Rating: 
Summary: Simple message, profound message
Review: The basic theme of the book can be summed up in two words, "buy assets." With that as your financial plan your money grows. Assets are all those things that make money. Expenses are all those things that cost money. Your car is not an asset, it's a money pit. Your house may be an asset or may not. The rental house you bought, now that's an asset. Poor people don't know the power of assets, and don't know how to tell an asset from a liability. It's not a complete forumla for geting rich, but it is the place to start.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Philosophy - Bad Advice (2 1/2 Stars)
Review: I would rate this book with two and a half stars if I could vote in half star increments. The book has a lot of positive aspects, but it has a lot of non-specific advice and some very bad or inaccurate advice.Understand that this is not a book that will give you the "How To" on anything. The author leaves out most of the specific details that would allow someone to create a plan. The book is very much a "Financial Philosophy" book. The postive aspects is the author's hard hitting advice in the beginning of the book. He spends time talking about how the educational system doesn't really teach people how to managage money effectively. He also discusses some great points on how you should invest your money in income producing assets like rental real estate, stocks, businesses, etc. He gives some great advice on how a person needs to avoid buying liabilities. He defines liabilities as anything that doesn't produce income and actually costs you money to keep like a boats, cars, etc. He points out that we are taught to get good grades, get a good job, and buy the American dream. He points out that most people buy things using consumer debt and spend their whole life working hard to pay bankers, interest on credit cards, etc. He says we are taught that our future is in a "secure" job, which he contends doesn't exist. In my opinion all of this is excellent advice and goes a long way to getting people to rethink their views on their financial lives. It isn't really specific on any points here, but if you are a person who puts faith in a secure job, spends most of your income, and has consumer debt you may get a real eye opener by reading the book. On the negative side he doesn't give you any specific plans, steps, outlines, or information on "how to" build income producing assets. He has a few very vague examples of things he has done, but nothing specific. He does however offer up some very bad tax advice about how to use corporations and 1031 real estate exchanges. I would strongly recommend a reader go see their personal attorney and CPA before trying any of his suggestions on tax. He also seems to come down pretty hard on any type of formal education. He repeats over and over again how bad our educational system is. While I think he has a point that our educational system doesn't teach people how to manage money effectively I completely disagree that education is worthless. A good education in math, English, writing, and business etc. will never be a waste no matter what your lot in life is. He also spends time basically directing readers to other sources for specific information on how to do anything. He suggests readers attend seminars, read other books, play his game CASHFLOW, etc. to get specific education on topics such as investing, real estate, taxes, etc. Finally, he has some very bad and vague examples of how taxes work in different scenarios, which I found inaccurate. The overall writing style could also use improvement. His style of writing is vague at points, illogical, and poorly constructed. He points out in the book that he is a "best selling" not a "best writing" author. I would agree with that. I don't want to bash the book too bad because I can see what he was trying to accomplish, but to a beginner or someone who doesn't have a business background you could easily draw bad conclusions and bad advice from the book. I would recommend a person only read it as a broad overall introduction to "financial thinking" and avoid all general advice he gives on taxes, education, or investing. I would read other far better books on those subjects.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Book
Review: I decided to purchase this book after two people recommended it to me, but I was sorely disappointed. Let's start with the positives. Kiyosaki offers SOME sound advice: it obviously makes good sense to become financially educated, to develop an investment portfolio and to avoid wracking up credit card debt. However, most of the other "advice" provided in the book is highly suspect, to say the least. Kyosaki goes as far as to recommend that people not diversify their investment portfolios. An extremely dangerous proposition if you are playing with your retirement money or college fund. The advice provided in the book is mostly general, amorphous and repetitive in nature. It consists mostly of Kyosaki's description of real estate bargains he has supposedly found over the years. The book is poorly written and is filled with numerous spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and poor page layout decisions. As Kyosaki himself states, he is a "best selling" not a "best writing" author, but this is no defense for his editors.
If you decide you want to read this book (which I don't recommend), look at it as an inspirational piece. This is not an investment guide, nor a "how to" book. It is filled with platitudes, flaming rhetoric and that's about it. If you are serious about investing - which you should be - there are far better books out there. Finally, just in case you were wondering, I am an MBA and a lawyer, and I am "financially well educated" as Kiyosaki would put it.
Rating: 
Summary: I can't believe I read the whole thing...
Review: Robert Kiyosaki is a charlatan and a quack who has built a franchise selling false hope to those who can least afford it. As a CPA, Sharon Lechter should be ashamed of herself and possibly have her license revoked. I do however agree with Kiyosaki on one thing-- he is a terrible writer (pg 132).
Rating:
Summary: Rich Dad's Advice = Sell Bad Advice
Review: Kiyosaki is a con artist preying on the weaknesses of underachievers. His sell is closely aligned with the pitch given by network or multilevel marketing businesses (e.g. Amway, Primerica). Education isn't important! You don't have to be smart! You can hire smart people to make decisions for you! I strongly suspect that his product (Rich Dad) was targeted at the network marketing crowd, but it could be cause or affect. According to SmartMoney, his book suffered dismal sales initially until Amway adopted its themes. I have also listened to his 12 CD "get rich quick" program and it is clear to me how Kiyosaki made his millions. He has made several unsuccessful attempts at businesses selling different products. Eventually he came up with a board game (Cashflow Quadrant) to "educate" people how to "leave the rat race". "Rich Dad Poor Dad" was written in an attempt to market the game and give credibility to the advice given. The "Rich Dad" was a fabrication, a made up character because Kiyosaki had no financial credibility at the time he wrote the book. The book became a best-seller, and since that time his company has refocused on leveraging the Rich Dad theme, spinning off dozens of books and numerous seminars. All you have to do a search on his name and you will see dozens of products. If his advice of making money work for you is so powerful, why is Kiyosaki still pumping out muliple books and seminars each year? He claims he is following a higher cause to educate the public. His higher cause is to make more money for himself.
Rating:
Summary: Thinking straight about money
Review: When Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki was recommended to me by some friends, I was immediately skeptical. I tend to think that typical books about money have several problems. They seem to imply that money is the cure to most or all of life's problems. They promote making money as if money is the ultimate goal in life. Or they promote a very narrow method of making money, which, it is assumed, is the best method for everybody. None of these problems exist in Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Kiyosaki's main point is to teach people a mindset that helps them get out of the "Rat Race." People in the rat race have a nice, comfortable job that earns them a nice income that pays all their bills. They adjust their lifestyle to the level of their income. Debt keeps them from having much money left over, but when there is some, they put it in a nice, secure (low interest) mutual fund. They keep up but don't move forward. Chapter one introduces the concept hinted at in the title. Kiyosaki had two father figures, a poor one (his real dad) and a rich one. His poor dad promoted the idea: "Study hard so you can find a good company to work for." For him, talk of money was bad. Risk was bad. He argued that one's company is responsible to make sure all his needs were met. Finding the best job with the best company that offered the best benefits, to him, was best. His rich dad, on the other hand, encouraged talking about money around the dinner table, to teach the children how to think. He encouraged managing risk, rather than avoiding it. He argued against reliance upon an employer and for "total financial self-reliance" (16). Of course, Kiyosaki's book promotes the mindset of his rich dad. The book breaks down into six main lessons, which help the reader understand the mindset rather than a method. Lesson #1 is "The Rich Don't Work for Money." Though that may sound startling at first, his point is simple. Rather than spending one's life working for an employer (and making him money); rather than always being at the mercy of the job market, the economy and one's skills; a person must find ways to make his money work for him. When a person depends entirely on an employer, he is not prepared for unforeseen events. It is here that he introduces his repeated theme that money itself is not the most important thing in life. Lesson #2, probably the most contrary to the status quo, simply encourages financial education. Most people stay in the rat race because they do not understand the basic concepts of managing money. The most basic (but unfortunately most rarely understood) financial rule is the necessity of understanding the difference between an asset and a liability. Something is truly an asset only when it puts money into your pocket. A liability takes money. Thus, your house is not an asset. Naturally, "the rich acquire assets and the poor and middle class acquire liabilities" (60). The missing element in the education of even most educated "is not how to make money, but how to spend money" (67). Thus, more money is not the solution. Financial intelligence is. He ends the chapter with a brilliant observation concerning the definition of wealth. "Wealth is a person's ability to survive so many number of days forward... or if I stopped working today, how long could I survive? ... Wealth is the measure of the cash flow from the asset column compared with the expense column" (80). Someone is truly wealthy only when his income from his assets matches his expenses from his liabilities. Lesson #3 is "Mind Your Own Business," which encourages people not to spend all their time working for an employer. Rather, everyone must take the time to work for himself. Kiyosaki says, "Keep your daytime job, but start buying real assets, not liabilities or personal effects that have no real value once you get them home" (89). Thus, he also encourages delayed gratification. Lesson #4 outlines the tax benefits of owning your assets within a corporation. The main advantage is that one can spend the income before it gets taxed, rather than after. An employee can spend his money only after the government gets its share. A corporation pays taxes only on income that is left over after expenses have been paid. Lesson #5 is oddly called "The Rich Invent Money" and promotes using the imagination to generate ways to make money. There is not single best way. Within certain guidelines assets can generate income many different ways. Finally, Lesson #6 repeats an appeal he makes repeatedly throughout the book: "Work to Learn - Don't Work for Money." In this chapter, Kiyosaki exposes the danger of overspecialization. Rather, a person must continually work to make his knowledge as broad as possible. To close, Kiyosaki makes suggestions about how to begin. First, he combats the five main reasons people stay in their current life-style: fear, cynicism, laziness, bad habits, and arrogance. He then gives ten steps to begin this new mindset. I will mention just one. He says, "Pay yourself first" (172). By this, he means that people need to set a portion aside from their income every month to put toward assets, and they need to take that portion before all the other bills are paid. Rather than promoting irresponsibility, he encourages self-discipline. The key is simple: "Don't get into large debt positions that you have to pay for. Keep your expenses low. Build up assets first" (176). For most people, this book is needed for one of the biggest paradigm shifts they could make. It contains the truths necessary to escape rat race for now and for generations to come.
Rating: 
Summary: It is a great book
Review: It is an interesting book. The name of the book ¡§Rich Dad Poor Dad¡¨ has already drawn my attention when shopping the book store. It is different from other investment books. It will also challenge the way you look at life, education, business ownership and money in general. Mr. Kiyosaki discusses his own life and offers a lot of good advice. This book has the ability to motivate you to consider having your own business, and have money work for you versus always working for money.
Rating:
Summary: Starting Point for a New Life
Review: This is a fantastic book. It's not the last book you'll ever read on how to build your personal wealth. But it will re-position and re-focus your thinking like no other book I've read. "Rich Dad" is the father of the author's childhood friend, and "Poor Dad", is not only the author's own father, but you'll eventually discover that he was the governor of Hawaii. The author's point is that a lifetime of watching both fathers work and build their futures left him realizing that the benevolent and loving "Poor Dad" was ultimately left with relatively little financially, while the "Rich Dad" spent a lifetime doing unconventional things that positioned him extremely well. The author brilliantly shares how he learned the carefully taught lessons of his "Rich Dad", and changed his thinking to realize, for example, (a) your house is not an asset, (b) only assets that produce income are truly "assets" - such as rental property, small businesses, etc., (c) income earned by employees is fully taxed, but that same income earned by a business is not, (d) and much more. I get the impression that Kiyosaki was probably an early student of the "no money down" real estate types, since it appears that his early success was related to real estate. But this is not a real estate book - it's much more, a solid foundation for building solid wealth. The biggest lesson of this book: learn to fully understand balance sheets. Not that this book will TEACH you to understand them, it won't. But it will convince you, in a conversational and engaging manner, why this and so many other fundamental thought processes work for the rich, and how so many Real People don't even know about them.
Rating:
Summary: How poor was that dad
Review: Although I think it might make financial sense; no, I won't teach any kid that way. There's still more than money to be thaught. I don't know how the real (poor) dad would fill reading his own son's masterpiece...
I think you might better off reading something more human with books like "Personal Finance for Dummies". And treasure the great things in life, like teaching your kids...
Rating:
Summary: An excellent overview of the entrepreneurial attitude
Review: Mr. Kiyosaki does much more than discuss techniques for making money. He teaches philosophy and attitude lessons. The reader learns about the sacrifices, risks, behavior, beliefs, and energy related to success and wealth. He provides examples of wealth-building processes such as investing in real estate and/or starting your own business. He gives many examples from his own career. He doesn't get down to providing specifics about how to do it. He more or less offers a big-picture approach. I found the book helpful.
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