Robert Kiyosaki, the author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," is himself $1.2 billion in debt.

Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, is one of the most popular motivational writers of our time, and he built his empire on his financial literacy advice. His books promise readers how to achieve wealth. In particular, Rich Dad Poor Dad has sold more than 32 million copies, has been distributed in more than 100 countries, and has been on the New York Times bestseller list. Endorsed by celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, the book has become a real phenomenon.

Kiyosaki's secrets to making quick money have been popular, earning him a loyal army of fans around the world. However, according to Vanity Fair, the financial literacy guru himself recently revealed that he is $1.2 billion in debt. This suggests that he needs good advice himself.

The book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", published in 1997, is based on the story of two fathers. One of them was Kiyosaki's own father, an educated civil servant. Despite his successful career, he sometimes had financial difficulties and never considered himself wealthy. The second was the entrepreneur father of his best friend, whom Kiyosaki called "rich dad". According to the book, it was this man who explained to the future author how money works and why a person should strive to own assets, not just earn a salary.

Kiyosaki's teachings became widespread due to their extreme simplicity. He advised his readers to change their "poor" thinking to "rich" thinking, to buy assets that will bring in money, and to use borrowed capital for this. Robert also talked a lot about investing in real estate, gold, oil and other resources or projects.

He explained that even large debts do not in themselves mean financial ruin. In fact, he tried to show this with his own example. On the podcast The Iced Coffee Hour, Robert openly declared his debt of $ 1.2 billion. Of course, he did not personally spend this money and this did not lead to bankruptcy. The bulk of this money is tied to real estate, which he jointly owns with his partners. According to Vanity Fair, Robert personally owes about $ 30-60 million of this amount.

Nevertheless, when the hosts asked the writer how he would solve this problem, he replied: "If you owe the bank $ 20 million, that's your problem. But if you owe the bank $ 1 billion and you can't pay it, that's the bank's problem."

That is, Kiyosaki decided to prove that he was using the same model that he had been explaining to his readers for many years: he borrowed money to buy assets and assumed that the assets themselves and the income from them would pay off the debt. However, financial experts are still skeptical about how long this model will work, given inflation and market volatility.

Such questions have arisen before. Experts in the field criticized the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" for its factual errors, oversimplifications, and the unreality of many situations. However, this did not prevent Kiyosaki from becoming a success and publishing other books - more than two dozen of his works have been published in total.

Moreover, no matter how much debt he has, he is not in danger of living in poverty. Even if the real estate business fails, he will continue to replenish his capital through infobusiness: by selling his works, podcasts, webinars, courses and even educational games. By the way, Robert's house also testifies to this. According to a Vanity Fair journalist, his mansion does not at all correspond to the image of a man who is supposedly penniless. Kiyosaki bought this luxurious Moroccan-style mansion just three years ago for $ 4.5 million.

Interestingly, despite the abstractness of his reasoning, Robert managed to gain a solid foothold in the "upper" stratum of American society. In particular, he has been in close contact with Donald Trump for many years. They even wrote two books together - "Why We Want You to Be Rich" in 2006 and "The Midas Effect" in 2011. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Kiyosaki spoke positively about the US president and still calls him a friend.

There is another important aspect in Kiyosaki's work. This is the image of "rich dad" and "poor dad". As the first, he mentions businessman Richard Kim, whom he considered a mentor for many years. In his book, Robert writes that he has already died, but in fact Kim died 11 years after the publication of the work.

In addition, according to the materials of Vanity Fair, Kiyosaki's first business - the production of wallets - was funded by his own father, that is, the same "poor dad" who is opposed to a successful businessman in the book. So, for many years he has been accusing the person who shaped his life path of financial illiteracy and indecision.

The writer himself remains true to his philosophy. His ex-wife Kim says that when she asked her husband when he planned to retire, the answer was simple - Robert repeated twice, "I love teaching."