Make money while you snore

Saturday 1st September 2001

Move over, Robert Kiyosaki

Move over, Robert Kiyosaki. The latest technique preaching ways to increase your net worth has hit New Zealand. Touted as a way of learning how to "create your ideal life by making money while you sleep", 21st Century Academy was started in Australia in 1998 by Jamie McIntyre, a young Australian who claims to have gone from being broke to being a millionaire by borrowing money to invest. (He also encourages you to buy Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad as a good start, but of course you'll need more.)

The education company recently began offering free three-and-a-half hour seminars in New Zealand. It makes money from selling a three-day course in Australia, which costs about $4000, plus travel expenses. It also employs share trading brokers who handle transactions on behalf of seminar attendees.

One Kiwi who attended an introductory session here says many of the messages from the video-based seminar were not new, but for some reason sunk in. (It may have been the dollar signs flashing before his eyes.) He's planning to use the equity in his home to fund a short-term property deal - buying and selling a do-up, or buying at a mortgagee sale or deceased estate and flicking it on quick. He hopes the expected $15,000 to $20,000 profit that 21st Century Academy said he may make will pay for him to attend the company's three-day course in Australia.

The company's website is chocka with testimonials from Ockers who've made it good after doing the course. Sound too good to be true?

Zo� Baird
zoe.baird@unlimited.net.nz

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