Get rich, stay rich-- and become financially free

What this book actually teaches

Martin Hawes and Joan Baker's "Get Rich, Stay Rich and Become Financially Free" starts from a premise that most personal finance books avoid: getting rich and staying rich are different problems that require different strategies, and conflating them is one of the main reasons people who build wealth eventually lose it. The book argues that financial freedom — defined as not having to work for income — requires navigating both phases deliberately, and that most books focus on only one.

The wealth creation section is built around three vehicles: business, property, and shares. Hawes does not present these as equally accessible — he is direct about the fact that serious wealth creation typically requires concentration of effort and, in many cases, real sacrifice. The book is notable for telling readers plainly what the path requires, including, for some, selling their home to free up investment capital. This is not a feel-good wealth-building narrative.

The wealth preservation section is where the book makes its structural argument. Once significant assets are accumulated, the psychological and strategic priority shifts: the goal becomes security over growth, risk reduction over return maximization. Hawes argues this transition is genuinely difficult for people who became wealthy through aggressive action — the same behaviors that built the wealth can destroy it if continued past the point where preservation should take over.

The goals-first framing runs throughout. The book opens with life design before money strategy, arguing that clarity about what a reader actually wants is a prerequisite for building any coherent financial plan. This is not unusual in personal finance, but Hawes and Baker use it to anchor the specific recommendations that follow rather than as an inspirational warm-up.

The book is best suited for New Zealand and Australian readers — it references KiwiSaver, NZ property market dynamics, and tax treatment that does not translate to other jurisdictions. Non-NZ readers can extract the two-phase conceptual framework and the goals-first approach, but the specific tactics will need local adaptation. The 2003 publication date means the property and share market context is dated; some of the quantitative examples will feel off in current market conditions.

For Australasian investors willing to do the work of updating the specific numbers, the underlying framework is durable. The bluntness about what financial freedom actually requires is one of the book's most useful features.

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About Martin Hawes

Read more from Martin Hawes and explore the full bibliography on ClearValue Books.