I bought the book back to 2005 but I yet to finish study it. What I would like to share is “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author, Robert Kiyosaki 2008 predictions.

I am totally agreed the statement: The Rich Get Riche and we need to be make our money work for us!!

“Rich Dad Poor Dad” is the longest-running best-seller on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and BusinessWeek best-seller lists. It held a top spot on the New York Times list for nearly five years and was USA Today’s No. 1 money book for 2004. Prior to writing “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” Kiyosaki created the educational board game Cashflow 101 to teach individuals the financial and investment strategies that his rich dad spent years teaching him.

I think its a good time to visit UOB to buy some gold bullion coins. It has dropped to USD 905 from the 950-990 range last week. It will definitely go up again as the US economy has not recovered yet.

An falling trend in global commodity and precious metals after the US Federal Reserve cut interest rate, was an addition factor for declining trend.

In the edible oil section, palm oil and soybean prices moved down after the government took all measures to curb surging commodities as the inflation rate went up in last few weeks.

A steep fall in edible oil prices in Malaysian and Chicago Commodity Exchanges extended pressure in the oil sector in domestic markets.

Plunging gold in London from record high of 1,033 dollar an ounce to 905 in one session wiped off major gains in its prices in Indian markets as gold plummeted nearly Rs 1,110 at Rs 12,000 per ten gram.

Here is a great post on the different pricing of gold and silver

Which would you prefer, a diamond or a sapphire? (sapphire) Which would you give your wife, gold or silver (silver)? Despite the fact that gold reached that $1000/ounce threshold last week, the yellow metal is still far away from its all time inflation adjusted high back in 1980, ($850/ounce in 1980 dollars) according to this article, that would be the equivalent of $2177/ounce in today’s dollars, though it only hit that peak for one day back in 1980. We have been asked several times to comment on where we feel the gold and silver markets are headed. In short, we do believe that gold is likely to rise still further as investors (and speculators) tend to put their money in gold when the dollar falls (and oil is high). Given the overall economic picture, we believe many speculators are moving their dollars to commodities in general and hence prices are still increasing. We’ll get to silver in a minute.

The commodity markets these days trouble me because good old fashioned supply and demand do not seem to have much of an impact on price. Simple microeconomic theory would suggest, “that in a competitive market, price will function to equalize the quantity demanded by consumers and the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in an economic equilibrium of price and quantity,” according to Wikipedia. But that does not seem to be happening for base metals, steel or precious metals. And it is particularly not happening in the case of gold. In fact, since gold is basically used in jewelry, it is mostly “held” (as opposed to consumed). In fact, only 12%, or 400 tons according to this Industry Week article of the world’s gold is used in industrial applications, mostly dental and electronics. That said, demand for gold will likely increase due to new applications such as nano-scale electronic applications and nano-wires and nano-devices.

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Rats Eat Away Ethiopian Farmer’s Life Savings, therefore we should buy GOLD!

An Ethiopian farmer who stashed his life savings of more than 12,000 dollars in a haystack has lost almost one-third of it to rats who gnawed it away.

The 52-year-old farmer from central Ethiopia preferred the straw pile thinking it was safer — worried about losing his riches in case a fire broke out in his house.

“Some 35,000 (3,804 dollars) of the 114,000 birr (12,391 dollars) which was hidden by a farmer in hay near his house was devoured by rats,” the Ethiopian News Agency reported.

The man apparently spurned repeated advice to use a bank, and only found out three weeks later that he had lost part of his stash to the rats.

No word whether the farmer has changed his ‘banking method’ after the rat raid.

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I think will be buying some gold bullion coins at UOB Puchong next week…..Its better than leaving my money in low fixed deposits

Gold prices zoomed past all the previous records in domestic bullion markets in sync with trends in global markets as dollar fell to record low against euro while crude prices remained high.

The metal set a record of USD 1,005 an ounce. And some analysts say it can go up to $2000 per ounce.

The Kolkata bullion market took the lead on Friday and set a record high of Rs 13,240 per ten gram followed by Delhi at Rs 13,200, Mumbai at Rs 13,030, and Chennai at Rs 13,005.

The surge has even prompted some to forecast an unbelievable 15,000 level. Meanwhile, the rupee ended flat 40.4350 against a dollar despite a surge in local stock markets. Traders said the metal’s investment appeal is improving day by day as no end is in sight for the turmoil in the global financial markets. Gold is considered a safest bet, particularly at times of crisis.

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The financial press, and even the network news shows, have begun reporting the price of gold regularly. For twenty years, between 1980 and 2000, the price of gold was rarely mentioned. There was little interest, and the price was either falling or remaining steady.

Since 2001 however, interest in gold has soared along with its price. With the price now over $1000 an ounce, a lot more people are becoming interested in gold as an investment and an economic indicator. Much can be learned by understanding what the rising dollar price of gold means.

The rise in gold prices from $250 per ounce in 2001 to over $1000 today has drawn investors and speculators into the precious metals market. Though many already have made handsome profits, buying gold per se should not be touted as a good investment. After all, gold earns no interest and its quality never changes. It’s static, and does not grow as sound investments should.

It’s more accurate to say that one might invest in a gold or silver mining company, where management, labor costs, and the nature of new discoveries all play a vital role in determining the quality of the investment and the profits made.

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A new kind of gold rush is unfolding at jewelry store and pawn shop counters — featuring not prospectors, but consumers.

White-collar workers, retirees and many others have been digging through jewelry boxes and safety deposit boxes to cash in as gold prices flirt with $1,000 an ounce. Coins, old wedding rings, necklaces given by ex-boyfriends, hand-me-down gold pieces — everything is fair game when it brings this kind of profit.

Shop owners across the country are marveling about the phenomenon they say began in the latter part of 2007 and accelerated through the winter, reflecting torrid gold demand like none had ever seen. There are even gold parties, where people gather to sell their jewelry.

“Everybody’s trying to sell,” said Richard Rozhko, owner of a jewelry store on the northern edge of Chicago. “People are trying to cash out because they don’t believe that gold’s going to go higher than $1,000 or $1,200″ an ounce.

Rachel Weingarten, a New Yorker with a self-described obsession with “shiny trinkets,” didn’t need to sell but couldn’t resist the chance when she saw prices soar like an overinflated tech stock.

“When I saw the prices going through the roof, I saw it as an amazing opportunity to rid myself of jewelry that no longer suits my taste or status,” said Weingarten, a marketing consultant. “It’s also been a lot of fun to get cash for stuff that is broken or just really ugly or just takes up room in my drawers.”

Royal Pawn Shop, a 75-year-old business within earshot of the rattle of passing El trains in Chicago’s South Loop, has display cases sporting fancy gold rings, bracelets and watches along with racks holding hundreds of pawned fur coats. It also has more office workers as customers these days — mostly sellers, not buyers, bringing in gold chains and rings.

“It’s stuff that’s lying around the house, so they figure: Why not make money from it?” said co-owner Wayne Cohen. “The price of gold is so ridiculously high that they’d be stupid not to get rid of it.”

Others are selling to help cope with tough times in an economic slowdown.

Three miles across town, Division Gold store owner John Vela recounted housewives coming in to pawn treasured items from their jewelry boxes and numerous clients saying they need money to pay their property tax bills and take care of other rising financial obligations.

“I have mortgage brokers, real estate agents, retail shop owners. They’re nervous, you can see the stress on their faces,” he said. “Many haven’t been to a pawn shop before — they want to know how it works. Some don’t want to let go of their gold. (But) gold is cash to them.”

Silver also is stirring customers to sell more, with prices having more than tripled from $6 per troy ounce two years ago to over $20.

The stories are similar elsewhere.

At Gold Star Pawn Shop in Eastlake, Ohio, where the Cleveland-area economy is suffering, manager Marc Berman said people come in regularly with broken gold chains, rings with marks on them and scrap gold to get more money in their pockets.

“I think it’s more about gas prices than anything else,” he said. “People are bringing in anything to try to get money to put a few gallons in the tank.”

Some seniors come in monthly to pawn gold items in order to make it through until their next Social Security checks arrive, Berman said.

The clientele at Palace Pawnbrokers in downtown San Diego has gone more upscale as gold prices have soared. Owner Jeff Bernard said it’s a mixture of those who seem to need the money more than ever and those who want it.

“It’s a combination of many factors — the state of the economy, the price of a gallon of unleaded gas going for $3.60 here,” he said. “People are saying ‘We’ve just got to do something.’ With gold knocking on the $1,000 door, they can actually pay off a bill, do something significant with it.”

One woman recently lugged a safety deposit box full of old wedding rings, chains and gaudy 14-karat jewelry from the 1970s in to Scott Goldstein’s Super Pawn shop in Round Lake Beach, Ill. Others have arrived carrying shoeboxes full of jewelry, and a 92-year-old man brought in 80 gold coins. Customers have brought in as much as 40 ounces of gold to sell, he said.

“It’s people going through hard times AND the crazy prices,” Goldstein said of the crush that began there after Christmas. “With all the foreclosures nowadays, you hear people more and more saying ‘I’ve got a mortgage to pay.’”

Midge Elias watched prices rise for months until she finally gave in to the temptation and walked into a Manhattan coin shop with two mounted Liberty Walking gold pieces she’d once worn on long chains. She left with a check for $1,150.

“It felt like a little gift,” Elias said. “Of course, there’s always the possibility of gold going way higher. But hey, those are the risks.”

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Turmoil in global credit markets may lead to the collapse of a North American bank, pushing bullion prices up to $2,000 an ounce as investors seek a haven in gold, Eric Sprott said.
This year’s decline in banking and brokerage stocks will worsen, said Sprott, 63, founder and chairman of Sprott Asset Management, which manages about $7 billion. In response, the company is short-selling financial stocks and increasing holdings in bullion and mining companies, Sprott said. He declined to name which bank he thought may collapse.

“We’re in a systemic financial meltdown,” Sprott said in a March 6 interview at the company’s Toronto headquarters. “There are probably 10 companies that are broke that are still trading — banks and financial institutions.”

Sprott, who in 2004 foresaw uranium and crude-oil prices rising, expects that the global financial system will come under increased stress as banks, faced with slipping stock prices and capital erosion tied to subprime-mortgage loans, battle to raise money to offset losses caused by asset writedowns.

Bear Stearns Cos. dropped as much as 14 percent today on speculation the company lacks sufficient access to capital. The company, the second-biggest underwriter of mortgage-backed bonds, led Wall Street shares lower in the past six months as the world’s largest banks and securities firms wrote down $188 billion of assets linked to devalued loans.

The “concentration” of Sprott’s short selling is in financial stocks, housing, and consumer products, he said. Short selling involves selling borrowed stock on the expectation share prices will fall, allowing the short seller to buy the equities in the market at a lower price to repay the debt.

… ‘Easiest to Short’

“The brokerage companies, the investment banks are the easiest to short,” Sprott said. “Do I understand what’s happening in the business? Yes, there is no business.”

Sprott said his company’s offshore hedge funds have increased the proportion of gold in their portfolios to about 30 percent. The company is also buying small mining stocks that have yet to “blossom,” including Dynasty Metals and Mining Inc., Golden Star Resources Ltd., and MAG Silver Corp., he said.

Gold has gained for seven straight years and reached a record $995.20 an ounce in New York on March 5. The precious metal rose 16 percent this year before today, compared with a 12 percent drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and a 24 percent slump in the seven-member S&P 500 Investment Banking & Brokerage Index.

… Funds double

The Sprott Gold & Precious Minerals Fund and the Sprott Canadian Equity Fund have both more than doubled in the past five years. The S&P 500 Index gained 58 percent in the same period.

Sprott says the collapse of U.K. mortgage lender Northern Rock in September precipitated some bullion purchases by skittish depositors seeking a safe investment for the money they had withdrawn from the bank. That presages the larger effect that a banking failure in North America would have on gold demand, he said, since investors will have few good alternatives.

“Government bonds are a joke at the interest they’re paying,” Sprott said. “You can buy gold or other real things — gold, silver, platinum, palladium — things that hold value.”