Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

micaelwidell.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 125 posts

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#11

Post by petercooper »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

Sort of. I find reading other people's stories gives me "permission" to do and try things.

I'm naturally quite a retiring person, but getting candid explanation of people's techniques and approaches has given me the "if they can do that, I can try it too" attitude numerous times (as has HN and numerous blog posts, to be fair - I can pinpoint certain things I've done to being inspired by specific pieces of content).

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#12

Post by withdavidli »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

I liked the 4 hour work week. Sure many here have probably read it. Title sounds cheesy, and I was ready to think it belongs on an infomercial. But throughout the book a step by step process on testing products, figuring out whats the best channel for ads, then how to negotiate better deals on the ads. It's a lot of work that many aren't willing to put in.

Read Rich Dad Poor Dad before. There are criticism online about how they aren't real people. But it does display different mindsets, and how that mindset will change the perception of an event -> action taken because of the event.

And to your question of the majority of rich people reading these books. Meh. Not sure the majority, but the more interviews I read/listen/watch from wealthy people there are certain books they have in common, for example Tony Robbins (haven't read any of his books yet). Not to say the majority of self help books aren't total fluff.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#13

Post by tim333 »

branchless wrote: post #9

How I hate people like this. "Building assets and letting them work for you". For this you can read: "be the footsoldier for the banks who have a monopoly on money creation. Ask the bank to create money for you then use this to join the land monopolists. Then let those stupid little people who are actually creating wealth rent it back from you. This way you get a stream of their labour." For assets read "property". P…

>Nobody adds a billion of wealth creation

How about JK Rowling. Must be close.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#14

Post by tim333 »

dsr_ wrote: post #2

The basic problem with Kiyosaki is that he wrote a work of fiction and passed it off as autobiography. No, wait, the basic problem is that he is passing inspirational advice off as financial advice. But don't take my word for it, read the critique: http://www.johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-real-estate-inv...

Also he's outsourced some of his seminars to some pretty sketchy operators http://youngandthrifty.ca/rich-dad-poor-dad-seminars-a-scam/

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#15

Post by varlock »

petercooper wrote: post #11
pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

Sort of. I find reading other people's stories gives me "permission" to do and try things. I'm naturally quite a retiring person, but getting candid explanation of people's techniques and approaches has given me the "if they can do that, I can try it too" attitude numerous times (as has HN and numerous blog posts, to be fair - I can pinpoint certain things I've done to being inspired by specific pieces of content).

Could you give examples of things you've done and the HN posts that triggered them, please?

I'm familiar with the feeling you describe (They can? Then I can too!) so I'm just curious to see what is in those posts that can inspire someone (content, semantics, anything).

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#16

Post by MCRed »

I read this book, was skeptical given the gungho attitude, so I did some due diligence: Roberty Kiyosaki claimed to have founded a company that went public. So I figured Kiyosaki was a rare enough name and searched the SEC records to find out if this was true. Was unable to find any evidence that he had taken a company public, and so he lost credibility with me.

You meet really entertaining characters in bars sometimes too. They are fine for entertainment but don't take them too seriously.

Putting money to work for you is wise, good advice and there are better books for it. Like "The millionaire next door" and "the wealthy barber" (a little lite but a good intro) and "Buffetology" and "The dummies guide to REITs" and the like.

Managing real estate yourself is no small task- you have tenants and a lot of work to do for them. Putting an agency in between you and the tenants means you may be giving up a lot of your profits to the agency.

The best thing that happened to me, though was I started reading http://mises.org. There in 2000ish I learned about how the fed and CRA were going to create a housing bubble. And the consequences of that. I invested along that thesis in the mid 2000s, getting out of the market in 2007 when things were too crazy to make sense (missed the top by a year, but still good timing.)

Macroeconomic understanding (And I don't mean what politicians talk about or the politically connected people like Paul "we need a housing bubble" Krugman) has been very profitable for me. More profitable than any stock tip.

Also gained a lot of insight from attending Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meetings, but now I just read the annual reports.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#18

Post by bitL »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

RDPD seemed to me as parasitic - the "solutions" there work only if somebody gets into trouble, like foreclosures etc. Not a "wealth creation" book, rather a misfortune-of-others exploitation one.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#19

Post by breitling »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

> it's all gone

Well, that depends. The core lessons really stuck with me and changed the way I thought about money. Especially about the cash flow differences between poor people vs rich people (income goes into assets and the income generated by assets is what can be spent).

I would directly credit this book for my start in real-estate investments and for changing my mindset. I used to be blind to the opportunities around me.

As with most things in life, it's what you get out of it. If you want to forget it, you probably will.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#20

Post by MCRed »

tim333 wrote: post #14
dsr_ wrote: post #2

The basic problem with Kiyosaki is that he wrote a work of fiction and passed it off as autobiography. No, wait, the basic problem is that he is passing inspirational advice off as financial advice. But don't take my word for it, read the critique: http://www.johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-real-estate-inv...

Also he's outsourced some of his seminars to some pretty sketchy operators http://youngandthrifty.ca/rich-dad-poor-dad-seminars-a-scam/

General advice for anyone young who is reading this-- if the person you're trying to learn from offers seminars, it's a good sign he's not worth your time, and seminars are rarely worth the money. "Free" ones are the worst.

Good books are the best educational value (though maybe some MooCs are a better value now.)

Post reply on HN