"Study hard and stay in school. Get good grades and earn a college degree. Find a good company to work for, with excellent benefits, and you will be set for life"

How many of us have been given that same advice? I would bet that most all of us have heard this from our parents, from leaders, and from those whose opinions we trust. It sounds like the answer to everyone's problems, but according to author Robert Kiyosaki, this type of thinking is outdated and dangerous.

Key Points of this Book:

Kiyosaki is a successful investor who is now retired and financially independent. He wrote this book based on his experiences growing up with his "poor" (biological) dad, a man who had a PhD and yet still struggled financially throughout his lifetime; and his "rich" dad (actually, the father of one of his friends), a man who never finished the eighth grade, yet went on to be financially independent and successful. Kiyosaki refers to his "rich" dad and his "poor" dad throughout the book, pointing out how conventional wisdom does not always lead to the financial success that we expect.

Kids and adults alike are taught many things in school, but financial knowledge isn't one of them. Knowing about money, financial markets, and investing is crucial to the success of an individual.

Several lessons are emphasized in this book:
1. Rich people don't work for money, they let money work for them.
2. An individual needs to build a portfolio of cash- flow producing assets and avoid excessive liabilities.
3. You must be willing to take risks to be successful. And if there is a failure or setback along the way (and there will be many), an individual must be prepared to bounce back and try again.
4. You need to become financially literate. Take courses, read books, attend seminars, and do anything else you can think of to increase your knowledge of money.
5. Simply becoming educated and earning degrees does not guarantee your success! It only means that you will be employed by someone else and stuck in the rat race.

Once you have learned to make money work for you, the cash flow that results will lead to prosperity and financial independence. Kiyosaki feels that people must change their attitudes and prepare their children for the information age that we currently live in, not the industrial age, which is in the past.

What's Wrong With This Book?:

This is a pretty good book, but it's a little too shallow. For example, Kiyosaki emphasizes over and over again the importance of building a portfolio of income producing assets, but he doesn't really explain how this can be done with a limited amount of money. He says that it's easier than many people think, but he never says exactly what to do. I don't know if he assumes that the reader already knows what to do, or if he covers these answers in his successive books (which I have not yet read). It would be helpful if he gave a little bit of step by step advice on exactly how to achieve some of these financial goals, with the limited funds that most people have to work with.

Closing Thoughts:

"Rich Dad, Poor Dad" is a good book, but it's not complete. More information needs to be given, demonstrating exactly how to get from point "A" to point "B". Since I have a background in finance, I found this book to be a little on the elementary side. It does include some sound advice, but it's mainly geared for the financial novice who is looking to get his/her feet wet for the first time. I didn't find anything particularly outstanding about this book, but it's good enough to recommend to most people. It's about 200 pages in length and sells for about $15 in paperback. It did reach #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List, so it's obviously helping someone.



Recommended: Yes