Rich Dad Poor Dad... Worst Personal Finance Book of All Time?

Post by sliverstorm » Wed, Feb 08, 2012, 7:57 PM UTC

paulhauggis wrote: post #95

paulhauggis wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but it's not necessarily a path to success." Nothing is an absolute guarantee. No matter what the path. "Were repeatedly screwed by business partners and banks" If your parents were "repeatedly" screwed over, they really need to take a look at their own decisions. I was screwed over a few times when I was younger. I learned from my mistakes and don't allow people to screw me over. Your parents might be too honest an…

I really wish that there was a feature that required anyone that down voted a comment to give a reason.

Post by itmag » Wed, Feb 08, 2012, 8:07 PM UTC

georgieporgie wrote: post #100

itmag wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading self help materials has been one of the major turning points in my life. Without self-help materials I would still have been a somewhat gifted kid but also a total mess of a human being. Thanks to self help I am becoming more and more self-realized every day. I am not going to downvote you, because I am genuinely curious what you have against Ferriss. Care to tell me more?

What self-help materials do you recommend?

Post by fleitz » Wed, Feb 08, 2012, 8:33 PM UTC

T-hawk wrote: post #22

klbarry wrote: post #7

This person severely misread the book. I could give quite a few examples from the writing. For instance, the child labor issue he brings up is ridiculous - "Rich Dad" obviously didn't benefit from this labor in any financial way. The premise of the book is solid; invest in assets that make money for you without you having to be there. He specifically says in the book a few times that he doesn't necessarily advocate r…

"Rich Dad" does seriously advocate real estate, not to the exclusion of those other options but certainly above them. Real estate stands out mostly because of the leverage that a mortgage can provide: you can control the income and appreciation of a $250,000 asset with only $50k of actual capital. You can't get 5-to-1 leverage on stocks or other such passive investments. That said, real estate is certainly no magic b…

Post by spindritf » Wed, Feb 08, 2012, 8:53 PM UTC

Czarnian wrote: post #82

davidw wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these books do not offer any recipes for wealth creation Oh but they do: for the authors. The problem with them is that there is little of substance and lots of feel-good hand waving. The good bits could usually be summed up on a page. Compare and contrast, with, say "Founders at Work" where each story is different, unique and interesting in its own way.

Don't forget the ever-present promise that if you give him just twenty more dollars, he'll reveal the secrets to his success. Unfortunately, the secret to his success IS the act of giving him twenty more dollars.

Post by raintrees » Wed, Feb 08, 2012, 9:24 PM UTC

fleitz wrote: post #104

dev_jim wrote: post #26

I'm always fascinated as to why people on this board fervently defend scammy self-help books. Tim Ferris' completely phony 4-hour series provoked a similar reaction.

Self-help books are like placebos, they really don't do anything for you but if you read one you'll believe that you can be successful even though most of them are full of platitudes and not much actual content. But on the other hand I think this is the most important part about them, they give people the feeling that they can succeed which is a necessary ingredient to taking risks to making yourself successful.