‘Rich Dad’ author Robert Kiyosaki: If you’re investing for the long term, ‘you’re crazy’
In a live interview with MarketWatch, the best-selling author gives advice on how to get rich and what to invest in now.
Courtesy of Robert Kiyosaki
Robert Kiyosaki, author of several best-selling books including “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” joined MarketWatch for a live interview on Facebook today.
He offered up insights on making money, becoming an entrepreneur and even touched on politics.
Here are some highlights from the talk, or you can listen to the full interview here.
His advice on how to get rich:
“The rich do not work for money. Most people do not understand that, because they’re taught to go to school and get a job for money. The rich don’t work for money.
And one of the reasons for that is money is no longer money. One of the reasons for that is in 1971, President Nixon took the U.S. Dollar off the gold standard and basically screwed the world. It’s bad for the poor and middle class. As Bernie Sanders said, ‘wealth and income inequality is the greatest moral crisis facing America as well as the world today.’
The gap is growing between the rich and poor. The rich don’t work for money. If you went to school and got a job, and you’re saving money and investing in the stock market today, you’re going to lose.”
On his prediction that in 2016 the world would see the worst stock market crash in history:
“We’re on the edge of a cliff right now. We have never been here before. If you’re still saving money when interest rates are negative, you’ve got to be crazy. When you’re investing for the long-term in the stock market, where there is no connection between stock price and reality, you’re crazy.”
His advice on what to invest in now: cybercurrencies, gold, silver?
“My answer is always the same. You got to come up with your own answers.
I love gold, I was buying gold at 70 bucks an ounce. I’m a gold bug. On the other side, there’s this guy named Harry Dent, a very smart guy, who says goldGCZ6, -0.44% is going to drop to $250/ounce. Another very smart guy James Rickards, the author of ‘Currency Wars,’ says gold is going to go to $10,000/ounce. So somewhere in between is your reality.
All coins have three sides: head, tails, or hedge. Your job is to stand on the edge of the coin and listen to both sides. I love gold but I don’t use gold as an investment, I use gold as an insurance policy, a hedge. Because I suspect the U.S. dollarDXY, +0.36% is going to be toast in a few years. Now, if it doesn’t, I still have gold. I’m hedging my positions all the time.”
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On the election and how it will affect the economy:
“I hate to say this but I don’t think it makes a difference who wins the election. It’s the bankers, the Fed, that control the whole world economy, not a president. Donald Trump is my friend. I’m going to vote for him. I think he is a great man. But unfortunately I don’t think it makes any difference at this time. The problem is too big.”
On investing in real estate:
“Real estate is a long-term hold. It’s not liquid. I don’t care if the market is up or down. What I’m looking for is a bargain. I make most of my money when the markets crash. I made most of my money in 2007. I made even more money in the subprime crash. I don’t care about the overall economy or the markets. I’m looking for an opportunity that no one else sees. I like residential real estate. I don’t invest in REITs or anything paper.”
“I do not invest in Hawaii, California and New York because of the taxes. Real estate is really not about real estate. It’s about debt, taxes and laws. I go to the areas that are favorable to investors, to capitalists. I stay out of areas that are more socialist-inclined, like California.”
His advice for young people joining the job market:
“Don’t just look for money and a high-paying job. That’s selling yourself like a whore. The question I ask young people is, ‘What would you do for free? If you could do anything, what problems do you want to solve?’ Go find a way to solve it.”
On working for a company vs. being an entrepreneur:
“Everybody is born an entrepreneur. I never met a child not interested in money, but the system beats it out of you. Take a job for what you want to learn.
What life skills do I want to accomplish? How am I going to get those life skills? If you’re going to be dangled by a paycheck, you’re a whore. That’s really what you are.
There are fewer jobs today. We need more entrepreneurs to create jobs. Our schools create employees. That’s the crisis right now.”
On flunking out of school -- three times:
“I flunked out of school three times, because I can’t write, and I couldn’t type. I flunked out of accounting. What do I write all day about? And type all day about? Accounting. Accounting is the subject. If you’re going to do anything, start with a bookkeeping course. You’ve got to know your numbers. Numbers tell you a story. After you get through a basic bookkeeping course…then you can take basic business accounting. That’s how you learn, it’s in the numbers. If you can’t read the numbers, you don’t know what’s going on. It’s not that hard to get ahead quickly because most people highly educated, with good grades, have no financial education.”
On finding a mentor:
“Choose your teachers wisely. In Sunday school, in the story of Christ, there are the Three Wise Men. They went in search of a teacher. That is the key to life. No matter how wise you are, you can always learn from someone else.”
On assets over money:
“Lesson No. 1 in ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ is the rich do not work for money. That opens your brain up, well, what the heck do they work for then? If you act like a mule, chasing the carrot -- the buck, the bonus, the paycheck, the commission, whatever you guys chase, you’re never going to ask the question: what are the rich working for? I work for assets.”
“Recently this one oil company crashed. Its stock was trading at $75 and dropped to $2 and I was ecstatic. Two dollars, from 70 bucks. When I studied the underlying analysis of it, they have huge oil reserves, they have assets in the ground, and the stock was trading at $2. So do I pay $2? No. I buy a 75-cent option to pay $2.”
“Money is the problem. It’s the money, stupid. We’re printing it, we’re printing it, we’re printing it, and it’s corrupt. And it’s toxic. Stop working for money, start acquiring assets. Use your brain.”
