If you ever wanted to learn how to gain financial independence and be able to retire early, there is no better source for information than Robert Kiyosaki’s books. 

Retire Young, Retire Rich is his latest guide on building your very own financial independence from the ground up, by providing the most essential knowledge needed for achieving the goal of early retirement.

Now:

Is it on the same level as Robert’s well-known “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” book? 

Is Retire Young, Retire Rich worth reading?

If you want to find out, read on this Retire Young, Retire Rich in-depth & honest review!

Retire Young, Retire Rich: Book Summary

“Retire Young, Retire Rich” is Robert T. Kiyosaki’s most recent novel, and like many of his books, it dives into the world of money and finance. 

Retire Young, Retire Rich teaches you how to build wealth by creating passive income streams that cover your expenses. By making money when you’re not working, you can retire early.

While it contains a lot of principles and advice, its main focus is on teaching you why you need to leverage debt to build wealth.

Kiyosaki’s “rich dad” taught him that debt could be a powerful tool for building wealth. In the book, Kiyosaki explains that bad debt includes obligations such as credit cards and many car loans, but good debt includes assets that can increase in value or produce passive income. 

Examples include mortgages on rental properties and business loans used to expand a profitable enterprise. As he put it:

“When you have good debt and asset-based debt, then you can create cash flow without working harder.”

The book is split up in four chapters:

• Chapter 1: The leverage of your mind

• Chapter 2: The leverage of your plan

• Chapter 3: The leverage of your actions
• Chapter 4: The leverage of the first step

And it can be read as an independent self-help book or as a complement to other Kiyosaki books, specifically the “Rich Dad series”. 

Who’s Robert T. Kiyosaki? 

Robert Kiyosaki is a businessman and best-selling author of personal finance books. He is most well known for his “Rich Dad Poor Dad” series, which includes “Retire Young, Retire Rich.” 

The Rich Dad brand includes books, podcasts, videos, and seminars. Kiyosaki has written about 20 books on business and investing that have sold more than 26 million copies combined.

Robert Kiyosaki’s story begins in Hawaii with a childhood friend, who’s parents he identified as his “rich dad” and his own father as his “poor dad.” His rich dad had a successful business that was started from scratch and was able to support an upper middle-class lifestyle. 

His poor dad was a teacher — like Kiyosaki’s mother — who worked all his life but remained poor. 

The lessons that Kiyosaki learned from each of these fathers shaped him into the entrepreneur he became.

The Good & The Bad about Retire Young, Retire Rich

The Good

• It’s an easy read.

Some people may enjoy reading this book because it’s an easy read. The author has a conversational, friendly style. 

He writes like he’s talking to you, which is probably why the book feels less like a financial manual and more like a friend telling you about the cool new way he made money.

While this style is not for everyone, it definitely works for some people who are scared of books that seem too technical or boring.

• It’s affordable.

It’s not expensive, it won’t break the bank, and you can even get it for free if you want. It’s available on Amazon for $10.47 in paperback and $8.99 for Kindle

• There are useful exercises in it.

The first part of the book has several useful exercises that help to get at this.

The idea behind these exercises is to begin by figuring out what you want, and then to figure out how much money it would take to get it. This helps you to keep the end in mind while you are working towards the goal.

• This book does more than give you tips on how to save money.

It shows you how to completely change your mindset around money.

The book is based on the idea that you need to change your money mindset in order to get rich.

If you want to save money, you need to change. A lot of people don’t want to do this. They want some kind of magic pill or system they can follow that will make them rich without making them change.

That’s not going to happen.

• The author is knowledgeable.

He has achieved his own financial freedom. 

Robert T. Kiyosaki clearly knows what he’s talking about and he is sharing his hard-earned lessons with us. He isn’t a ‘guru’ who tells us what to do without doing it himself (or at least claiming so).

The Bad

• The book is not based on the current market.

The book is not based on the current market. It’s from 2002. The most recent edition is 2006, but I don’t think the content has changed all that much. 

But despite being outdated, this book is still helpful.

7 most impressive lessons inside Retire Young, Retire Rich book 

1) Start early, invest wisely and let your money work for you – the definition of Financial Freedom.

Kiyosaki talks about how starting early is important to achieve financial freedom, to have more money working for you than you are working for money. 

He suggests that the best way to start is by making your first million dollars before turning 30 years old.

I know it sounds like a huge challenge but think about this: if you invest $10,000 every year starting at age 20 until age 30 and then increase that amount by 10% every year (i.e. $11,000 next year and so on), you will have $1 million at age 41 assuming a 10% annual return on investment. 

It’s not exactly turning 30 but it’s close enough!

2) Diversify your income streams.

Kiyosaki says people should focus on generating multiple passive income streams rather than relying on a single source of revenue. 

Passive income comes from assets such as rental properties, investments or businesses where someone else does most of the job.

3) Learn to think like rich people do.

People in general have a tendency to think of themselves as average. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, unless you want to be extraordinary. 

The problem with thinking of yourself as average is that it’s limiting. 

It keeps you from seeing the potential within yourself because you’re stuck in a herd mentality.

If you do what everyone else does, you will end up nearly where they are — close enough to observe, but far enough away that they don’t even notice that you’re there.

To be rich, you must learn to think like rich people do. You must stop believing that your life is determined by some external force and instead take control of your own life and destiny.

It all starts with the way that you think about money and how much power it has over your life.

4) Find a mentor – and don’t be shy about asking successful people for help and guidance.

Robert Kiyosaki, in his book Rich Dad Poor Dad, is an advocate of finding a mentor to help you understand how money works.

And I can tell you that it is one of the best things you can do to get your finances on track.

I have been fortunate to have had some awesome mentors over the years who have shown me how I could put my ideas into action and have helped me avoid mistakes along the way.

So, don’t be shy about asking successful people for help and guidance.

You will be surprised at how many people are willing to help you out if you are serious about your goals.

5) The rich don’t pay taxes; they use the tax system to their advantage.

Rich people know how to use legal loopholes to reduce their tax expenses. This is why a lot of rich people structure their assets in specific ways, and many of them turn to tax shelter products.

In fact, the ultra-rich often pay less in taxes than some middle-class taxpayers. This is because of their income sources: They make more from investments than from wages or salaries.

Investment income is taxed at lower rates than earned income. And the uber-rich get more investment money through capital gains, which are taxed at even lower rates.

6) You need to stop buying liabilities

One of the most common mistakes business owners make is buying things that are “too good to be true.” 

Buying a liability, such as a car, is one of the worst financial decisions you can make. If you stop and think about it, liabilities will always be more expensive than assets. 

Think about how much money you’re paying on your car loan each month and how much your car is worth in a few years. 

Then imagine how much you’d save if you stopped paying for a car and invested that money instead.

7) Keep investing time and money into your education.

One of the greatest lessons in the book is that you should never stop learning. Invest time and money into your education. 

Learn new things, explore new ideas and keep growing as a person.

When you are willing to learn more, you can achieve more and make more money!

Is Robert’s Retire Young, Retire Rich book worth reading?

Overall, Retire Young, Retire Rich is both inspirational and educational. Plus, it’s based on principles that really work.

This isn’t some get-rich-quick scheme, but a step-by-step plan explaining how you can reach financial freedom. 

But what I’ve found most impressive are the life lessons you can apply from beginning to end.

It doesn’t matter who you are – retiree, high school student, stay-at-home mom or teacher – Robert Kiyosaki’s inspiring advice has practical value for all of us.

If you’ve already read Rich Dad Poor Dad, now’s the time to go ahead and purchase Retire Young, Retire Rich as it expands on the lessons presented in the original bestseller.