Sharon Lechter

Sharon L. Lechter is a certified public accountant, author, and founder of Pay Your Family First, a financial-education organization.

She was born January 12, 1954, graduated magna cum laude from Florida State University in 1979 with a B.S. in accounting, and began at a Big Eight firm. In 1989 she helped take the first electronic talking book into a multi-million-dollar international market.

In 1997 she co-authored Rich Dad Poor Dad with Robert Kiyosaki. With her husband Michael and Kiyosaki she co-founded the Rich Dad Company and served as CEO for more than ten years, adding 14 titles to the series. In 2007 she sued Kiyosaki in Clark County, Nevada; the parties settled in 2008 and she sold her stake.

She then built Pay Your Family First and YOUTHpreneur. The Napoleon Hill Foundation asked her to extend Hill's work, resulting in Three Feet from Gold (2009), the annotated Outwitting the Devil (2011), Think and Grow Rich for Women (2014), and Success and Something Greater (2019). Later books include Exit Rich (2021) and How Money Works for Women (2024). She hosts The Play Big Movement podcast, started after the death of her son in 2012. She lives in Paradise Valley with Michael. They have three children and grandchildren.