Poor dad recommended, Study hard so you can find a good company to work for. Rich Dad recommended, Study hard so you can find a good company to buy. Poor dad forbade the subject of money to be discussed over a meal. The Rich Dad said encouraged talking about money and business at the dinner table. Since its debut in 1997, Robert T. Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a landmark among personal finance books, a best-seller that has sold millions of copies worldwide. Rich Dad Poor Dad has been inspirational to many people, but the book seems to have as many critics as champions. This article explores Rich Dad Poor Dad Book, Criticism of Robert Kiyosaki, Is Rich Dad book good?

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Book Rich Dad Poor Dad is written by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter and covers ten chapters in an easy paced narrative style. Growing up in Hawaii in the 1950s, Rich Dad, Poor Dad refers to the two main male influences that Robert had as a child. His own father, the figurative Poor dad worked at a steady job for a living, while the  Rich dad, father his friend Mike, ran many businesses who eventually built an empire and became one of the richest men in Hawaii.

Book Rich Dad Poor Dad contrasts the mindset of his Rich Dad and Poor Dad. Being a product of two strong dads allowed me the luxury of observing the effects different thoughts have on one’s life. I noticed that people really do shape their life through their thoughts. The image below shows the difference between what Poor Dad and Rich Dad said.

If interested in buying, Click on the image below to buy the book from Amazon.(If you buy something through our links, we would earn money as affiliate partners)

Why Learn about Money?

One of the reasons the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle-class struggles in debt is because the subject of money is taught at home, not in school. Most of us learn about money from our parents. So what can a poor parent tell their child about money? They simply say “Stay in school and study hard.” The child may graduate with excellent grades but with a poor person’s financial programming and mindset. It was learned while the child was young.

Money is not taught in schools. Schools focus on scholastic and professional skills, but not on financial skills. This explains how smart bankers, doctors and accountants who earned excellent grades in school may still struggle financially all of their lives.

Most people never study the subject [of money]. They go to work, get their paycheck, balance their chequebooks, and that’s it. On top of that, they wonder why they have money problems. Few realize that it’s their lack of financial education that is the problem.

Asset and Liability Difference in Rich Dad Poor Dad

Rule One. You must know the difference between an asset and a liability, and buy assets. If you want to be rich, this is all you need to know. It is Rule No. 1. It is the only rule. This may sound absurdly simple, but most people have no idea how profound this rule is. Most people struggle financially because they do not know the difference between an asset and a liability.

An asset is something that puts money in my pocket.

A liability is something that takes money out of my pocket.

If you want to be rich, simply spend your life buying assets.

If you want to be poor or middle class, spend your life buying liabilities

 You need to relook at the Ideas such as “diversify” or “your home is an asset.” “Your home is your biggest investment.” “You get a tax break for going into greater debt.” “Get a safe job.” “Don’t make mistakes.” “Don’t take risks.”

There are two statements one need to look at the Income Statement and Balance Sheet. Many financial novices don’t know the relationship between the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet. That relationship is vital to understand

• Income Statement often called a Profit and Loss Statement. It measures income and expenses. Money in and money out.
• Balance Sheet. It is called that because it is supposed to balance assets against liabilities.

The middle class finds itself in a constant state of financial struggle. Their primary- income is through wages, and as their wages increase, so do their taxes. Their expenses tend to increase in equal increments as their wages increase; hence the phrase “the rat race.” They treat their home as their primary asset, instead of on investing in income-producing assets.

For the rich, The asset column generates more than enough income to cover expenses, with the balance reinvested into the asset column. The asset column continues to grow and, therefore, the income it produces grows with it.

Key Points of Rich Dad and Poor Dad

Robert Kiyosaki emphasizes six key points throughout the book, which is the differentiator between his poor dad, and the rich dad that helped him understand business and become wealthy.

• The rich don’t work for money
• The importance of financial literacy
• Minding your own business
• Taxes and corporations
• The rich invent money
• The need to work to learn and not to work for money

Unfortunately, Rich Dad, Poor Dad doesn’t have any actionable suggestions. I’d recommend this book as an excellent way to challenge your thinking about work and money, but you have to combine it with other books.

Rich Dad Poor Dad has sold millions of copies. Book has been endorsed by Oprah Winfrey(American talk show host and media mogul ) , Will Smith (Hollywood actor who said he is teaching his son about financial responsibility by reading the book),  Donald Trump (American billionaire businessman who also collaborated with Kiyosaki in 2006 for books like Why We Want You To Be Rich, Two Men One Message  and a second book called Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich-And Why Most Don’t in 2011.) Rich Dad Poor Dad was followed by Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant and Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing. There are may more financial books from the Rich Dad series. Many of them have been translated into many languages in more than 107 countries.

Videos and AudioBooks Of Rich Dad Poor Dad

Summary of Rich Dad Poor Dad in English and Hindi is given below.

If you like the summary then you can listen to the audiobooks.

• You can listen to the Audiobook of Rich Dad Poor Dad in English here.
• You can listen to the Audiobook of Rich Dad Poor Dad in Hindi here.

Rich Dad Poor Dad Summary in English

Rich Dad Poor Dad Summary in Hindi

Criticism of Robert Kiyosaki

Kiyosaki has provoked both praise and harsh criticism. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is successful, (it is available on the roadside in India). But then best-seller lists count the number of copies sold, not the quality of the content.

From reading his books one can deduce that Robert Kiyosaki is a fourth-generation Japanese-American who grew up in Hawaii.  He joined the Marine Corps after graduating from college in New York and went to Vietnam as an officer and helicopter gunship pilot. After the war, Robert went to work for the Xerox Corporation and in 1977 started a company that brought the first nylon Velcro surfer wallets to market, which fell apart, leaving him bankrupt in the mid-1980s. Feeling that he had something important to teach, Robert founded a new company in 1985 to teach business and investing to people throughout the world. He also became involved with Amway, a multi-level marketing system.

By the mid-1990s, Kiyosaki had self-printed Rich Dad, Poor Dad and it was starting to appear in wide distribution among members of the Amway/Quixtar organization, as individuals higher in the pyramid would recommend it to people further down the chain looking to get ahead. Kiyosaki took these sales numbers to major publishing houses and Rich Dad showed up on bookshelves and spawned many similar books, board. The parable format(a story which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles)  is very popular these days and is used in other popular books like Wealthy Barber, Who Moved My Cheese? , Our iceberg is melting,Fish)

Robert Kiyosaki was sued by his co-author, Sharon L. Lechter in Oct 2007  and paid an undisclosed sum to settle a lawsuit in 2008. She had alleged that the Kiyosaki’s had enriched themselves, diverted assets and wasted money in a business that she claimed to have helped build from scratch. Lechter also had claimed that she often rewrote large sections of books she and Robert Kiyosaki co-authored.

Rich Global LLC, one of the companies of Kiyosaki, filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2012, after it was ordered to pay just under $24 million to the Learning Annex and its chairman Bill Zanker.

Rich Dad seminars range from free one-day introductions to three-day seminars that cost $500 to longer courses priced between $12,000 and $45,000. Critics say the marketing of the series is aimed at upselling participants on the more expensive next level. More at Rich Dad’ seminars deceptive

Robert Kiyosaki’s background or facts were found hard to confirm and at the very least inconsistent.  People have often wondered Did Rich Dad, the man who supposedly gave Kiyosaki all his advice for wealthy living, ever existed?  When pressed about the details of his Rich Dad, Kiyosaki said, Is Harry Potter real? Why don’t you let Rich Dad be a myth, like Harry Potter? Well, do we overlook the fact that the Rich Dad books appear under the non-fiction category?

John T. Reed  labelled the best selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki a fraud. He says

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is one of the dumbest financial advice books I have ever read. It contains many factual errors and numerous extremely unlikely accounts of events that supposedly occurred.

Kiyosaki is a salesman and a motivational speaker. He has no financial expertise and won’t disclose his supposed real estate or other investment success.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad contains much wrong advice, much bad advice, some dangerous advice, and virtually no good advice.

Praise of Rich Dad Poor Dad

Some review comments from Amazon.in on the book are

A wonderful book to read for all youngsters, those who wish to make a difference in their thinking process in terms of financial success

Yes. Easy going and very handy book with the fundamental basis of Financial Education. Must read. At least to change your point of View to the Money

it’s a very useful book for those who want to be rich…never work for money… money should work for you.

I liked the book because it is simple and easy to read. He also made me question the traditional educational system(which he says is flawed). He says Our education system is designed primarily to create employees. Our current educational system focuses on preparing today’s youth to get good jobs by developing scholastic skills. Their lives will revolve around their wages. He asks questions

• Why do so many kids hate school?
• Does school prepare you for the real world?
• Why are many highly educated people not successful in the real world?
• Why are most schoolteachers poor?
• Why do schools teach us little about money?

Because students leave school without financial skills, millions of educated people pursue their profession successfully, but later find themselves struggling financially. They work harder but don’t get ahead. What is missing from their education is not how to make money, but how to manage money. It’s called financial aptitude—what you do with the money once you make it, how to keep people from taking it from you, how to keep it longer, and how to make that money work hard for you. A person can be highly educated, professionally successful, and financially illiterate.

Excerpts from the Book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Have your child come to you and said “Why should I put time into studying subjects I will never use in real life?” This is what Sharon, co-author of book faced.

What is Rat Race?

The book talks about him earning money on real estate, I don’t know how many of us can do it? Are we experienced to do so?  But his thoughts or rather the way he puts it across on Investing is great. My first infographic about What is investing is inspired by his book. My Pinterest board on Basics of Investing has a collection of more such infographics.

Related articles:

• Books on money for children
• Personal Finance Books For Adults And Young Adults
• First lesson in financial education
• Saving Bank Account:Do you know how interest is calculated and more
• Review of movie One Idiot by IDFC

If interested in buying, Click on the image below to buy the book from Amazon.(If you buy something through our links, we would earn money as affiliate partners)

We feel that Rich Dad, Poor Dad should be viewed as a general starting point  The book does a good job teaching how to think or relook about work, money, education. Take some of what Robert Kiyosaki says with a grain of salt. It should be read, if not for the motivation, just to get you to think differently than a salaried employee.  If you do decide to read Robert’s books, I would recommend reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant and  Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! Most of the other books are a rehash of these books.

Which book of personal finance have you enjoyed? Do you read books related to personal finance? How do you learn about personal finance?