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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law not available in all states.
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This is not your fault. The richest man who ever lived decided your life for you. Right now. You are the product of his decisions. Keep watching if you want to break free and take control of your own life.
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This is the Rich Dad Radio Show. The good news and bad news about money. Here's Robert Kiyosaki.
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Welcome 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. Listen, you are smart. I know you are. You followed every rule they gave you. You studied hard, you got the degree, you took the job, you did everything they told you to do. And you are still not free. That feeling you have, that low level anxiety that never quite goes away, that sense that no matter how hard you work, you're running in place, that is not failure. That feeling is information. And today I'm going to tell you exactly where it came from. Because it didn't come from you. It came from a system. A system that was designed very deliberately to produce workers, not wealth, builders, workers. And here's what makes me angry about this. The people who built that system, they knew exactly what they were doing. I want you to hold three dates in your mind. Just three. 1903, 1971, 1974. That's it. Three dates. By the end of today, you are going to understand exactly what happened in those three years and why those three years. Explain why you, no matter how smart you are, were never supposed to be free. That's the setup. Let's start with a first date. 1903, John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men who ever lived. In 1903. Rockefeller didn't just build companies, he didn't just control oil. He took control of what America's children would learn. He created something called the General Education Board. And people cheered. They thought it was generosity. They thought it was philanthropy. They thought the richest man in America was giving back. He was doing something else entirely. Here is what they actually the people running the General Education Board in their own. In our dream, we have limitless resources. And the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The task we set before Ourselves is a very simple one. To train these people as we find them to a perfectly ideal life just where they are. Read that again. Just where they are. Not to rise, not. Not to build, not to own. Just where they are. That is not education. That is a containment strategy. And people get angry when I say this. They say, robert, you're being paranoid. That was over 100 years ago. And I say, look at your school. Look at what they taught you. Did they teach you how money moves? Did they teach you the difference between an asset and a liability? Did they teach you how the wealthy actually think? Or did they teach you to sit still, follow instructions, don't question authority, get a good job. That Prussian model Rockefeller imported, it was designed to produce obedient workers and soldiers. People who do what they are told. People who hand their money to whoever tells them to Think about that. The school system your parents trusted, the one they sent you to, the one that handed you a diploma and called it an education, was built from the foundation to keep you in your lane, not to set you free, to keep you exactly just where you are. Thank 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 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. That'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 on this little known two dollar 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. Okay, we are back. Let's get to it. Now, the second date, 1971. This one is bigger because in 1903, they came for your mind. In 1971, they came for your money. Here's what happened. For most of human history, the dollar meant something real. You held a Dollar, you held a claim on gold. Gold sitting in a vault. Gold you could redeem. Gold with actual value. Saving made sense. Work hard, put money away. Your savings held their power. That was the deal. Then, in 1971, without a vote from Congress, President Nixon ended it. Quietly, behind closed doors, without asking you, he took the dollar off gold. And the moment he did that, everything changed. Your dollar was no longer backed by something real. It was backed by a promise. A promise from the same government that was already spending more than it earned, running deeper into debt every single year, printing more money whenever it needed to cover the difference. Think about that. After 1971, when the government needed money, they printed it. You go to jail for writing a check with nothing in your account. They call it monetary policy. And here's what nobody told you. The moment money became debt, saving became losing. Every single dollar you put in that savings account, every single month you left it there, it was worth less. Not worthless, but less. Every single month, while you saved, the dollar quietly bled out. And the rich. They knew. They knew. Because after 1971, two sets of rules were born. Rule set number one for workers. Save your money. Trust the system. Work hard. Be patient. Rule set number two for owners. Use debt as a tool. Buy assets. Let inflation work for. For you. Let other people's money build your wealth. Same economy, two completely different games. And nobody, not one teacher, not one guidance counselor told you which game you were actually playing. That's not an accident. That's the Design. Now, the third date, 1974. And this one. This one is the cruelest of all three. Because 1903 took your education. 1971 took your money's power. 1974 took what was left. Your retirement. Let me explain what used to exist before 1974. If you worked hard for a company for 30 years, that company owed you something. A guaranteed monthly check for the rest of your life. You didn't have to learn investing. You didn't have to understand the stock market. You didn't have to become a financial expert. You just worked. And at the end, they took care of you. That was the deal. Then in 1974, Congress passed something called ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Sounds protective, doesn't it? Security act. Here is what it actually did. It ended the guaranteed pension overnight. Corporations were no longer responsible for your retirement. You were. And they handed you a 401k. Think about what that means. Millions of people with zero financial education, no training, no knowledge of markets, no understanding of how Wall street actually works, suddenly forced to become investors. With their life savings in a market they were never taught to understand, in a system designed by the very people who are going to collect fees on every dollar those workers handed over, whether the account grew or collapsed. That's not retirement planning. That is one of the biggest transfers of wealth in human history. And it was dressed up and as a benefit. My rich dad saw it immediately. He said, robert, they just handed the workers retirement money directly to Wall Street. Wall street collects its fees. Win or lose, your account goes up, they get paid. Your account gets wiped out, they still get paid. You bear all the risk, they keep all the certainty. Now go back and look at those three dates. They took your mind, they. They took your money's power, they took your retirement. And they did it over 70 years, quietly, legally, while you were in school. Learn to sit still and follow instructions. That is not bad luck. That is a sequence. We've just walked through. Three dates, three moves, 70 years, all aimed at the same target. You. But here's what I haven't told you yet. The dates are only half the story. The other half is what that system built inside your mind. And that part, that part is going to make you angry. Don't go anywhere.
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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 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. In 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 two dollar 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.
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Welcome back. We laid out the architecture. 1903, they took control of what your children would learn. 1971, they changed the rules of money without asking you. 1974, they handed your retirement directly to Wall Street. That's the outside of the system. Now I want to talk about the inside. Because the most dangerous Thing they built wasn't a law, wasn't an act of Congress, wasn't a financial instrument. The most dangerous thing they built was inside you. Here's what 12 years of school actually trained you to do. Sit still, follow instructions, memorize the right answers. Please the authority in the room. Never make a mistake. Listen to that list again. Sit still. Follow instructions, memorize the right answers. Please the authority in the room. Never make a mistake. Those are not the skills of wealth. Those are the skills of compliance. And you were rewarded for them. Good grades when you memorized. Gold stars. When you obeyed acceptance letters. When you performed, the system told you, you're doing it right. Keep going. And you did. Because why would you question it? Your parents trusted it. Your teachers lived inside it. Your guidance council had a script written in 1903 and never once looked up long enough to ask who wrote it. Here's what I learned from my rich dad. Buckminster Fuller, one of the greatest minds of the last century, called it exactly what it is. Specialization is a form of slavery. The expert is fooled into accepting his chains because those chains come with a title, a salary, and letters after his name. He feels chosen. He feels elite. He feels like he earned something real. And he never once looks up to ask who actually owns the building he reports to every single morning. That's what the system produces. Highly educated, highly specialized, completely dependent. And here is the part that should make you uncomfortable. The compliance Skill school drilled into you. They are the opposite of every skill that builds wealth. Every single one. And the system spent 12 years, sometimes 20, making sure you became an expert at the wrong skills. Here is what I want you to understand. This is important. Wealth does not reward the skills school trained you to use. It punishes them. Let me show you exactly what I mean. School rewarded you for earning. Wealth rewards ownership. School punished you for mistakes. Wealth rewards risk. School celebrated your individual performance. Wealth rewards systems, businesses and assets that run without you. School gave you a gold star for memorizing the right answer. Wealth requires financial literacy, something school never once offered. Look at those four contrasts. Really look at them. Earning versus ownership. Avoiding risk versus taking it. Individual performance versus systems. Mesmerization versus financial literacy. Those two skill sets are not just different. They are not just misaligned. They are almost perfectly opposed. Point for point, skill for skill, value for value. The system spent 12 years, sometimes 20, making you an expert at exactly the wrong half. And here is a line that I want to stay with you. Those who are only word literate will always work for those who are financially Literate. That is not an opinion. That is the architecture of the world you were handed. Your doctor, your banker, your financial advisor. Trained in the same broken system, working from the same broken map. The financial advisor managing your retirement never taught to build wealth. Instead he was taught to sell products. The HR rep explaining your 401k reading from a script. A script designed to move your money, not to protect it. The guidance counselor who sent you to college, working from a playbook written before your parents were born. This is not a failure of individuals. I want to be clear about that. These are not bad people. They are trapped people trapped inside the same machine that trapped you. The machine doesn't need villains. It just needs everyone to keep playing their role. And the role they assign you was to earn. Hand over the taxes, hand over the mortgage interest, hand over the retirement savings, hand over the fees. And never, not once ask who is on the other side of every dollar you send out. That is the word literate. Life. Perfectly educated, completely dependent. And the second you stop working, it all stops with I just told you what the system built inside you. The compliance skills, the word literate trap. The machine that runs perfectly on your labor. But here's what I haven't said yet. The highest earners in this country, the doctors, the lawyers, the engineers, are often the most trapped of all. I'm going to tell you exactly why. And it's going to hurt a little. Don't go anywhere. Okay? Okay. We've been talking about the system, what it built, who it serves, and who it was never designed to free. Now, I want to make this personal, because here is a thing that keeps me up at night. The people who followed the rules the hardest are often the most trapped. Think about that. The doctor pulling $400,000 a year. Smart person. Worked harder than almost anyone you know. Eight years of school after high school, residency, debt, sacrifice. And the moment she stops showing up, the income stops. Every single dollar she earns requires her body in that room. That is not wealth. That is a high income prison sentence. The lawyer billing 2,500 hours a year, afraid to take a vacation, afraid to get sick, afraid to slow down for even one quarter because the moment he does, the revenue disappears. His income doesn't have a system. He is the system. And the engineer. Maxing out his 401k every single year, doing everything right, saving, diligently, trusting the plan, while inflation quietly devours his purchasing power. Month after month, year after year, dollar after dollar, not dramatically, not all at once. Quietly. Like a leak in a boat. You can't find until you're already taken on water. This is what I mean when I say more credentials will not fix it. The next promotion will not fix it. Working harder inside a machine designed to keep you running will never fix it. People get angry when I say this. They say, robert, I worked hard for what I have. And I say, I know you did. I know. And that is exactly the problem. You worked hard, you sacrificed, you did everything they told you to do. And the second you stop, it all stops. That is a definition of a trap. Not a bad life, not a failure. A trap. Because a trap doesn't look like a trap when you're inside it. It looks like success. It looks like a title. It looks like a salary. It looks like a plan. It doesn't look like a cage until the day you try to leave. Let me be very direct now. The system doesn't need you to be stupid. Let me say that again. It does not need you to be stupid. It just needs you to stay financially illiterate. And for over a century, it has done a masterful job of exactly that. Here's what the system actually needs from you. It needs your student loan payments every month, on time, for decades. It needs your mortgage interest, not your home, your interest, 30 years of it flowing out of your wallet into theirs. It needs your retirement money part in mutual funds, the that pay Wall street managers their fees. Whether your account grows or whether your account gets wiped out, think about what that means. The people managing your retirement money, they get paid either way. You bear the risk. They keep the certainty. That is not an investment relationship. That is a system that has perfectly aligned its incentives against yours and called it a retirement plan. And here is the part that should make you sit very still. It needs you working. Not because your work is essential. Because the moment you stop, your income stops, Your mortgage is at risk. Your lifestyle is at risk. Your family is at risk. And a person whose family is at risk will never take the financial risks required to get free. That dependency is not an accident. That is the blueprint. The rich didn't hide the rules. They just made sure. You were too busy, too indebted, too financially uneducated, too afraid to stop running long enough to ask what the rules actually were. And people get angry when I say this. I understand that. But anger at the system is not the same as freedom from it. Only one thing gets you out, and it is not working harder inside the machine. You followed every rule they gave you. You studied. You sacrifice. You did everything right, and you are still not free. That is not failure. I want you to hear that. That is not your failure. That is a successful operation of a machine that was designed deliberately to produce exactly this outcome. Educated. Employed. Dependent. Running. The only way out is to learn what they refuse to teach you. Not more credentials. Not another degree. Not a better job title. The thing they specifically remove from your education. Financial literacy. How money actually moves. The difference between an asset and a liability. Not the way your banker defines it. The way the wealthy actually live it. How to stop trading time for dollars and start building things that work while you sleep. How to use debt. The. The way the rich use it as a tool, not a trap. How to make inflation work for you instead of slowly bleeding you out. That knowledge exists. It has always existed. The rich didn't invent a secret. They just learned rules that were never put in your curriculum. And here is what I know to be true. The moment you understand the difference between an asset and and ll affiance really understand it. Not as a definition, but as a way of seeing every financial decision you make, you cannot unsee it. The game doesn't change. But you do. And once you change, the machine that was built to run on your labor starts to look very different. It stops looking like the path. It starts looking like what it always was. Choice. You followed the rules they gave you. Now it's time to learn the rules they didn't give you. Thank 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. It. Foreign.
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This podcast is a presentation of Rich Dad Media Network.
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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.
Episode Title: The Richest Man in History is controlling your life – Time to Break Free
Podcast: Rich Dad Radio Show
Host: Robert Kiyosaki
Date: May 23, 2026
In this solo episode, Robert Kiyosaki directly challenges listeners to reconsider everything they’ve been taught about money, work, and financial security. He traces the roots of the current financial system to a deliberate architecture designed to create obedient workers, not wealth builders. Kiyosaki identifies three pivotal moments in US economic history—1903, 1971, and 1974—that, he argues, systematically stripped everyday people of their autonomy and agency over money, education, and retirement. The purpose of the episode is to illuminate how this system perpetuates dependence and to urge listeners to gain real financial literacy to break free.
[00:52 – 04:58]
“You studied hard, you got the degree, you took the job, you did everything they told you to do. And you are still not free.” (Robert Kiyosaki, 01:03)
1903 – John D. Rockefeller and Education
“The task we set before ourselves is a very simple one. To train these people as we find them to a perfectly ideal life just where they are.” (02:37)
1971 – Nixon Takes the Dollar Off Gold
“You go to jail for writing a check with nothing in your account. They call it monetary policy.” (Robert Kiyosaki, 06:38)
1974 – The End of Real Retirement Security
“Wall Street collects its fees. Win or lose, your account goes up, they get paid. Your account gets wiped out, they still get paid. You bear all the risk, they keep all the certainty.” (08:43)
[12:50 – 17:39]
“Those are not the skills of wealth. Those are the skills of compliance.” (Robert Kiyosaki, 13:09)
“Specialization is a form of slavery. The expert is fooled into accepting his chains because those chains come with a title, a salary, and letters after his name.” (15:05)
School rewards earning, wealth rewards ownership.
School punishes mistakes, wealth rewards risk.
School values individual work, wealth rewards systems and assets.
Kiyosaki’s warning:
“Those who are only word literate will always work for those who are financially literate.” (16:14)
The system works best not because of evil individuals, but because everyone—from teachers to HR reps—perpetuates the machine.
[17:40 – 23:40]
“That is not wealth. That is a high income prison sentence.” (Robert Kiyosaki, 19:04)
“Working harder inside a machine designed to keep you running will never fix it.” (20:56)
Wall Street, banks, and retirement managers profit from your labor and risk tolerance, while bearing almost none of that risk themselves.
The system relies on your need for job security and your willingness to continue making payments (mortgages, interest, student loans).
[23:41 – 26:30]
The only escape is learning the “rules” not taught in school: true financial literacy.
“The rich didn’t invent a secret. They just learned rules that were never put in your curriculum.” (25:36)
“The moment you understand the difference between an asset and a liability... you cannot unsee it. The game doesn’t change. But you do.” (25:53)
Final call:
“You followed the rules they gave you. Now it’s time to learn the rules they didn’t give you.” (26:26)
“He feels chosen. He feels elite. He feels like he earned something real. And he never once looks up to ask who actually owns the building he reports to every single morning.” (15:05)
| Timestamp | Segment Topic | |------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:52–04:58| Introduction & The 3 Key Dates: Rockefeller, Nixon, ERISA | | 05:00–10:20| Detailed Breakdown: Gold standard, Pensions, and the Making of Workers | | 12:50–17:40| How School Trains Compliance, Not Wealth | | 17:41–23:40| The High-Income Trap & Why Hard Work Isn’t Enough | | 23:41–26:30| The Only Escape: Financial Literacy & Asset Ownership | | 26:30–End | Final Call to Action |
Kiyosaki delivers a sobering but empowering message: If you feel trapped by the system, it’s because the system was built that way—by design. The only way out is to unlearn the lessons of compliance, gain authentic financial literacy, and start playing by the rules the wealthy use. This episode is a call for radical self-education and ownership over your financial destiny.
“You are the only one who cares about taking care of you.”
(Robert Kiyosaki, 26:28)