What is the worst financial advice you have received?

[Derslickmeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoWright Years ago, a friend who often invested heavily in the latest hot stocks, suggested two things: Buy naked calls on Commodore (I didn't buy them, he did, they went belly up) Mortgage the house, put EVERYTHING you have into 3DO Systems. Their first product was released in '94 and they went belly up in '96. There was also @Home and MANY other internet companies that were touted as the next big thing.

Oh yes, the good old "tech wreck", how could we forget. Learned a lot of good life lessons around that time...

[pb4uski]

I've never really been given financial advice so nothing to offer.

One thing I did kick myself over was my 401k offered an Evergreen Core Bond Fund which sounded like a generic bond fund and I had some of my contributions in that. At the end of 2008 I noticed it had been nicked by 20% whereas my Vanguard Total Bond was only down about 5% IIRC. Come to find out, Evergreen had made some big bets on MBS that didn't work out. Learned to read the offering documents more carefully from that point forward.

[MRG]

I had forgotten all about the Amway pitch, even at the tender age of 20 I knew better. Twenty some years later a co-w*orker tried to get us to come to a pitch, same secretive approach. I finally told her this sounds like Amway, if it is I'm out. Weird thing is the guy above her in the pyramid quit a good paying IT job to do scamway full time. Never knew what happened to him, perhaps he's an Ameriprise advisor now.

[martyb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nash031 If this is the worst advice you ever got, you've had pretty good financial advice! I suspect that someday my entire TSP balance will be in the G fund. There's a lot of merit to using the G fund, and perhaps exclusively, at certain points particularly if you have other accounts with equities, etc. Now, I sure as hell wouldn't go all in on G during the accumulation phase!! Every morning, the commercials on my sports talk radio show of choice are always urging me to buy physical gold since the dollar is crashing and the stock market is going to collapse... does that count?

Was definitely during accumulation...around '04 or '05.

[gozer]

We are all buying into this amazing company called WorldCom. If you don't get in now, you'll still be working here (at megacorp) when the rest of us are all enjoying the good life on a beach somewhere.

I resisted buying. And of the people in the at work investment group, I am the only one enjoying the good life now.

[Derslickmeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pleeplus His logic was that all of his "lawyer friends" were doing it so it was the right thing to do!?

Yep, there's your litmus test right there

[slowsaver]

Any advice from Bob Brinker's "Market timer" newsletters in early 2008. I didn't renew in 2009.

[gardenfun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownyourfuture

Lucent made me laugh out loud, too, future!

[urn2bfree]

From family who is a professional broker (not for me anymore!!!)

1)Exodus communications-- tech bubble casualty -huge loss
2)buy more Citibank -dollar cost average in...all the way down down down...

[38Chevy454]

"More millionaires are made by real estate than any other method." From a pitch in the late 80's. This pitch specifically was geared towards flipping properties.

While real estate can be good investment, a lot of people have lost significant amounts. There is also no free lunch, real estate requires your involvement and time to be successful.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 38Chevy454 "More millionaires are made by real estate than any other method." From a pitch in the late 80's. This pitch specifically was geared towards flipping properties. While real estate can be good investment, a lot of people have lost significant amounts. There is also no free lunch, real estate requires your involvement and time to be successful.

Memories of Carlton Sheets commercials....glad I never participated.

[Rusa]

Equity-indexed annuities. Still waiting for the 10-year surrender period to expire, and we can get our money back out without penalty.

[GrayHare]

"Max your IRA contrib!"

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrayHare "Max your IRA contrib!"

This seems to be reasonable counsel for most people. Just wondering what made it so bad for you.

[GrayHare]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB This seems to be reasonable counsel for most people. Just wondering what made it so bad for you.

It resulted in less after-tax value than investing outside an IRA, aka the IRA trap.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrayHare It resulted in less after-tax value than investing outside an IRA, aka the IRA trap.

Is this another way of saying you are in a higher tax bracket (have a larger income) after retiring than when working?

[GrayHare]

Higher than the cap gains rate is the main issue.

[Meadbh]

I have received plenty of bad advice over the years but for the most part I have not taken it.

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRG I had forgotten all about the Amway pitch, even at the tender age of 20 I knew better. Twenty some years later a co-w*orker tried to get us to come to a pitch, same secretive approach. I finally told her this sounds like Amway, if it is I'm out. ..

Oh yea, a couple of workmates at Megacorp wanted to get me into Amway and Nu Skin.

I suppose I should add MLM to my list although I never considered it.
Also Investment Newsletter subscriptions.

[MRG]

Then there was the pitch (1980?) from a cow*rker, give me 10k, then recruite 6 other folks to give 10k, you will be rich. The state shut that pyramid scam down, a lot of folks were out their money.