It’s a late weekday afternoon and best-selling author Sharon Lechter is once again giving financial advice.
Today, her target audience is quite different from the adults who purchased the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” books she co-authored with fellow Valley resident Robert Kiyosaki.
This group consists of a half-dozen young teenagers at a Phoenix branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs, and the audience is one Lechter hopes to appeal to with YOUTHpreneur, part of her new business that teaches children how to be entrepreneurs.
“I have a passion for financial literacy for families and children,” said Lechter, who left the Rich Dad Company in 2007 after disagreements with Kiyosaki and now runs Pay Your Family First. “What is happening with today’s kids is they don’t understand delayed gratification. . . . Kids want it before they even think about working for it.”
Lechter’s focus on children comes at a time when national studies show high-school and college students are plunging themselves into deep credit-card debt and having easier access to credit. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama last week threw his support behind a consumer-friendly credit-card law that eliminates tricky fine print, sudden rate increases and late fees.
The YOUTHpreneur program teaches children how to make money through gumball sales, and she’s teamed with local branches of the Boys & Girls Clubs and Fry’s Food Stores. Through the program, children learn about sales and profits by operating a candy machine at a Fry’s store.
“It was a good experience. We learned about business,” said Michael Clark, a 14-year-old from Greenway Middle School in Phoenix. “We had fun doing it, and we made some money for the Boys & Girls Club. So, it was all good.”
Lechter, of Paradise Valley, has taught the YOUTHpreneur program to about 70 children at six different Boys & Girls Clubs branches during the past year, and she’s selling the program on her Web site, youthpreneur.net.
She said working with kids brought her career full circle as the certified public accountant began focusing on financial education when her oldest son, Phillip, went off to college.
She said she thought she had taught her son to manage money, but as a freshman at Arizona State University, he quickly dug himself into a $2,500 credit-card debt.
“I was so upset, but I was more angry at myself than him,” Lechter said. “We didn’t bail him out. It took him about five years to get himself on track.”
The lesson apparently stuck because Phillip Lechter now is president of her new company, and he said the business would focus on entrepreneurship, financial education and money tips for teens and parents.
Sharon Lechter said it’s important for parents to teach their kids about financial management because college students are racking up thousands of dollars of credit-card debt and even some high-school students are using credit cards.
Sallie Mae Inc., which manages student loans, released a study this month that said nearly one-third of college students put tuition on their credit cards and the average balance for a student was $3,173.
College seniors are graduating with an average credit-card debt of $4,100, up from about $2,900 in 2004, according to the study. The median credit-card debt for freshmen nearly tripled to $939 since 2004.
Meanwhile, a 2008 nationwide survey of high-school students by Jump$tart, a financial literacy organization, found that nearly 35 percent of students had a credit card, up slightly from the nearly 32 percent in 2002.
Steve Beekman, area director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix, said Lechter provided important skills to the children. He said a donor provided the gumballs and machines, while the children, who were between 11 and 15, donated the few hundred dollars in profits back to the Boys & Girls Clubs.
“It has gotten them exposed on how to run a business, and it has opened their eyes to the real world in how to make money and not go out and spend it all,” Beekman said.
Along with running YOUTHpreneur, Lechter also has co-authored “Three Feet From Gold,” which interviews successful entrepreneurs like the founders of Chick-fil-A restaurant and Mrs. Fields Cookies.
She said the book, a partnership with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, is scheduled to be released in October.
Excerpt from:
Program helps kids manage money, debt
Robert & Kim Kiyosaki will be appearing live in Sydney on 30-May to 1-June.
If you cannot or will not pay $600 to attend, at least we can get this “Wealth Accelerator Toolbox†for free.
It consists of 3 audio tracks and 3 video, with total running time of 3 hours.
If you’ve seen the billboards and visit www.richdadgift.com.au, you’ll be asked to register your personal details to access the goods. I have done that and it seems like the stuff are located in an open webpage.
So I thought I’ll post it up here so that no one else needs to register.
>> http://www.richdadgift.com.au/toolbox.php <<
Just send me a ”Thank-You” note in the comment if you find this gift valuable. Cheers.
Read the rest here:
Free Gifts : Robert Kiyosaki’s Wealth Accelerator Toolbox
First, think like an investor, not an accountant or an attorney. That simply means seeing the true value of something rather than just considering the original price. If you can see what someone else can’t — like how existing zoning will limit or expand what can be done with acreage – you can identify low or no risk investments.
Also, you must have an entrepreneurial spirit and a love for that lifestyle. Investing isn’t for those with a “saver’s” mentality as making money and attaining wealth are about mind control — how you view an opportunity and what you are willing to spend in order to step up the value are key.
So says Robert Kiyosaki, author of The New York Times best seller Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He explains that the more you invest with control, the more profits go up and risk goes down. In large part, this is a matter of ownership and power over outcome, something you can’t get by participating in a mutual fund or buying stocks and bonds.
Six Critical Controls
According to Kiyosaki there are six critical controls to help you manage your financial statement for an investment; they are:
• income
• expenses
• assets
• liabilities
• financial training or management
• insurance
Financial Training
Although listed as number five, the most important of these is financial training as without it you can’t control the other five elements. Unfortunately, this is not something we learn at school but, luckily, in today’s global and web-based world there are many options for gaining the learning you need to become an expert at investing with control.
Controlling Income
With respect to the other critical areas Kiyosaki identified, controlling income is about making sure there is some and that you have a say on how much that will be. Think about owning rental properties where you can set the monthly fees versus opening a savings account where the bank controls how much interest you’ll receive.
Controlling Expenses
With expenses, the old adage is definitely true; you often have to spend money to make money. The point is to do it as necessary and wisely, whether it’s upgrading rental property by painting the apartments or increasing the advertising budget to see more of a product you make.
Controlling Assets
To do this, you need to be able to shift the gears in your head so that you’re seeing all the possibilities for making money and measuring them against expenses. Kiyosaki again uses real estate as an example: consider a piece of land that could be used for varied purposes, some at no additional cost.
However, if you think a bit out of the box you could build a mobile home park which, although it necessitates building an infrastructure, the costs associated with obtaining zoning changes and different capital gains taxes, has an ultimate value to the entrepreneur that is exponentially magnified.
If you don’t do these things you negatively affect your assets; remember even small changes can lead to large rewards. The learning here is that asset control can impact the speed at which your investment gains value. It’s as simple as deferring maintenance on that apartment building to keep expenses low or making the repairs now and being able to up the rental fees.
Controlling Liabilities
With respect to liabilities, pay cash where you can, refinance at a lower interest rate or sell equity instead of borrowing to pay off debt.
Controlling Insurance
Carry insurance and consider bypassing any investment where you can’t.
Raymond Aaron,
New York Times Top Ten Bestselling Author, “Double Your Income Doing What You Love”
Read more from the original source:
Raise Your Income Using Robert Kiyosaki’s Formula of Investing With Controls
Call it journalism, or call it joblessness or just plain curiosity, but in the past two weeks, I went to two free “workshops” on Real Estate investing – one by the Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki’s team, and one by Donald Trump’s team. Having time in the middle of the day means that I can attend programs that I wouldn’t be able to, if I was busy at work.
I claim it was journalistic purposes because I have no interest in being a real estate investor whatsoever. I don’t even own a primary residence. But I went because I was very curious about the people who attend these seminars (in the middle of weekdays) and I wanted to study the presenters and hey, it was free.
These were both 90 minute sessions, and as I learned the main intent of these workshops was to get people to sign up for 2 and 3 day advanced seminars, where they teach you lots of Real Estate techniques in great detail.
Here are some of my impressions and notes from the free pre-class:
- Behold the power of Branding. Thanks to the popularity of TV shows (The Apprentice) and books, people like Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki have become household names. They are able to capitalize on that by essentially franchising themselves. Trump’s is called Trump U., and Kiyosaki markets it as “Rich Dad Education.”
- Though it is not the intent, you can learn a lot about good presentation techniques by studying these presenters. Their task is to take disbelievers (who are most likely not economically well off and quite possibly unemployed) and try to sell them expensive course packages. The presenters were without exception great sales people.
- One clever technique I saw was to ask everyone to hold all the questions till the end. This is because they don’t want disbelievers disrupting the sales pitch, casting doubts.
- They will repeatedly make fun of anyone who has any doubts whatsoever.
- These folks must have all gone to the same NLP techniques class, because they all use it. Programming the audience first and then repeatedly making them shout out the same words and phrases over and over again. “Because I am going to help you make what?” and the real estate market has been really going where? and so on. (Correct responses: “Lots of money” and “Down”)
- They will pretend to get very angry when the audience doesn’t respond to moronic questions. “So does working for only 4 hours a week sound good to you?” “Would you like to make $20,000 on your very first deal?” (Hint: You are supposed to scream your Yes very loudly.)
- They make fun of books and CD’s that you see on late-night TV infomericals, and yet they try to tempt you with books that you absolutely must own and will get only if you attend the 3 day seminar.
I am really not knocking these multi-day seminars. They might be just the thing for people who have the willingness, but not the know-how. I approve of a lot of what they say – yes Knowledge is very important, and yes everyone has to take action if they are serious about improving their lot in life. I know that these Real Estate techniques (pre-foreclosure, short sales etc.) do work for some, and that the fees for these 2 and 3 day classes will pay for themselves for some people.
I just don’t approve of how easy they make it sound.
Business Plus, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group), announced today that one of its flagship authors, Robert T. Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame, will release an innovative new book, CONSPIRACY OF THE RICH: The 8 New Rules of Money, that will be available worldwide online — and for free.
The introduction has been released and is available on www.conspiracyoftherich.com as well as via a direct link from www.richdad.com
An unprecedented publishing event for Kiyosaki and The Rich Dad Company, CONSPIRACY OF THE RICH will be an interactive, “Wiki-style” project in which Kiyosaki will invite feedback, commentary, and questions from readers across the globe which will then be incorporated into the book as it is written and released, chapter by chapter, on the Internet. The entire process is interactive — featuring a blog written by Kiyosaki, forums with questions related to specific chapters where readers can share their comments and respond to forum posts from other readers, and an email process by which readers can send in their questions
This bold and unique approach will enable the millions of people around the world who have put the Rich Dad principles to work in their lives — as well as those who are challenged by today’s harrowing economic times — to engage directly with Kiyosaki and literally help him shape his new book as it is being written.
CONSPIRACY OF THE RICH will share Kiyosaki’s view of global economics and why people are now finding themselves challenged by these turbulent times. As Kiyosaki attests, people not only want solutions to their financial problems, but also real answers as to what created today’s economic chaos — and how it can be eased. As CONSPIRACY OF THE RICH will make clear, what appears to be the worst of times may very well be an opportunity in the making. In Kiyosaki’s opinion, people should expand their means and live a life that they want to live by investing in their financial education. “This is the right book… at the right time… at the right price,” said Kiyosaki, in reference to the free and universal access to this book. “This is not the time for traditional answers. The time for this book is now… and the Web will let us do that.”
“We are living in tumultuous, unsettling and frightening economic times,” said Rick Wolff, publisher and editor-in-chief of Business Plus and publisher of Rich Dad Poor Dad and the 26 books in the Rich Dad series, “and Robert believes that people today, perhaps more than ever before, are hungry for information and financial education.” Wolff stressed, “The fact that Robert is committed to writing and distributing a new book to the world for free is amazing to us, and indicative of his genuine concern for the challenging economic times in which we live. Today, more than ever, the world needs a voice they can trust and someone they can rely on to deliver the cold, hard facts about what is really happening in the world.”
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Free, Collaborative Book
