5 Things I’d Never Do as a Financial Advisor

What up, what up!!

Stumbled across my man Rob Wilson’s Insta feed this morning, and now want to share ALL HIS VIDEOS with you here!! They’re so good!!

But I’ll refrain from blowing up your inbox, and instead just share my two favorites with you today ;) But be sure to check out his feed afterwards as it’s legit!!

If he sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve featured him here on the blog before, as well as on my old podcast – The M.O.N.E.Y. Show – remember that one?* Here are the links:

Now take it away, Rob!! Thanks for letting me re-share these here 👊👊

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5 Things I’d Never Do As a Financial Advisor

 

rob wilson - 5 things i'd never do

[Click to watch]

Here’s the transcript, along with my thoughts:

#1. I would never leave my 401(k) at my old job once I left and got a position at a new company

I don’t want my hard earned money sitting in some account that I’m not going to pay attention to, that’s also limited by the short menu of mutual funds that I can invest in. In that situation, I would always roll that account over into an IRA where I had much more control over the account, and the entire investing universe of individual stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and options were all available to me and right at my fingertips.

[J$: Yes yes yes!! Not only does it give more control over everything, but it also helps with *keeping track* of it all too! What’s easier/more fun to do: monitoring 3 accounts with 401(k) funds, or just 1? It might be a bit annoying to do (paperwork and all), but it’s def. worth the one-time hassle. (And if you prefer to stay with 401(k)s over IRAs, you can still roll it over into your current 401(k) if it’s better…)]

#2. I would never invest in penny stocks

Being into penny stocks isn’t even investing, it’s gambling. And if you’re going to do that I’d much rather you buy a plane ticket, go to Vegas, have a nice dinner, and also go see a nice show because you’d have much more fun doing that than by losing all the money that you’re bound to lose by investing in penny socks.

[J$: Hahaha… agreed. Some people are good at it and have managed to come away on top, but for the majority of us I wouldn’t even TRY going down that path… So many other ways to win big, with much less risk!]

#3. I would never give a potential employer my salary history or my salary requirement

Look, what I made in the past has absolutely no bearing on what a potential employer should offer me today. And quite frankly, asking that question is why women and minorities in particular get stuck in this vicious cycle of wage discrimination. Now, the good news is that asking that question has been banned in 21 states, but just in case you live in a state where they can still ask that question, don’t answer it.

[J$: Didn’t know about any of this!! So helpful!!]

#4. I would never go through life and not have an estate plan

Look, I’ve seen families absolutely ripped apart because there was no directive on how they wanted the estate to be divvied up. I’ve also seen some ugly custody battles when something unfortunately happened to both parents, and they didn’t leave proper instructions as to who they wanted to care for their children if something happened to them. And of course, we’ve all seen the many Go Fund Me campaigns that occur when people don’t have adequate life insurance. So look, if you care for your family as much as you say you do, then getting your affairs in order is of utmost importance. And that means you have to have an estate plan.

[J$: I agree of course, having recently gotten our own wills and trust stuff set up, however I wouldn’t give yourself too much grief if it’s still on your list and you haven’t gotten to it yet. Make sure you do eventually, but if you still don’t have your career/savings/investments down (and/or don’t even have any assets or kids to begin with) you’re probably safe to wait until you’re more solid. We don’t live in perfect worlds unfortunately, so we gotta cut ourselves some slack :)]

#5. I would never not have multiple streams of income

You might feel like you have the best job in the world, but anytime someone else is signing your check, they can decide to stop signing it tomorrow. And even if you’re a business owner, you still want to have multiple streams because anytime you only have one source of income, whether that’s a salary from a job or your business income, you never know what can happen to it. During the pandemic, millions of businesses were shut down, and also lots of property owners couldn’t collect rent during the eviction moratorium. But at the same time that all this was happening, the stock market was hitting new all time highs. So for those folks that had an investment portfolio, they were able to use those gains to help them get to the other side.

[J$: Yup yup, again in a perfect world you’d have cash flying in from all over, but if you’re only able to manage just *one* right now, that’s okay too… Just keep working and doing your best and eventually you’ll get there!! And some *have* managed to come out just fine too btw by only focusing on one income – some even say it’s more powerful doing that than not giving it your all and tacking on side hustles on the side! So just keep doing your best and you’ll find that sweet spot. (A way to cheat in this too is to just *invest* your money as Rob points out which requires no consistent effort on your behalf – that’s mainly what I do now :) So if you are “just” a one-jobber you can at least take advantage of that and get the win!)]

So yeah – solid tips overall!

Here’s the next vid I liked, that all you stock pickers might find helpful… I didn’t know about any of these, perhaps because I’m an Index Snob?! ;)

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secret investing websites[Watch video here]

5 Secret Websites That Will Help You Become a Better Investor

  1. Whale Wisdom — allows you to see exactly what famous investors like Warren Buffett or Ray Dalio are putting their money in inside of their real life portfolios.
  2. Smart Insider — allows you to see exactly what investments members of congress are buying and selling, so you too can learn how to become a great investor by totally not using tax-payer funded insider information.
  3. Guru Focus – allows you to see when corporate insiders like founders, executives, and board members use their own money to buy or sell their company stock. Putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak.
  4. Bar Chart – gives you access to tons of free investment tables, charts, and research so that you’ll always know the current pulse of the market.
  5. Toggle.ai – leverages the power of algorithms and artificial intelligence to help you identify potentially awesome investment opportunities.

Great great stuff all around… Thanks again Rob!

If you’d like to see more, you can check out his Instagram feed here: @RobWilsonTV, or his recent book here: Secure The Bag.

Hope you learned something new! Do you follow any of those tips or sites above??

j. money signature

*The M.O.N.E.Y. Show is now known as the “Afford Anything” show, with Paula Pant. We co-hosted it back in 2016 and then I dipped out and she took the reigns over and has been KILLING it ever since… If you’d like to check out all the shows we did together – about 30 of them – you can find them here: budgetsaresexy.com/podcasts

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9 Comments

  1. Chadnudj November 7, 2022 at 10:34 AM

    “#1. I would never leave my 401(k) at my old job once I left and got a position at a new company.”

    I’m living proof that, at least twice, leaving an old 401k at an old job paid out.

    First, I had a 401k at an old job that I was lazy and didn’t move (which was fine, it had good low cost index funds and the company paid annual fees so it didn’t hurt me). I had been there a few years before leaving, but not long enough to have my matching funds fully vest. But when that firm was acquired by another, they got rid of the old 401k….which meant that my unvested shares immediately vested (netting me around $5k!), because under the company’s rules if I had ever returned to the company my total time might have made those old funds vest.

    Second, my wife left her job in August 2021. Same deal — good 401k, low fees, etc. — and we didn’t immediately move it. When April 2022 came around and the firm paid out matching funds for 2021, surprise! She got some (pro rated based on what she earned in 2021).

    So, don’t leave your old 401k too long….but maybe think about leaving it if the business closes/gets bought out (so you can fully vest any unvested shares) or if you might be owed matching funds.

    Reply
    1. J. Money November 7, 2022 at 4:55 PM

      Well that’s good!! I didn’t know vesting could work like that?! Def. something to consider then before moving it over ASAP – thanks for sharing that 👊

      Reply
  2. Jim November 8, 2022 at 10:53 AM

    J, thanks for bringing awareness to Rob, he has some very great thoughts. Totally agree with him on all of them, but in particular the ‘multiple income streams’. The pandemic showed us just how fragile our primary income can be, and if you don’t figure out how to diversify (through multiple income streams) now, you’re choosing to cede your financial independence to someone else, who by-the-way may not care about your well-being.

    Reply
    1. J. Money November 8, 2022 at 12:00 PM

      You got that right… The only one that cares about your money (or your life for that matter, maybe outside your mom 😂), is you!

      Reply
  3. Rita November 8, 2022 at 5:41 PM

    Looks good. Thanks. I followed Rob on Instagram. Does he have a website?

    Reply
    1. J. Money November 9, 2022 at 6:09 AM

      I believe he’s working on one, but doesn’t have one at the moment 👍

      Reply
      1. Rita November 9, 2022 at 6:42 PM

        Thanks.

        Reply
  4. Jean November 23, 2022 at 11:15 PM

    Agree with #3. It’s a pain in the butt for private sector to name a salary if one is near successful applicant. I’ve worked for 3 different govn’t jurisdictions (in addition to several national and global private sector firms) and I always liked the open transparency of salary range for the government job at hand. All the salaries are posted on the govn’t employer’s website.

    So the work environment, other employees can talk about other people’s salaries but there’s no….secrets and less salary speculation of other employees. So then the focus shifts elsewhere during the conversation.

    Reply
    1. J. Money November 25, 2022 at 12:31 PM

      Yes, very true!!

      Reply

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