“Rich Dad, Poor Dad author files for bankruptcy” reads the headline. It’s ironic that after a long, lucrative career writing financial self-help books and giving seminars, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki has filed for bankruptcy. But, it’s only for one of his companies after losing a $24 million court judgment.
It was a smooth move, a corporate bankruptcy and the internet is all a twitter about “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Global LLC filed for bankruptcy after being ordered to pay nearly $24 million to the Learning Annex and its founder and chairman, Bill Zanker.
There are lots of comments online. They pretty much add up to state that the book is mostly inspirational and helpful to get an individual thinking about creating wealth through real estate. The organization sounds a little dodgy. Here are the comments:
Several things the book specifically recommends are either things no actual counter-party to a deal would agree to, or outright illegal. For instance, one of his sage-like pieces of advice is to put a clause in your contract saying “subject to the approval of all business partners”. Then if you feel like backing out, you claim that your cat is your business partner and he didn’t like the deal. I am not making this up.
The book’s central tenet of “buy income producing assets” is a good one. However other than a general recommendation of real estate, it does nothing to specifically help you achieve these goals.
It’s a great inspirational book. There’s no real specific “advice” to it though.
Also in the book he clearly says several times that bankruptcy is part of the game and that he doesn’t care if he has to go bankrupt again. He’d done it like 6 times or something and is still super rich. Trump’s gone bankrupt and is super rich too. Bankruptcy is a tool for some people.
There is nothing in this book that would help anyone become wealthy. In fact is stated that education and savings will not make you rich. Which may be true but those two should never be discounted!
This guy is a scam artist and made his millions from the book and nothing else.
chapter 8 page 154:
“My point is that it’s doubts and cynicism that keep most people poor and playing it safe…only a person’s doubts keep them poor…’Cynics criticize and winners analyze’ was one of [Rich Dad’s] favorite mottos”
-from chapter 8 page 154 of Robert Kiyosaki’s first print edition of Rich Dad Poor Dad
I have thrown the book away along time ago so I can’t point to the specific chapter and page. It’s in there. The book is garbage and the author is scam artist. If you’re holding a copy in your hand I would tell you to look in the references but wait…it doesn’t have any.
Frankly, it’s got very good advice. It teaches you how to look at your purchases of assets and determine which are truly investments (2nd home rented out) vs those that are not (the ones you live in, don’t count on appreciation). Gives you a very simple but very clear method of accounting your expenses for becoming financially independent. Things that are simple and you probably know but he puts it in a way that allows you to focus on it more clearly. However, it is not a get rich quick scheme. It doesn’t tell you which gimmicks to become rich, just how to manage your investments clearly. His later books are all a money grab and you can see him start to drift to the dark side of greed.
I read it. I didn’t find it particularly good or bad. It definitely didn’t deserve the hype it received though.
If you don’t mind being a terrible person to achieve personal success – it is a good book. I’ve had to non-pleasure of doing business with this guy and he is an absolute ass. He will weasel out of this because he is good at what he does.
There’s a story about a guy who became a billionaire starting from nothing.
As a kid, he would use his allowance to buy vegetables at the farm and sell for a big markup in the city. By 21, this little business of his was doing very well and he was saving more and more money every day.
Then… he finally married a billionaire widow. And that’s how he became a billionaire.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad is sort of like the joke above. It gives you the inspiration and common sense advice (save, don’t waste money, etc, etc.) But it misses key points, and the book is full of false information he portrays as real life examples.
Nothing wrong with the book as entertainment. But actually doing something useful to pursue your goals is 100x better use of time. It’s not even close. There is no magic advice in any book that will teach you to be comfortably rich, and this book is no different.
What I mostly got from the book is to be an opportunist. Make use of what’s given to you, take advantage of the rules in play. It’s more of an inspirational/motivational book than any kind of financial planner.
Long story short, the Rich Dad Coach asked for my credit score, which was high, and proceeded to recommend that I max out my credit to buy a house to flip in “1-2 months.” Now, it’s true that it could have worked. But was it good advice? Hell no it wasn’t. And I think he wanted 5k to coach me through the process. I could have made money doing it, even with paying him 5k, but SPECULATING by taking out personal lines of credit is not consistent with anything in the Rich Dad book. Showed me right there that while the book’s advice may be good, that organization was just out to make a buck at the readers’ expense.
