In his book The Cashflow Quadrant™ Robert Kiyosaki discusses the concept of the 7 Levels of Investors. Robert acknowledges John Burley, for introducing him to this concept and for this chapter in The Cashflow Quadrant™.
Robert says “John Burley is one of the brightest minds in the world of real estate investing.” I agree John is brilliant and an awesome teacher. He can take the complex and make it simple. I was very fortunate to work with him for several years when he was traveling to Australia and New Zealand teaching. He became a special friend.
John Burley taught a 3 hour seminar for many years in Australia and New Zealand which was jam packed with great content. At these seminars he went through the levels of investors. I have sat in with him teaching more than 50 times so I am very familiar with the subject!
John Burley also has an excellent book I highly recommend – Money Secrets of the Rich.
I will explain each of the levels.
Level 0 – Those with nothing to invest
These people have no money to invest. It does not necessarily mean they do not earn money, in fact in many cases they are top earners. They simply spend what they earn. They spend with abandon and when asked where there money has gone they often would not know. They pay little attention to money mattes and can often be heard saying “money is not important to me”.
When I first commenced working as a financial planner I was shocked to realize that some top income earners could go through their money so quickly. I also learned that people with modest incomes often were better savers. This phenomenon stumped me for a while until I learned that it is not how much we earn that is important, what matters is how much we keep and invest.
It was later when I met Robert Kiyosaki and then John Burley that I truly understood the reasons why some people could earn so much money and spend it just as quickly, while others with much more modest incomes, were often wealthier.
I will be back tomorrow with more on levels of investors. Have a wonderful day.
Adam Robinson says
I think the reason why people with modest incomes save more is because of the fact that they do have modest incomes and could not spend too much on other things. So instead of spending, they’d choose to save. So most of them end up having more money than those who earn more.
Sue says
That is an interesting observation Adam. I never ceased to be amazed when I was working as a financial planner at how some people could earn so much and still be broke. Others as you say with modest incomes would have managed to save well. I guess we can all increase our spending to match our income!
Thanks for commenting.
Sue