Robert Kiyosaki has declared the traditional 60/40 investment portfolio dead following Morgan Stanley’s adoption of a 60/20/20 allocation model. The “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author argues the conventional approach failed when President Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard in 1971.
Robert Kiyosaki has declared the traditional 60/40 investment portfolio dead following Morgan Stanley’s adoption of a 60/20/20 allocation model. The “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author argues the conventional approach failed when President Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard in 1971.
The traditional 60/40 portfolio allocated 60% to stocks and 40% to bonds. Financial planners promoted this ratio as a path to retirement security for decades. Morgan Stanley now recommends 60/20/20, with 20% in bonds and 20% in gold.
Kiyosaki criticized bonds as debt instruments from what he described as a bankrupt government. “How can there be any financial security when the US dollar is fake, an IOU from a bankrupt US Government controlled by the Marxist Fed,” Kiyosaki posted on X.
Market analyst Shanaka Anslem provided a different perspective on the portfolio shift. He stated that the 60/40 model itself did not fail, but rather the regime that supported it changed.
From 1981 to 2020, falling interest rates, disinflation, and quantitative easing allowed bonds to hedge stock positions effectively. Current fiscal conditions have altered this view, with policy-targeted duration risk and negative real yields changing the landscape.
Anslem proposed a new barbell approach featuring three sleeves: scarcity assets including and gold, with zero counterparty risk, resilience assets like short-term bills rather than long bonds, and growth assets comprising equities with pricing power.
“Translation is 60/40 → a barbell where sound money (Bitcoin) and productive cash flows anchor the portfolio,” Anslem wrote. He summarized the strategy as “overweight scarcity, underweight promises.”
Kiyosaki maintains personal preferences for gold and silver coins, Bitcoin, Ethereum, rental real estate financed with debt, oil wells, and cattle. Gold has outperformed stocks and bonds across multiple years, according to Kiyosaki’s assessment. However, this performance received limited attention until Morgan Stanley’s recent allocation adjustment.
The author retired over 30 years ago without using traditional financial planning models, stating that everyone must find the investment formula that works best for them.
