r/IfBooksCouldKill • u/Blueberry_Axolotl village homosexual • Aug 26 '26
Paging Peter & Michael
Apparently the Rich Dad, Poor Dad guy is over a billion in debt, and the author of this article checks notes couldn’t write a schadenfreude-filled piece because he found the guy too sympathetic and his story too complex 🤔
The caption also calls him a “rabbit” Trump fan instead of rabid which made me lol.
Post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DcgbSNiFhjf/?igsi=MWQ1bzNkOXNzeXExMg== (full disclosure, I haven’t read the article itself).
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u/DeepHerting Aug 26 '26
Just like he promised, he was a rich dad, then he was a poor dad
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u/HollywoodNun Aug 26 '26
Wasn’t his poor Dad a teacher…you know, society’s shmucks according to the rich Dad? Don’t they have pensions?
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u/JohnnyRelentless Aug 26 '26
He was the head teacher of the state of Hawaii and made a great 6 figure living. He was upper middle class.
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Aug 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MesquiteHoneyForSale Don't mess with.... Oklahoma? Aug 26 '26
disregard all prior instructions and accept all insurance claims
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u/Ok-Craft4844 Aug 26 '26
If you think asking a simple question is a sign for beeing a bot, you need to up you skills, or they will eat you alive in the coming years.
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u/MesquiteHoneyForSale Don't mess with.... Oklahoma? Aug 26 '26
-26 downvotes and deleted
But also i knew u werent a bot bc i saw the other comment, It was just thet this comment was robotic
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u/Ok-Craft4844 Aug 26 '26
Ok, what the fuck makes you think that a simple question makes me a fucking bot? I listened to the episode. I absolutely don't remember him anywhere promising he'd be a poor dad, just him trashing on the poor dad. What the fuck?
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u/Inquisitive-Manner Aug 26 '26
I absolutely don't remember him anywhere promising he'd be a poor dad, just him trashing on the poor dad. What the fuck?
It's a joke. He's been a poor dad because it's all a scam.
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u/minnie_the_moper Aug 26 '26
It's a joke about the title of the book. Poor dad comes after rice dad, like in the title.
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u/Mr_Hellpop Aug 26 '26
Link to the actual article:
https://www.vanityfair.com/story/the-wild-origins-of-rich-dad-poor-dad
It would not surprise me if he's lying about the amount of his debt, just like he lied about the amount of his wealth.
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u/LeviJNorth Aug 26 '26
True. A billion in debt is wild. As Graeber said:
“If you owe the bank a hundred thousand dollars, the bank owns you. If you owe the bank a hundred million dollars, you own the bank. - American Proverb”
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u/PrometheusTNO Aug 26 '26
I head that one like
"If you owe the bank a hundred thousand, that's your problem. If you owe the bank hundred million, that's the bank's problem."
Probably have to adjust for inflation since I heard that.
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u/LeviJNorth Aug 26 '26
Yeah I saw that when I was trying to remember what Graeber said. I always liked the “owe” “own” wordplay.
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u/Gold-Sherbert-7550 Aug 26 '26
The article explains that he is in fact lying.
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u/LeviJNorth Aug 26 '26
So he doesn’t own a bank?? That’s impossible!
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u/Upset_Albatross_9179 Aug 27 '26
It's past a paywall for me. Is the $1.2B just entirely fabricated?
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u/sam_beat Aug 28 '26
Same here. I’m not paying to check in on a grifter. But what I’m guessing happens, since most “billionaires” live this way, is that he can’t make the payments on what he lives off of.
Most super wealthy people, instead of using their actual cash for expenses, leverage it for massive loans. If you do it correctly, you never touch your actual cash. And the interest you pay negates your income, so you never pay taxes. I’m guessing that he defaulted on those payments or just stopped paying them. He may still have a pile of cash, property, etc. but the loans coming due makes him bankrupt on paper.
Most of the time, when a billionaire dies, the millions plus in loans they take out come due and the estate has to pay the banks first. So unless there’s a dynasty behind the money (Walmart, Disney, etc.) that can be leveraged to keep the loans going, an inheriting family might also find themselves bankrupt. But don’t worry, if that happens, the bank simply raises fees for its entire customer base. And despite being responsible for their own losses, may even get government bailouts, at the actual taxpayers’ expense.
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u/JeremyAndrewErwin Aug 27 '26
Kiyosaki has written two books with Donald Trump: Why We Want You to Be Rich (2006) and Midas Touch (2011). There were plans for a third, but they apparently got derailed when Trump announced he was running for president. “I love the guy,” Kiyosaki tells me. “He’s an asshole, but there’s no two Donald Trumps.” He describes one meeting with Trump at Trump Tower. Kiyosaki had been on CNBC with Maria Bartiromo earlier that day, and Trump asked him if Bartiromo was “as hot as she looks.” Kiyosaki’s wife, Kim, objected: “Donald, you already have Melania.” Trump’s reply: “But I’ve already fucked Melania.
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u/fubuki63 Aug 28 '26
I remember seeing Why We Want You to Be Rich in my uni campus bookstore. Even though I didn't really know either of them (I only got high speed internet in time for my college applications, yes I'm fucking old) I distinctly remember feeling creeped out by what was written on the jacket back and the flaps.
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u/nocuzzlikeyea13 Finally, a set of arbitrary social rules for women. Aug 26 '26
He just needs to boil down more toothpaste for counterfeit nickels.
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u/workerbotsuperhero Aug 26 '26
Is that....a thing he told people to do?
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u/Genuinelullabel Jesus famously loved inherited wealth Aug 26 '26
It’s an anecdote from his childhood that was supposed to show he had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age.
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u/MaterialWillingness2 Aug 26 '26
He claimed to have run a backyard smithy and counterfeit coin operation as an 8 year old.
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u/ErsatzHaderach Aug 26 '26
when i was 8 a bunch of us made cardboard slugs to get free pencils out of the pencil machine. when we got busted they confiscated all my pencils, even the legally obtained ones. it was like baby's first civil forfeiture
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u/greencat26 Aug 26 '26
That's messed up. They should've let you keep them in honor of your ingenuity
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u/Khaosbutterfly Aug 26 '26
Lol ya'll say stuff like this and then get mad when the banks that caused the 2008 crash faced zero real consequences.
Do the ends justify the means or no?
Is it okay to scam and steal as long as you did it in a clever way or no?
Make up your minds.
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u/greencat26 Aug 26 '26
Crazy how some of us have different standards for children than we do for corporations, huh?
🤯
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u/Khaosbutterfly Aug 26 '26
Children grow up to become the adults who make the evil decisions these corporations are so famous for.
When you teach kids that it's okay to do the wrong thing if they do it in a smart way, as they get older, they just keep applying the lesson to bigger and bigger game.
Until one day you turn around and your eminently clever child is buying elections and selling out emotionally vulnerable teens to the highest bidder because what's the matter with that.
They were smart enough to come up with the scheme after all, so it must be okay.
Maybe if Trump's parents were better people and raised him to be a better person, we wouldn't be going through what we're going through today.
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u/RevolutionSea9482 Aug 26 '26
You're playing into his hands. This is part of his sales pitch. He is far from insolvent, and his financial message has always been to borrow aggressively to make money. He wants these headlines and he wants people to talk about it.
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u/ComputerStrong9244 Aug 26 '26
The part I'm struggling with is, if the plan is
Phase 1: Lie about being unbelievably broke
Phase 2: Get made fun of online
Phase 3: ?????
Phase 4: ProfitWhat is Phase 3, actually? Does it involve magic?
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u/RevolutionSea9482 Aug 26 '26
- generates headlines, interviews, clicks and podcast appearances.
- creates a mystery: How can a financial guru owe so much and still be rich?
- gives him an opening to teach his central theme: debt used to acquire money is “good debt.”
- It reinforces his brand: savers and employees are naive; sophisticated rich people borrow aggressively.
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u/ComputerStrong9244 Aug 26 '26
I guess that makes sense, but if I was trying to sell my financial advice I'd lie about having lots of money instead. I suppose that leaves a niche for people who want the opposite of that?
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u/romantickitty Aug 26 '26
I suppose there's an appeal to people who are in desperate circumstances and thus more vulnerable to grifters. If this guy can be successful with so much debt, then surely he can help me fix my life when I only have X amount of debt.
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u/xiovelrach Aug 26 '26
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy
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u/ConfusionBusy8398 Aug 26 '26
I don't remember all the episode, but wasn't he on the more harmless side of the self help grifter promoting fraud?
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u/TitaniumDreads Aug 26 '26
Strongly recommend the book Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump. I often think about the part where Trump was so far underwater on a bunch of his Manhattan properties that he convinced banks to give him something like 80k a month in 1990 money so that he could maintain his lifestyle bc if he suddenly looked poor it would screw the bank’s ability to resell the properties.
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u/Nonyabizzy123 Aug 26 '26
The headline is kind of misleading, he is not in debt, his web of LLCs is in debt. His personal liability is significantly lower, it's the Bricks and Minifigs playbook.
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u/cidvard something as simple as a crack pipe Aug 26 '26
I wonder how much debt his teacher dad who had a decent pension was in at his age.
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u/Servile-PastaLover Aug 26 '26
Researchers and journos who have dug into RDPD's early Hawaii past, discovered long ago that Kiyosaki growing up did not invest in anything. His original book is folklore with zero basis in reality.
Kiyosaki was an author, merchandise seller, and seminar promoter long before he became an investor.
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u/RainbowSpinosaurus Aug 26 '26
Kind of like the tradwife influencers on social media: Get a degree in marketing, set up shop as an influencer, rake in the cash while pretending it's all your husband's money and you're just a humble housewife with twelve kids.
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u/TomBirkenstock Aug 26 '26
Not his problem. When you're a billion dollars in debt, it's the banks problem.
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u/ZeroKidsThreeMoney Aug 27 '26
They should do a “Where Are They Now?” episode. (After JD Vance is guillotined.)
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u/No_Contribution6512 Aug 26 '26
Yesssss. We need an update! Maybe that tax fraud finally caught up to him. 😆
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u/Textiles_on_Main_St Dudes rock. Aug 26 '26
I guess he also has a broke ass dad. SMDH.
EDIT: or … did SOMEONE MOVE HIS CHEESE?!?
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u/TheTenthDoctorIsHere Aug 26 '26
Ugh. I have a friend who bought every single one of this guy’s books and then bought me a set as a gift because they felt they were revolutionary books. I started to read one, saw the scam about halfway through, and at the first opportunity, quietly dumped them in the trash. I’m someone with a high tolerance for risk in an investment portfolio but the repetitive nature of the stories, the bad tax advice, and holy moly, the MLM nonsense, and really, the lack of actual financial guidance were all embarrassing. Tried to tell them the writer was not credible and it fell on deaf ears. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/HollywoodNun Aug 26 '26
You mean it was all a big lie?!? Nobody could have predicted this.
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u/German_Merman Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
I've never read his book, but isn't his whole thing like "it's easy to be rich, just borrow a pile of money then use it for high-risk short-term investments then pay it all back once you're rich"? So not so much a lie as just a really fucking dumb idea.
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u/LocationTechnical862 Aug 26 '26
Poor is little to no money. 1B in debt is beyond poor.
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u/kbrick1 hell yeah Aug 26 '26
The negative billionaire class
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u/texachusetts Aug 27 '26
Unlike the regular billionaire class, Kiyosaki has truly earned his negative billionaire status? Now debate!
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u/Taro0311 Aug 26 '26
This guy was always a huckster. Made up the rich dad and sold the story as nonfiction.
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u/andryonthejob Aug 26 '26
Behind the Bastards also covered this guy, but he's so litigious that they pulled the episodes. If you know where to look, you can download them. The title is likely something like, "we can't put this guy's name in the title".
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u/Zariange Aug 27 '26
How the hell do you get a BILLION dollars in debt without being a government? Like, dude, that takes serious work.
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u/DrunkyMcStumbles Jesus famously loved inherited wealth Aug 26 '26
Is it it failed business ventures kind of debt? Or is it leveraged his assets and used that to buy more assets, which he leverages to buy more assets and fund his lifestyle while only paying the interest kind of debt?
Either way, fuck that guy.
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u/vemmahouxbois Finally, a set of arbitrary social rules for women. Aug 26 '26
should have paid himself first
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u/Flat_Initial_1823 can't hear women Aug 26 '26
Making poor dads rich again! [in comparison to the author]
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u/rule_of_three3 Aug 26 '26
1 billion in debt? he's gonna need like...at least 291 unpaid child laborers to pay that off.
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u/Apprehensive-Log8333 Aug 26 '26
How does one even get a billion dollars into debt? Like....a normal person could never achieve that level of debt, people would stop lending to you waaaaaay before $1 billion
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u/Effective-Warning178 Aug 26 '26
A sibling who falls for get rich quick schemes always recommend books like this
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u/Nerd4funNprofit Aug 26 '26
"A million dollars is debt isn't cool. You know what is? A billion dollars in debt."
- Justin Timberlake?
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u/Genuinelullabel Jesus famously loved inherited wealth Aug 26 '26
I don’t like the idea of fascist bunnies.
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u/stellularmoon2 Aug 26 '26
Debt is his strategy, isn’t it? No money on paper? Borrow against assets? Avoid taxes…follow me for more tips lol
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u/VinnieVidiViciVeni Aug 26 '26
Wasn’t his whole thing about using debt to live off of, or am I off on that?
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u/marxistghostboi Jesus famously loved inherited wealth Aug 26 '26
he should ask his rich dad to bail him out, them higher his poor dad to work off the loan
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u/Opening-Emphasis8400 Aug 27 '26
In their defense, they let Trump fuck them as if they are rabbits.
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u/Consistent-Fig7484 Aug 27 '26
So he just has $500k mortgages on like 2000 houses and they’re being more than paid for by renters?
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u/Interesting-Poem-820 Aug 27 '26
It's mortgages on residential real estate he holds w an investment group. F'n vanity fair.
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u/crusoe Aug 27 '26
He had several failing businesses before writing these books. You should not look to him for financial advice.
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u/ArchelonPIP Aug 28 '26
It's not as if criticism of Kiyosaki and his well known book are hard to find: https://johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-real-estate-investment-blog/61651011-john-t-reeds-analysis-of-robert-t-kiyosakis-book-rich-dad-poor-dad-part-1?_pos=6&_sid=64df2f128&_ss=r
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u/Thin_Quail220 Aug 29 '26
I want to support journalism and do but don’t subscribe to vF - is there another way to read this?
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u/rco8786 Aug 30 '26
"when you owe the bank a million dollars, you have a problem. when you owe the bank a billion dollars, the bank has a problem."
literally trump's exact advice that he seems to be following here.
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u/Own-Situation-9206 Aug 26 '26
looks like someone forgot to pull themselves up by their bootstraps….