Editor:
Today, I am thrilled to speak with Robert Rolih, an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and investment strategist, Robert’s best-selling book, The Million Dollar Decision, exposes the truths of the financial industry and offers readers the invaluable advice on how to protect and grow their wealth. Having started from humble beginnings in a small village in Slovenia, Robert has risen to become a trusted authority in the investment world. Robert, it’s lovely to meet you.
Robert Rolih:
Yeah, hi. It’s great to be here, so I hope that I can give some value to all the listeners.
Editor:
Well, I’m sure you will. Robert, can you maybe start by sharing your journey from Slovenia to becoming an investment expert?
Robert Rolih:
Yeah, it’s quite an interesting story. When I was young, a teenager, I was born in a very small backwater village in Slovenia. And Slovenia is, of course, a very small country, only two million population. But when I was growing up, even though we didn’t have money at home, my parents were blue collar workers, I always dreamed about a better life, becoming wealthy and becoming someone.
And when I was a student, I started my own company. And after like five years of hard work, this company started to produce quite a lot of profits. And at that time, of course, I was totally financially illiterate and I knew that I should invest a part of the money that I’m making, but I didn’t know how. So I trusted financial advisors, bankers, and other players in the financial industry. And after years and years and years of investing with them, I realized that basically most of my money was gone.
And that was a wake-up call. I was totally devastated at that time. And I made a decision that I need to take financial matters into my own hands, that I cannot trust financial advisors, bankers, and all these gurus that are in this niche.
So, I started to dig deeper into what is happening behind the scenes of the financial industry. And I read more than 300 books, I went to all the best workshops and especially, I talked with a lot of financial industry insiders. And after a couple of years of doing that, I realized that unfortunately, the financial industry is not on our side when it comes to investing.
That this game is rigged, and if you don’t know the right details, these people will basically rob you in plain sight.
So yeah, that is why later, I found out that, of course, most people have the same problems as I had. They trust financial advisors and other players in the financial industry, and of course, they’re losing money without even knowing it. So that is why I decided to start to share my knowledge to help people avoid making the same mistakes that I did in my career.
Editor:
In terms of the financial industry, is it a case of when you work with a financial advisor, in your experience, that they are perhaps more interested in the commissions they will earn as opposed to giving advice that will be of use to the person asking those questions?
Robert Rolih:
Yeah, that’s one of the main reasons why most people underperform the markets or even lose their money when investing, because a lot of players, not all of them, but a lot of players in the financial industry, their interests are not aligned with your interests. For example, if you are a financial advisor or if you run a fund or whatever, you are charging certain management fees. And these fees, of course, even if they are very small, like 1% or 1.5%, people, investors think that these fees are small. But in reality, when it comes to the long-term effect of these fees, these fees can be devastating for your interests. So just by lowering these fees when investing, you can accumulate 2, 3, 4, 5 times more money over the long run compared to paying this fees.
Editor:
It’s fascinating, isn’t it, that for many years, people have either been scared of investing or whether they have invested, maybe they’ve not invested in perhaps the wisest way. What for you was that breakthrough moment where you thought, “Aha, I now know that this system is rigged against the everyday person”?
Robert Rolih:
Yeah, that was maybe… What hit me the most was that basically when… I’m a long-term investor and everything that I teach is long-term. But there is a whole industry of short-term trading, short-term investing, day trading, swing trading and so on.
And basically, when you go into the details, when you look behind the scenes of that, you see that only brokers and people who are running these courses are making money when it comes to short-term trading. So this is really something that I experienced firsthand because I was there, I was learning about short-term trading also and so on at one point in my career, and I visited the best courses and so on. And me and all of my fellow students there, nobody was making money.
And when you realize that and when you dig deeper and you see that basically this whole industry is totally rigged, then that it’s a losing game. It’s a game that you cannot win when it comes to short-term trading. So that is why I’m only doing long-term investing now and very successfully.
Editor:
Do you think it’s a little bit like a casino for many people? They’re gambling with their money when they go for financial advice. And what has been the reaction from the industry towards you, Robert, since you’ve started to maybe pull back the curtain and show that things perhaps aren’t always as they seem?
Robert Rolih:
Yeah. Of course, a lot of these experts who are in the short-term trading space don’t like me, of course, but that comes with everything that I do, so I cannot avoid it. The casino analogy is a very good analogy, but when it comes to short-term trading, it’s even worse than going to casino.
So there are certain studies that show that much less people who conduct short-term trading are successful compared to going to casino. So basically, and if you draw the line, it’s much more profitable for you if you just regularly go to casino compared to short-term trading. And we all know that going to casino, you’ll lose money mathematically. All the casinos know that, the CEOs of all the casinos, they will tell you there is no way that you will make money going to casino. But in the short-term trading space, it’s even worse.
Editor:
Well, The Million Dollar Decision is an amazing resource, an incredible book. And thank you for-
Robert Rolih:
Thank you.
Editor:
… your time today to take us maybe into the book a little bit. For anybody who’s not maybe read a copy yet, but you really should, particularly if you want to look after your money.
But what should new investors do when they start their journey, Robert? What are the foundational steps that you think that everybody should take?…
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