Rich Dad, Poor Dad Abridged

Rating:
Summary: Expanded My Way of Thinking
Review: The book helped me think of many ways to help myself! Mr. Kiyosaki offered numerous examples and stories that helped me determine ways slightly alter my way of thinking to benefit my family financially.

Rating:
Summary: Concrete Financial Foundation
Review: Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a must for anyone who has never been taught the fundamentals of how money works. Robert's life story is written like a parable and it shows that true financial abundance is within your reach.

While the nuts and bolts of actually building your fortune are not included (like a "How-To" book) this book can create the foundation to help you understand WHY the rich are rich, and the middle class and working poor are woefully underprepared by our school system to be financially self sufficient as adults.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who has ever had a dream of being truly financially set.

Rating:
Summary: Financial Knowledge can be more important than Career skills
Review: My bookshelves are filled to the brim with computer programming books: C++, Web development, etc. I have placed so much importance in always being very marketable and up to date and having job security, etc, but I think I have overdone trying to be so "smart" at computers. At 34, I have zero investments. This is because I have waited up to now before finally learning about this money stuff, thinking up to now that this growing field in the Internet would keep me employed as long as I focused on computer skills. I was flipping channels one night, and one of the commercials was Oprah's show that was going to air the next day. I taped it, bought Robert's book and my life has changed. I now realize that saving up for a down payment on a house now that I paid off my consumer debt was a BAD idea! I now realize that making my decisions on what to study each night should be based on building my asset column, NOT trying to impress employers with skills my resume. If you have nothing invested, and you think that owning a house is security, you'll think differently when you read this book.

Rating:
Summary: we must teach our kids about money
Review: This book was a good wake up call about how schools are failing kids by not teaching them about money.

I also found the book SIMPLE MONEY SOLUTIONS very helpful in giving specific advice on how to teach kids from age 2 - 20 about money, allowances, first jobs, and credit cards.

These two books make a complete combo for kids and money.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Questionable Hokum Repeated with Sysyphean Efficiency
Review: This book doesn't offer any evidence, only assertion and conjecture, to support the main thesis. In fact, most of what this book tells us that the rich teach their children is highly questionable hokum needlessly repeated. As for the great lessons designed to get us out of the rat race and onto the fast track: Did you know that it is better to have assets than liabilities? (This astounding point is made nine times.) Did you know that an asset is something that puts money in your pocket? Well, it is! That's why it is good to have assets. Get it? And guess what? The biggest liability most people have is taxes. This is because we are taxed on what we earn, what we buy and sell, what we own, and we are taxed when we die. So the author advised us to avoid taxes, but his method of writing off expenses in a private corporation is highly dubious. By his own admission, the author is a "terrible writer" (page 132), a statement I know to be true because I suffered through his book. If you need financial advice, go to a professional. If you wish to read about economics, read something intelligent like Peter Lynch's Beating the Street or Jack Schwager's Market Wizards or the Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing. And if you really want to understand the economic structure of our time, read the classics like John Maynard Keynes' The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936)or Joseph A. Schumpeter's treatise on business cycles.

Rating:
Summary: Financial Education
Review: I have often wondered why useful and relevant courses are not taught in our schools such as the importance of budgeting and balancing a checkbook, dangers of credit card debt, how compound interest works, and investment choices. I was pleased to discover in Rich Dad, Poor Dad that Robert Kiyosaki feels the same way. Education has not kept up with our rapidly changing world and Kiyosaki believes that the gap between the haves and have-nots in our society is widening. As his book and ideas get more media attention and widespread discussion, perhaps educators will take note and promote changes in school curricula to include courses leading to financial literacy.

This book shows us how to have a money tree later in life by planting seeds -- investing money -- on assets as early in our working lives as possible. Kiyosaki exhorts us to learn the difference between an asset and a liability and then "concentrate . . . on only buying income-generating assets."

This book is for readers looking for an early exit from the rat race who are open to suggestions and motivation from someone who has already done it.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful First Step Book
Review: This book is the first step to financial UTOPIA. The first step is to always open your mind to a pattern of thinking that challenges you. This book does that. Unfortunately for most families, parents don't teach to their children what this book teaches..MONEY ISSUES, because most people can't teach what they do not know. As a visionary 27 year old entreprenuer in New York City, this book is an excellent first step to gaining financial freedom. This (and How to Win Friends and Influence People) should be required reading for every school. This book presents the answers that I was looking for when taking economic courses in college, but all college taught was theory, not practical application.

Rating:
Summary: Workers of the World Unite
Review: Kiyosaki is a financial chef who cooks up receipe after receipe in the hopes of attaining vast monetary wealth. The thing to remeber while reading this fine book is that the sum is worth more than the parts. Some of his ideas, mainly those pertaining to real estate investment are solid while his forays into the Dot.Com jungle are less successful. His adherance to the principle of multipe streams of income is where his true talent lies; spread yourself thin, take the risk and reap the reward.

The final section of the book in which Kiyosaki hypothesizes that Marxism is going to become revitalized due to the internet is surprisingly compelling. Workers of the world, it would seem, ARE able to unite and throw off their chains, thanks to the unforseen powers of the web. You yourself may be a "millenium communist" without even knowing it, simply by the ways in which you surf the net.

Rating:
Summary: Don't cheat yourself--BUY THE BOOK
Review: I purchased the book as a result of seeing the author on Oprah on Apr. 28th. I sat in the parking lot and read half of the book before I even got home.

I have read some of the negative reviews and I would like you to know that in some parts I agree with them, However, I feel the book has great information inspite of those criticisms.

Definitely buy the book. If you don't like how he completes some of his transactions, then you don't have to do that but don't cheat yourself of the good, practical information he has to share.

The book definitely opened my mind and changed my mindset with respect to money, If for no other reason the book was worth it.

I have been in the process of educating myself about money/finance prior to hearing of Mr. Kiyosaki and this book helped to bring into perspective some of the principals I have been reading about.

The book is an easy read and it does not boggle the mind with difficult to understand financial concepts. A beginner would not be overwhelmed.

A book definitely worth the price.

Happy Reading!

Rating:
Summary: Entrepreneurial pastor raves about Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Review: I'm an entrepreneurial pastor in California and I am overjoyed about what Robert Kiyosaki has written. Some of the things he talks about I have even used in my sermons. The thing that struck me most was leaving a legacy. The Bible even says that "a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children." Proverbs 13:22. It's great to see a secular book bring this point out. I have used this book to talk with my own son about leaving a legacy for his grandchildren. Believe it or not, he's only 13. I don't think it's to early to start teaching him about his role in the prosperity of our family. Best of success to all of you who decide to read this wonderful book. [e-mail]