Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! (Miniature Edition) [Hardcover]

The author heavily promotes the game he created, "Cashflow", for those who wish to increase their financial intelligence. He also has a website, www.richdad.com, which contains details of their coaching program. Naturally, I am interested, because I admit that I need to increase my financial intelligence. I have personally called them up in attempt to understand what is involved with the program. They have a screening process to see if the prospect is ready to be coached. The price tag is $2800 USD for 3 to 4 months coaching. When asked what the success rate is, the program administrator couldn't answer it straight - she said it depended on what each person meant by success. The program came with a warranty - called "no option for failure warranty". It was explained that the coach wouldn't let the student to be on their own before they are ready. How they determine the readiness was not given. The program administrator also said if I cannot pay the $2800 right now, it is best for me to "leverage it" on my credit card. The last straw came, when I asked whether I can call up 3 students to see what experiences they have gone through with the program. She told me in a pissed off, very cold tone of voice, that Robert Kiyosaki's reputation is good enough, and that she sensed I had too much fear in me (to proceed with the program). Then she used a pressure tactic: that people who fear too much analyze too much, and miss the opportunities that come to them. I told her, that I've made enough mistakes in the past that I do not wish to repeat. $2800USD is a lot of money, and I would like to check their references. Rather than giving me 3 names of people in my local area to call, she told me to get Robert Kiyosaki's other book, "Success Stories", to read about their testimonials (great money making scheme here).

I recommend Harry S. Dent's books for further education about finances (rather than using Robert Kiyosaki's programs and products - there's a lot of greed in their selling tactics, and I'm uncomfortable with that).

Naturally, since rich people are not actually a secret society, but only people who have money, I was disappointed. The book does not tell you the secrets and it cannot. I was also very much annoyed by the book, and therefore - here is a summary, which is probably more accurate than the back cover of what this book contains.

The things I liked:
- The book tells the getting rich story of the author, the path he took and where it got him. The story is told well, is inspiring, and the dramatization is adequate
- The book provides a decent reference for actual content, telling you which subjects to learn and pursue in order to increase your chances of becoming rich.
- The book is effective in convincing you that becoming rich is possible, and the authot is honest enough to admit that it takes time and that it is not easy.

The things I disliked:
- The book is repetetive. It appears as though the author did not have enough meat for a whole book, so he just hit the repeat button, instead of adding some meat to it. Or else, the author believes that by repeating statements they assume greater validity. Anyway, it's rather annoying.
- The book is lacking in actual content. After listing several topics that you should learn (marketing, accounting, etc.), I'd expect the author to at least provide primers on these subjects. However, he only recommends other books.

Most importantly, and here's a WARNING, the book pushes you to get rich for all the wrong reasons. The subtext of every other sentence is that being an employee sucks, that everyone (the rich, the government) is using and abusing you on a regular basis. That you are (assuming most readers, like most people are employees), in a nutshell - a sucker. This is intended to get you to do something about it, to get you to say - no more! This is a way to suggest that you should become the abuser instead of the abused.

I resent that. Being an employee is a viable life choice, that has its benefits as well as its shortcomings (even if it didn't work out for the author's real father). The same is true for being self-employed and an investor.

I believe that if Coca-Cola wants to motivate me to buy Cokes it should show that Coke is a good product, not that Pepsi is a bad one. And yet, there isn't a single sentence in the book that suggests that the author's life is any better now that he's rich. The fact that the rich kids didn't want to play with him when he was a child because he was poor, and that he felt like an outcast, is not solved and cannot be solved by having lots of money. The fact that he does not think highly of his real father, like most people do, because he wasn't financially savvy, is not changed by having lots of money.

I refuse to motivate myself by calling myself a sucker. I dislike the idea of someone manipulating people's frustration in order to sell books. It is a well-established fact that one of the things that separate successful people from others is their ability to motivate themselves. Motivating yourself by saying: I will no longer be a sucker, is a loser's motivation, not a successful person's motivation. Motivating yourself by saying: One day I will sail in my yacht into the ocean, and so forth - is the winner's way. Follow your dreams, and let them show you the way, not your frustration.

I will do what I can to become rich, but if I don't - so be it. Your life can be great with or without loads of money, and it can be horrible with or without loads of money.

The first is the simple definition of financial independence: you must have income sources (not counting your job) equal to your expenses. (Actually, you need more, because the unexpected always happens.)

The second concept is simply that if you're eager to get ahead, then what you learn on the job will be more important than what you earn.

If you get these two things, you can toss the rest of the book. All the real information on all the pertinent subjects are covered in much more detail elsewhere; mostly what the rest of this book is pontificating re: his philosophies toward money, education, and what makes a loser vs. a winner. It's his attitude that he is selling. He offers an attractive combination of scorn, pompousness, hope, appeal to greed, and justification.

The biggest problem I have with the book is that this guy himself has no recognition of what he has given up. He doesn't understand the concept of 'opportunity cost' at all. This book is really no more than a passionate argument that his values are right and other values are dumb.

For instance, after he defines wealth as income > expenses, he says, "you can't be too rich". Then he describes how he quit a job he loved (flying) to master sales.

IMO rich is good *only* insofar as it allows you to pursue your true goals and desires. This guy seems to me to have it reversed; his goals and desires serve his desire for wealth instead of vice versa. Ironically, he keeps saying, "I don't work for money, money works for me!" - have you ever been a salesperson? Is there any more servile job? Even a waitress doesn't have to coax the customer to buy something. It's all about what the other guy wants; it's all about being pleasing to other people, and serving them.

Also, in another sense, it is entirely possible to be "too rich"; brazen selfishness of the sort this guy defends begets enemies, and history is littered with unapologetic greed causing chains of events that bring down wealth and power. One does not have to be a passionate believer in karma to be a little wary of anyone who thinks morals are for idiots and losers. (Like his real dad.)

His "rich dad" is the man he wishes were his dad; an 8th grade dropout with (we are told)a reputation for selfishness and exploiting his workers. Reputation is apparently something you should be willing to live without in order to be rich. His employees hate him and, apparently, frequently curse him. This apparently amuses Rich Dad - one more sign of how powerful and cool he is? Rich Dad teaches the author that power means playing petty power trips, intimidating vendors & employees, making people wait in the waiting room, etc.

Quite frankly, he neither sounds like someone I'd want to be, nor does he sound like a particularly well-adjusted person. Certainly not very *happy* (which is no doubt why he's so good at defending and justifying his questionable practices).

Poor Dad, on the other hand, is the author's own real father. The author showers so much contempt on his unfortunate father that I started imagining this book was written to get a last word in against a dead father who steadfastly refused to 'see reason'. The reason I start thinking this is because the father, as described by the author, claimed he "loves teaching" (the author absolutely insists that this just means his father was too dumb to figure out he could have made more money elsewhere) and obviously values education. The author, on the other hand, sees value only in "financial literacy", and describes himself challenging teachers (as in, what has this got to do with earning money? - a question guaranteed to seriously wound any parent who values education).

Personally, I think the author comes across as quite ignorant-sounding, especially when he's talking about politics and history and the like. (At some points so does his Rich Dad, IMO).

I also think that when he openly pities the poor idiotic girl who envies him his bestseller status, & he tries to explain to her about how to learn to hype - spend a few years mastering sales and advertising etc., and she walks away - well, it seems pretty clear to me that *he* is the one who just doesn't 'get it'.

In the end, you get what you chase, what you prioritize. Everyone does. This guy seems continually astounded that anyone could value anything other than cash, and that seems to be the underlying theme of the book. To get Rich, you have to make money your focus, your goal - you must put it first, you must dedicate yourself to learning the games and strategies of wealth, you must stop thinking like everyone else and learn how to think like rich people.

If you want to think like a rich person, though, I wouldn't recommend this particular rich person; I'd recommend someone a little less sleazy. Like maybe the guys who run Franklin Covey - I understand they're rich as sin and can still talk about things like "integrity".