Every Tuesday is Kitchen Sink day at Living Behind the Curve.

I had a brilliant idea a few weeks ago, that I needed to read more books, immediately followed up by a second brilliant idea that I could do double duty by picking books that I could review here, and that immediately created the third brilliant idea that I could then give away the books and create a feeding-frenzy-like reaction which would no doubt help rocket me forward to fame and fortune (more on that later). So, armed with my brilliance and a couple of bucks, I hit my new favorite used book store and hunted down a few choice titles.

The first book I spotted was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. It had a pretty purple cover and the title was vaguely familiar, sort of like the names of the supporting characters in Romeo and Juliet. I took it home and dove in.

Look, love it or hate it, Rich Dad, Poor Dad has made a huge impression on the personal finance sphere. It’s become required reading in the same way the Book of Genesis has — you have to take some time to give it a good once over just to know what the heck everyone else is talking about. This book is less business or personal finance, as the publisher claims, as it is self help, and poorly constructed self help at that.

Rich Dad is a fairly quick read, that much I can say. We’re presented with what are supposed to be the memories of Kiyosaki’s youth, and what he learned from his two dads. After I got over my initial excitement that 1950’s Hawaii was much more progressive than I’d ever suspected, I was taken along on a narrative adventure where an astonishingly insightful and wise 9-year-old boy learns financial philosophy at the feet of his best friend’s father, who is the Rich Dad. Rich Dad, it turns out, has very few kind things to say about the financial intelligence of the boy’s actual dad, known as Poor Dad. We learn great financial truisms from Rich Dad, like “Learn to use your emotions to think, not think with your emotions“, and “Some people say I exploit people because I don’t pay as much as the sugar plantation or the government. I say the people exploit themselves“. The narrative wanders in and out of more instructive passages, and eventually breaks down completely, succumbing to Kiyosaki’s masturbatory self-praise of his own financial brilliance.

For the record, I’ve read more believable and compelling prose in pornographic fanfic forums, but it’s obvious almost from the beginning that this is allegory. It is, however, slightly troubling that the tale of the two dads and the two boys isn’t admitted to be such.

This book spends an inordinate amount of time on one of my favorite topics, bashing the public education system. You see, Poor Dad was not only a highly educated man, he taught teachers, he headed up the teacher’s union, and he was something like the Hawaiian Secretary of Education, and yet had to work hard to pay bills and never get ahead. Rich Dad, on the other hand, didn’t get past the 8th grade, and yet was able to build a huge empire. Education, you see, isn’t particularly important if you want to make money, and is even more useless because it doesn’t teach anything about money. This is the first great implicit lesson.

The second great lesson is that people don’t know the difference between an asset and a liability. An asset creates wealth while a liability absorbs wealth. If this doesn’t sound knee-slappingly obvious and more like the wrong answer on an accounting quiz, Kiyosaki brings you up short by declaring your house to be a liability, not an asset as everyone commonly believes, as are cars and your expensive stereo, and everyone gets confused about that and it ultimately leads to their extended slavery to employer overlords.

Lets look at that again, shall we? Education and home ownership are not what we’ve been led to believe, and do not posses the value we think they d0. Being that these two things are the cornerstones of the middle class, I think I smell an agenda. Perhaps that’s why my copy of the book is a 38th printing and at least it’s second publisher and it’s still peppered liberally with misspellings, misprints and poor grammar, as well as evidence of very poor proofing in the form of repeating paragraphs. Kiyosaki lavishly praises his expensive lawyers and accountants and brokers, stating that one should always hire people smarter than oneself, but for all of that he couldn’t find a competent editor? Regardless, Rich Dad, Poor Dad is long on padding and gee-whiz logical leaps and very short on practical advice. Kiyosaki is quick to insult the middle class work ethic, frequently intoning “Work hard. Save money. Diversify.” as the guiding principal of financial mediocrity. He doesn’t offer a whole lot of solutions, aside from acquiring “assets” and his own example of radically risky moves in the real estate and stock market.

The seminal passage in the book also damns it:

“My soon-to-be-rich dad would explain that by automatically saying the words “I can’t afford it,” your brain stops working. By asking the question “How can I afford it?” your brain is put to work.”

In and of itself, it’s not a bad personal finance concept. Use your resources effectively, and work for what you want. However, this is the first of many passages that state that your brain, the natural power of your mind, your natural financial brilliance is your greatest and only tool truly available to you, and that by flexing the power of your mind you shall become rich. Great. So why is the rest of this book filled with mindless slogans? “Don’t work for money. Make money work for you.” “Mind your own business.” “Failure inspires winners. Failure defeats losers.”

Rich Dad, Poor Dad, on the whole, is rather like a C-level metal album — once you get to the end, you’re ready to storm out the door and fuck shit up, but you’ll just be disappointed if you go back and pay attention to the words. It’s an inspiring book, sure. I read it once and I was all ready to go out and risk some money and bust some heads, but going back over it, the book just doesn’t hold up. It doesn’t teach anything more than “Bob is brilliant and rich and has a Porche”. It’s a cult of personality, convincing you that you’ve done it wrong and Robert Kiyosaki does it right and his system brings you riches and you bring yourself failure. I say read it once, just to say you have, but hit the library or find it used. It’s not worth whatever the cover price is, and frankly, Kiyosaki is rich enough.

~~~~~~~~~~

Another option, of course, is to get it free from me! I’m giving my copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad to one of the brave souls that comment here or send me an email (mer at living behind the curve dot com) and tell me they want to enter the raffle. Entries are due by 8pm eastern on Monday, August 6th or thereabouts, when I sit down to write next week’s Kitchen Sink post. It’s a free book, and you even get to see my notes scribbled on the pages! In ink! So, drop me a line with your name and email addy, and check in next week to see who the winner is!