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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?

#11

Post by wisty »

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…

If the only valid point he has is that passive investments are a good thing, it's not a great personal finance book. You could learn a similar amount by looking up "investment" in a good dictionary.

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

#12

Post by mgkimsal »

zavulon wrote: post #8
cd34 wrote: 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.

Certainly not unbiased, but there's very little in his criticism I've read that doesn't seem accurate. Regardless of who is making the criticism, Reed seems to have some pretty good points of criticism, and I've never heard/read good rebuttals to his points, other than "well, he's biased!"

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

#13

Post by vsl2 »

I agree - Kiyosaki is full of hot-air generalizations that will just as easily put you into huge financial headaches (e.g. huge investment losses, tax penalties, shot credit) as build wealth.

You can't underestimate the gullibility of the masses when a book starts getting some good initial publicity - the wave becomes its own animal with everyone repeating all of the good things previously said of the book, no matter how right or wrong. Sad to say, I bought and read the book a few years under the same guidance.

Product being up-sold like a time share? Superlative claims like a male enhancement product? Partnering with Donald Trump's hair? Check, check and check.

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

#14

Post by dedward »

toadi wrote: post #2

Don'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…

i found it a really sound book. I took away several points, it should change peoples perspective about what money is, or can be. I good credit rating should be a side effect of good financial practices. The modern day idea seems to be that you should pay to borrow as much as you can afford so that you can qualify to pay to borrow even more money down the road. With good financial practices, your credit rating should be fine, or if things are going so well for you that you dont need to borrow institutionally, your credit rating is irrelevant anyway. That said, credit is a good financial instrument if used properly.

The best take away was his definition of wealth.... when your income from your assetts pay for your lifestyle.....simple as that. thats wealthy.

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

#15

Post by slarvtrax »

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…

Unfortunately, only a tiny percentage of the book is dedicated to addressing these legitimate avenues for investment.

The rest of the book succeeds only in massacring the concepts. Insider trading? Illegal. Real-estate lowballing? The only guarantee is a bad reputation.

It wasn't hard to find lucrative investments in the late 90s. I can't help but wonder what happened to his real estate empire when the bubble burst, if it even existed.

There are many books that do justice to explaining those seven items you've mentioned. Rich Dad is definitely not one of them.

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

#16

Post by maaku »

wisty wrote: post #11
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…

If the only valid point he has is that passive investments are a good thing, it's not a great personal finance book. You could learn a similar amount by looking up "investment" in a good dictionary.

The 'point' of the book is that this contradicts general beliefs of society. For example, that hard work is what gets one rich. Going from poor to rich does require hard work, but which work you choose to do matters far more than how hard you work at it.

If you read HN then you already understand the premise of the book. But for society writ large "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" was a wakeup call to reexamine core values and life choices.

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

#17

Post by S_A_P »

The best way to make money? Sell advice/a book on how to make money. It seems to me that some of these investment opportunities are limited(real estate bargains, etc) so why would you tell the world to leverage them and remove competitive advantage?

It seems to me that if you have to buy infomercial time to sell advice, it isnt very good advice, or it isnt going to work. The Rich Dad, Poor Dad books seem to me like a Don Lapre pitch wrapped in a slightly nicer presentation.

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

#18

Post by jpdoctor »

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…

> The premise of the book is solid; invest in assets that make money for you without you having to be there.

Sounds like a recipe to hand your money over to scamsters. Esp as it was proven out by "Income generating real estate" in the past decade.

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

#19

Post by roel_v »

toadi wrote: post #2

Don'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…

"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."

Yes we do, at least some of us (I don't know about each and every Member State). It's not accessible to most people, since it's locked away behind credit rating bureau's models, but rest assured that there are many places that track e.g. how often you've not paid you phone bill on time.

I much prefer the US approach, at least it's out in the open that it exists, and you have a legal right to access your data.

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

#20

Post by jpdoctor »

S_A_P wrote: post #17

The best way to make money? Sell advice/a book on how to make money. It seems to me that some of these investment opportunities are limited(real estate bargains, etc) so why would you tell the world to leverage them and remove competitive advantage? It seems to me that if you have to buy infomercial time to sell advice, it isnt very good advice, or it isnt going to work. The Rich Dad, Poor Dad books seem to me like a…

Another website: http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

Kiyosaki added a note about fictionalizing, which caused a stir.

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