Robert Kiyosaki

You shouldn't pay attention to Kiyosaki as there are better self-help gurus out there. RD/PD is completely fictitious even though he writes it like it's a true event in his life and one of his companies declared bankrupt last year (Rich Global LLC). So, you can see there are too many 'red flags' for me.

I would recommend The Master Key System or The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.

Good financial education (at a very basic level) but he over-promises. It's one to teach people that there are assets that eat money and assets that produce money and other that you can get rich by following a 1 - 2 - 3 plan of investing in RE.

I have two of his books. Tried to read one while taking a bath. Too much fluff and too little substance but there are so gems there.

I love his so-called non-Havard-mini-financial-books

Wakes up me from the so-called financial conspiracy according to him.

And start building my 'hedge'.

I agree with what he says about Corporate America being a pyramid scheme and about using financial intelligence.

I don't know if he actually had two dads or if he was just simply using a metaphor. What I do know though is that you can't get anywhere in life if you are not making the right decisions and learning from your mistakes.

I also know from studying NLP that if you want to get anywhere in life, then you need to find people that actually know what they are doing and model them.

If for example you want to learn how to be a real estate investor, who would you be more willing to listen to and take advice from on how to do that. Donald Trump or the fry guy at McDonald's.

My bet is you would more than likely want to take advice from Donald Trump. The same is true in anything that you do in life.

Reading books is good, but by itself it won't teach you about life or how to do something. The only real way to learn how to do something is to be willing to take what you've learned, go out, make mistakes, and to learn from those mistakes.

It's just like studying the martial arts. You can read a book all you want or watch a video about it, but unless you actually go out and practice the techniques you will get no where with it.

Robert Kiyosaki is the real deal.The Cashflow Quadrant he taught is beneficial to understand for financial freedom. My understanding is that he attained financial freedom in 1994 before publishing his first book "Rich dad, Poor Dad" in 1997

Well, Robert may not be totally correct when he describes corporate America as one “big pyramid scheme”, as he also dabbled in mining and real estate He however, has great ideas on business, due to his intense passion for entrepreneurship, investing and financial literacy. He actually attained full financial freedom before he wrote his first book in 1997.

When Robert says Corporate America is the biggest pyramid scheme in the world he is totally correct. Corporate America exists for one reason and that is to make money for them any way that they can. To them you are nothing but a number.

To Corporate America you don't matter and neither does your family. People who think that Corporate America are their friends and are trustworthy are deluding themselves. The days where you can work at a big corporation and expect to retire from there are long gone. That's why Robert promotes the idea of starting your own business and he is not alone in that either.

Robert Allen and Entrepreneur Magazine make the same claims. Corporate America is also known to be be very corrupt and greedy as well and it's because of companies like Enron that congress passed a law called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

When you work for Corporate America the only thing you are doing is making them rich. You are giving them all of your time and are allowing them to dictate to you how you should live. That's why Robert and so many others write and say what they do.

People like Robert are promoting entrepreneurism and are very much against the idea of working for Corporate America.

Kiyosaki is more of a real-estate guru than a self-help guru. He made most of his money in real-estate, both investing and teaching.

As a finance professional myself, I get questions about Robert Kiyosaki fairly often. People want to know whether he's the real deal, so I have read a fair amount of his work.

My personal issue with his work is that his main investment strategy is to buy cash-flow generating assets and use the positive cash flow to buy other cash flow generating assets (eg. property). While the concept works (and has been tested over thousands of years), it fails to discuss the time investment involved in managing multiple cash flow assets.

He makes money with his "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series, not his investments. He went bankrupt in the 1980s and is currently in the process of going bankrupt again. I would avoid him. There are better authors out there.

Again, as a finance professional, I'll tell you the same thing that I tell all of my clients to get rich.
1) Always save at least 10% of your gross income in a tax-efficient manner (401K in the US, RRSPs in Canada, etc...). 20% is much better. If you can't afford 10%, you've probably made too many financial commitments and you need to take a reduction in lifestyle.

2) Only invest in assets which you understand (where revenues come from, expenses go, how the asset makes profit, etc...). If you don't understand investments, buy an index weighted ETF.

3) Bonds = poor investments. Investment managers make more money from them (through higher MER) which is why they're still around.

4) Your house is not an investment. I repeat, YOUR HOUSE IS NOT AN INVESTMENT. It is an asset, but it is not reasonable to expect your house to appreciate at more than 3% per year in the long-run. Considering there is an opportunity cost to capital (you could put that money somewhere else and make >3%), you might be better off renting and putting the down payment into something that will generate returns for you. Please note that this specific point is heavily dependent on the location (eg. Real Estate might make sense in Arizona but not in LA).

5) Assuming you work for someone, let them know your long-term career intentions. You will never get that promotion if your doesn't know you want the job. You need to be vocal, and 6 months before the job becomes available. This is even more important for women.

He teamed up with Donald Trump for 'why we want you to be rich'.
Very informative from a real entrepreneur. Even if you don't rate Robert, with Donald in tow
he has molded himself as credible. I like his philosophy.

Yeah, I heard that the whole rich dad/poor dad scenario was fake but, it still rings true! However, there have been much controversy surround Kiyosaki. Here is a link to a Canadian TV Consumer Show that followed one of his seminars: http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2010/r..._dad/main.html

Many seasoned real estate investors advise others to ignore him.

Robert Kiyosaki is an entrepreneur and a great investor. Many of us would think he lacks credibility but he is earned a lot and is worth millions of dollars. People have their own ways of earning and the values they have are also different. He received a lot of negative critics but he doesn't care. He's exactly where he wants to be.

RK changed my life. Hes been getting some bad press lately, we never really know what is going on. I do know that most people get envy when someone is doing very well. RK is a great marketer. Even if he made up those stories they have great principals. I would listen to what your inner gut has to say instead of what the external world has to say

His books are okay, but they are actually for children. Even he says these concepts were supposed to be taught to very young kids. Everything he says is very basic, and common sense, but I guess its needed in a place where most don't have any financial guidance, even at kindergarten levels. I agree that all the books say the same thing, but some people need that.

I would give it to my child to read around age 6.

I'm sure he has had great success in his career and is doing very well. However, after reading the rich dad poor dad book, I was kind of let down by it. It had been hyped to death online and I just didn't feel I got much value from it.

RD/PD reminded me of The Secret. A book that was made famous by its own hype. Rhonda Byrnes made more money talking about "The Secret" (the book) than the the secret itself.

I am a big fan of self help but there's too much "pie in the sky" stuff about at the moment. There needs to be more tangible books. Systems/strategies you can measure.

Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump wrote a book called "The Midas Touch " which came out last year. The book is so excellent and it breaks down the difference between entrepreneurs and employees. How the majority will lean toward security in pay through employment than financial freedom through starting their own business. It's also a tester for readers. You will question yourself whether you are fit for the entrepreneur lifestyle or not!!

I like Robert Kiyosaki because he illustrates a simple point- If you want to be financially free, acquire assets and not liabilities. Buy property to rent; don't buy it for yourself. Buy a vehicle to be hired, not to drive yourself. when you make money , enough money through these assets, let them pay for your luxury items.

Creating residual income, ie. a recurring source of income can make you a success.
When this income exceeds your expenses, you are on the way to becoming financially free.

he has rich dad (father of his friend) and poor dad (his father) he can see everything from 2 aspects or more. maybe we cant understand because of it.

Even though I like what he teaches, I disagree with his methods (expensive seminars upselling you into more expensive, more hypy seminars)

But as far as college being useless- that's a load of garbage.

People with bachelor degrees, on average, earn $1M more than just high school grads. If you get a doctorate (too much time in the books for my blood), that's another $1M over your lifetime.

Remember, you gotta talk about average. There are obviously lots of people with no college education making tons of money, but they're rare.

With college, you just gotta make sure you're getting a high ROI. You can't go to a private college and pay $40K a year for a degree in art history or something. Study engineering, marketing, medicine, etc.

That's not investing in a career- its investing in an expensive hobby.

Besides, the college experience is priceless. There is nothing like living in dorms next to 20 of your closest friends 24 hours a day.

Robert Kiyosaki changed my life(.)

Kiyosaki among other self help "gurus" have a ton of great advice. The thing we most often forget is that knowledge is not enough. At some point we must take ACTION!! Along with adding our own personal twist to things which makes something that already exist "unique". Positive Mindset coupled with ACTION is the beginning of success no matter the arena or profession!!

There are things I agree with him on. Such as the issues with Corporate America. The fact that degrees are worthless (my wording not really his).

And there I disagree with. First and foremost being having assets vs. liabilities. Most of the fun in live comes from liabilities and why make money if not to enjoy it. He is one of those classic "save to be rich" people. But what is the point of saving money if you never spend it.

I on the other hand believe more in cash flow and living your life around it. I know a lot of people with a higher net worth then me. Most make less money than me and most don't enjoy life.

Can you use Assets to produce income? Yeah but make sure you are not sacrificing now for tomorrow. Tomorrow is a myth and you are not even sure how many more "todays" you will have so focus on enjoying each and every day.

And enjoying life doesn't mean living in debt. I think outside of large items that you would have to pay rent on anyways (houses and cars) that you should live debt free.

So if you want that Lambo you need to increase your cash flow to be able to buy it.

Hey,

I personally was inspired by R.Kiyosaki to quit my job and start my own business. And I know a couple of other very successful guys, who were influenced by his "Poor Dad, Rich Dad" book to do the same. So R.Kiyosaki did his life assignment.

i like robert kiyosaki especially his rich dad poor dad book but there other really good self help books from Tony robbins, jim rohn and brian tracy.

I agree that Kiyosaki really changed the mindset...about jobs as such .. I think before him ,there was no book which actually gave a plan or a ...contrast between job and business..
So yeah I still respect him..
Regarding the truth of RDPD...movie stars live the lies all the time but they are respected ...
there are movie stars which have acted like priests and may be all together different in their real lives.....
Monica Belluci played Mary in the Jesus Movie..now well..she aint no Mary in real life if you ask me...but that does not lower down the message she wanted to convey ..the suffering of the great Man Jesus himself...

I read one of his books along time ago when i was getting started. It was motivational and opened my eyes. However like others have said, there are better self hlp guys out there