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In February this year, I started following the Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money. It is an online, interactive book by Robert Kiyosaki, author of the #1 bestselling personal finance book of all time, Rich Dad Poor Dad.
Launched after Barack Obama was inaugurated president of the United States, the book was written as history unfolded.
It is a must-read book, with a number of controversial assertions: "Your house is not an asset" and "Savers are losers," among others.
The good thing is that he encourages feedback; and since it is interactive and online, had promised to incorporate them into the book as it was written.
This is a feedback on a minor point. Kiyosaki doesn't like mutual funds, to which--like most of his assertions--I agree. But his generalization against all insurance people is not fair: "Never ask an insurance salesman if you need more insurance."
In his "Let's Discuss" page, this was my reply to him:
Thank you for this project, Robert. A Mensa member, I have been following the Conspiracy and have greatly benefited from it. I'd like to tell you that you are one of three authors that I respect the most, along with Anthony Robbins and Stephen Covey.
I find it quite unfair, though, when you generalize against insurance people. Many of them are probably unethical, or just after the sale, but not all. A growing number are truly professionals.
Please take a look at the Lifeplanners of Sony Life, for instance. We started with just 27 in Japan in 1979 and now we've made quite an impact--even though there are less than 4,000 of us. I'm a Lifeplanner in the Philippines, and I really tell a client not to get more insurance if he has no need (we have a software to determine that.) When a client visited us here in the Philippines two years ago, I did a financial-needs analysis and found out that her total coverage of some $310,000 (around 15 million pesos) was more than enough--because her two sons were grown up and in fact had their own jobs. I advised her to give up some of her policies.
Otherwise, keep up the good job. I admire your burning mission. Mine simply is to save lives.
life plan
