Rich Dad Poor Dad

Name : Hoh Tjin Li

Class : S4A

School Num. : 08160

Book Call Num. :

Book Title :Rich Dad Poor Dad

Author :Robert Kiyosaki

Publication Year/ (Edition) : 2000

Sypnosis

This book descride the story of a person who has two fathers: the first was his biological father – the poor dad - and the other was the father of his childhood best friend, Mike – the rich dad.

Both fathers taught the author how to achieve success but with very different approaches. It became evident to the author which father's approach made more financial sense. Throughout the book, the author compares both fathers – their principles, ideas and financial practices.

Among some of the book's topics are:

the value of financial intelligence

that corporations spend first, then pay taxes, while individuals must pay taxes first

that corporations are artificial entities that anyone can use, but the poor usually do not know how.

Characters

Poor Dad

Poor dad believed in the traditional principles of working hard, saving money, and not buying material things that one cannot afford. He believed that having a good job with a solid company is what one should aspire for; hence he expresses disappointment when his son leaves the employ of a large, reputable corporation.

Poor dad looks to education as the passport to success. He was more interested in a good education than the subject of money. The author wrote that his poor dad would always say things like, “I’m not interested in money” or “money doesn’t matter.”

Rich Dad

The author wrote that it was when he was nine years old that he started realizing that his rich dad made much more sense than his poor dad. It was from rich dad that the author learned not to say, “I can’t afford it”, but instead to ask, “how can I afford it?” He explains this principle by relating an incident when he and his best friend Mike went to work for Mike’s father. Rich dad paid them very low wages deliberately so that would stir anger and a sense of injustice in them and eventually for them to realize that in order to get ahead, one must work for himself and not for others.

The author adds that while his poor dad invested time and effort in education, he did not have any knowledge on investing. His rich dad, by contrast, was very skilled in the investment game because that’s all he did. The attitude of his rich dad about money was manifested in the saying “the lack of money is the root of all evil” (his poor dad, on the other hand, believed that the love of money is the root of all evil).

The Son (Robert T. Kiyosaki)

The author takes a common sense approach to the subject of money and emphasizes the need for accounting knowledge so that the reader clearly understands what assets and liabilities are. He makes simple diagrams that show the inflow and outflow of money and how the rich build up the asset column and the poor build up the liability column (expenses). It is obvious that the author places much importance on accounting knowledge – no matter how boring it is - because he says it is “the most important subject in your life.”

Opinion

Hmm, I really admire the author and I do agree that he is a great motivator. This book helps me to reshape the way i think about what i do with my money. The Author too does a great job of helping me understand that rich people are rich because they buy assets that produce income. Poor people are poor because they accumulate liabilities and expenses. In order to become wealthy, one must spend money accumulating income producing assets such as real estate, businesses, stocks and bonds. For anyone who plans to accumulate wealth, this book is a must read.