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Robert Kiyosaki is one of the most prominent financial advisers today.  He has published 18 books which have sold more than 26 millions copies.  The first book in the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series has been on The New York Times Best Seller List for five years, and has sold more than 11 million copies.  Given his popularity, I am probably going to get a lot a heat for what I am about to say, but I will always strive to provide you with an unbiased opinion regardless of its popularity.  In my opinion Rich Dad Poor Dad is full of non-sense and bad advice.  I will go against the crowd, and let you know that I think Robert Kiyosaki is a spin artist.   To make my point, I’ll reference other materials that show some shocking truths about Robert Kiyosaki and his books.

I have to admit that Robert Kiyosaki has achieved some admirable accomplishments, after all is not easy to write a series of books that are on the best-seller list for so long.  In order to be so successful in this area, he must know something.  Yes, indeed, he knows how to sell books.  There is no question Robert Kiyosaki is a great salesman.  Better yet, he is one the greatest spin masters around.  But don’t waste your money buying his books.  Most of what he writes about is a bunch of old money clichés and generalities, without any specific advice on how to improve your financial situation.  But what bothers me the most about Robert Kiyosaki is that he is taking advantage of the ignorance of the general population and preying on the innocence of people who desperately want an easy solution to their financial troubles.  Worst yet, he gives bad advice that can really hurt you.

What amazes me is that even some intelligent bloggers have fallen for Kiyosaki’s sales ability.  Steve Olson in his blog has an article with the title Why Getting a Good Job isn’t the Best Way to Earn Money in which he says that after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad he realized he needed to build assets for his family.  But he doesn’t say he is quitting his job, so must take not really believe in Kiyosaki’s non-sense. Even  Steve Pavlina lists Rich Dad Poor Dad as a recommended book in his blog.  But not all bloggers are in Kiyosaki’s camp.  PFBlog has an article called Lousy Financial Advices from Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump in which he lists a Wall Street Journal review of their new book and comments: “To me, Robert Kiyosaki is a one-trick horse and has almost no credibility of giving sound financial advice.”

A few months ago I watched Robert Kiyosaki on PBS and I could not believe how bad the whole program was.  I kept the TV on in the hope that he would at some point give the punch line and tell the audience the specifics of how to be financially successful, but all he did was keep on talking in generalities and platitudes about how you should not be an employee and how you should be a business owner and real estate investor.  There is nothing wrong with being a business owner or a real estate investor.  The problem is that Robert Kiyosaki does not talk about the risks and rewards of being a business owner or an investor, and much less about how to become one.  Instead, he makes fun of the fundamentals, such as education and diversification.

What kind of generalities does Robert Kiyosaki talk about?   He says “the poor and the middle class work for money, but the rich have money work for them”.  Duh!  That’s profound.  And how is that supposed to make you financially successful?   But besides talking a lot and not saying much, the worst thing about Robert Kiyosaki is that he says things that are simply wrong.  He states that a house is a liability and not an asset.  This may sound brilliant to a high-school drop-put, but anyone with any financial education knows the correct definition of assets and liabilities.

I think Robert Kiyosaki is smart enough to realize that he is exploiting people.  By downplaying education, dumbing down financial concepts, and constantly repeating that he was a C student, he can resonate with an audience that does not have an education and that can’t understand basic financial concepts.  He makes it all sound very simple, giving innocent people the hope that maybe they too can be financially successful, even though they didn’t do well in school and perhaps did not have a chance to pursue an education.  I don’t think it is wrong to give people hope and motivation.  What is wrong is to deceive people by telling them that education does not matter, and making fun of the entire education system.

The reality is that education is the best predictor of your future financial success.  In the article How to Increase Your Income I list the facts about how education impacts your income and I provide real data from the US Census Bureau that proves this fact.  I feel sorry for young people that are being influenced by Robert Kiyosaki.  Can you imagine if your kids tell you that they decided not to go to college because Robert Kiyosaki says that education does not matter?  This is actually happening out there.  And it is nothing short of a total disgrace.

Another Kiyosakism that is just plain bad advice is his views of the stock market and 401Ks.  He makes fun of mutual funds and 401Ks and, worse yet, says that 401Ks are not investments. The reality is that a 401K with well selected stock mutual funds is one of the best investments that you can ever make.  In his PBS show, Robert Kiyosaki put on some large funny looking glasses impersonating and poking fun at a financial advisor who would always say: “Work hard, save money and diversify”.  According to Robert Kiyosaki, working hard, saving money and diversifying your investment is a bad idea.  I couldn’t disagree more.

If you really want to get the full scoop on Robert Kiyosaki I would recommend reading John T. Reed’s analysis of Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad.  This is a very long and very detailed analysis, but definitely worth reading.  Here is a summary of what John Reed has to say about Kiyosaki and his book:

• Robert Kiyosaki is a product of Amway (now Quixtar) and other multi-level marketing organizations, and this is how he became a best seller
• Rich Dad Poor Dad is nothing but a collection of old clichés about money
• Kiyosaki now admits that certain events in his book have been fictionalized.   In other words, some of the stories in the book were made up
• Rich dad may not have existed.  There are good reasons to believe that Rich dad is part of the fiction mentioned above
• ABC 20/20 did a story in which they invited Kiyosaki to provide advice to three people who were given $1,000 to start a business and show a profit in 20 days.  They all pretty much failed, but Kiyosaki said it was a success because they all learned from their failures.  The conclusion of the story:  “Does anyone really need 18 books to learn to fail?”
• Kiyosaki is just the latest in a long line of con artists.  In the article John Reed answers the following questions:

• “Can the ordinary person get rich?  Yes”
• “Is it as easy as Kiyosaki makes it sound? Not even close”
• “Is education as worthless as Kiyosaki says? Every pertinent study has shown that the more education you have the higher your net worth and income

• List of incorrect conventional wisdom
• List of inconsistencies
• List of factual errors
• List of unlikely stories

John Reed’s conclusion:  “I am extremely skeptical as to whether he has done or seen many of the investment things he claims to have done or seen”

Regardless of whether Robert Kiyosaki has done what he claims to have done, the fact of the matter is that his books are full of non-sense and bad advice.  The only saving grace for Rich Dad Poor Dad is that it may be a source of motivation for some people.  But if you are looking for motivational books, there are many other choices out there that will not try to deceive you.

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