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'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

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Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#81
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does life of a tape worm connect with the idea?

I think the idea is that Kiyosaki's lifestyle is that of a parasite. Society is built from people producing economic output. But this guy just buys low, sells high, and uses other people's money to do so?

Buying low, selling high does produce economic output. It funnels money into causes that generate economic output. If you are able to buy low and sell high you must have some ability to tell the promise of something and if you buy low you are making the promise be more efficient.

There's a vector of progress in some direction and you are deciding the direction by choosing what you are investing in.

And if you are using other people's money you are just increasing the power of the vector in the right direction by more than you could have on your own. So if you have that ability, it's a very wise thing to do.

Money is a tool to organise/decide where the direction should be at and magnify that direction.

Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#82

I think the guy is one of the biggest intellectual scammers out there. He wrote his famous book when working a normal 8 hour job and was nowhere near being wealthy. He wasn't a rich dad. Just a normal guy.

I've spent a while pondering his stuff and have come the conclusion that he's not that sammerish although you have to take some of the stuff he says with a pinch of salt.

He didn't claim to be rich when writing the book. It was about his actual dad who didn't make much money and his friends dad who did. I thought maybe he'd made Rich Dad up but he turned out to be a real person and financially successful if a bit of an arsehole. (Interview about that https://youtu.be/CRq6sjpo9iU).

The having a lot of debt thing is actually a smart strategy. If you buy a house for cash and hold it for 20 years your net worth is one house. If you buy 100 with debt and hold for 20 years your net worth is about 50 houses because inflation has worn the debt down. That's how property people get rich.

Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#83
post #9

If you owe the bank $100k that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100M that's their problem.

If you owe the hospital $1,000 that's your problem. If you owe the hospital $100,000 that's their problem. Medical debt is the #1 USA reason to personally declare bankruptcy... USA! USA!! USA!!! [EDIT]: Despite this comment's unpopularity, this was how I first heard a similar quote, over a decade ago (in Medical School)... so it remains posted =P

>Medical debt is the #1 USA reason to personally declare bankruptcy... USA! USA!! USA!!!

No. Only 4% of US bankruptcies are because of medical bills. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/0...>. A tipoff that insert large percentage here of bankruptcies aren't actually because of medical costs is that only 6% of bankruptcies by those without health insurance are because of that cause. The biggest cause of bankruptcies is lack of income, which health insurance doesn't affect.

Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#84
post #24

How is this guy wrong in hedging against the declining dollar and rising price of commodities? At a time when all central banks are de-dollarizing and buying gold, wouldn't this be the perfect hedge? I know for a fact that most fund managers (at least in India) have been converting as much as 10-20% of their portfolios into gold and other commodities.

Can you give some examples? what category of funds I am not aware of any gold portfolio in traditional equity and debt mutual funds in India

Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#85
post #24

How is this guy wrong in hedging against the declining dollar and rising price of commodities? At a time when all central banks are de-dollarizing and buying gold, wouldn't this be the perfect hedge? I know for a fact that most fund managers (at least in India) have been converting as much as 10-20% of their portfolios into gold and other commodities.

Can you give some examples? what category of funds I am not aware of any gold portfolio in traditional equity and debt mutual funds in India

on no these are like fund houses, HNI family fund house clusters etc. The news is more than a year old BTW. (I was trying to sell an asset management SAAS to these).

Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which means for the average person, where nearly all their purchases are liabilities, telling people to live debt free is good advice and Kiyosaki quotes getting thrown around out of context do more harm than good. I’m also curious to see how all these debt gluttons using “OPM” are going to fair in an environment of rising interest rates. When the tide goes out we’ll see who was swimming naked. I’m sure we’ll see man…

That's right, almost everything you buy is a financial liability. Debt glutton is a very loaded term. I bought 2 houses in the pandemic but I did so thoughtfully, after much research. My income can fully cover both mortgages and living expenses. In the US, interest rates are usually locked in and the monthly payment on the mortgage is not affected by the rates of today. Everyone I know who did "the real estate thing"…

Looking at the statistics around personal finance and debt in the US, a majority are not using debt thoughtfully. I don't know that I'd call them foolish or (willfully) reckless, they were just never taught how to manage money or debt, and are surrounded by messaging that tells them to use it in ways that aren't in their best interest. Unless all of those people decide to take it upon themselves to learn those skills and ignore all that temptation, it is probably best for them to minimize their use of debt, as it is costing them much more than they can hope to gain from the leverage.

I don't think I'd classify someone in your situation as a debt glutton (from the very little I know). I'm more talking about the people who live at the edge of what debt will afford them. The nicest house, cars, clothes, etc that they can get with the least amount of money down while living paycheck to paycheck to keep up with the payments.... or doing something similar with businesses/real estate, where their plan assumes we'll always be in good times and can't weather a storm.

Even when done thoughtfully, there is still risk. It's good that your income can cover the mortgage on both homes and you aren't assuming a tenant is going to reliably pay the rent every month when the mortgage payment is due, but there is the question of the security of that income during a financial downturn. I wish you nothing but the best and do hope the long term play works out for you. I just don't want people to ignore risk in their calculations. The more debt someone has, the more risk they have. The average American has a lot of this type of risk wrapped up in liabilities, not even assets.

As far as being unlucky, some people have been dealt bad hands that will knock anyone down. But preparing in good times can make someone appear more lucky during the bad times. Only time can tell what that looks like. That extra home, if a good tenant is paying rent, could be a big benefit and make you appear very lucky in future bad times. For me, I paid my house off in the good times to reduce my costs if/when bad times come. Different strategies, but hopefully similar results of stability.

Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#87
post #20

"Living debt free is the worst advice you could give" What advice can one give me, an individual who does not wish to live the life of a tape worm?

His debt doesn't fund consumption, it funds real estate, which he rents or sells for a profit. He's not advocating to go into debt for a lush Bahamas vacation. The value of long-term debt to fund real assets is that inflation corrodes the debt value, while boosting the asset value. Even if the asset doesn't appreciate above the inflation (meaning you do nothing all day), you can still make money if interest is lower…

I dunno if you rent, but the state of rental markets because of people like this is the definition of parasitic behavior.

Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#88

"Living debt free is the worst advice you could give" What advice can one give me, an individual who does not wish to live the life of a tape worm?

How does life of a tape worm connect with the idea?

Money is a tool that lets us track the goods and services we are throwing on the communal pile. You can trade money you've been given to take things from the pile as needed. The problem is some people get so much money through unintended glitches in the system that they can take so much of the pile that significant portions of the population are left without.

This man, and people like him are tape worms and I want nothing to do with it. I don't want to live a life of struggle or suffering, but I don't want my life of ease to be at someone else's expense.

Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#89
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is that Kiyosaki's lifestyle is that of a parasite. Society is built from people producing economic output. But this guy just buys low, sells high, and uses other people's money to do so?

Buying low, selling high does produce economic output. It funnels money into causes that generate economic output. If you are able to buy low and sell high you must have some ability to tell the promise of something and if you buy low you are making the promise be more efficient. There's a vector of progress in some direction and you are deciding the direction by choosing what you are investing in. And if you are usi…

Market forces only work when no individual or even large groups of individuals control enough capital to influence market trends, the problem is because of the dismantling of capital gains taxes etc. we have exactly that. We live in a state of affairs where individuals own over 80% of rental properties in entire suburbs. They can then do whatever they like with rent, since there is no such thing as market forces in those areas. They then collude with similar individuals in surrounding areas and create an unregulated monopoly. How do you propose that is beneficial?

Re: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author Robert Kiyosaki reveals he's $1B in debt

#90
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4 kinds of people. 1. People who love taking advantage of capitalism. 2. People who begrudgingly take advantage of capitalism. 3. People who understand capitalism but pout about it. 4. People too stupid to understand capitalism.

At least 3 orthogonal axes, not 2. x: understanding capitalism y: success in capitalism z: supporting capitalism All of these are slightly correlated, but only in rough outline.

I think we need one more axis, willingness to exploit others. Capitalism isn't inherently bad, but it is a problem when it has major flaws that allow for systematic an unintended avenues of exploitation. I support capitalism, I understand capitalism, and I have success in the system however I categorically refuse to partake in the smorgasbord of options for exploiting those who create value to live the life of a parasite. I take pride in my work and get compensated fairly, the work I do requires a lot of expertise and continued learning and development, something not everyone wants to do. My doing so provides significant value and that affords me some nicer things in life, but I do not agree that those who work more mundane jobs shouldn't be compensated such that they can live comfortably. The system only works if everyone who works full-time hours can life a comfortable life. The moment full-time work does not buy you comfort and security, the system rapidly becomes one that survives of the backs of slaves.
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