What is the worst financial advice you have received?

[tryan]

The Tom Vu reference was a real flashback! Thanx. It was the Financial Freedom Report (books, tapes .... monthly report) for me. Forget who the author was.

The best man in my wedding said "Buy Optioneer ... it's only 5k and I made it back the first MONTH!"

I said "Remind me in 5 years ... trading schemes are short lived."

He was wiped out in year 4 (in less than a week!) to the tune of 60k.

Another one ... my boss said "Buy USAir its's ONLY $3!!" . He mortgaged his house and dropped a 5 figure sum into it. I bought $900 just so we had something watch together. Needless to say USAir's bankruptcy wiped out both of us. He insisted on getting his stock certificates from his broker so he could frame them and hang them above the toilet.

 

[Tailgate]

Lucent Technologies

+1 ..got me too

 

[kcowan]

... my boss said "Buy USAir its's ONLY $3!!" . He mortgaged his house and dropped a 5 figure sum into it. I bought $900 just so we had something watch together. Needless to say USAir's bankruptcy wiped out both of us. He insisted on getting his stock certificates from his broker so he could frame them and hang them above the toilet.

In the category of good advice, one of my bosses said: "Leave some appreciation for the other guy (buyer)." As a result, I have often left some upward momentum to the other guy and avoided sudden reversals.

The other piece of advice was: "Don't be afraid to take a loss!" and that has also caused me to do lots of tax-loss selling.