![[Cover Image of Why We Want You To Be Rich]](http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/images/books/why_we_want_you_to_be_rich.jpg)
I picked up a copy of this book at Costco and I am thoroughly under whelmed after plodding through its 330 pages. It is very nice to know that in exchange for a mere $21.19, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kiyosaki want us to be rich beyond our wildest dreams but if you are looking for actual advice on how to really do it, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
This book is pretty thin on details though Mr Kiyosaki counsels entrepreneurship and investing in oil and gas, gold, silver, real estate, hedge funds, private equity and limited partnerships, precisely the things where you are competing with thousands of really smart people with deep pockets.
I just don’t understand Robert Kiyosaki. Here is a best-selling author and by all accounts a “guru” in very high demand trying hard to convince everyone that he is a brilliant investor (”my gold mine in China, my silver mine in South America, and my real estate companies and oil partnerships in the United States”). In page 50 of this latest book, for instance, is this tall claim:
In many ways that will be explained later in this book, both Donald and I can beat Warren’s rates of returns on investment. He may be richer, but we can get richer faster using our own methods and use less money.
You can put me in the sceptic column because Mr. Buffett’s rates of returns are public and included in the annual report of Berkshire Hathaway every year. We only have Mr. Kiyosaki’s word that he is a superior investor.
The bottom line is that you can safely skip this hagiography that Mr. Trump and Mr. Kiyosaki have penned for each other (Robert is great; Donald is a genius) and thank me for the time and money I have saved you.
Related: Jonathan Clements’ [Wall Street Journal] excellent review of the book.
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15 responses so far ↓
1 anjo // Nov 20, 2006 at 11:52 pm
I find “The Donald” and Mr. Kiyosaki good for a laugh, but that’s about it. Comparing themselves to Buffet, heh. I have two words to describe their method of wealth building. Dumb luck.
2 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 21, 2006 at 12:14 am
I found the book strange because so much of Mr. Buffett’s advice is at odds with the book:
leverage - Mr. Buffett counsels against it.
gold - thinks there is very little investment merit
hedge funds, private equity - he has a scathing opinion on them in the latest annual report
index funds - thinks it appropriate for the vast majority of investors.
3 0xcc // Nov 21, 2006 at 9:33 am
I haven’t read any of Trump’s or Kiyosaki’s books so I don’t know Kiyosaki (or Trump other than what I’ve seen on The Apprentice) very well. That quote you posted sounds like something you might hear in a school yard uttered by a 6th grader “I wasn’t really trying anyway, I let you win.”
4 StingyJoe // Nov 21, 2006 at 10:43 am
Kiyosaki got rich from his clever book concepts. In his books, he never properly describes HOW he gets there. I’m not a huge fan.
Joe
http://www.StingyFinance.com
5 Alex Givant // Nov 21, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Kiyosaki produces lot of “junk food” and it tastes the same as McD burger.
He get to be best-selling authors after president of MLM company (I belive it was ACMAE or so) pushed his books a lot (and I don’t think he did it for free).
If you want more info about Kiyosaki, take a look here http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html
I don’t like his book, he saying “I can do 16% on some of my investment”. Ok, mister smart ass: show me how! I don’t need to know that you are rich, I want to make money for me and my family.
6 growth in value // Nov 21, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Blech. Kiyosaki.
My mom gave me his first book a few years ago, in a sort of nebulous, “here, read this, apparently it tells you how to get rich.”
After plowing through it one weekend, I went back to her and told her she should be more careful about which books she recommends to me, because if I were to actually take the “advice” (what little there is of it) in the book and implement it in my life, I don’t think she’d like the result: Namely, having a penniless, homeless blowhard for a son.
7 TZ // Nov 21, 2006 at 3:09 pm
I would put the emphasis on the title of the book on the “WHY”. If there’s no “HOW”, then I wouldn’t expect a how-to book. I haven’t even read the book or its reviews. The rationale seems to be that the so-called glamorous, blonde-bombshell-trotting, empire-building-making “Donalds” of the world are far more “popular” with some folks than the down-to-earth, everyday advice given in this blog, or from John Bogle, or Warren Buffett or from the myriad of sensible (but for some, mundane) advice given in many sites, books, and magazines about how to pay yourself first, save, invest, pay off your debts, and so on… To some folks, the ‘get rich quick’ promise is very appealing, while others (the wiser ones) sit quietly doing the right thing!
I just don’t believe that anyone could claim that they could show me how to get rich…why would they want to provide their “secret” to anyone?
8 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 21, 2006 at 4:33 pm
TZ: Your comment that the book’s title is a fair one. However, the inner flap says “Trump and Kiyosaki want to teach you to be rich” and quotes the “Give a man a fish…”. And Kiyosaki kind of attempts to show how, except that I think it is a bunch of baloney.
9 Mr. L // Nov 21, 2006 at 4:34 pm
With respect to books, I found the following to be a better investment. I am a big reader and even though I can well afford it, I get 99% of my books from the library for free (sure I have to wait sometimes but I always have a ton on order and it’s so easy to order the books over the Internet). I end up only buying the books I’ve already read and want to have or the rare occasional book I really want to read that the library doesn’t have.
With the money I save I donate some money to the library and pocket the rest. I started doing this once I realized how complete the library’s collection is and how difficult it is to even donate books that you are trying to get rid of (even the library didn’t want most of my books!).
10 Lego // Nov 21, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Dear CC, you might use alternative tactics compare to buying “pop books”: learn speed reading, then quickly read the book during your weekly shopping at Costco, squeeze one idea from the reading and put saved $21.19 into your boys’ RESP?
11 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 21, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Lego: That’s a good one
12 Monty Loree // Nov 23, 2006 at 9:37 pm
I like Kiyosaki.
Ultimately he is trying to have people grow from being employed, where they leverage their own time, to being an investor where they leverage their money and other people’s time and money. What’s wrong with that?
I love the idea of having my money do the work for me.
13 Monty Loree // Nov 23, 2006 at 9:40 pm
Mr. L Says: I get 99% of my books from the library for free
In today’s day and age, the cost of unlimited reading is a connection to the internet. The library is good, however, I don’t bother any more. I can’t read all the information that is available on the net.
I only buy computer/programming books as I can’t get current books at the library, and the information on the internet is usually spread out over countless websites.
14 J h // Apr 29, 2007 at 6:03 pm
I have read this book and it was well put together by Trump an Robert. It is titled “WHY” because they foresee the major problems in the future regarding pension and social security. And the average America is relying on government to save them but the current debt, oil prices, baby boomers retiring and other factors proves that there will be a lot of disappointed people in financial trouble. And the DO tell you how to get rich. EDUCATE yourself. And if you think you can learn to get rich in one book then you are a FOOL.
15 L B V PRASAD // Jul 25, 2007 at 3:25 am
Dear Readers,
I’ve yet to leaf through Mr Trump & Mr Kiyosaki’s jointly scripted new book ;
“why we want you to be rich”
as i’m trying to catch hold of a paperback edition if it has hit the stands.
However,the flg books by Donald Trump are superb :-
1) How to get rich
2) The art of deal
sl(1) is surely worth its weight in gold -atleast it was for me.
Another book is by Napoleon Hill :
Think & grow rich
Abv books are great.
Kiyosaki’s book “rich dad-poor dad is worth it.
best regards
prasad lbv
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