I've never read the book and I don't know if it's a load of hogwash, but I do remember that it was quite popular a while back. I just registered and downloaded the book and am meaning to read it when I get the time.
Note - during registration I ticked the box saying I wanted to have a free wealth consultation so that I could continue on with the rest of the application. HOWEVER, I unticked it before I finally submitted it, and it seems to have worked.
Enjoy
And at one stage he needed someone to spoon feed him and tie his shoes. Trying to invalidate someone because of their past in the face of their current success is ignorant.
The best advice to get rich, never mention in the book
-Write a series of books that claim to know how to get rich
-Create conferences to sell tickets
and sell more merchandises, books, board games at those conferences.
Robert Kiyosaki is a sleaze bag, have it on record from a friend who personally taught Rk advanced derivatives trading.
The book might be useful for newbies but do not buy his courses or other crap.
And at one stage he needed someone to spoon feed him and tie his shoes. Trying to invalidate someone because of their past in the face of their current success is ignorant.
Errr.. he spends the whole book espousing how wise and financial smart this Rich Dad was who educated him. How did he end up being flat broke and living in a car? When you write a book on how to get rich, being bankrupt is EXTREMELY relevant, because he went broke AFTER this incredible upbringing from Rich Dad, not before it.
But he didn't end up flat broke, he ended up a multimillionaire. One of his companies declaring bankruptcy means very little to his personal wealth, so you can't say he's frauding just because at once stage he was slumming it.
And at one stage he needed someone to spoon feed him and tie his shoes. Trying to invalidate someone because of their past in the face of their current success is ignorant.
If you're writing a book on how to secure your network, and at one stage you were bankrupt, then yes, your bankruptcy is irrelevant. Your advice on how to secure the network is not invalidated by your past bankruptcy.
However, if you're writing a book sharing the financial acumen of a character whose advice did not save you from bankruptcy, not only is the advice questionable, but you the author are questionable also. Why didn't those lessons work for you? How do I know these lessons will work for me? If it lead you to living in a car, could it do the same for me?
But he didn't end up flat broke, he ended up a multimillionaire. One of his companies declaring bankruptcy means very little to his personal wealth, so you can't say he's frauding just because at once stage he was slumming it.
I'm not talking about the company that he declared bankruptcy for to avoid liability. I'm talking about HIM being bankrupt long ago and living in a car (a story he shared in his book). Yes, his personal wealth. Before he wrote the book, incidentally.
I'm not saying he's frauding it. I'm questioning the value of the Rich Dad's wisdom if it wasn't enough for him to avoid living in a car.
Also, you're misconstruing the phrase "end up". End up doesn't necessarily mean where he is now. It means at one stage that's where he found himself.
You can't condense someone's entire being and the value they can offer into one instant in time. It's absurd to say that a successful person worth millions isn't qualified to give advice because at one point they were broke. A regular person spends their life building up a decent net worth, invests heavily on a near-guaranteed return… and the venture fails. Because that one almost-certain venture failed, does that make them permanently disqualified from giving financial advice, regardless of how many millions they make afterwards?
It's an extreme example, but it illustrates my point - taking risks is a core component of building wealth. You can't completely write off a successful person because they've experienced a failure - I think you'd be hard pressed to find any successful person who hasn't experienced a failed venture.
I read this book a few years ago and it's great, It's as much an autobiography as anything else and quite well written.
I read it too. Turns out the "Rich Dad" doesn't exist whether or not his ideas are any good he made up his back story in order to "prove" his theories. Seems to be more of a motivational tool than anything.
Anyone think…?
Rich dad is him
Poor dad is his father
You haven't read the book? Rich dad is his imaginary friend's imaginary father. He made up a story to support his theories.
I did read the book…
But the way I thought of it is
He might be saying rich dad is him..indirectly
cos he applied these principles
Since rich dad is not real/imaginary, so rich dad is in a way is him, cos he applied those lessons.
while his poor dad is his real dad, who never did what he did, that's why
he is rich, while his dad is poor.
@tyler.durden: Honestly I feel like you are over-thinking it. It seems obvious to me that he is a relatively smart, confident man who would just as easily fit in at the head of a pyramid scheme or multi-level marketing line. As with many extroverts they tell a good story, are plausible enough and their moxy is mistaken as charisma. He might even be a capable investor/businessman. You may get something useful from the book (many believe they have) or you may lose your shirt following his advice. In the end it's all on you, how widely you have researched and how capable you are. I personally didn't find much useful from the read and I found much criticism of him by individuals who seem to be more substantial in their experience and reputation. Who knows? That could just be sour grapes. Good luck to you either way.
TL;DR - Invest into what gives you income. Read it and you’ll have that deep uneasy feeling every time you open OZB.
I just put it down to 'paying myself first':).
Then you missed the whole point of "paying yourself first"
I read Thomas Piketty's sequel to this, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and it turns out that the rich do tend to raise children who become rich. Crazy.
Who would've thunk?
Plus they leave their inheritance to them
which gives them a good start
And I thought they left it all to charities…
It has some good financial points.
Good story, over uses the terms in the title.
Most important, do it, keep doing it to reach your targets.
http://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/27111/29222/rich_dad_po…
Here's a link to the pdf
Not sure if this is allowed or not
I'm not sure if it's allowed either… but well played
You the real MVP
Allowed or not, CHEERS! :D
for now its allowed!
edit: at the time of posting, the link post has 38 likes while OP got only 34 :)
Ozbargan is now a warez site \o/
People don't want to admit they are poor.
Dat's What I'm talkin bout!
A real good man. Citizenship of OZB :)
There are some more free books if you go to the account page once registered:
http://www.richdad.com/Community/account.aspx
I read it about 15 years or so ago …. still have the book and have recommended it to others. From my recollection …. his lessons in life seem a bit fictional, but that doen't really detract from the book. A bit of poetic licence helps to get the message across.
A great find for a freebee.
The rich dad character is fictitious. Some of his things he claims to have done are suspect.
Also he has warped definitions of what an 'asset' is. His 'balance sheets' are also weird.
The book is more of an inspiration book than a book that tells you how to get rich. He even says so in the beginning. It's not an instruction book for getting rich, it's a starter. Because when you've read it, your next step if you want to get rich is to buy his board game (something like $200) and his next books.
Shouldn't that be re title to
-How to make rich dad richer
So you follow the example set
-Write many books series, that essentially says the same thing in each book
-Make people think you have secret knowledge, so that they would buy books and tickets to your seminars
-Sell more stuff to them at those seminars…
====
The whole book is not bad
Essentially
-Buy assets
-Reduce liabilities
-Know the difference between the two
Someone went through his entire book to summarize the direct actual content on how to get rich, after trimming away the side stories he's telling about what he did, and ways of thinking. It was only about 2 sentences long when you get to actual info.
Essentially
-Buy assets
-Reduce liabilities
-Know the difference between the two
Unless you have a lot of money already (i.e. you're rich anyway), buying assets usually involves incurring liabilities. I think everyone knows the difference between the two already. One is a good thing, the other is a bad thing.
But in one his chapters
he said people thinks some things are assets when they are actually liabilities
e.g.
You home.
One of the BEST, Life Changer
for the author you mean?
He made his money from writing a book about how to make money. Then teaching people how to make money. Then selling a game on how to make money.
That should tell you how to make money more than the content of his book.
Although he did do those things as you point out, it doesnt detract from the wealth of information contained within the book.
it should be a book read in every school to teach kids basic money management fundementals.
By your comments, it suggests you may not have even read his book :)
I saw him speak live and his tips to get on the road to wealth for women was to get a hair cut from an Italian hair dresser and ask them to "make me look sexy", and for guys his tip was to go and buy a $5000 dollar jacket from a shop in Sydney that looks ridiculous.. pearls of wisdom there! Sorry, I don't share the respect for this guy.
I think you might be missing the forest for the trees there.
A really good description. Pretty much what I wanted to say as well.
I am torn by this book because 95% of it is brilliant and it could have been one of the personal finance classics. However, he goes and ruins it in the last few chapters when he explains how to make money - gear into multiple investment properties and highly speculative shares. No thanks. Such a shame because he is such a great writer and public speaker.
If you like the message in this book (but not the recommended investments) also read his The Cashflow Quandrant which I reckon is even better.
Please read this http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html
Quote:
"Rich Dad, Poor Dad is one of the dumbest financial advice books I have ever read. It contains many factual errors and numerous extremely unlikely accounts of events that supposedly occurred."
This is better reading than the book itself.
Quote:
"Click here: Free Special Report on the Biggest Mistakes in Real Estate Investment"
That line was repeated TWENTY SIX TIMES on one single page at Mr Reed's site.
Ye ok I'll read a bit of his expose on Kiyosaki but does Mr Reed not know spamming the same advert actually discourage people from being interested in whatever he was peddling.
I agree lol, criticising others does not make you a better author. For all I know, Mr Reed's page looks like one of those scam page 10 years ago.
Lets not forget tho, even though some people dislike Robert K or he is in debt, he was once a best selling author, his books really sold despite all the criticisms.
I've never read the book and I don't know if it's a load of hogwash
I've read the book and it IS hogwash.
Do yourself a favour and avoid reading this heap of trash
Just a few of the categories in the review as linked above,
Dangerous advice
Law-breaking advice
Bad liar
Sounds like a typical self help book full of lies used to make money from gullible people.
But wait.. Isnt taking dangerous risks and breaking the law are traits and qualities of some of the super rich?
E.g.: a HK billionaire illegally bought a $39 mansion in Sydney. Our gov't found out and give him 90 days to sell before they seize it, and also classify him as criminal. I reckon he's just having a laugh right now. And the mansion will sell in 90 days, we just don't know how, or do we?
Thanks for bringing that up. Robert Kiyosaki actually advocates insider trading, which is illegal.
He laid out an interesting and rather different concept in finance, i even played the rat race game, it was fun! One of his philosophies that is embeded in my mind is that nothing should be considered asset until it starts making you money.
However, i believe his concept is one of the many many reasons that caused GFC a couple years back. Too many people were doing exactly what he did, trying to get out of the rat race. If I had money back then, I would have done the same, property leveraging and all that.
I think its a shame Robert capitalised on the Rich Dad brand, all the other books associated to this brand were generally bad. Similar to the 'For dummies' franchise.
Anyone that gives financial advice about buying assets that make money rather than buying assets that devalue is ok in my book.
He is just one of numerous self-help authors making money from the self-help genre - ain't nothing wrong with that.
Now download via the free link rather than buying from the shop - you're already ahead.
He actually doesn't consider a house to be an asset, because he defines asset as 'something that puts money in your pocket', and a liability as 'something that takes money out of your pocket', and a house can fall into the latter category while not always meeting the former, even if it's your family home.
Buying assets that make money is a great idea. If only it were that easy to know which assets will make you money… then we'd all be rich. Seriously. We'd all be buying shares that we know go up, because we're the best crystal ball gazers ever, and we sell when we know they're about to go down. We're immune to unforseen disasters like GFC, because we're gurus, and that's how we'll get rich.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kiyosaki#Controversy
"On August 20, 2012, one of Kiyosaki's companies, Rich Global LLC, filed for bankruptcy in Wyoming Bankruptcy Court.[52] The move followed a ruling by a U.S. District Court jury that former business partners of Kiyosaki were entitled to $23,687,957.21 of the profits from events they helped to set up for Kiyosaki including a 2002 appearance at New York's Madison Square Garden. A spokesman for Kiyosaki asserted that the amount of the award exceeded the value of Rich Global LLC and that Kiyosaki would not use money from outside the company to meet the judgement.[53]"
So in basic terms, Mr Kiyosaki did a runner. A court ordered him to pay > $23 million (taken from events profit) but he decided to dodge that by filing bankruptcy for Rich Global LLC.
Basically he followed his own advice
There's a chapter about this in one of his books
Yep, definitely a good read, and still relevant, but this guy is no role model or picture of health. Take what you need and then unsubscribe from his mailing list. You have been warned.
Yep totally agree. I got a lot out of this book but take everything these guys say with a grain of salt.
Here's my Rich Dad tip: get off yer arse and stop reading.
The message I got out of the book was the advice to step outside of the employee ladder concept. If you work hard to get a promotion and then the next, etc, you will be the "poor dad", not really poor, but not rich. But if you have a bigger goal than promotions, you use those steps to prepare you for breaking out of the employer/employee cycle.
His advice is, don't work for someone. Make other people work for you. The more they do, the less you do, but you rake in the fruits of their labours.
Of course if everyone who bought his book did this and started their own business, it would be unsustainable. There would be too many employers and too few employees.
It's a great book, even if parts of it are made up the philosophy behind it is very motivating and definitely gets to the point of what you need to do to start making more money in life.
Is a get-rich-quick-scheme self-help one-fix-fits-all book hogwash? Gee I wonder.
For every guy that invests and strikes it rich there are a few million that end up in deep financial doo doo.
Might as well be called Rockstar dad. Solid worker dad.
Its certainly not a get rich quick book, and the title rich dad poor dad is just to attract people's curiosity. If the book was named 'How to become rich instead of poor' then how many copies would it sell? 10?
It isn't a get rich quick book, it's basically a guide for people that have no idea about how to get ahead in life and a rough guide of what you need to do.
It puts you into a good mindset to think about your money problems, but it doesn't have much direct advice.
Read John T Reed's excellent dissertion of his book and you will learn a lot more from that essay critiquing his book than from his book itself.
He says he went to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy because he wanted to learn international business. People who want to learn international business while in college should go overseas to school, like to the London School of Economics or to a U.S. college with a strong international business or international relations department. The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is a grueling ordeal that prepares its students to operate oceangoing ships. Going there to study international business is like studying construction and building maintenance to become a school teacher because teachers work in buildings.
Sure it does. The only thing worthwhile is to buy things and hire people do the work for you while you sit back on your butt and count it coming in. If you have no ethics and don't want to spread the wealth among those actually doing the work it's a tried and true method. You also have to be both clever and VERY lucky to invest in the right things and people to exploit.
And are either of you defending this book rich? Thought not.
It's not a one book fits all scheme. You're meant to buy the rest of his Rich Dad series which is probably more than 10 books at this stage. And his expensive board game.
Well that sure explains how he's getting rich but not so much his victims erm disciples.
If you don't want to use your personal email to register, use a dummy one from mailinator.com
Also use fake names too.
I do this for all these types of free registrations because you never know if they sell off your email address to spammers.
For gold diggers?
Of course if you don't want to subscribe, you could also just borrow the book from your local library. Duh!
At one stage he was flat broke and living in his car. This is despite all the good advice given to him by 'rich dad' which obviously didn't work out.. until he wrote this book.