The Money Mustache Community
Around the Internet => Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy => Topic started by: katethekitcat on February 19, 2020, 06:36:03 AM
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In this advice column, a 53-year-old woman with a paid-off house, $150K in cash savings, and $1.4M in her 401K asks for advice regarding whether she has enough money to retire: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/im-53-have-14-million-in-my-401k-150000-in-savings-and-my-home-is-paid-off-can-i-afford-to-retire-2020-02-14?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
I think any Mustachian would say, yes! Go for it! Be free! But this article just found reasons to advise caution and stay in the rat race.
Some things that stood out to me:
- Advice that she should "hire a pro" to walk her through it. Selling the idea that she shouldn't trust herself and pay for someone else's advice instead.
- The constant, 'what if this happens?' 'what if that happens?' worry to put terror in people
- "No one ever complained about having too much money in retirement." But they DO complain about not having enough TIME!
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Marketwatch personal finance "articles" are bizarre. They'll also post cases such as "I'm 55, divorced and single, and retired to <central European> or <Central/South American> country with $750k saved. Here's why my life is better here and what I miss about USA."
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Yep, their advice is never consistent. Just hiring people to write random articles?
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Most periodicals are glorified advertisements for some product or service. Remember this at all times.
Fitness and sport magazines advertise gear and doping products (oops, I meant to say "supplements" but they're the same thing). Car magazines sell cars and lifestyle. Animal magazines sell pet care products. The articles are just a hook to get readers to look at the advertisements, because the bread and butter comes from the ads and not the subscribers or readers, many of whom get the material for free. The articles are therefore selectively written to stimulate the readers to buy, or at least to become familiar with, the products and brands being featured.
What boggles my mind is that there are so many people who seem to expect personal finance periodicals to be any different from the general rule. Can you imagine, for example, a beauty magazine that carried an article warning users to not use makeup? Or a skiing magazine that printed an article suggesting that casual skiers not buy their own gear because it's cheaper to rent a set when you need it? Probably not.
Of course they're promoting professional advisors. Whose ads do we think keep the magazine afloat? Especially when they distribute the online articles for free?
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Hire a professional is not actually bad advice. I have done this for people on a fee for service basis. What I do is take away the fear of retiring, and help them transition to handling their own finances, simply, with less fees and costs.
"Yes, you are all set and can absolutely do this!" is the typical chorus. Most people need reassurances that they have enough and that they can take that vacation. Think of it a bit like hiring a gym trainer when you are already working out occassionally but want to transition to something new, like free weights.
People with steady monthly pension income take to this process much better than people that need to sell their investments and draw down each year. With fewer pensions out there, I see increased need for financial advisors to help the transition.
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Scare 'em then sell 'am is always the way...