Rich Dad Poor Dad Book - PURE SNAKE OIL ?

check this and drawn your own conclusion

http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html


Now just a preview of what you are about to read

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Wanted—dead or alive?
As to the whereabouts of Rich Dad—at one point, Kiyosaki tells Smart Money that he died in 1992. Poor man.

Later, he says Rich Dad is still alive, but a reclusive invalid. Uh huh. So how to explain Kiyosaki applying for a trademark on Rich Dad Poor Dad and telling the U.S. government under penalty of prison that the phrase refers to no living persons?

Later, he tells Smart Money that Rich Dad was a composite of several persons.


ok some more stuff for the lazy mofos that are too laze to check the site

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Smart Money cannot find his deals
Kiyosaki claims to have done many highly profitable real estate deals. But Smart Money could not find them in the Maricopa County (Phoenix) records. He claimed to have bought one property for $20,000 and sold it immediately for $60,000. Smart Money could find no purchase for which he paid less than $40,000 (one had no price) and no property which he sold in less than 20 months. When asked about the discrepancy, Kiyosaki said, “I don’t pay attention to those things.”

Huh?


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Trading on inside information
Kiyosaki says, The reason you want to have rich friends who are close to the inside is because that is where the money is made. It’s made on information. ...the sooner you know, the better your chances are for profits with minimal risk. That is what friends are for. (page 154)


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The Rolex watch
A reader tells me that Kiyosaki’s corporation course says that he bought a $4,000 Rolex watch through his own corporation. He had them deduct it as a bonus to him for his sales that year.

1. Rolex watches are not a good value. They are an extravagance whose main purpose is to enable their owner to show off.
2. A bonus from your employer, whether in the form of cash or goods or services, is taxable income at the federal level, at the state level in most states, and at the municipal level in some areas. If Kiyosaki received a $4,000 Rolex watch from his corporation, he would have to pay tax on that $4,000 of income on his next quarterly income tax return. In other words, from an income-tax standpoint, purchasing the watch through the corporation is a completely meaningless exercise. Whether Kiyosaki buys the watch from his own funds or receives it from his corporation, he is out $4,000 (either as owner of a corporation that now has $4,000 less in its bank account or as an individual who now has $4,000 less in his bank account) and he gets no personal tax deduction whatsoever from it. While it is a deduction for his corporation, so is just paying him $4,000 in cash, and it is also ordinary income to him individually, so it’s a complete wash.
3. I surmise that Kiyosaki is implying this is a clever way to get a Rolex watch for free or at a discount by making it deductible. It is neither. If Kiyosaki does not know what I have just said about this transaction, he is too ignorant of this subject to be writing and lecturing about it. If he does know, then he has a rather low opinion of the intelligence of his readers and an equally low regard for their best interests.

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1992 book versus 1997
In 1992, Kiyosaki wrote a book called If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don’t Go To School? It is “dedicated to Ralph H. Kiyosaki, former Superintendant of Education, State of Hawaii, the best teacher I ever had.” This would be “Poor Dad.” But Rich Dad Poor Dad, which came out in 1997, says pretty clearly that “Rich Dad was the best teacher he ever had.

So maybe “Rich Dad” was the second best teacher he ever had. No. Actually, the 1992 book also identifies the second best teacher Kiyosaki ever had: F. Marshall Thurber.

OK. So maybe “Rich Dad” was third. No. Kiyosaki’s 1992 book has an unusually long acknowledgment section. It lists 111 people, none of whom appears to be “Rich Dad.” That is, none are singled out except for his “Poor Dad” parents, in-laws, business partner, and editors.

Mind you, according to the 1997 book Rich Dad Poor Dad, “Rich Dad” supposedly became central to Kiyosaki’s life starting in 1955 when he was nine. So where was “Rich Dad” in 1992 when Kiyosaki was so diligent at identifying the people who had been important in his life?







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Bestseller status
One Kiyosaki supporter (they call him “RK”), said Kiyosaki has several best-selling books, but he’s never heard of me, therefore Kiyosaki obviously knows what he’s talking about and I don’t. (Click here to read that email and others) The list of best-selling books on real estate and related topics includes two excellent ones: William Nickerson’s How I Turned $1,000 in $5,000,000 in Real Estate in My Spare Time and Al Lowry’s How to Become Financially Independent by Investing in Real Estate. But it also includes real-estate/financial authors who later went bankrupt or got locked up for their real estate-related activities like Robert Allen, Wade Cook, Sonny Bloch, Charles Givens, and Bill “Tycoon” Greene. For the most part, the list of best-selling financial authors is a rogue’s gallery. There have also been best-selling books that recommended quack cures, unhealthy diets, and nutty conspiracy theories.

Click here to see a list of all the best-selling real estate authors and the various troubles all but one got into.

Finally, he gets angry at Smart Money. “Is Harry Potter real? Why don’t you let Rich Dad be a myth, like Harry Potter?”

That would be fine, Robert, just as soon as you remove Rich Dad from the non-fiction best seller list and go over and compete with Harry Potter on the fiction best-seller list.

So I guess the final word is that Rich Dad is as real as Harry Potter. I suppose that, in turn, means that the way to become financially independent is to get a magic wand—or to write book about fictional characters who did.

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And thats only the tip of the iceberg guys. The author comments lots of bad/wrong advices written on the book. Its worth a check.


Its damn scary to see how far a scam artist can go.

 

is also full of inaccuracies. His section on Options shows that he really does not understand options trading. You could not find an option deal priced the way he describes them.

The man makes his money off all the stuff that he suckers people into buying and his speaking engagements, which he calls motivational speeches, but always have a sales pitch in them.

 

what you posted above may be true and may not be. It could be false information spread around/dug up by one of his enemies, coz I'm sure he pissed off some people with his outspoken views

regardless, if you read the book thoroughly and comprehend his message it does have much validity. I think you have to have a little experience with radical thinking to get his message.

jmho

triple

 

Im gonna quote John T. Reed again

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‘Missing the point’

Since I posted this analysis, a number of Kiyosaki “cult members” have contacted me to denounce me for “missing the point” of Kiyosaki’s book. “OK,” I responded, “Please tell me the point.” The odd thing is that each person has a different version of what the point of Kiyosaki’s book is—and it is never something I recall reading in the book. In fact, if a book has a point, multiple readers ought to come up with the same answer when asked what that point is. If they come up with different answers, it is either because the author was incompetent at communicating his point, or because the book has no point, or because the author deliberately obfuscated the point.

From now on, if you think I missed the point, don’t paraphrase Kiyosaki’s point to me. Give me an exact quote and the page number in Rich Dad, Poor Dad where it appears. I suspect everyone who is tempted to send me the point of Rich Dad will be unable to find in the book any of the wonderful advice they imagined was in there.

The only time different people look at the same thing and come up with different answers as to what it is they are looking at is when the thing they are looking at is amorphous, like a cloud or a Rorschach inkblot—or a politician. Politicians try to be all things to all people. That requires them to say nothing (amorphousness), but to sound like they are saying something (“the point”). They toss in a little spin to try to get all those people with those different views to see in the politician things that they like. Kiyosaki slogans like “Don’t work for money. Make money work for you,” are amorphous in their actual meaning, but have the effect of “spinning” the reader into thinking he has just gotten good advice.

Here’s a pertinent passage from Temple University professor John Allen Poulos’s book A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper.

“A similar argument helps clarify why inane I Ching sayings or ambiguous horoscopes seem to many to be so apt. Their aptness is self-provided. In effect, their cryptic obscurity provides a random set of ‘answers’ that the devotee fabricates into something seemingly appropriate and useful.…psychologists count on the amorphousness of Rorschach ink blots to elicit evidence of a person’s core concerns.”

My own supporters occasionally commit the mistake of reading things into my writings. I once got an email complimenting me on my writings. The writer’s favorite quote by me was, “When everyone is digging for gold, sell shovels.” I thanked him for his compliments, but said, “I never said that.” He then wrote back that he searched all over my Web site, but could not find it.

 

Kiyosaki's books are popular books because their appealing to average readers. I read one his book and found nothing new to me. It repeated the same idea again and again. But I think calling them Snake oil you miss the point. To many readers it is still very educational.

 

sorry but one lie is already enough for me to rise the BS flag. But thats my personal opinion. I left a question tag on the topic tittle for a reason.

 

With regards to "missing the point", I'm not sure that there's just one overarching point that we're supposed to "get", but there are many points of value in there. Of course, those, imo, certainly get overshadowed by the apparently fictional origin of the "wisdom" RK tries to impart.

I'm not sure just what to make of the accusations against RK with regards to his own financial dealings or the alleged 'rich dad', but, reading his books (Cashflow, Rich and Happy, and Rich Dad, Poor Dad) I was struck by the illogic of a guy who admits to going bust in his velcro wallet business and then decides to open an educational business teaching others about the principles of business success. Is it just me, or is there something decidedly weird about that?

Btw, John Reed appears to be a pretty straight shooter, who, I think, does a pretty good job of exposing the real estate scam artists. Maybe we should turn him loose on the some of the prop firms here on ET?

 

I remember reading Rich Dad Poor Dad a few years ago and thinking what a ridiculous piece of crap. It was funny because if you go through the timeline of his life (how he "lived in a car with his wife" bla bla) you'll see that he only started making money when he started writing -- he never made much off his supposed investments. All his income is derived from books, kind of like Oliver Velez of Pristine.com fame.

So to repeat the title of this thread: Rich Dad Poor Dad book - PURE SNAKE OIL.

--opm8

 

i always had a feeling that the "rich dad" dude was a scammer. his book left me feeling empty.

thanks for the info,

surf

 

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The making of a financial genius
There are probably many ways to became a financial genius, but Kiyosaki has certainly chosen an unlikely route:

• flunked sophomore year of high school and had to repeat
• U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
• 3rd mate oil tanker (or was it “Love Boat” type cruise ship?)
• Marine helicopter pilot (or was it fighters or was he just a crew member for one or more rides?)
• refused to return to ship when it was ordered to return to combat (or just missed te boat)
• Xerox salesman
• failed businessman (nylon surfer wallets)
• failed businessman (rock and roll memorabilia)
• failed author (1993 book If You Want to Be Rich & Happy, Don’t Go To School?)
• failed MBA student
• homeless person

• bankruptcy (or maybe not)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I don’t believe that. He was bankrupt and homeless in 1985 by his own admission. Although a lawyer who searched the federal case management system on line says he could find no bankruptcy filing for Kiyosaki. He claims to have sold 13 million books. I don’t know if I believe that either. The highly successful book What Color is Your Parachute? has only sold seven million copies since it first came out in 1970. But even if you accept the 11 million figure, Kiyosaki’s co-author royalty would appear to be about 72¢—not enough to get you anywhere near $50 million even if you had no living expenses. He claims to make money in other businesses, but will not disclose enough detail that anyone can check that.



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He also says says his net worth is “$50 million to $100 million depending on the day”

LMFAO, quoting John again...
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Also, what’s this “depending on the day” nonsense? I presume that’s a shameless effort to impress people who are really ignorant about the world of finance. What he is saying is that his net worth doubles or halves within 24 hours. He implies that causes him not the least bit concern. Gimme a break! If my net worth dropped in half in one day, I would be pretty upset about it.

What must he be invested in to enable his net worth to double or halve in 24 hours? Pork belly futures? No one in his right mind would invest his entire net worth in an investment vehicle that could double or halve in 24 hours.

Inthe 2/03 Smart Money magazine aricle, he said his net worth was $35 million. Must have been a really bad day in pork belly futures. Actually, his book selling success notwithstanding, I would guess his net worth is more like $3 million, virtually all of it from book and related sales.