Rethinking Wealth: A Review of Robert T. Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad”

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Rich Dad Poor Dad began life as a self-published book in 1997. Its author, Robert T. Kiyosaki, now puts worldwide sales at about 40 million copies, a figure he gives in the preface to the 2017 anniversary edition. An earlier tally in press coverage was over 32 million, and neither number has been independently audited. The scale itself is not really in dispute. The book became the base of a media and education franchise, and it still sorts readers into devotees and detractors.

The Author and How the Book Reached Print

Kiyosaki was born on April 8, 1947, in Hilo, Hawaii, the eldest child of Ralph Kiyosaki, an educator who was once Hawaii’s superintendent of schools. He entered the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1965, graduated four years later as a deck officer, and went on to fly helicopter gunships as a Marine Corps officer in the Vietnam War.

His early business record was uneven. A 1977 venture called Rippers, which sold nylon and Velcro wallets, went bankrupt, and he worked in sales at Xerox until June 1978. In the 1980s he ran a seminar course called Money and You, and his first book, If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don’t Go to School?, appeared in 1993.

Rich Dad Poor Dad followed in 1997, credited to Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. Warner Books issued a commercial edition on April 1, 2000, and a 20th Anniversary edition arrived in April 2017. The path to print, as Kiyosaki tells it, was rough: every publisher turned the manuscript down, and Barnes & Noble at first declined to stock it. He credits an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show with doing the most for sales. Those accounts are his own, and nothing reviewed for this post confirms them independently. Lechter and Kiyosaki later parted ways. She sued him, and the two settled in 2008 for an undisclosed sum.

Two Fathers, Two Theories of Money

The book is built on a contrast. The narrator’s “poor dad” is his biological father, a highly educated academic and government official who treated schooling and a secure job as the route to a good life. His “rich dad” is the father of a boyhood friend named Mike, a man who never went past the eighth grade, according to the SuperSummary study guide, yet taught financial education, entrepreneurship and investing. The lessons begin when the narrator is nine, the same guide says.

Each of the first six chapters sets one lesson against the poor-dad worldview. The framing is anything but subtle, and it is not meant to be. Two fathers give an abstract disagreement about risk, security and ownership a pair of faces, which makes it easy to remember and easy to repeat.

What the Book Argues

The first lesson doubles as the thesis:

“The rich don’t work for money.”

(Title of the book’s first lesson, per the SuperSummary chapter guide.)

From there the argument narrows to financial literacy. The book separates assets, which put money in a person’s pocket, from liabilities, which take it out, and holds that most people confuse the two. Graham Mann’s published reading notes single out the family home as the usual mix-up. The assets Kiyosaki favors are the ones that throw off cash: stocks, bonds, income-producing real estate, mutual funds, royalties and notes, as SuperSummary lists them.

The third lesson, on minding one’s own business, tells readers to build their own column of assets instead of an employer’s. The fourth presents corporations as tools the wealthy use for protection and growth. The fifth takes up fear and self-doubt, and the sixth turns to practical skills: managing cash flow, people, systems and communication. The closing chapters cover personal traits that hold people back and buying real estate with little capital.

As a mindset book, the structure holds. Every chapter boils down to a single claim a reader can carry out of the room. As a manual it is thinner. The concrete examples lean on real estate, and the book offers little a reader could check against records. Most of the criticism below lands on that gap.

Where the Criticism Lands

Rob Walker’s 2002 review in Slate carried a subtitle that left no room for doubt:

“Why millions buy Rich Dad, Poor Dad’s nonsense.”

(Subtitle of “If I Were a Rich Dad,” Rob Walker, Slate, June 20, 2002.)

Walker argued that the two-fathers story blurs fable and memoir, that the rich dad is a shadowy figure with no verifiable details, that the concrete advice mostly amounts to real estate speculation, and that the book keeps steering readers toward more books, tapes, courses and seminars.

John T. Reed, a real estate author, went further:

“one of the dumbest financial advice books I have ever read.”

(John T. Reed’s analysis of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.)

Reed sells his own real estate titles, and his page promotes them as alternatives, so he has a commercial interest in the verdict. Some of his claims also rest on anecdote and unnamed sources. His specific points deserve a hearing all the same. He doubts the rich dad existed, notes that an earlier Kiyosaki book credited the author’s biological father as his best teacher, and disputes the book’s claim that earned, passive and portfolio income are taxed at 50, 20 and 0 percent. Reed says federal rates on those income types do not differ that way and that 20 percent applies only to long-term capital gains. Tax rules change, so any reader acting on the book’s tax lessons should check current IRS guidance.

The identity question has an unresolved footnote. Kiyosaki long avoided naming the man, which fed suspicion that he was a composite or an invention. After Hawaiian hotel developer Richard Kimi died in 2009, a Honolulu Advertiser obituary identified Kimi as Kiyosaki’s mentor, according to Wikipedia’s account. That account does not confirm that Kimi is the character in the book.

The author’s own business record enters the argument too. Rich Global LLC, a Kiyosaki company, filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after being ordered to pay $23.7 million to The Learning Annex and its founder. Wikipedia reports nearly $26 million in liabilities against $1.8 million in assets, and notes that the Rich Dad Company’s CEO, Mike Sullivan, said Rich Global had been dormant for years. Seminars sold under the Rich Dad name have also drawn critical broadcast coverage, including a 2010 CBC Marketplace documentary on Canadian operations.

Defenders have their own list. Will Smith has said he used the book to teach his son Jaden about financial independence, and Daymond John has named it among his favorites. A 2019 review on the self-hosted blog ESI Money judged the core ideas about assets, spending, investing and continued learning worth reading despite the author’s controversies, while doubting the book’s corporate tax lesson.

Watch: Kiyosaki Tells His Life Story

No film or series adaptation of the book turned up in the research for this review. The nearest screen material is the author himself. PBS station KOCE aired a 55-minute Kiyosaki presentation, A Guide to Wealth, in 2006, and the long-form interview below, posted on the VladTV YouTube channel, is titled as Kiyosaki telling his own life story. Its biographical claims deserve the same treatment as the rest of this review gives them: they are the author’s account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Rich Dad Poor Dad a true story?
Only partly verifiable. The poor dad is the author’s biological father. The rich dad is never named in the book, and Rob Walker and John T. Reed both question whether he existed as described. Wikipedia reports that a Hawaiian developer, Richard Kimi, was identified as Kiyosaki’s mentor in a 2009 obituary, but it does not say Kimi is the character.

Who wrote it?
Kiyosaki is the named author, and Wikipedia lists Sharon Lechter as co-author. Lechter later sued Kiyosaki, and the two settled in 2008.

How many copies has it sold?
The figures are claims. A 2015 press release put sales above 32 million, and Kiyosaki’s preface to the 2017 edition says about 40 million. Neither has been independently verified.

Does the book call a house an asset?
Not in the way most homeowners mean it. Graham Mann’s reading notes say the book lists houses among the things most people mistake for assets.

How long is it?
Editions vary. Wikipedia lists one at 207 pages and another at 336.

Is it financial advice a reader can follow as written?
It is a motivational narrative, not individualized advice, and several of its specifics, including the tax claims, are disputed. Decisions about investments or taxes are better checked against current rules with a licensed professional.

Where to Read It

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki (affiliate link) is the title to look for, and because several editions exist, including the 2017 20th Anniversary edition, the listing’s edition and page count are worth checking before ordering.

Further Reading

• John T. Reed’s analysis of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the most detailed critical reading, with the competing-interest caveat noted above.
• ESI Money’s Rich Dad Poor Dad book review, a 2019 reader’s verdict that keeps the useful ideas and doubts the tax lesson.
• “If I Were a Rich Dad,” Rob Walker, Slate, the 2002 critique of the book’s packaging and upselling.

Sources

• Rich Dad Poor Dad — Wikipedia
• Robert Kiyosaki — Wikipedia
• SuperSummary: Rich Dad Poor Dad summary
• Graham Mann: Rich Dad Poor Dad book notes
• Rob Walker, “If I Were a Rich Dad,” Slate, June 20, 2002
• John T. Reed’s analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad
• ESI Money: Rich Dad Poor Dad Book Review
• Robert Kiyosaki, Author of ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’, Tells His Life Story (Full Interview) — VladTV, YouTube