thanks for this, pretty sick stuff....

for anyone that wants to see it its easily findable on youtube "robert kiyosaki cbc scam"

oh look a thread about an interesting topic that is now about henry17. never seen that before.

Rich Dad Poor Dad is a solid book for anybody who has no background in finance or sucks at managing money. If you already understand the difference between assets and liabilities and how living month to month and maxing out your credit cards is ******ed then it's probably a waste of your time.

What he's done here, protecting his assets by setting up a corporation and then putting just that corporation into bankruptcy, is actually one of the things he teaches in the book. So he evidently practices what he preaches. And as others have said, this isn't him filing for bankruptcy - it's one of his, probably numerous, companies.

I remember reading his book in the early 2000 when I was in college and coming away from it with the idea that rich people buy things that appreciate(stocks,bonds, RE ect.) and middle class/poor people buy things that depreciate (cars, clothing, furniture, additions to RE).

Unfortunately the details he gives range from being so general as to be worthless (start a business) to terrible. (education is worthless)

Plus he also changes his tune to wherever assets class is hottest, in 2000 he said stocks are for sucker buy RE, now a days he says to buy gold.

Kiyosaki is great at "mindset stuff" but his advice on specifics have been controversial. Not to worry. He protects himself well with disclaimers and of course with corporations that I'm going have to assume that have corporate veils that are impregnable.

His book Loopholes for the Rich actually explains exactly what he's doing now in terms of protecting himself. Now is the best time to read that book. It is over ten years old and one of the disclaimers in it says (paraphrased) "Laws are constantly changing therefore do not take any advice in this book as gospel. Consult with an accountant and a lawyer. We will not be liable for the consequences of any your actions with regards to the advice in this book."

Come to think about it, Loopholes for the Rich may be a must read. What's funny is that it was really written by a CPA with the last name of Kennedy, not Kiyosaki but it is written under the "Rich Dad" umbrella which automatically gives it a brand and name recognition despite the real author being a total unknown.

Publishers like Mason Malmuth and Tri Nguyen should learn from how this guy does publishing. It's brilliant, actually.

Here in Vegas, I just heard a commercial on the radio where the Rich Dad organization is holding a free 3 hour seminar on options trading.

It isn't. That isn't even open to debate.

Most gradeschoolers know the difference between assets and liabilities. From what I've read Kiyosaki does not which is really odd for someone writing a personal finance book.

This makes me

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is like a weight loss advice book.

Everyone already knows the basics and what they should be doing.

The hard part is actually doing it - not figuring out what to do.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that debt is bad and stuff that appreciates is good. But knowing this gem of knowledge doesn't get most people any closer to being rick.

well looky here, 2 complete idiots sticking for a scammer. read the original creditor who caused Kiyosaki to bankrupt his company........it was the venue he used to generate his money. So he refused to pay for what he purchased, is that the positive spin you both are trying to place here.

The books don't even teach the basics they are just full of wrong information, bad advice, and encouragement to engage in illegal activities.

I was told that Nigerian scams are intentionally bad because they are looking for only the truly stupid to respond. I have no idea if that is true or not but it appears that Kiyosaki is applying the same strategy here since only the truly stupid would show up for one of his seminars after reading the books.

Now that you mention it, The Verge wrote a good article about these gurus and self-help people that are basically scammers. It's a good read.

The basic formula is to provide some crap product and build a list of stupid prospects.
They may make a little money on these products or may even lose a little money.

Step 2 is to forward these contacts to boiler room type operators who sell you the big products (coaching, 'mentoring', private advice, etc) for thousands of dollars.

Sounds like the current state of poker. hahaha.

I don't know about the Family Guy reference.
I saw him on Bill Maher's show about a year ago.

That was also my experience. I was killing time in a Barnes and Noble when I picked up his Rich Dad Poor Dad book and spend a few hours skimming it. As a young college student no one had ever bothered to teach me why it's so much better to save and invest money instead of buying things that don't build wealth or depreciate in value. I know that's LOL, duh Personal Finance 101 but it's a concept that is hardly ever taught in High Schools and isn't even taught in most colleges. It's one of the biggest failures in American education that basic personal finance isn't taught but that's another discussion.

I'd be lying if I said reading his book didn't drastically change my financial life for the better. As a guy in his late 20's I recently found out that I have 10x the amount of money saved and invested than the average in my age group. I have a house that's half paid for, and I buy cheap depreciated cars and invest the difference.

I don't remember much else about the book other than it more or less promised I'd be a multimillionaire and that hyper-aggressive investing was the way to go. But I knew better that to believe that. Thankfully by the time I did have money to play with I had decided to read other books by other authors.

If Dave Ramsey was the pre-school teacher of personal personal finance who taught you not to eat glue (don't finance consumer goods) and says please and thanks you (pay off your debts). Than Kiyosaki is the extreme liberal/reactionary college professors who taught you that Lincoln was a dictator(education/W2 jobs are overrated) or Washington owned slaves (a nice car is not an investment.)

I wouldn't blindly follow either one but they do make you look at the world in a different way and they have their time and place.

Recommending someone because they aren't all that horrible is asinine. There are a lot better personal finance primers like the Dummies series and Ric Edelman's tomes.

I suppose the question is are you better or worse off for reading RK's books I would say it is the latter.

Not to derail, but what are considered the best personal finance books/authors?

(serious question, not trolling)

The guy I'm most familiar with and tend to follow most is Dave Ramsey. If you're looking for a basic guide to how you should get out of debt and where to put your money once you get out of debt his "Total Money Makeover" book is a good place to start. It was written so that anyone with half a brain can read and understand the concepts. His advice is very conservative compared to others and I think that's a good thing. His book won't make you a financial wizard but unless you plan on doing finance or investing for a living you shouldn't need any more than what's in that book.

With that said I think it's important to read or skim at least one other book to get more than one perspective on how to handle finances.

Ramsey isn't a scam like Kiyosaki but his advice is pretty bad. His advice makes sense if you accept that the people seeking his advice are clueless and lack any kind of control. His entire philosophy is based on people being incapable of putting into place a good financial plan so they need to put together an easier but sub-par financial plan. That might make sense given his target audience but for normal people his books are a complete waste of time.

this is very basic, but a good place to start: http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogle...e_To_Investing

a random walk down wall street is a more advanced classic that should appeal to 2p2 readers

I'd like to hear your definition of a "normal person." Because if you look at the statistics the average American gets no schooling on personal finance, only saves $392/year, and has $47,000 in debt. I could go on with the ridiculous statistics but that should give you an idea of what a "normal person" in this country really is. If you already know a good bit about personal finance you won't learn much from his book. But if you're like most "normal people" who don't know much at all it's a damn good place to start.

This guy is like all the other gurus that prey on the weak: full of crap that sounds profound.

The schooling issue is something I've seen people advocate for before and I really don't understand. What exactly are we supposed to teach people? Personal finance is something they should just pick up by living in society. As such the problem is really not one of knowledge but rather of having the will to make correct choices.

Ramsey as financial advice is really bad. Ramsey as a motivational / psychological program for people who made bad choices and need help getting out of trouble seems to work for a lot of people. It is impossible to argue that the advice Ramsey gives is optimal financial advice. He himself admits that it isn't. Ramsey's advice is only appropriate for people who are incapable of doing things properly because of psychology. Lacking the ability to behave rationally is not normal regardless of how common it may happen to be.

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What exactly would you teach?

I'm curious because the lack of formal education in personal finance management is a common excuse raised by people who have had debt issues. Schools are not equipped to teach investing nor does that seem to be the goal. It basically comes down to wanting to have the school system tell people that they shouldn't spend more than they make and that buying things on credit will end up costing more. That doesn't really need to be taught as it is self-evident.

I also think that advocating for having this taught in schools ignores how political of an issue money is. The backlash from parents would be considerable.

I'd teach your basic personal finance concepts.
This is an asset. This is a liability. This is a bank. This is a market. This is why you save money. If you want to retire someday, this is a 401k/IRA. This is why you should have an emergency fund. etc.

You'd be surprised at how many people don't know these basic concepts. It's not common knowledge, especially among the poor who need this knowledge more than anyone else. Have you noticed the the number of payday loan places in this country? The places that offer loans with 200-1000% interest rates with very low risk to the lender? The only reason these places can exist is because there are people who don't know a thing about finance willing to go there. And business is thriving.

I have a crazy job where I get to work alongside both Ivy League grads and High School dropouts from small, rural towns on a daily basis. Trust me, many of these dropouts simply don't have a clue about money. They weren't taught in school. And what they did learn they picked up from their parents who also didn't have a clue. Many people don't grow up in a world where good personal finance is the norm.

And I just don't see the political backlash.