Product Description

Personal finance author and lecturer Robert T. Kiyosaki developed his unique economic perspective from two very different influences - two fathers. One father (Robert's real father) was a highly educated man but fiscally poor. The other was the father of Robert's best friend - that dad was a college drop-out who became a self-made multi-millionaire. RICH DAD'S GUIDE TO INVESTING, the follow-up to the bestselling RICH DAD, POOR DAD, reveals the secret of how the wealthiest people become wealthier by revealing some simple investing secrets and explaining how anyone can enjoy cash benefits merely by knowing where and how best to invest their money. The author's nuts-and-bolts approach to personal finance and understanding the real earning power of money has gained him a huge following, particularly as he knows all his knows from first-hand experience. Once so cash poor that he and his wife were forced to sleep in their car, today the Kiyosakis are multi-millionaires and highly sophisticated and experienced investment experts..

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33400 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
This is the third in a series of 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' books. Kiyosaki's new guide offers 16 investor lessons, 42 chapters and 406 pages of advice. The message is that you can't begin to enter the rich man's world until you get your head right. Getting rich means first of all gaining control over yourself. It's not just about investing, it's a description of two different life paths and the choices people make that put them onto those paths. Much of the narrative is concerned with Kiyosaki's own rags to riches rise from a poor American airman to retirement in luxury at 47. Poor Dad was Robert's father, a university professor who worked hard all his life and was eventually made redundant. Rich Dad, was his friend Mike's father who never finished the eighth grade and ended up one of the richest men in Hawaii. You can be highly educated but financially illiterate. The book underlines the importance of financial literacy, listing the essential skills needed to get onto the first rung of the investing ladder. Anyone can work through the five phases of learning and fill in the short questionnaires that are designed to test your mental attitude. You're never too young or too old to make your fortune. Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken at 66! Much of the advice turns received wisdom on its head. The educational system is still in the dark ages. Most people leave school looking for jobs when they should be looking for 'opportunities'. They've been taught to work hard for earned income but people should never take a job for money, rather for the long-term skills they will acquire. Passive income and portfolio income will take you to millionaire status quicker than earned income. There is plenty of food for thought in this substantial paperback, although the fledgling investor will have to bear in mind that the guidance is written for the observation of the American tax laws and legal system. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
A 4th-generation Japanese American, Kiyosaki was educated in New York before joining the U.S. Marines and serving in Vietnam as a helicopter gunship pilot. In 1977 he founded a company producing Nylon and Velcro 'Surfer' wallets which became a multi-million dollar business.

Customer Reviews

Guide to Investing? Where is the guide?
This book kept beating around the bush. I gained absolutely nothing from this book. To say I am disappointed is an understatement.

Having read this book, I felt I have been treated like an idiot. Worse still, the author really test my patience, having me guessed all the way through half of the book trying to guess what guidance he can give in respect to investing? Nothing, nada, zero.

Anyway, save yourself a couple of quid, I will just summarise this book in one sentence - Rich man put their money in their assets, poor man put their money in their liablity.

Worth a read but you'll have had enough of Kiyosaki by the end of it
I read book this immediately after reading "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", the first in the series of Rich Dad books. Rich Dad's Guide To Investing continues the central concept of comparing his biological father ("Poor Dad") to his best friend's father ("Rich Dad") as a means of contrasting how the Rich and the Poor differ in their attitudes towards money. In the first two-thirds of the book, Kiyosaki repeatedly hammers home the point that one of the first steps to achieving great wealth is a change in one's attitude towards money and indeed, how to make money. He emphasises the need to build a business and become an investor in business rather than work as an employee. It's similar stuff to the (perhaps eye-opening) first book but it doesn't hurt to read it again, especially if your attitude towards money is more aligned with that of Poor Dad. And for me it's this that makes it worth reading.

On the negative side, and admittedly this may be a symptom of reading two of his books back-to-back, things get very repetitive; the book really needn't be 500 pages long. At the end he descends from the high-level lessons and actually goes into some of the specifics of how to take a company public! It smacks of gloating as nobody considering taking a company public would be reading this book for advice, especially since at the time of writing, Kiyosaki had never (and maybe still hasn't) taken a company public before. I also grew to dislike his writing style, perhaps because some of the concepts are over-explained and therefore at times you feel like he's talking to you as though you were a child.

Two other things that irritated me: Firstly, the ceaseless promotion of his own board game that he developed with the 'noble' mission of elevating everyone's financial literacy (or words to that effect. The game is nobly priced at almost $200!). And secondly, the pointless interjections from business partner Sharon L. Lechter which serve only to interrupt the flow of the book.

On the whole it's worth a read but don't be afraid to but it down when it starts to get tough going towards the end - you're better off picking up your next book.

It is not meant to be a magic pill to get you rich overnight
I have some sympathy with some of the poor reviews for this book, but i still award this 4 stars.

Yes, this is not a book that will make you a million overnight: There are no instant action points that will automatically put you on the fast track...and the comment that the first million dollars are the hardest to make is rather gauling to read if you're currently skint.

However, what this book does do is give you a long-term philosphy to investment and running your business. From this 30,000 feet view, it is very handy framework to have in your mind. i personally found this useful as it plans out the mid-game of a person's business/investment career (with a million already in the bag). This, i strongly believe, is useful to know even if you are at the beginning of your career as it's important to have a map of where you are going. As rich dad says, u gotta have a plan....

Now, I suggest my fellow reviewers below did not pick up that nuance and were frustrated that there was no magic pill that could make them rich overnight. I share their frustration - it's hard to overcome that urge to find the secret that will get you rich overnight and its always disappointing when u don't find it......but that is the heart ruling the head....the level-headed person should constantly remind themselves that this business game is a marathon and not a sprint and this book will help with some (but by no means all) of the bigger waypoints on the journey

In short, this is a book for understanding the big picture of investment and business strategies. If u want a get rich quick book, then I'm afraid you will be disappointed....