This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Robert Kiyosaki | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Toru Kiyosaki April 8, 1947 Hilo, Territory of Hawaii, U.S. |
Occupation | Businessman, author |
Subject | Personal finance, business investing |
Years active | 1973–1994 1997–present |
Notable works | Rich Dad Poor Dad |
Spouse | Kim Meyer (m. 1986;div. 2017) |
Website | |
www |
Robert Toru Kiyosaki (born April 8, 1947) is an American businessman and author, known for the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of personal finance books. He founded the Rich Dad Company, which provides personal finance and business education through books and videos, and Rich Global LLC, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012. [1]
Kiyosaki was sued in a class action suit filed by attendees of his seminars, [2] [3] and is the subject of investigative documentaries by the CBC, [4] WTAE-TV [5] and CBS News. [6] In January 2024, Kiyosaki was more than $1 billion dollars in debt. [7] [8]
Kiyosaki was born in 1947 in Hilo, Territory of Hawaii, into a family of Japanese descent. [9] His father, Ralph Kiyosaki, was an educator, Hawaii's superintendent of schools, and a lieutenant governor candidate of the Republican Party. [10] [11] His mother, Marjorie Kiyosaki, was a nurse.
Kiyosaki graduated from Hilo High School, [12] from which he was nearly expelled due to poor grades. [11]
In 1977, Kiyosaki started a company called "Rippers" that marketed nylon and Velcro wallets. [13] The company eventually went bankrupt, and he took a job as a sales associate for Xerox until June 1978. [13]
In the 1980s, Kiyosaki became a motivational speaker in San Diego who ran a course on Erhard Seminars Training (EST) techniques called Money and You, which he attended in 1974 from the course's creator, Marshall Thurber. Thurber transferred the business to Kiyosaki and D.C. Cordova in 1984. They expanded the course beyond the U.S., including to Australia. [11] The course at one point had tens of thousands of students internationally. [13] The business nearly collapsed in Australia in October 1993 after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Four Corners aired a documentary about emotional abuse in the course of the Money and You program. Kiyosaki said the program was "unfair" considered suing the ABC before deciding against it. He left the business in 1994. [11]
In 1993, Kiyosaki published his first book, If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School. In his book, he encouraged parents not to send their children to college and instead to enter the real estate business. [14]
In 1997, Kiyosaki founded Cashflow Technologies, Inc., a holding company that owns and operates the Rich Dad and Cashflow brands. [13] [15] [16] Kiyosaki created the Cashflow board and video games to educate adults and children about business and financial concepts. [17]
Kiyosaki settled a lawsuit in 2008 brought by Sharon Lechter, his former business partner, with an undisclosed sum. Lechter said Kiyosaki and his wife had enriched themselves and redirected assets in the business, which the Kiyosakis denied. She sold her stake in Rich Dad Company to them after the settlement and ended the partnership that lasted about 10 years. [18]
Kiyosaki's earlier two businesses (for surfing bags with Velcro fasteners and T-shirts) went bankrupt. [19]
Kiyosaki operates through a number of companies that he owns fully or in part, and through franchisee arrangements with other companies authorized to use his name for a fee. [20] This includes Rich Dad LLC, Whitney Information Network, Rich Dad Education and Rich Dad Academy. [21] The company's main revenues come from franchisees of the Rich Dad seminars that are conducted by independent individuals using Kiyosaki's brand name. [22]
In 2012, Kiyosaki's company, Rich Global LLC, filed for bankruptcy and was ordered to pay $23.7 million to The Learning Annex and its founder because Kiyosaki had used The Learning Annex for speaking opportunities. [23] [24] [25] Mike Sullivan, the CEO of Rich Dad Company, one of at least 10 companies through which Kiyosaki conducts business, said Rich Global LLC had been dormant for years. At bankruptcy, the company had nearly $26 million in liabilities and $1.8 million in assets. [23]
Kiyosaki has authored more than 26 books including Rich Dad Poor Dad, which has been translated into dozens of languages. As of 2017, nearly 40 million copies of the book had been sold. [26] He said his books were an advertisement for his higher-priced seminars. [3]
Kiyosaki's financial and business teachings claim that financial independence can be achieved through passive income. [27] [28] He also claims that wealth cannot be achieved from going to school and obtaining a traditional job. [29]
He advocates for using what he calls "good debt" as leverage to buy financial assets such as real estate. [30] Additionally, he is a strong proponent of buying gold and silver, often referring to them as "God's money." [31] In 2006 and 2007, Kiyosaki's Rich Dad seminars continued to promote real estate as a sound investment, just before their prices came crashing down. [32]
In 2010, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Marketplace broadcast a documentary on scams that were being perpetuated by Kiyosaki's company in Canada in the guise of "Rich Dad" seminars. [4] Investments in trailers and trailer parks, which seminar instructors claimed to be evidence of success, were found to be barren and unused land. [17]
Also in 2010, Allan Roth of CBS News documented what occurred when he attended one of Rich Dad's free seminars and dissected some of the tactics employed. [6]
WTAE-TV, the ABC television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, produced another critical segment about Kiyosaki in 2013. [5]
Kiyosaki's advice has also been criticized for emphasizing anecdotes and no concrete advice on how readers should proceed or work. [33]
Kiyosaki divorced from his first wife when he was 32. [34] : 181
Kiyosaki met his second wife and business partner Kimberly "Kim" Kiyosaki (née Meyer) in 1984, and they got married in 1986. [34] : 114 [11] They amicably divorced in 2017. [35]
When asked about his net worth, Kiyosaki claimed to be more than $1 billion in debt. [36]
Kiyosaki endorsed and supported Republican candidate Donald Trump for the 2016 presidential elections. [37] Kiyosaki had previously co-authored two books with Trump. [38]
Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and discipline of money, currency, assets and liabilities. As a subject of study, it is related to but distinct from economics, which is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Based on the scope of financial activities in financial systems, the discipline can be divided into personal, corporate, and public finance.
A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial markets as commodities.
Personal finance is the financial management that an individual or a family unit performs to budget, save, and spend monetary resources in a controlled manner, taking into account various financial risks and future life events.
Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book written by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It advocates the importance of financial literacy, financial independence and building wealth through investing in assets, real estate investing, starting and owning businesses, as well as increasing one's financial intelligence.
Frederick Christ Trump Sr. was an American real-estate developer and businessman. He was the father of the 45th U.S. president, Donald Trump.
Sharon L. Lechter is an American accountant, author, and businesswoman. She is the co-author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, and the founder and CEO of Pay Your Family First, a financial education organization.
T. Harv Eker is an author, businessman and motivational speaker known for his ideas about wealth and motivation. He is the author of the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind published by HarperCollins.
John Theodore "Jack" Reed is an American businessman, author, and former real estate investor. Reed has written and self-published books on real estate investing, football coaching, baseball coaching, success, and self-publishing.
Diane Kennedy is an American CPA, speaker, and financial writer. She is the author of The Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestsellers, Loopholes of the Rich and Real Estate Loopholes as well as The Insider's Guide to Real Estate Investing Loopholes, Tax Loopholes for eBay Sellers, and Smart Business Stupid Business.
Jordan Ross Belfort is an American former stockbroker, financial criminal, and businessman who pleaded guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running a boiler room as part of a penny-stock scam in 1999. Belfort spent 22 months in prison as part of an agreement under which, becoming an informant for the FBI and wearing a wire, he gave testimony against numerous partners and subordinates in his fraud scheme. He published the memoir The Wolf of Wall Street in 2007, which was adapted into Martin Scorsese's film of the same name released in 2013, in which he was played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Resistance is a concept created by American novelist Steven Pressfield that illustrates the universal force that he claims acts against human creativity. It was first described in his non-fiction book The War of Art and elaborated in the follow-up books Do The Work and Turning Pro, and in other essays. It is also a recurring theme in some of his fiction novels such as The Legend of Bagger Vance and The Virtues of War.
Patrick Hiban, also known as Pat Hiban, is the founder and former Chairman of Rebus University and is the former host and founder of real estate podcast Real Estate Rockstars with Pat Hiban, which has featured guests including Robert Kiyosaki and Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran.
Mark J. Hulbert is an American finance analyst, journalist, and author with a focus on expectations of stock market investment newsletters, contrarian investing, and quantitive or technical analysis.
Meredith McIver is a staff writer for The Trump Organization, an author, and a former ballerina. She is credited with ghostwriting multiple books by Donald Trump and was described in 2007 as an "assistant" to him.
Jetset Magazine is an American lifestyle magazine founded in 2006, aimed at those with an affluent lifestyle. It is available as a quarterly print magazine and is distributed in private jets, private yachts, private jet terminals, yacht charters, exclusive resorts and events around the world. It is also available online with content created on a weekly basis.
Before running for office in 2015, President-elect Donald Trump pursued a career as a businessman, with a focus on renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. His extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner, and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have made him a well-known public figure in American life for nearly half a century.
Why We Want You to Be Rich: Two Men, One Message is a non-fiction book about personal finance, co-authored by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. The book was first published in hardcover format in 2006. The coauthors became familiar with each other through mutual work at The Learning Annex and Trump being impressed by Kiyosaki's writing success with Rich Dad Poor Dad. Trump and Kiyosaki co-authored another book together in 2011, Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich-And Why Most Don't. The book discusses American economic problems including the middle-class squeeze, economic globalization, and the national debt of the United States. The authors advise the reader to gain financial literacy and delve into entrepreneurship. Trump and Kiyosaki criticize mutual funds and advocate real estate investing as a way to build wealth.
Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich — And Why Most Don't is a non-fiction book about personal finance, co-authored by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. The book was published in hardcover format in 2011. The coauthors became familiar with each other through mutual work at The Learning Annex, and The Art of the Deal. Trump was impressed by Kiyosaki's writing success with Rich Dad Poor Dad. The coauthors then wrote Why We Want You to be Rich together in 2006, and followed it up with Midas Touch in 2011.
Engelo Rumora is a real estate executive, investor, and former association football player. He is the CEO and founder of a real estate investment company called Ohio Cashflow located in Toledo, Ohio, US. Rumora is a member of the Forbes Real Estate Council.
The net worth of President-elect Donald Trump is not publicly known. For decades, Forbes has assessed his wealth, currently estimating it at $5.5 billion as of mid-November 2024. Meanwhile, Bloomberg estimates his wealth at $6.32 billion as of the same date, although Trump himself claims a much higher net worth. He received gifts, loans, and inheritance from his father, who was a real-estate developer and businessman. Donald Trump's primary business has been real estate ventures, including hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He also made money from Trump-branded products including neckties, steaks, and urine tests. Money received through political fundraisers is used to pay for guest stays at properties owned by the Trump Organization and to pay his and his allies' lawyers.