RichDad seminars

[TStoneMBD]

Inspired by the star trader seminar thread.

Robert Kiyosaki is having a seminar tour which I believe is mid-way at this point. There is a weekend seminar expo in NYC October 22-23 and I believe I will be attending. It's only like $125 for weekend passes to all seminars for ClassB tickets and includes 70 seminars to choose from over a 22 hour period.

So what is your guys take on this seminar? Waste of time, don't bother? Probably really good? They just want to sell me some pyramid scheme?

If anyone else is going to be going to this event and wants to meet up let me know. Also, let me know in advance if there is any interest in me writing a trip report on the expo along with any interesting things I learned so I can take notes.

http://richdad.com/

[Paluka]

I think the whole "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" thing is completely retarded. That book and "The Millionaire Next Door" are basically both handbooks on how to live a miserable life but die with some money in the bank.

If i'm not mistaken isn't RDPD mostly about creating passive income?

[Paluka]

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If i'm not mistaken isn't RDPD mostly about creating passive income?

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I admit to both a) having skimmed it b)not having looked at it at all in a long time. I just recall the whole thing being pretty bad.

[TStoneMBD]

paluka i am not familiar with millionaire next door or what the book stands for, but i did a quick search on the book and one of the lessons it teaches is to live well below your means. i really dont think that is something that kiyosaki has taught. maybe you are tying the two writers together? i read the entire series of richdad several years ago, excluding the advisor series. i can see why you say that richdad teaches you to live miserable lives, but iirc, kiyosaki has said in one of his books that many millionaires have gotten there by being stingy all their lives. rk then goes on to say that nobody likes a stingy millionaire. the goal of passive income is to make enough money to do whatever you want in life, not to always live below your means.

also yes, the entire richdad series is about learning how to create passive income and reading financial statements.

[Deathbear]

You might find this interesting. I personally haven't read any of Kiyosaki's books but I'm very hesitant since he is involved in a pyramid scheme (Quixtar) that one of my co-workers is involved in.

http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

[1800GAMBLER]

Try to list things this book has taught you. I was stupid enough to buy 3 out of the series due to amazon reviews and hated them all. It's a nice story telling self help motivation book.

[TStoneMBD]

ive actually read that report on kiyosaki by john reed and if its all true then it doesnt make kiyosaki look too good. that of course doesnt mean that kiyosaki doesnt know how to invest in real estate, or how to teach others to.

i am aware that kiyosaki is involved in multi-level marketing. in some of his books he speaks about how MLM is a very profitable passive income field and how despite the fact many of these MLM companies are just pyramid schemes, many of them are legitimate and can produce wealth. however, i have never, ever seen kiyosaki mention any specific MLM companies he is involved with nor have i seen him try to sell any MLM startups to any of the public. this makes his MLM endeavours appear entirely legitimate.

did kiyosaki lie about his childhood? probably. does that mean he isnt a smart investor? not necessarily. all i know is that i read his books several years ago and those books not only taught me a tremendous deal about real estate and passive income, i actually enjoyed reading them because he is an entertaining writer. i still value alot of what ive read in those kiyosaki books in high regard because the information i have absorbed from those books have yet to be disproved in anyway, at least in my eyes.

also, who is john t reed? is he a respected author of some sort? all i know about him is that his website looks like this, while robert kiyosakis website looks like this.

[BarkingMad]

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also, who is john t reed? is he a respected author of some sort? all i know about him is that his website looks like this, while robert kiyosakis website looks like this.

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"Respected" is subjective. I can tell you that I respect his work, that he runs a successful self publishing business, and that he has provided the details of his real estate investment experience on his site. I have read books from both authors. Specifically, from Reed - Fixers, Deals that make sense, Aggressive tax avoidance for real estate investors, How to Buy Real Estate for at Least 20% Below Market Value Vol 1&2, and Fundamentals of Real Estate Finance.

From Kiyosaki - Rich dad poor dad, Cashflow quadrant, and ABC's of Real Estate Investing.

I'm a small time RE investor (I own two duplexes in addition to my house), and I trade stocks short term (with mixed results), so I actually have used some of the information in these books (well... Reed's books) and I can tell you from experience that the difference in the appearance of their websites mirrors the differences of their material. Specifically, Kiyosaki is 95% fluff and 5% substance, John Reed is 95% substance and 5% fluff.

By fluff, I mean the pep rally, motivational BS that is designed to get you excited about "getting on the fast track to wealth". This is what Kiyosaki is all about. He talks about real estate investing, using OPM to build wealth, and why you should run & track your personal finances like a business, but he gives virtually zero nuts and bolts information on the subject matter.

In contrast, John Reed is all about nuts and bolts how to. He writes with the assumption that the reader has already decided to take steps to increase their wealth, and focuses on specifics. Want to buy property for at least 20% below market? His book talks specifics, from Probate to IRS auctions, you get detailed info that actually tells you how to do it. Rather than a pep rally, he gives pro's and con's for most of the things he writes about.

My .02

[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.