{"id":587613,"date":"2026-09-02T05:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T05:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587613\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T05:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T05:14:08","slug":"author-of-bestselling-self-help-book-rich-dad-poor-dad-robert-kiyosaki-says-he-is-1-2-billion-in-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587613\/","title":{"rendered":"Author of bestselling self-help book Rich Dad Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki says he is $1.2 billion in debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to learn to use debt, you\u2019d better take some education.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, his ex-wife and business partner Kim Kiyosaki said the debt figure has been misunderstood.<\/p>\n

She explained that the total debt amount is held by a group of real estate partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of apartment houses with our partners,\u201d she told the magazine. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo technically, yes, we have all this debt,\u201d but she said it\u2019s attached to the assets and Kiyosaki\u2019s personal share is, according to his ex-wife, small. <\/p>\n

Kiyosaki told Vanity Fair he has an annual income of about $3 million. <\/p>\n

\""Rich“Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!” has sold more than 44 million copies worldwide.<\/p>\n

According to his ex-wife and business partner, \u201che loves to say things that shock\u201d and knew the number would turn heads. His philosophy is that your debt amount is irrelevant as long as banks remain willing to lend you money.<\/p>\n

According to the Vanity Fair profile, the massive debt is strategic: as the value of his properties increase, Kiyosaki borrows more money against the increased equity and then treats the loan proceeds as tax-free income.<\/p>\n

He also explained that he puts individual investments into separate limited liability companies (LLCs), which keeps them separate from one another and insulated in case one gets in trouble. <\/p>\n

\u201cFirewalls \u2013 that\u2019s the way the rich play the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldDonald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki attend the launch of Why We Want You to Be Rich: Two Men-One Message at Trump Tower on October 12, 2006 in New York City. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

While his strategy is used by other investors, particularly in the real estate world, some experts advise strongly against it.<\/p>\n

John Poole, founder of consulting company JPTD Partners in Arizona, told the New York Post \u201cthere\u2019s good debt and there\u2019s bad debt, and then there\u2019s $1.2 billion of debt, which you better know exactly what in the world you\u2019re doing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeverage works beautifully on the way up, and if it\u2019s not continuing on that way up, then it\u2019s like a chainsaw financially coming down,\u201d Poole added, explaining that, eventually, there\u2019ll always be a payday and people need to be prepared for it.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Kiyosaki] may call this the \u2018Rich Dad debt,\u2019 but for the average investor, it could turn out to be \u2018Poor Dad bankruptcy\u2019 really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiyosaki\u2019s book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, was published in 1997 and has sold more than 44 million copies worldwide.<\/p>\n

The personal finance guru has also authored two books with Donald Trump: Why We Want You to Be Rich and Midas Touch.<\/p>\n

Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf you\u2019re going to learn to use debt, you\u2019d better take some education.\u201d In a recent interview with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17525,1665,13851,69679,29959,29805,8613,2108,138,49325,5399,9060,246,60044,305,692,78,185,79881,7240,4380,111,139,69,1118,31705,2730,29848,8830,3046,312,200024,2846,3912,6730],"class_list":["post-587613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-17525","tag-advice","tag-author","tag-believing","tag-bestseller","tag-bestselling","tag-billion","tag-book","tag-business","tag-dad","tag-debt","tag-decades","tag-finance","tag-followed","tag-have","tag-he","tag-in","tag-is","tag-kiyosaki","tag-lead","tag-millions","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-penned","tag-personal","tag-poor","tag-rich","tag-robert","tag-says","tag-selfhelp","tag-them","tag-wealth","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}