His books contain a multitude of generalisations, assertions and plain old misinformation/lies and of course they have popular appeal because so many fellow Americans just do not understand the tax code nor the multiplicity of rules about investments, businesses, mortgages etc.

I could not believe that people who have intelligence could swallow all Kiyosaki’s unsourced assertions and he has been caught out in lies regarding key elements in his book such as the so called ‘Rich Dad’.

Do yourself a favor and read John T Reed on Kiyosaki. It’s amazing to read how many sincere Kiyosaki fans will bitch about and defame Reed, claiming that Reed sees Kiyosaki as a so called ‘rival’. No – Reed actually has been there and done that, earning wealth in the conventional business like way. As he points out and as should be clear to people with brains, Kiyosaki is a hustler who actually got rich on people like them.

By selling books and giving seminars. Follow the truth trail, do real research on Kiyosaki and you will see he made money from books, not from other sources. He is the last person to be advising on how to get wealthy from real business dealings.

If you read somebody like T Harv Eker, then that’s what a genuine person writes. Eker actually has positive things to say that have real depth and resonate – while reality begins in our heads, he also points out that you’re going to have to really work and be single minded to be wealthy.

He gives real advice on the psychological side whereas Kiyosaki is a snake oil purveyor, making the right sounds but falling short when subjected to hard analysis.

With that, a MERRY XMAS to all!

As long as you can sustainably maintain positive cash flows to service the debt, do take on more debt to be repaid later with devalued, diluted, inflated to oblivion IOU nothings Federal Reserve Notes…

Money IS DEBT (Simply understand how King Henry gets it from Ben Burnthebank) and your mortgage IS THE ASSET!

RDPD is a book on accounting; in the coming years, wealth will be transferred through the balance sheet, without any visible flow of money… Loss and profit account obsessed observers will wake up too late, their wealth gone… Read again, and again, and again until you see that and become able to position yourself on the receiving end of this transfer…

Suze Orman had denied most people of their brains and ability to use them… but maybe, all they can afford in the first place are bad answers to the wrong questions: Which mutual fund is “the best” to “park” my money and please don’t call me a hamster, it is too terrible!

At the very least, RK is challenging your thinking: he does not offer formulas of easy answers – he does not have answers – RK offers invaluable questions.

Two more thoughts:
1- I find it remarkable that Mr. Trent changed his mind and is slowly becoming an advocate and promoter of RK – all hope is not lost!
2- Nothing like a good controversial recurrent popular subject to boost blog readership and interaction…

Thats the thing with investing. You have to be able to keep an open mind to what is available out there. Ok thats fine if you don’t entirely agree with one author. Fine don’t use his strategies. But if you are finding that every book you read you have a negative view on .. then maybe there is something internal like (mindset) that may be holding you back.

I think one of the things that will hold anyone down is a closed mind. I even thing that its better to have an open mind, to try certain things out .. and hey if it doesn’t work out then as least you learned something from it … But if you didn’t do anything at all .. well you will just be in the same financial position in 20 years time ….

Young Investor

http://www.investmentrealty.blogspot.com

I disagree. At what point do you realize the individual has nothing new to show you? At what point is the material provided so full of holes in logic and thought that it no longer is of use? Do you sit and listen to every infomercial on TV because there might, possibly, be a grain of truth in the blather of what they’re selling? At some point, you stop listening because the message is no longer of worth to you. Is that ignorance or a smart use of your time?

I will agree that you are in a different position, because you do get asked about kiyosaki (and probably other folks like Dave Ramsey and David Bach), and therefore, perhaps you don’t feel comfortable ignoring him and need an answer as to how he’s inspired people.

However, I feel that there is no problem in ignoring him or frankly, telling others that there are better resources out there they can use.

I get probably a dozen emails a week that in some way relate to Kiyosaki or Rich Dad. I might feel that the message is bad and I’ve criticized it over and over again, but I also see that it’s inspired a lot of people to actually stand up and make a change in their life.

The truth is that different messages reach different people. Why does Kiyosaki’s message reach some people so effectively? Maybe they just needed a little inspirational push to do whatevery they were thinking about, or maybe they never even considered entrepreneurship and that book opened their eyes.

And that’s a good thing. Whatever it takes to get you to open your eyes and take a serious look at your money and your life. The important part is to keep looking. Keep learning and studying. Maybe you’ll discover that that first inspirational message that opened your eyes wasn’t the best answer for you. Maybe you’ll discover some logical and factual flaws in it. In fact, I’m pretty sure most people who read RDPD critically and then follow it with additional learning will find at least some big flaws in the book.

But the learning process itself is valuable. Reading a lot of viewpoints and ideas is valuable. The only dangerous point is when you close your eyes to a viewpoint held by a lot of people, writing it off and declaring yourself “above” it. Then you just become ignorant yourself.

You don’t have to agree with what everyone says, but when you actively choose to ignore someone and stop learning, you choose ignorance.

I think Trent’s post looses a lot of value because it try’s to have things both ways, its a “bad” book but I learned “something” from it. When you say that people with different attributes might benefit from reading it, what are these attributes and roughly want % of the population has them? And why can’t they just obtain the benefit from reading something better. Yes, its silly for Trent to toss aside a book or a blog as soon as [he] read something that [he] disagreed with but its equally silly to not stop reading a book full of mostly “absurd” things.

I think all the points Trent claims he “learned” are either, trivial, something he already knew or something did not actually learn from the book (ie that explains a lot about how CEOs and many business leaders operate). I am also confused each time he talks about rich dad like he is a real person, even though he has read Reeds commentary on RK. I think RK has committed massive fraud and his sales are backed by multi level marketing organizations, and RDPD is one of the worst possible examples of a “bad” book to learn from.

Trent, do you really want to encourage people (and that is what you do when, when you bring RK’s name back into the spotlight and say you learned things from him) to listen to RK? Even when he gives interviews like this this?

When he says is net worth fluctuates between 50 and 100 million depending on the day, or that he owns a fleet of porches, my problem is not with his frugality or values, it that I think its pretty obvious that he is lying.

I was one of those who did not agree with you in your earlier criticism of RK.

His book was the starting point for me to evaluate and relook at my financial situation.

It is really great that you have now articulated another view point.

I found the “Not likely” section highly telling- I believe that you can make a lot of money in realestate it just will take a lot more work than Kiyosaki leads you to believe.

And that is EXACTLY why Trent’s review of RDPD is valuable. He gives us his honest opinion and states that he doesn’t approve of or agree with much of what Kiyosaki writes, but he also clearly states that people with different attributes might benefit from reading it.

So reading a review like this can help you determine whether or not it would be a waste of time to read the whole book yourself. And whether or not you agree with anything that Trent or his commenters have written, THAT is valyuable, I think. :)

Thanks, Trent, for having the courage to state and stand behind your convictions.

Maybe “good” and “bad” are confusing us. Do you think RDPD was a worthwhile read? I would say yes, after all you are claiming that you learned something from it and that you see how it can be inspirational. If you don’t think it was a worthwhile read, why are you so proud of having learned something from it? How bad does a book have to be to learn absolutely nothing from it?

Reading different viewpoints is great, but that argument can be used to justify reading anything. Even when reading different viewpoints, most people care about the truth and quality of the writing, most people don’t like to waste their time.

The point in reading a book is to learn something, and I did learn some things from “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” These lessons, however, just reinforced my basic beliefs: frugality and conservative investing are the way to go, even if they’re not respected by some (like Kiyosaki and his followers).

As far as Kiyosaki, I think the articles he writes for Yahoo Finance tell it all. They are poorly written with no clear thesis and completely devoid of facts. I think the comparison of two Dads was a unique, interesting way to present material, but the content was lacking.

You cite cops, doctors, firemen, engineers, teachers, etc. — all people who contribute to society. We could not do without them.

So is getting rich the primary value? Or is being a constructive member of society the primary value? Maybe we need to find ways to keep these values in balance.

The fact that he is a fraud does not surprise me.

Lisa