Robert Kiyosaki is an entrepreneur, investor, educator and author of the personal finance bestseller “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”.
Kiyosaki’s reputation in finance and investing is both astronomical and divisive. He is a renowned investor to whom many turn for financial guidance, but he also has a fair share of controversy to his name.
He has been accused of being a con artist who employs schemes to get rich quickly under the guise of financial intelligence. At the same time, many admire him and swear by his books as the ultimate philosophy of the rich.
Regardless of different opinions, Robert Kiyosaki remains a household name in the financial world. But how did he get rich exactly? Let’s explore how he made his millions and what his net worth is today.
Who is Robert Kiyosaki?
Born on April 8, 1947, Kiyosaki grew up in a small Hawaiian town and attended college at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in upstate New York. He later served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.
Once he completed his military service, Kiyosaki’s inclination for sales led him to a role with Xerox, where he is said to have become their main salesman. From then on, Kiyosaki’s career and entrepreneurial spirit grew.
What is Robert Kiyosaki’s net worth?
Between business ups and downs, Robert Kiyosaki’s net worth is estimated at $100 million.
Despite numerous failed businesses and filing for bankruptcy several times, Kiyosaki eventually found her weakness in financial education.
How did Robert Kiyosaki get rich?
Kiyosaki co-founded the Excellerated Business School for Entrepreneurs in 1985. After it took off, he sold the business and focused on investing in real estate. He even wrote a book denouncing college education as a path to success in favor of real estate investment — “If you want to be rich and happy, don’t go to school.”
But Kiyosaki’s real claim to fame (and wealth) is the Rich Dad brand.
It started with a board game called “CashFlow” that set out to teach children about financial freedom. In 1997, after seeing a lot of success with the game, Kiyosaki published the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” under the same brand as the board game.
The book itself centers the task of enriching itself around the comparative stories and advice of two fathers: one rich and one poor.
The “poor dad” in the book is said to be Kiyosaki’s father, an educated professor with little money to his name. The “rich dad” is supposedly the father of one of his childhood friends, a wealthy entrepreneur. The book has sold over 40 million copies and is a New York Times bestseller.
How many books has Robert Kiyosaki written?
“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” was just the beginning of Kiyosaki’s prolific career as a songwriter. Altogether, Robert Kiyosaki has written 30 books.
Some other titles include:
- “Rich Dad Investment Guide”
- “Retire young, retire rich”
- “Capitalist Manifesto: How Entrepreneurs Can Save Capitalism”
- “Increase your financial IQ”
- “Why the rich are getting richer”
In addition to these, Kiyosaki is also co-author of two financial books with Donald Trump: “Why We Want You Rich” and “Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich and Why Most Don’t.”
Robert Kiyosaki’s contributions to financial literacy
Kiyosaki shared her six basic words of financial literacy and education: income, spending, assets, liabilities, and finally, cash flow. According to Kiyosaki, the secret to being rich is not a university education, but whether you can control cash flow.
Despite leaving his initial financial education company, Kiyosaki continues to teach finance courses. He also offers one-on-one financial coaching sessions on investment and personal finance, in addition to his plethora of published books.
When he first launched the board game “CashFlow” it was clear that educating people about personal finance was a passion for him. Although some people take his lead more than others, his contributions to financial literacy are undeniable.
Yet his educational activity has faced some criticism. In 2010, CBC Marketplace published a segment on Kiyosaki seminars and branding, criticizing Kiyosaki’s workshops for being essentially deceptive sales presentations.
On the other hand, its accumulated fan base is not without reason. There are people who admire and attest to his work – the people who pushed his book to the top of bestseller lists and attribute financial success to his teachings.
Jeff Rose, a personal finance contributor at Forbes, shared that “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” was the first book he read that changed the way he thought about wealth and getting rich. Attesting that it changed my life, he said that “the ideas were revolutionary for me, as they were for so many others, because I didn’t come from that kind of financial background.”
“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” has over 200,000 5-star reviews on Goodreads in which user Will Thomas wrote, “This book goes on my shelf of four books I’ve read over and over again, books I read devotionally. It completely revolutionized my vision not only of making money, but also of education.”
What does Robert Kiyosaki invest in?
With such a strong reputation as an investor, Robert Kiyosaki’s investment advice is coveted.
Kiyosaki prides himself on investing in safe haven assets, i.e. prioritizing investments that cover inflation.
Kiyosaki is a long-time supporter of precious metals investing. Recently, he tweeted that “silver is the best, lowest risk and high-potential investment.” According to Kiyosaki, silver currently offers the best investment value. In a tweet, he said: “I don’t touch gold paper or silver ETFs. I only want real gold or silver coins.”
That said, gold is another of Kiyosaki’s safe haven assets, along with Bitcoin. Kiyosaki recently predicted that the U.S. dollar will collapse by 2023 and tweeted “I love Bitcoin because I don’t trust the Fed, the Treasury, or Wall Street.”
Robert Kiyosaki’s Best Quotes on Personal Finance
Given all the authoring he’s done, it’s no surprise that Robert Kiyosaki is full of nuggets of financial wisdom.
Here are some of the best quotes from Robert Kiyosaki:
“…Most people see a surplus as a resource. They save their extra money in the bank or spend it on liabilities. Rather than seeing the extra money as an asset, Rich Dad saw it as an expense to be invested. By making investments an expense in his budget, my wealthy father made sure he would make them a priority. He called it paying himself first.”
“The number one control you need to have to be an investor is control over yourself. If you can’t control yourself, the ups and downs of the market will make you run and you will lose during one of those ups or downs.
“It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard they work for you, and how many generations you keep it.”
What is the key to Robert Kiyosaki’s success?
When asked what the key ingredient of his success was — the success that earned Robert Kiyosaki a net worth of $100 million and a bestselling book — he told Forbes: “I would say simplicity. Money and investments can be complex, confusing, and often boring topics. I pushed myself to make it easy and fun to learn about money and investments. ”
Robert Kiyosaki is clearly a pivotal figure in the world of investment and personal finance and these facts about him, his business and how he has grown his wealth will surely inspire people to start investing or perhaps pick a copy of one of his 30 books and start learning more.