Money Gurus - Who's your pick?

2008 greets us with quite a handful of bad financial news. The housing market is on a slide, oil reaches $100 per gallon, and experts are warning us of a looming recession. The upcoming presidential election too is adding to the financial anxiety.

If you're one of the many worried about your financial future, then now is the time to do something about it. The first step could be very simple. Read about how other successful people made money and follow the style and method that's right for you. Here are a handful of gurus that I either follow or recently caught my attention - Robert Kiyosaki, Jeremy Schoemaker, and Lynnette Khalfani.

When it comes to making money and changing lives, none more than Robert Kiyosaki draws a love-him-or-hate-him uproar. Many of his critics dismiss him as a fraud who made his fortunes selling books, not investing in real estate.

Yet, Rich Dad, Poor Dad and other books by Robert Kiyosaki are often referred to by many successful business owners as eye openers to stepping away from their 9-to-5 job and taking the risk to pursue their dream of financial independence.

A consumate entrepreneur, Robert Kiyosaki encourages his readers to always evaluate any opportunity with risk-reward. His discussions on "savings vs. investing", "a job is not wealth", and other topics are always great reads even if just a reminder of keeping the big picture in mind. Robert Kiyosaki writes regularly for Yahoo Finance.

The Internet gave birth to new and creative ways of making money. Blogging is one of them. Blogging is the practice of writing in a daily Internet journal on any topics of the blogger's choosing. The topics could be very narrow or very broad. For example, there are hundreds of thousands of blogs on entertainment, finances, new gadgets, etc. Shoemoney's blog (www.shoemoney.com) is mainly about how to make money online and visited by tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands visitors a day. I began reading his blog when I first came across his photo holding a Google Adsense check for $132,994.97.

There are quite a lot of advice gurus on how to make money, Lynnette Khalfani caught my attention because she wrote a book on what to do if you get lucky and suddenly come upon a good amount of wealth, The Money Coach's Guide to Your First Million. Hey, we could dream and if we follow the advice of our chosen guru, we're likely to realize the personal wealth and freedom that we seek. Lynnette Khalfani's book is about what to do when you reach your financial goals.

Ms. Khalfani was the expert in an episode of Oprah about financial windfalls. The subject guests were common folks who came upon a serious amount of money and how they wasted it all away.

Her tips were sensible (from Oprah's website):

• Get financial help. A trusted advisor can talk to you about long-term plans and help you set a budget.
• Make sure you have a system in place for dealing with requests for money. This can be someone like an accountant, who can handle the requests so you don't have to feel emotionally responsible saying no.
• Make sure you have a structured way of giving—like to charities or to your church—so no one can make you feel guilty for not giving to them individually.
• Plan before you invest. Don't make any big moves without a long-term strategy.
• Give yourself time. Though you may want to, don't make rash moves right after getting your money.