Rich Dad Poor Dad: Personal Finance Oversimplified

Rich Dad Poor Dad is a strange book. It’s been 4 days since I finished the book and despite having thought it through many times, I still do not know if I like the book or not.

Here’s the crux: Financial literacy is severely undertaught in society and in most cases, taught wrong at the dinner table. The Author, Robert Kiyosaki, uses his biological dad’s financial ideas (poor dad) and his friend’s dad’s financial ideas (rich dad) to explain the contrasting philosophies the rich and the poor have about personal finance. One clings to stability, education, and salaries; the other pushes you towards risk, assets, and financial independence. The anomalous distinction is that the rich dad didn’t even finish college and the poor dad has a master’s degree. Again the point is, degrees don’t have anything to do with financial literacy.

This book has some great ideas. The clarity between assets and liabilities, good debt and bad debt, risk and reward is all enlightening. The writing is conversational but mixed in with a parental advice tone. It almost has the page turning attraction as a mystery fiction. It revolutionizes assumptions on money, wealth, and what it truly means to be financially literate. 

Yet, somewhere, this book loses its elegance halfway through. His insistence on real estate being a gold mine, romanticizing risk-taking, and simply oversimplifying personal finance diminishes the quality of this book severely. Let’s take real estate for example. The examples he gives, when he buys cheap property at foreclosures, etc, and sells them at high prices isn’t as feasible anymore. The ratio of house price to wages has increased from 3x to 5x from the 1970s to 2025, so the same principle cannot hold. Moreover, his anecdotes slowly drift from inspiring to a state of confusion as to whether it is from memory or a myth.

Here’s the point I’m driving home: Rich Dad Poor Dad is a decent book. Take some ideas seriously, others with a grain of salt. There is at least one thing every average employee can take away from this. Be inspired, don’t follow blindly. Signing off for now.