the rest of their lives. Many of the World War II generation had a Defined Benefit Pension plan, savings, Social Security and Medicare. For many of my parents’ generation, a good education and a good job were adequate for financial survival.
My generation, the baby-boom generation, faces a set of different financial problems. Today, a good college education and a good job are not enough. To make matters worse, jobs are being exported overseas. Today, because jobs are being exported overseas, employees in the richest nations become too expensive. One very expensive expense is the Define Benefit (DB) plan of my parents’ generation. Companies are no longer willing to pay for employees for life so these DB plans are being cut and replaced with Defined Contribution plans.
In 1974, due to the changing global markets, many companies stopped offering Defined Benefit (DB) plans and began offering Defined Contribution (DC) plans, which later became known in the United States as 401(k), IRA and Keogh plans. My generation’s problem is that a DB plan is a true pension plan and a DC plan is not a true pension plan; it is a savings plan. In fact, the 401(k) was never intended to be a pension plan. In other countries, the problem is the same; they just use different names for their Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution plans.
In very simple terms, a Defined Benefit plan will cover you for as long as you live. A Defined Contribution plan will cover you only as long as there is money in your account. In other words, a DB plan, in theory, will not run out of money while a DC plan can run out of money. That may be why USA Today found that the greatest fear in America today is running out of money during retirement. Most of us already know that up to 80 percent of the baby-boom generation does not have enough wealth to fall back on.
The generations following the baby-boom generation, often called Generation X and Generation Y, will have a different set of financial problems to handle. If the baby-boom generation does not do a good job cleaning up the mess left by its parents, there will be an even bigger mess for Generation X and Generation Y to handle. Generation X and Y will not only have to handle their own financial problems and the debts of our country (the biggest debt in the history of the world), they will also inherit their baby-boomer parents’ financial problems, and maybe even their grandparents’ problems, since we are all expected to live longer. By living longer, we may expect to extend our working years by retiring later, but what if we live longer and are not able to continue working?
The growing size of this problem, now in the trillions of dollars, is daunting. Merely pushing it forward, on to the next generation, just makes the problem bigger and more complex.
Everyone has money problems. If you want to make yourself rich, solve problems. Identifying a problem creates the opportunity for creating a solution.
– Robert T. Kiyosaki
The bigger and more complex the financial problems become, the higher the financial IQ is required to handle the problems. We’re going to need all the brainpower we can get to solve this problem.
Worst of all, repeating the cover headline of TIME magazine, October 31, 2005:
“The Great Retirement Ripoff”
Millions of Americans who think they will retire with benefits are in for a NASTY SURPRISE.
How corporations are picking people’s pockets with the help of Congress.”
The lack of financial education in our schools makes it easy for unscrupulous people, even elected officials from both parties, to legally steal from the unsuspecting. So the problem compounds itself.
Tell Me About It
Donald and I hope we are wrong, but we sincerely believe America is in trouble…and if America is in trouble, the world is in trouble.
One of the bigger problems in the world today is the rising price of oil. Oil is the blood of the world’s economy. If the price of oil gets too high, and we do not find a better alternative to oil soon, the world economy will begin to die. As Donald said to me one day, “If gasoline costs $5 a gallon at the pump, it does not affect you and me that much. But if you’re earning $10 an hour, then $5 a gallon will take food from your family.” He went on to say, “Oil affects everything in our economy, and the problem is, we’re running low. Prices will only go higher. You and I will be OK, but millions of people will be hurt by it.”
If oil goes to over $100 a barrel, and I believe it will sometime in the near future, the economy will suffer—but you do not have to. You can face the problem now and be part of the solution.
When I talk to people about some of the financial challenges ahead, I get different responses. One common response is, “Don’t tell me about it.” Another response I get is, “We need to think positively. All this negativity is bad,” or “God will solve the problem.”
These responses are from people with low financial IQs. Rather than facing the problems head-on and asking, “How can I profit from these problems?” they would rather stick their head in the sand. And this is why millions, possibly billions, of people will be hurt in the coming years. Instead of looking at the problem as an opportunity, they choose to put their blinders on.
My rich dad taught me, soon after the first oil crisis in 1973-74 that oil and wealth were directly related. He would often say, “Wealth = Energy.” Since I was an apprentice at Standard Oil, on their tankers, beginning in 1966, I had an interest in oil. Rich dad’s explanation was a simple one. He said, “When the price of energy goes down, our wealth goes up.” The equation looks like this:
And for most people, when the price of energy goes up, our wealth goes down.
The year 1974, the same year I started my business career as a brand new Xerox sales rep, proved my rich dad’s theory correct. In 1974, high oil prices had caused the economy to contract. People were not renting Xerox copiers. Instead, they were canceling their rental contracts. My first sale as a new rep found me on my knees in front of the customer—begging, not selling. I was begging the customer not to cancel his rental agreement. I remember one customer saying to me, “Why should I keep the copier? My business is gone.” This is just a small example of what happens when the price of energy goes up.
Instead of making money the first two years, I owed Xerox money. I owed the company money because every time a customer cancelled a machine, the commission that was paid to the sales rep who sold the machine was charged back to the sales rep who lost the machine. I was not selling, I was starving, and I was nearly fired several times during those two years.
Bad Times Can Make You Rich
The good news was, the challenge of a contracting economy actually made me a better salesman. Even though I did not make much money back then, my sales training still pays off today. My businesses are successful because I can sell–and because I understand the importance of sales and marketing. In tough economic times, that can give you an edge. As Donald Trump and I often say, “If you are in business, you need to learn how to sell.”
Increasing My Financial IQ
