How I Will Be Rich

It seems to be a very popular thing in the Personal Finance blogging community to discuss their thoughts on Robert Kiyosaki. Almost all of the blogs that I read regularly have done some sort of post on him at some time or another. I’ve read many people that love him and his writing and many people that think he’s a phony and that his work is garbage. I’ve read three of his books now and I don’t intend to do full book reviews (at least not yet) but I do want to throw out my two cents on his books and his philosophy.

I’m sort of right in the middle of the two extremes. I value his books for what they are but I’m not sure I agree with some of Kiyosaki’s decisions within his career.

I really enjoyed the books that I read by Mr. Kiyosaki. I think he is a great story teller and that the story he tells is very motivational. It was actually his book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad that drew my interest towards personal finance. A co-worker, who is a die-hard fan of his work, lent it to me and told me that it would change my life. Up to that point, I hadn’t read many personal finance books at all. Just stories and comic books. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t much of a fan of reading at all. My friend was right, however, the book did change my life. It didn’t change my life in the sense that I was now on track to financial freedom or to get out of the “Rat Race” but it did spark an interest in personal finance in general. It also gave me a new found joy in reading.

His ideas intrigued me but I was still skeptical to the methods that he used to generate wealth. In fact, after finishing the book, I still didn’t quite understand what his methods to generating wealth were. All of the sudden, I had this interest in making money and generating wealth. His book was like my gateway drug. I enjoyed it but I wanted something more. I wanted more details on how to build wealth and how to achieve financial freedom. His advice was inspirational but just not quite informative enough.

After reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad I purchased his books, Cash Flow Quadrant and Retire Rich, Retire Young. I wanted more insight in to his path to wealth. I found these books to be a whole bunch of the same. A great story, being told by a great story teller with very little concrete, how-to information. What little information he does give is all the cliches that everyone has heard for years. Don’t spend money on things you don’t need, live within your means, the greater the risk, the greater the reward, real estate can make you a lot of money, etc. etc. It’s all been said before but Kiyosaki wraps it all up in to a story about his two dads to try to make it sound like he’s speaking from personal experience.

I recently learned that the story of his two dads was based on his real life but, for the most part, wasn’t fact. It’s all a story that he made up to get his point across and to sell books. I lose a little bit of respect for him over this fact because his entire story that has inspired so many people is all based on a lie. While reading his book, I sort of already had the impression that his story was a little embellished but I didn’t realize that the entire premise was completely made up.

I lose even more respect for the guy when I see how he prices his board game. The game that he constantly discusses throughout all of his books costs about $200! That’s insane. He charges thousands of dollars to go to his seminars to further explain all the same cliches that you can get from his book. I thought he claims that all of his income is passive? I thought all of his money was generated by real estate? Why does he need to take advantage of the people who are desperately seeking the lifestyle that he enjoys by selling his products for prices that his fan base probably can’t afford? I don’t want to go off on a tangent about his, non book, products. I just don’t believe that all of his money is from his real estate practices that are “so easy that anyone can do”.

Back to his books… In conclusion, I think Kiyosaki is a great writer. His book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, will always have its place in my library. After all, it did begin my interest for personal finance. I now read Robert Kiyosaki’s books as what they are, a fictional story with a moral to it. They are like fables where the moral of the story is that anyone can get rich and quit the rat race. He writes inspirational stories that are easy to read but don’t buy them expecting to get answers on how to quit the rat race. Instead you get a vague, fictional, tale on how one man did it himself.

Want to get some other opinions on Kiyosaki?

• Brip Blap Discusses a little about him.
• The Simple Dollar Deconstructs Him.
• Consumerism Commentary Wonders if He’s a Liar?
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich Reviews Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

What do you guys think?

-M

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