Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975.
Takaaki Iwabu/Bloomberg
Need an idea for a holiday gift? The founder of the world’s largest hedge fund has a simple suggestion.
Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, gives each of his grandchildren a gold coin for every holiday and birthday. The yellow metal is the best way to get young people excited about saving, he says.
But the gift comes with special instructions. “They can’t spend the gold coin. They have to save that gold coin and only use it in an emergency,” he tells Barron’s. “In their lifetime, the goal is to pass the coin onto their kids.”
Dalio says the gift helps the next generation appreciate the value of saving.
Why gold and not some other financial asset? The investor says gold has its limitations and he doesn’t expect big returns from the investment. Plus, the commodity is “kind of a dead asset,” he notes. Still, “It’s better than other assets,” Dalio says. “Ordinarily, I’d give them [toys] that won’t be around in a year.”
Dalio spoke with Barron’s ahead of a discussion on Fox Business’ Roundtable show about his new book, Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail. The 72-year-old founded Bridgewater in 1975 at the age of 26. During his career, Dalio successfully anticipated several major economic events, perhaps most notably, the global financial collapse of 2008.
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