Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest In, That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki, 2/5

Given this book’s large size, I hoped to find a lot of helpful, practical information in it that would help me learn the basic concepts and vocabulary of investing and perhaps give some direction on how to best invest any “excess” cash I might accumulate.  Disappointingly, Kiyosaki’s anecdotal style, focus on generalities, and avoidance of technical terminology rendered the book almost completely unhelpful.  There are a couple interesting concepts, such as creating valuable businesses yourself instead of simply investing in other people’s businesses and using your business to purchase assets so that you can stay poor on paper and avoid paying tax.  Unfortunately, much of the information seemed pretty sketchy and the author provides very few examples of his ideas in action.  Overall, this book felt like a waste of time and casts a rather charlatan shade over Kiyosaki’s whole financial self-help enterprise.

[Why I read it: I’ve read several of Kiyosaki’s books and this one looked interesting.]