I kind of think I know what your response will be, but I'm curious... I read one of his books "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", and at the time it made a lot of sense... But then I read other stuff, and my investor brain grew a little bit, and now I'm kind of in the fence about him. I also read about some very suspicious stuff, regarding his seminars on real estate. What's your thoughts?
I've found that you can learn something from many people, even if some or most of what they say or do may not be so great. He's got some good info, but I tell people to be wary of the idea of borrowing heavily with the idea that you'll always make enough money on investments to pay the debt and still make a profit. Having lots of debt is a recipe for disaster if / when income dries up. You've got to also be wary of always thinking you can "flip" quickly and at a profit. It sometimes takes a long time to sell, and selling certainly does not always mean selling at a profit either.
By nature of my position in a business and with a start up company, I can say, you are right on. Often gambles don't pan out, or don't pan out the way you expected...or, they don't pan out as quickly as you might have thought. You have to be ready for this to happen, and so, if you have not backup, or you are over-leveraged there can be a lot of pain, or potential to lose everything.
I might not have the knowledge to discern what's good to take in, and what's good for me to poop on... But I totally agree with you on this one! Exactly... I started to feel weird about Robert because I was reading stuff from Mark Cuban, and that's exactly what he says, and both positions are so different... Then I found that stuff about his seminars, and now I don't really want to pick his stuff for a while... Cashflow 101 is still awesome though!
I honestly never finished reading his book. I found the first half of it so vague that I simply couldn't get into it. I felt like it was simply nice little anecdotes with nothing relevant. Then I wondered if the book format was one where it starts out "fluffy" and ends with real information. I never felt I got to the real information piece soon enough...
I read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" in one day... I can't even read a chapter of "One up on Wall Street" without feeling dizzy, so I guess that means something... I think it also depends on how knowledgeable you are when you get in contact with the book. It's kind of for dummies, and certainly written with some marketing objectives in mind...
I find and I think that he is simply a fake and that he was just able to put together some information in a book and a few people actually thought that he knew what he was talking about and it is really sad. I think the last that I heard about him is that he was filling for bankruptcy. The book to me also was really boring to read and painful to sit through.
Excellent investor, millionaire and with extensive experience in the investment world. I have read his books, you can learn a lot. I recommend it
It's not surprising, considering he preached such a highly leveraged philosophy - particularly with real estate, which can be a challenge to liquidate quickly. I would imagine that the period from late '07 through early '09 was quite hard on him.
Most of his backstory in the books is made up. Rich Dad is a fictional character. Also, he failed in business a couple of times before finally being successful by getting high up people in a pyramid scheme (sorry, multi level marketing organization) to convince the people under them to buy his products. He has some good ideas, but his books are so vague that you can't actually put anything into practice, and his results are not reproduceable by the average person. I would consider his books to be entertainment, not education.
