I recall this book being recommended by many online, and I decided to find out why this book has been on the bestsellers’ list for so long.
Lessons Learnt
I learnt a lot from reading this book. It helped me to form some views on personal finance and investing.
If you wish to read a summarised version of the lessons learnt, I have listed a few of them below. Otherwise, you can scroll down further to read my review of the book.
- It is important to look at both sides of the same coin when learning or making decisions as each side has a different perspective which can be useful. Rich Dad and Poor Dad have different perspectives of money, and this influences the way they earn and spend their money.
- Have the proper attitude towards money – what is your current relationship with money?
- Have a plan.
- Learn how to come to terms with fear and greed.
- What should be considered as “assets”, and what should be considered as “liabilities”?
- Accumulate gold – not referring to the physical kind.
My Review
This review is based on the Kindle version of the book.
"Rich Dad, Poor Dad" contains a lot of principles and lessons that you can learn from. However, it is just that: principles and lessons. You should not expect advice on how to actually act and get rich, but you can use this book to see if your mindset or your attitude towards money should be changed. In other words, this book is better served as a motivator for you to build up on how you want to approach the topics of managing your money and growing your wealth.
That’s not to say that this book is useless, but it may be better to treat it as a motivational book to encourage you to review your relationship with your finances, rather than a textbook on how to invest better or a guidebook on personal finance.
I find that Robert Kiyosaki probably intended to market this book to people interested in getting rich, and he does it quite well. Most of the examples you find in the book are usually anecdotes, where he recalls his past experiences to prove the point that he was trying to make. It’s not very convincing to me, though.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Robert Kiyosaki’s Other Books
I am aware that there are other books published by him. After reading this book, I think I’ll be giving them a miss for now. I might read them in the future, but they won’t be high on my priority list.
If you are interested in reading other books that are authored by Robert Kiyosaki, you might want to check out ” Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant”. It is like a profiler where you can find out where you currently stand among others in terms of how ready you are to escape from the Rat Race, and also discusses how to do so.
CashFlow – The Game
In this book, Robert Kiyosaki mentioned that he created a board game called CASHFLOW, which aims to teach you how to invest by simulating real-world scenarios without involving actual money. Unlike some investing simulators you might find online, I think that this game is probably broader in scope because you won’t just be dealing with the stock market, but also other big-ticket purchases in life such as property and cars. Based on the information I find online, it seems that it is quite useful in reinforcing the concepts mentioned in this book, although it might not be readily available for purchase as the game itself is quite old.
Other Book Reviews
If you want to find more reviews on other books, check out my Goodreads profile.
