Rich Dad Poor Dad
Book Review
Robert Kiyosaki writes about the different financial educations he received from his father and from his friend’s father. Perhaps the most important aspect of this book is the value of learning about money and finances at a young age.
This certainly isn’t a “get rich quick” book. Robert “retired” when he was 47. Keep in mind that he started on wealth building as a pre-teenager (age 9), thus it took him about 37 years.
Robert is quite brutal with his different viewpoint. He is blunt that if you work a (good) job you will be poor your entire life. To gain wealth you need to buy assets and let them work for you. Robert pursued real estate and has many stories of excellent success in his transactions.
He implies that you don’t need money to make money, that anyone can start with nothing and become wealthy. True, but that first massive effort is working hard (and saving) to make enough money, to have enough to spare, that you can risk the money you have saved, in order to turn it into even more money.
Robert makes clear the benefit of “paying yourself first” by creating a corporation and spending before tax income on “expenses” instead of wasting 30% or so paying taxes and then scraping together what’s left over after paying taxes to buy the nice things you want. Use the tricks the rich use (to legally avoid taxes)!
There are some great quotes in this book:
“When emotions go up, intelligence goes down.”
“It’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep.”
“I am concerned that too many people are too focused on money and not on their greatest wealth, their education.”
“Intelligence solves problems and produces money.”
The emphasis on education, as the greatest investment you can make, is something I’ve always lived and believed in. We are not talking about blowing tens of thousands of dollars to get a piece of paper from a University, that’s generally a foolish waste of money. But constantly educating yourself, throughout your life, opens opportunities and enriches your life.
If you aren’t a risk taker and you are more interested in enjoying today than in enjoying tomorrow then don’t bother reading this book.
Read this book if you want to be motivated to take the path of letting other people make you wealthy, instead of spending your life making others wealthy.