Investing for Women–My “Rich Woman” Book Review

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If you are a woman and you have a desire to have enough money to provide for yourself and your children, do you think that it is important for you to have at least the same amount of knowledge about finance and investing as men have? For the men out there (I am not leaving you out, lol) God forbid if anything unfortunate should happen to you, wouldn’t you want your wife, girlfriend, or mother to have a basic working knowledge about finance and investing so that they will be able to provide for themselves and/or your children? If the answer is “Yes” to both questions, then I highly suggest you read this post where I discuss my review of the book [easyazon_link identifier=”1933914009″ locale=”US” tag=”earweaforyouf-20″]Rich Woman[/easyazon_link] by Kim Kiyosaki, wife of Robert Kiyosaki (bestselling author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad).

Who Should Read This Book?

This book is written for women of all ages who:                                                              Rich_Woman_Book

  • do not want to lose sleep over thinking about money
  • want to take charge of their financial future
  • are tired of either looking for or depending on a man to take care of them
  • desire financial independence

I highly recommend this book as a must-read for all women because I think every woman needs to be financially independent one way or another. With today’s fragile economy, it is very risky for women to continue to be dependent on men, family, company, or the government to take care of them.

 

Why Women Don’t Invest

In the book, Kim discusses several excuses that women give as reasons why they do not invest. Some of these excuses are:

non_invest_reason_1Kim’s response to this statement is that this excuse is used when you do not want to do something. Each day contains 24 hours, and within that time frame, we seem to find the time to do the things we find most important. Because we are so often “busy”, we as women seem not have “spare” or “extra” time to do the things that we should do that are equally important, like investing–getting our financial houses in order.

To overcome this roadblock to investing, Kim suggests you ask yourself the question,  “Why should I learn about investing? In other words, determine what your personal why is regarding learning how to invest. If you clearly have a  strong reason why and it is extremely important to you, then you will make the effort to learn how to invest. Otherwise, you will stand behind the excuse of not having the time and nothing will be done.

non_invest_reason_2

Believe it or not, many women think that they do not have the brains to understand the basics of investing. This is far from the truth.The reality is that we as women have not been given the same exposure to investing as men usually get. Kim states in the book that women routinely get taught things like how to balance a checkbook, how to cut back on spending, and how to save pennies at the grocery store. There is nothing wrong with knowing how to do these things, but they have nothing to do with investing. To overcome this roadblock, Kim suggests that women should take a more active role in educating themselves about money and investing. Women can become more active by reading books, financial newspapers and magazines, attending financial workshops and seminars, and by joining investment clubs for women.

non_invest_reason_3

Kim suggests that women should never let this be an excuse for not pursuing a good investment.  Sometimes it is better to find the investment first before finding out if you have the funds available. If you find an investment that really excites you, that excitement will make you get creative and find ways to come up with the money necessary to finance that investment. A valuable lesson taught by Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad is to never say to yourself “I can’t afford it” but instead say ” How can I afford it?”.  Instead of using traditional banks, some alternative sources of financing include:

  • Seller financing–the seller acts as a bank. You have a loan agreement with the seller that specifies the loan amount, the length of the loan and the interest rate.
  • Other investors–there are people who have money but neither the time nor the expertise to look for good investments. If you have an investment that will give these investors a good return on their money, they will be a good source to go to for financing.
  • Family and friends–you can approach these people for financing your investments but Kim warns that you do so with caution. Make sure you have written agreements because the last thing you need is to have family rifts or lost friendships due to investments gone bad or misunderstandings over the money loaned.

 

4 Simple Tips On Becoming a Successful Investor

In the book, Kim suggests women first do these 4 things in the process of learning how to become a successful investor:

1.  Educate yourself.

Do your due diligence and research about an investment before you put any money into it. The more education you have regarding investing, the better chance that you will be successful and make money with that investment.

2.  Start small.

Whatever investment you decide to get involved with, start out small. In addition, expect to make mistakes. Mistakes are good because they make you learn. It’s less painful to lose money from a small investment than to lose a lot of money on a big investment.

3. Put a little money down.

In order to be considered an investor, you actually have to put some money into an investment–you have to be “in the game”.  Otherwise it is all theory. Once you have your money invested in something, you will be more interested in caring about how your investment turns out–whether you make money or lose money.

4.  Stay close to home.

Start investing in what you know or feel comfortable with.  Don’t go for the “hot tip” investment opportunity if it is an investment on something you know little about. For instance, if you know nothing about stocks, don’t buy a bunch of stocks just because everyone else is. If you want to get involved in real estate, look for properties close to home rather than properties in other cities in which you are not familiar.

Final Thoughts

As I stated earlier, the book [easyazon_link identifier=”1933914009″ locale=”US” tag=”earweaforyouf-20″]Rich Woman[/easyazon_link] is a must-read for any woman who wants to improve her financial future. The main points I got out of this book is that investing is a process. You have to take your time learning about the different investment vehicles (such as real estate or stocks) before you take action and start investing your money. I also learned that there is always something new to learn in regards to investing because things often change over time. Therefore, never lose the willingness to learn.  Reading this book has made me determined not to become a statistic–one of thousands of women who have to depend on either someone (family/ men) or something (their job/the government) for financial help because they know little or nothing about investing.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the book Rich Woman, or about investing for women in general, please feel free to enter your comments in the field below. Thank you for taking the time to read my post.  Have a great day,

Deidre

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6 thoughts on “Investing for Women–My “Rich Woman” Book Review

  1. Wow your site is very informative! Being a stay at home mother myself it is hard to find some way to help your spouse with financial issues without adding more expenses to the pile that is already there (daycare expenses, etc). Great site and I will be back to read more of your posts! Good job!

    • Deidre says:

      Hi Elysse,
      Thanks for your kind comments. I do my best to write posts on topics that are relevant to most
      people.
      Deidre

  2. The information here is poignant. My sister is thinking of making an investment step to find a sort of independence outside the “just the mommy” role.

    But, there is so much confusion out there and as you successfully pointed out, relatives and friends are to be dealt with caution with such matters to avoid “well meaning” dissappointments.

    I will definitely point her out to your site.

    • Deidre says:

      Hi George,
      Thanks for the comment. It is much appreciated. After your sister reads my review, tell her to get the book.
      I think she will like it because it is written in a way that is easy to understand.
      Deidre

  3. Steen Rasmussen says:

    Good article now I’m not even woman but I live a life where I could also have got a bit of what I use and how much I use.
    I have a big responsibility to my son and his well-being. But learning how to change mindset and get done the things that I want for myself in the course of a day.
    I think certainly that you can also learn most men too. In addition to that I have read her husband’s book and it’s great.
    So I am also pleased to read it here.
    Steen

    • Deidre says:

      Hi Steen,
      The main reason I wrote a review about this book is to spread the word to both men and women that it is
      important for women to learn about investing and finance. It would be really great if you could recommend
      this book to women you know who could benefit greatly from the information presented in it.
      Thank you for your comment.
      Deidre

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