John T. Reed’s analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad

General Real Estate Investing
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Six years ago I read Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and came away with a bit of confusion. It seemed like a strange tale that related general principles but no specific knowledge. I thought nothing more of it.

However, a few years later I was exposed to the Multi Level Marketing world (amway,quixstar, prepaid legal), while in college. I really got a first hand look at a pyramid scheme in action, but what really caught my eye was the fact that people were pushing Kiyosaki’s fluff books with a religious type zeal – the man was treated as a demi-god.

It was a little unsettling how people were being suckered into these schemes, with little business knowledge, by people using Kiyosaki’s questionable works. Furthermore, every few months I would have a friend come to me and tell me that he had begun reading the book, and how great it is. I always became flustered in these situations and had to point out the elementary nature of the books. My interest in Kiyosaki became renewed, and after searching on the internet I found this excellent article basically exposing him. This is a must read:
http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

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I guess I’ll risk heresy too here by saying that while I liked what Kiyosaki had to say, I really didn’t come away with anything beyond “buy more property”.

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Kiyosaki’s objective, in my mind, was simply to change mindsets and philosophies about money, saving, and investing. It introdcuced me to the idea of having your money working for you, instead of you punching someone else’s timeclock – making them rich.

Face it, no book will list step-by-step, how to get rich. If so, there’d be no poverty.

Edit: I checked out John T. Reed’s page on Kiyosaki. Looks like somebody went to extraordinary lengths frantically looking for dirt.

He doth protest too much, methinks.

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Here we go again. Every few weeks I read someone who has read Reeds rant on the real estate gurus. I read his entire website and concluded that he indeed knows his stuff But I wondered why would he be so adamant as to whether a Rich Dad existed or not. Most of what we read via the media and what we see on TV is information that has a spin on it.
The bottom line is whether the book gave you some inspiration to change your life. did it open up your mind to the opportunities that life eal estate, your own business have to offer

The Amway,quix??/ people people are zealots for any and everything that can cause a new recruit to look at them with rose colored glasses. some of their meetings are like revivals… So don’t knock the message because the messengers are quacked!

They look up to their double diamonds with the same blind glassed over eyes.

Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad opens up your imagination so you can see what can be that in itself is good for me.

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RD, PD - is a good read. it is a good read for people who not only have a 9th grade reading level, but have the capacity to understand what Kiyosaki talks about.

he blatantly says in his public speaking - “some of you will understand what i’m talking about, and others simply will not.”

and that is very true. face it, most people do not understand money, business, financing in general. most people do not even balance their check book. and most have never even heard of a personal financial statement, let alone understand one.

the point of RD, PD is to point out the complete inept education system we have. i never, NEVER learned about money in school, by parents never took the time to teach me, BECAUSE THEY ARE WORKING SCHLUBS - BLUE COLLAR.

and most people, even if they do understand the complexities of investment and business, ARE POOR TEACHERS - how many times do you see a son or daughter take over a parents estate only to squander it all???

RD, PD is an excellent book, because it’s readable and quite frankly, his entire collection has made him MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

hello!! i don’t care what Reed has to say - Reed is overbearing and quite frankly, a little boring because his rants go on and on. yes he knows his stuff, but he’s half the genius that Kiyosaki is.

Kiyosaki is the ultimate salesman. Reed, i have never heard of, until i got deeply, DEEPLY involved in rei. Kiyosaki is everywhere. PLUS, HE WAS A MARINE!!

:slight_smile:
Semper Fi!!!

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I’ve watched his programs, and Kiyosaki plainly states that his books are specifically designed to get you to thinking and encourages you to edify yourself based on what areas you personally need to work on. Unlike many other “gurus” he is honest in that he doesn’t push any particular route as THE way to go for everyone.

JT Reed promotes himself the way politicians do when they lack true strong points–he berates the competition and tries to put them in the worst possible light. He doesn’t want you to follow his programs because they are good, he wants you to follow his programs because everyone else is bad. When you are really at the top of your game, you have no need to slag everyone to make yourself look good; your game speaks for itself.

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I like how Reed tries to bring RK down by attackinghis so-called Rich Dad. Who the flip cares if there ever was a Rich Dad the way RK says. The point isn’t so much about the existence of the person as it is about the message he is trying to get across.

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 I would like to quote Robert Kiyosaki "one third of the people love you, one third of the people hate you, one third of the people don't care."  Count John T. Reed as one of the people who hate Kiyosaki.
 First, it's one thing to not like him, it's quite another to be so enthralled with every detail of his book that you feel compelled to argue with every single point.
 Kiyosaki has put together a fantastic package called "6 steps to becoming a successful real estate investor."  Not all of it will be pertinent to your particular plan, but he describes the fundamentals of real estate investing as well as anyone else I have ever heard.
 Kiyosaki encourages exploration of multilevel marketing schemes for a simple reason:  these people teach you about money, business, advertising, sales, accounting, and they will not fire you, and they generally don't give up.  Have you ever met anyone who was successful at pyramid schemes or network marketing schemes?  Usually they are sterling salesmen, complete with business cards, web sites, advertising strategies, techniques for bringing potiential new recruits together and win their support.  It's planning, organizing, directing, controlling, marketing, sales and accounting.  Network marketing schemes are a great way for someone who is fairly new and clueless to learn about business.  Kiyosaki does not conclude that network marketing is the only way to wealth, he simply presents it as one potential avenue.
 Kiyosaki encourages people to become investors.  He specifically encourages investment in businesses, paper assets and real estate.  I believe that this is the true path to becoming a diversified investor; diversifying your 401K or your ROTH IRA simply isn't going to cut it.  I suspect that anyone who doubts Kiyosaki's worth simply hasn't heard enough of his teachings.
 "Ultimately it's not how much money you make that matters, but how much money you keep, how long you keep it and how hard that money works for you"
 Thank you, Robert Kiyosaki, you enriched my life more than I could imagine.
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I must conceed with the greater bunch. Kyosaki supports MLM because those people who are successfull learn to talk with and handle people become sales people who can use those skills to further their Businesses and become Investors. Kyosaki was in an article in the Prepaid Legal newsletter saying this, had nothing to say about the service, prepaid legal used the E/S/B/I promoting the B for business owner.

Kyosaki isn’t dumb, when this market supported his book, he’s not going to turn on them.

But he makes clear that the goal is to be an investor ultimately. In what… he isn’t specific but gives general spectrums to go with.

Reed can harp all he wants, but its true, my family laughed at me, told me to go to college, i thought about it, but knew in my heart i was an entreprenuer. I tried quixtar and was good at it definetly, did fairly well, but it wasn’t for me, but i was preached about kyosaki there. i had good stuff to change your thinking, not specifics.

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But isn’t the book non-fiction? If that’s the case, it seems unfair to talk about a man in very specific terms if he did not exist.

Reed’s arguments against kiyosaki are largely petty, but some very unsettling ones are still present, like:
Why, if rich dad’s advice is so great and kiyosaki had personal training from rich dad, was he homeless so late in his life? If the info, taught and trained first-hand by rich dad, starting back when he was a kid, is worthy he shouldn’t have been homeless so late in life.

Can we be certain that Kiyosaki is even good at business? That is, can we know that he didn’t make all of his money by telling people how to be rich?

I loved that book, and definitely credit it for getting me into real estate in the first place. However, in hindsight, I do not credit it as anything more than a motivator. The fact that there’s a possibility that rich dad didn’t exist and kiyosaki doesn’t know anything about business should scare people. In his book he talks about how he bought his porsche through his corporation. Is that something that happens in real life? If not, it would seem foolish for someone who knew that wasn’t accurate to go ahead and write about it. Seems only a person unfamiliar with corporations would write something like that.

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I’m going to go on a limb and say that very few people cannot understand Kiyosaki. Many people may disagree (doesn’t Kiyosaki say your personal residence IS NOT an asset??) with him, but his material is so extremely simple and straight forward, I cannot imagine what people wouldn’t understand. What main point would someone, or at least someone who isn’t an idiot, have trouble getting from his books?

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Well, with the home prices in Sacramento going down month after month, your residence may very well be a liability if you owe more than it is worth. But your point is well taken. Forget the man get the message

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I absolutely LOVE the message: spend money on stuff that is an asset (ie makes money in his terminology), to ‘make your money work for you’.

The problem is that the message is surrounded by what seems to be a ‘financial fantasyland’, where you just get in the right mindset and money will follow. It is good to be in a financial mindset, like this book puts people into, but wouldn’t a much, much better choice be a book written that actually makes sense? I mean, if this book’s only claim is that it gets you thinking, or gets you motivated, wouldn’t a MUCH better choice be a book that does both of those AND provides stuff that actually makes sense in the real world?

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“Rich Dad” was the type of teacher who apparently let his student fail from time to time in order to learn. Kiyosaki was no different than any entrepreneur, venture capitalist, or investor who ever walked the earth. Sometimes, they lost a lot of money. One of the main tenents of the book is that most people failed earlier and more often than they succeeded. But those failures are what make us who we are – and they guide us through life.

Your criticisms of the book, like anyone else’s are fair. But sometimes I wonder just what you want the book to do for you. In Reed’s case, it seems like nothing other than seething, venomous hatred of a man that has so thoroughly beaten him in the market of self-help investment books and motivational products.

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The only guru that John Reed likes is John Reed…all of the others pose some sort of threat to him.

Keith

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Well said, he has his own product to sell. He wants to demise everybody else to make it seem like he has the real deal.

In one of the other reviews he asks for addresses. I’m not going to give out addresses to properties of mine. That is silly to give competition that information. Give it he will critizise its not like his properties he mentions in publications, No win situation.

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It’s not fair to dismiss all of the very valid points Reed makes just because he hates him.

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But that is just the point. If your definition of an asset is: something that puts money in your pocket, and define liability as: something that takes money out of your pocket, then UNTIL YOU SELL YOUR HOME, it’s not an asset.

Now, is that definition 100% correct? Certainly not. But the concept is a very good concept to learn.

The major point that RD,PD is trying to make is that people do not think in terms of expenses, they think in more vauge terms of ‘assets’. Is a BMW an asset? Depends on how you look at it. It’s a major expense and the return is 100% assured of being negative if you purchase the ‘asset’ new and sell in 5 years. So, is it an asset or a liability?

An asset is defined as something that has monetary value. By defintion a liability is what occurs when a business or individual borrows money or incurs debt. Therefore, a home, unless paid for in it’s entirety represents both an asset and a liability. Or, in more specific terms, the asset is the ‘equity’ and the liability is the remaining debt service on the property. Since, equity is theoretical only, until it’s excercised in the form of a sale, it’s a difficult number to measure. Even ‘equity’ as it pertains to a refinance where cashout is received is a wash because the ‘equity’ is reduced by the liability that is incurred with the loan to ‘cashout’. However the liability is indeed easily measured.

After consideration, I think that to conclude that your home is a liability, is indeed a very reasonable conclusion. Only the ‘equity’ in your home is an asset, and that number is purely speculation until it’s realized.

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Fine. Then don’t buy Kiyosaki’s books.

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For me, it does not matter if the Rich Dad OR the Poor Dad was made up. The book made me think in ways that I previously had not. If fictional characters are a part of the vehicle to opening my mind to other ideas and possibilities - great.

Are the concepts of the book too simple? maybe we are conditioned to think that it can’t be that easy. That mind-set and the word can’t are a big part of what he is trying to teach. If my 4 year-old says “can’t” - he gets a time out and has to rephrase - “I haven’t learned how to yet”. It might just be that simple.