Rich Dad Poor Dad Free Seminar Review

Some background on the Rich Dad Poor Dad free seminar

Having read a few books by ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ Company founder Robert Kiyosaki I was naturally interested when information about a free 2 hour seminar popped through my letterbox.

The seminars are held in locations all over the world, you can find the nearest one to you by clicking here: http://www.richdadeducation.com/workshop.aspx

What does Robert Kiyosaki teach?

The Rich Dad books have been massively successful and you may well have read one, but in case you haven't I shall explain the basic principles that Robert teaches. 

The most important principle is that the rich do not work for money; money works for them. Also, a high paying job doesn't mean you are rich, and if this job is your only income source you may well find yourself in financial difficulty should you be made redundant. Rich Dad emphasises the importance of financial education, working to learn rather than working to earn, becoming an investor and becoming a business owner. Robert often uses his ‘cash flow quadrant’ to explain the differences between the rich and poor. There are 4 quadrants and you can be  categorised in one quadrant or multiple quadrants.

My experience at the Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar

The seminar was held in a hotel conference room at a commuter friendly location. There were about 80 attendees. The first half of the seminar was used to introduce some of the Rich Dad principles. The speaker posed a question asking how many people had read one of the books and roughly 50 percent of the attendees had done. I think that had I not read the books previously there would have been a few "aha" moments where my childhood beliefs concerning money passed down through my parents were challenged. But for me it was a good reminder of sound principles that I do normally try to apply.

In his books Robert spends a great deal of time stressing the importance of eventually getting into the B (Business) and I (Investor) quadrants. However, in the books that I have read (5 of the best selling ones) he is not always very specific about exactly what to do. Difficulty in applying the principles was touched on during the seminar and about half way through the speaker shifted the attention of the audience to a 3 day course designed to teach you more practical application skills. From this point onwards it did start to feel like the rest of the seminar was a sales pitch for this course. 

Investments recommended at the Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar

Property was the main vehicle that was promoted as a ideal avenue to financial freedom. Robert called the last boom in property to perfection; the worldwide market was just starting to heat up as his first book was becoming successful. However, I can't help thinking that the Rich Dad Company is now playing on the fact that many amateur investors are easily caught up in contrarian investing, that is, investing in things that are out of favour with more mainstream viewpoints. I personally do not give out specific investment advice, but I will say that investing in an asset that is losing value month on month is not smart. No one knows for how long property prices will keep dropping and more sensible advice would be to sit tight for now and wait for more stable opportunities to become available. That said, the advice given out at the seminar about making sure your property investment is providing a comfortable income each month rather than counting on capital appreciation is very sound and one that Robert has always stressed.

The speaker ended with one of my favorite quotes by Albert Einstein:

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

More information

You can find out about the free 2 hour seminar here: http://www.richdadeducation.com/workshop.aspx

However, if you are new to Rich Dad Poor Dad, I would recommend reading the books to begin with, starting with the first one in the series.

Summary

If you feel like you need to improve your financial education then the Rich Dad material is an excellent start. If you approach this seminar with an open mind but an awareness that it is just a free introduction aimed at getting you signed up to a more expensive seminar, then I believe there are a few gems of information that make this worth going to.

3.5 out of 5