We misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it's an illusory sense of control.
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.
My company survives because I've learned to respect the ideas of people younger than me and recognize when my wisdom is obsolete.
As a precious metal, silver is also money.
Something's very wrong with a nation that would rather spend money on war than take care of its children.
It costs governments money to keep fuel prices low. Oil-rich Yemen, for instance, devotes 9 percent of its GDP to making sure its people don't riot when oil prices rise.
'Credit' is another word for trustworthiness.
'Socialize' means we turn more of our personal powers over to Big Brother, not free enterprise.
If you or I fail at business, we fail. If we cheat and fail, we go to jail. But if you're rich and politically connected, your incompetence may be protected by a government bailout.
I'd rather be a victor than a victim.
In the world of money and investing, you must learn to control your emotions.
Silver is used in the electronics industry and is consumed daily; stock piles of silver are dwindling.
If you have faith in our leaders of commerce, don't buy gold. If you do not have faith in them, maybe you should buy gold or silver.
While the Chinese people, as a rule, are good people, my business dealings with Communist Chinese officials have left me disturbed and concerned about the rise of the Chinese Empire.
World War II broke out in 1939, and many people credit that war with saving the economy.
I believe that one key to success is to accept truth, no matter how it's spoken.
Strength and compassion are not mutually exclusive.
I don't invest in ideas because ideas are a dime a dozen. I could steal the idea pretty quickly.
The thing most people don't pick up when they become an entrepreneur is that it never ends. It's 24/7.
You make more money if you're generous.
Intelligent people should learn from their experiences. With people on the street, the bad experience has beaten them.
The rich don't work for money - the rich invent money.
Most small-business owners have no financial education when they started. They weren't trained to be entrepreneurs.
If I have cash and I can't figure a way to put it into real estate or my business, I hold it in gold and silver.
I'm a real estate guy.
People clinging to job security, savings, retirement plans, and other relics will be the ones financially-ravaged from 2010-2020, the most volatile world-changing decade in history.
Most people have the opportunity of a lifetime flash right in front of them, and they fail to see it. A year later, they find out about it, after everyone else got rich.
Millions of Americans and people around the world, especially young people who face intense financial challenges today, haven't been taught how to take control of their financial future.
I mean, Hawaii is beautiful, but the world is full of beautiful places.
A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself.
I do know that throughout history, all paper money has eventually come back to its true value, which is zero.
Remember that all financial markets are filled with good but not necessarily innocent people looking after their own self-interests before they look after yours.
A short squeeze could happen with the U.S. dollar if lenders suddenly forced debtors to pay in cash.
A financial crisis is a great time for professional investors and a horrible time for average ones.
Life is better when people are working, happy, and spending money.
The environmentalists say capitalism is killing our oceans, air, land, and forests. Capitalists argue that they provide food, fuel, and building materials for a growing world.
Most shareholders have little if any control over the companies in which they own stock, even if they own a million shares.
My measure of success is whether I'm fulfilling my mission.
If I lost my job, I'd get a job at McDonald's.
Academic qualifications are important and so is financial education. They're both important and schools are forgetting one of them.
Generous people can become more generous as they become richer, giving away vast fortunes to worthwhile causes as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are doing.
Deflation isn't good, and inflation is easier to cure than deflation.
In my experience, many people confuse being cowardly with being nice.
Most businesses think that product is the most important thing, but without great leadership, mission and a team that deliver results at a high level, even the best product won't make a company successful.
I explain the law of compensation like this: 'Returns are minimal in spite of massive effort at the start, yet returns can be massive with minimal effort over time.
Giving a poor person money keeps them poor.
I'm a cash flow guy. If it doesn't make me money today, forget about it.
For people who live in the suburbs and must commute long distances to work, their wealth will sink as energy prices rise.
The rich are those who play to win. The middle class plays not to lose.
All empires come to an end, and the American one is no exception.
Inside of every problem lies an opportunity.
In the simplest terms, inflation occurs when there's too much money in the system. On the flip side, deflation occurs when there are too few dollars in circulation.
Critics only make you stronger. You have to look at what they are saying as feedback. Sometimes the feedback helps, and other times, it's just noise that can be a distraction.
When you combine boring with fear, you have fun.
The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work.
Face your fears and doubts, and new worlds will open to you.
When President George W. Bush attempted to reform Social Security, that proposal was more unpopular with Americans than the Iraq war. People love their entitlements.
Over a 10-year period, 99 out of 100 new entrepreneurs will fail. Only one will be left standing as others get pushed out of the market or burn out from working so hard. It's really sad.
When I started my last business, I didn't receive a paycheck for 13 months. The average person can't handle that pressure.
If you want to go somewhere, it is best to find someone who has already been there.
Losers are people who are afraid of losing.
We've all heard stories of lottery winners, rock stars, heirs and heiresses, and professional athletes becoming millionaire morons who wake up rich but are broke by nightfall.
There may be less of a chance of losing all the money you put into a mutual fund than there is of losing all the money you put into lottery tickets, but you're never going to win big in a mutual fund.
Our brains are either our greatest assets or our greatest liabilities.
The best way to predict the future is to study the past, or prognosticate.
Jim Cramer is a very smart man. I watch his show. I just do not follow his advice.
The trained mind is a rich mind.
When I was young, people lived from paycheck to paycheck. Today, it seems like they live from credit card payment to credit card payment.
Finding good partners is the key to success in anything: in business, in marriage and, especially, in investing.
The problem with real estate is that it's local. You have to understand the local market.
If you're going to be a winner in life, you have to constantly go beyond your best.
When people are lame, they love to blame.
Often, in the real world, it's not the smart that get ahead but the bold.
If you want to thrive in today's economy, you must challenge the status quo and get the financial education necessary to succeed.
Most people are happy being average. Most are happy being faceless in a sea of faces.
Being politically correct means saying what's polite rather than what's accurate. I like to be accurate.
A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That's where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It's having backbone.
Start a part-time business and make as many mistakes as you possibly can while you still have your daytime job.
You have to look for teachers. If you want to be a mechanic, go hang out with mechanics.
History reminds us that dictators and despots arise during times of severe economic crisis.
French fries kill more people than guns and sharks, yet nobody's afraid of French fries.
The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.
Real estate investing, even on a very small scale, remains a tried and true means of building an individual's cash flow and wealth.
You have to be smart. The easy days are over.
If you're working for a good company and you're happy there, and you're being compensated accordingly, and your work satisfies you, you should stay there.
Financial freedom is available to those who learn about it and work for it.
If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the 'right' thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It's like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.
Confidence comes from discipline and training.
If you don't like the idea that most of the money spent on lottery tickets supports government programs, you should know that most of the earnings from mutual funds support investment advisors' and mutual fund managers' retirement.
Jobs are a centuries-old concept created during the Industrial Revolution. Despite the reality that we're now deep in the Information Age, many people are studying for, or working at, or clinging to the Industrial Age idea of a safe, secure job.
I am very concerned about the millions of baby boomers who are counting on the stock market to deliver them a safe, sound, long retirement. I am afraid the baby boomers who are counting on the stock market are in trouble.
This rise of the new global mega-rich is happening as established institutions are falling. The fall runs the gamut from the music business and traditional media to the Detroit automakers who find themselves obsolete, outmaneuvered, and out-priced by entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Mumbai, Shanghai, and even Siberia.
Demographics show that we are entering a battle between young and old. I call it the 'Age War.' The young want to hang onto their money to grow their families, businesses, and wealth. The old want the tax and investment dollars of the young to sustain their old age.
Many gold and silver experts will recommend you buy numismatic coins - rare and old coins. If you are not a rare coin expert, I'd encourage you to stay away from them. New investors often pay too much for rare coins that are not really rare.
As a bull market turns into a bear market, the new pros turn into optimists, hoping and praying the bear market will become a bull and save them. But as the market remains bearish, the optimists become pessimists, quit the profession, and return to their day jobs. This is when the real professional investors re-enter the market.
Many novice real estate investors soon quit the profession and invest in a well-diversified portfolio of bonds. That's because, when you invest in real estate, you often see a side of humanity that stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and saving money shelter you from.
I've had all six of my books reach the New York Times bestseller list, which is especially rewarding seeing as I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn't write. It just goes to show you that we learn from our mistakes.
For something to collapse, not all systems have to shut down. In most cases, just one system is enough. For example, the human body is a system of systems. If just one system, such as the cardiovascular system, shuts down, death follows.
I began playing Monopoly for real when I was 26 years old. Today, my wife and I have approximately 1,400 little green houses - each paying us monthly. You do not have to be a rocket scientist or have a Harvard degree to play Monopoly for real.
Prophets of doom have always taken risks in terms of ridicule and humiliation. If you stand on a street corner holding up a sign that reads 'The End Is Near,' passersby will laugh and heckle. People will say you're like Chicken Little, running around telling people the sky is falling.
During the Enron debacle, it was workers who took the pounding, not bankers. Not only did Enron employees lose their jobs, many lost their retirement savings. That's because they were at the bottom of the investing food chain.
When I was a kid, there were no credit cards. Instead, retailers offered layaway plans. My mom would go to a store, such as a furniture outlet, choose the sofa she wanted, and put it on layaway. That meant she put a little money down to hold the sofa, and every payday she'd pay a little toward the purchase.
