife didn’t rush out to look for the “good” jobs they both could have gotten. It’s important because it provides for your basic needs and, if you have enough of it, it can give you time to be with your loved ones and do the things in life that truly make you happy.

Remember that no career in the world will give you the things that truly make life worth living, such as a fulfilling home life and time with your family. All money can do is grant you the resources to pursue what makes you happy.

At times it seems like a no-win situation; it takes so long to make the money you need in order to get what you want out of life that you’ll never actually have the time to do the things you’ve always dreamed of. As an employee, this really can be an unanswerable problem; as an investor with money working for you, it’s much easier to keep your priorities in order.

Robert Kiyosaki had to reach this conclusion himself, years ago; in one of his books, he wrote, “Money is important, but I did not want to spend my life working for it.” As luck would have it, Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad” knew plenty about this dilemma and its true solution.

He knew that there was a way to be a responsible provider for his family without spending most of his waking life working. He knew the secret was become an investor.

When you become an investor, you are simply getting your money from a different place. What you want to do is take the money you get from your job, and put it into the I quadrant. That means that you now have money working for you. Your money is making money and you didn’t have to lift a finger for those extra dollars.

So start now– investing in property doesn’t just multiply wealth; it also rewards you with more time that you can spend doing the things you love. Laying the groundwork for a career in real estate investing paves the way for a future in which money can actually bring you happiness.