Probably the most influential — and most argued-about — personal finance book ever written. Read it for the mindset shift it triggers, not as literal financial advice.
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What Rich Dad Poor Dad is actually about
Robert Kiyosaki contrasts his “poor dad” (highly educated, employed, perpetually stretched) with his “rich dad” (a friend’s entrepreneurial father) to challenge conventional beliefs about money, work and ownership. It is less a plan than a provocation to think differently about how wealth is actually built.
The big ideas that stuck with me
- Assets vs liabilities. The rich buy assets — things that put money in your pocket — while everyone else accumulates liabilities they mistake for assets.
- Make money work for you. Trading time for a paycheque alone rarely builds wealth; ownership does.
- Financial literacy is self-taught. School rarely covers it, so learning it is on you.
- Fear and convention keep people stuck. The “safe” path is not always the secure one.
The line I underlined
The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.
Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad
Who it’s for — and who it isn’t
For beginners who need a jolt in how they think about money. Take the specific tactics — and Kiyosaki’s louder later claims — with real skepticism; the value here is the framing, not the how-to.
The one distinction that reframes everything
The whole book hangs on one deceptively simple idea: assets put money in your pocket, liabilities take it out — and most people spend their lives buying liabilities they have been told are assets. Kiyosaki’s favourite example is the family home. It feels like your biggest asset, yet month after month it only takes money out. Once that lens clicks, you start looking at every purchase differently, asking a quiet question school never taught you: which way does the cash flow?
The “rich dad / poor dad” framing is a storytelling device, and a slippery one — the numbers are illustrative rather than a blueprint, and some of the advice is dated or hand-wavy. But the mindset shift is real. Kiyosaki’s gift is making a nine-year-old’s question feel urgent again: why do we work for money instead of making money work for us?
How it compares
Best read alongside the more rigorous, evidence-based The Psychology of Money, which balances its enthusiasm with hard sense.
My verdict
Flawed, but genuinely eye-opening as a first step. My rating: 7.5 out of 10.
Check the current price on Amazon, or prefer to listen? It is excellent on Audible — free with a 30-day trial.
For more like this, browse our roundup of Best Books on Wealth & Success.
Read this next
If Kiyosaki lights the spark, temper it with a wiser head — my Psychology of Money review — and trace the idea back to its root in my Think and Grow Rich review.
Common questions
Is the financial advice actually reliable?
Treat it as a mindset book, not a manual. The specific tactics — especially around real estate and “good debt” — are simplified and reflect a very different era and risk appetite. Take the framing that assets beat liabilities and that financial education matters, then get your actual tactics from more grounded sources.
Is it worth reading if I already budget well?
Possibly not for the how-to, but often yes for the why. Plenty of careful budgeters still think like employees; Kiyosaki’s value is the jolt that gets you thinking like an owner.