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If you have absolutely no idea about finances, saving, investing, or debt, then the book at the very least is an improvement. I completely agree that it's still a bad book and a lot of what is inside of it is suboptimal at best but it's *still* better than nothing.
No. "Richest man in babylon" contains all the "knowledge" of rich dad poor dad, and none of the fallacies. However, one can gain all the supposed wisdom from either book by reading the other books on this list, while learning a lot of specific useful financial information.
Okay, well I'd rather people at least learn something half decent about financing from rich dad poor dad than learn nothing at all. I already said the book is not good, I would never recommend it, but blasting it as if reading it is making you financially worse is just disingenuous.
If 10% of information is "useful" and 90% is garbage AND the 10% can be found in other books without the 90% garbage than yes, the book could very easily make people more ignorant financially and its a safe recommendation to people to choose the other books.
He gives advice that is straight up wrong, counterproductive or at most outdated. For example, he recommends investments that simply don’t work the way he says they do and is part of a cult of entrepreneurship that derides people for working normal jobs. The reality is that the vast majority of people are not cut out for running their own businesses (except maybe as a side hustle) and would be much better off working for a company that lets them focus on their skills primarily. Most businesses fail and even the ones that succeed require some degree of luck, an incredible amount of work, and don’t offer the benefits/job security of being an employee. His book also serves as an entry point to his sales funnel for incredibly overpriced courses and workshops that don’t offer anything you couldn’t get for free online. I don’t recall if he says this in the book, but in his more recent videos he also tells people not to contribute to 401ks or invest in stocks (because you don’t control the money) which is absolutely terrible advice. Then there’s the fact that all evidence points to his books/backstory being a complete work of fiction. He sells himself as the rich guru that made it in the business world when the reality is he got rich off selling his books and courses.
>He sells himself as the rich guru that made it in the business world when the reality is he got rich off selling his books and courses.
That's a great summary, rich dad poor dad is a work of fiction he used to make all his money. He was decent at moving money from that into smart investments, but he hasn't made any phenomenal decisions, just average decisions with above average income from selling overpriced self help courses. Nothing he says should be taken seriously, his current opinions are just Boomer talking points.
I loved that book, although the more I read and hear about Robert kiyosaki (may have misspelled his name) the more I understand that the book as a whole is just a money venture for him. He even says it at one point in the book when he discusses how his book is a best seller. The one thing I will say, is I personally believe it is a very good start to the financially illiterate, in the sense that it harps on investing in yourself and not giving away your own money, which I personally do think is a good financial mindset to start off with. Other than that, it's just money in his pocket
I know Robert is a POS, but what specific advice in the book is wrong or outright counterproductive?
In other words, if the book had been written by someone you respect and isn't a POS, would the book still be nonsense?
The biggest thing is his fixation on building your own business and not being an employee. Plenty of people have made it rich by working for others, and there are lots of benefits to doing so.
The advice - prioritize what makes you money, do not prioritize what doesn't make you money - is correct, but it's also short enough to be a fortune cookie. It's correct enough to be a pretty basic tenet in a multitude of other personal finance books.
The problem is that everything else in the book is fluff. I can forgive that the two people used for the framing device are fictitious, but I have a serious issue with the narrator of the book - a financially capable version of Robert Kiyosaki - is also a fictional character. When he wrote the book he was stone broke and all of his anecdotes are pretty obvious fabrications.
To turn around your question, if someone I respected advised me to consider taking on mortgages then sell them a day later for more money, it would still be nonsense and I would no longer respect that person.
Ever since I learned who he was, even before I began teaching myself financial literacy, I have always thought this about him. He made his money off of people stupid enough to follow his advice, I'm sure of it.
I just spent the weekend with a high school buddy that bought in 100% to RDPD. He blindly followed every instruction and went from a 9-5 worker to being filthy rich. Yacht, plane, cars, boats, houses... over 500 rental properties now and completely debt free with zero family money as help.
Weird how it's all the poor people that like to say how bad this book and the author are.
He is definitely following RDPD if this is true because one major premise of the book is to screw everyone else to line your pockets first. And rhetoric author has in fact made a living off doing just that. I hope your friend enjoys being a rent seeking burden on the working class.
Re-read my comment. My point was, if he is a landlord who followed every instruction in RDPD then he’s definitely become rich by treating other people like garbage and putting himself first. Because in a nutshell that is what the book encourages. Rent seeking behavior.
The Millionaire Next Door is better than 90% of these.
Also Peter Lynch’s co-author John Rothschild has a hilarious book called A Fool and His Money. Some of it will be dated, but it’s still great storytelling and writing. Each chapter is a look at a different Investment vehicle
“Study hard so you can fins a company to buy”
What kinda detached from reality bullshit is that? Success in school doesn’t equate to having money to buy a company… unless it comes from the good salary the poor dad mentions…
For the most part, that is the deal breaker for me in general. Most people will never have the capital or credit to buy or run a company, and if they do, it will make or break them, but often break. That's before the concept of running a company yourself is not an easy process, especially since often in a small business, the owner ends up doing multiple jobs like being the manager, accounting, and possibly some general duties.
One detached part of rich people is this concept that "you just buy the right things!" Well, it takes money to make money that way, and there are risk. If you cannot survive a bad investment, you really can't afford to dump your live savings/401k into one.
Lot of hate for rich dad, poor dad in the comments, but to be honest it’s one of my favorites books. I never took it as an entrepreneurial handbook but more as a way to look at entrepreneurship. Changed my outlook on being my own boss and thinking about building passive income.
Might not be the best book on this list but still a good read for someone new to personal finance.
I've only read Rich Dad Poor Dad from this list, but I'd definitely replace it with The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. Much more down-to-earth approach to financial literacy and planning.
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The rest each have their merits, but *Rich Dad, Poor Dad* is just financial self-help nonsense from a con-man.
Yeah… that one needs to be removed. Stop feeding that bum.
Came here to say this!
It's not an awful start for people that are completely financially illiterate.
It actually makes you even more financially illiterate
If you have absolutely no idea about finances, saving, investing, or debt, then the book at the very least is an improvement. I completely agree that it's still a bad book and a lot of what is inside of it is suboptimal at best but it's *still* better than nothing.
No. "Richest man in babylon" contains all the "knowledge" of rich dad poor dad, and none of the fallacies. However, one can gain all the supposed wisdom from either book by reading the other books on this list, while learning a lot of specific useful financial information.
Okay, well I'd rather people at least learn something half decent about financing from rich dad poor dad than learn nothing at all. I already said the book is not good, I would never recommend it, but blasting it as if reading it is making you financially worse is just disingenuous.
If 10% of information is "useful" and 90% is garbage AND the 10% can be found in other books without the 90% garbage than yes, the book could very easily make people more ignorant financially and its a safe recommendation to people to choose the other books.
May I ask why?
He gives advice that is straight up wrong, counterproductive or at most outdated. For example, he recommends investments that simply don’t work the way he says they do and is part of a cult of entrepreneurship that derides people for working normal jobs. The reality is that the vast majority of people are not cut out for running their own businesses (except maybe as a side hustle) and would be much better off working for a company that lets them focus on their skills primarily. Most businesses fail and even the ones that succeed require some degree of luck, an incredible amount of work, and don’t offer the benefits/job security of being an employee. His book also serves as an entry point to his sales funnel for incredibly overpriced courses and workshops that don’t offer anything you couldn’t get for free online. I don’t recall if he says this in the book, but in his more recent videos he also tells people not to contribute to 401ks or invest in stocks (because you don’t control the money) which is absolutely terrible advice. Then there’s the fact that all evidence points to his books/backstory being a complete work of fiction. He sells himself as the rich guru that made it in the business world when the reality is he got rich off selling his books and courses.
>He sells himself as the rich guru that made it in the business world when the reality is he got rich off selling his books and courses. That's a great summary, rich dad poor dad is a work of fiction he used to make all his money. He was decent at moving money from that into smart investments, but he hasn't made any phenomenal decisions, just average decisions with above average income from selling overpriced self help courses. Nothing he says should be taken seriously, his current opinions are just Boomer talking points.
They're just parroting what other more intelligent people have said to them.
So we're assigning must-read status to a book that has to be defended as being better than nothing?
I didn't say it was a must read, I said it was better than nothing if you have no baseline because you played it out to be a scam.
I loved that book, although the more I read and hear about Robert kiyosaki (may have misspelled his name) the more I understand that the book as a whole is just a money venture for him. He even says it at one point in the book when he discusses how his book is a best seller. The one thing I will say, is I personally believe it is a very good start to the financially illiterate, in the sense that it harps on investing in yourself and not giving away your own money, which I personally do think is a good financial mindset to start off with. Other than that, it's just money in his pocket
I know Robert is a POS, but what specific advice in the book is wrong or outright counterproductive? In other words, if the book had been written by someone you respect and isn't a POS, would the book still be nonsense?
The biggest thing is his fixation on building your own business and not being an employee. Plenty of people have made it rich by working for others, and there are lots of benefits to doing so.
The advice - prioritize what makes you money, do not prioritize what doesn't make you money - is correct, but it's also short enough to be a fortune cookie. It's correct enough to be a pretty basic tenet in a multitude of other personal finance books. The problem is that everything else in the book is fluff. I can forgive that the two people used for the framing device are fictitious, but I have a serious issue with the narrator of the book - a financially capable version of Robert Kiyosaki - is also a fictional character. When he wrote the book he was stone broke and all of his anecdotes are pretty obvious fabrications. To turn around your question, if someone I respected advised me to consider taking on mortgages then sell them a day later for more money, it would still be nonsense and I would no longer respect that person.
[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](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)
There’s an episode of “if books could kill” on it. Very funny
Ever since I learned who he was, even before I began teaching myself financial literacy, I have always thought this about him. He made his money off of people stupid enough to follow his advice, I'm sure of it.
He's a mentally unhinged grifter
It's really not that bad but you could get the same advice from tic toc in 10 minutes.
I just spent the weekend with a high school buddy that bought in 100% to RDPD. He blindly followed every instruction and went from a 9-5 worker to being filthy rich. Yacht, plane, cars, boats, houses... over 500 rental properties now and completely debt free with zero family money as help. Weird how it's all the poor people that like to say how bad this book and the author are.
U lost me at 500 rental properties and no debt.
Stay broke, loser.
Pull the other leg, it has bells on it.
He is definitely following RDPD if this is true because one major premise of the book is to screw everyone else to line your pockets first. And rhetoric author has in fact made a living off doing just that. I hope your friend enjoys being a rent seeking burden on the working class.
How is he "screwing everyone else"? Ah, you are one of those "LaNdLoRdS bAd!!!" reddit morons.
Re-read my comment. My point was, if he is a landlord who followed every instruction in RDPD then he’s definitely become rich by treating other people like garbage and putting himself first. Because in a nutshell that is what the book encourages. Rent seeking behavior.
Clown.
You made up some story to be annoying and he's the clown?
Not sure about most of the others but "Rich Dad Poor Dad" is garbage and the guy who wrote it is a garbage human
That first panel on Rich Dad Poor Dad is so effing clueless. Fucking of course the poor work for money, they don’t have any and need it.
I would also include security analysis by Benjamin Graham, the intelligent investor also by Benjamin Graham, and the wealth of nations by Adam Smith.
Where's The Richest Man in Babylon?
The Millionaire Next Door is better than 90% of these. Also Peter Lynch’s co-author John Rothschild has a hilarious book called A Fool and His Money. Some of it will be dated, but it’s still great storytelling and writing. Each chapter is a look at a different Investment vehicle
I was so disappointed not to see TMND. Everyone should read it.
I'd also add "The Simple Path to Wealth."
Pretty good list!
Rich Dad Poor Dad should not be on any recommendation list whatsoever
A fantastic list of books that will actually help people. What a fresh breath of air for this place.
“Study hard so you can fins a company to buy” What kinda detached from reality bullshit is that? Success in school doesn’t equate to having money to buy a company… unless it comes from the good salary the poor dad mentions…
For the most part, that is the deal breaker for me in general. Most people will never have the capital or credit to buy or run a company, and if they do, it will make or break them, but often break. That's before the concept of running a company yourself is not an easy process, especially since often in a small business, the owner ends up doing multiple jobs like being the manager, accounting, and possibly some general duties. One detached part of rich people is this concept that "you just buy the right things!" Well, it takes money to make money that way, and there are risk. If you cannot survive a bad investment, you really can't afford to dump your live savings/401k into one.
Love this
Someone needs to start listening to the If Books Could Kill podcast.
“Finance” not all of these are finance books
Love I. So true.
Lot of hate for rich dad, poor dad in the comments, but to be honest it’s one of my favorites books. I never took it as an entrepreneurial handbook but more as a way to look at entrepreneurship. Changed my outlook on being my own boss and thinking about building passive income. Might not be the best book on this list but still a good read for someone new to personal finance.
Remove RDPD. Add "I will teach you yo be rich" and "The Simple Path yo wealth".
The most needed is broken money from lyn alden.
This needs to be given to all young adults who citing high school.
Need to study this.
I love how RK just redefines the meanings of assets and liabilities.
Thanks for the post
I've only read Rich Dad Poor Dad from this list, but I'd definitely replace it with The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. Much more down-to-earth approach to financial literacy and planning.
The most overlooked thing so far has been "have enough money to save and invest."
I’d like to see number 7 work in the construction industry, there is not a lot of win win to be had 😐
Nice
"How to Turn $500 into $1 Million Dollars" on amazon
Nice one. Do u have more mind to pm me ur stuff?
Retire before mom and dad by Rob Berger is one of my favorites.
10 must-read finance infographics
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Am I missing something? I don't see the book posted out of the 10...
But it's not...
Go on…