Dumb Dad, Dumber Dad

Filed in archive Finance on May 2, 2007

I have never read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but I do from time to time read Robert Kiyosaki's column on Yahoo Finance and he is proof that a good gimmick can make you millions, because so much of his advice is so bad. His latest column, though, crosses the line into being irresponsible.

Titled "Playing the Mutual Fund Lottery," the column lays out the case for why investing in mutual funds is no better for your financial future than playing the lottery. Here are some choice quotes:

401(k)s and IRAs involve putting money into an investment vehicle over which investors have little control. And since most people end up choosing mutual funds as their primary investment within these plans, playing the lottery would be a better way to go.

...

How sensible is it to play the lottery when the chance that you'll lose the money you put in is so high?

But the same could be said of mutual funds. After all, it's also a government-sponsored program that you have little chance of winning. So your chances of retiring on mutual fund investments in your 401(k) or IRA aren't very high, either.

Let's start there. First, the lottery is a game of chance based on nothing more than the random bouncing of balls. The number of people that come away with more money from playing the lottery than they had before is infinitestimal. Mutual funds have a long history of actually making gains for most people, especially if those mutual funds are index funds that include a large cross-section of the stock market. There is no debating this fact, yet Kiyosaki uses this next quote as his proof of the lottery vs. mutual fund theory:

I once heard a radio interviewer ask a representative of a large mutual fund about the fund's performance. The rep said it had risen in value by an average of 20 percent per year for the prior two years.

But when the interviewer asked about the average return to the average investor in the fund, the representative responded that the average investor had actually lost 2 percent per year. Why? Because the performance of the market is unpredictable. Compare that to the lottery, where the precise chances of winning and the exact amount of the jackpot are known quantities.

Yikes. Kiyosaki once heard ONE interview with ONE mutual fund representative talking about ONE mutual fund, and this is proof that ALL mutual funds are long-term losers that are no better than throwing your money down on random numbers in which the odds against you are 100 million to one? This is the logic of a seven-year-old, and that might be an insult to the seven-year-old.

There's more:

I can hear you saying, "But the lottery is gambling! And I have no control over whether I win or lose!" You're right -- the lottery is gambling. But so is a mutual fund. You have no control over the stock market and neither does the fund manager. If the market goes down, so does your fund.

While it's true that past performance is no guarantee of future returns, I think looking at the past performance of the stock market, with its decades of steady advancement regardless of downturns (even the huge drop after 9/11 is but a distant memory, as the market continues to reach new highs), and comparing that record against the past performance of the lottery, which has a lengthy track record of 99.99999% of its players losing all the money they've invested, it's still a good bet that the market will continue to outperform lotto playing. (Not that I'm a betting man.)

There's more, but I'll let you decide if you want to waste your time reading it.

I know Kiyosaki is supposed to be some guru that has gotten rich off of the alternative thinking of his "rich dad," but telling the average person that mutual funds are some sort of swindle is just irresponsible. Yes, you may not get filthy rich from mutual funds, but does anyone really think mutual funds are going to get them filthy rich?

For the average person, mutual funds are a way to get a better return on your money than you would get in a savings account or CD. The stock market can have a bad year, but history shows that over the long haul it provides better returns than many other investment vehicles. Kiyosaki would have you put all your money in real estate and gold bars, which is fine, but not every person wants to go through the process of buying and owning real estate for investment or understanding the implications of world events on precious metal prices. For them, mutual funds are a good choice. For them, following Robert Kiyosaki's advice is like playing the lottery.