Pay Your Brokers Well

Pay Your Brokers Well is Robert T. Kiyosaki’s rule for treating skilled financial professionals as productive partners rather than costs to be cut. Its rationale is that a good broker contributes information, education, market access, and time savings that can produce returns greater than the commission; its qualification is that investors must identify professionals whose experience and interests fit the work they are hired to do.

The Case for Paying for Expertise

The rule begins with a contrast between the effort some people make to avoid paying for advice and the value a capable adviser can add. Kiyosaki recalls seeing homeowners advertise that they were selling without an agent and hearing television promotions for discount brokers. Against that impulse to minimize fees, he follows Rich Dad’s practice of paying professionals well. He lists attorneys, accountants, real-estate brokers, and stockbrokers among the professionals he hires, arguing that their services should make money for clients if they are genuinely professional. In that arrangement, their success and his are aligned: when they earn more by helping him make money, he benefits too.

The argument is not simply that expensive services are better. Kiyosaki emphasizes the substance behind the fee: a good broker supplies information and takes time to educate a client. He says several of his brokers taught him when he had little or no money, and he continued working with them afterward. Their value therefore includes not only a transaction or recommendation but also knowledge accumulated through an ongoing professional relationship. In his account, the amount paid is small compared with the money that informed advice can help generate.

A broker’s information is also presented as a way to economize on time. Kiyosaki compares the professional’s daily exposure to the market with his own preference not to monitor it constantly. As an example of a broker’s role in a specific transaction, he recalls buying vacant land for $9,000 and selling it immediately for more than $25,000, which brought him closer to buying a Porsche. The example makes the principle concrete: the broker’s market knowledge can help locate an opportunity, while the client’s return can exceed the cost of obtaining that knowledge.

Selecting the Right Broker

Paying well does not mean trusting every person who sells financial products. Kiyosaki stresses that brokers differ, and draws a distinction between real-estate salespeople who sell houses and investment brokers who themselves understand ownership. He says some real-estate salespeople own little or no property, and extends the caution to stock, bond, mutual-fund, and insurance salespeople who call themselves financial planners. In his view, the title alone does not establish that someone has relevant investing experience.

He therefore recommends assessing a professional’s own financial practice. When interviewing a paid adviser, he asks how much property or stock the person personally owns and what percentage of taxes they pay. He applies the same scrutiny to tax attorneys and accountants. His example is an accountant whose formal profession is accounting but whose own business is real estate; Kiyosaki prefers this fit to that of a former small-business accountant who owned no real estate. He changed advisers because the former accountant’s field of practice did not match the kind of business he wanted advice about.

The recommendation is reciprocal rather than purely transactional. Kiyosaki advises finding a broker who has the client’s best interests at heart and notes that many will spend time educating clients. He argues that a client who focuses only on cutting commissions should not expect a strong professional relationship in return. Fairness, in this account, means recognizing both the adviser’s contribution and the client’s need for competent, relevant guidance.

Managing People Smarter Than Oneself

The rule broadens from brokerage to a general skill: managing people. Kiyosaki observes that many people manage only those they believe are less intelligent or over whom they have authority, such as subordinates. He associates this limitation with middle managers who can work with people below them but fail to advance because they do not know how to work with people above them. Financial intelligence, by contrast, includes knowing how to manage and pay people who possess greater technical expertise.

He uses a company’s board of directors as a model for this arrangement: an organization brings together people whose specialist knowledge can guide decisions, and he argues that an individual should do the same. This connects professional fees to a larger account of wealth-building. Paying an expert well is not a concession to status; it is a way of gaining access to knowledge one does not possess and of coordinating expertise around a goal.

The Rule Within a Broader Ethic of Giving

The book places this practical advice alongside a broader emphasis on giving and receiving. Kiyosaki presents both of his fathers as generous with teaching, but distinguishes their approaches to money. Rich Dad gave money to his church, charities, and foundation, and believed that receiving money required giving it. His educated father gave time and knowledge but tended to wait until he had extra money before donating; Kiyosaki says there was rarely any extra. The contrast frames generosity as an active practice rather than something postponed until financial abundance arrives.

That principle also informs Kiyosaki’s approach to professional relationships. He describes his Rich Dad as a teacher of business and recalls that both fathers became more knowledgeable through sharing what they knew. He further explains his own practice of giving what he wants to receive: money, sales, or contacts. In this context, paying a broker well belongs to a wider ethic of recognizing value and allowing others to benefit from contributing it. The rule is not identical to charitable giving—brokerage is a paid service—but both reject the assumption that wealth is protected by withholding every resource from others.

Information, Judgment, and Financial Intelligence

Across these examples, the rule treats information as an asset and judgment as a skill that can be acquired through relationships. A good adviser does not remove the investor’s responsibility to think: Kiyosaki’s advice to investigate what professionals own and how they practice makes selection an essential part of the rule. The client must distinguish knowledge from a sales pitch and decide whether the adviser’s experience corresponds to the investment at hand.

The resulting principle is deliberately two-sided: pay enough to attract capable expertise, but use judgment to determine who deserves that trust. Brokers can provide market information, education, and time, while clients remain responsible for choosing people whose interests and experience are appropriate. In Kiyosaki’s account, this ability to work with specialists—and to reward useful expertise rather than reflexively bargain it away—is part of financial intelligence itself.