It's true! Kiyosaki has been pretty thoroughly debunked. And he is way into self-aggrandizing behavior. And he's definitely more interested in making himself rich than making you rich. All in all he seems like kind of a sleazeball.
But I owe him a debt of gratitude.
I was ready for his message. Or it wouldn't have worked. I was ready to leave the rat-race. I'm a wage slave just like most of you. I have two cars and a house on acreage. And a lot of my monthly income is sunk in credit debt. Life is good, right?
Wrong.
I knew I was just treading water. We were staying in the free and clear, we had all the toys and everything looked great. But if I or my wife lost our job things would turn very ugly, very fast. Our 401(k)s and our mutual funds and the kids' college account were doing well and we could fall back on those for many months, but it would suck. So I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. I'd read some other pop-financials but they didn't really click for me. Kiyosaki was overly simplistic and his writing is worse than mine. But it got me thinking.
And then came the work.
I didn't do what Kiyosaki said, but I did get to thinking. I too, decided that real estate is better/safer than securities instruments. For me this is largely because I understand property -- but securities are really complicated. But also because everyone will always need a place to live. So I did my year of research. I bought used books on real estate. I interviewed realtors. I took them to lunch just to talk. I read CREOnline.com for hours on end. I bought a few of the "courses" that the real-estate charlatans sell. My wife got really sick of hearing about it.
And then came...more work.
To make a long story short, I now own rental properties. It's not all peaches and cream. I've had to get a furnace fixed when I'd rather be sleeping. And I'm preparing to evict a tenant. But I've also put $10K into a house and sold it sixty days later for a profit of $15K (including holding costs) -- that's a pretty sweet cash on cash return. And it's not just the cash. I'm helping first time buyers while making money. I hope to quit employment forever in the next year or so. It's a lot of work managing my properties. And it's a hell of a lot of work doing that and working 40-50 hours for someone else. But I see the ladder out of the pool now. I get to stop treading water without going down.
The future doesn't scare me.
Even if Kiyosaki is right about the crash, I'm good. People will need a place to stay. Maybe they'll pay less in rent then. Maybe more of them will default. But my loans will be paid off and I'll get by. And if there is no crash, as yaar predicts? That's fine too! My houses are making more than your mutuals. You can't buy stocks with 10% down. (Well, not normally.)
Thank you Robert Kiyosaki. You suck. But for me, that's OK