Jim Rickards Reviews

Jim Rickards Review: Legit or Scam?

Reviewopedia staff  -  Updated:  July 15, 2023

 

Jim Rickards (James G. Rickards) is a popular investor who’s worked at the highest levels of finance and produces a variety of financial content via books, newsletters, and published articles.

Rickards' pieces have been featured in many popular online and print outlets.

Below we take a closer look at his members only investment newsletters and analyze what customers have to say about his financial advice.

Books Published

Jim Rickards has an impressive education background and has had many high level roles in finance firms.  He states that his beliefs are strongly forged by his real world experiences.  

He also uses his role as an “insider” heavily in the marketing of his books and newsletters.

To begin with, you can read a lot about his various strategies in one of the many books he’s published.  Currently this list includes the following titles:

  • The New Case for Gold (April 2016)
  • Currency Wars (2011)
  • The Death of Money (2014)
  • The Road to Ruin (2016)
  • Aftermath (2019)
  • The New Great Depression (2021)

As you can tell by the titles, he brings an alarmist approach to analyzing global fiscal and monetary policy and the effects he believes they will have on economies.

His reactionary style urges investors to plan ahead and provide safeguards for their assets and plan for inevitable market downturns and inflation.

One of his other recurring themes is how vulnerable the US dollar and US markets are to foreign exploitation and how to protect yourself.

These perceived threats influence his investment advice, which generally suggests to diversify and keep tangible assets such as gold and other precious metals.

Jim Rickards’ Newsletters

Through Paradigm Press Rickards publishes several investor newsletters, the most popular and affordable of which is titled Strategic Intelligence.

It’s often through the marketing for this newsletter that many people first come across Rickards.  

The ads for Strategic Intelligence usually feature a doomsday scenario that Rickards predicts will happen in the near future.

Rickards claims that if you subscribe to Strategic Intelligence you’ll learn how to safeguard your assets and profit from the impending instability.

His most recent presentation titled “Beware, Biden Bucks” proclaims that the US Government is planning on converting to a digital dollar that's similar to cryptocurrency except that this one would be entirely controlled by the US government.

He fears that this will lead to a surveillance state in which all your transactions will be monitored and potentially even used against you.

If you subscribe to Strategic Intelligence you will get access to his guides for protecting yourself from having your wealth seized in a report titled, Asset Emancipation.

You get this report and 3 more as bonuses for joining Rickards' paid newsletter.

Cost and Price Plans

The cost for the base level of Strategic Intelligence on the Paradigm Press website is $299 per year.  

However if you’re ordering through the Biden Bucks video there are several promotions that can bring the cost down to as low as $49.

His other premium newsletters cost significantly more at $3,000 - $5,000.

Note:  All orders are set to automatically renew at the end of the year so if you no longer wish to receive it you will have to call and cancel your subscription.

 

Customer Service

Phone: (844) 731-0984

Email: [email protected] / contact for on website

Physical Address:

808 St. Paul St.
Baltimore, MD, 21202

Paradigm Press states that customers have 180 days to review his materials, and if during that time they're not satisfied they can request a refund.

Jim Rickards Reviews & Complaints

We found customer reviews for Jim Rickards’ books to be fairly good.  On Amazon most of his books have a rating of around 4.5/5 stars.

Readers generally tend to appreciate getting an inside view into how some of the big financial decisions get made.

The feedback for Strategic Intelligence consists of more mixed reviews, with more complaints being posted on trading focused review websites.

In general, customers feel that Rickards relies too much on scare tactics to sell his products.  These reviewers feel that these warnings are becoming increasingly inflammatory and seem hyperbolic.

There are also customer reviews that you can read on our site from those who state they have not made any money following his advice and that many of his predictions never came true.

Finally, customers also take issue with how much solicitation they get for other newsletters once they sign up for the basic version of Strategic Intelligence.

On the other hand, there are customers who enjoy his newsletters and, even though they admit to not being fans of the doom and gloom, they believe he makes compelling arguments for the claims he espouses.

Competitors and Alternatives

There are several investment advisory companies that follow a very similar marketing strategy to Paradigm Press.

They feature a handful of expert market analysts who market their subscription newsletters through online ads that often claim that some manner of financial collapse is imminent.

They go on to argue that you need their newsletter to prepare yourself and/or take advantage of this catastrophic event.

Such companies include:

These publishers usually have mostly negative customer reviews that you can read here and on other sites, and are generally not recommended by serious investors.

Is Jim Rickards a Scam?

It’s difficult to judge investment advisors because it depends on the time frame you use to look at their work.  

Individual stock pickers rarely beat the market consistently over a prolonged period of time, and it is difficult to predict who those stock pickers will be in the future.

That being said, you can still find value in Jim Rickards advice, books, and world views.  For instance, hedging against the collapse of the US dollar may prove to be good advice in the long run.

However, we find that Rickards' use of strong and emotional messaging in sales pitches for his products is usually a red flag.

We also find the sales tactic of enticing new customers with a low cost newsletter followed by aggressive attempts to upsell them to much more pricey offerings to be questionable.

If you have any experience with Jim Rickards' books or newsletters, please leave your reviews below.

You may also be interested in

Jim Rickards Customer Reviews

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DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!
December 8, 2023

Jim Rickards uses "fear mongering" to get your attention. Regrettably, I fell for his crap and signed up for a year. For the last year he flooded my email with daily rants and a few transactions. He uses "puts" which my Financial Planner would not do for me and I did not feel comfortable enough to do myself. He is constantly trying to "upgrade your subscription" and sell you on items provided by 3rd party vendors.

I sent an email prior to renewal and even received a confirmation that I had canceled. Fortunately, my credit card notified me of a potential scam use of my card. It was Paradigm Press trying to process the charge. TOTAL BS!

Jim Rickard political bias.
November 11, 2023
Jim Rickards view is just like that of his favorite politician, "give the audience what they want" regardless of the facts.

GerardOwmby November 12, 2023

He seems to be a life-long Pentagon war-monger who likes to describe Biden as "the Biden crime family". He also seems to like the idea of trump running the country while he's in prison.

Full of himself
November 1, 2023

Jim records is all talk and no walk. He rattles on for an hour or longer about what you could’ve done might’ve done should’ve won what he’s done and how great he is and never does tell you about How to make real money.

If he would just get to the point, and quit patting himself on the back may be a person could get through one of his narratives. He uses the phrase ‘in a moment” Over and over again in his presentations.

For a man, supposedly as smart as he is, does he know what a moment is? I did get my refund back

Wealth of knowledge but not profitable.
October 26, 2023

I have followed Jim Ricards for several years. His credentials are impeccable, his connections to the power movers in finance & government vast and his love for gold is worn proudly. But with all that commentary and prognostication of knowledge it has not translated in profitable trading for me. chuckib

Most dangerous sort of con artist
October 13, 2023

I can’t hedge this. Rickards is the worst kind of fraud. But he does have a keen knack of playing both ends of an argument, making him a double fraud.

For example, he claims that Biden is horrible for killing the doomsday deal (could he be a front here with the main purpose to get reader to vote for Trump), but he’ll make you a mint by showing you how to profit from Biden’s breaking the doomsday deal. Bingo. He “loves” Biden for making his investment advice valuable . . . again (as his same advice surfaces every time there is a Democrat president).

As for his ideas, almost all are fake. Too many to critique him at length without my blowing a fuse in the process. Any sensible reader of his sales spiel would only laugh and flee, leaving only the gullible to take the bait who wouldn't listen to me, anyway.

I must add that he also saddens me, as I am a Penn Law grad, too; as well as a Wharton grad. So now, even without touching his investing advice, I myself have to deal with a double fraud from each of my alma maters (U-know-who is the Wharton grad who claims to have been top of his class, but won’t disclose his Wharton grades).

Jim Rickards has no integrity. Low class scammer, desperate for money..
August 12, 2023

Jim Rickards may have been good at one time but today he is nothing but a spammer, even more so, a scammer. Aggressive emails from paradigm press and dozens of associates they give your email address out to, pushing you for more expensive subscriptions, videos they don’t let you speed through to the end but force you to view or just turn off, a dishonest subscription renewal I never asked for, difficulty in unsubscribing (you have to call a number), no refund given of illegal renewal, continuing spam email from related sites/companies. Allowing himself to stoop to such a low brow/low class level speaks volumes of a man who must be desperate for money and who has abandoned any integrity he might once have had.

JuliaPrázsmáry October 17, 2023

Guy just came up on my Youtube advertisements...made me angry to no end. I'm just a lowly Eastern-European, grew up in a dictatorship (Romania, Ceausescu), but the ways you guys are getting your brains washed is a whole new level, even for me...

COMPLETE RIP OFF---SCAM
July 14, 2023
SCAM and Rip OFF I was charged $540.00 for his membership. In the FINE print it says non refundable. POOR customer service as we are facing financial hardship with a death in our family. DON"T BUY!

SPAMMER
June 26, 2023
SCAM / SPAMMER I have asked them 42 times thru Unsubscribe to stop emailing me; never stops spamming your email!!! Run from Jim Fast - Do Not Send Him any Money - You will be sorry. Not to mention the guy is full of it !

MOST IMPORTANTLY
June 3, 2023
If he was as good as he says he is, he wouldn't be Pedaling out of his trunk for money.

Marc June 07, 2023

Rickards is an alarmist and IMO qualifies as a Hysteric personality. Despite this, I've followed him for years and find much of the info. interesting. Us long term followers remember his prediction that Gold was going to $5,000. I believe he stocked up on loads. Today that's not a bad idea but he continues to Hawk gold in Strategic Intelligence mailings. He hasn't made me money.

Jim Richards
May 30, 2023
Too much of his previous employers and not enough new data.

following Jim Rickards sets you on the wrong track
May 3, 2023

He may know something about the financial world; I cannot judge because I know little about it.

But his predictions about the Russia-Ukraine war are complete off the mark and pure BS.

The same when it comes to his "analysis" of the environmental change (aka climate change). I don't know where he gets his information, but it is again pure BS.

I dislike his constant bashing of Biden and support of Trump; who can support Trump who has zero knowledge of politics and don't know the difference between a lie and reality.

Jim is an anti-patriot by his constant bashing of Biden and support for Trump.

In brief: Jim Rickards is an idiot.

It may be that he was up to snuff decades ago, but those times are way behind him; he can only sell his books and subscriptions; I feel bad I ever paid $$$ to him for his "intelligence"

ChiefBob May 21, 2023

Biden and his globalist puppeteers ARE anti-patriots as his policies and massive numbers of Executive Orders bypass the Congress, resulting in taxation without representation. He is corrupt and incompetent, and his failed mental state puts our country at massive risk.

I am not a Trumper and am considering voting for RFK, Jr. I'm sick of the insane crap spewing out by the "progressive" Dems.

You don't get what you pay for
April 12, 2023

After viewing Jim's presentation I signed up expecting to see the list of companies in the modular nuclear reactor business. He states in his presentations there are over seventy companies, and one of them is the company to watch.

He never does reveal the company. I sent several emails and ask a question with no response except to try and upsell his business. I have since canceled.

Stay Clear. Waste of Money
April 2, 2023
Stay clear of his Count Down to Crisis trading program. Lots of losing trades. And his customer service is horrible. I have emailed support multiple times & haven't got a single response at all. Thank God I got a refund from the 3rd party that does his billing.

BEWARE!!!!!!!!!
March 27, 2023

Do not believe a word or promise they make! EVERYTHING is a sales pitch based on fear mongering...They'll sell you anything they possibly can but if you have a question they are nowhere to be found!!!

I'm in the process of disputing the membership charges with my credit card - you should do the same...

RT April 02, 2023

I hope you got your refund. They issued me one

Not worth it!
March 13, 2023

Unfortunately, Mr Rickards' countdown to crisis , and his bubble scores have been a huge disappointment that has lost me a lot of money! Most of his advice has been losers! What he does is continues to market! market! and market! While giving a lot of losers!! His service is not worth his big charges.

ThomasD March 23, 2023

I was just about to buy into the hype, and then read the many reviews on this site. I am thankful for people who tell the truth about their experience. I should have already known by my own past experience, that there is more to it than is said. The main service is the stock alerts for buying puts, what stock, when to get in, when to get out. But since others said they lost money on that service, I'm just going to pass on it.

RT April 02, 2023

Definitely not worth it. Thank God his 3rd party billing refunded me.

My experience with Jim’s advice
February 21, 2023
I have to say that Jim Rickards is probably the most knowledgeable guy in finance that I know of. Yes his upsells are a tad persistent, but everyone deserves to earn a living. I am a subscriber to his next to cheapest offer but have made 100X that back in three months. Not sure his methods are for the novice investor but with little discipline his advice will help you grow your portfolio.

really bad experience with Jim Rickards
November 29, 2022

9 out of 10 trades I made on Jim Rickards recommended options are losing bigtime.

I am constantly bombarded daily with his upsell advertisements. More money for this service, more money for that service. Extend or upgrade present service. At this point, it looks like the best thing to do is if Jim Rickards recommends a trade, do the opposite!

ChrisFillios February 03, 2023

I recently canceled my subscription with Rickards and I received a refund as promised. He has disdain for President Biden, and overstated the impact of the President' canceling the Keystone Pipeline, a decision justified by the cost, nature, and ecological threat posed by the Pipeline.

I wonder if Jim Rickards can highlight for us the virtues of the Trump administration.

gloriaBea February 14, 2023

The fact that you just said that regarding the pipeline being a decision justified reveals your ideological bend. Anyone who is financially intelligent understands the damage that did to America.

Paul March 08, 2023

gloriaBea,

regardless of anyone's "ideological bend" (and I think Rickards' own bend is quite obvious) the fact that he is unequivocally stating that Biden ordered the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines should be a huge red flag to anyone listening. Especially when the latest intelligence as of today points to pro-Ukrainian groups (not Ukraine itself) as being responsible.

That, combined with other conspiracy theories he has spread in the past makes him far from credible in my humble opinion.

RT April 02, 2023

Yup. His trades suck. I got a refund Thank God

RobertJans May 03, 2023

How does one get a refund?

TrishMullins February 25, 2024

There are a few contacts at the top of this article.

Rickards preys on the fears and anxieties of conservative Americans
November 28, 2022

Before you buy into Jim Rickard's claims, please research them yourself, from INDEPENDENT sources. Read the law he claims is going to undermine every democratic institution in the US and turn America into a totalitarian nightmare overnight for yourself. You will see it does not do what he claims. Maybe you realize that you're not a lawyer or in finance, so maybe Rickards knows something you don't?

A wise thought, then ask yourself: why hasn't every lawyer and financier you know and trust raised the same alarm? Why are you learning about this new law and its effects on an infomercial and not on any of the pundits and news sources you trust? Consider this before handing him a moment of time or your bank information (and consider whether you should trust any organization that sells ad time to him).

Rickards takes advantage of the elderly and others who have built an echo chamber around themselves so opaque that they exist in an alternate reality. where everyone but white Christian conservatives born in the US are lying satanic globalist pedophiles working together in a vast conspiracy to do everything evil and horrible that has ever or will be imagined by all of humanity. I'm not certain how any thinking person could believe a carbon copy of the protocols of the Elders of Zion while simultaneously claiming everyone ELSE is hateful and divisive.I am tempted to just let stuff like this be, why should I care if such people are tricked out of money when they’ve made clear: if their great leader said people like me drawing breath was the main thing standing in the way of America being great again, they'd sooner join the lynch mob than defend its victims.

The more honest among them tell me they can’t wait to pose next to my dangling lifeless body. Maybe even post the picture with a hashtag of the slur that replaces my name or the term ‘human being’ in their mind, whenever they are forced to think of someone born as I was, or are confronted with the fact that people who don’t share their religious, political, and social beliefs are still allowed to exist on the same planet as them.

So what should I care if a grifter fleeces people with a lot more money than I will ever have? Why should I care about the finances of someone who would likely use that money to support a world where I’m no longer around to help the foot soldiers of Christian nationalism second guess their dedication to living, giving, sharing, loving, and being just as Christ did? I don’t know.

Maybe showing humanity is the last act of defiance I can muster against those who have constantly dehumanized me. Maybe I don’t click away from the far-right ads I get online because it reminds me that many people: either out of malice or confusion, would celebrate my death as a victory for their fascist nightmare, and that is a reason to live through the pain of another day. Not out of spite, but because there is hope. Because if you have read this far, and if you can see through the BS of this flim flam man, maybe you can see through the anger, hatred, ignorance, callousness and selfishness that has infected you.

Maybe at least one person will read this and start giving to the poor, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, welcoming the refugee, treating the foreigner as they would the native born, loving their neighbor—yes, even their enemies, as themselves.

Paul March 08, 2023

Stephanie, OMG! Every single word you wrote resonated with me. It was as if you reached straight into my brain and spread my own thoughts on the page. Thank you for sharing exactly what I have been thinking for a very long time now.

RT April 02, 2023

Agreed. He is a con

This is just a scam.
November 27, 2022

This is just a scam. The bombard your email with scare tactic nonsense. The actual trading information they provide is worthless. they just want your subscription money. The information is garbage. Lies and misleading. take your subscription money invest it in anything you will make more.

RT April 02, 2023

Yup, sure is

RobertJans May 03, 2023

agree 100%

Barrage onslaught of emails
October 18, 2022
If you want to clog your email up and get loads of third parties sending you even more, just sign up for anything Jim Rickards. You can be sure to get at least 3 lengthy every day, sometimes even 4 or 5. That's just from his affiliates. On top of that you'll get loads from third parties everyday.

LisaDean. November 07, 2022

This is true.