10 Ways I Use Debt to Build WEALTH

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1:23I have$1.2 billion in debt on purpose. And every morning, I wake up trying to get into more. Now, before you start saying I'm crazy, let me tell you the 10 ways this makes me richer. Stay right here. This is the Rich Dad Radio Show. The good news and bad news about money. Here's Robert Kiyosaki.

1:51Welcome to the Rich Dad Radio Show, the good and bad about money. This is Robert Kiyosaki, and today is just you and me. And we're talking about what the rich are teaching their kids about money. So let me start with something that's going to make your accountant nervous, your parents angry, and your financial planner reach for the phone. I am$1.2 billion in debt. on purpose. And every morning I wake up trying to figure out how to get into more. Now, if you were raised the way most people were raised, that sentence just turns your stomach. Good. Sit in that for a second. Because by the end of the show, you are going to want what I have.

2:42That's a promise. You were told debt is a disease. You were told a good person pays cash. lives below his means, dies owing nothing to nobody. You are told the whole point of a financial life is to reach zero, to owe nothing, to be free and clear. Let me say this again, slowly, free and clear. People say it like it's the finish line, like it's the top of the mountain. I'm here to tell you something different. in the year we are living in, free and clear is the most expensive place you can stand. And people get angry when I say that. That's fine. Think about it. While you have been racing to pay off your house, racing to get to zero, racing to become debt-free, the people who run the money have been doing the exact opposite.

3:38They've been borrowing everything they can get their hands on, and they have been getting richer doing it every single day. So one of two things is true. Either they are stupid and you are smart or they understand something about money that you were never taught. I'll let you decide which one is more likely. I made my decision a long time ago. I want to show you why and I want to show you how. Here's the problem. The rules of money changed, and nobody sent you the memo. Debt became money. Debt became profitable in 10 different ways. How, you ask? August 15, 1971, a Sunday evening. Most people were watching television.

4:27The President of the United States got on and announced that the dollar was coming off the gold standard. Most people didn't even look up. But in that one announcement, the money in your wallet became something brand new. Before that day, a dollar was a claim on something real, something you could hold. After that day, a dollar became an I.O.U., a promise, debt printed on paper. My poor dad never understood what happened. He kept doing what he'd always done, went to work, saved his money, trusted his pension, believed that being out of debt made him safe. My rich dad understood it almost immediately.

5:13He looked at what they had done and he said the game just flipped. The savers are going to be the losers now and the borrowers, the ones who learn to use this new toxic money, are going to be the winners. He was right. He was so right it's almost cruel. Since 1971 the dollar has lost roughly 95 % of its purchasing power. Read that again. 95%. The dollar your grandfather saved is worth a nickel today. That is not an accident. That is a system working exactly as designed. So I asked myself one question. Which side of that table do I want to sit on? I chose the borrower side. And in a moment, I'm going to show you the first two ways I turned the same force that's robbing the saver into the force that pays me.

6:09The thing that makes the poor man poor, it makes me richer. Same inflation, opposite outcome. I'll show you exactly how when we come back. Don't go anywhere.

6:25Thank you for listening to the Rich Dad Radio Show. As you know, I've had my friend Jim Rickards on my show a bunch of times. Now Jim has a new message to share. According to Jim, a former advisor to the CIA and the Pentagon, with close ties to the Trump administration, President Trump is about to make a move that will shock the markets and open the doors to the world's single biggest gold deposit right here on U.S. soil. Inside this deposit is the equivalent of more than 161 million ounces of gold, which at today's prices would be worth nearly$1 trillion. And as gold continues to hit new highs this year, this deposit could make some people very, very rich.

7:13That's why Jim, a world-renowned gold expert with over 40 years as industry insider just made a huge prediction about this Trump move and what he calls Donald Trump's secret$2 gold mine. And for all the details in this little-known$2 gold company, simply go to offair26.com to watch his presentation. That's offair26.com. I'll also put the link in the show description. This message has been paid for by Paradigm Press. We're back. I told you I chose the borrower side. Now I'm going to show you why. Here are the first two ways I use debt to build wealth. Way number one, I repay tomorrow with cheaper dollars.

8:05When I borrow money at a fixed rate, my payment never changes. I borrow today, and the payment I agreed to is the payment I make in 10 years, in 20 years. It's frozen in time. But the dollar is not frozen. They never stop printing. So every year the dollars I use to make that frozen payment are worth less and less. Do you see what that means? My debt is shrinking in real terms every single year and I'm not lifting a finger. Inflation, the very thing robbing the saver is paying down my loan for me. The lender loses. The borrower gains. That's the whole game in one sentence. Way number two, my fixed payments get easier every year.

8:57Picture a payment of$2 ,000 a month. 20 years from now, wages are higher. Rents are higher. The price of everything is higher because the dollar kept melting. But my payment? Still$2 ,000. The payment that felt heavy on day one feels like pocket change two decades later. The saver fears the future. The borrower with a fixed payment welcomes it. That's two. You keeping count? I've got eight more. Way number three. Rent rises while my mortgage stays still. Now layer an asset on top and the magic compounds. Say I borrow to buy an apartment building. My mortgage is fixed, but rents are not fixed. As a dollar loses value, the cost of everything rises, including rent.

9:47So year after year, my tenants pay me more, and I pay the bank exactly the same. Think about that gap. What comes in keeps rising. What goes out stays frozen. That gap gets wider every year and it flows straight into my pocket. A property that barely breaks even today can throw off serious cash flow a few years down the road. Not because I did anything clever, because rent rose and my debt did not. Way number four, leverage magnifies everything. This is the piece that makes debt feel almost unfair. Leverage means using a little to control a lot. Picture a property worth half a million dollars.

10:35I put down a hundred thousand of my own money. I borrow the rest. The property rises a hundred thousand in value. On the whole property, that's a gain of 20 percent. But on my money, the hundred thousand I actually put in, that's a gain of 100 percent. I doubled my money and the property only moved a fifth. Now, leverage cuts both ways. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. But in a world where assets are rising and the dollar is falling, leverage is the forklift. It lets one person move a load 10 people couldn't lift by hand. That's four, six to go. Way number five, the taxman rewards me for borrowing.

11:22Here's a truth the school system will never teach you. The tax code is not a punishment, it's a set of instructions. It's a list of everything the government wants done and the rewards you get for doing it. And the government wants housing, it wants jobs, it wants productive assets. So when you borrow to buy those things, the system rewards you. Mortgage interest can be deductible. Depreciation can shelter the income the property produces. And here's the part most people miss. Borrowing against an asset is not the same as selling it. When you sell, you hand money to the taxman. When you borrow, you don't.

12:05So debt lets me control enormous assets, pull cash out of them, and never trigger the tax a sale would create. The wealthy figured this out a long time ago. They'd rather borrow against an asset then sell it. Let me plant something here. When I buy with 20 % down, the bank puts up the other 80. The bank takes most of the money risk. So why do I keep the reward? Hold that question. I'll answer it after the break. So far I've shown you five ways. Five ways debt builds wealth instead of destroying it. But I need to stop you before you run off and borrow. Because there are two kinds of debt. One is a watchdog.

12:50The other is a wolf. And the wolf will eat you alive. When we come back, I'll show you how to tell them apart. Stay with me. The stock market has been downright violent recently. Stock prices swing up and down every day. Volatility is near all-time highs. And opening your brokerage account is enough to give you a panic attack. But through it all, one asset has been quietly crushing the competition. Gold. Not only was gold the best performing asset for all of 2025, but according to world-famous economist Jim Rickards, a man with close connections to the White House and one of the most renowned gold experts on the planet, gold is about to go parabolic.

13:34In fact, he predicts gold will hit at least$10 ,000 per ounce over the next several years. And today, he's revealing one tiny$2 gold company he believes will skyrocket as the gold price marches higher. All thanks to what he's calling Donald Trump's$2 gold mine. For all the details on this little-known$2 gold company, go to off.air.26.com. That's off.air.26.com. The link will be in the show description. Paid for by Paradigm Press. We're back. Before the break, I left you with a question. The bank puts up most of the money, so why do I keep the reward? I'm going to answer that now, but first, way number six.

14:22Debt keeps my powder dry. If I drain every dollar I have to buy one asset outright, I'm cash rich for a day, an opportunity poor forever. Debt lets me do the opposite. Instead of sinking all my cash into one thing, I use the bank's money. I keep my reserves. I stay liquid. And that liquidity is everything because the next opportunity always comes. And when it does, the borrower has cash ready to move. The all-cash buyer, he's sitting on the sidelines, proud and broke. Now, way number seven. The bank takes the risk. I take the reward. Here's the answer to that question I left you with. When I buy a property with 20 % down, the bank puts up the other 80%.

15:13The bank has a lion's share of the money at risk, and yet I control the asset. I collect 100 % of the appreciation. The bank gets its fixed interest, nothing more. Everything above that is mine. Again, they put up most of the cash. They take most of the risk. I put up the smaller share and I keep the upside. That's why real estate has built more ordinary fortunes than almost anything else. The borrower sits on the side of the table. The whole system is built to reward. That's seven. Three to go. Inflation quietly transfers wealth into my pocket. This is the least discussed effect of all and is the most important.

16:02In an In an inflationary world, wealth does not vanish. It moves. It migrates, quietly, relentlessly, from one group of people to another. It flows away from the cash holders, the savers, the people doing exactly what they were told was responsible. And it flows toward the asset owners, the borrowers holding productive assets financed with fixed-rate debt. The saver feels it as their dollars melting. I feel it as my real debt shrinking and my real wealth rising. Same economy, same inflation, opposite results. The only difference is which side of the debt you chose to stand on. Way number nine, my growing assets hand me new money to borrow.

16:55Here's where it stops being a single deal and starts becoming a machine. As an asset rises in value, it creates new borrowing power. I buy one property it appreciates. I borrow against the new value, and I use that money to buy the next asset. The first property keeps right on working. The tenants keep right on paying. And now I own two things instead of one. This is how a portfolio grows from one property into dozens, not by saving harder, by borrowing smarter. The asset itself produces the fuel for the next purchase. It builds and builds and builds. That's nine, one left, and it's the one that separates the rich from everyone else.

17:46Way number 10, the rich borrow instead of selling. The truly wealthy take everything I just showed you and they push it one step further. They refuse to sell their winning assets because selling triggers taxes. So instead they borrow against them. The asset keeps appreciating, keeps producing income, and they pull cash out through debt. The taxman waits at a door that never opens. Buy the asset, let it grow, borrow against the growth, use the money to buy more. The asset never stops working and you never stop using it. That's all ten, but now I have to stop you because this is exactly where people get it wrong.

18:34There are two kinds of debt and they are as different as a watchdog and a wolf. My rich dad gave me the cleanest definition I ever heard. Good debt is debt somebody else pays for. Bad debt is debt you pay for. Everything I just walked you through is good debt, long-term, fixed rate, backed by an asset that produces income and pays the debt for you. That is not the same animal as credit cards. It's not the same as variable rate loans. is not the same as money borrowed to buy the car, the vacation, the bigger house, that does nothing but cost you every month. That debt is a wolf. It eats you alive.

19:21My poor dad used debt that way, to buy liabilities he called assets, and it kept him on a treadmill his whole life. The secret was never debt by itself. The secret is controlling cash-flowing assets with fixed-rate debt, while the currency loses value. That's the combination. That's what I've been doing all along. So now you know, 10 ways. One confession that didn't make sense at the start. A man, billions in debt, on purpose, trying to get into more. It makes sense now, doesn't it? Here's my challenge to you. Stop trying to reach zero. Stop treating debt-free as the finish line. It is not the finish line.

20:06is the starting block for the race everyone else is already running. Learn the difference between an asset and a liability until you can feel it in your bones. An asset puts money in your pocket, a liability takes it out. Most people cannot tell them apart. And that single confusion keeps them poor their whole lives. The savers are still saving. The dollar is still shrinking. The presses are still running. None of it is going to change because it's working exactly as designed for the people who built it. The only question left is which side of the table you are going to sit on. I made my choice a long time ago.

20:53Thank you for your time. Thank you for caring about your future. Thank you for understanding that you are the only one who cares about taking care of you. Take care.

21:16Thank you.

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