Here’s a final buyer beware moment in our It’s Not Easy Being a Guru inquiry. Let’s explore a final roll call of gurus giving each one just their 15 seconds of shame.
Dave Ramsey. I like Dave, but that doesn’t change the fact that he went bankrupt in 1988 on a portfolio of real estate. He joins the ranks of the advice givers that make more money from giving advice than following it.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump has often been considered a financial guru when he’s not busy being President. Then there’s the matter of the felony convictions. Those weren’t politically motivated where they? Long before becoming President, the gamble on Atlantic City Casinos resulted in bankruptcy six times. Trump University seminars also ran into legal trouble and settled with students for $25 million. The Donald J. Trump Foundation has been accused of self-dealing and tax evasion.
Here’s a quote from The Donald:
“I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me . . . I’ve made a fortune by using debt, and if things don’t work out, I renegotiate the debt. I mean, that’s a smart thing, not a stupid thing.”
Clip that to your loan application.
Wade Cook
Wade Cook wrote How to Build a Real Estate Money Machine. His machine ran out of money resulting in bankruptcy in 1987 and again in 2003. Then throw in the conviction for tax evasion and 88 months in the clink.
Ray Lucia
Author, financial planner and radio and TV host Ray Lucia lost his media license and got fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by the SEC due to “misleading claims” about the “Buckets of Money” strategy in his seminars. Sounds like buckets of trouble.
Dave Del Dotto
Dave was the author of something called the Cash Flow System course, which floated him right into bankruptcy in 1987. The FTC also levied some charges and fines against him.
Charles Givens
Author of Wealth Without Risk, Givens was sued by a client for bad advice and filed bankruptcy in 1997. Will his next book be Advice Without Risk?
Mark O. Haroldsen
I got his book How to Awaken the Financial Genius Within You for $10 from a magazine advertisement when I was a teenager. That book got me started on my real estate journey, although I can’t say I ever implemented any of the Haroldsen strategies. Haroldsen was charged with more than 80 counts of fraudulent sales practices and declared bankruptcy in 1997.
Ed Beckley
The star of the cable TV show Million Dollar Secrets, here’s a secret I’ll share for free. Beckley declared bankruptcy in 1987 and went to federal prison for wire fraud.
Bernie Madoff
If a guy named Ponzi didn’t become famous first, huge shell game rip off schemes would be named for con king Madoff. Madoff got 150 years in prison for running the largest Ponzi scheme in history and died in prison. No surprise, he also went bankrupt.
Howard Ruff
Howard Ruff was famous in the 70s for doom and gloom prophecies. He published a newsletter called Ruff Times. Books include Famine and Survival in America, which kind of missed the whole obesity epidemic. Then there was How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years in the 21st Century, Survive and Win in the Inflationary Eighties, and Making Money. The company he founded declared bankruptcy, but apparently after he sold it. Ruff was CEO of another company engaged in fraudulent practices that briefly went bankrupt for a week.
His autobiography details an additional occasion when he declared bankruptcy earlier in his life. Yet he claims he paid his creditors back. It does look like he died a multi-millionaire.
Craig Hall
Author of Craig Hall’s Book of Real Estate Investing, Hall declared bankruptcy in 1992. Quite a comedown from the $4 billion real estate portfolio he once had.
Albert Lowry
I went to an Al Lowry free seminar when I was a teenager. The point of the seminar was to get you to pay for more seminars. I read his book How You Can Become Financially Independent by Investing in Real Estate. It didn’t work out so well for Lowry – he declared bankruptcy in 1987.