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First, most people focus on his inspiration and pointing out that you need to save money instead of spending it. To put it bluntly, "Duh." To be more constructive, there are much better books on this subject - for instance, "Your Money or Your Life." It's easy to spout platitudes about why you should save, but Kiyosaki doesn't tell you how.
Second, his real estate advice. Kiyosaki emphasizes making money in real estate, since it seems clear that is how he made his fortune. But he does a terrible job explaining that as well. People have lost fortunes in real estate; Donald Trump went from being a billionaire to losing most of his empire. It isn't easy. Kiyosaki himself says that winners learn from their failures; where are his failures?
Perhaps he should refer people to other books about real estate, but one of the books he recommends was written by a man who had a half-million dollars in tax liens filed against him and declared bankruptcy - all before "Rich Dad" was written. That isn't exactly the kind of advice I was looking for!
Third, experts in the fields he talks about generally agree that his advice is bad. A review by an experienced real estate professional is here: http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html. His advice on making money via IPOs is completely wrong; you can't invest that little money so close to the IPO filing for such a large discount. It just isn't done that way.
Fourth, his emphasis on making money. I like money, don't get me wrong. Like most people reading this review, I'd like to be a millionaire. But, I think, there is an underlying current of meanness in Kiyosaki's book. The way his "rich dad" kept people waiting and intimidated them with his power, the way Kiyosaki himself resented being left out of the parties held by the "rich kids." It's disturbing.
Fifth, for all the talk about spending less, Kiyosaki clearly lives up the high life (or claims to.) Rolex watches (why?), Porsches (again, why?)... all these are types of liabilities, which he spends most of the book saying you should avoid. It's flash, which I think ties into his rejection as a 'poor' child, and also meant to impress the reader by letting them think that, someday, they too will be able to show off their wealth.
Most millionaire's aren't this way. "The Millionaire Next Door", which cannot be recommended highly enough, has interviews with real millionaires who live modestly - in fact, probably living on less than you are - and yet they accumulated their fortunes through hard work. (Real estate and owning your own business qualifies as hard work!) It is a much more educational book, but is also more inspiring to see people like yourself who did make it.
Summary: this book has some decent information in it (but there are better books), is inspirational at points (but inspirational books are a dime a dozen!), and didn't really do squat for me.
The first is the simple definition of financial independence: you must have income sources (not counting your job) equal to your expenses. (Actually, you need more, because the unexpected always happens.)
The second concept is simply that if you're eager to get ahead, then what you learn on the job will be more important than what you earn.
If you get these two things, you can toss the rest of the book. All the real information on all the pertinent subjects are covered in much more detail elsewhere; mostly what the rest of this book is pontificating re: his philosophies toward money, education, and what makes a loser vs. a winner. It's his attitude that he is selling. He offers an attractive combination of scorn, pompousness, hope, appeal to greed, and justification.
The biggest problem I have with the book is that this guy himself has no recognition of what he has given up. He doesn't understand the concept of 'opportunity cost' at all. This book is really no more than a passionate argument that his values are right and other values are dumb.
For instance, after he defines wealth as income > expenses, he says, "you can't be too rich". Then he describes how he quit a job he loved (flying) to master sales.
IMO rich is good *only* insofar as it allows you to pursue your true goals and desires. This guy seems to me to have it reversed; his goals and desires serve his desire for wealth instead of vice versa. Ironically, he keeps saying, "I don't work for money, money works for me!" - have you ever been a salesperson? Is there any more servile job? Even a waitress doesn't have to coax the customer to buy something. It's all about what the other guy wants; it's all about being pleasing to other people, and serving them.
Also, in another sense, it is entirely possible to be "too rich"; brazen selfishness of the sort this guy defends begets enemies, and history is littered with unapologetic greed causing chains of events that bring down wealth and power. One does not have to be a passionate believer in karma to be a little wary of anyone who thinks morals are for idiots and losers. (Like his real dad.)
His "rich dad" is the man he wishes were his dad; an 8th grade dropout with (we are told)a reputation for selfishness and exploiting his workers. Reputation is apparently something you should be willing to live without in order to be rich. His employees hate him and, apparently, frequently curse him. This apparently amuses Rich Dad - one more sign of how powerful and cool he is? Rich Dad teaches the author that power means playing petty power trips, intimidating vendors & employees, making people wait in the waiting room, etc.
Quite frankly, he neither sounds like someone I'd want to be, nor does he sound like a particularly well-adjusted person. Certainly not very *happy* (which is no doubt why he's so good at defending and justifying his questionable practices).
Poor Dad, on the other hand, is the author's own real father. The author showers so much contempt on his unfortunate father that I started imagining this book was written to get a last word in against a dead father who steadfastly refused to 'see reason'. The reason I start thinking this is because the father, as described by the author, claimed he "loves teaching" (the author absolutely insists that this just means his father was too dumb to figure out he could have made more money elsewhere) and obviously values education. The author, on the other hand, sees value only in "financial literacy", and describes himself challenging teachers (as in, what has this got to do with earning money? - a question guaranteed to seriously wound any parent who values education).
Personally, I think the author comes across as quite ignorant-sounding, especially when he's talking about politics and history and the like. (At some points so does his Rich Dad, IMO).
I also think that when he openly pities the poor idiotic girl who envies him his bestseller status, & he tries to explain to her about how to learn to hype - spend a few years mastering sales and advertising etc., and she walks away - well, it seems pretty clear to me that *he* is the one who just doesn't 'get it'.
In the end, you get what you chase, what you prioritize. Everyone does. This guy seems continually astounded that anyone could value anything other than cash, and that seems to be the underlying theme of the book. To get Rich, you have to make money your focus, your goal - you must put it first, you must dedicate yourself to learning the games and strategies of wealth, you must stop thinking like everyone else and learn how to think like rich people.
If you want to think like a rich person, though, I wouldn't recommend this particular rich person; I'd recommend someone a little less sleazy. Like maybe the guys who run Franklin Covey - I understand they're rich as sin and can still talk about things like "integrity".
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Questions from Readers for Robert T. Kiyosaki
Hello Robin. Thank you for the question. When I get in a situation that feels like a "no win" I do two things: I look at all the failures and all the losses and all the mistakes. I look at them hard and long, then I turn each failure, loss and mistake into a lesson. I learn. Mistakes are the best teachers so I learn a lot. After I've learned my many painful lessons, I reorganize, rethink and revise my opportunity. Then I act. Many times I've had to repeat this cycle over and over. But once learned, you'll never forget these painful lessons that are the keys to your success.
