Joe Aldeguer Interviews Author and Real Estate Investor Robert Kiyosaki
Joe Aldeguer shares his expertise on real estate transactions—from getting started to getting rich. In this August 2007 interview, Robert Kiyosaki talks to Joe Aldeguer about his insights and strategies in investing into real estate.
[Intro] Look at your money. How do you respect your money? Hopefully what you learn here today can be your motivation. It’s time for Making Money in Real Estate with Joe Aldeguer. Let’s get rich!
Joe Aldeguer: Hi everyone, this is Joe Aldeguer live at the Learning Expo. Today we’re going to be interviewing Robert Kiyosaki, world-renowned author and real estate expert. Today we’ll be sitting down one-on-one with him to get his insights about real estate, what to buy in real estate, and when to get started. We’re lucky today to have some time with him to ask him some questions. Mr. Kiyosaki, thank you for joining us.
Robert Kiyosaki: Thank you. It’s an honor to be on your program.
Joe Aldeguer: My first question to you today—you’ve been such a successful real estate investor—what drives you to continue to help people?
Robert Kiyosaki: Well, real estate gave me the freedom to never have to have a job; to never have to work again and all that. But I really would like to teach. The story Rich Dad Poor Dad is a true story. My rich dad was my best friend’s father. He was a capitalist. My poor dad was a school teacher. He was a socialist. But I think, genetically, I’m more a school teacher. That’s why I teach—because it makes my soul happy. I think that’s why Donald Trump and I did that book together Why We Want You to be Rich because he is a teacher also.
Joe Aldeguer: Absolutely.
Robert Kiyosaki: Otherwise, we come together kind of as real estate guys but more as teachers. Probably the same reason you do yours—.
Joe Aldeguer: Absolutely, yes.
Robert Kiyosaki: To me, real estate is the best investment in the world—up or down. Especially if it goes down it’s a better time to buy.
Joe Aldeguer: Absolutely—like right now. We’ve been talking about the real estate bubble. It’s more of a buyer’s market. People are scared to buy. I always ask people, “Right now real estate is on sale. Why would you not want to buy vs. when real estate is hot and prices are going higher?” What do you have to say about the real estate bubble?
Robert Kiyosaki: It’s like all of the suckers is going into the DOW 12,000 right now. Oh, the DOW is up. All the suckers, who should have been in there with the DOW was down, you know, 8,000. So suckers always come in at the top of the market. And the professionals always come in when the market is down. So that is really the difference.
Joe Aldeguer: It’s always like that. My next question to you is you’ve been doing these events. You see people buy the books and CDs. Every single year they’re buying the new edition but never do anything with that information. What do you say to these people?
Robert Kiyosaki: Well, some people do. I mean, I have a book called Success Stories. If you read that book there’s people that have done a lot about it. But if I judge my life upon what people don’t do then that’s how I judge my life. I buy weight loss books and don’t do anything about it. But I still read them. Things like that. I think it’s good that people teach themselves and educate themselves.
I think the thing I’m most concerned about are the people in mutual funds because they’re the worst investment possible. The reason I say they’re the worst, if you look at them, is that they’re basically ripping you off.
Joe Aldeguer: The real estate investment trust?
Robert Kiyosaki: What most people don’t know about the stock market, all the financial statements the stock market uses are all performa statements. In other words, they’re all made up. The books are cooked. People are talking about Oh the P/E ratio is this or that. But the numbers are cooked.
The beauty of real estate, if you’re smart, you know the difference between good books and bad books. It’s such a fundamental question. But in the stock market, or mutual fund market, even if you know the difference you can’t do anything about it because Wall Street is always going to give you bad numbers. Then you sit there and try to figure out why you’re not getting rich or why you make money and lose money all the time. It’s because you don’t have control over those companies—be it GE or be it Fidelity mutual funds. You don’t have control over it. Real estate does give you control but it does require more financial education.
One of the first things I tell people is you have to know there is a performa financial statement and actual. Performa means, in Latin, means as in. What I say to them is as if we’re expected to be that stupid to believe these numbers? You would be surprised how many people out here are walking around trying to buy a piece of property and they haven’t asked a basic question: Are these made up numbers or are these real numbers?
Joe Aldeguer: If you were looking to get started in buying a property what would be the first thing that you would look at?
Robert Kiyosaki: The first thing I would do is take a real estate course. Thirty or forty years ago I paid $385 for a real estate course I saw in an infomercial. I took it and that $385 course—I think it was 1974—it was a long time ago—has made me a millionaire over and over and over and over and over again to the point that I was able to retire within 15 years.
Joe Aldeguer: That’s right. That’s correct. Thank you so much Mr. Kiyosaki. I really appreciate your time. Hopefully we’ll be able to talk to you soon again. Thank you.
Joe Aldeguer: There’s a saying: Everybody wants to get to heaven but no one wants to die. Everyone wants to get rich but are not willing to pay the price to get rich. Let me ask you this: look at all of these people here today. Many of them were here last year. Yet in the past 12 months they have not done one thing. My question to you is this: how many of you have watched the show for the last 12 months and still have not done anything today? My question to you is why? Why not get started? Why not change your life and take control of your finances? It’s up to you.
