American Thought Leaders - Robert Kiyosaki: Why America’s Middle Class Keeps Getting Poorer

Episode Date: December 6, 2025

“I’ve been fighting communism by teaching capitalism,” says Robert Kiyosaki, holding up a copy of Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” and a copy of his book “The Capitalist Manifesto.”Ro...bert Kiyosaki became famous as the author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” a book that has sold 48 million copies worldwide since its 1997 publication.Kiyosaki maintains that in today’s America, plagued by high inflation and a crumbling dollar, rich dads are getting ever richer while poor dads are getting poorer:“Food gets up in price, but the poor and middle class have to pay for it. So my apartment houses go up, but the poor middle class go homeless. And that’s the seed of communism, that’s the seed of revolt,” he says.In this episode, we dive into what he sees as the roots of America’s economic woes and what young people can do in today’s economy to build wealth and prosperity.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 When I was 10 years old, my poor dad kept asking, hey, dad, dad, dad, what am I going to learn about money? He says, we don't teach school about money. In this episode, we sat down with Robert Kiyosaki. His book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, has sold 43 million copies and remains the top title in personal finance. I said, well, how did I get rich? He says, well, if you stay in school, get your Ph.D. Get your Ph.D. I said, Dad, you have a PhD. We're poor.
Starting point is 00:00:30 He says, well, then you've got to talk to your best friend's father. And that was Rich Dad. From reading the Communist Manifesto to becoming an advocate for capitalist financial education, Kiyosaki warns about the danger of hyperinflation and central bank control. Every time you print money, the gap between rich and poor is getting wider and wider and wider. What Marx wanted was his gap between rich and poor. He also shares three lessons to build wealth that he believes can change your life and help you become truly self-sufficient.
Starting point is 00:01:02 Your poor dad, Marxist, good man. He says we should give people money. Well, that's honorable. I want to teach them, want to teach people the fish person out of steel fish. Let's say you're a young person today and you don't have a lot of money. What's your next step?
Starting point is 00:01:23 This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yanya Kellick. Robert Kiyosaki, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. It's my honor. My honor. I mean, I love what that book of Times is doing. I'm so honored to be part of your program. So I've got my back and roll quickly. When I was 18 years old, I read this book here, The Communist Manifesto. And I was living in Hawaii. And I went to school in New York. I went to military. military school. And my economics teacher says, you have to read this book. And I went, why? He says, because you must know your enemy. And my economics teacher was a, I went to King's Point. He went to
Starting point is 00:02:16 West Point, Academy graduates. And he says, and he flew the B-17 in World War II, got shot down, captured, all this stuff. He says, these guys are not stuck. And I went, holy mackle, and then so I wrote this book here, the capitalist manifesto, against this here. Because our school system, as you know, Marx was an academic type, you know, a pointy head guy. And our school systems are teaching Marxism. And this here is my, I just happened to find this, this is my hat from Vietnam. I was a Marine Corps 1st Lieutenant. That was my gunship drivers.
Starting point is 00:03:07 Our call sign was Scarface. And I was at the battle in 1972, 71. I was at the Battle of Quang Tree when the North Vietnamese busted through. And I was going, so we're a, of the helic with gunship pilots going in, we couldn't stop them. And these communists were coming through, I was going, oh, my God, what's happening here? We lost so many men that day. The worst thing was the North Vietnamese were running. They carried the AK-47, and they run like this.
Starting point is 00:03:43 I was a U.S. Marine, and they were defending them, and the South Vietnamese turned and ran. John, when I saw the South Vietnamese turn and run, one of the saddest days of my life. And ever since then, I've been fighting communism by teaching captains. Well, you could imagine I was surprised when you came in the door with the Communist Manifesto. It's worth reading.
Starting point is 00:04:18 The average American has no idea, and that's the problem. I have the good fortune or bad fortune to be in the right places. the wrong time. Like the Battle of Quangtree, you know, when the North Vietnamese broke through. Well, and thank you for your service, by the way. Thank you. It's worth fighting. Our freedom is worth fighting for. So when they broke through, I went, what am I seeing here? When I was not 18 or 19 years old, I held up a coin,
Starting point is 00:04:49 1965. A silver dollar was no longer silver. It was copper. And what they were doing, the U.S. government. They were violating Gresham's law. And what Gresham's law says, when bad money enters a system, good money goes into hiding. And I wonder what the heck's going on here. So in 1965 as an 18-year-old kid, I go to school, a military school, I read this book, and I see our currency, our dollars going down. We used to be a silver certificate. Now we're a Federal Reserve note. And as most people know, there's a big movement on to end the Fed, the Federal Reserve Bank, because it's not federal, it's not reserve, that's not a bank. It's a Marxist organization. It's a central bank. And in 1912 or 1913, when the Fed came to America,
Starting point is 00:05:50 it was the end of America. And our freedom is being stolen via our money. You see, that you had to run from your parents, was that you or your parents ran from Poland? My parents actually left Poland in 70. Yeah, 1970. People haven't seen communism. And the problem is our school system, the communists, our academics,
Starting point is 00:06:13 I mean, our professors. We got attacked by 39 professors at Arizona State University. I think the fourth or fifth largest university in America. I was teaching capitalism. And they said, stop. So I respect the Epic Times for your fight against communism, Marxism, because I'm still in the fight.
Starting point is 00:06:36 I just fight as an author, though. And I have a board game and all this. I teach capitalism. But our schools are taught by Marxists. Before we jump into dealing with our fraught economy, how to actually build wealth as a young person today, all these types of questions. all these types of questions. You also told me that you were actually in Zimbabwe. Tell me about that. Yeah, Zimbabwe, because I was a student of money, I'm a politically incorrect hunter. So I was out in Zimbabwe, I think in 2000, 2002. And I was there for the collapse of Zimbabwe
Starting point is 00:07:16 because they printed too much money. Remember they had like $25 trillion bill, couldn't buy you an egg. They kept printing money. holy miracle and zimbabwe collapsed america is doing the same thing we're now 38 trillion dollars in debt and climbing because of the federal reserve bank which is marxist so i'm in zimbabwe watching this collapse i thought i was back in vietnam again i was already back from vietnam i'm in a truck i'm a hunter and when the economy collapsed in zimbabwe they called them war vets. These young black guys come up with AK-47s. I went, and I put the gun right here. They took everything. They took the farm. They took it all. They called it reparations.
Starting point is 00:08:13 So I just went back this year, 2025, to teach my cash flow game. And the Zimbabwe Economic Council asked me to teach money to Zimbabwe, through the cash flow. slow game, you know. And it was such an honor to go back there. So I have a, I'm writing a new book call. I kept my promise. I said, I'll return. I'll come back and I'll teach. But I've seen too much. Zimbabwe was such a wake-up call. Quang Tree was what's a wake-up call. 18, going to military school, reading this book, and then holding up a coin at 18 going, why is our money? Why is our silver coins. Why are they copper now? And they were stealing our wealth via our money. And that's what happens when central banks take over. Well, I think we're not quite there yet, not this sort of
Starting point is 00:09:11 hyperinflation. I remember seeing that. It was just something, it was kind of unimaginable, the level at which it was growing, even as a, you know, when a, a lot younger, I saw that as being hugely problematic. But, you know, how do we deal with $38 trillion? in debt. Can't. So that's why, you know, one of the questions we're talking about before this program started, that's why I own gold mines and I own silver coins because they can't print gold and they can't print silver.
Starting point is 00:09:46 And I own a lot of Bitcoin, Ethereum, I want to get away from my government as much as I can. I hate to say this, but the U.S. government's corrupt. And, you know, my friend here is Donald Trump. And we've written two books together. And he became president. We're supposed to write the third book. He goes, hey, Robert, I can't write the third book. I'm going to run for president. I said, good luck, you know. Just amazing that he keeps going. But we got together to teach money, teach financial education. But our school system stop us. So it's in academics. Exactly, you know, what Marx believed was the intellectual
Starting point is 00:10:31 should run the world. People like my poor dad, PhDs. They think they're superior to all of us. Just because they went to school and we got a PhD, they think they're smarter than you and me. You know, as we were preparing for this interview, one of my producers mentioned to me that she first heard about you when her father told her, I'm the poor dad, actually, and you should learn how to, you know, you should learn the rich dad principles. But things have changed since you wrote that book. Got worse. Yeah. So, so, so where are we at today? What is the situation for young people or for their parents or grandparents who want to, you know, help them basically be successful today? Well, the question I start with is, what does school teacher bought money?
Starting point is 00:11:24 Why not? It's because our school system is Marxist. They're like my poor debt. They're good people. They just don't know. And their whole value system is, you know, I'm a straight-A student. I got my PhD, or I'm a doctor, I'm an accountant, I'm an attorney. I'm smart. But they don't know. anything about money. And one of the things that this guy talked about here was income tax. He said, Marx said taxes. Taxes are essential for the spread of communism. Now, think about this. America was founded as a tax-free nation. 1773 was a thing called the Boston Tea Party. America was founded as a tax revolt against Mother England. And so 1913, I think, was my old man now, when the Fed came in,
Starting point is 00:12:28 the next thing was formed was the 16th Amendment, which allowed taxes to come back into America. So what's happening, as you can see it, the gap between rich and poor is getting wider and wider and wider. and every time you print money, fake money, you know, fiat money, I get richer, rich get richer, poor and moral class get poor because inflation sends my price, I have oil wells because you can't print oil. So I have oil wells, the price of oil goes up. The price of chickens go out, food goes up, real estate goes up.
Starting point is 00:13:03 But when mom and pop, you know, Mrs. Middle Class go to the supermarket, they go, I can't afford to eat anymore. So I could think what Marx wanted was his gap between rich and poor. In fact, that was his plan. As you just studied Mark, he says, he wanted equality. He says the way you destroy anybody is you pull the poor up, but you pull the rich down. And that's what Marks was trying to do. and so I see all that going on right now
Starting point is 00:13:42 and today I've never seen such homelessness spreading all across the world but also America and I've seen homelessness in Africa and things like this but we're in Phoenix, Arizona right now we have whole zones full of homeless people
Starting point is 00:13:59 because they can't afford real estate their dollar doesn't pay it much so that's why I saw when when I saw in Vietnam when the North Vietnamese punched through the line again this is my squadron here and very proud to be U.S. Marine and gunship pilot
Starting point is 00:14:21 and they kept coming and then they were running like this with their AKs this way and a few years later I'm in Zimbabwe I'm getting the same thing going it's repeating it's just repeating
Starting point is 00:14:35 And just to clarify, with Marx's intention, the way I understand it, what you said was very interesting, right? What I understand it is he was trying, he wanted to increase that division, right, between the rich and the poor, so there would be struggle. Did I get that right? He wanted to bring the poor up and the rich down. You know, his thing was the take away the means of place. He wanted to control the means of production. That's what he wanted. And he says, the abolition of private property is what Marx wanted.
Starting point is 00:15:15 And this guy, what his name, forget his name, someday you'll owe nothing and you'll be happy. But the situation that you described is one where they're richer getting richer and the poorer getting poorer, so they're separating from each other, not coming together. Can you clarify that? Well, when you print money, I get richer. because I own real estate, I own oil wells, I own cattle.
Starting point is 00:15:39 You know, food gets up in price. And then, but the poor middle class have to pay for it. So my apartment houses go up, but the poor middle class go homeless. And that's the seeds of communism. That's the seed of revolt. You know, that was the Russian Revolution, Lenin and Stalin. It's happening all again. And the way this was so stupid that only an intellectual from a U.S. university or a school would believe this crap.
Starting point is 00:16:17 Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, it was a good idea. But the only way they could enforce this was by force. So you look at what happened in China. They had to use force to get the people to comply with this stupid man's idea. It was ideologues ideas. In Russia, they had to use force to get them to, you know, to comply. So that's the foul on going and all this stuff.
Starting point is 00:16:46 They suppress people. Because Marx wanted everybody to be equal, pull the rich down, pull the poor up. And people actually believe that idea. But his primary idea was intellectuals should tell the world how to live. Those are called academics, the liberal left. And to achieve that revolution, he wanted to destabilize society. Well, you destabilize it by taking the currency. You make the currency fake, and that's what happened when the Federal Reserve Bank came in 1913, I think.
Starting point is 00:17:26 At the same time, the 16th Amendment was passed, which was taxes. and America was founded as a tax-free nation. You know, 1773. It wasn't found in 1776. It was founded in 1773, the Boston Tea Party. And now everybody says, well, you have to pay your taxes. They have to pay your taxes. I'm a capitalist.
Starting point is 00:17:52 I pay zero taxes legally. I fight like a dog. I refuse to play that game. Because what those taxes are used for, is to create wars. You know, that's how we finance our wars. It's tragic what's happening. It's absolutely tragic.
Starting point is 00:18:10 And I fought in war. I didn't like doing it. But I realized Marx was like my poor dad, head of the labor union. And my poor dad, what Marxist was workers of the world unite. So I go home to my high school. My poor dad's head of the teacher's union. workers of the world unite.
Starting point is 00:18:36 That sounds familiar. Today, that NEA National Education Association, the National Extortion Association, is the most powerful labor union in America, and they control our government, because this is what talks here. We've got to fight back, so that's why when I heard that the Epoch Times,
Starting point is 00:18:58 you guys were coming to interview me, I said, what an honor, because I've been in the same battle. You've been battling. I fight these guys here. And that's why I wrote this book here. And that's why my friend here, Donald Trump and I, fight together for financial education.
Starting point is 00:19:16 So what is the best financial advice right now, given our current reality for the typical young person who, many of whom are wondering what their future is going to look like? They're wondering, could I even afford a house? Could I even, how do I get into getting assets like Robert Kiyosaki has suggested in his books, if they're familiar with rich dad, poor dad? Where do we start with providing that advice and education? May I give you a long answer to a short question.
Starting point is 00:19:51 Please. In 1974, I was getting out of the Marine Corps. And they passed, government passed a thing called ERISA, employee, retirement, income security act i said what's that mean well i enter the government says income security you know it's fake it's started the 401k and the IRA that shift in 1974 was that workers shifted from a defined benefit pension plan a db pension plan to define c dc pension plan so a defined Benefit, it was like when I worked for, today I work for the Ford Motor Company, I'd have a defined benefit plan. My retirement was guaranteed.
Starting point is 00:20:38 The 401K or ERISA put in place a defined contribution pension plan. That means if there was nothing there, you have no retirement. So my tariff, I just feel horrible, my generation of boomers, they're going to have the rug pulled out from underneath of them. Because when this market comes down, which it is coming down now, they have no retirement. Because everything is put in 401Ks, ETFs, IRAs, all that crap, bonds. You know, when my financial plan on friends say bonds are safe, that is the biggest lie I've ever heard. You know, bonds aren't safe. China and Japan are dumping U.S. bonds right now.
Starting point is 00:21:26 What about gold? What about silver? What about oil? What about cattle? What about real estate? Do you know what I mean? So I don't, so because I read this book here, 1965, was 18 years old,
Starting point is 00:21:42 I said, I better start thinking differently. But my rich dad, which is why I wrote this book here, agreed wholeheartedly with this book. He says, you're poor dad. Arcsist. Good man. He says, we should give people money. We should take care of them. Well, that's honorable. But why not teach them? That's what this book here. Want to teach people the fish versus how to steal fish. And that's what the liberal left is doing. They're stealing our wealth for our money.
Starting point is 00:22:21 So where does that leave the typical young person today? Well, get financial education. I don't plug my own stuff. I have a board game called cash flow. Well, you know, this is why I've come here to you, right? Like, we need good advice for all of us. I mean, I need it, frankly, not just the young people. So how do we, how do we educate ourselves? You mentioned one thing very clearly that you want to have tangible assets that appreciate. I think you can't print. Yeah. So the cash flow board game. The reason I created the cash flow board game, when I was 10 years old, my my poor dad, I kept asking, hey, dad, dad, dad, what am I going to learn about money? He says,
Starting point is 00:23:08 we don't teach school about money. Then I realized he didn't anything about money. I said, well, how did I get rich? He says, well, if you stay in school, get your PhD. I said, dad, you have a PhD. We're poor. Do you know what I mean? Most PhDs are poor. He says, well, Then you brought to your best friend's father. That was Rich Dad. And Rich Dad was a man who had never finished school. He dropped out of school at 13. So I went to see my Rich Dad, and I said, would you teach me about money?
Starting point is 00:23:39 He said, get out of here. He said, get out of here. He said, you're wasting my time. I said, I'll do anything. He says, did you work for me for free? So I had to work at Rich Dad owned hotels. So I had to go there pick up cigarette butts and all that, and I'd sit down and he said,
Starting point is 00:23:58 okay, I want to teach you about money. And he'd break out the Monopoly game. And we played Monopoly, you know, four greenhouses, red hotel. Guess what? I own greenhouses and red hotels today. I was 10 years old. It was in my brain.
Starting point is 00:24:13 I said, that's how I get written. Now, I'm not saying you have to buy real estate. So I created the cash full board game because the power of a game, is better than a teacher a game includes four intelligence mental physical god moves up around emotional and spiritual when you lose in a game go but losing is good because if you fight you want to fight back so there's four intelligence in the game mental emotional EQ physical or spirit and spiritual. Like, if you go to a golf course, can I learn how to play golf? Yeah, but you can't use
Starting point is 00:24:58 golf clubs. That's what schools are like. Can you imagine this? You've hit the ball 500 yards and it's a hole in one. You've hit a whole and one every single time. That's academics. That's PhDs. I sat there, you guys live in La La Land. And those La Land guys are Marxists. They're exactly as Marx said. It's intellectual, should run the world. Let's say you're a young person today. You've just finished, let's say, high school, you're considering maybe the trades because they're becoming fashionable again. You know, there's this whole big thing against trades for a while. You're considering university. And you don't have a lot of money. Your parents are, you know, poor dad style, right?
Starting point is 00:25:50 for whatever reason, maybe just down and out, maybe they tried. What's your next step? I'll just tell what my rich dad told me. I'm kind of at the Marine Corps. Like I said, I'm a pilot. And so my friends were all enjoying the airlines. And so my poor dad was so happy, go fly for you. That'd fly for American.
Starting point is 00:26:13 And then get your PhD. I said, that's it, dad. He goes, yeah. I went to my rich dad. And he says, how do I get rich? He says, be an entrepreneur. I'm like, so how long did it take you become a pilot? I said, two years.
Starting point is 00:26:33 Same thing. You need the skills of an entrepreneur. So I said, what's that? He said, skill number one of an entrepreneur, right? You have to sell. And in my family, I went, oh, my God. Because my poor dad's family, They hated salesmen.
Starting point is 00:26:53 They hated salesmen. No, I don't want to sell, please. To my rich dad, please. I can't sell. My mom and dad hate salesmen. You know, they think they're crooks, their liars, a scum, and all this. I said, she asked me for my advice.
Starting point is 00:27:11 You have to learn how to sell. No, no. I'm about 27 years old. No, anything but that. He says, Robert. how's your sex life i said zero he says because you can't sell i said okay i'll do i'll learn how so then the next job was to go find a job that paid me to learn how to sell and so i got down to interviewing with two companies finally ibn and xerox and so the only thing i asked him about
Starting point is 00:27:48 wasn't the pay, I said, tell me about your sales school. So today, you can get that same, similar sameest training in network marketing. You go to a network marketing company like Amway or stuff like this. They have to train you to sell. And they'll coach you. If you fail, they'll coach you. They'll fail to coach you. So I had to learn how to sell. And then the, so that was number one. Second was, after I, I was selling rich dad says so what's the next thing he says you have to learn how to use debt and in my poor dad's family you know debt is trap you know it's dangerous and rich said says you just came back from vietnam the u.s dollar is debt nixon took the
Starting point is 00:28:39 dollar off the gold standard this is 1974 so in 71 the dollar is now debt he says you've got to learn to use debt. And as I said before, the more debt they print, the rich get richer, poor middle class get poorer. So this gap between everybody is so wide today. So I said, how do I learn how to use debt? He says, take a class on real estate. So I'm searching around and I found one
Starting point is 00:29:11 how to make money millions in real estate with nothing down. You know, this is TV time before YouTube. And so I signed up by there's nothing down course. It was really good. This guy was a real real estate investor. And for three days, he taught me how to, you know, how to use debt and all this, debt financing. And I said, okay, I did the three. Now what do I have to do?
Starting point is 00:29:37 This was the best advice. He says, most guys will leave this course and do nothing. He says, your job is in the next 100 days. is to look at 100 deals what he says you gotta get to real world so I'm now like come out of this course for the next day I go to realtor after realtor after realtor I said I want to look at some property I want to buy for nothing down they'll throw me out yeah but I kept asking I kept asking kept asking how do I find a piece of real estate I can get I have no money
Starting point is 00:30:18 and finally there's one guy still remember him he goes i have the deal for you i said really but it took i didn't i didn't go a hundred times but i was willing to most people quit so this guy says i got i got a deal for you it's on maui i'm like wow maui is the richest place on the you know the most expensive island in hawai so i flew it over to maui and sure enough it was a beachfront on the beach in Maui. It was $18,000. This is 1974. So I broke out my credit card
Starting point is 00:31:03 and I put the down payment on this was 100% debt and I made $25 a month. After all expenses, debt and all this, I was free. But I had to find that deal. that deal. Most people are so effing lazy. They go to a financial plan. What do you got?
Starting point is 00:31:24 They just take what they sell. So to this day, you can ask my assistants. All I'm doing is looking at deals. It's called deal flow. Looking at this deal, this deal, this deal, this deal. And it becomes a habit, if you know what I mean. So you can train yourself to have the skills
Starting point is 00:31:46 and the mindset of a rich person, but you have to do the work. Well, I think that's the key here. You're pointing out something incredibly important. You have to do the work. Amen. And I've heard that from a lot of young women. They go, I can't find men today. You know, they want to be TikTok dancers, or they play video games in the basement.
Starting point is 00:32:12 And they said, we can't find men. So they can't afford to have kids. kids, you know, buy apartments or rent and all this. Let me run an idea by you, okay? I have a theory that there's a few things if you teach a very young kid, right, that will really help them in life. And it's something, here's one example. I'm just going to use one example because this relates to the communist manifesto, right?
Starting point is 00:32:37 So I, my background is in biology. I was actually an evolutionary biologist in training, right? And one of the things we never learned, okay, I literally never learned this until my 40s, okay, is where does prosperity come from? Okay. And I think one of the biggest lies that is in the sort of the communist approach to the world is that there's the pie is fixed. You have a pie, it's a fixed pie and the rich people take it from the poor people. Right? That, I mean, and you, because that's kind of how it works in nature, right? As a biologist, you kind of learn, well, you know, there's limited resources and someone gets the resource, some doesn't get the resource. But with human beings, the pie expands as you get prosperity, right? And you have Adam Smith. He has, you know, division of labors. The cause, you know, there's innovation. There's all these different approaches, but I never learned this, right? And it's, I think it's very easy to convince someone of, you know, this of the communist approach if they don't understand that prosperity is a thing right it expands the pie i'm curious what you think about that well that's malthusian economics allocation
Starting point is 00:33:55 scares resources and the reality is we're given a brain you know this this year and this here you said look at elon musk he's a south african comes to america comes the richest man in the world he didn't ask for a handout he got government grants and all the this but you can create your prosperity by creating so i i wrote this book here it was turned down by every publisher because i said you don't know what you're talking about so i published it anyway it sold 48 million copies so far number one book in finance today now 48 million you know i make a buck a book a few bucks there this didn't exist until i wrote it it came out of here. It's a true story. The same as Donald Trump. He was born a rich man. I wasn't, but we're
Starting point is 00:34:52 good friends because we think we think alike. So, you know, have you seen the picture that Trump's putting a ballroom onto the White House and said there's a picture, there's a cartoon. There's a White House with a Trump Tower attached to it, you know. You give him, if you let him do it, he'd probably do it. He comes out of your head. You create it. You create your prosperity. For someone that does have some wealth, you know, however it's distributed right now, you know, it could be anywhere from all of it's in cash and fiat, as you described it,
Starting point is 00:35:32 all the way to, you know, something like it's all in gold right now. What do you recommend people would should do in this current financial reality in terms of their allocation of that wealth? Well, my rich dad said that was interesting. He said, there's a million ways to financial heaven. In other words, find the way it works for you. There's a billion ways to financial hell. And most people are going to financial hell.
Starting point is 00:36:01 So rather than being told what to do, like go to a financial planner or get a job and all this stuff, I have to find out what I was interested in. And I like real estate. I really do love real estate. I own probably 1,500 rental properties. I own commercial. I love real estate. Life is what you imagine.
Starting point is 00:36:22 Imagine a nation. So there's a billion ways of financial heaven. I love real estate. I don't like stocks. I don't like bonds. I don't like paper. I like something in sea, touch, and feel. Like I like, I love cars, you know.
Starting point is 00:36:38 I own, I love pens and I have watches. I'm a sea touch and field guy. So I stay with what I like and what I'm interested in. I just love real estate, and it provides a service. You know, people have a place to sleep. Unfortunately, you know, people are going homeless. You know, Thomas Jefferson warned us America about this. He said, if a central bank takes over,
Starting point is 00:37:04 people wind up homeless in the lands their fathers built. And today, Jefferson's prophecy is coming true. homelessness is exploding because every time you print money, two things go up, taxes, and inflation. I love this idea, right? You have to find the thing you love because that's the thing that you can put all your heart into. Well, that's what you love, it's legal ethical and moral. Well, hopefully what you love is all those things. Well, so. This has been a fascinating conversation for me. Perhaps a final thought as we finish?
Starting point is 00:37:50 Well, what I love is this is a piece of real estate. If I own this, I take care of it. If you don't love it, you don't take care of it. So I don't like stocks. I don't own any IBM or Xerox or Jummel Motors or Apple. You know, I like real estate. I like oil. You know, I like cattle.
Starting point is 00:38:13 I like food. So that's what I invest in. I just really love real estate and I love debt. It was a guy like Dave Ramsey. He's always saying live debt free. Well, he said, Dave's a friend of mine, but, and most people should follow Dave's advice because they don't think about money. So if you're going to be like me, you have to learn how to use debt.
Starting point is 00:38:40 And that's where real estate courses. come in. They teach you debt to equity ratios and all this stuff. You can have too much debt or not enough debt and all this stuff. So a lot of times I'll take a property. I'll improve its value. I'll borrow out the equity, add more debt to it. And it drives people crazy. They go, it's 100% debt. I said, yes, when it cash flows. So the asset is, you know, because now debt holds this place that cash i borrow the equity i borrow out i buy another piece and that's my phone there's a million ways to heaven and a billion ways to hell by the way that you like you like and you have to and you have to love doing that i think if you are going through the debt if you're going to go
Starting point is 00:39:32 the debt route it's kind of a bit dangerous if you don't love it and smart you have to want to study it you know what I mean because I've I've lost a lot of money in my time I made a lot of mistakes but I'm still playing monopoly I'm still a 10-year-old boy going and if you ever go to Hawaii you know rich dad started he goes I said I asked me he had no money either and he said someday I'll own that hotel you go to Waikiki beach today as the Hyatt regency rich dad doesn't own the hotel he owns a lot land. You understand he knew his game.
Starting point is 00:40:15 So it's just a game. If you like stocks, it's a game. So all of this is fun. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. But every time you lose, you get smarter. Well, Robert Kiyosaki, it's such a pleasure to have had you on. Thank you very much. Really, an honor.
Starting point is 00:40:33 I just, I have tremendous respect for what you guys are doing. We're the same battle. We're fighting communists. I fight my financial education. Well, thank you so very much. Thank you. Thank you all for joining Robert Kiyosaki and me on this episode of American Thought Leaders. I'm your host, Janja Kellick.

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