I no longer have any respect for PBS. I cannot believe they are showing this Kiyosaki infomercial crap, especially during their fundraising, not only showing his show, but using his products to generate fund raising dollars. PBS is basically helping him sell his crap with this “exclusive for public television” deal. They keep flashing his products on the screen such as his DVD/VHS (free with $100 donation to PBS), his book package (free with a $300 donation to PBS), and his “Teach to be Rich” book (free with a $150 donation to PBS). The two PBS hosts are just drooling all over this quack saying things like “all this enrichment and enlightenment Robert Kiyosaki has shed in the financial area tonight,” “this is excellent advice,” “this is such a wonderful program,” “this next bit is one of my favourites,” “this is really incredible,” “count on PBS to provide proper role models [referring to Robert and his wife],” “we learned a lot from Robert Kiyosaki tonight.”
Kiyosaki, the Benny Hinn of financial self-help, is even more ridiculous on TV then he is in the articles he writes online. When I first turned the TV on, he was in the middle of explaining how “working hard” is an out-of-date concept. When did this happen? He says that starting in 1943 “working hard” is no longer an option (to be successful and become “rich” I guess) because starting then, the US government starting collecting income taxes even more (the withholding tax on wages was introduced) and working hard only puts you in a higher tax bracket meaning you will be taxed even more. He said he invests and takes advantage of “loopholes” so he pays zero tax legally. Next he explained how “saving” no longer works. According to him “saving” stopped working since 1971 when “cash became a currency.” Then he starts giving a series of examples that do not lead to any real point. He draws a graph showing that cash has lost 50% of its value in since 2000 but gold has gone from $250 to $500. How his dad’s house has gone from a few tens of thousands of dollars to $1.5 million. Oil prices have gone from $20 to $50/barrel. There was no real point to all of this babbling.
The next thing I remember him talking about was how “control” = “no risk.” He then explained how people and their financial advisors who invest in a diversified portfolio of mutual funds have no control. It was all quackery at its fines.
The rest of the show provided nothing useful. It only provided some amazing quotes:
“Acquiring wealth is fun for me, I love investing, it’s not frightening, it’s controlled.”
“I had a classmate who was considered a genius in school. This guy could do quantum physics and all that when he was in kindergarten. The trouble was he couldn’t tie his shoelaces.”
“I did not know when I was 9 years old playing monopoly that I was seeing the future. When I played monopoly I saw that I can become a rich man.”
“I flunked out of school twice because I could not write. And I do not read that well yet. No, it’s true. I flunked when I was 15 and I flunked out when I was 17. And today I have one of the top 3 books in the history of the New York Times.”
sign of the times, I’m afraid. I imagine that PBS is so strapped for cash (in ways. . .) that they justify showing such crap as a vital trade off between quality shows and those that generate revenue. I’m sure they figure “okay, we can show this crap because it will let us show 10x’s the amount of good stuff than we would otherwise be able to afford. . . ” But, this is one of these evil compromises that leave most corporate entities a poor excuse for what their mission/charter claims they are about. . . . I agree, it’s pretty shameful. Whereas I find some of the other “infomercial-esque” still halfway worthwhile (because they actually *do* disseminate good/useful info.). This guy’s a hack, though. . . it’s pretty shameful.
This is hilarious! That man’s an idiot selling a pipe dream with no real instructions and people think he’s a genious. BLASPHEMY!!
PBS only cares about the shows that bring in the bucks like Kiyosaki’s and Suze’s because PBS is strapped for cash and continually has to justify its existence in a world where they have to compete with private television. Now that the BBC has BBC America and there’s a cable Sci-Fi Channel… a lot of prior PBS fans have jumped ship.
YPFB has another post on K today.
Just remember, kids: you’re not rich because you’re stupid, and you’re stupid because you’re not rich. Forget consistent investing in index funds, since we can all participate in multi-million dollar real estate partnerships! (end snarky comments)
It is getting so easy to pick on Mr. K. Check out his latest article on Yahoo! Finance titled “Assets That Are Lifeboats in a Shaky Future”.
Mr. K is bearish on the U.S. dollar. Fair enough. So, he has taken large positions in gold, silver and oil. I don’t know how he took a position on oil, because he doesn’t believe in anything that is “paper with ink on it”, which would rule out energy equities.
He recommends individual investors to buy silver bullion. Last I checked, silver is selling around $10 / ounce. Let’s say you want to save $1000 in silver. That’s over 3 kilos of silver. There is costs involved in storing the stuff, insuring it and then when the time comes to sell, the huge markup invovled in any bullion transaction.
All this ignores the poor long-term track record and the extreme volatility of bullion. $1 invested in gold in 1800 is worth roughly the same in real terms today. And in those 200 years it wouldn’t have earned a penny in interest / dividends and would have cost a bundle to store and protect. Doesn’t sound like a “safe bet” to me!
CC: I can’t believe how many bloggers are pushing his book. I am always discovering a new blog that doesn’t see anything wrong with this guy. Recently I noticed that Investor Geeks has a glowing review of one of his books. And of course there is Smart Money Daily which is now Art of Money. And then just recently a new, little known blog called Smart Capitalist recommends Kiyosaki’s book. Nothing says more about a blogger than a Kiyosaki recommendation.
You all can just go on thinking that working 40+ hours a week for the rest of you life is your reality and it will be. There are however, people out there who have found something better, its called the information age. Most of Robert’s books are not how to make millions but how to think right to become rich in ways probably beyond your comprehension. The things Robert teaches can and will help you financialy if you allow them to become part of you. If this is not something that you can understand than keep working your JOB we need you. THANKS
*plonk*
Kiyosaki’s books are so lame. They don’t really tell you anything and they’re been proven to be false. His material just makes you feel good about yourself while you’re standing still.