The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the problem with financial experts.

Today, I’m talking about 2 words in financial advice that are red flags to watch for if you’re going to take advice from someone in the media or something you watched on YouTube. Those 2 red flags are “never” and “always”. In the world of financial advice, watch out for never and always. 

2 extremes that in the world of financial advice usually don’t apply. Always save at least 10% of your income. Never use credit cards. These are common pieces of advice, and I could list many more just like it, but in the world of financial advice, there is always a gray area. Never buy whole life insurance. Always wait as long as possible to start social security. 

These statements may be true for some people, but they’re certainly not true for everyone, and I can provide several scenarios for each of those examples above why you would want to save less than 10% of your income, why you should use your credit cards, buy whole life insurance, and start social security as soon as possible. 

My point here is that the advice giver usually sounds very confident in their opinion, they’re usually angry at the other side (those crooked insurance salesman trying to sell you whole life), but that in itself is a sales tactic. If you can whip people into a frenzy and get them to think that you’re fighting for them, watching out for them, protecting them from the big, bad enemy, it’s a powerful and proven sales tactic. 

Hitler did this quite well with devastating consequences. 

So be careful about blanket financial advice that contains the red flag words always and never. It’s never that simple because there’s always a gray area when it comes to financial matters. 

That’s it for today, but before you go, I’m planning an upcoming weekly theme on the podcast of “ask me anything”! What’s weighing most heavily on your mind right now as you approach retirement? Submit your question to me, I’ll pick 5 of my favorites, and answer them on the podcast. Just send me an email to [email protected]. That’s [email protected], and even if I don’t pick your question to answer on the podcast, I’ll do my best to reply and send you an answer anyway.

Thanks for listening! 

My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance