Robert Kiyosaki, author of the famous book Rich Dad Poor Dad, acknowledged that he is tied to a debt of US$1.200 million, a figure that is especially striking coming from one of the best-known gurus of personal finance.
But there is an important caveat: it is not US$1.200 million that Kiyosaki personally owes. The debt is primarily associated with approximately 1.500 homes that he owns with his partners. His ex-wife and business partner, Kim Kiyosaki, explained that the portion that would actually correspond to him would be much smaller, estimated at between US$30 and US$60 million.
For Kiyosaki, however, going into debt does not necessarily mean being in trouble. His strategy consists of borrowing money using properties as collateral and using those resources to acquire income-generating assets.
The writer himself has publicly defended this philosophy and even said that, if his investments collapsed, “if I go bankrupt, the bank goes bankrupt”.
His case once again brings to the fore one of the ideas he has been defending for decades: for the rich, not all debt is necessarily bad debt. But US$1.200 million is still a figure capable of making anyone think twice.