Rich Dad Poor Dad

Publisher's Summary

Rich Dad Poor Dad will….

• Explode the myth that you need to earn a high income to become rich
• Challenge the belief that your house is an asset
• Show parents why they can’t rely on the school system to teach their kids about money
• Define once and for all an asset and a liability
• Teach you what to teach your kids about money for their future financial success

Robert Kiyosaki has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people around the world think about money. With perspectives that often contradict conventional wisdom, Robert has earned a reputation for straight talk, irreverence, and courage. He is regarded worldwide as a passionate advocate for financial education.

"The main reason people struggle financially is because they have spent years in school but learned nothing about money. The result is that people learn to work for money… but never learn to have money work for them."
—Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad Poor Dad – The #1 Personal Finance Book of All Time!

“ Rich Dad Poor Dad is a starting point for anyone looking to gain control of their financial future.” ( USA Today)

©2011 Robert T. Kiyosaki (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

great book but....

The book itself is worth the buy and then some, the only reason I found it hard to finish was one thing that the narrator did. Constantly having to hear him have to "wet his lips" is irritating to the listener, especially when using headphones while listening. It's not normally a big deal unless it's something you have to hear every other sentence.

170 of 185 people found this review helpful

This book will re shape your finance mind

This book will reshape how you think about money. It will truly show you what you have been doing wrong since you were a kid, what you were not taught and should have been taught when you were growing up. I wish I had some of the advice this book offers a few years back when I was younger it would have made a world of difference by now. It's never too late to learn though. Read this and act. Don't let the common emotions of the (chicken litttles) in this world steer you away from becoming a business owner or an investor. It's your freedom on the line and no one else's.

Thank you Robert God bless

63 of 68 people found this review helpful

Those who can't do....teach

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People interested in getting rich quick scams

Would you ever listen to anything by Robert T. Kiyosaki again?

Absolutely not

Which scene was your favorite?

None

What character would you cut from Rich Dad Poor Dad?

Rich dad, since he seems to be an entirely fictional charater

Any additional comments?

It is reasonable advice that you should try to build assets (which is a fancy way of investing/saving in something with a reasonable return) and avoid assets that cost more than they pay (like being house-poor or car-poor). But you can save your money from buying this and stop there.

That's all this book has to offer. It's chalked full of economic inaccuracies. Capitalism doesn't allow businesses to arbitrarily raise their prices nor would it allow us to all "keep" our taxes if they suddenly don't exist (there's this thing called competition).

But after I was 3 quarters done with the book, I started wondering if the guy was ever going to give some concrete advice so I started googling his name. It turns out his ONLY early business success is teaching about business success. After separate bankrupt ventures in Velcro wallets and t-shrits, he started peddling how-to-get-rich books in the Amway pyramid, despite being unsuccessful himself. That eventually took hold and he started his education company. For me, it's a scam to sell knowledge you don't really seem to possess. Sure, the guy is rich now and dabbles in all sorts of things, but only after selling an idea that he was already successful which doesn't seems to be about as true as the existence of "Rich Dad".

170 of 199 people found this review helpful

Outdated and ironic

I had read the paper version of this book in 2011 while attending grad school. Having little to no financial literacy at the time, the concepts were foreign but digestible. I would like to think that I took away some of the author’s broad themes after I completed the book.

Desiring an easy ‘filler’ book between two others, I recently returned to the audiobook version for a catch-up. One of the first things I noticed these six years later was that several of the anecdotes were outdated or misleading. Specifically, the continued referral to Donald Trump’s financial abilities. Now I’m not pretending to know everything there is to know about Trump’s financial status, but I thought he bankrupted his companies?

Which brings me to my last thought of irony. After finishing the audiobook this time around, I read a few articles online informing me that Kiyosaki (his company) has recently declared bankruptcy as well. Additionally, several countries have him and his business under intense scrutiny for fraud and scams. Again, I don’t know all the facts (and you should do your own research to build your own case) but I do find it somewhat worrisome that an author who’s trying to aid in financial intelligence and give us tools to increase our cash flow is himself in hot water financially and morally.

At the end of the day, it’s your time and money; do what you want with them. For me, I won’t be recommending this book again. I believe Kiyosaki’s time has past.

56 of 67 people found this review helpful

Great Book - Bad Narrator

Would you try another book from Robert T. Kiyosaki and/or Tim Wheeler?

Robert - Yes
Tim - No

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator was constantly swallowing and making disgusting noises when he wasn't talking. The noises are loud and extremely unpleasant, especially when listening on earphones.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The content was good.

136 of 168 people found this review helpful

Multi level marketing

Don't waste your time and if you don't believe me, just do your own research on the author and this book before listening to it. I looked into it after I burned my audible credit and the content in the book raised some red flags.

27 of 33 people found this review helpful

READER NEEDS MORE TRAINING!!!

Would you listen to Rich Dad Poor Dad again? Why?

The book is very good!. The reader, Tim Wheeler, has not received proper breathing instruction to narrate a book. Some people don't breath while they speak. This is not a healthy habit. It is distracting to listen to a book where the reader holds his breath and gasps between pauses. It actully interrupts my breathing while listening to him.!!!

116 of 145 people found this review helpful

Anecdotes and intangibles

The author does a great job of writing without actually saying anything. The book is full of anecdotes and intangibles. There isn't much in this book you can actually put into practice. He also advocates for doing some illegal things to get out of paying taxes. Much of the book is supposedly the advice he got at the age of nine. No nine year old would have acted the way he did or have asked the questions he claims to have asked. Seems to me he wrote this book just as a way to make money without giving any real advice. Very disappointed.

31 of 39 people found this review helpful

Repetitive

I bought this book after a co-worker suggested it, and am upset that I wasted an audible credit on it. Every chapter was the same in that he reiterated “the rich make their money work for them.” Buy more assets and less liabilities, and if you’re rich you get taxed less compared to the poor.

13 of 16 people found this review helpful

Just what I needed

Excellent book that shifted my thinking substantially as it relates to my financial well being. Will definitely be implementing what I've learned. It's a new day for me and will be for you, if you approach this material with an open mind and TAKE ACTION.

12 of 15 people found this review helpful

Almost.....

This book encapsulates capitalism and for the most part whatever your philosophy, the advice is sound...at least from a 'Western' stance. Kiyosaki is clearly very passionate about the subject matter which adds an air of confidence and authority to his book. Some have criticised that the whole,'rich dad' thing is a fabrication...I would suggest that this is an irrelevance. Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that acting 'as if' is often a given. Kiyosaki can get carried away at times and make what I would say are ridiculous suggestions such as education being for mere fools......and this lets an otherwise excellent book down. At times, Kiyosaki apologises for being unfair...and then continues to be just that and there can be a two-faced element to his arguments as a consequence. Narration is always important with audiobooks and Wheeler's approach is impeccable. I'd encourage Kiyosaki to take some time out to embrace some more Eastern practices as money alone whilst important is ultimately a mere fabrication of mankind. Nevertheless a very enjoyable listen...if at times a tad trite.

35 of 41 people found this review helpful

The dubious virtues of capitalism

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This book seems to mostly be a hatched job of socialism parading as a fair and balanced viewpoint. The author seems sincere in his belief that a socialist philosophy is just an economic stupidity, and then goes on to extol the apparently endless virtues of what is, at heart, some fairly straightforward capitalist dogma.

While from an individual's point of view, the advice given seems likely to achieve the end goal of making the individual using it richer - at least a little - there seem to be quite a few pretty critical issues entirely overlooked.

The first is ethics. This question isn't even passed over lightly, it's completely absent from the book. The author wants you to think about how to get rich - full stop. He clearly feels enough guilt over his strategies to offer the platitude that poor people are really responsible for their own problems, and if only they'd change how they think about the world, they too could be rich. In so doing, he lays the challenges and problems of the poor and middle classes at their own feet. He explains, at some length, that taxation is bad and implies that people who pay taxes are stupid, and helpfully elucidates that America and the UK were both countries that had no taxes at one point, but fails to mention that the effect of tax was, in part, to make the countries the global powers that they became by allowing them to invest in projects that no individual could manage alone. Not that tax is bad, though, we're assured - just that smart people don't pay it.

Yes, fine. It's possible to evade taxes - rich people do it all the time. That doesn't make it an ethical thing to do - just a selfish and short-sighted one. Even the rich enjoy having public services such as a police force, army and roads. Boasting about not contributing to things we literally all need seems to be the exact thing the author subtly calls the rest of us who do - terminally short sighted and stupid.

Moving on. The second major problem is that the strategies presented would literally fail if more than a tiny minority of people adopted them. In a world full exlusively of investors, ironically no one makes and bread. The behaviours suggested in this book are fundamentally parasitic in nature - you leverage other people's hard work to make yourself rich at their expense. Smart, but very destructive to society as a whole. Still, the book will absolutely help you get rich enough to stop caring if the whole system crumbles.

Third, this is a book of it's time, and will age less and less favourably as time goes on. With radical changes coming more and more rapidly, the approach advocated by this book is going to become less and less relevant. Hard times ahead - except for the people who already have pretty much everything. If that's you, congrats. If not - you're screwed in the long run, even if you take all the advice in the book.

I'm sure the author would tell me that I'm my own worst enemy, though, because in spite of his efforts to be 'neutral' and 'balanced' in how he presents things, his own viewpoint is fundamentally that of a pretty greedy man of slightly better than mediocre intelligence.

81 of 99 people found this review helpful

vague<br /><br />

too many vagueries and not enough specific plans of action. Whilst the principles are somewhat useful, these are meaningless without specific details on how to execute.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Badly read

I haven't finished listening to this book yet and one of the reasons it's taking me a long time to get through is that it's read in a very monotonous tone, which makes the material feel more boring than it needs to.

But I also have problems with the content of the book, since the author spends so much time telling us to accumulate assets instead of liabilities, but doesn't really get down to the nuts and bolts of how to do that, which is frustrating.

16 of 20 people found this review helpful

Motivational but thin on details.

This is a bit of a mix, really, and there are some issues.

It seems America-centric. A lot of the advice offered is not directly relevant to other countries because the laws are different. For example, in the UK it is not necessary to set up a corporation to claim business expenses offset against tax; you can instead set up as a sole trader or partnership.

It also does seem that Kiyosaki is cherry-picking when it comes to anecdotes offered. This may or may not be the case, but it is the feeling I get. He seems to go off on a rant when talking about an investment that increases in value by 16% year-on-year because he's been told by other people that the investment is "far too risky," but he does not explain the investment.

Nevertheless, some of the advice I do feel is sound. To own businesses (rather than taking time to run them yourself) and to learn to make good investment decisions and make them both seem good ideas from the point of view of the end goal of generating money without working for money. That's obviously the ticket to financial security which is what the book is really about. If you have a regular income and you don't have to "work" 40 hours a week to get it, that's the goal.

The problem for me with this book and many similar books is that it describes what has worked for Kiyosaki. Kiyosaki has a unique set of skills as has every other person. In his case it led to riches; in other people's cases that may not really apply.

15 of 19 people found this review helpful

Moderately Motivational

So I finally caved and got this book... somewhat useful for motivational purposes I suppose, though don’t expect any revelations.. I agree with some points and disagree with others. If you truly have no concept of personal cash flow then it’s a good place to start!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

I'll be buying assets from here on!

I really enjoyed this book. It teaches you the mentality that drives wealthy people and the core principles that made them rich. I am putting these principles into action.

8 of 11 people found this review helpful

A very thought provoking insight

This book surprised me on how well it went through the mechanics of what makes someone rich vs someone who is wealthy.

I am from the convential educational system, and over the last 15 years or so I have experienced exactly the symptoms of the new wealthy middle class as depicted in this book - study damn hard, work extra hard and you will succeed. 30 years later only find the mill needs more energy and I am shutting down, very little to show for it, lots of hours spent but 60% of my wealth in others pockets!

This is a must read for all, especially parents in the west.

From an Economics Major, Accountant

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I get it now

A great book to prepare for my future and how I can create a legacy for my following generations

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

An enjoyable,outstanding eye opener !!

Would you listen to Rich Dad Poor Dad again? Why?

I will 110% be listening to this audio book again as I feel that there was too much valuable information to take in all at once, next time I will be taking notes and using them to begin educating my own children. I listened to the whole book within 24hrs as I just wanted to know more and since finishing the book I have bought 3 more of Rich Dads audio books.

What does Tim Wheeler bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Tim Wheeler was a great candidate for Rich Dads audio books as he made the listening experience more pleasurable with his tone of voice and delivery of speech. He also has the ability to make you feel as though he is actually sitting beside you and talking to you personally.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me feel a little bit angry at times as I felt like the working class are actually kept in the dark about a lot of the topics spoke about in this audio book. It also aggravated me to think that my children are now also being "Trained" at school to become only suitable for employment. I have since been proactive about changing my children's course of education and also about they're financial way of thinking. A definite must have for any loving, caring parent.

Any additional comments?

For any one serious about opening there mind and changing the way they see things I would highly recommend. A small price to pay for potentially life changing information!!

7 of 11 people found this review helpful