Questions readers ask, answered in the first sentence.

It is a personal finance book about the money lessons of two fathers, told as a memoir. One was a highly educated teacher who earned a salary and was always short; the other left school at thirteen and owned businesses. From the contrast the book draws six lessons, five obstacles and ten steps, all built on one rule: know the difference between an asset and a liability, and buy assets.

In the book, Rich Dad is the father of Robert's childhood friend Mike, a man who ran shops and rental property in Hawaii and taught the two boys about money at his kitchen table. Kiyosaki has always described him as a real man; some journalists have said they could not verify him. For a reader the useful test is not the name but the diagram: does it change how you file your own money?

An asset puts money into your pocket each month. A liability takes money out. A rental that pays you after its costs is an asset; the car you drive, the credit card balance and the house you live in with its mortgage, taxes and repairs are liabilities, however comfortable they are. The book's rule one is to know the difference, and rule two is to buy assets.

See it on the diagram.

It is a way of sorting where your income comes from: E for Employee, S for Self-employed, B for Business owner, I for Investor. The left side trades time for money and stops when you stop. The right side owns a system or capital that keeps paying without your hours. It is a description of your income, not a judgement about your worth.

Take the six-question test.

Move money into your asset column the day your income arrives, before you pay anyone else, and let the remaining days of the month find a way to cover the rest. Most people do the reverse: they spend first and save whatever survives, which is nothing. The book treats the pressure of a thinner month as a tool, not a problem.

The pattern where a raise is spent before it arrives: a bigger mortgage, a bigger car, larger payments, and the same feeling of never having enough. More income, the same diagram. In the CASHFLOW board game you leave the Rat Race when your passive income from assets covers your monthly expenses, which is also the book's definition of getting out.

No. The book is explicit about the opposite: keep the job, and use it for what it pays and what it teaches, while you build your asset column beside it. Lesson three is called mind your own business for that reason. Your profession pays the bills; your business is the column you own.

The book says the house you live in is a liability in cash-flow terms, because every month it takes money out: mortgage, taxes, insurance, repairs, and the furnishing of it. That is an accounting statement, not a moral one. Buy the house if you want the house, but do not count it as the asset that will make you free.

Write down your own numbers: what comes in, what goes out, what you own that pays you, and what you own that costs you. Then open a separate account for the asset column and put one small amount in it this month. Reading changes nothing; the first asset does. You can keep that plan here, private to your account.

Open your plan.

The Arabic edition of Rich Dad Poor Dad was published by Jarir Bookstore in 2017. The English editions come from Plata Publishing, and the games, coaching and the wider library come from the Rich Dad company. This companion site does not sell books; the links on the tools page go to the publishers' own sites.

No. This is an independent companion site made for readers, and it presents the book's ideas in its own words. Rich Dad, CASHFLOW and ESBI are registered trademarks of CASHFLOW Technologies, Inc. Nothing here is financial advice, and the figures on the diagrams are illustrations rather than recommendations.

No single book is. The argument assumes you have income to direct and time to learn, and it says little about markets, fees, tax rules in your country, or the risk of borrowing. Treat it as a way of thinking about cash flow, then get local advice on anything you are about to sign.