[TStoneMBD]

youre right in that these books are self-help motivational books. the information presented has been directed at the financially clueless. however, i think that is the case with most real estate books. from my perspective, real estate investing really isnt that hard. its about understanding numbers and finding deals. of course there are important aspects such as appreciation assessment, housing costs, mortgages among other things, but kiyosaki has certainly touched on those areas, maybe not at advanced levels however.

if i were to read a robert kiyosaki type book now, i probably wouldnt get that much out of it other than perhaps some motivation. ive learned alot more about finances then when i first read the book, and you yourself probably know much more than i do, which is probably why you didnt feel you got much about of the series.

i read these books before i understood what ev is, and robert kiyosaki explains how to calculate ev for the real estate market the way that david sklanksy explains ev for the poker world. when i first read TOP the book opened many doors of learning for me. now i am at a point in poker that when i open up TOP i am kind of like "so?"

its hard for me to explain what information i have absorbed in those books, but the most informative book that i have read from the kiyosaki series is cashflow quadrant. that book is fantastic and thinking about it makes me want to read it again. the first book in the series, rich dad poor dad is exactly like another book (i believe its retire young, retire rich) in that both books just talk about kiyosakis childhood lessons and dont really get into true number/knowledge crunching.

off the top of my head, here are some things i learned from the richdad series:

how to leverage
how to arrange creative financing
how to defer taxes through real estate
the power of compounding interest
understanding of what positive cash flow is an how to earn it

i really dont like the idea of making a list of things ive learned because i feel that it limits the books. ive absorbed alot of information from the series beyond what i mentioned. dont get me wrong, im not trying to say that these books are great. there are certainly books out there with more substance. however, they have helped me a good deal.