Don’t you just love that title? Doesn’t it make you want to know, what apparently such a large portion of financial bloggers agree on? Isn’t it a great manipulation of numbers?
I was in a course and the instructor felt she needed to get us to really believe a point she was making so she stated,
“…. 99.9% of the people I talk to, agree that…”
This statement is (of course) completely bogus, since I somehow doubt she has spoken to 1000 people about the point she was making (and that she only found 1 person to disagree, since I disagreed with the statement as soon as it came out of her mouth).
Are there concepts that Financial Writers agree on so absolutely ? What might some of these important ideas be, that most Financial Writers agree with?
- If you spend less than you make, you will be able to stay out of debt, remember I have already written about 10 Steps to a Debt Free Life.
- If you do nothing about your retirement, you will have a very uncomfortable retirement (unless you win the lottery, have a huge inheritance, or lived your life completely out of debt).
- You must have an emergency fund, it must at least 3 months gross pay, and it must not invested in the stock market.
- It doesn’t really matter if you put extra money in your Mortgage, RRSP or TFSA, as long as you do it, and stick to it (although 84.23% of Fin Bloggers might say start with the Mortgage and then, save it in something).
- Pay Day loans are a bad idea, no and ifs or butts.
- The best time to figure out whether you bought the correct investment is 5 years later, but that won’t change anything (sorry).
Any other things that 99.9% of financial bloggers agree on?
I’m 100% sure I agree with 83.3% of those things. Not so sure on the emergency fund thing if you have other investments and low interest loans you can tap into like a HELOC. Good for many but maybe not necessary for all.
Agreed but for many regular folk it is just easier to give them hard and fast rules to protect them from themselves. Most folks who genuinely understand the risks of investing emergency funds, seem to not actually need an emergency fund (sort of a dichotomy )
Instead of 3 months emergency fund not invested in the stock market have a 6 month emergency fund that IS invested in the stock market.
-or- a 3 month emerg fund in GICs and 3 months of pay invested 🙂
As Preet says, “disaster proof your life”.
As for the RRSP vs. TFSA vs. Mortgage debate, less arguing, more doing 🙂
Mark
And give yourself options, life is always better with many options.
That today is the second best day to start investing? 🙂
30 Helens agree. Much like Golf, best way to start investing was to start 20 years ago. ⛳️