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I like to enter every January with clear goals and an actionable strategy, so one of the things I want to do before the year ends is map out a future plan for my finances. 

While there’s a lot of financial advice out there, I wondered if there was anything that I should remember to avoid at the start of 2022. So, I asked four financial advisors to share bad advice they often tell their clients to ignore.

1. Thinking of your home as an investment

When you approach the new year, you might start strategizing how to invest your money and take inventory of your current investments. Financial planner Justin Nabity said that some advisors still tell clients to approach their home as an investment, which he thinks is bad advice. 

“While there are some fortunate homeowners who have used the equity in their home to help support their retirement, this is not the case for everyone,” said Nabity.

“The biggest issue I find with advisors telling clients that their home is an investment is that it causes them to become confused about what a true investment is,” he explained. “Assets make you money, thus your house isn’t an asset unless you bought it with the intention of selling it for a profit in the next several years.”

Instead, Nabity suggested that people should just think about how their house fits into their broader investing strategy. 

2. Setting unrealistic financial goals

As we begin to brainstorm resolutions for the new year, financial advisor Scott Satov said that it’s best to avoid broad financial goals that cannot be realistically accomplished.

“It’s also important to be specific with your goals so that you have actual figures to measure your work against,” Satov said.

He gave the example of “saving more” as a popular, broad goal and suggested setting these kinds of goals with actionable steps.

“Open a high-interest savings account and set up automatic withdrawals from your regular account each month,” Satov said. “Once you set it, it will do the work and you’ll begin to see the savings account grow.”

3. Investing only in the stocks of big companies

If you’re thinking about making new investments next year, financial advisor Scott Hasting said that he thinks investing only in big companies is a bad idea, and that investors should aim for portfolio diversity instead.

“Though it is good advice to invest in stocks, it is …….

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/bad-financial-advice-ignore-new-year-2021-12