Robert Kiyosaki

On a flight to Hawaii a few years ago I sat next to a guy who claimed to be an investor. A woman he called his wife sat across the aisle from him. He told me that the two of them ran their own company and that they “work hard and play hard.” He added that this trip to Maui was one of their rewards for putting in a mess of long, ass-kicking investment hours. His conversational tone had an air of “I’m pretty awesome, you know? Wouldn’t you want to be like me?”

Throughout the six-hour plane ride this stranger engaged me in small conversation that always focussed on money, finances and investment. He asked me questions just so he could hear himself answer them. “Do you know how banks make money? No? Well I do. Let me share.” He liked to drop in some baited comments like, “After this we’re going to South America to take part in a gold mining venture.” I felt like I was being set up for a hustle or scam.

Before deplaning and relishing in the South Pacific sun and surf, my seat buddy recommended a book for me to read so I could educate myself in economics and begin taking advantage of such lucrative investment opportunities he and his wife were involved in. The name of the book was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. 

About a month after my run in with Mr. Investment I checked out Kiyosaki’s book at my local library. The well-read paperback copy was a little dogeared and worn out. “Must be plenty of people getting rich by the looks of this,” I thought. I sat down and read it in a day. The book moved quickly and there wasn’t a lot of heady technical economic jargon. My initial impression was positive. I felt like I had wasted a lot of time up to then not taking finances seriously and now I should raid my meager retirement fund (early withdrawal fees be damned!) to implement some of Kiyosaki’s strategies. It’s a good thing I didn’t.

Along with the euphoric I-can-make-a-ton-of-money-for-nothing feeling I also experienced a something-is-not-quite-right-about-all-this pit in my stomach. Not wanting to act in haste and later regret the folly of my ways I turned to my good friend Google. Good ‘ol Google always has a way of assisting me in sniffing out the B.S. and it soon informed me that Robert Kiyosaki had shit coming out of him more ways than I thought possible. This was utterly astonishing to me since this man has been featured on Oprah, co-authored a book with Donald Trump, hosted a television show broadcasted on PBS and is still a financial columnist for Yahoo! Finance. 

So what is so bad about Robert Kiyosaki? Google led me to respected investor John T. Reed, who rates such financial “gurus”. Reed ripped the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book apart and tore Kiyosaki a new one a mile wide. Check out some of the highlights:

Robert Kiyosaki…

• Advocates insider trading (aka committing a felony)
• Lies about his life history
• Recommends tax fraud
• Brags that his business partner is a cat
• Admits his book is really a work of fiction

After reading through the lengthy webpage on Mr. Reed’s site I was grateful for listening to my gut and not acting on Kiyosaki’s crackpot misinformation. Later I remembered my plane buddy investor. I wondered who he was suckering now with his come-ons. I shivered at how close I came to falling for his trap. Scary.  

Be vigilant and beware out there.

// Jules Manning