Buy, Borrow, Die Strategy: This strategy involves buying appreciating assets, borrowing against them, and letting heirs inherit the assets to avoid capital gains tax. Managing Leverage Risks: Leveraging debt can increase wealth, but it also magnifies risk, liquidity issues, and costs, hence needs careful management.
Borrowing to Create Wealth
This is called “gearing.” Providing you invest wisely and your assets increase in value, gearing helps you create wealth, as the income (and capital growth) from the investment pays off the debt and exceeds the costs of servicing that debt. Property or shares are often a good strategy here.
Kiyosaki: Debt Isn't Always Bad
The difference between the rich and poor, according to Kiyosaki, is how they think about debt. The wealthy understand the difference between good and bad debt — and then use good debt to increase their fortunes faster.
Others will object to taxing the wealthy unless they actually use their gains, but many of the wealthiest actually do use their gains through the borrowing loophole: They get rich, borrow against those gains, consume the borrowing, and do not pay any tax.
If a millionaire doesn't budget properly and starts spending on personal chefs, expensive cars, and other luxury amenities, they may quickly run out of money. Sometimes millionaires, especially new millionaires, feel they have so much money that they lose perspective on what they can afford.
Wealthy family borrows against its assets' growing value and uses the newly available cash to live off or invest in other assets, like rental properties. The family does NOT owe taxes on its asset-leveraged loans because the government doesn't tax borrowed money.
Hot Commodities
In a volatile economic landscape, Kiyosaki underscores the importance of investing in commodities as a hedge against currency devaluation and inflation. Unlike fiat currency, commodities such as gold, silver and oil retain intrinsic value and serve as a safeguard for intergenerational wealth transfer.
By utilizing debt, money can be borrowed and put towards assets such as property or shares with the potential for creating wealth. This is what's known as 'gearing'. The value of these investments should increase over time, providing greater income and capital growth than would have been spent servicing the loan.
Ninety-three percent of millionaires said they got their wealth because they worked hard, not because they had big salaries. Only 31% averaged $100,000 a year over the course of their career, and one-third never made six figures in any single working year of their career.
They stay away from debt.
Car payments, student loans, same-as-cash financing plans—these just aren't part of their vocabulary. That's why they win with money. They don't owe anything to the bank, so every dollar they earn stays with them to spend, save and give! Debt is the biggest obstacle to building wealth.
Basically, a passbook loan is a loan you take out against yourself. You are borrowing from your bank or credit union using your savings account balance as collateral. A passbook loan uses the balance of a savings account as collateral, which makes it lower risk for a lender.
One way to do this involves using a lump sum – possibly received from a bonus or an inheritance – to pay off your inefficient debt. If you then borrow the same amount and invest it, you're essentially replacing the inefficient debt with a debt that is tax-deductable and could potentially generate wealth.
And even for people who may not be able to leverage a Dali painting hanging in their foyers, debt can be a useful tool to keep their wealth engines running if it comes cheaply enough relative to other opportunities, keeps their assets working for them and, above all, if the risks are understood and tolerable.
Families like the Waltons, Kochs, and Mars can avoid capital gains taxes forever by holding onto assets without selling, borrowing against their assets for income, and using the stepped-up basis loophole at inheritance. That loophole allows the increased value of assets to be passed to their heirs tax-free.
According to Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki, “Bad debt is debt that makes you poorer. I count the mortgage on my home as bad debt, because I'm the one paying on it. Other forms of bad debt are car payments, credit card balances, or other consumer loans.”
Asset vs.
According to Kiyosaki, there's an easy way to determine if something is an asset. “What is the definition of the word? If it puts money in my pocket, it's an asset. If my house is taking money from my pocket, it's a liability,” he explained.
Wealthy people love credit card perks
Different cards offer cash back, rewards, low interest, or no interest. Having a couple of cards is a good way to maximize the perks and avoid high interest costs. Credit cards are typically quite secure, with strong fraud protections in place to safeguard cardholders.
Cash and cash equivalents are common places where billionaires keep of some their money. Though not often thought of as an investment, cash is a liquid asset, meaning you can use it in a variety of ways as needs or desires arise. In a crisis, having cash on hand gives you the flexibility to respond.
The proportion of those in the list who grew up poor or had little wealth remained constant at roughly 20 percent throughout the same period. Most individuals on the Forbes 400 list did not inherit the family business but rather made their own fortune.
1. Earn Money. The first step in building wealth is earning money. While this might seem obvious, it's crucial—you can't save or invest without income.