The WORST Financial Advice That People Hear (and What to Do Instead)

• • • • Advice such as “get a credit card and start building your credit” or “start investing for retirement as soon as you get your first job” may be well-intentioned, but it can take you years to recover.

• • • • My advice is to hire a professional in areas of your life where you aren’t a pro. Learn as much as you can so that you know what makes sense to do on your own and what is best left to the experts. None of us would perform a surgery on ourselves, so why do we try to DIY so many areas of our lives?  
      • An action we can take on our own is to establish designated accounts (aka sunny day funds) for future expenses. Think about expenses you know you’ll have in the future and start saving systematically for those expenses. Also, consider the expenses you don’t know you’ll have.
      • Ask a CFP® for advice on how to protect yourself from unknown expenses. Areas to consider could include losing your job, being unable to work, a car accident, damage to your home and your health. You may find for some risks that you can self-insure. In other words, you set money aside to cover certain risks. For more expensive situations, it may make the most financial sense to transfer the risk to an insurance company.

Interview: Melissa Myers.

Melissa Myers, CFP® is a heart-centered financial planner and typically works with women who are solely responsible for their own financial future. She helps them align their money with their values so they can live their ideal lives and be a blessing to others.  Myers is a business owner, co-founder of Kar-Mel Financial Planners, creator of Sunkissed and Blessed lifestyle brand, and has been a featured guest on podcasts: Diary of a Small Town Girl and Casa DeConfidence.

Melissa is passionate about empowering women with money and is also the bestselling author of Going Rogue! Unconventional Financial Strategies for Women.