For my overall review of Andrew Hallam’s book The Global Expatriate’s Guide to Investing: From Millionaire Teacher to Millionaire Expat, check out this post.
Why You Shouldn’t Trust Financial Advisors
You should really just buy the book because there is lots of fabulous information, but one thing he emphasizes is a do-it-yourself approach, which I am a strong advocate of as well. Financial advisers generally get paid by commission based on what you buy and some of the worst “investment” options such as whole-life insurance, pension schemes, annuities and mutual funds are the ones in which the advisers get the highest rates of commission. Obviously their advice isn’t impartial and they don’t have your best interests at heart.
You also shouldn’t trust the people at banks to have your best interests at heart because in the end, they’re salespeople who are selling only one thing: what their bank has on offer. Do you really think that the mutual funds offered by your bank are the best that you can get (ie: the ones with the lowest fees)? And that the fees offered by your bank’s brokerage are the lowest you can find? I wouldn’t count on it.
Less evil because they maybe have better intentions but still quite harmful is the human resources manager or payroll manager at your place of employment. They may be encouraging you to contribute to a pension scheme or buy some certain mutual funds but actually have no clue about the ins and outs of these investments and it’s quite likely that with a modest amount of reading, you know more than they do about it.
What does that leave? You! You are the only one responsible for your financial future. Get informed by reading, a lot. Listen to some Podcasts. Talk to some people who have nothing to gain or lose by your investment decisions. Or, sign-up for my monthly newsletter for even more investing tips.