So Rich Dad’s Rich Bontrager sat down with Michael Clouse, Senior Account Executive at Priority Gold, the company Rich Dad trusts for physical gold and silver, and asked the practical questions.
- Why is the dollar losing ground?
- Why are the big banks buying gold now?
- Is silver worth a look?
- And what does moving a retirement account into metals actually involve?
The full interview is below. The takeaways follow for anyone who would rather read.
“Savers are losers” is arithmetic
Robert’s most famous line still makes people bristle. Michael explained why it holds up.
Americans were handed a formula: work hard, spend less, fund the 401(k), and the dollars will be there when you need them. The first half still works. The second half does not.
Dollars are made for spending, not saving. Every year of inflation and every central bank that trims its dollar holdings takes a little more out of the money sitting in your account. And the stocks and bonds inside most retirement plans are no longer doing enough to make up the difference.
The clock started on August 15, 1971
That is the day the dollar came off the gold standard. Before it, every dollar was backed by gold. After it, the dollar was backed by the government’s willingness to keep printing.
Michael called it the moment the sand started running through the hourglass. The first two decades were slow. The last ten years have not been.
He also had history on hand. The German mark. The French franc. The Italian lira. The Spanish peseta. Each was a strong currency in its day. Each was spent into oblivion. No paper currency in history has held its value forever.
What 90% looks like
Gold was $35 an ounce in 1971. It now trades above $4,000. Silver went from about $4 to more than $60. Over the same stretch, the dollar lost more than 90% of its buying power.
Michael made it concrete. In 1971, $100,000 bought a very nice house. Keep it in cash and it now buys a shed. Put it in gold and it is worth roughly $11.7 million. You can still buy the house.
The short-term math is just as blunt. Money and the Financial Times have estimated the dollar is losing about 10% of its purchasing power a year. On a $1 million portfolio, that is $100,000 of buying power gone every twelve months, with no line item to show for it.
Why the banks changed their minds
For decades, gold was for preppers. Now JP Morgan is talking about $6,000 gold and has floated $6,300 by the end of 2026. Bank of America is more bullish still. Gold and silver have both beaten the S&P 500 for three straight years.
Michael’s explanation was simple. Preppers buy gold to shield themselves from banks and governments. Banks and governments buy gold to preserve wealth against a weakening dollar and an overstretched stock market. Both can be right at once. Right now the second reason is moving the money.
Over the past five to six years, Michael noted, gold has averaged roughly 25 to 26% a year and silver about 30%, against 17 to 18% for the S&P 500. Central banks now hold more gold than dollars in reserve.
Past performance and third-party forecasts are not guarantees.
Silver is its own story
Rich said this was the part that would surprise people, and he was right.
Silver has run from about $40 to more than $90 in 2026, and some analysts have floated $200 before year end.
But Michael was clear on one point: silver belongs alongside gold, not in place of it. It shares gold’s role as real money outside the dollar and adds two tailwinds gold does not have.
Retail demand. Buyers moving $30,000 or $500,000 like getting more ounces for the money, the same instinct that showed up in 2008.
Industrial demand. Phones, batteries, computer chips, and the AI buildout all need silver, and supply cannot keep pace. The market is in its sixth straight year of deficit, and about 80% of the silver in the United States is imported.
Bank of America, Citi, and others have said silver could double or triple within 12 to 24 months. Could, not will.
“Haven’t I already missed it?”
Rich raised the objection everyone raises. Gold is near record highs. Silver just ran. Isn’t this buying at the top?
Michael said he heard the same thing at $1,500 gold, at $2,000, and at $3,000. His answer has not changed. Gold and silver do not rise on their own. They reflect the environment around them.
So the real questions are:
- Will the dollar keep losing value?
- Will the debt keep growing?
- Are the major banks worried about a serious stock correction?
If the answer to all three is yes, the forces that pushed metals higher are still in place. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have described a bull run that could last another seven to eight years. Central banks are not moving into the pound or the yen. They are moving into gold.
Moving an IRA into metals takes about 20 minutes
The biggest fear Michael hears is that this means cashing out and starting over. It does not.
Retirement money can sit in four liquid asset classes: dollars, stocks, bonds, and gold and silver. Moving between them inside an IRA is a lateral transfer, not a withdrawal. No taxes. No penalties.
Three steps:
- Open a self-directed IRA. Five to six minutes. Name, date of birth, driver’s license, beneficiary. Paperwork arrives by DocuSign.
- Transfer the funds. Priority Gold gets on the phone with you and your current custodian, whether that is Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab, or anyone else, and completes the transfer form. 20 minutes to start. 5 to 7 business days for the custodians to move the money.
- Build the portfolio. Once the funds land, Priority Gold walks you through gold versus silver and bars versus coins during live market hours, offers recommendations, and leaves the final call with you.
Priority Gold handles about 95% of the legwork. The most common reaction at the end, Michael said, is “That’s it?”
Metals inside an IRA are stored at an independent, non-government depository, held off balance sheet and backed by a billion-dollar insurance policy. Want to hold them yourself? Request a distribution.
Buying with cash is simpler still. Think of it as a currency conversion. Priority Gold ships and insures the metals to your door, and you can convert back to dollars whenever you need to spend.
What it takes to start
Priority Gold now works with minimums in the $20,000 to $25,000 range. Clients come in at every level, from $20,000 to $30 million, and they are all reacting to the same thing. Sooner beats later.
To the person who has heard pitches like this and walked away uneasy, Michael was direct. No pressure. No deadline. No required amount. The team works on your timeline, starts with what you are trying to accomplish, and explains each step before you take it.
His closing line said it all. Your money has to be backed by something. It cannot be backed by nothing.
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