Getting advice is not always a bad thing. After all, some people really do wish you the best and it is their advice that you should listen to. But, not everything that you hear is to be taken into consideration and brought to life. Some of the pieces of advice are downright harmful and useless. And it is our job to distinguish between good advice and a bad one.
So, here goes – top 4 pieces of financial advice that you should ignore.
1. Renting is wasting money.
2. You should buy a house ASAP.
3. You should spend less and work more.
4. You should not use credit cards.
1. Renting is wasting money.
People, especially those who grew up the 1960s, do not understand that the system that they grew up in and that helped them get their own house is no longer there. They believe that renting your apartment is a waste of money and that everyone who doesn’t have their own home cannot be deemed successful.
But the reality is that renting gives one huge amounts of freedom. You can move whenever you want to. You are not limited by where you live and if you do not like the building, the neighbors or your job is too far away, you are free to change your location any day.
Renting is not a waste, but freedom. Plus, who says that owning is cheap?
2. You should buy a house ASAP.
A direct consequence of the first point – you renting is too expensive, then you should definitely buy a house or an apartment right this minute. Surely, it is going to improve your financial situation, especially when you are only starting your career path and do not have a lot of funds to begin with.
Buying a house is a big obligation. It is also a big burden as well as a defining thing for your future – if you are going to move, you will have to consider selling or renting out, which, of course, is going to bring a lot of difficulties with itself.
If someone recommends you to buy a house, maybe ask them if they are willing to do that for you?
3. You should spend less and work more.
Young people are going to get this. How many times have you heard to stop going out and look for sources of entertainment outside the house, even if you are doing it just once every two-three weeks? Yeah. You have also probably heard that you are wasting your money and you are better off saving everything that is left after paying rent and utilities.
Surely, life that only consists of work and saving up is not going to damage your mental health. You were born to work and nothing more. After all, you can rest after you retire, no? Well, I can say that this piece of advice is extremely outdated and is usually given by people who do not know how much pressure young people are under and what difficulties that have to come across every day.
Rest and entertainment is a very important part of life and we need to splurge on it every once in a while.
4. You should not use credit cards.
Of course, if you tend to spend a lot and never follow how much money you spent with your credit card, then you have to think twice about using it. But, credit cards often offer interesting deals. For example, they can offer discounts and cash back programs that you can benefit from. There are also other perks, because every bank is trying to lure its clients to using credit cards.
So, use of credit cards should for sure be restricted, but no eliminated. Credit cards can be of a great use and sometimes ever take a load of one’s mind.
