Robert Kiyosaki Has Predicted a Crash for Years. Here’s the Scoreboard

This is the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily for Tuesday, August 18th. I am Mike Milligan coming to you from Des Moines, Iowa on this Tuesday. 41 days until I turn 50 years old. A very special announcement on what the number 41 means to me on my LinkedIn profile today. That's linkedin.com/in/mikemilligancfp. Yesterday on the show, we spotlighted Michael Burry. The perpetual bear turning subscription fees into a fortune. Today we're going to stay in the same neighborhood and talk about Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and we're going to tie the two together because there's a lesson in the pattern. Plus a market recap from yesterday and the why there was a pause in the market going up. Educate, coach, plan—that's my mission—and my motto is to never miss a moment. Let's go. Be one of a kind with Mike's plan. On Monday, August 17th, all 3 major U.S. indices were down. S&P, Dow Jones, NASDAQ, all down. The, the tale of the day was that the VIX, V-I-X, the market's fear gauge, jumped to 15.19. That's up more than 6% on the day. Personally, and this is not, uh, this is not commentary based off market, but just my historical Is when you see VIX jump that level of percentage multiple days in a row, there must be a news story. More on that later. Year to date though, we are very strong when it comes to the markets. The S&P is up 13.1%. The Dow is up 11.2%. The NASDAQ is up 14.6%. And the Russell 2000 is leading the way up more than 23% for the year. So again, Monday was not a break in the trend. Monday was a pause with the following reason.

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Here's that reason. The ceasefire between the United States and Iran was set to expire yesterday and negotiations stalled. Oil rushed higher. West Texas Intermediate crude finished more— up more than 2% above $84. Brent crude climbed to nearly $91. The 30-year Treasury hit its highest level since June 2007. Let me say that again. The 30-year Treasury yield hit its highest level since June 2007. Let me remind you, as interest rates rise, principal on those bonds go down in value. That is a rate move I want you to hear clearly. Long-end yields rising is a signal, and it flows straight into mortgages, real estate values, and long-duration retirement bond allocations. Now, what are we watching for on Tuesday? We get July housing starts, July import and export price indexes, industrial production and capacity utilization. Pending home sales. And on the earnings side, the marquee— on the earnings side, the marquee event is the Home Depot earnings, uh, one of the cleanest reads on the American homeowner and remodeling economy. Later this week, Target, Lowe's, Walmart round out the retail picture. And Wednesday afternoon, we get the July FOMC meeting minutes. That should be interesting. Guys, we're not chasing returns. When we listen to the One of a Kind Financial Show daily, we are building a one of a kind financial plan that weathers any storm. Days like today are signal literacy. Watch the news, but it's not reasons to react and make wholesale changes in your portfolio.

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This week we're doing a special, 5 personalities. That have your attention out in the market. Yesterday we talked about Michael Burry, famously, uh, in November of last year— well, famously called the housing crisis, uh, that happened in 2008. He dissolved his hedge fund in November of last year and has created a subscription-only service. He's a capitalist being a capitalist. Today's personality is Robert Kiyosaki. That's him Rich Dad Poor Dad, one of the best-selling personal finance books of all time. For more than a decade, Kiyosaki has been on the record predicting an imminent, imminent apocalyptic global financial collapse. He has told his followers to buy gold, buy silver, buy Bitcoin, get out of the traditional stock market, and don't hold cash. If you follow him on Facebook, you'll know what I mean. Recently, he's been doing a day-by-day analysis of the Iran War. You search his name in any given month over the last 10 years, and you will find a new prediction of a crash. Here's the twist: in early 2024, on his own Instagram account, Kiyosaki publicly stated that he personally carries more than $1.2 billion— that's with a B— in debt. He has repeated that number on podcasts and in interviews all through 2024, 2025, and 2026, and he does not hide from it. He frames it as strategy. His words, not mine, quote, if I go bust, the bank goes bust. Not my problem, end quote. Now, how does he generate the income to service all of that? Well, first, book sales. Rich Dad Poor Dad is still a bestseller. Global speaking engagements, expensive financial seminars, and licensing the Rich Dad brand. I had a neighbor once in Norfolk that became a Rich Dad Poor Dad disciple. Matter of fact, he gave up his job to go around and teach seminars around the country. So I understand the lure of get rich quick when you— or get rich, uh, a get-rich strategy which Rich Dad Poor Dad— because I heard about it every time I walked my dog. But here is where the consumer downside lives. According to reporting from CBC's Marketplace, the Better Business Bureau, and multiple newspapers including the Riverfront Times and WTAE Pittsburgh, the Rich Dad Seminar model has has faced years of criticism. The pattern goes like this: a free introductory session leads into a $500 workshop, which leads into upsells for advanced training packages that have been reported to run from $12,000 to $40,000. Attendees have reported being coached to call their credit card companies mid-seminar to raise their credit limit. In 2012, one of the Rich Dad companies filed for bankruptcy after a $24 million court judgment. That, that is the business, folks. Not the book. The business behind the book. And here's the more important number. If a listener in 2013 got out of the stock market based on the perpetual crash warnings, they missed one of the longest and strongest bull markets in American history. The S&P 500 in August 2013 was around 1,650. Yesterday it closed at $77.45. It's not a rounding error, folks. That's significant return, and that is life, that missed growth. Let me be clear about something. I'm not attacking a man. I'm examining a pattern because we spotlighted the similar pattern yesterday with Michael Burry. 300,000 subscribers paying for a bearish narrative, and Robert Kiyosaki has been running that same playbook for a decade and a half. Predict the crash, sell the fear, monetize the audience, repeat. The crash may come. Both men may eventually be right about a piece of it. But being right eventually is not a strategy. Being early is not a strategy. And a subscription to somebody else's fear is not a written plan for your life. Yesterday I called Mike Michael Barry, a capitalist, then a capitalist is still a capitalist. Today, the same applies to Robert Kiyosaki. Both men have every right to sell what they sell. That is capitalism. But your job as a listener is different. Your job is to know the difference between education and a sales funnel, between a prediction and a plan, between somebody else's fear and your family's current and future income. The one-of-a-kind financial plan we build here is a written document. It covers your taxes, your income while you work, your retirement income when you don't, your investment strategy to help you sleep at night that doesn't chase the bottoms and the highs of the market but allows you to sleep at night, a long-term care strategy that helps you end with a graceful transition and allows you to get to the end of life with dignity and a legacy plan that says, I love you. So, it does not require you to be right about the next crash. It requires you to be ready for if one comes. That is the show for today, Tuesday, August 18th. If you want to reach me, text the word ideas to 600-700 or call the office directly at 757-909-7151. Tomorrow, another personality, another story. And we'll talk about what's to come on Wednesday, August 19th. This is Mike Milligan. Estoy aprendiendo. Estoy aprendiendo. I'm going to get that right one day because I am learning and so are you. Educate, coach, plan. Never miss a moment. I'll see you tomorrow. The content of the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily is for educational purposes and informational purposes only. Nothing shared on the show constitutes investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice, and nothing shared should be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or short any security. Index, publication, subscription service, book, or seminar, or to execute any transition. Reference to Robert Kiyosaki, Michael Burry, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Cassandra Unchained, or any other named individual, company, publication, or product are made for educational context. Historical prices, subscription counts, debt figures, and seminar cost ranges are sourced from public reporting and represent point-in-time data that may have changed. Statements attributed to Robert Kiyosaki are drawn from his own public interviews, social media posts, and podcast appearances as reported by third-party sources. Individual results may vary. I am a Certified Financial Planning Professional, an Investment Advisory Representative with Advisory Alpha, LLC, and the founder and owner of One Oak Financial. Ideas by Mike, doing business as One Oak Financial and Advisory Alpha, LLC, are unaffiliated entities. Consult your own qualified financial, tax, and legal professional before making any decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

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