The Foreword and Andy Tanner's Story: How a Basketball Player Became an Investing Educator
Before we get into the actual chapters, the book opens with a foreword by Robert Kiyosaki and an introduction from Andy Tanner himself. Both sections set the tone for everything that follows. And honestly, they’re worth talking about on their own.
The Foreword: Robert Kiyosaki on Trusting “Experts”
Kiyosaki doesn’t hold back. His main point is that most people blindly hand their money to financial “experts” and just hope for the best. He thinks that’s one of the riskiest things you can do.
He walks through some recent financial history to prove his point. Between 1987 and 2006, Alan Greenspan (the Fed chairman at the time) essentially bailed out speculators whenever markets got shaky. Every time there was trouble, the Fed stepped in. This trained people to believe the markets would always be rescued.
Then 2007 happened. The market hit 14,000 and collapsed. Bear Stearns went down. Lehman Brothers went down. Merrill Lynch went down. These weren’t small companies. These were some of the biggest names on Wall Street.
What did the new Fed chairman Ben Bernanke do? He cut interest rates to basically zero and started printing money. The “experts” running these massive institutions couldn’t even protect themselves, let alone the regular people who trusted them.
Kiyosaki’s big takeaway: the people we trust with our money often don’t deserve that trust. And the system is set up in a way that rewards reckless behavior because someone always gets bailed out.
Here’s the quote that sticks with me from this section. Andy defines risk as “the lack of control.” If you don’t understand what’s happening with your money, you have no control. And if you have no control, you have maximum risk.
Kiyosaki also drops this image that’s hard to forget: “Bull markets go up by stairs, bear markets go out the window.” Markets climb slowly over years and crash in days. That’s why the “just hold on and wait” strategy can be so painful. You spend years climbing the stairs and then watch your gains jump out the window overnight.
But here’s the thing. Smart investors make money in both directions. Up markets, down markets, sideways markets. That’s what Andy’s book is about. Learning to profit no matter which way the market moves.
The Introduction: A Broken-Down Basketball Player
Andy’s introduction is refreshingly honest. He calls himself a “broken-down basketball player.” He got a college scholarship not because he was amazing at basketball, but because he could foul well. That’s a pretty humble way to start an investing book.
He’s not from Wall Street. He’s not a finance academic. He actually left college a few credits short of finishing his degree. This isn’t someone who grew up in the world of money. He found his way there.
The turning point for Andy was reading Rich Dad Poor Dad. That book changed how he thought about money, assets, and building wealth. It led him to Robert Kiyosaki’s world, and eventually he became Robert’s paper asset advisor. The guy who handles the stocks and options education for the Rich Dad brand.
Fundamentals First
Andy makes a comparison to basketball that runs through the whole book. In basketball, you practice fundamentals. Dribbling. Passing. Layups. You do drills over and over until they become second nature. Then when you’re in a game, you don’t have to think about the basics. They’re automatic.
Investing should work the same way. Before you start putting money into the market, you need to practice the fundamentals. Understand the basics. Get comfortable with the concepts. Then, when real money is on the line, you can make better decisions because the foundation is solid.
This is where Andy introduces the Four Pillars of Investing that the rest of the book is built around:
- Fundamental Analysis
- Technical Analysis
- Cash Flow Strategies
- Risk Management
Each pillar builds on the others. You need all four working together.
Paper Trading: Practice Without Pain
One of the most practical pieces of advice Andy gives right away is to paper trade. That means practicing with virtual money before using real money. Most online brokers let you do this. You set up a fake account, make trades with pretend dollars, and see how your decisions would have played out.
This is huge. It means you can make all the mistakes you want without losing a single real dollar. You can test strategies, learn how options work, and build confidence before anything is actually at stake.
Andy compares this to how kids learn to walk. They fall down constantly. But nobody looks at a toddler falling and says, “Well, walking just isn’t for you.” They get back up and try again. That’s how learning to invest should work too.
The problem with traditional education (and a lot of financial culture) is that mistakes are seen as failures. You get a bad grade, you feel bad. You lose money on a trade, you think you’re not cut out for investing. But Andy argues mistakes are the actual learning process. Paper trading gives you a safe space to make those mistakes.
My Take
I like that Andy doesn’t pretend to be some Wall Street genius. He’s upfront about his background. And the basketball analogies actually work well for making investing concepts feel less intimidating.
The emphasis on paper trading is probably the most valuable practical advice in these opening pages. If you’ve ever been scared to start investing because you might mess up, paper trading removes that barrier completely.
Alright, next up we get into Chapter 1, where Andy talks about the difference between advice and real education.