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

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

#111
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…

The idea of a "passive investment" is a joke. The example of a web app as a passive investment is crazy -- how many apps exist that won't require support, ongoing maintenance, etc? That's significant work. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds -- the returns here are small enough that you can't generate income to live on without a huge up-front investment. If you could manage a consistent 8% yield you'd be doing well, and it w…

It's possible to make real estate income passively. The rub is that you either have to have lots and lots of money or lots of friends with lots of money. Either way, you need lots and lots of money to pull it off.

Many years ago, I worked for a property management company who's sole client was a partnership of about 30 people. Between the partners, only two were active partners. The rest did nothing more than show up during the first week of the month to get their disbursement check. This was before direct deposit was widespread.

Of course, the holdings were all commercial, were valued collectively at ~80 million, from initial investments of around ~15 mil (adjusted).

The main problem with "passive" income is that margins on passive income are so low that you need a huge amount of investment to make anything meaningful. You have to keep developing streams of income to replace ones that have burnt out. And you have to keep shoveling your profits back into the venture.

It's a long, hard slog.

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

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandparents live off "income generating real estate", and my father is on his way (it's his nest egg for his retirement). They were not "flipping" properties; rather, they bought good properties when the market wasn't inflated, and rented them, maintaining them and keeping the tentants happy. It does take some work, not as much as being employed of course, but you have to be on top of things and it takes some min…

> maintaining them What?! How is that consistent with "invest in assets that make money for you without you having to be there"? Obviously I'm snarking. The idea that you can generate money and do no work is fertile ground for self-help hucksters. BTW: I've never met any landlord who ever believed that they weren't earning every penny, and who didn' have scars to show for it.

Did you know there are professional property management companies that do much of that work for you?

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

#113
A lousy critique. RDPD is far from perfect, but it has a few good nuggets. The author barely scratches the surface what he actually dislikes about it, and instead angrily slings poo and expects us to agree and join in the ridicule.

In short, unconvincing link-bait submitted by the author, using a tactic just as sleazy as what he condemns Kiyosaki for. Would downvote if I could.

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

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but it's not necessarily a path to success." Nothing is an absolute guarantee. No matter what the path. This is a ridiculous statement. You attempt to defend "business as success" by arguing success is never guaranteed. While being a silly argument, more importantly you seem to completely miss what your parent was talking about- he was not discussing how your business might not be successful, but that for many peopl…

"This is a ridiculous statement. You attempt to defend "business as success" by arguing success is never guaranteed." I thought I was pointing out the obvious, but I guess not. Are you one of those people that believes that if you go to college you automatically get a job at the end? It's not guaranteed, but I would still recommend it because it will help you get a job. You are the one being ridiculous here. The guy…

You again seem to be conflating success in ventures with success in life. Let's take another look at the original quote:

No, it may be one of the best paths to wealth and independence ... but it's not necessarily a path to success.

Emphasis on "success", not on "necessarily".

I'm done here though, I really shouldn't have replied in the first place anyway.

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

#116
post #8
post #3

http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html Is probably one of the better resources regarding Robert Kiyosaki.

While it doesn't say anything about his arguments, it should be noted that John T. Reed is far from unbiased, he's Kiyosaki's direct competitor.

Haters will hate and John Reed is capitalizing on this fringe niche to sell his own investment books. Anyone who dismisses RDPD based solely on what Reed wrote is as big a sheep as what he calling Kiyosaki's fans.

I enjoyed RDPD and there were several other Rich Dad books I found very good : Success Stories and Form Your Own Corporation. I can hardly think of dryer subject material than corporate legal structures, but I found the RD book easy reading

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

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't Tim Ferris found and run a supplement company years before publishing his first 4-hour book?

Tim Ferris founded and ran a Multi-Level Marketing company that sold supplements. I have no use for anyone or anything that comes from a MLM background.

Before you dismiss Tim Ferris out of hand for his background, you should consider dismissing him on the merits of his methods of holding your breath longer than Houdini or eating ginger and sauerkraut to gain muscle.

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

#118
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.

I suppose we have different definitions of "scammy". RDPD and the 4-hour series both package up common-sense recommendations in a way that resonates with a lot of people. There might not be a whole lot of substance there, but I don't think that's the point. The people who buy (and enjoy) those books, are the ones who just want to find someone else saying what they're thinking. It's a bit of extra motivation towards t…

The 4-hour series borders on sociopathic behavior at times. I'd hardly call it common sense. I think Dwight Garner's review of 4-Hour Body in the New York Times summed up exactly how I felt about 4-Hour Workweek: "“The 4-Hour Body” reads as if The New England Journal of Medicine had been hijacked by the editors of the SkyMall catalog."

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

#120
That is the beauty and curse of entrepreneurship, there is no clear goal post, no absolutes, just approximations. It takes a lot of toughness to go through the emotional roller coaster of excitement and enthusiasm to frustration and disappointment. That is why most fail, that is why most don't even start. Resilience is the name of the game.
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