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  #1  
Old 07-11-2006, 11:44 AM
Evan Evan is offline
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Default Robert Kiyosaki

I can't stand this guy. Does anyone thing he's not completely useless as a writer?
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Old 07-11-2006, 12:02 PM
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Old 07-11-2006, 12:13 PM
DesertCat DesertCat is offline
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Default Re: Robert Kiyosaki

I just read RDPD and thought it pretty silly. Unfortunately I didn't get around to writing up my detailed thoughts at the time, but essentially he has a good message, save and invest, and he presents it in a very motivational way. It doesn't matter that he made up the "rich dad" and the stupid lessons, "the richest man in babylon" ain't a documentary either.

My gripe with him is when he gets beyond the basics of motivating you to save and invest, any detailed advice (which he is clever not to offer much of) is often contradictory and wrong. It's clear he doesn't know much about investing, or real estate (see John T. Reed). Whenever he writes a column about some topic I do have some knowledge of (i.e. Warren Buffett's approach to investing) he gets some basic facts wrong and usually totally misses the big picture.

There are other good books, including Richest Man in Babylon, and Millionaire Next Door, that can motivate you to think about how you live your life and how to achieve your goals. And they aren't filled with a bunch of contradictory or just plain wrong advice.
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Old 07-11-2006, 12:14 PM
Evan Evan is offline
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Default Re: Robert Kiyosaki

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I can't stand this guy. Does anyone thing he's not completely useless as a writer?

[/ QUOTE ]

RDPD is one of the most important books I have ever read.

If you already know what he's teaching, I can see how he can be annoying...but if you don't know it, it can be valuable advice.

[/ QUOTE ]
I've never read Rich Dad Poor Dad. I've talked to people about it and I get the overwhelming sense that it's not worth much. It might be a good book if you don't know anything about finance, I can see that.

I read his articles on Yahoo Finance pretty often and I'm consistanly underwhelmed. I would think that these are targeted at a higher level audience than the book, but maybe I'm just expecting something that he's not trying to write.
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Old 07-11-2006, 12:16 PM
Evan Evan is offline
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Default Re: Robert Kiyosaki

[ QUOTE ]

My gripe with him is when he gets beyond the basics of motivating you to save and invest, any detailed advice (which he is clever not to offer much of) is often contradictory and wrong. It's clear he doesn't know much about investing, or real estate (see John T. Reed). Whenever he writes a column about some topic I do have some knowledge of (i.e. Warren Buffett's approach to investing) he gets some basic facts wrong and usually totally misses the big picture.


[/ QUOTE ]
This is exactly my sentiment, mostly fueled by his current article on Yahoo Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/a...ichricher/7450) and others like it that I've read.
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Old 07-11-2006, 12:37 PM
DesertCat DesertCat is offline
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Default Re: Robert Kiyosaki

[ QUOTE ]

This is exactly my sentiment, mostly fueled by his current article on Yahoo Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/a...ichricher/7450) and others like it that I've read.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a great example. Much of what he writes here is true. But he doesn't give you any actionable detail. I.e. how much cash flow should you require? What's the difference between a bad and a good deal?

Then he dismisses cap rates (and PE's) which are measures of value that tell you how much cash flow you are getting for your dollar. If you don't use cap rates, how do you measure what you are paying for? Obviously PE needs to be adjusted for many things (depreciation, etc) to be more useful, but he doesn't even touch on this or provide you with any actionable advice.

[ QUOTE ]

Warren Buffett doesn't like to sell because selling shares triggers a tax, and a tax reduces his wealth. Those who know Buffett's formula know that he wants to compound his returns, not share them with the government.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is both right and wrong. Buffett doesn't mind paying taxes, in fact he's proud to. But he does want to compound his gains as fast as possible. So every holding presents him with a problem, is the after tax gains I'd reap selling this investment and buying a superior investment higher than the gains I'd get just holding the existing investment?

In the past he said that great investments should just be held "forever" because it was unlikely you could find a better investment offering returns superior enough to overcome paying the taxes. Of course, then Coke ran up to absurd prices, he didn't sell, and he's been apologizing ever since

Of course Kiysoki does't explain any of this in detail, so how useful is his column to a novice investor?

They say if you give typewriters to a million monkeys one of them will reproduce a masterpiece. I think Kyosaki shows that if you allow a monkey to cut and paste ideas from hundreds of other investment books, and find a multi-level marketing organisation that will push the monkey's books, the monkey will create a best seller without understanding any of the ideas himself.
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Old 07-11-2006, 01:11 PM
haakee haakee is offline
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Default Re: Robert Kiyosaki

It's not targeted at a higher audience because he's trying to target customers for his books.
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  #8  
Old 07-11-2006, 01:14 PM
buffett buffett is offline
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Default Re: Robert Kiyosaki

[ QUOTE ]
They say if you give typewriters to a million monkeys one of them will reproduce a masterpiece. I think Kyosaki shows that if you allow a monkey to cut and paste ideas from hundreds of other investment books, and find a multi-level marketing organisation that will push the monkey's books, the monkey will create a best seller without understanding any of the ideas himself.

[/ QUOTE ]
Perfect.
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  #9  
Old 07-11-2006, 01:28 PM
Evan Evan is offline
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Default Re: Robert Kiyosaki

[ QUOTE ]
It's not targeted at a higher audience because he's trying to target customers for his books.

[/ QUOTE ]
Has he written any books besides Rich Dad Poor Dad? Are they any better?
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  #10  
Old 07-11-2006, 02:40 PM
kyleb kyleb is offline
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Default Re: Robert Kiyosaki

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It's not targeted at a higher audience because he's trying to target customers for his books.

[/ QUOTE ]
Has he written any books besides Rich Dad Poor Dad? Are they any better?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, several. And no.
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