"Rich Dad, Poor Dad" is Fiction
John T. Reed, a real estate investor, looked into the accuracy of Kiyosaki's best-selling book and found it inaccurate:
- The Rich Dad is most likely an invention. It's unlikely for an entrepreneur to succeed in construction, restaurants, and convenience stores. Authors history also doesn't match up.
- Previously Kiyosaki named at least 2 other people as "the best teacher I ever had", making the same claim about the "Rich Dad" sound false.
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
According to John T. Reed the famous book is filled with bad advice:
Dangerous advice
- "If you're gonna go broke, go broke big"
- Convinces people that college is for suckers
Law-breaking advice
- Advocates committing a felony: have rich friends for trading stock based on non-public inside information, he says "That's what friends are for."
- Recommends tax fraud by deducting vacations and health club dues
- Brags about using a partner weasel clause in which his cat is his partner
Many critics pointed out that Kiyosaki is selling a cult, not financial advice.
He is accused of tapping into the fantasies of the masses & being short on specifics, both attributes of religious cults.
RELATED IDEAS
"Rich Dad, Poor Dad" is a best-selling personal finance book, written by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter.
It reads like an allegorical story about Robert Kiyosaki and his two dads : a “poor dad”, a highly educated college professor & the “rich dad”, a wealthy entrepreneur who owns dozens of businesses. Both dads offer conflicting advice on money.
There are 2 types of income:
Active Income: You are trading time for money. In order to make money you must perform something. Every day you start from zero.
Passive Income: You do not have to be present to generate income. Things like real estate, stocks, bonds are sources of passive income. You are literally making money while sleeping.
A financially literate person should be able to answer these questions:
- How much are they earning after tax and after saving for retirement? Is it fair considering their education level and job title?
- Are they earning above sector median rates, below, or on par?
- How much goes to their retirement accounts?
- How much goes into their investments?
- What are the rates of return on their investments when benchmarked against an index like the S&P 500?
- What are their financial plans?
- Can they read a company's financial statement?
- Do they understand their tax benefits?
- Do they understand their retirement requirements?
- Do they have a plan for retiring?