Rating: 
Summary: Rich Dad Poor Dad et al.
Review: This is one of the few works which teaches people how to build
and preserve wealth. The author distinguishes passive income
vehicles from the straight salary form of compensation which
tends to keep people from building wealth and personal
equity. In addition, the work specifies how to take advantage
of real estate in order to develop multiple streams of income.
This work should be required reading for anyone developing a
personal financial plan for the future.
Rating:
Summary: A Lesson That Will Never Cease
Review: I completely loved the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. This book reveals the major problems with America's financial problems, their lack of intelligence towards the subject. This book will not give people all the answers in getting rich, though it challenges a person to find them out on their own. Brittney Bailey
Rating: 
Summary: Altering Thoughts & Minds
Review: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter is an outstanding book. Overall this book is very helpful because it describes certain objectives that people should do in order to achieve financial freedom, as well as providing the tools an individual will need to make a lifestyle change in the way one spends and saves his/her money. This book helps to reshape the way a person may start to think about finances and money. Robert Kiyosaki's book helps to keep things in perspective with life and money. Rich Dad Poor Dad is definitely not a book that claims to bring quick wealth, but is a book that gives a person the opportunity to acquire a successful business/finance foundation.
Kiyosaki has pointed out that people in their everyday lives find themselves in debt traps. He explains that credit card debts and mortgage payments have become so prevalent among individuals that they are willing to do whatever it takes by doing everything possible since their income is decreasingly low compared to their credit card debts and mortgage payments. Furthermore, in Kiyosaki's book, he has two dads, one real dad and a close friends dad who taught him to take risks and told him how to get rid of debt habits as well as how to get rich by starting off with small but wise investments. In his book, Kiyosaki feels that many people can change their financial habits from being a compulsive spender to a careful and wise investor. This book has definitely helped me prepare for my future career goals and hopefully many others will soon adhere to wise choices and decisions in their everyday lives. Overall, I believe this book is a guide to an ideal American life.
Reading this book may change an individuals overall perspective on life, business, real estate, and finance and hopefully will make a change and/or difference for whom ever reads this wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: You Want To Believe . . .
Review: Let me start by saying that it's hard to dismiss this book: you scour the internet reviews looking for a really great book about finances, wishing that there is a solid book that EVERYONE loves and agrees with. However, this book just does not live up to its hype (making me think that a lot of the positive reviews are written by marketing and advertising representatives of the publisher). I know that many people enjoy the book, but I believe that those people did not critically examine this book's properties. Yes, there are obviously fabulous principles in this book, but they could have been written more concisely. Moreover, these principles are not new, but age-old advice given by every financial teacher: invest your money and have it work for you, take risks that offer substantial gain, accumulate financial literacy, and practice what you have learned. Again, as many reviewers have noted, these principles are not specific, but very simplistic and broad. Advising somebody to find tax loopholes isn't startling information, nor is it insightful to today's kids who already know about Enron, Worldcom, and Global Crossing. People claim that this book isn't about getting rich quick; that it's more about learning basic financial principles. Okay, that critique sounds fair, but it does not address how frighteningly obvious many of rich dad's advice is. Personally, I found it insulting that the author tried to over-simply so many of his assertions. For example, he claims that there is a budget deficit because nobody in Capital Hill has money-skills. A six year old can agree with him, but adults have to criticize this idea, considering that the military industrial complex has ballooned significantly since the Reagan years (making Bechel, Fluor, and Halliburton executives filthy rich). Please do not buy into other reviewer's claims that I am a "basher" with no life. This review is only to warn you about buying a book that is very weak in its claims. If people are serious about learning more about money and finances, I'd recommend they subscribe to magazines like BusinessWeek, Fortune, or Forbes. As for great books, try Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics," or Charles Wheelan's "Naked Economics." Above all else, read the first few chapters at a library or bookstore before buying -- you'll be glad you did!
Rating:
Summary: SANTA MONICA HIGH SCHOOL
Review: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert kiyosaki is Great book to start somewhere in the world of economics. It teaches you some good alternatives to see that the rich and the poor can be equally parted in an overall situation of incomes . A great lesson taught overrall is how to make money work for you ,not the other way around.
Rating:
Summary: kyndacee harris--Santa Monica High
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Mr. Kiyosaki opened my eyes to certain things that are quite obvious. He made me realize that most people are passing up oppurtunities everyday, without even knowing. Most of the things that he said I agreed with. You can tell that his rich dad taught him so much and even his poor dad. His poor dad showed him the life he didnt want to live and he learned from his poor dad's mistakes.He really has a well understanding of what he is talking about. You can tell this by his graphs and his word choice.
Rating:
Summary: Upside Down View of Finances
Review: RDPD challenges you to consider money and wealth from a totally different perspective. The RDPD definition of wealth is interesting to me, being the point where your investment income covers your bills. Also that time, the thing we pride ourselves in spending working (How many boasts have you heard "I work 60 hours a week)is our one finite resource and therefor should be used sparingly. To many people the message will be impossible to swallow, particularly those who have had it drummed into them to work hard at school get good grades and get a good job. However having first hand known several people run up huge student loans to make barely $30,000 as a teacher I see the issues in our traditional system. Many colleagues who saw me reading this book were quick to praise it, yet have done nothing about it and they remain locked in their financial struggle. This is not about some get rich quick deal and does not give you the A to Z of achieving the investments, although it does point you in one ot two useful directions. However I do not think the point of the book is to get you to invest in certain deals, the point is to change how you think about money and the way cash flows. Once you understand cash flow you can start to find the investments and instead of being like a man looking for a lump of coal in a black hole you will understand what you are looking for. Contrary to what several reviewers assert, you do not need a lot of money to build a bank of assets (I have several houses I aquired without using any of my money, in fact people I did not know actually gave me some of them). My advice is read the book, if you think it is rubbish ignore it, if you think it is good for heavens sake do something about it. The first step of that process is learn a lot more before you invest in anything as the book is only about basic concepts and don't expect to be wealthy next month, it takes years.
Rating:
Summary: Rich Writer, Poor Readers . . .
Review: First of all, readers need to recognize that this book is marketed towards those who do not have a solid grasp of financial and economic principles. That said, it's imperative that readers use their critical eye when examining the author's many dubious and unsupported claims. The book starts off well, asserting that the traditional model of success -- doing well in school and going straight to work thereafter -- is not working in today's economy. That may be acceptable to believe, but everything Kiyosaki says afterward becomes incredibly hard to swallow. He throws in many pragmatic principles in the first chapters, such as having more assets than liabilities, becoming your own boss rather than working for someone else, and possessing financial literacy. These principles are indeed important, but could have been stated much more concisely than intertwining them with his childhood stories. Although interesting, these childhood anecdotes do not necessarily make the principles any easier to understand (most of the financial ideas are simple to begin with). The trouble begins when Kiyosaki over-generalizes his conception of those who are rich and poor, and also when he overstates his claims without specifics or evidence. For instance, Kiyosaki talks about how menacing taxes are and why the rich are not so susceptible to its evils. He explains that the "rich" use accountants and lawyers to avoid taxes, while the poor are all-to-eager to pay the government. This assessment is overly simplistic, although easy to agree with. How a poor person can afford any of these tax avoidance luxuries is beyond Kiyosaki's grasp. He simply advises his readers to start a "personal corporation" in order to take vacations under the cover of a business expense. Ethics aside, there is no specifics on how to create this corporation, nor any explanation on how it would work. Kiyosaki simply states that it worked for him, hoping readers will accept his claim at face value. Besides too many repetitions of the same principles, Kiyosaki also relies on an annoying strategy of circular logic. He suggests to his readers that owning a business where you don't work but take in the revenue, owning stocks, real estate, and other assets are the key to becoming rich. If readers don't already know these basic tenants, than they might forget that possessing most of these assets requires substantial wealth to begin with. In all, there are few financial principles among the mass of over-simplistic claims made by the author. While it's remarkably easy to recognize the author's narrow view of success and penchant for greed, it is much harder to see the author's incompetence at explaining how to become rich. Like everybody else, he is adept at spinning an illusionary web of fantastical desires mixed with practical financial advice; the result is a disingenuous narrative and a lack of substance. Readers would get rich quicker simply by not buying this book.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: I don't like to read. In fact, I hate to read, but I finished RD PD in one evening. Once I started, I couldn't stop.This man may not win any literally awards, but he sure knows how to write in a captivating way.I have started to apply Kiyosaki's advice and am creating passive income and started a small home based business. To wit, have already doubled my income!Thank you Robert, great advice!
Rating: 
Summary: Not much in the way of revoloutionary ideas
Review: I just read this book through, and decided to take a look at many of the reviews here, both the negative and positive. I own't repeat some of what has been written, but will suggest you look through the reviews which have one star and are well written and discuss some of the illegal actions suggested in this book on real estete and tax information. I did glean a few usefull tips from this book, it had some nice diagrams of how rich, middle class, and poor people spend thier money WRT assets vs liabilities. This is about it, not worth getting the book over. The author advocates getting businesses, preferably ones which you don't have to take care of, rather other people take care of these for you(this can be done if you *already* have plenty of money, but not if you're starting out). Yet, there is no advise on how to go about getting these businesses(other than a lot of 'positive mental attitude' type hype which sounds like something right out of a sales seminar). Having owned a small family business, I can tell you it's not just a matter of making a few phone calls and having the money roll in. While there are a few good points in this book, you can find those same points in many other much better books. "Pay Yourself First" is hyped as a revoloutionary way to save money, but while sound, it's hardly origional as the author tries to make it out to be. Overall, it has a lot of 'get rich quick' mentality which any reputable finantial advisor would not reccomend as a strategy for building a strong finantial future. I would like to reccomend "Your Money or Your Life" by Joe Dominguez as a good starter book for people looking to get started in personal finantial matters. I can also reccomend many of Suzie Orman's books, they're much better, and have sound advise on real life situations.
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