Has anyone ever read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" ?

[Nikki Stone 1]

The author seems to be dissing saving, investing and education and promoting real estate purchasing and collecting rents.

Do I have this wrong?

I wouldn't care except I know some people who are reading his book and are planning on changing their whole way of living. I don't know enough to comment. It seems like the latest fad to me, but I don't know for sure.

[WePurrsevere]

1. We've caught a good part of his show on PBS.. he certainly is charismatic

but Bush is also considered to be by some so.... :shrug:

Investing makes sense to me as a way to make money beyond just working. I also think money market accounts are better then basic "savings accounts" at this time since they pay a higher interest rate.

No matter who the author is and how motivational they are I wouldn't sink any more money into investing then I was comfortable losing.

Just Googled and found these sites both pro and con:

Rich Dad Poor Dad's authors site: http://www.robert-kiyosaki.com/

Amazon book reviews: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446677450/104-5614147-6720753?v=glance&n=283155

http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

http://www.slate.com/?id=2067175

You might also try posting the same question in DUs Personal Financing and Investment Group; Economy area or the Mon-Fri Stock Market Watch threads. B-)

(edited to fix link)

[Nikki Stone 1]

2. Thank you so much

I appreciate the links so much. I worry about these "get rich quick" books, especially when they rely on a single method like real estate. Real estate worked in the last decade, but with the housing bubble bursting, there will probably be another favorite place to put money.

[WePurrsevere]

3. YW. :-) I tend to be leary of them as well & agree about the RE market.

One thing I can say for this guy is he didn't come across as real estate only.

It would be nice to find a miracle that would rescue us from our financial woes but if it were as easy as these financial gurus say it is wouldn't there be a LOT more rich then poor and middle class? I figure I have a better chance of making "millions selling on eBay" then with some of these methods. :sarcasm: (disclaimer: and I've been selling my art, OOAKs, Antiques and Collectibles on eBay off and on for over 8 years.;))

[no_hypocrisy]

4. The message I walked away with was "Get rid of your extra cash".

In other words, after you've paid your bills, don't put your extra money in the bank and leave it there as it is LOSING VALUE every minute it sits there (inflation, etc.). Rather, WISELY invest in SOMETHING that INCREASES the value of your money. For example, you have $50.00. You can go to a coin shop, buy a modest gold piece. With the price of gold going up and down, but mostly up, your $50 can turn into $55, $60 or whatever, and you have the option of selling that gold piece with the extra $5, $10 you made on it and use the $55, $60 to invest in something else that will POTENTIALLY increase its value. You have to keep your money circulating and can't neglect it when you invest it.

That's my take on his book anyway. You can read his essays in the "Finance" section of www.yahoo.com under "Columnists".

[adriennui]

5. no.

the title turned me off.

[porphyrian]

6. I read part of it, but there's really only one message repeated...

...with some anecdotal stories, enough to call it a book. Basically, you just have to understand what really constitutes an "asset," and to accumulate enough of them that they pay for everything you owe and then some. He defines an asset as anything that generates money for you (unlike, say, your house, which you are constantly paying on instead of it paying you). Every thing else is debt, or whatever term he uses. He says that instead of throwing your money down an endless pit that never makes you any money, you should invest in things that do generate money for you, then reinvest in getting more assets, etc. Eventually, your assets will pay off all your debts and you'll actually start having some cash and time to spend it. At least, that's what I could tell from what I read. I think the book is really just another of his assets, generating cash for him from horribly broke and desperate people, and maybe that's what we should all do.

[Nikki Stone 1]

8. I got the same impression: my best asset would be a published book on

creating wealth for people who knew nothing about it.

But then, I am very cynical.

[The Anti-Neo Con]

7. His advice only works if you're already a rich dad.

OK, let's say you have $1,000,000 in the bank. It's MUCH easier to turn $1,000,000 into $2,000,000 than it is to turn $1 into $1,000,000.

[kineneb]

9. haven't read it, probably won't

the real truth is: if your parents have money, you will probably have money. If your parents are poor, you will probably also be poor. True upward mobility is a myth in modern America. Luck plays more of a role than hard work, otherwise all the janitors and farm laborers would be rich.

Just my two cents, looking up from the bottom of the economy.

[Selatius]

10. You can't have a society of lords and emperors; that's true

Who will clean up the mess? Who will fight the wars? Who will do all the rote work? Modern society sells the notion that anybody can get rich, but they don't tell you everybody can't be rich. Capitalism, as a way of living, cannot exist without inequality. There always has to be somebody at the bottom who does all the work for the people at the top.

There are those who own, and then there are those who are owned.

[Nikki Stone 1]

12. I tend to agree with you. The friend who is most zealous about this book

is a high school grad with a blue collar job who struggles from paycheck to paycheck. That's why this worries me so much. I feel that books like these operate like casinos: a regressive tax on the people who can least afford it.

[HughBeaumont]

11. It's quite the crap-pile.

Kiyosaki initially hooked up with Amway distributors where, not coincidentally, is how his books initially gained prominence, enough to go national. Aside from lacing his books with phenomenally bad and sometimes illegal advice, he sells it with a story that isn't even true to begin with. In fact, not much of what he says about himself is true. Even the so called "Poor Dad" attended Stanford, Chicago and Northwestern, earning a PhD.

The point is, America doesn't need and cannot accommodate 130 million business owners and real estate investors, the two professions he holds the most stock in. Both are high-risk and 90% of the time, low output investments (especially in modern times). He doesn't get that the average American worker trying to make a living paying bills and such simply does not have the time, patience or disposable income for such risks. Being one of the two means spending huge amounts of time, money, research, cold calling, advertising, hard bare-knuckle work, remodeling, etc . .. and even after all that, there's little to no guarantee you'll break even in the first 2-3 years. Got enough money to pay that mortgage and those bills in the meantime?

Risks aside, you can't really take advice from a guy who has as much disdain for education as Bobby K does. What do you think you're going to need to BE a business owner/real estate investor? What does he think, that pure gumption's gonna win out over know-how? Doesn't work that way.

[Nikki Stone 1]

13. Amway? Oh dear Lord.

(Although they did have a nice floor cleaner at one time.)

These multi-level scams always require people at the bottom doing the actual work.

What I want to know is how he got started? I read on one of the links posted above that he was actually bankrupt in the 1980s.

And why the hell is PBS touting him? (He was on my local PBS station). I guess PBS is now so desperate for funds that they use popular infomercial type "courses" as ways to raise money.

[Midlodemocrat]

14. I read it. I could take or leave his advice.

I am not in the position to be a landlord. I have too much on my plate and I don't want to pay someone else to be the super, so we put our money elsewhere.