"Bail yourself out," bestselling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki urges, predicting a 2025 crash that could eclipse the chaos of 2008.
The bestselling author of "Rich Dad Poor Dad" urges households to swap fiat cash for gold, silver and bitcoin, insisting that "savers are losers." His warning comes as gold breaches $3,228 an ounce and student-loan payments resume for millions of Americans, adding to growing financial anxiety.
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From LTCM To Student Loans
On May 18, Kiyosaki posted a message on X, recasting his oft-repeated line that the rich don't work for money. The tweet tagged economic commentator Jim Rickards and warned that every rescue since the dollar left gold in 1971 has only moved the next crisis higher up the food chain.
History is the backbone of Kiyosaki's thesis. He cites the September 1998 bailout of Long-Term Capital Management, when 14 banks pumped $3.6 billion into the teetering hedge fund during talks convened by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
A decade later, central banks created a multitrillion-dollar safety net for Wall Street after Lehman Brothers collapsed. If, as Rickards asks, the rescuer now needs rescuing, the size of the bill may dwarf anything seen before.
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Those fears are already showing up in asset prices. Gold pierced the $3,300 barrier on April 16, touching a record $3,317.90 per ounce as traders chased hard assets amid fresh U.S.–China tariff volleys and a sliding greenback.
Strategists now float $3,500 targets, arguing that central bank buying and sticky inflation leave little appetite for paper promises. The digital-asset crowd has been just as resolute. Bitcoin recently surged past $110,000 as market momentum remains strong amid broader economic uncertainty.
The household backdrop, meanwhile, looks fragile. According to Department of Education data, more than 5 million borrowers have been in default for over 360 days, and 4 million are in late-stage delinquency. If trends continue, nearly 10 million—roughly 25% of the federal student‑loan portfolio—could be in default soon.
A May 13, report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found the share of student debt in serious delinquency has leapt to 8%, its highest since 2020. Economists warn this surge may impact borrowers' credit profiles, with lost discretionary spending in heavily delinquent regions potentially rippling through retail sales and job growth, the Financial Times reported.
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Kiyosaki distills the lesson into three assets: physical gold, physical silver, and Bitcoin stored offline. In the post, he urged followers to avoid exchange-traded substitutes, arguing that ETFs carry the very counterparty risks he fears.
The upshot, he said, is that families can no longer rely on central banks or Congress; personal balance sheets must become the first and last lines of defense.
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