Rich Dad Poor Dad Summary & key ideas explained

Hawaii, 1956. A nine-year-old boy hears that he and his best friend weren't invited to a classmate's beach weekend. The reason: they're the "poor kids." That night he asks his father how to get rich.

That boy was Robert Kiyosaki, and the question shaped his life. He grew up with two father figures. His own father had a PhD, raced through college in under two years and rose high in Hawaii's school system, yet struggled with bills all his life. His best friend's father never finished eighth grade, yet became, in Kiyosaki's telling, one of the richest men in the islands. Kiyosaki calls them poor dad and rich dad.

Rich Dad Poor Dad, first published in 1997 with Sharon Lechter, became one of the best-selling money books ever. It is also one of the most argued about. Critics have questioned how literally to take its stories and how far to trust its advice. So read what follows as what it is: one investor's philosophy, told the way he tells it.

And that philosophy starts with an uncomfortable claim. The thing most people trust to make them secure, a steady paycheck, might be what keeps them stuck. How could a ten-cent job teach a boy that?