Rich Dad Poor Dad

By: Robert T. Kiyosaki

Narrated by: Tim Wheeler

Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins

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.

Hot Garbage For Sale

There is nothing of value inside these pages. The book is simplistic, repetitive, minimally informative, and overall cliche.
Let me save you some time. The picture is painted as if he had the benefit of learning from the advice of 2 dad's and making his own decision. Firstly, this is false since the rich Dad is actually his buddy Mike's dad and not his own. Secondly, he spends nine chapters shitting on his real father and praising his friends rich Dad.
There is no real advice inside this book. No knowledge on creating deals, sales; No useful advice on investing, negotiating, or creating capital; and generally not much of value at all. The author utilizes cliche one liners followed by the classic guise of creating false hope by saying all you need to do is try and you'll win. The author creates a false narrative of simplicity, all while speaking from a point of priveledge telling people to jump off mountains without a parachute because he did it while hovering above a security blanket.

this book could be summed up in two sentences: "Hey man it's easy, all you have to do is borrow thousands of dollars from random affluent contacts to start business ventures that should hopefully succeed, but you idiots are afraid to assume risk! If you take anything away from this book it should be that these stupid middle-class people don't know how to jump tax brackets while avoiding to pay taxes because they don't have a surplus of extra cash to dump into charities as a write-off."

Straight load of Hot Garbage.

Wow. This book is one big bad advice

The only good advice here is that you should work on your financial education. Which is common sense

How is this pile a steamin poop so highly rated?

A complete hoax of a "guide" book by a predatory hustler. Recommends tax evasion, planned bankrupcy etc.

Another scammer

I was curious about this book because I've heard a couple of people who dabbled in investing and Real Estate swear by this guy. So I checked out this Audible. Have to admit that rich dad story was spellbinding! Almost fell for it hook, line, and sinker! Then I started wondering why this author seemed so enamored with Trump as his story went on, so I researched his bio and now I understand why. They are practically cut from the same cloth, so to speak. They look down on intellectuals, peddle their seminars for profit, declare bankruptcies to avoid their financial obligations, etc. Good grief! Enough with these scams already! Don't understand how they could game the system so well and fool so many people as they laugh all the way to the bank. Rich dads, poor morals.

If you're into fear mongering and exploiting....

I was super disappointed by this book. I am so disappointed by this book that I actually felt compelled to leave a review so others don't wast their time or energy....I had heard Robert Kiyosaki speak in some interviews and I found what he had to say was interesting and he himself seemed very charming so I was happy to purchase the audio book to hear more from him.

I wanted to like it so badly - I really did - I even forced myself to continue to listen even when I knew what he was saying was not true and just fear mongering. But in the end I was just wildly disappointed! It's a very pure capitalist view of the world -he literally outlines how his "Rich Dad" basically exploited people for cheap labour and then turns it around saying those people choose to exploit themselves (insert eye roll...) .... if you have a single shred of socialism coursing through your blood please avoid this at all costs....

It's not all completely horrible as he does make some very basic and decent take home messages but overall I just found the whole thing really distasteful and much more in line with "get rich quick" schemes. I also found the whole narrative around "rich dad" and "poor dad" to be a pretty big stretch and quite frankly, not super realistic.

It's really unfortunate- I think this man has some interesting ideas but the idea that you can only be rich by exploiting "less fortunate" people around you is just not the strategy for me....

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.

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

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.

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".

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

about 10% of this book is useful

the other 90% is either an advert, untrue, or illegal also a real issue of this book is that it completely lacks the context in which markets operate and in which real money is made

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.

disappointing and condescending

couldn't even finish this. I kept rolling my eyes at his view on money and happiness. he is what's wrong with the world. Basically he goes by, everyone has their place and the working class deserve to be kept at a just getting by rate. 🙄