Noelle Duncan - Quicklet on Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

One of the central claims in Rich Dad, Poor Dad is that people choose to be poor. That means that the 46.2 million people in the United States living in poverty choose to live that way every day. As you can imagine, this is a contentious claim.

There are some situations in which, perhaps, some people might choose to be poor for instance, a young person from an upper-middle class background chooses to sell their art for a living rather than pursue a career in investment banking. However, this seems like less of a decision to be poor and more of a decision of how to spend ones time and energy. It also seems to be more of a question of how society values labor differently (e.g. investment banking is seen as more important and therefore more lucrative and rewarded than creating art) than of whether or not we choose to be poor/rich.

Author Robert Kiyosaki doesnt acknowledge that there could be larger systemic and societal reasons why some people are poor and others are not. The 46.2 million people living in poverty need only decide to be rich and free themselves from the rat race to enjoy the same level of success he has experienced in his life. He doesnt believe that there are societal structures in place that make it nearly impossible to climb up the class ladder.

Kiyosaki creates a division between those who are enlightened and buy into capitalism and its tenets (e.g. business owners, investors, etc.) and those who are simply hamsters running endlessly on a wheel (e.g. employees of any kind ranging from janitors to professors).

Kiyosakis biological father, otherwise known as Poor Dad, was one of these hamsters. He was a well-educated professor who loved teaching, but never dreamt of being rich. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is primarily the story of Kiyosakis Rich Dad and the lessons he taught Kiyosaki as a child. However, after finishing Rich Dad, Poor Dad , one cant help but wonder: what is Poor Dads story? Is it simply a story of financial failure or is there more to life than getting rich?

Robert Kiyosaki is an author, teacher, investor, and motivational speaker. He is best known as the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad and other books, lectures, and educational material written under the Rich Dad brand. He has had three books on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-sellers lists.

Kiyosaki was raised in Hawaii and comes from a family of educators. He attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York and later joined the U.S. Marine Corps. He was sent to Vietnam as an officer and a helicopter pilot.

After the Marine Corps, Kiyosaki founded his first company which sold surfer wallets. He started several other companies over the course of his business career, including Cashflow Technologies, the organization that houses the Rich Dad product line. His first company grew into a multi-million dollar international business. Due to his financial success as an investor and businessman, he was able to retire at the early age of 47.

Since retirement, Kiyosaki has focused on investing and financial education for the public. He invented the popular board game CASHFLOW , which teaches people of all ages how to manage money and escape the rat race. His teachings stress the importance of financial literacy education and developing what he terms as financial genius.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad has sold over 26 million copies and has appeared on the best-seller lists in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Businessweek and The New York Times . The book has been translated into 51 languages and won an Audie award in 2001. Apparently, everybody wants to be a rich dad.

The enormous success of the book led Kiyosaki to turn Rich Dad, Poor Dad into a series. There are 11 other books in the series, including a few books geared for teens to teach financial intelligence at an early age. Kiyosaki cites the lack of financial education in schools as a major problem in North America. This shortcoming in the American school system is part of what inspired him to write the Rich Dad series. Consider it the How to Get Rich: 101 class you never got in grade school.

The book has also inspired a series of Rich Dad workshops and financial coaching programs across the United States. The lessons outlined in Rich Dad, Poor Dad were later featured in a TV special hosted by Robert Kiyosaki that aired in 2001.

The immense success of Rich Dad, Poor Dad demonstrates the widespread desire in North America and many other parts of the world to take control of ones finances and become rich. It also resonates with the growing phenomenon of more people starting their own businesses, freelancing, or otherwise breaking from the mold of traditional employer-employee relationships and trying to escape the rat race.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is the story of author Robert Kiyosakis upbringing in Hawaii and his two fathers one rich father (not biological) and one poor father (biological). Kiyosaki was forced to choose between following in the footsteps of his poor father a highly educated government worker or his rich father an entrepreneur who never graduated high school.

Ultimately, Kiyosaki decides to learn from his rich dad who wouldnt? The book focuses mostly on the education and financial advice Kiyosaki learned from his rich dad. His rich father was able to create a multi-million dollar empire from virtually nothing, using his financial acumen and the power of his imagination.

The book is organized into six main lessons that Kiyosaki presents to becoming successful:

• The rich dont work for money
• Financial literacy is key
• Own businesses, rather than work at them
• Understand taxes and the power of corporations
• The rich invent money
• Work to learn rather than work for money

These lessons combine the teachings of Kiyosakis rich dad with experiences from his own life. They contain recurring themes, such as the importance of improving your financial IQ and financial literacy, a set of skills that Kiyosaki believes is absent from the current education system.

The book also shows how the rich dont work for money, they force money to work for them. The rich acquire assets rather than liabilities. Kiyosaki stresses the importance of being able to differentiate between an asset and a liability. He states that in order to be truly wealthy, your asset column must be robust and able to offset your living expenses. He explains that most people believe a higher income will make them rich, but in reality, a strong asset column will. Higher incomes often lead to higher expenses, higher taxes, and more debt.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad explores the power of corporations and demonstrates how the rich use corporations to house their money. Corporations allow for expenses to be paid pre-tax, saving the business owner lots of money. Kiyosaki dispels the myth that taxes hurt the rich the most instead he shows how many rich people avoid taxes and outsmart the system. Taxes actually hit the poor and middle class much harder.

Kiyosaki also explores the character traits and beliefs that hold people back from becoming rich. He claims these obstacles can be grouped into five different categories: fear, criticism, laziness, bad habits, and arrogance. The book explores how each one of these factors acts as an impasse to financial success and gives real-life examples.

Much of the book is devoted to self-reflection. He discusses at length the ways in which his rich dad and poor dad have influenced him. Although he ultimately chose to emulate his rich dad, he still retains some of the beliefs that his poor father held, such as the importance of social responsibility and empathy for what he terms as the have-nots.