In the male-dominated space of real estate training, it's a breath of fresh air to see a successful woman stamp her brand into the space.
Every year, Kim Kiyosaki inspires millions of women through her speaking, writing, and actions as a real estate investor and entrepreneur.
In this review, we will cover Kim’s net worth, biography, books, and everything you need to know before investing in her training.
Let’s begin.
Kim Kiyosaki Net Worth
In the real estate space, as with many others, net worth is always the first thing people ask about before looking for advice.
As of 2019, available data places Kim Kiyosaki's net worth at around $40 million, around half that of her famous husband Robert Kiyosaki.
Kim Kiyosaki's Real Estate Journey
Kim (Meyer) Kiyosaki is 62 years old and was born on January 26, 1957, in Honolulu, Hawaii. She currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.
Kim is an internationally-renowned speaker, author, entrepreneur, real estate investor, radio show host, and the founder of Rich Woman. She has an inspirational message for women everywhere to get financial education and be financially independent.
Kim married Robert Kiyosaki in 1985. They have no children together and Kim talks fairly regularly about that being an intentional decision, going against societal expectations, that has allowed her to live the life she wants.
Kim’s journey began as an employee for a business magazine in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Her first exposure to business ownership, investing, and being her own boss came from that experience. 2 years later, she started her very own business, a clothing distribution with world-wide reach. Her business grew slowly but steadily, eventually reaching multi-million revenue.
Not long after launching that company, Kim joined Robert Kiyosaki as a partner in a seminar company that taught entrepreneurship around the world.
That business grew to support 11 offices in seven countries, presenting business seminars to tens of thousands of attendees.
In 1989, Kim ventured out and got her first rental property. It was this little one bedroom, one bath house in Portland, Oregon. Even though Kim was scared to pull the trigger and re-did her due-diligence a few more times than she probably needed to, she ended up satisfied and with a very low passive income, which changed her perspective towards financial freedom.
In 1994, Kim and Robert sold their seminar business, but as tends to be true for most ntrepreneurs, neither could remain still, and they again started a business in 1997. The company was named Cashflow Technologies.
Cashflow Technologies has been sharing knowledge and experience based on their personal successes as entrepreneurs and real estate investors.
While Kim started with just a 2-bedroom rental property in Portland, Oregon, today, her real estate business buys, sells, and manages millions of dollars in property.
Kim Kiyosaki Real Estate Books Review
Kim is a published author and has written numerous articles for Entrepreneur Magazine, but she is best known for her two published books:
2006 - Rich Woman: A Book on Investing for Women
2011 - It's Rising Time: Call to Women
‘Rich Woman’ is for women who want to be financially independent without depending on a man, family, company, or government to take care of them.
It shares many of the same principles from her husband’s books, but is written to speak more specifically to women and the challenges that women face.
‘Rising Time’ continues with a similar mantra again, but with more of a focus on how to implement these principles while in a relationship and coordinating with a partner.
Reviews are generally positive, like this one from an inspired reader:
Many readers appreciated the unique challenges that Kim's books address - challenges that often fly completely under the rader:
Most of the negative reviews seem to be from people who have already read her husband's content (and possibly aren't women?):
As we've covered on this blog many times, good real estate investing advice is fairly timeless and fairly consistent across the thousands of books written on the topic.
If you are reading ANY book today and expecting the author to reinvent the wheel, expect to be disapointed.
Kim Kiyosaki's Advice On Entrepreneurship
While Kim started her journey as an employee, much of her advice has to do with developing an entrepreneurial mindset.
Be the type of person who connects with others.
Kim grew up around working-class people, not around entrepreneurs and business owners. She even got fired twice from her first job! And she claims to hate being told what to do.
The desire for teaching comes from her audience. She is driven by her curious and excited crowd at the seminars.
“... (Robert & crew) have to sometimes pull me back and tell me the show is about to start and I just want to talk to people. “
Be willing to take risks.
Kim believes most women are still afraid to take entrepreneurial risks. She claims it is because people, in general, are financially illiterate, and if people had the courage to place themselves in uncomfortable situations, they would be less risk-averse.
So why are women more risk-averse than men?
According to Kim, most women still feel compelled by societal expectations to seek financial support from their husbands while they tend to the house or kids.
Prioritize your own financial independence.
Kim decided that was not going to be her fate after overhearing a conversation between her mom and her mom’s friend. Kim was 14 years old, and she heard how the friend was crying, telling her mom that her husband left her to be with another woman, and that she knew something was going on.
Her mom asked her friend why she didn’t do anything about it, and she replied “I knew I was financially set”.
Kim knew that day that she didn't want to be dependent, and she feels that divorce trends have confirmed she made the right choice, “I was right because divorce rates have gone up. 1 out of 2 couples get divorces nowadays.”
Don't let a lack of upfront money hold you back.
What does Kim think about starting a business or investing in real estate with no money?
“For every business that I've ever started--and I've started them all with my husband--we had no money”.
Find a deal that excites you first and then you'll be motivated to find the funds.
Kim advises to find the property to invest in first, then it becomes real to you. Once you have a good reason to be driven, you’ll find the money
“My very first investment was a little two-bedroom, two-bath house in Portland, Oregon, and I needed a $5,000 down payment and I didn't have it--but I found a way to get it.”
Prioritize investments that generate passive or recurring returns.
What advice does Kim have for women with an existing business?
She says that managing and growing your money should be the main business and that most women, if asked, would love to shut down their business and stop working. That’s why she recommends investing in Real Estate - for passive income.
“I see leverage as a plus as long as you know what you're doing, as long as you understand the numbers of the deal. With real estate, you can put down 10 to 20 percent and own 100 percent of the property.”
And what if your partner or husband is not supportive when you want to invest in real estate?
Ideally, you would like to work together with him, because you will grow together, improve your bond & relationship, and get a greater return for your money. But if he is not supportive, you should just start by yourself.
If you are making the right decisions, and cash flow starts coming in, chances are he will want to jump right in.
For women who just start out in real estate investing, what is Kim’s advice for the first step?
Number one is Education, invest in yourself, talk to mentors, attend group meetings, seminars, and read lots of materials from different sources.
Number two is to hang around a supportive environment and avoid negative people, even if they are close to you. People around you who say it is crazy, too risky, and it will never work will have to go out of your life.
Number three is action. You got to take the first step, look for the first property, get the first loan, or put your first downpayment. If you can deal with real estate to gain some experience to make cash flow, even better.
Key Takeaways From Kim Kiyosaki's Journey
What are some of the things you can take from Kim’s journey to becoming a self-made millionaire?
You can start from scratch
Like Kim, even if you are an employee who never dealt with real estate, never started a business, and have no money down for your first transaction, you can still become financially independent.
Make sure you understand the significance and power of financial education
After all, it's true financial literacy that allows you to pursue your dreams. Most of us would like to have more money, work less, and enjoy life more. And some of you couldn't care less because your significant other takes care of all the finances right now or you are set in a great job with fantastic benefits.
Well, what happens if your situation changes? What if there is an illness, job loss, or other, unexpected crisis in your family or the world's economy?
Take Control of Your Own Financial Destiny.
The bottom line is that money has tremendous power. It has the power to set you free, but it also has the power to enslave us.
Money enslaves us by keeping you in an unhealthy relationship, sending you to a job that you don't like every day for the paycheck, or causing us to deny ourselves things important to us because we lack the money to buy them.
It's about much more than money
Money, by itself, is not good or bad, it's just money. Its a tool.
How you use your money is most often what causes controversy.
We define money very simply. Money is freedom.
It allows you to do what it is you truly want to do. It allows you to give your gifts and your talents as you were meant to give them.
Financial freedom is a wonderful thing, and it's our mission to strengthen our community and help you build it with starting in Real Estate.
Partnership & Family
What happens when two evenly yoked people grow in two different directions and try and maintain a marriage and/or a business?
‘I really want to move forward but my partner is not interested and how do I get them interested?’
That’s the million-dollar question.
We think the main thing with couples even if you don’t work together is you have to grow together. Try to have a policy that anytime one of you wants to attend a seminar, you both attend together.
Try to read the same books, go through the same courses, and attend seminars together.
When you learn a topic alone, it’s really hard to explain it and verbalize some of the things that you realized, because sometimes a light bulb will go off or a mind-shift change and it is hard to explain that in words sometimes.
But it is really easy when your partner is sitting there next to you, or have read the same materials and you can have a discussion about it. Experiencing the same things you are.
The Best Real Estate Investment Option For New Investors
Kim’s advice is solid, but like most real estate advice, it's rooted in the traditional approach to retirement saving and long term wealth building, and it works best when you have access to capital and ongoing cashflow.
It also ignores the resources she had at her disposal.
Sorry, but we're just a bit skeptical when two multimillionaires tell us they started a business with "no money upfront".
In our experience, having a consistent way to bring in short term cashflow is critical if you want to build wealth while you are still young enough to enjoy it.
We break down how we use wholesaling to do just that via the link below:
