By April MacIntyre Jul 4, 2008, 4:46 GMT
You can feel the energy peel off financial guru and media star Jim Cramer. "There’s always a bull market somewhere and I promise to try to find it just for you," Cramer said yesterday in an interview.
05/12/2008 - Jim Cramer - The 2008 NBC Universal Experience Upfronts - Arrivals - Rockefeller Center - New York City, NY, USA © Anthony G. Moore / PR Photos
One of many nuggets he laid on a group of us assembled to figure out why Jim was heading to NASCAR to rejuvenate the "American Dream" spirit in a demographic hard hit by a volatile global economy, current politics and corporate greed.
Values are key to the core message of his latest show "The American Dream with Jim Cramer" which will be airing on NBC - his first primetime special on July 13 at 7:00 pm.
Best advice he ever got? "It would be from my dad which is tell the truth. Tell the truth to yourself and tell the truth to others, and then everything takes care of itself if you work hard."
Cramer is normally known for his high octane show, "Mad Money with Jim Cramer"
Cramer was direct and with typical rapid-fire staccato made his point. "I think everyone on this call and everyone pretty much in America knows that right now people need help financially, more than pretty much any other time that I’ve seen, even including the 1987 stock market crash.
I am a stock market guy so I tend to relate things to the history of the market. But you understand this is about the economy. I think people feel defeated. I think it’s very clear that the next election is going to be determined by the economy.
The real people out there - the cross-section of people that I think have been most affected are the people who are represented by NASCAR. I am a huge fan of NASCAR so it came quite easily to me to think this is where you want to go to help the people who feel that things have gotten out of control, who feel defeated, who now believe that the American Dream financially can never occur, can never happen to them."
Cramer continued: "And we went to NASCAR to try to get people to understand ideas, how to change their lives, how to be able to work (be high) gas, deal with retirement, build wealth, get started and show them that they can be their own gurus in making money."
Monsters and Critics joined a few other journalists and spoke to Jim regarding the premise of Cramer's new show, and related investment questions.
Americans have been done a terrible disservice by the lack of financial education in our schools. People don’t know how to manage money. The NASCAR guys have business managers. They have people that handle their money. How will you be talking to the average NASCAR fan who is not a sophisticated investor?
Jim Cramer: Oh absolutely. While we do talk with a lot of the greater drivers - you know, we talk with - we spend some time with Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards who are in the top five.
I want to make it very clear that it’s the venue, the people at NASCAR, the cross-section of America that we’re appealing to. I will make no secret of the fact that indeed the people - the drivers themselves have a level of sophistication.But frankly they, too, want to help and they are living the American Dream. I think others should be able to live the American Dream and I do believe that the - our interaction with the drivers was important in order to be able to frankly, see what was all around us.
I mean, I am someone who sees ideas. I want other people to see ideas and it’s pretty easy when you’re dealing with the sponsors of Kyle Busch and when you’re dealing with the people whose - the companies that’s names are on Carl Edwards’ car.
But I don’t want to say that they were foils. I will say that they are the epitome of what you want to be and you can be at least financially, if you listen to the show.
Are you going to be honest with American people? Are you going to tell them that the gross consumerism and the spending, and the disregard for managing credit needs to stop? Are you going to really talk the truth to people?
Jim Cramer: Anybody who knows me knows that I’m addicted to the truth. And a lot of times, the truth is really unpleasant.
A lot of times people don’t want to hear it, but I am not just about trying to - it - look, I am a - it’s a Hippocratic oath, first do no harm. Try to get people to be in a stable situation where they’re not losing a lot of money.
But I’m about saving and making money and I am saying that even in this time, you can strike back. You can begin to save for retirement if you haven’t. You can put money away for your kids.
And I don’t think that this is a situation or any other time that I’ve ever seen in America where you can’t be proactive. It’s not all about not just taking a beating. It’s about being able to really make some money, even in this time.
We’re talking to real people. People ask me questions about retirement, about high gas prices, about stock market, about saving for their kids and I give them real answers.
I don’t coddle anybody and I don’t try to claim that this is the greatest time on earth. I am saying it’s a tough time and I’m going to help you.
So you’re going to offer constructive criticism to people on how to maybe manage where they’re out of control or where they’re blind, or in denial about their spending habits?
Jim Cramer: Yes, but remember, I make it very clear that if someone is spending - I can’t help anybody who is throwing money away in credit cards and big - and high interest. I can’t help anybody who is spending more than their means. And I make it very clear that you can never recover from those things, so let’s get even keel first and then we can begin to make money.
But no, I’m not - look, I’m not a stern cash master who came in there and annihilated people who were kind enough to be able to be with me at the Coca-Cola 600 at the Lowes Motor Speedway.
I am a realist and I do try to get people to understand I can’t help them until they help themselves.
But once they do, I am very confident that even in this horrible environment, we can help people. This show is not just about NASCAR and not just about the people in that that came to see the race. It’s about everybody in America who is struggling with a belief that you can never have the American dream again.
And I am saying you can if you get off of debt, if you begin to save - no matter how little and no matter how late, I can help you.
What would you say to people about financial sense?
Jim Cramer: I think people are forced into spending more money these days because of the basics: gasoline and food. I think it’s the nature of our country to not know how to save. We’re never taught it.
Other countries spend much more time about money. We’re somewhat embarrassed to talk about money in this country. I’m not. I am happy to teach. I am happy to get people to understand that it’s not too late to save.
Most people asked me when I was at NASCAR how do you save? What do you do? They don’t say how do I spend better? They want to know. It’s overwhelming for the vast majority of Americans because well think about it, this is a country where we were taught two things for years and years: social security and the company you work at will take care of you.
Neither one is worth counting on now. So I say you got to count on yourself and I help you do that.
What will be China’s affect on the American Dream like over the next 50, 60 years?
Jim Cramer: Well we are big believers -- both in Mad Money and in this - in my special, the American Dream with Jim Cramer -- that China is a great growth engine that is to be respected.
I don’t bash the Chinese in this, but I do say that the reason why you can possibly make money in the stock market is because of worldwide growth and China is the engine of worldwide growth.
I like to also be - I like to - frankly, what I - one of the things that has been my hallmark is the notion of getting back, of beating the elements. There are a lot of people who feel like the Chinese are getting ahead of us, that they’re doing much better. I say invest with them. Get revenge.
There are a lot of people who feel that gasoline prices are really high. I say get revenge, buy the stocks of the companies that produce gasoline. In the particular case of China, I have felt that China has taken away a huge number of American jobs.
But you know what, we can make money with the companies that do business in China. So I have a - running through a lot of my commentary is the notion of getting back, of not feeling helpless, of not feeling beaten.
But if you can’t beat them, join them and make money with them - the constant theme of this show and my work.
What is your opinion of investing directly in China and India?
Jim Cramer: I don’t want to own the companies there. I am adamant and I make this - it’s not a joke. I won’t invest with Chinese communists. They are communists. I know that sounds like perhaps I’m being a throwback to the way it was.
But that’s a centralized economy that I do not trust. I don’t trust a single Chinese company. I’m not recommending one. I do trust the American companies that do a lot of business in China and that’s how I get my revenge against the Chinese - not by buying - they’ve like - they’ve just gassed you.
You invest with them, they take away your money just like they take away your job. So no, I’m no fan of the Chinese. The security blanket that I see has more to do with the - what I saw at NASCAR which is just the fundamental belief that if I just had the tools and just understood money, I have the drive, I can produce. I can create, but I don’t really understand money.
And what I try to explain to people is not - listen, I like Wal-Mart versus Target. That’s not the kind of thing I’m talking about at NASCAR. It’s that you can unlock - by just looking around, looking around, seeing the great American companies that are on display on every single car, recognizing that if you do some homework with those you can profit from it.
What I do is try to explain to them you’re not nearly as stupid as a lot of people would try to portray you. And I find this to be a continual theme in my life, which is that people are talked down to, people are condescended to.
The people who go to NASCAR are people who are smart people, who can make the most of it if they only understood the basics. I’m providing the basics, the underpinnings of how you make money.
What can the small business owners learn from NASCAR’s business model?
Jim Cramer: Well, you know, NASCAR’s business model is frankly up and one of the drivers I think with - that I talk with who was really sensational about it, Carl Edwards - the small - he was a small business man basically printing out cards and saying, you know, will drive for food.
And I think that what small business can learn from the American Dream with Jim Cramer and what small business sees when they go to NASCAR is that the people who are still - you know, people who were at NASCAR are people who believe in hope, who have not given up hope.
They are not despairing to the point where they accept the fact that they’re beaten and the American small businessman is exactly the cohort that I’m looking at because they must realize they can still win.
I think there are a lot of people who are very scared right now. They’re scared for their business, scared for your paychecks, scared about oil, scared about the high price of food. All these are addressed.
And what I try to say is here is the way to triumph over these small business people. Here’s the way you triumph over them - individuals, moms, kids, people who just got out of the military -- all who came to see the great event, NASCAR and I was able to participate with them -- will come away, I think, from this special and come away from my time at NASCAR with hope, with the belief that you know what, it’s not futile.
Their drive is not futile. Their ambitions are not futile. Their ability to be able to take control of their finances is not futile. And believe it or not, their ability to be able to see common sense things all around them, like are all around a NASCAR stadium and profit from them is something that they can do.
And these are all message of hope in a time when I feel like neither candidate is giving us hope, when I feel like the papers are filled with no hope. Hope is justified and I show you how to act on your hope.
Say someone is sleeping in their car right now, where should they start?
Jim Cramer: All right. Well, having slept in my car off of Interstate 5 and having, you know, lived the American dream in terms of a comeback, I would tell you now, a lot of people who get to where I did, did it because they don’t have healthcare insurance or they didn’t participate, (gone) at disability.
You got to try to get healthcare insurance and disability. It’s why I ended up where I was. I had bad neighborhood, had everything stolen, got sick, didn’t have healthcare, basically spent any money that I had on healthcare.
But my suggestion is for people who are living in their car - is more psychological than financial. It is that you can triumph over that, you can be scrappy and you can believe in yourself and you can pull yourself - if I can pull myself from a situation where I owed thousands of dollars, running from creditors, living in my car and basically had to go knock on doors, take a second job, do whatever I could in order to be able to get back and pay my creditors and begin to save, you can do it, too.
One of the things that I’ve learned -- and I talk about this in my books and the shows -- the creditors are not heartless. The creditors will listen to reason. In my particular case, the creditors tracked me down from the - around the country and were able - and I explained my situation to them, the hardships I was facing and how I just needed a stretch out to be able to pay the bills over time.
It took me five years to be able to get back on my feet. I hope it doesn’t take you that long, but you can get back on your feet.
While at NASCAR were you getting hit up for money advice left, right and center?
Jim Cramer: Well, you know, I think I’m an open guy and my reputation is one that I’m actually proud of, which is that I’m an accessible guy who thrives on it. I mean, everywhere I go people ask me about individual stocks and I never shun it.
It's my persona. What I’m trying to do in this special is go beyond individual stocks and talk about the notion of investing. This is not a show where I give you my top ten investments.
It is a show where I tell you that you can invest. You shouldn’t feel that it’s defeatist, that there isn’t any way you can ever put any money away. And I show you how to go about investing.
But obviously wherever I go, there are people who say okay, look, this is the Coca-Cola 600, what do you think of Coca-Cola? And I always have views on that. But I would say that this is a wider exercise that I’m doing.
We don’t teach people money in this country. We graduate from high school without any understanding at all about money. We go to college and all we understand is that we have a student loan to pay.
We have children and we don’t know how to put money away for them. We’re worried about retirement and no one tells us how to do it. Companies usually take care of us. The government takes care of us.
Now you got to take care of yourself and I show you how to do that, of which stocks are certainly one part. But I’m really just talking about stocks as a sector of wealth versus real estate, versus bonds.
There is no doubt about it, when Jim Cramer walks into a room people are going to ask about what he thinks of Boeing, what he thinks about Pepsi. But I like to think a little bigger than that and this is what the American Dream with Jim Cramer is about.
I spend more time with the real people who go to NASCAR. The drivers themselves are - how do I put this without sounding too critical? They’re all rich and if the rich are unhappy, it’s their own fault.
They’re rich and they don’t - all I try to teach them - and in every single case -- and this is my advice to rich people in general -- you are rich. You only need to get rich once. Don’t screw it up.
My show, the American Dream with Jim Cramer, is not about being rich and what to do. It’s about trying to make ends meet and then once you make ends meet, begin to save.
And ultimately yes, I do want everyone to be rich but I am certainly not addressing rich people and in every case -- Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards -- these are rich people.
Now what’s interesting is they didn’t start rich and I like that. They are my kind of guys who - that like NASCAR and ten years ago they would’ve been listening to the show and I think that they would be able to make some progress.
Jimmy Johnson, by the way, told - asked me - he said, when he gets some money he’s looking into his 401(k) and wanted to know what I think about it.
They do have 401(k)’s and they’re not going to pass up the opportunity to learn what I like. But this show is about how to deal with the rising price of food, how to deal with the rising price of gasoline, how not to give up, how not to just say you know what, I’ve been beaten and there’s no hope in this country and the United States is no longer a great country and therefore, I’m no longer great.
We’ve dispensed with all of that. That’s just not true. And I’m not buying into conventional wisdom that we will never be great again, our people will never be great again. That is the kind of defeatist logic that I try to put right to bed with this special.
What turned you on to NASCAR?
Jim Cramer: I have to tell you that I did go 160 miles an hour around the track in the Navy car with a level of excitement that frankly was - I don’t want to say I’m frightened because that makes me sound like I’m a little boy.
I’ve been on the toughest roller coasters in the world and this is ten times that. And the speed, the excitement, frankly the noise, the joy of it is very captivating.
Having gone to the local lane - Pocono Raceway before this and all we - and been to Daytona, I didn’t have the ability to be able to get into Pit Road or to get into a car.
And, it’s pretty darn great and it’s infectious. I was thrilled that one of the things that happened is just that I was able to participate in that and be able to see and a lot of fans can’t. But yeah, I mean, it’s just an - NASCAR is infectious.
Having followed NASCAR for a long time I would say that the things that truly did surprise me was having taken - having driven 160 miles an hour, I think I recognize now that you - the people who drive in NASCAR are - I don’t know how they do it.It’s a miracle. I was scared to death going 160 by myself with a driver on that track.
These people are far more heroic than I ever gave them credit because it’s the most frightening thing in the world to go around the track at those speeds.
Now let’s add 43 people with you and I just think - what I didn’t realize was that the moment you get in the car, you’re taking your life in your hands - everybody.
So I found it - it was a heightened level of excitement that I now, when I watch it versus when I saw it before I was in Pit Road, I have a level of appreciation for what it’s like to - just to be able to start the engine.
I do want to point out it was not hard to have people be optimistic because it’s such an exciting venue. But it is also a place where a lot of people take RV’s and they are not able to go like they used to, to fill up a couple times, go far away.
But they were still there. I think a lot of them were rented RV’s this time, not owned. But these were people who understood the cost and they understood how much an expense it was to get to the event.
But they were joyous when they were there and it was hard not to be, and I was too.
When I lived in Tallahassee, I went to Seminole Raceway when I covered sports. I will tell you that I am at home more - perhaps even more at home following sports than I am at business because it’s where I got started.
But obviously, the expertise in sports is - there are other people who are more expert than I am, but there are very few who are bigger fans than I am about things like NASCAR, baseball, football.
I mean, I’m a guy who’s still driven by sports, who also follows the stock market.
Predictions on how bad the economy will stay, or not?
Jim Cramer: Okay, this is something that I talk about a lot on The Today Show and things aren’t great. I certainly can’t mask that. It’s not a good time for the average American facing three different issues: facing gasoline prices - there’s really nothing we can do about that in the short term.
We’re at the mercy of others. We just have not had an energy policy and we’re paying for that. Then there’s food pricing and I talk all about these things. There’s a lot of the special devoted to these particular issues.
There’s food pricing and that has much more to do with a government mandate to be able to take 30% of our corn crop and divert it to 3% of our gasoline which I make the point over and over again, is just unfathomable because the everyday person at NASCAR is spending twice as much at their barbecues then they were last year because of this ridiculous ethanol mandate.
And then the third one is house price depreciation and that’s the one I’m most optimistic on. I’ve been - the National Association of Realtors tried to get me fired last year when I said on The Today Show that the only guarantee I will make financially is that you will lose money if you buy a home.
And that was made - that was a guarantee that I offered in 2007. I am going to rescind that guarantee in the middle of 2009 when I think we’ll have a bottoming in housing.
So that will be the first crisis that ends and I believe very strongly that either candidate is more tuned with the true problems of the American person struggling with this environment than the current President and that offers us great hope in itself.
Frankly, I wish the President had a mortgage on the White House. I think he’d be feeling what the rest of us are feeling. This is a very laissez-faire administration where they really believe that the market determines everything and they don’t want to tinker with the market.
I think that McCain less than Obama - but both because they’re - I mean, they are approaching it from the point of view that I think is a little bit less laissez-faire.
I’m more likely to help offer or go along with Congress which has a plan to be able to make it so at least we can have house price stabilization. Without house price stabilization, we are going to be in the same situation next year that we’re in this year.
We’re a growth country. People forget that and once - household formation in this country is - has averaged 850,000 new families that need homes every single year.
There are only going to be 500,000 homes built this year which is down from 2 million two years ago. And we have the possibility if we get the Congress in action and the new President agrees with it, we have the possibility of being able to end this gigantic foreclosure wave by having the government step in and help you refinance your home.
So if you took the overhang of foreclosures away, you stop building new homes and you make it so that we have continual household formation that we’ve always had, we should get equilibrium some time at the end of 2009.
I know that’s a long time - it’s more than a year from now, but I think housing bottoms in 2009. I think a year from now is when you’re going to have the tables turn and the psychology will be like okay, well maybe I’ve gotten about as little as - maybe I’ve gotten the biggest break I’m going to get in real estate. I got to start - I got to go buy something.
Define “American Dream”
Jim Cramer: I think American Dream means that you have financial security, that it’s not on your mind. I think the American dream is when you crossover from feeling that you’ve been beaten to when you’re winning.
And the American dream is the sense that your kid’s going to do better than you, and I think I can help you do that. I think the latter, by the way, is every American’s real dream and I think it’s been squandered.
I think we don’t believe in it anymore. I am telling you and I genuinely believe from my own life -- and what I tell the people who are at the cross-section of America at the NASCAR -- that your kids will have a better life.
And even though I know I got - ended up making a lot of money and I don’t like to talk about oh remember your roots because that’s nonsense. I went to a really good college and I got a scholarship. But my dad is integral to my understanding about what can happen in the American dream, as I talk about in Confessions of a Street Addict.
And colleges too are great equalizers in this country. Do not give up on them and don’t give up on yourself. And let me help you get there.
Talk about the great divide between the super rich and the lower classes.
Jim Cramer: Well to wax philosophical for a second, I am deeply worried about the two Americas: the people who have and the people who don’t. I think the only difference between a lot of other people who worry about it is I’m doing my best to get the people who don’t have some.
And I will - of the people in America who are trying to equalize, I’m not trying to tear down the people who have money. That is - god love them. I’m thrilled that they have money. I am certainly never going to be one of those guys who says, what, they don’t deserve it. The - part of the American dream is to get as rich as you can.
But I have to try to help the people to get - do I want to take CEO Grasso’s money away? Absolutely not. He worked very hard. You know, it’s America. I think you should be allowed to make as much as you want.
But (average investors) you’re smartened and you’re angry. And the way to get back at “them,” as I have said over and over again, who is your heating provider, okay? I am telling you, you can - they’re all public. Go buy the stock, whether it be Philly Electric -- which has been one of my favorite recommendations since I started as anyone who watches the show knows -- or whether it be Exxon.
I mean, look, you fill up at Exxon. Why don’t you get a piece of the profits that you’re paying Exxon? And I believe in revenge, and I think the people at NASCAR - it’s - both psychologically and financially you should recognize it. It isn’t such a bad idea to profit from the people who are profiting off of you.
I do believe that we should have a fair tax system, of which I think we have. But I genuinely want to try to get people to be rich and I don’t want to make it so that when you get there, it’s taken away. And that’s important to me.
Why NASCAR to illustrate the American dream and what’s right and wrong about it right now?
Jim Cramer: I think that the reason why you go to NASCAR is because everybody goes to NASCAR. It’s the most watched sport. It’s the one that has the most loyalty to it. It’s one that’s a national sport. There really aren’t many national sports.
It’s one where there’s great personalities going up against each other. And there’s a - when you go to NASCAR, it’s very - it’s a family event, okay. When - and by the way, when you go to a football game like I do with my dad, you’re talking about thousands of dollars, okay.
Every sport in America has - whether it be a baseball, basketball, has been priced out of the way of Americans except for NASCAR. So you get a great cross-section of people who do not feel like they’ve been priced out.
NASCAR is acutely sensitive that they are never going to be able to take a sport away from the American people by making it only for rich people.
And I also have to tell you that unlike every other place - I mean, now I grew up in Philadelphia where there was like a Goldberg’s Peanut Chews and a Valentine sign and now there’s a Citizens Bank ownership or the Lincoln Financial.
But that’s not NASCAR. NASCAR is a broad fan base with a true cross-section of America. And by the way, more great American companies on display than any other place.
So you have real Americans and you got real America companies. And I try to mix and match them for you.
Discuss Sprint and NASCAR’s relationship with other corporate sponsors.
Jim Cramer: Sprint is an amazing situation. They have 60 million customers. The company is going to have its first good quarter in about five years. I really believe that. I’ve done a lot of work on Sprint.
So I think that’s going to take off the table the notion that Sprint’s not a viable sponsor. Now obviously, Sprint got it through one of my favorite companies, Nextel, because Tim Donahue had the brilliance to be able to realize that NASCAR is America and that was Tim Donahue personally.
If Tim Donahue had been able to run Sprint, it would never have gotten to where it did and he was the guy who saw the vision - he saw the vision of NASCAR.
But I think that the vision is now being understood by the company and the company’s going to have a good quarter. And if they don’t, frankly, they’re going to be bought by somebody and that is - the real challenge for them is they got to turn it around or they will be bought.
Either way, I think that Sprint’s best thing that it ever did was become the sponsor and that when they bought Nextel, the biggest asset that Nextel had was their sponsorship of NASCAR. It was brilliant.
It’s worth billions and they didn’t get any credit for it because they were soon acquired. But it was a brilliant move by Tim Donahue who built Nextel, to be able to join NASCAR.
There’s (sponsor) turnover. But let’s talk about weak hands to strong hands. Verizon is a very strong player. Aflac is one of the best performing stocks on the New York Stock Exchange yet it still - I mean, think about Aflac being - you know, because I was very sensitive to it, because (Carl Edwards) would take me over from Office Depot.
Aflac is the paradigm here. Aflac is a great company that has spent fortunes with the Aflac duck and other Aflac commercials trying to go beyond the duck and it hasn’t succeeded in getting the consciousness of America.
I think that Aflac sponsoring Carl Edwards changes that. I think that, by the Kyle Busch and M&M, I don’t know - Wrigley and M&M are merging. I don’t know what will happen there.
But I bet you there is - more money goes to NASCAR, not less. I think that the challenge is more of the problems in American business, not the notion of NASCAR. NASCAR is expensive and if your company isn’t doing well, it’s certainly more because of the economy and not because of NASCAR.
Any company that’s leaving NASCAR, I would look suspicious at. I’d be critical of. I’d be critical of their balance sheet. Why leave NASCAR, unless in the case like AT&T, it’s competitive, when you should be running toward NASCAR.
I had a conversation with the people at Pepsi trying to get Pepsi to focus on the idea of Frito Lay being a big sponsor because Pepsi is a snack company that also has a soda business. What a great way for Pepsi to be able to show that it’s a snack company.
But of course, you know, Coca-Cola is Mister NASCAR.
I’ve been listening to everything you’ve been saying and how you talk about your father. I get the feeling that this show is about instilling values and getting Americans to tap into their frugality, moxie and turn their brains on to the entrepreneurship that’s within all of us to find those opportunities. Is that correct?
Jim Cramer: Absolutely. And it’s those kinds of broad issues. Although, let me tell you the one difference and this again, I think - glad that you referenced my dad. You know, there are a lot of shows out there.
Like there’s this the home makeover okay and the notion of a home makeover is you’re helpless and we’re going to come, and we’re going to do it for you.
And what I’m saying is that’s completely the wrong approach. You’re not helpless. You just need to have some of the ideas within you unlocked. You’re not a beaten person and I descend upon you, and I do a Cinderella thing to you.
There is no Cinderella. There is you and you just need some help. And you can do it just like I saw with my dad, a struggling small businessman who decided - in his particular case, he was getting beat by the Chinese.
The Chinese came and my dad sells boxes and bags - he still does. He’s 86, he’s going strong. And he sold boxes and bags of American manufacturers and they were continually beaten by the Chinese who undercut all his customers.
So what did he do? He ended up joining the Chinese. He sells Chinese bags to restaurants, sells doggy bags to them. It’s a great business, a great niche that he’s in. He did not complain. He did not sit there and bemoan his fate again - with the communist Chinese.
He joined them and produced a product that undercut everybody else. Don’t give up. Do not just say hey listen, I’m beaten, I’m beaten. The people at NASCAR are - the fans are not unbeaten fans, but they do need direction to unlock what’s in themselves.
Again, I am not trying to do an American home financial makeover review because I pity you. I identify with you and I can make you better and stronger. And that’s where I come down. It’s not condescension. I’m regular. I’ve come back from things and you can too.
Quickly - biggest mistake average American families make with their money?
Jim Cramer: The biggest mistake that they do is that they do not even think that if they put a little money away, it won’t matter. The wonderful thing about saving money is that the money grows and I can get you to work with your money.
And there’s too many people who say it’s too late. There are too many people who say listen; I can only do $50 a month. There are too many people who have excuses to not save. They’re all excuses.
If I could save six months after living in my car, other people can save.
I’ve lived it and I have the credibility to be able to say listen, I did it. You could not be worse off than me. I had every single kind of debt from gambling debt to telephone debt, to Exxon debt, to real estate debt. And I came back from it. And I came back from it from - by being disciplined and by never giving up on myself.
I think it resonates with people that hold it, if Cramer came back and he was able to make a lot of money and be successful, I can come back, too.
But you need to save. You need to save. I was putting money way the - as soon as I got on my feet and as soon as I was able to pay off the onerous credit card debt that I had and the onerous bills that I owed, that’s when I started saving.
And you can too. And it doesn’t matter. You can come back from anything in this country - anything.
Quick question - like a lot of Americans, I have the bulk of my retirement in a mutual fund - CGM Focus Funds.
Jim Cramer: See that’s my - that’s one I’m recommending and stay (man) for life.Yeah, it’s my number one fund - the stay (man) for life.
I didn’t know that. I was going to ask you should I stay or should I go?
Jim Cramer: No, it’s the number one fund in the country in my most recent book. I’d always been reluctant to recommend mutual funds and the reason is because if the manager changes...
Like, CGM Focus Fund is run by Ken Heebner. If Ken Heebner leaves, I got to redo that section of the book. But you’re in the fund that I regard as being the number one fund in America.
It’s very funny you mentioned that because literally - I mean, literally I’ve done - what I did was do research. I care about how people do in bad times, how managers do in bad times. And he has the best record of doing well in bad times, and the good times always take care of themselves. He’s the master. He’s the master money manager in this country.
And by the way, all the time you read about these big hedge fund managers and how you feel like you’ve got to be rich in order to be with them. That is another thing that I say is nonsense. The best managers work for almost nothing. They work at mutual funds.
The one that you have is the archetype.
Is gold still a good investment?
Jim Cramer: I say on my show every night that one-tenth of your money should be in gold and the reason why you should do that is because it’s an unstable time in the world. I’ve been recommending gold since 9/11.
I never recommended gold before 9/11. I just think that there’s too much uncertainty in the world not to have some of your assets being in gold. And I’ve always recommended a gold - that you own one gold stock out of ten - ten is being the portfolio - you can have five stocks to get started.
But I believe that if you don’t have some exposure to gold, you’re too much at the mercy of the world right now.
I’ve been saying - by the way, just so you know, gold is at 900. I’ve been saying that gold goes to 1600 over the course of the next ten years.
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