Jim Rogers, legendary investor and co-founder of the Quantum Fund, has a stark warning for investors: “I’ve seen this party before, and this one worries me.”
In this exclusive interview with James Connor, Rogers reveals why he’s exited most of his global equity positions and is now holding massive amounts of cash, gold, and silver. He explains why today’s global economic optimism masks deeper problems: a global debt crisis, unsustainable speculation, and a dangerous shift away from free trade.
Key Topics:
- Why Jim sold all his U.S. stocks
- How the debt burden will haunt the next generation
- What Buffett’s $300B cash pile means, and why Jim agrees
- India’s surprising rise, and why Jim is watching closely
- Why he’s buying silver and gold, but avoiding mining stocks
- What makes Uzbekistan interesting, and Argentina risky
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Jim Rogers 0:00
I sold all my US stocks recently, because I know I’ve seen this party before, I will repeat that I’m worried.
James Connor 0:14
Jim, thank you very much for joining us today. How are things in Singapore?
Jim Rogers 0:17
I’m delighted to be here, Jimmy, things are great in Singapore. Things things in Singapore usually great. It’s on the equator, so the weather doesn’t change much, and their economy is usually great. So so far so good. I have
James Connor 0:32
not had the pleasure of visiting Singapore, but I always hear so many great things about it. You moved there many years ago? Did you move there? I believe in the early 2000s
Jim Rogers 0:41
I moved there permanently. In 2007 I moved here so my children would speak Mandarin. We tried China, but China was extremely polluted, and Singapore was very easy. Everything works in Singapore. So here
James Connor 0:53
we are. And what is it you enjoy most about Singapore? Partly
Jim Rogers 0:57
that everything works. You know, New York’s a wonderful place to live, but it’s a very difficult place to live, because nothing works. In Singapore is a very easy place to live. They have everything that one would want as far as culture is concerned, and it works.
James Connor 1:14
So I want to start off by asking you about Singapore, more specifically, Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong, he’s made a lot of statements about the trade wars and what’s happening between the US and other countries. And he actually said what’s happening right now with the tariffs are having a seismic change in the global order, signaling the end of a rules based globalization. What are your thoughts on this and and what do you think of tariffs overall? Are they good or they? Are they bad?
Jim Rogers 1:45
No. Tariffs have always been bad for everybody. They sometimes have worked for a short period for some people, but ultimately, they usually don’t work, and usually they’re scrapped everywhere and throughout history. I am not a fan of tariffs. I’m much more in favor of letting people trade and trade and trade, and the world is usually better off if we all trade and drink beer together or tea or whatever we want to drink.
James Connor 2:16
And there’s this ongoing debate on on who pays for the tariffs, and some people say it’s ultimately the consumers. What are your thoughts? Well,
Jim Rogers 2:24
the tariffs are basically a tax, because the country receiving the goods pays the tariff, pays the tax, and that’s paid by the consumers. I mean, ultimately and in the end. Now that’s not the 100% always answer, but that’s normally the answer.
James Connor 2:44
And because of where you’re situated, you’re very close to China. You spent a lot of time there. You know the country and the politics very well, and what’s what’s happening in China right now, in terms of the economy, how bad are things? Well,
Jim Rogers 3:00
good question. Most places are suffering right now, at least some. Well, I won’t say, most places, many places in Asia, I should say, and certainly China had a big real estate bubble which popped, and that’s hurt them a bit. And the rest of the world has been cutting back as far as trade is concerned. So China has slowed down. And China did have this huge property bubble, and it has popped. And whenever you have a big real estate bubble and it pops, people suffer for a while. It’s happened in the US. It’s happened everywhere, and that’s China still has the hangover from its property bubble.
James Connor 3:42
So there’s this back and forth happening between the US and China in terms of the tariffs. And right now, I guess we have a 90 day pause, and both countries are going to try to negotiate and work something out. But do you think the Chinese will like, are things bad enough in China that they will be forced to sit down and negotiate some sort of tariff package that’s going to be more beneficial for the US? Or do you think they’re just going to sit back and take their time? Because they’re as we all know, they’re very patient. Well,
Jim Rogers 4:16
you just said it. China, traditionally And historically, has waited and has been patient and has finally in the end. I mean, they have had bad times at times, but normally they just wait it out. Now I am not in Beijing, so I have no idea what they’re going to do, but I would suspect that they will. But China certainly wants 30. China does not want to go through bad times. Nobody does. So I’m sure that if things really get bad, China will do their best to alleviate things. But Jimmy, I cannot speak for Beijing. I have no idea how what they’re thinking up there. I. And
James Connor 5:00
one of the reasons why the US has implemented these tariffs is because they they want to generate more revenue so they can pay down their debt and lower their deficit. It’s currently around 7% of GDP. They want to get it down to 3% so imposing tariffs is one way to do that. They’re going to generate more revenues. And in the past, when you go back to the 1980s Japan, it was a superpower. They were a big buyer of US debt, and that’s how the US was able to fund these deficits. And then moving forward to the early 2000s and China became that financial superpower, and they were a big buyer of US debt. But now, as we both discussed, China’s going through some very honors times, and they’re not able to buy the debt that’s required for the US to keep going. Do you think another country such as India will become the new financial superpower? They become the big buyer of US debt?
Jim Rogers 5:58
I hope nobody becomes the buyer of US debt. I hope we don’t have such gigantic debt. I mean, the US is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. And I sit and look at the numbers, and I say, Can’t they read in Washington? Don’t they know what’s happening? But to your question, yes, India is certainly changing. It’s on the rise. For the first time in my investment career. I mean, I’ve invested in India many times, but for the first time in my investment career, I have the feeling that Delhi, the capital in Delhi, they understand economics. Now. They’ve always given lip service to everything. But I really for now, I really think the Indians understand that prosperity is good. Being rich is good. Has nothing wrong with rich people. And for the first time in my life, I am extremely interested in investing in it. I’ve invested in it many times, but I mean, for the first time, I’m really deeply interested, because I think that somebody in India finally gets it, and they’re going to be a real power.
James Connor 7:08
And I want to ask you about Trump now, and I wanted to get your thoughts. Do you think Trump is a disruptor, or do you think he’s a transformer? In other words, is he just out for his own greed, or does he really, truly want to transform the global landscape and create a new world order.
Jim Rogers 7:25
Well, you actually can be both. In my my vision, what I read, you know, Mr. Trump, Margaret Thatcher had a deep underlying philosophy that guided her, and if something happened, you could pretty much determine what Margaret Thatcher would do, and have been many people like that. I don’t see that. Mr. Thump Trump has too deep an underlying philosophy that what he I mean, he wakes up every morning. It’s not as though I know what he’s going to think. He watches TV and decides what to do. You know, he where the wind blows. Mister Trump often follows, uh, doesn’t mean he’s not going to do very good things. He’s got some extremely good ideas. He wants to disrupt a lot of stuff, and the world needs disrupting, including the US. So Mister Trump could be fabulous. He will certainly surprise me if he comes up with some of these wonderful things that he talks about, I just hope he doesn’t ruin us all.
James Connor 8:28
What is some of the better ideas you think he has? Well,
Jim Rogers 8:32
he’s talked about, you know, all these military alliances we have. NATO, he keeps saying, We gotta change all of this. And he’s right. I don’t know that anybody in America, much less Washington, just thought all this stuff true. More or less, it just happened. And in Washington, if something happens 30 years later, you’re still trying to deal with it, because it happened once upon a time, and that is part of the US problem, in my view. And Mr. Trump seems to want to make some basic changes, I hope he can, including the debt, including the taxes. It would be wonderful if we could do something about the debt in the US. I mean, I have two young children, the problems they’re going to have in their lifetime are going to be like what the British went through in the 60s, you know, when they had the hangover of their debt from 40 or 50 years before. And I, I’m afraid my kids are going to face a lot of the same consequences.
James Connor 9:40
Maybe you can just elaborate on those consequences. I’m not too familiar with what happened back in the UK during the 60s. Well,
Jim Rogers 9:47
in 1925 Britain was the richest, most powerful country in the world. 50 years later, they were bankrupt. That’s not a typo. 1976 the IMF had to bail out Britain because they. Went bankrupt. They literally couldn’t pay their bills. And Britain in that period of time, went through exchange controls, strict exchange controls on all of its on everybody, in fact, and it was very difficult to do anything in Britain, including have a good time, including travel, because the debt was so onerous and it built up again. They were the richest country in the world. It’s 100 years ago. 50 years ago, they were the richest country in the world, and then 50 years ago, they went bankrupt. You remember Margaret Thatcher? I mean, Margaret Thatcher came in in the 70s, 7919 79 and she actually had did some very good things. But what Margaret Thatcher didn’t talk about a lot was 1979 was the year the North Sea oil started flowing. So Jim, if you give me the largest oil field in this world, I’ll show you a very good time. We’ll have a very good time. And Margaret Thatcher did a lot of good things, but she came there with the right philosophy, a strong philosophy, but at a time when suddenly they had huge oil revenues.
James Connor 11:22
So let’s bring it back to the US. Now you’re suggesting things could get pretty rough there, and right now the economy is hanging in pretty good. The last q1 number we saw there was, it was negative, but a lot of that had to do with the imports. A lot of people were trying to get ahead of these tariffs. Okay, so it created a negative tick. But maybe when you look at the q2 or even when you go back to q4 the US economy’s been doing relatively well. It’s hanging in, growing somewhere between two to 3% inflation seems to be somewhat contained. What are your thoughts on the US economy? And it sounds like you have a lot of concerns about it, but yet, when you look at a lot of the data, it’s really not all that bad. It looks pretty robust. The
Jim Rogers 12:05
data is great. I mean, everywhere in the world. I mean, one of my problems is everybody is having a good time right now. You know, maybe even Uzbekistan is having a great time. I mean, China is a laggard, but they had a real estate, huge bubble which pops, which is hurting them, but most countries in the world, if you look at everywhere, whether it’s Canada or Germany or Japan, I mean, the Japanese stock market is making all time highs after being depressed for 35 years. That’s not a typo. 35 years the Japanese stock market was in the doldrums. So everybody’s doing well right now, and it’s great, but how long can it last? My problem is, I’m old. I’ve been around. I’ve seen all these things happen before, and usually when they have happened in the past. It’s time to worry. I hope it’s not. I hope it’s not. Mr. Trump says everything is different now, right?
James Connor 13:12
You and I have had many conversations in the last five years or so, and we’ve talked about these elevated markets and these bubbles that have been happening, and yet it just keeps on going. And the S P topped out earlier this year at 6100 it did come under pressure, just on the back of the tariffs and the trade wars went down to the 4800 level, and then we’ve had a massive rally since then. Now we’re back up to the 58 5900 level. What are your thoughts in the s, p here, and also the NASDAQ. Do you think we take out that previous high of 6100 or do you think we’re going to end up testing that low of 4800
Jim Rogers 13:49
Well, I’m the world’s worst market technician, technician, market timer. So you’re asking the wrong person. I sold all my US stocks recently, because I know I’ve seen this party before. I mean, I hope it goes on for five more years, but it rarely has. You see a lot of new people coming into the market. You see a lot of new people talking about how much fun it is, how easy it is. It’s easy to make money. As you probably know, if you read the if you read the the press, there was a whatever. It’s the internet. Read the internet. It’s the ill found that it’s easy to make money. Well, that’s great, wonderful. I hope it stays easy to make money for lots of people, for the rest of the rest of history never has, but that would be great if we if it’s going to go on for 100 more years.
James Connor 14:49
One of the things that really fascinates me about this current cycle that we’re living through right now is the level of speculation. And I read a stat recently about the number of searches on YouTube. For stock trading, it’s five to 6 million Search searches a month. But for sports betting, it’s 50 to 60 million searches a month. And then when you look at like, just in the last five years, you have all these bubbles happening right now. Is AI is the big bubble? It’s cryptocurrencies. We’ve had ICOs, nfts, the metaverse. There’s just one thing after another. What are your thoughts on, on the level of speculation that’s going on right now? And I mentioned sports betting, that’s also a form of speculation. Well,
Jim Rogers 15:31
that’s good insight that you have, and in very important, important insight, because in his historically, when we’ve had periods like this, and lots of new people have come in and started speculating. And whatever they’re speculating in, it is usually ended badly eventually. I mean, maybe this time is different. Remember, Jimmy, those are very dangerous words. This time it’s different. But maybe it is. Maybe it’s different this time. I mean, I will repeat that I’m worried. I’ve seen this party before, and this one worries me
James Connor 16:11
during the last Fed meeting, the one word that was used a lot was uncertainty. We’ve heard that a lot here in the last couple of months. But do you think, like, what’s going to what’s going to be the catalyst to take this market lower? Do you think it’s going to be uncertainty associated with the economy? Do you think people’s confidence levels are just going to be deteriorating to the point where they just stop buying we get a significant drop in the economy, and therefore, maybe a increase in unemployment.
Jim Rogers 16:43
Jimmy, I’ve heard the word uncertainty all my investment career. I wish it were a new word. I wish there were no new ones, no uncertainty, no I would suspect what will happen this time. It’s what’s happened before somebody is going to sell, maybe it’s you, and the next thing you know, two or three other people will and eventually lots of people will sell. And then we’ll all sit around one day and a year or so and look around say, oh my gosh, the market’s down. Everything is down. Look at this. It’s a bear market. It’s not the first time we’ve had a bear market, and maybe it’ll last a long time, I don’t know, but I know that when everything is up and very few people are worried, it usually is that. And if you look around the world, I mean nearly every stock market in the world is having fun right now. So it’s rare than history that everybody in the world is doing well.
James Connor 17:46
Well, I think one maybe it is different this time, because one thing we’ve seen in the last 20 years, 25 years, is that the Fed and the government, they just step in and they just keep pumping money into the system. Maybe they just keep doing that. Well,
Jim Rogers 18:02
we’ve had that that happened before. It’s never changed anything. It changes things for a while. But even the Fed doesn’t have it unlimited amounts of money that can save us all. And in fact, if the Fed ever tries to save us all, it usually makes things worse.
James Connor 18:22
So I want to ask you about the 10 year bond. It’s been very volatile here. In the last few weeks, it was went down to 4% now we’re back to the 450 level. What do you think is happening there? Do you think investors are saying, You know what, because of what’s going on in the US economy, we want a higher yield? Do you see rates going to 5% or five and a half percent,
Jim Rogers 18:42
I do see rates going higher. I do see that inflation is not ended around the world, and usually when you have inflation anywhere, especially in big countries, it leads to higher interest rates. So I would suspect we will have higher interest rates in the next couple of years.
James Connor 19:01
How high do you see them going? I wish I
Jim Rogers 19:04
were that smart. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be that smart? I have no idea, but I know certainly higher than 5%
James Connor 19:12
you mentioned earlier that you are started investing in India, and you see a lot of potential there, and a big part of your success has come from investing in emerging markets. What other countries are you looking at now? What other countries do you see? A lot of interest or a lot of hope? Okay,
Jim Rogers 19:29
yes, to clarify, I don’t have any investments in India right now. I’ve started three or four times in the last few years investing in India, but at the moment, I don’t have anything there. You know, I’ve missed this last move. It’s not my first time missing something. But as I look around the world, Jimmy, there are not many places i Yes, China is is a good place to invest. I have investments there that may need left over from before. But Uzbekistan is a great place to invest right now, but most people couldn’t find it on a map, much less know how to invest there. But I if I could put a lot more money in Uzbekistan, I would, but I don’t know many markets right now. Jimmy, if you have some, you should give us all hot tips. We need hot tips. Yeah,
James Connor 20:21
I also need some hot tips. Oh, what about Argentina? We have a new government down there. He seems to be making significant progress. I’ve
Jim Rogers 20:29
read lots of what he’s been saying for the last few several months. It’s very interesting. I’ve invested in Argentina many, several times in the last few decades. And it’s astonishing, astonishing. This guy, unfortunately, I’ve seen it before in Argentina, but he sounds like one of the best. You know, there have been people coming along in Argentina for 100 years and say, Ah, let’s do it. Let’s do it, and everything is great for a while, and then next thing you know, it collapses into disaster. I don’t know if he’s different. He sounds different. I don’t have investments in Argentina, but if he is as different as he sounds, it may be Argentina’s day Finally. Finally.
James Connor 21:18
It’s amazing how these governments come along, and they can just destroy entire countries and economies and and you just talked a little bit about Argentina. And if you go back 100 years, or 125 years, anybody coming from Europe, they had two choices. They were either going to go to the US or they were going to go to Argentina. And then, I believe it was in the early 1900s you had a socialist government came in, and they effectively just destroyed the entire country. Used to be a very strong, robust country, and for the last 100 plus years, it’s been anything but well,
Jim Rogers 21:52
you’ve done your research, and you’ve done your research accurately, and it’s good to know, but you’re exactly right. I mean, 125 years ago, if you were in Europe and a rich person walked into the room, all the French said, oh god, look at there’s an Argentinian, you know, because nobody was as rich as the Argentinians in those days, for a variety of reasons. And of course, it all collapsed. As you point out. They had several periods of being really, really rich. It also had several periods of total collapse. Right now they’re on the rise again. I don’t know. I have no investments in Argentina. I wish I did. You remember what’s her name, the lady the famous Argentinian pyramid. But that was, but, yeah, that was the guy, but he had a wife, a girlfriend, Avita. You remember Avita? Well? Avita was the woman who was winning everything in Argentina and helped ruin it, just like Eva mister Peron did.
James Connor 23:03
Well. As you know, I reside in Toronto, and we’ve had the same thing happen here. We’ve had a Liberal government for the last 10 years. When the when the Liberal government came to power in 2015 our GDP was 1.8 trillion. You want to guess where it is right now, Jim, 10 years later,
Jim Rogers 23:20
2 trillion. Yeah, I don’t know. Point
James Connor 23:23
one, it’s about 2.1 trillion. So effectively, we’ve had zero growth for the last 10 years because we’ve had a Liberal government that’s been more focused on implementing social polity policies like what, what’s the correct pronoun to use, as opposed to implementing economic policies that are going to push this economy forward and create a higher standard of living for people. But anyhow, I want to ask you now about what’s happening in Europe, because we’ve really had a change of guard. We have a younger generation coming in, new new leader in the UK or in Britain, another new leader in Germany, both young guys. Do you think this younger generation is going to create a new New World Order, if you will, that
Jim Rogers 24:08
would be wonderful. I’ve heard about New World orders many times in my life. In many countries, I hope they create a new world order, but I hope it’s sound. You know, as you know, even Germany has a lot of debt. Now, Britain has huge debt. Many of the European countries have built up a lot of debt in the last 20 or 30 years. And yes, it’ll be wonderful if nobody has to pay the debts. And I know that there is a mindset change in Europe, but there’s also lots more debt now, and I don’t know how they’re going to pay it off, but I don’t know how we, the US, are going to pay it off either. I mean, I know this is getting worse for everybody in the world.
James Connor 24:55
I’m sure you saw the news that Warren Buffett is retiring as the CEO of. Bucha. He’s still going to stay on as the chairman, but Greg Abel is taking over. He was at the helm for 60 years. What are your thoughts on Warren Buffet stepping down? Well,
Jim Rogers 25:12
I mean, I hope, first of all, I live that long enough so that I can step down when I’m his age. But no, I mean, what choice does he have? I mean, he’s a smart guy. He knows he’s going to go someday, and His plan is to go ahead and start getting it, getting ready for the transition. He doesn’t have much choice except to step down. This is going to live to 150 doesn’t have much choice to start stepping down. I hope he lives to 150 that’d be great.
James Connor 25:47
I watched the AGM, and I always like to hear his thoughts, but it’s amazing how he’s still so very sharp intellectually. Well,
Jim Rogers 25:55
yeah, but, but, and I hope he lives 250 and it’s still sharp. But as I say, does he have any choice if he suddenly died of a heart attack? Everybody would say, oh gosh, guys stay too long, and what’s going to happen now? No, he’s made he has done the right things for the transition. I don’t know what else he could do.
James Connor 26:19
And he’s currently sitting on over $300 billion in cash, I think 27 or 28% of his portfolio. What are your thoughts there?
Jim Rogers 26:29
Well, I’m sitting on huge amounts of cash too. So for what it’s worth and it’s worth nothing, I’m have exactly the same approach that Warren does right now.
James Connor 26:40
Okay, so let’s talk about your your investments in your portfolio. You said you have a large cash position on a percentage basis, how large? I
Jim Rogers 26:49
don’t even know. I don’t I don’t have a committee I have to report to, but I do know it’s almost entirely cash. Except I do still have shares in China and Uzbekistan, but I sold out of nearly everywhere in stocks.
James Connor 27:06
And Jim, you have always been a big believer in gold and silver. Are you still holding positions? I
Jim Rogers 27:13
own a lot of gold and silver. I bought more silver last week, and I will probably buy more gold if I know, I will buy more gold if it goes down, and I might even buy more silver if it goes down. I have not a seller of gold and silver. I hope that someday my children have all the gold and silver, because I don’t see any reason for any human being to sell gold and silver in the 21st Century. So
James Connor 27:44
gold is doing what it should be doing. It keeps making new highs, and it’s pulled back a little bit here in the last couple of weeks, but nonetheless, it’s done very well in the last couple of years. Silver seems to be lagging big time. It’s all time high was $50 an ounce, and that was set back in 2011 here we are in 2025 and it’s languishing in the low 30s. What are your thoughts on silver? Why is it languishing? Why haven’t we taken out that all time high of 50 bucks an ounce
Jim Rogers 28:11
silver also was at 50 in 1980 for what it’s worth. So it’s been at 50 twice in history. Um, and why is it lagging? Now, that’s an extremely good question. The only thing I can answer is because we don’t seem to have an inflation boom. We don’t have a commodity bubble or a commodity pop like we did before. I mean, otherwise I would suspect that silver is going to I’m, I’m a buyer of silver. I said I bought more silver recently, and it’s if you can keep it down, keep it down, and I can buy some more, and I will.
James Connor 28:54
And so you’re buying the physical. What about mining stocks?
Jim Rogers 28:57
No, I don’t. I mean, mining stocks are great, spectacular investments. If you can do the work and you get it right, I’m too lazy, but if you can find the right mining stocks, you’re going to make unbelievable amounts of money. But it takes work. Problem is, there are lots of mining stocks out there,
James Connor 29:18
and you’re you said you have a large cash position, I’m assuming that’s invested in some sort of short term bonds.
Jim Rogers 29:26
Yeah, yeah, Treasury, I have my, most of my cash in US dollars and in US dollar instruments.
James Connor 29:35
I’m glad you brought up the US dollar, because there’s a lot of concern now that the US dollar is under pressure and is going to continue to fall. What are your thoughts on the US dollar, and I’m talking more longer term now, because of what’s happening in the world, like if you look out a year, five years out,
Jim Rogers 29:53
well, the people with those concerns are exactly right. Us is now the largest debtor nation in the history. Of the world. And if you ask me, Well, I told you I own a lot of US dollars. My plan, for what it’s worth, is US dollars are going to go up. It’s going to have another hurrah, and I’m going to be smart enough to sell my US dollars. Because I know it’s getting closer to the end. I didn’t say it with the end yet. I’m just saying it’s getting closer to the end, because there’s so many people who are bullish on the dollar and so many people who are long, and the US debt just can’t again. I can’t believe the people in Washington can’t read. I can read. I know what the debt situation is, and it’s getting to be staggering. Now your question should be, okay, where are you going to put the money? And that is the best question of the year for me. I don’t know. I don’t see a competitor for the US dollar yet, and I don’t know where I’ll put my money when I sell my US dollars, and that that that concerns me. It’s got to be a place. But, you know, you would think it would be the Chinese currency, but the Chinese currency is not convertible. I mean, they’re making it convertible slowly. But, I mean, the Chinese convertible would be the the Chinese currency would be the logical place, but it’s not a convertible currency yet, so I don’t know. I don’t have an answer. If you have an answer, Jimmy, don’t say it out loud. Send me an email. Send me a private email.
James Connor 31:32
We’ve we were talking about how China’s been under pressure here in the last few years, and that economy is very weak. Would you invest in China now,
Jim Rogers 31:41
well, I’m looking, I haven’t found anything. You know, the Chinese had a lot of problems because of property bubble and the COVID virus. Market was down a lot. But I have not found anything that I find suitable yet. I own a lot that I’ve held left over. I mean, I’ve had some Chinese shares for 20 or 30 years, but I have not found anything new recently. You
James Connor 32:08
have lived through many cycles, so you have a lot of experience to share. What? What advice would you give investors right now, during these crazy times that we’re living through? Go
Jim Rogers 32:18
to the beach, you know? No, I mean, I would just say, be very, very careful. I’ve told you I’ve sold out of most markets in the world. Many stock markets around the world have been doing extremely well. I am if I my advice is, be very, very careful. Wherever you think about investing. This is a rare time in investing history. I
James Connor 32:47
want to move on now and ask you about your travel plans. You You and your wife embarked on a extensive journey. Back in 1999 you did a trip around the world. You visited 116 different countries, which is a mind blowing number, but I’m kind of curious. I’m going to put you on the spot now, like, what were your top three countries, the countries you really enjoyed the most? Maybe because of the raw natural beauty, maybe because of the people and the culture, the food? What? Well,
Jim Rogers 33:17
that’s a very good question. The food. There’s a lot of good food out there in the world, if you’re willing to be diligent, what I was looking I did it twice. I went around the world in 1990 91 and 92 on my motorcycle, and that was so much fun. That’s why we did it again in 1999 and 2000 2001 I mean, Jimmy. I grew up in a small town where my phone number was five. That’s not a typo. My phone number was five. And when you grow up in a town where your phone number is five, you probably never leave, which is fine, or you’re crazy and you want to see the whole world like me. I mean, I wanted adventure more than once, and so I set out to find the adventure. And there’s some wonderful places out there in the world. They’re not all comfortable, but there’s some wonderful places in the world. And so I wanted to see it all. I mean, I stayed in some horrible places, which was fine, you know, I ate some strange food which was fine, but that was the reason to do it, was to see the world, I mean, across the Sahara Desert more than once, which is not easy, and no roads across the Sahara Desert. But all of this was, you know, because I was this foolish kid from the backwoods of Alabama who wanted to see the world, and I knew that would not be easy, and I did it, and I don’t have regrets. I’m happy I’m alive. My main light is I’m still alive. But, you know, I should be dead. I. I’m glad I’m not dead. I’m nice. And to tell you,
James Connor 35:05
when was the last time you visited
Jim Rogers 35:07
Alabama? I was there a few weeks ago because there was a wedding or a funeral or something. You know, I still have lots of relatives in Alabama. My parents have died, but I have a couple of brothers that still live there, hundreds of cousins. So I was there not too long ago, and I’m sure I’ll be there again. I know I’ll be there again sometimes this year or so, and I’m delighted
James Connor 35:36
I will not even it’s always a pleasure speaking with you, and I want to thank you very much for spending time with us today and sharing your thoughts. And as we wrap up, do you have any last words you’d like to share with the audience? Be careful.
Jim Rogers 35:52
Be very, very careful. Listen closely to Jimmy and be extremely careful, because more and more people are getting exuberant and confident, and that often leads to problems. Just be very careful. I hope you all get rich, and I hope you all retire young, but be careful.
James Connor 36:16
Very good advice, Jim, once again, thank you.
Jim Rogers 36:19
My pleasure, Jimmy, I hope we do it again sometime.
