From the shelf · 102 money books
Does Rich Dad Poor Dad hold up?
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki is one of the 102 money books on The Money Shelf. The shelf links it to 4 of the 22 claims that the book tests against official records from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Each verdict below comes from that test.
Claim 7 · The book makes this claimAssets or salary: wealth comes from owning assets
Weak diagnosisThe arithmetic is true, because wealth is held in assets and the households holding more assets have more wealth.
Read the full test →Claim 8 · Linked to the book by the shelf; its publisher’s description does not confirm itSide hustle: start a side business
Not establishedThe survival figures show that 48.5 per cent of the US employer establishments opened in the year to March 2019 no longer had employees in March 2024, and that 61.6 per cent of the UK businesses born in 2019 were no longer active in 2024 (calculated by this audit as 100 minus 51.5 and 100 minus 38.4).
Read the full test →Claim 10 · The book makes this claimMindset: belief creates wealth
Not establishedNo study shows that belief causes wealth, and the one study of manifestation belief and money found it linked to bankruptcy and risk-taking in a correlation of unknown direction.
Read the full test →Claim 16 · The book argues against this claimRent or buy: buying a home builds more wealth than renting
Not establishedOwners hold far more wealth than renters in the US, Great Britain and Australia, and a long-run study of 16 economies finds that housing returned about as much as shares with less variation, yet the gap can reflect who becomes an owner as well as what ownership does (inference by this audit).
Read the full test →Rich Dad Poor Dad raised the question. The records take it further: every figure dated, every source named, and the arithmetic worked through for three countries.
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