Rich Dad

Rich Dad is a brand established by Robert Kiyosaki for a series of educational books and games about personal finance. The trademark is owned by Cashflow Technologies, a corporation established in 1997 by Robert and Kim Kiyosaki to market these books and games.

Books and other media

The first and best known of these books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. It was written by Robert Kiyosaki and advocates financial independence through investing, real estate, owning businesses, and the use of finance protection tactics.

Kiyosaki followed with Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant and Rich Dad's Guide to Investing. He has now had at least a dozen books published. A partial list of his books is included below.

Originally self-published before being picked up commercially to become a bestseller, the central concept of Rich Dad Poor Dad is an anecdotal comparison of his "two fathers". His "poor dad" was his biological father, who became Superintendent of the Hawaii State Department of Education but had very little real net worth. Contrasted with this is his (arguably fictitious, see "Criticism and controversy" section of this article) "rich dad" advocates tax-advantaged investment vehicles, such as real estate or businesses, rather than ownership of securities. ^{[citation needed]} This idea is further developed in his later books. Rich Dad became Kiyosaki's personal brand for various publishing ventures.

Cashflow Quadrant

Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom (2000)

Cashflow Quadrant is a personal finance and investing book written with Sharon Lechter, C.P.A. as the sequel to Rich Dad, Poor Dad. In it, Kiyosaki discusses what he calls the cashflow quadrant: a grid consisting of the letters "E", "S", "B", and "I." The cashflow quadrant itself is just an illustrative tool to show the difference between Employees, Self Employed/Small Business owners, Business owners (not directly involved in the day-to-day operation of the company), and Investors. Kiyosaki discusses the differences between concepts and ideas characteristic of each quadrant, particularly as they relate to passive income and tax advantages.

Rich Dad's Guide to Investing

What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! (2000)

Rich Dad's Guide to Investing gives the reader a roadmap to becoming the Ultimate Investor, one who uses other peoples' money to create investments that people want to buy into. While the first two books use broad strokes, this one goes into much more detail about actually implementing some of the strategies heretofore discussed.

Rich Kid, Smart Kid (2001)

Rich Kid, Smart Kid is a retelling of Kiyosaki's views, condensed and clarified to try and help parents better understand and teach their children key financial concepts. It includes a series of activities that a parent can do with their child to make them aware of property, finance and the various ways and places businesses make money.

Rich Dad's Prophecy (2002)

Rich Dad's Prophecy predicts that the market will crash around 2016 when the oldest Baby Boomers start cashing out their 401(k) plans. Individuals whose savings are locked into 401(k) plans will suffer because these retirement plans are not flexible and do not do well in a bear market.^[1]

Why We Want You To Be Rich (2007, with Donald Trump)

Why We Want You To Be Rich is a book co-authored by Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump. It encourages individuals to become financially literate to combat the upcoming problems facing America, such as the shrinking middle class and the entitlement mentality.^[2]

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Before You Quit Your Job

Rich Dad Advisor series

The Rich Dad Advisor Series is a series of books published under the Rich Dad Poor Dad trademark, but written on different business topics. These books are seen as more technical in nature as they tend to be written by lawyers, accountants and other professionals. Books in the series include:

• OPM Other People’s Money : How To Attract Other Peoples Money For Your Investments – the ultimate leverage
• Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver: Everything You Need to Know Now to Profit From Precious Metals
• How to Buy and Sell a Business: How You Can Win in the Business Quadrant
• Own Your Own Corporation: Why the Rich Own Their Own Companies and Everyone Else Works for Them
• Protecting Your #1 Asset : Creating Fortunes from Your Ideas : An Intellectual Property Handbook
• Sales Dogs : You Do Not Have to Be an Attack Dog to Be Successful in Sales
• Real Estate Riches: How to Become Rich Using Your Banker's Money
• The Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing: How to Identify the Hottest Markets and Secure the Best Deals
• Real Estate Loopholes: Secrets of Successful Real Estate Investing
• Rich Dad's Real Estate Advantages: Tax and Legal Secrets of Successful Real Estate Investors
• Loopholes of the Rich: How the Rich Legally Make More Money and Pay Less Tax
• The ABC’s of Property Management: What You Need To Know To Maximize Your Money Now
• The ABC's of Building a Business Team That Wins: The invisible code of honour that takes ordinary people and turns them into a championship team
• The ABCs of Real Estate Investing: The secrets of finding hidden profits most investors miss
• The ABCs of Getting Out Of Debt: Turn Bad Debit into Good Debt and Bad Credit into Good Credit
• The ABC's of Writing Winning Business Plans: How to prepare a business plan that others will want to read – and invest in
• The REAL Book of Real Estate: Robert Kiyosaki With 22 of His Trusted Real Estate Experts

Audio/visual

This is a quick list of audio/visual (such as tapes and DVDs) that have been released. Almost all of Robert Kiyosaki's books have been released as audio products:

• Rich Dad's Conspiracy of the Rich - The 8 New Rules of Money
• Rich Dad's Secrets To Money
• Rich Dad's Rich Kid, Smart Kid: Giving Your Children a Financial Headstart . (Audio)
• Rich Dad's Roads To Riches: 6 Steps to Becoming a Successful Real Estate Investor
• How To Increase The Income From Your Real Estate Investments
• How To: Find and Keep Good Tenants (Audio)
• How To: Find Great Investments (Audio)
• How To: Get Your Banker To Say "Yes! (Audio)
• The ABC’s of Property Management: What You Need To Know To Maximize Your Money Now (Audio)
• The ABC's of Building a Business Team That Wins: The invisible code of honour that takes ordinary people and turns them into a championship team (Audio)
• The Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing: How to Identify the Hottest Markets and Secure the Best Deals (Audio)
• Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom. (Audio)
• It's easy to be Rich: if you have a strong financial education (Audio)
• You Can Choose To Be Rich: "Think It" "Learn It" "Do It"

Didactic games

Kiyosaki stresses the value of games, particularly Monopoly, as tools for learning basic financial strategies such as "trade four green houses for one red hotel." Kiyosaki has created several games to reinforce the information in his books.

Cashflow 101

"Cashflow 101" is a board game designed by Kiyosaki, which aims to teach the players concepts of investing and making money, it costs $195.

There are two stages to the game. In the first, "the rat race", the player aims to raise his or her character's passive income level to where it exceeds the character's expenses through a variety of investment options. The winner is determined in the second stage, "the fast track." To win, a player must get his character to buy his "dream" or accumulate $50,000 in monthly cash flow.

The game forces the players to do the accounts by themselves. In place of "score cards", there are financial statements. Therefore, players can see more clearly what is happening with their money. It generally shows how assets generate incomes and liabilities and 'doodads' affect expenses.

Basic strategies involved in this game are: buying and selling stocks, Cashflow, Appreciation, and leverage.

Cashflow 202

"Cashflow 202" is a more advanced game than Cashflow 101. It is designed to help players learn about more sophisticated investing strategies. Cashflow 101 was generally meant to teach investing techniques that would work best in an "up market" where property values steadily increase, whereas Cashflow 202 is supposed to teach investment strategies for a fluctuating market where property values depreciate as well as rise.

Strategies involved in this game are: Call, Put, and Short options on stocks, 1031 Real Estate Exchanges, and immediate capital gains vs. longer-term investments.

Cashflow for Kids

"Cashflow for Kids" is basically a children's version of Cashflow 101, good for ages 5 through 9. There is also a Cashflow for Kids e-game available for free.^[3]

Cashflow The E-Game

"Cashflow The E-Game" is a computer software version of the Cashflow 101 board game. It is not necessary to have the board game in order to play the computer game.

Cashflow 202 The E-Game

"Cashflow 202 The E-Game" is a software expansion of the computer game "Cashflow The E-Game." Its counterpart is the "Cashflow 202" board game described earlier in this article.

Controversy

In 2010, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation investigated the Rich Dad seminars associated with Kiyosaki on their consumer advocacy program, Marketplace.^[4] They found that one-day free seminars were conducted at which three-day courses were offered for $500. At the three-day classes, participants were offered longer courses priced between $12,000 and $45,000. A hidden camera was employed at a $500 seminar in Kitchener, Ontario, showing the trainer, Marc Mousseau, advising participants to request that their credit-card be raised and giving out scripts with instructions for how to ask for limits as high as $100,000.^[5]

The show interviewed Bob Aaron,^[6] a lawyer whose practice is 25% real estate law,^[7] who said that some of Mousseau's advice was unusual and unlikely to work, such as advising that a developer might give two condos free when selling ten, getting an option to buy the house at a later date and buying a house in pre-foreclosure.^[5] The program also found a claim by the trainer to be untrue; he claimed to have been part of a deal that made $32 million on a mobile home park in Saskatchewan, but the park did not exist. The instructor was described as "overbearing, obnoxious, and rude" by an attendee, after showing video footage of his behavior.^[4]

When questioned about the findings of the program, Kiyosaki said he was also unhappy about the way the company running the seminars, Tigrent Learning (formerly Whitney International), was conducting them and that these were not the first complaints he had heard. He promised to look into the problems and said they would serve as "ammunition I need" in his "continuing to pressure them" and "constantly saying" to Tigrent Learning that he is "unhappy with them". In spite of warnings from some consumer complaints in the past, he claims not to have known "how severe it was" at the time of partnering with them that Tigrent Learning had such a "checkered past". "I'm more upset than you are; I really am," he told the interviewer, "It disturbs me. It's not my fault."^[5]

On August 20, 2012, one of Kiyosaki's companies, Rich Global LLC, filed for bankruptcy in Wyoming Bankruptcy Court.^[8] The move followed a ruling by a U.S. District Court jury that former business partners of Kiyosaki were entitled to $23,687,957.21 of the profits from events they helped to set up for Kiyosaki including a 2002 appearance at New York's Madison Square Garden. A spokesman for Kiyosaki asserted that the amount of the award exceeded the value of Rich Global LLC and that Kiyosaki would not use money from outside the company to meet the judgement.^[9]

References

External links

• Rich Dad official website
• [Robert Kiyosaki Blog - http://www.richerdaddy.com]
• Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar overview