Went to a free 2 hour Rich Dad Education “Learn to be Rich” training recently.  The speaker was an excellent salesman – offered additional training for 3 whole days in a class that would teach everything needed to get rich with real estate investing for the bargain price of $199.

I have gone through the Rich Dad seminars, beginning with the free 2 hour introductory training to the $199 (used to be $500) 3 day training, to a very expensive package of courses ($16,000 yikes!)  The trainer in the 3 day crash course was very very good at summarizing (with a little bit of wrong information) all the different techniques, which are based on advanced courses in the Rich Dad Tigrent packages.  Because of the crash course and what I learned, and the realization of how little I know, I signed up so I had a starting point and figured the advanced courses would help me get over the humps.

I took Foreclosure, Master Trader, Asset Protection, Lease Options, and Creative Real Estate Financing classes.  I learned the most from the Asset Protection class and the Master Trader (stocks) classes.  Although there was a lot of information in the other classes, most of the information taught could have been learned from books.  [What these classes teach are not really what Robert Kiyosaki preaches.  Rich Dad Education (and Rich Dad Coaching) are trademark names that pay Robert Kiyosaki royalties, use his name, face, etc. – but their content is their own.  To learn from these groups is not the same as learning from Robert Kiyosaki.]

For a few months, even after getting some classes under my belt, I remained in the “not sure of what to do” phase and did not take action.

I was contacted by Rich Dad Coaching (another company with the Rich Dad trademark but not affiliated with Rich Dad Education).  For $6000 (yikes again!), I subscribed to having my own personal coach for a 45 minute call, once a week for 16 weeks.  It came with a guarantee that I would purchase  property during the coaching period.

Even though I had a rather poor learning experience with my coaches (one spoke too softly & seemed disorganized, and the other was too impersonal and book and course oriented), it gave me a sounding board with a real person for my very first deal.  It was like having a security blanket which I really didn’t need, but it felt safer to have.

After going through 2 wrong-for-me realtors, I found Martin Fajardo, my Vegas realtor after a recommendation from our entities attorney.  I did use the Rich Dad worksheet (free to download on the RichDad.com tools tab) to analyze the properties Martin send me via email.  I put in offers and was thrilled when one was accepted!

Looking back, I could have skipped the Rich Dad courses, but on some level I must acknowledge that they must have helped.  All the information taught and the tools used are available for free on the internet if you know what to look for, but I probably wouldn’t have actually taken the plunge without the guilt of spending so much money, or on my own.  I had to make use of what I was learning because of the guilt; and I did dive in.

One of the best ways to learn is to play the Cash Flow game with at least 2 others.  Just by playing, you will get the shift in your mindset on the best strategies and also help you get comfortable with investing.

Join a local real estate investor club (google search for city and real estate investment club).  I joined Hawaii Real Estate Investors in 2009, annual dues of $120 or $15 per meeting.  I am glad I did because I have met some of the finest fellow investors and contacts there.  Run by Paul Xavier, HiREI brings in speakers every month with real estate specific topics to educate us all.

Read a lot of books, search and learn.  If you can do these things on your own, then do it.

If you need to be pushed, coaching helps.  If you do spend that much money on courses or coaching, make sure you do take the steps and actually invest.

If you have already spent a lot of money on courses that will “teach you to be rich”, do something with it.  Appreciate the fact and your guts that you spent money to learn and because of just that alone, you have taken action towards your success.

A great quote I heard was “You don’t have to get it perfect.  You just have to get it going.”  True, that.

I am glad I got into investing the way I did – retirement was fast approaching, and we had to do something but didn’t even know it.  It was a necessary though expensive way for me to learn that we needed to do something.

If you haven’t yet spent a lot of money on courses, spend wisely.  [If you do buy programs and courses, remember that you always have 3 days to cancel.  It is sometimes difficult to know whether or not to cancel because you don’t have anything to look at until after that period of time, so it’s a gut feeling many times.]

Get all the free classes you can, and go to investment type meetings – though try to avoid the ones that are trying to sell you something such as annuities, insurance policies, mutual funds, bank products, etc.

RichDadWorld.com is a great place to get free products and see and hear from Robert Kiyosaki himself.  Browse through, sign up for his free power pack with excellent material, and sign up for his occasional webcasts in different parts of the planet – usually for a low early bird fee of $9.95.  It helps to get a lot of books, tapes on financial smarts – which I did for free at our local library.  ALL of the Rich Dad books (Rich Dad, Poor Dad/Cash Flow Quadrant/etc.) are excellent, easy to read, and loaded with great information.

Be careful of who you get advice from.  Some of the worst advice you can get is from people who have less then you.    Some guru said (don’t know who but I hear it all the time) “Never take financial advice from a poor person.”

Learn from the best – just make sure they are worth learning from.  That’s Aunty’s advice for the day.