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?
#2Don't really get the arguments.
Don't spend more then you earn. So why is it bad to destroy your credit rating? Advise is not using credit.
Maybe he wrote the book for Europeans? We don't have a credit rating. Just if you fuck up you get blacklisted and don't receive any credit.
But we don't have a personal bankruptcy system either ;)
Actually it's not that bad to pay yourself first and the government later. You have to eat and make sure you can work. Here we have to pay taxes on invoices even when we didn't receive the money of the invoice yet. So I did the same and didn't pay the tax yet and postponed. It's a bit like taking credit from the government when late you pay interest.
So in some contexts maybe good advice?
Re: Rich Dad Poor Dad... Worst Personal Finance Book of All Time?
#3http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html
Is probably one of the better resources regarding Robert Kiyosaki.
Re: Rich Dad Poor Dad... Worst Personal Finance Book of All Time?
#4http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html Is probably one of the better resources regarding Robert Kiyosaki.
Ha, excellent stuff. Pretty damning crucifixion of his claims to wealth wizardry!
Re: Rich Dad Poor Dad... Worst Personal Finance Book of All Time?
#5It's written extremely poorly in my opinion (reads like a self help book), but the positive take-aways I got from it when I read it years ago... 1) Understand the difference between assets and liabilities (according to the author most people don't, which is shocking) 2) Take advantage of US taxation of corporations to spend money pre-tax as opposed to post tax (do this within the confines of tax law though) 3) You'll never get rich just doing what most people do, which is go to school, get a job, and work for 40 years. Starting a business is how the rich get rich.
Re: Rich Dad Poor Dad... Worst Personal Finance Book of All Time?
#6Don't really get the arguments. Don't spend more then you earn. So why is it bad to destroy your credit rating? Advise is not using credit. Maybe he wrote the book for Europeans? We don't have a credit rating. Just if you fuck up you get blacklisted and don't receive any credit. But we don't have a personal bankruptcy system either ;) Actually it's not that bad to pay yourself first and the government later. You have…
Sounds like you take it coming and going: someone else is holding on to your money, taking advantage of the float, and you on the other hand, have to pay interest to the government on money you don't even have yet.
Why do people put up with that?
Re: Rich Dad Poor Dad... Worst Personal Finance Book of All Time?
#7This 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 real estate investing, but to invest in what makes financial sense, as long as you invest in something. He gives this as a representative list of such investments:
1) Businesses that do not require your physical presence I.E. a web app that you have someone program once and people pay $10 a month for
2) Stocks
3) Bonds
4) Mutual funds
5) Income generating real estate
6) Royalties from intellectual property
7) Any other recurring sources of income
Re: Rich Dad Poor Dad... Worst Personal Finance Book of All Time?
#8http://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.
Re: Rich Dad Poor Dad... Worst Personal Finance Book of All Time?
#9It's written extremely poorly in my opinion (reads like a self help book), but the positive take-aways I got from it when I read it years ago... 1) Understand the difference between assets and liabilities (according to the author most people don't, which is shocking) 2) Take advantage of US taxation of corporations to spend money pre-tax as opposed to post tax (do this within the confines of tax law though) 3) You'll…
I agree that it is poorly written. However if people take away from it the idea of getting out of debt and buying assets then I believe it is a great step forward!
Re: Rich Dad Poor Dad... Worst Personal Finance Book of All Time?
#10I disagree.. the most important message in the book is that business and entrepreneurship is the path to success, NOT being an employee and staying in the rat race. While it may be common sense to someone who's been in business for a while, or read a lot of similar literature, it's far from obvious to most people.
I'm not ashamed to say Rich Dad Poor Dad has been one of the most influential books I've read in my life. At 20, I had very little idea about business - I thought my path was clear: graduate with a degree, get a job, work up corporate ladder, etc. Reading this book was completely mind-blowing and eye-opening.
Yes, most of the advice is trivial, as I look at it now.. But there's certainly great value in the book - business vs "rat race", building assets vs liabilities, learning to sell, active vs passive income, what you can't afford your business can, value of financial literacy, and much more. But most importantly this: you can very rarely get rich working for someone else.