It's rising time!

What this book actually teaches

Kim Kiyosaki built her public presence on a specific critique: financial education ignores women, and women largely accept that exclusion rather than rejecting it. "It's Rising Time!" (2011) extends the argument she developed in "Rich Woman" (2006) into a more direct call to action. The core thesis is that women who depend financially on someone else — a spouse, an employer, a government program — are one crisis away from serious trouble, and the solution is to become an active, knowledgeable investor rather than a passive beneficiary of someone else's financial decisions.

The book draws heavily on the Rich Dad philosophy that Kim and Robert Kiyosaki have jointly promoted: the distinction between assets (things that put money in your pocket) and liabilities (things that take money out), the argument for cash-flow-generating investments over salary dependence, and the preference for real estate and business ownership over traditional employment. Kim filters this framework through the lens of women's specific financial vulnerabilities — longer life expectancy, career interruptions for caregiving, historical wage gaps, and a tendency to defer financial decisions to partners.

The book's structure alternates between conceptual arguments and profiles of women who have built financial independence through investing, primarily in real estate. These stories are meant to demonstrate that financial self-sufficiency is achievable at ordinary income levels, not just for wealthy or professionally sophisticated women. The tone is encouraging without being saccharine.

The audience is women who feel financially behind or dependent — whether by circumstance or habit — and want a framework for taking control. The Rich Dad framework is the vehicle, which means readers who already engage with that ecosystem will find familiar territory; readers skeptical of the Rich Dad approach will find less to work with.

The weaknesses are meaningful. The investment framework — particularly the emphasis on real estate as the primary asset class — reflects assumptions from a pre-2008 and pre-2020 rate environment that do not hold universally. The book's treatment of risk is optimistic; real estate investing requires capital, credit, and operational capacity that the profiles sometimes understate. The broader Rich Dad brand has also faced credibility challenges that readers should weigh independently. And while the emotional case for financial independence is compelling and accurate, the book is thinner on specifics: how exactly to analyze a rental property, how to evaluate financing, how to build a portfolio from a standing start.

For women who have deferred financial decisions and need permission and motivation to re-engage, the book delivers that effectively. For readers who need a rigorous investment framework, it is a starting point, not a complete guide.

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About Kim Kiyosaki

Read more from Kim Kiyosaki and explore the full bibliography on ClearValue Books.