I read his Rich Dad Poor Dad many years ago when it first came out. I agreed with some of the things he said, but the bank wouldn’t lend me money to carry out his advice. However, I had friends who managed to raised the money and yes, some of them lost their shirts.
Kiyosaki did buy up a lot of property, but that’s now how he made money. He made money by selling books and courses that can cost ten of thousands of dollars. Each course sells another course and he just keeps on milking his followers. Imagine you’re a guru who is not rich yet but you pretend to be rich and manage to sell a wealth-creating strategy that you are not able to follow yet. After selling your plan to others and getting rich from it, you then fulfil your dreams of becoming a property moghul which you claimed to be while selling your strategy. 无中生有。
Interestingly, China’s stunning (but unsustainable) property boom which took off after the implementation of foreign exchange quota seemed to have followed Kiyosaki’s workbook advocating aggressive borrowing and leveraging.