Money · editorial rating

Robert Kiyosaki

The asset-versus-liability idea is useful, but the rest leans on unfalsifiable stories, heavy leverage and market calls that keep missing. A company bankruptcy filing and a seminar business that drew a CBC Marketplace investigation drag the record down, though no court has found him personally liable for fraud.

Editorial opinion: SG Score 36 out of 100. Verdict: OVERSTATED. This is not a customer star rating and not a finding by a court.

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Strengths

• Popularized the useful idea that assets should produce income and spending is not investing
• Got millions of people thinking about financial literacy for the first time
• The core book is cheap and widely available

Weaknesses

• Rich Global LLC filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after a court judgment (S6).
• He predicted major stock-market crashes for 2023, 2024, and February 2025 that did not arrive on those schedules (S7).
• He has endorsed network marketing. An AARP Foundation report found many participants lose money (S11).

Claims

1. partly. Rich Dad Poor Dad presents lessons from a real 'rich dad', his friend's father, who taught him how money works.

   Kiyosaki long declined to name him. After Richard Kimi of Hilo died in 2009, Kimi's son Alan told the Honolulu Advertiser that Kiyosaki based his original 'rich dad' on Kimi. Critics such as John T. Reed argue the book's stories and advice do not hold up.

   Sources: S3 S4

2. fails. "I use debt as money and I don't save cash." He says he is about $1.2 billion in debt and that if he goes bust, the bank goes bust.

   Leverage magnifies losses as well as gains, and his company Rich Global LLC filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after a court judgment. Advice to skip cash savings and borrow heavily is not supported for ordinary households.

   Sources: S6 R18

3. fails. The biggest stock market crash in history is coming (predicted for February 2025, and repeatedly in 2023 and 2024).

   The Motley Fool tallied repeated misses: he called crashes in 2023 and early 2024, and the S&P 500 rose about 24% and 23% in those years. He did correctly call bitcoin passing $100,000.

   Sources: S7

Public record

• 2010-01: CBC Marketplace investigated Rich Dad seminars run by licensee Whitney (later Tigrent Learning). Attendees described pressure to raise credit limits, and one trainer claimed profits from a mobile home park that did not exist. Kiyosaki told CBC that was not good professional training and he would look into it. S5
• 2012-08: Rich Global LLC, a Kiyosaki company, filed for bankruptcy after losing a judgment of nearly $24 million to the Learning Annex, which a court found was owed its share of profits from their seminar partnership. Slate reported Rich Global claimed only $1.8 million in assets. S9

Also in Money

• Ramit Sethi (76, EVIDENCE-BACKED)
• Dave Ramsey (68, MIXED)

Sources

1. S1 Rich Dad. Rich Dad. https://www.richdad.com/
2. S2 Rich Dad Poor Dad. Penguin Random House. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/291234/rich-dad-poor-dad-by-robert-t-kiyosaki/
3. S3 Richard Kimi of Hilo, hotel industry pioneer, 83. Honolulu Advertiser. https://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Feb/01/ln/hawaii902010355.html
4. S4 John T. Reed's analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. John T. Reed. https://johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-real-estate-investment-blog/61651011-john-t-reeds-analysis-of-robert-t-kiyosakis-book-rich-dad-poor-dad-part-1
5. S5 'Rich Dad' seminars deceptive: Marketplace. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/rich-dad-seminars-deceptive-marketplace-1.877709
6. S6 Rich Dad, Poor Dad's bankrupt company. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rich-dad-poor-dads-bankrupt-company/
7. S7 Rich Dad Poor Dad Author Robert Kiyosaki Predicts a Stock Market Crash in February. The Motley Fool (Keith Speights). https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/02/04/robert-kiyosaki-stock-market-crash-february
8. S8 Robert Kiyosaki proudly says he's $1.2 billion in debt. Yahoo Finance / Benzinga. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/robert-kiyosaki-rich-dad-poor-090501225.html
9. S9 This Legal Dispute Says Everything About the Shadiness of Personal Finance Gurus. Slate (Helaine Olen). https://slate.com/business/2016/02/robert-kiyosaki-s-ongoing-legal-dispute-says-everything-about-the-shadiness-of-personal-finance-gurus.html
10. S10 The Business of the 21st Century. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/the-businessofthe-21st-century
11. S11 Multilevel marketing: The research, risks and rewards. AARP Foundation research report. https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/aarp_foundation/2018/pdf/AARPFResearchExecutiveSummaryFINAL101018.pdf

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