In this episode we have a very special guest is none other than Kim Kiyosaki. She is an Internationally renowned speaker, best-selling author of “Rich Woman” and “Good Deal, Bad Deal”, Radio Show Host, Entrepreneur and Real Estate Investor. She is also the founder of the Rich Woman organisation. Kim realised early on in her career that she didn’t want to be an employee. In search of something more, she worked to develop her skills and made her first real estate purchase. She now controls millions of dollars of investment property and is committed to helping women achieve financial freedom through investing and taking control of their financial futures. 

Rich woman book

Kim Kiyosaki wrote the book entitled “Rich Woman”. Here she shared the inspiration behind the birth of the book: 

(3:45)The reason Genecia I wrote Rich Woman was because Robert and I, we travel the world teaching the Rich Dad philosophy taking two big groups and I will get up on stage and I will speak to the women for just a few minutes and at every event whether it's Singapore or we're London, Tokyo, Johannesburg wherever it was at the end of the event I’d always be surrounded by women and they had the same questions and the same issues and the biggest thing I realized is there's a huge huge huge demand for women to be educated about money and actually, we women, not only have we not been expected to know much about money but we’ve actually been taught to depend upon somebody else for our financial well-being.

Financial Literacy 

Financial independence is not based on gender. It happens through education. This is Kim’s encouragement for women to be financially secured:

(4:52)So my whole message is we need to be in control of our finances we need to step-up and be financially literate and ideally it's up to each one of us to be financially secured 

(5:07)Nobody’s gonna do that for us 

(5:09)No financial advisor no financial planner it's up to us. And it's not rocket science anybody can do it but it takes time and it takes education She added that to be financially stable requires a process: 

(6:17)Actually starting to take control of your finances starts very simple. You start small and take baby steps we don’t go for the big deals we stick with the small deals. And the most important thing is that understand there’s no secret sauce, there’s no magic pill 

(6:49)It’s a process and it’s a process of education, it’s a process of experience but it’s not difficult. 

(06:58)it’s just a matter of committing 

Risk taking in Business

You don’t have to have it all figured out to start a business. Oftentimes you don’t have anything but risk. Here’s how Kim started from nothing: 

(7:41)I started with nothing and I’m gonna tell you that the best thing of all is that I didn’t have the money, Robert and I did not have the money.  

(8:10)Probably for the first 10-12 real estate deals I did, I did not have the money now what that forces you to do is get very very very creative 

For Kim, she chose real estate as an avenue to invest:

(8:22)Once you see the property or whatever investment it is you’re interested in. Once you see it , and touch it and feel it then put your mind to work on how can I now get the money, how can I create the money in order to get the investment.

(9:54)What you want to do is create positive cash flow. My investment of choice is real estate there’s many other ways to gather cash flow whatever works for you.

(10:05)But we had 10 thousand dollars a month cash flow from our rental properties. But we only had 3 thousand dollars a month in living expenses. So at that point $10,000 coming in and $3,000 going out we were financially free.  

Achieving financial freedom

Financial freedom may seem difficult at first but it is not impossible. As Kim ventured into Real Estate this is what they experienced: 

(10:39)Number 1 I did not have to worry about money anymore and number 2 it gave me the luxury to ask myself what I really want to do with my life. So it’s all about financial freedom. 

(10:50)It’s about freedom, not so much about the money but freedom is that having choices to live the life you want to live. That’s what it’s about.

Filling up the gap in your cash flow

There’s no one way to fill the gap, but the key is education and being fearless. Here is Kim’s encouragement:

(11:57)I made a ton of mistakes, a ton.  I mean that’s the key to success, I’m gonna tell you right now, that the key to success is making mistakes everybody is still afraid of making a mistake, the only way we learn is by making a mistake. 

(12:24)The key is you gotta got into action I will always say get some education get some education get some financial education on the asset class you like and then once you have some education start very small take baby steps put a little money down because as soon as you put so many down my interest goes way up. 

(12:57)One thing I recommend for women especially is to go out and buy a 1 ounce silver coin. it’s been across 20 dollars US today. But what that does because you know got this asset this gold or silver coin all of the sudden your interest will go up will look at the prices of silver every single day, what’s it doing. Why is it up, why is it down? And because you’ve just parted with 20 dollars US you become this quasi expert on silver. 

(13:31)I’m a big believer in you’ve gotta  put some money down, get into the game and then that’s where the real learning happens. You gotta go out and do the real thing. 

Raising kids and being married while building your wealth

Your family, most importantly your kids should not be a reason for you not to seek for financial stability. Although Kim and Robert don’t have kids, she shared a very good example here: 

(14:09)Robert and I do not have kids, really by choice.

(14:19)But my girlfriends for example Lisa Lannon, she’s a Rich Dad advisor, she and her husband Josh, they have very successful businesses they have 2 kids they involve their kids in their business, they involve their kids in their investing so when they go out and lock at a property they bring the children along so they educate the kids as well as educate themselves. So for women, especially with the internet there’s so much opportunity offer in the internet for business and things like that I think the parent of course can be the best teacher. So why not include the kids. It amazes me how young kids get interested in money. They know about money. When their very very young. So why not educate them while your educating yourself. 

(15:14)I don’t think it has to be one or the other.  I think you can do it together.

(15:21)and same with the relationship same with couples I’m not advocating for the woman to go out there she’s married and she has a life partner then she goes out there and do this all by herself and separate from her spouse this is ideally investing it’s something you want to do together as a couple because you grow together you learn together. 

Invest in yourself Being a woman is not an excuse to remain financially dependent on someone else. Be encouraged with Kim’s words: 

(20:00)Most important investment is to invest in yourself and to invest in ...