Please Don't Buy that $20,000 Investing Course!

In 2008 I went with a couple of friends of mine to a free seminar. It was one of those seminars that didn’t actually teach any strategy, it just described a world where you have more than enough money to spend on whatever you want, and the best part of it was that it required very little work. All you have to do is sit on your couch and wait for your phone to ring and you get to quit your job and buy your buddies a boat that you can all hang out in. At the end of the seminar they explain that they have a $20,000 training camp where you go to learn all about real estate and how to make the big bucks just like they do. Nothing was taught, it was just a hype machine prepping you to be sold on the course.

My friends had already signed up and paid for the $20,000 course. I’ve got another friend that took the same course years later - and to the best of my knowledge none of them has done even one of these deals. I honestly don’t know how valuable the stuff at this training camp is that is taught, but to some extent I don’t really think that it matters if you never end up utilizing the knowledge.

These seminars typically follow a typical pattern.

• You are invited to attend a free seminar on real estate investing
• Almost no actionable advise is taught in the free seminar. Rather, they sell a lifestyle: You won’t have to worry about bills, you can buy whatever you want, drive fancy cars, etc. 
• At the end of the free session they introduce you to the paid course where the actual strategies are taught, sometimes this one is just $2,000, and the $20,000 course comes at the end of the $2,000 course. 
• Sometimes they will encourage you to call your credit card company and raise the limit on your card so you can pay for the course. This is a despicable sales technique!

As far as I can understand, Trump University operated much the same way as these other seminars did. It was pitched mostly to poor and under educated individuals as a way to get out from under crushing debt or wage slavery. Trump even had his curriculum designed by one of these house flipping seminar companies, so it followed the exact pattern and intense sales techniques.

Folks, there is a better way. There are so many resources available online and in books that will cost you much less. Save that $20,000 for a down payment on a real investment.

Talk with a local real estate agent that understands investing. Talk to a loan officer that has worked with investors before. Here are a few other resources that I have found extremely helpful as I've learned more and more about real estate and personal finance. Don't worry, no affiliate links - I don't even know how to set those up!:

• www.biggerpockets.com
• The Bigger Pockets Podcast
• Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" (Book)
• Dave Ramsey's Podcast (Personal Finance Focus)
• Rich Dad's Cash Flow Quadrant (Book)