Rich Men, Poor Advice: Their Book Is Hot, But Their Financial Tips Aren't
My entire career has been a pathetic waste of time. Or so I gather from Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump.
You know all those articles I have written about saving diligently and buying mutual funds? This "may be good advice for the poor and middle class, it is not good advice for people who want to become rich," according to "Why We Want You to Be Rich," the new book from Messrs. Kiyosaki and Trump.
Make no mistake: This is provocative stuff. But don't rush to dump your funds quite yet.
Beating Warren
Messrs. Kiyosaki and Trump are hugely influential and their new book will, no doubt, land on the bestseller lists.
After all, Mr. Kiyosaki's phenomenally successful "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and the other books in the Rich Dad series have already sold over 26 million copies world-wide. Mr. Trump has also penned a slew of bestsellers, as well as starring in "The Apprentice" television show and, of course, running a major real-estate business.
So why do Messrs. Kiyosaki and Trump want you to be rich? Each chapter is written partly by Mr. Trump and partly by Mr. Kiyosaki. The authors list some well-known problems, including the growing trade deficit, burgeoning national debt, a depreciating dollar and baby boomers with inadequate savings -- all of which makes our financial future shaky.
The book, however, doesn't suggest conventional solutions. According to the introduction, saving money is "obsolete and bad financial advice" and "the 401(k) savings plan will not be adequate for approximately 80 percent of all workers."
To back up other arguments, the book employs a sprinkling of quotes from renowned investor Warren Buffett. Yet it seems even Mr. Buffett is falling short of his full potential.
As Mr. Kiyosaki writes, "Donald and I can beat Warren's rates of returns on investment. He may be richer, but we can get richer faster using our own methods and use less money."
This might have you scratching your head. If Mr. Trump can earn higher rates of return, why does he rank 94th on Forbes magazine's listing of the 400 richest Americans, with a net worth of $2.9 billion, while Mr. Buffett ranks second with $46 billion?
Risky business
Still, I was anxious to learn how I could best Mr. Buffett. Mr. Trump offers up a mix of inspirational thoughts ("Think bigger!") and ruminations about The Donald ("I'm still evolving, so I'm pleased to be considered operatic, although sitting through an opera is something I just can't do").
Indeed, the book is short on specific advice -- but what's there can found in Mr. Kiyosaki's sections. He plugs rental real estate, silver, gold, and oil and gas partnerships. He also promotes the idea of starting your own business.
Mr. Kiyosaki stresses that mutual funds are risky, while building your own business can be a predictable path to prosperity. Yet he also notes that 90% of start-up businesses fail within the first five years.
When I ask Mr. Kiyosaki about this apparent contradiction, he responds that starting a business isn't risky if you know what you're doing. "Most small-business owners have no financial education when they started," he says. "They weren't trained to be entrepreneurs."
Halfway through the book, all this talk about entrepreneurship gets particularly puzzling. Mr. Kiyosaki says that, in 1996, he started an oil company, a gold-mining company and a silver-mining company. The oil company failed, which would seem to be a sign of risk.
In the next paragraph, however, he writes that, "While there was some risk [in launching these companies], to me it was very little. I could mitigate the risk simply because I know we all use -- consume -- oil and gas."
Feeling's mutual
His scorn for mutual funds is also a little puzzling. He argues that funds don't have to accurately disclose expenses, that a bank wouldn't lend money to buy funds because they're too risky, that over 40-plus years a "mutual fund company receives 80 percent of the returns" that investors earn and that you can't do a tax-deferred 1031 exchange from one fund to another, like you can with real estate.
In truth, funds are far clearer about their expenses than other investments, you can borrow against funds held in a brokerage-firm margin account and investors make tax-deferred exchanges all the time, by trading within their retirement accounts.
"I just don't like mutual funds," Mr. Kiyosaki retorts. "I think they're a rip-off."
That still leaves the alarming contention that a fund company "receives 80 percent of the returns." Mr. Kiyosaki says he got that notion from Vanguard Group founder John Bogle, a frequent critic of high fund costs.
Mr. Bogle does indeed note that, if you invested $1,000 at 8% a year and paid 2.5% in total annual costs, your gain after 65 years would be $32,465, or almost 80% less than the $148,780 you would have amassed if you hadn't incurred any costs.
But that doesn't mean the fund company is swooping in at the end and literally taking 80% of your gain. And it certainly doesn't mean you have to buy such high-cost funds.
Want to keep more of what you make? Simply purchase funds with rock-bottom annual expenses. Now, that's advice that will help you get richer -- but it won't get you on the bestseller list.
富作者，穷建议
按照罗伯特?清崎(Robert Kiyosaki)和唐纳德?川普(Donald Trump)的说法来推测，我的整个职业生涯简直就是在浪费时间。
你也知道，我写的文章全部是关于储蓄和投资共同基金的话题。而清崎和川普却在他们的新书《为什么我们希望你成为富人》(Why We Want You to Be Rich)中说，这“对穷人和中产阶层来说可能不失为箴言警句，但对那些真正想成为富人的人毫无意义。”
别搞错了：这种说法的确很有煽动性。但是千万别急着将你的基金卖出去。
清崎和川普都大名鼎鼎，毫无疑问他们的新书会很快登上畅销榜。
毕竟，清崎的《穷爸爸、富爸爸》(Rich Dad, Poor Dad)取得巨大成功，这本书以及其他“富爸爸”系列的销量突破了2,600万册。川普也有一系列着作上榜，而且作为一家大型房地产公司的所有者，他还因主持美国电视节目《学徒》(The Apprentice)而一炮走红。
那么为什么清崎和川普要让你变成富人？这本书的每一章都由两人共同完成。两位作者列出了一系列有目共睹的问题，包括贸易逆差增长、国家债务猛增、美元贬值以及与婴儿潮相伴的储蓄不足等等──所有的问题都让我们的财务状况看起来摇摇欲坠。
不过这本书并没有提出一些传统的解决方案。他们在引言中说，储蓄“已经过时，这种建议并不明智，”而且，“401(K)储蓄计划可能不足以支付80%工人的退休金。”
这本书还零星引用了沃伦?巴菲特(Warren Buffett)的名言来支持他的一系列论点。看上去甚至连巴菲特也未能完全发挥出他的潜能。
清崎写道：“我和唐纳德可以在投资回报率上超过巴菲特。他可能比我们富有，但是采用我们的投资方法，我们可以在动用更少资金的情况下更快地致富。”
你一定有些摸不着头脑了。如果清崎可以实现更高的回报率，为什么他仅以29亿美元净资产排在《福布斯》(Forbes)美国400富人榜的第94位，而巴菲特则以460亿美元资产高居第二？
不过，我已经迫不及待地想知道我怎么样才能超过巴菲特。川普为大家贡献了一系列富有想像力的方案（要敢想敢干！），还有对他本人的思考（我是一个进化中的人，因此我很高兴可以被视为一个戏剧化的人物，尽管我很难坚持看完任何一场戏剧。）
事实上，这本书提供的具体建议屈指可数－－不过可以在清崎的那几部分中找到一些。他提到了房地产租赁、白银、黄金、石油和天然气合伙投资等，并且提倡独立创业。
清崎强调，共同基金风险很大，而组建自己的公司则可以对未来的回报有着清晰的预期。不过他也表示，90%的初创企业会在前5年中亏损。
当我问清崎为什么这好像有些自相矛盾时，他说，创立一家企业其实没什么风险，因为你知道自己在做什么。“大部分小型企业主在开始并没有受过财务方面的教育，”他说。“也没有接受过企业家培训。”
读到一半，我对这些有关企业家的言论还是一头雾水。清崎说，1996年，他成立了一家石油公司、一家黄金开采公司和一家白银开采公司。从那家石油公司亏损中我们似乎可以看到创立公司的风险。
但在下一段，他又写道：“虽然创立公司存在一定的风险，但对我来说这种风险微乎其微。其时我可以降低这种风险，因为我知道很多人在使用－－消费－－石油和天然气。
他对共同基金的解释也有些令人费解。他认为，基金无需正确披露费用；银行通常不会贷给你钱让你购买基金，因为它们风险太高；在40多年的时间里，共同基金可以获取投资者应得的80%的回报；而且你从一家基金转到另一家基金时不能递延税款。
事实上，基金比其他投资机构更了解他们的费用，你可以用你在证券公司保证金帐户中持有的基金作抵押贷款，如果是在退休帐户中交易，投资者还可以随时进行可递延税款的基金转换操作。
清崎说，“我不喜欢共同基金，我觉得他们简直是在敲竹杠。”
关于共同基金卷走80%收益的说法也值得推敲。清崎说，他是从Vanguard Group创始人约翰?宝格(John Bogle)那里得到这种想法的，宝格是一位不折不扣的基金高成本运作的反对者。
宝格的确曾指出，如果你投资1,000美元，回报率为8%，年成本为2.5%，那么65年后你的回报将为32,465美元，如果并未发生任何成本的话，你的累积回报可能为148,780美元，这样，你的回报显然减少了80%。
但这并不意味着基金公司卷走了你的80%收益。而且你也未必一定要购买这种高成本基金。
想留下更多的回报？买一些费用最低的基金就可以了。当然，这个建议可以帮你变得更富有一些－－但是这些建议却无法登上畅销书排行榜。
Jonathan Clements
