Cashflow Quadrant
Understand four ways income is earned: employee, self-employed, business owner, and investor.
EEmployee
Your time, their system
BBusiness owner
A system + a team
SSelf-employed
Your time, your system
IInvestor
Capital earning a return
The idea
Robert Kiyosaki’s model groups income by how it is generated. E earns a wage; S earns through personal work; B owns a business run through systems and people; I earns returns on capital. You can occupy multiple quadrants.
How to use it
- Identify where your income comes from today.
- Consider whether income depends on your hours, business systems, or invested capital.
- Choose one practical next step based on your resources and goals.
In practice
An employee with a freelance consulting practice occupies E and S. A business run by a team adds B. An investment generating returns adds I.