This August 14th MarketWatch piece is American political focused but within it is more evidence as to why I have this never ending education campaign to raise awareness of the need to pursue and adopt a meaningful approach to financial health. According to this article, the US government recently “abandoned a rule that prevented savers and retirees from being cheated by unscrupulous financial advisors.
Every year, people lose $17 billion in retirement savings because of financial advisers with conflicts of interest”. And that does not address paid stock promoters and others who are not categorized as “financial advisors” but with the same endgame – to make money regardless of your own success. Do not get me wrong, if you happen to make money based on their paid advertising and tell others online then it becomes a validation (third party positive testimony) for them.
Again, not all paid promoters are unscrupulous and the overwhelming majority of accredited financial advisors indeed have their clients’ interests at heart but the onus is on you to do your due diligence.
There is a reason why so many ads and sources promoting pharmaceutical drugs and supplements and diet plans are full of disclaimers and warnings complete with the suggestion to seek medical advice. Sound familiar? How many paid promotional sites or pieces appearing on various platforms (Seeking Alpha, subreddit, email blasts, etc) have disclaimers that seem longer than the paid advertising writing?
Strong financial health will translate to your own health – peace of mind, reduced stress, and confidence.
To end where we began, I recently watched several episodes of show out of England called “How to Lose Weight, Well”. The episode that featured the Weight Watchers program was of particular interest. The Weight Watcher program yielded the same success over six months as a very restrictive diet plan. The difference being that the participant on the Weight Watchers Plan enjoyed some cold brews at the pub and pretty much ate what he wanted but in moderation and could adapt to the new lifestyle permanently. That would not be the expectation for someone on the competing restrictive diet in that episode. This recent article discusses how Weight Watchers is on the rise and that “interest in the keto diet could be fading”. I found this article during my final review of this article so I inserted it here and I am not at all surprised to see that observation and it only further validates, at least in my own observation, my comparison of certain bloggers on that keto diet site to those paid stock promoters that act in a manner not in the best interests of their target audience of investors – desperation sets in so they go on the attack.
Following low quality or tainted sources may yield degrees of success but is it sustainable over the long haul and is there the breadth and depth that true meaningful financial health demands? The analogy to health and wellness and in particular to those promoting weight loss I believe is a good one and particularly since cannabis is indeed becoming more and more an accepted inclusion in just that – health and wellness.
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