Book Review – Rich Dad, Poor Dad
This is a good summary of the book. It isn’t mine, but its pretty darn good, so I thought I’d share. If this is your summary, let me know so I can credit you.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
By Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter
1. The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.
2. Rich people acquire assets. The poor and the middle class acquire liabilities, but they think they are assets. An asset is something that puts money in your pocket, a liability is something that takes money out of your pocket. The rich buy assets and the poor only have expenses.
3. Poor people buy liabilities to look rich. Rich people buy assets to get richer.
4. The rich get richer because they continue to do things that make them richer. The poor get poorer because they continue to do things that make them poorer.
5. Rich people learn how to manage risk. Poor people are afraid of risk.
6. An intelligent person surrounds himself with people who are more intelligent than he is.
7. Wealth is accurately measured by a person’s ability to survive so many number of days forward without working. Or stated another way: If you stopped working today, how long could you survive? Wealth is determined by Net Worth, NOT by income. You can have a huge income, but still be poor.
8. You can never be too rich.
9. Rich people buy luxuries last, while the poor and middle class buy them first. Assets buy luxuries.
10. Once a dollar goes into your asset column, never let it out. It becomes your employee. The best thing about money is that it works 24 hours a day.
11. A house is not an asset – it is a liability. It produces no income, only expenses. (Mortgage, Interest, Taxes, Insurance, Maintenance, Utilities, Furnishings). Don’t be “House Rich and Cash Poor”.
12. Building wealth is like planting a tree. You water it for years and then its roots grow deep enough that it takes care of itself. Then it provides you a nice shade to rest under and it takes care of you.
13. A true luxury is a reward for investing in and developing a real asset. Buy yourself nice luxuries but make sure you have earned them and can pay for them first.
14. Rich people invent money.
15. Great opportunities are not seen with your eyes but with your mind.
16. Many people are one skill away from great wealth.
17. Rich people talk about money and learn from other rich people. The poor do not.
18. Don’t let life or people push you around. Don’t quit. Fight!
19. Don’t blindy follow the “conventional wisdom”. Have the courage to “go against the flow”.
20. It’s not what you make that counts, but what you save and invest.
21. Don’t listen to poor or frightened people.
22. Master a formula and learn a new one.
23. Rich people take advantage of economic downturns. Rich people take advantage of opportunities.
24. Rich people don’t make excuses for their financial success or failure.
25. Mind your own business. Think of your household as your own business. Profit vs. Loss and Assets vs. Liabilities. It’s “You, Inc.”.
26. Advice for those of you in debt: If you find that you have dug yourself into a hole, STOP DIGGING!
27. He who has the gold makes the rules. The rich make the rules.
28. Money comes and goes, but if you have the education about how money works, you gain power over it and can begin building wealth. The reason positive thinking alone does not work is because most people went to school but never learned how money works, so they spend their lives working for money instead of having money work for them.
29. Don’t turn yourself into a slave to money and liabilities. Choose power and freedom.
30. You always want to make sure you’ll be cash-flow positive in any prospective real estate investment. Your rents collected should always, at minimum, cover your mortgage and expenses even while you’re building equity.
I also strongly recommend Rich Dad’s Retire Young, Retire Rich 
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September 20th, 2006 at 6:15 am
This one is my favorite: 15. Great opportunities are not seen with your eyes but with your mind.
September 20th, 2006 at 7:19 am
Grr.. This guy has already been exposed as a fraud, and now claims his stories are all just good example stories, and that he uses these to illustrate the way he feels, even though the whole book is fiction.
Kiyosaki now has the words “Although based on a true story, certain events in this book have been fictionalized for educational content and impact,” in the fine print on the copyright page of Rich Kid Poor Kid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_T._Kiyosaki
This site offers a pretty thorough breakdown of his claims:
http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html
Wow, I hate to be negative with my first comment on your site! I did bookmark you, so there’s something here I like!
September 20th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Your blog entry was very interesting. I am a realtor specializing in Tampa Bay Florida Real Estate .
September 20th, 2006 at 9:14 am
so you feel he has nothing of value to say because his book was fiction???
and what made you think the whole book was his biography to begin with? I never got that feeling when i read it in 1999.
September 21st, 2006 at 6:56 pm
Kiyosaki is great. 90% of his ideas are good and most of his stories are fun to read. A lot of his ideas can also be found elsewhere but he packages them together well. He is a great salesman. His books have been a big inspiration to me.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
i just found this site via Google. this was my summary. i’m glad you enjoyed it. i have many others in addition to my own writings on finance and life.
best wishes.