How many of you guys have read the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki & Sharon L. Lechter. Well, if you have not read the book, it’s actual theme is about investing and managing your money. It is telling it’s readers that instead of just working for money, they should learn to properly manage and make “their money work for them”. Well, in my opinion, this book is a good read and it does a good job making me understand about finances and money handling. It’s a motivator of sorts.

However, the problem is it does NOT actually tell the reader how to go about doing it. It tells the reader to invest in “income generating assets” but doesn’t say exactly what these “assets” actually are. And this results in readers feeling so motivated that they ironically stop thinking straight and start pumping all their money into stocks, shares and whatever shithole they can find. Whenever they see some opportunity to “make money” just by pumping money into, they go for it. The idea is to invest in all and every “income generating assets” they can find. This has make me worry about the financial situation of those people who cannot afford to go investing but are still doing it anyway. Even the situation for the middle class is worrying. This book has created a “greed is good” culture with no concrete way to go about doing it. It makes people blind to the risk and dangers of investing. I think this group of people will get burnt pretty soon. Just like in many economic “corrections”, the rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer (the poor includes the middle class as well).

The root problem of this book is that it tells readers to go out and start investing smartly but with no real action plan. It has tons of very cool phrases, which you can splew to your friends and whom will get “motivated” as well. The phrases like “The only way to get out of the “Rat Race” is to prove your proficiency at both accounting and investing, arguably two of the most difficult subjects to master” and “”The sky is falling. The sky is falling.” Most of us know the story of “Chicken Little,” who ran around warning the barnyard of impending doom.” as well as “The Rich have money work for them”. I am sure they do impress your friends, but if it is just words, then it is as good as useless. It draws people to act, but they will usually act in a wrong way. It tells you not to “fear the risks” and to get out of the “rat trap”, but in actual fact, the book has created nothing more than a lure to unknowing and ignorant investors out to “get rich quick”. That’s what this book preys on - Greed. And it’s infinite. This greed will lead to a lot of people becoming a “poor dad” oh so soon. It’s exactly like those pyramid/MLM selling schemes we see a few years back where only the top few are making real money.

This book is more of a “sell” than a book about managing your finances. Although it doesn’t really tell you what it is actually selling, the idea behind it is pretty obvious. People with no idea how to go about investing will try every “get rich quick scheme” out there in the hopes of hitting the jackpot. History is filled with such people, and most of them never hit the jackpot.

If you are interested in reading something about Rich Dad, Poor Dad, try reading John T. Reed’s analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. No I am not such a critic of Robert, but seriously, this book has a lot of flaws and really some bad advice. It’s a good motivator but that’s about it. Good education, good outlook in life, good working attitude, brilliant ideas and general understanding of money is better than such get rich quick schemes. Don’t fall easily to such a trap.