Review of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad
By Pinyo • Jul 16th, 2007 • Category: Personal Finance, Reviews and InterviewsA week ago my wife bought me a book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki. This book has been around for many years, but I didn’t read it until my wife literally threw it on my lap. My first reaction was inspired and mesmerized — the book got me thinking about money and wealth again. Here’s my thought on the book and Mr. Kiyosaki…
For me, the past few years were good, and I didn’t worry much about money. But now that I reflect on this matter, I always have been obsessed with it since I earned my first dollar. I recall buying a get rich quick book, which basically told me to make money by selling the same book to other people. I remember reading about many techniques (schemes really), spending money on stupid “investments”, and getting to the point where I almost joined Amway. I even have a whole shelf of books dedicated to the subject of wealth.
After I finished Rich Dad, I did a Google search on “Robert Kiyosaki” to find what else my new hero has to say, and found this interesting article: John T. Reed’s analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Although, I didn’t like the tone that got a little too personal at times, I felt John’s analysis was very thorough and my perspective was more balanced afterward. If you read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you have to read John’s article.
Basically, John discredited Robert’s status as a wealth expert / real-estate guru, and provided counterpoints to what Robert said in his book. I didn’t really care if Robert is a fraud, or Rich Dad is a fictional character; nor did I care much for John’s attack. However, I did learn from both men. I like how Robert’s story helped me focus on money by simplifying the mechanic of wealth building. In essence, if you want to have more money just do the following:
- Increase your income,
- Decrease your expenses,
- Buy more stuff that makes you money (what he called assets), and
- Buy less stuff that costs you money (what he called liabilities).
I also like the way he challenges the “I can’t afford it” mentality, and instead ask “How can I afford it?”
Lastly, I also agree with his 7 key skills:
- Accounting
- Investing
- Economic
- Law
- Management of cash flow
- Management of systems
- Management of people
Other than that, I have to agree with John that some advice Robert dispensed were wrong and could be wholesomely dangerous. Here are some of the things I took from John’s analysis:
- Do your research — don’t blindly believe what other people tells you
- Getting rich is possible, but never as easy as some gurus want you to believe — it takes a lot of hard work and time
- Education is a good thing. Although there are several high school drop outs that did spectacularly well, the overwhelming odd is that the more educated you are, the more money you will make (relative to people in your own area of study)
- Having money work for you is great, but there is nothing wrong with working for your money. If you don’t like your job, then do something about it. Resenting your boss or your company is a cop out.
In closing, although I am not rich yet, nor am I a guru or an expert of any kind, I hope to use this blog as an online journal to discuss topics related to life, wealth, and happiness. In the end, I think it’s more practical to learn from someone who is making the journey, than someone who is already there (because they tend to forget how hard it is and make assumptions).
Welcome to my experiment, your first post is a good one, and I hope to see you updating continually, and creating a resource for both our readers’ use.
Mark, thank you for your compliment. I am glad to be part of your personal finance blogs network and look forward to reading your posts.
I felt the same way after reading JTR’s post. I felt that the personal attacks and the reality of whether Kiyosaki’s rich uncle existed where totally irrelevant to the message which you’ve described succinctly.
I must however credit Kiyosaki with giving me the necessary push to start investing in real estate which really provided a financial boost a few years ago. Of course, I was smart enough to liquidate most of my holdings (especially in California) before the party stopped.
I was looking over my copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and googled looking for some third party opinions on the book.
Kiyosaki tells the truth straight up. I think some people dislike his no BS attitude, but most of his book makes A LOT of sense.
There is a huge difference in the mindset of rich vs. poor people, and the sooner you learn, the better.
I also read that article on Kiyosaki. It’s negative but very enlightening too.
I read RDPD early on in my financial “awakening.” What the book does well is inspire you to take control of your money/finances. What it lacks is a real concrete way to achieve wealth. I feel like you come away from the book ready to re-invent yourself and become wealthy and then you start to scratch your head asking yourself how?
In all I think it’s a good book to get people started off on if they need to start figuring out their finances. It does have the ability to inspire. The best would be to borrow it or take it out of the library (I’m sure a good part of Kiyosaki’s wealth is from selling his books).
I guess the problem that John Reed has uncovered about Kiyosaki is that he never actually made money the way he describes he did in his books. In other words the only way Kiyosaki ever made money was by selling motivational books.
I do agree however that his way of thinking in terms of assets producing cash flow is something I had never personally seen before. Most other books I have read focused solely on making as much money as possible form stocks/options/futures..
As much as I enjoyed the content for many of Robert’s books - my copy of the Cashflow Quadrant absolutely fell apart while reading it - dodgy glue I believe. I sent an email to the publisher requesting another copy but never even got a reply. Because of this poor service and disrespect, I will never buy another one of his books.