A Summary of The Book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Rich Dad Poor Dad is a book about the keys to financial success. The entire premise of the book is to juxtapose the two different financial mentalities of two different people. The point of view is of the author, Robert Kyosaki, who describes his childhood experience. The “poor dad” is his actual father, while the “rich dad” is actually his best friend’s dad who later becomes his mentor. The two different mentalities are as follows: the “poor dad” believes that a college education will set you up for life and provide a decent job with enough income to save, and ultimately have a good retirement; the “rich dad” believes that in order to succeed in life, you need to work hard for yourself and not somebody else’s company. The rich dad believed in the value of acquiring assets that make you money, not liabilities which may be nice to have, but can end up hurting you in the end.

The book revolves completely around the author, Robert Kyosaki, who in the setting of the book began his financial literacy journey with a job working for the “rich dad”. Robert and his best friend Mike both worked for the rich dad in one of the many grocery stores the rich dad owned. The rich dad hired the two boys and paid them hourly. Within a very short amount of time, Robert began asking for a raise from the rich dad. However, instead of giving him his way, the rich dad actually made Robert and Mike work for free, so they became even more upset. The two boys were enraged and felt completely exploited for their work. The rich dad later offered the boys to either learn the moral of the lesson, or to get a pay raise. The thought of just knowing something made the boys decide to learn the outcome instead, so the rich dad explained the most important lesson from this book, which is to avoid the “rat race” of just having a regular job, and to begin to work for yourself and make sure that you are the one who is benefiting the most from YOUR time.

The rich dad in the book is the one who teaches the lessons, while the poor dad is Kyosaki’s example of the every person, and what not to do in your later life. The rich dad makes it known that investing in things that will make you money will always be better than material things which can become liabilities. Rich dad gives my favorite example, which is in real estate while explaining how McDonald is just somewhat in the business of selling burgers, in reality they are in the real estate business by owning properties in some of the “most valuable intersections in America”.

Taxes are something that the rich dad does not take lightly, he avoids paying them in every way that he can. He explains how the average person is taxed and how corporations are able to avoid paying taxes on the money they make through loopholes in the system that favor entrepreneurship. The rich dad makes an emphasis on how important it is to be aware of how your taxes work and how you can avoid paying exuberant amounts of taxes. Financial literacy as a whole is very important to the rich dad, who gives Robert examples like that of professional athletes, who are very weak in the way that they manage their money. He tells Kyosaki that it is far better to be wise with your money before you have it, to not leave the burden of worry about the money once it is acquired.

The poor dad in this story places his entire emphasis on the importance of having a college education. The rich dad also believes that an education is important, but doesn’t think that it is absolutely essential to success, that being educated is necessary, but not necessarily a college education (although not excluding a college education). Rich dad also believes in trying to hire the most intelligent people to work for you (people smarter than you, even) in order to provide more knowledge for your business moving forward.

Robert Kyosaki gives more examples about how risk taking is absolutely necessary when it comes to success. He says that rich people are able to identify that they are being given an opportunity and seize the moment rather than passing on it and it not amounting to anything. The rich dad makes sure to show how other opportunities will come eventually, and to not be swayed away if something does not go in your favor the first time. 

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