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Trust me, I'm a financial advisor
A fight over money
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TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: No matter what your position in the stock market, we all need a little financial advice from time to time. But does that mean all advice is good advice? Ehhh -- not so much, judging from some of your experiences.
Mick Messbarger: My name is Mick Messbarger and I live in Omaha, Neb. The worst financial advice I received was back in 1978, when I was a senior in high school. And I was following a stock called Berkshire Hathaway. I called up my uncle who was a stock broker. Well, my uncle he recommended a Mexican pipeline company called Tubos De Aceros. Well, long story short, whenever I went and sold the Tubos De Aceros a few years later, my investment was now worth about 100 bucks, and I think I could've bought six or seven shares of Berkshire Hathaway at the time, and it'd be worth approximately two-thirds of a million dollars.
Kaylee Sakai: My name is Kaylee Sakai and I'm from Seattle, Wash. The worst financial advice I'd ever got was back in 2001. My Merrill Lynch ex-advisor told me to buy InfoSpace stock. It was later discovered that Merrill Lynch knew it was overvalued. That was a few thousand dollars that I will never, of course see again.
Phil Crabtree: My name is Phil Crabtree, I live in State College, Penn. The worst advice I ever got was from a stock broker in the spring of 2008. She wanted me to buy $50,000 worth of bonds secured by mortgages. And I very politely pointed out that a whole bunch of people had been loaned money that they would never ever be able to pay back, and that I didn't want their bonds. I think lesson was that experts talk to each other and often miss the big picture.
Linda Pohlman: My name is Linda Pullman, I'm from Santa Rosa Valley, Calif. And the worst financial advice I ever received was from my very well-intended financial planner who suggested that we take out a first mortgage on a home that was free and clear, in the amount of $1 million. We used part of it to pay for home improvements, but the rest we invested. Sadly, the economic implosion of 2008 hit and we, along with everybody else, lost about 40 percent of the money that they'd invested in the stock markets. The only one making money off our money is our financial planner and the bank with our shiny new loan.
Vigeland: Okay, financial advisors. You just took a hit. Now it's your turn. Tell us about the good financial advice you gave out that your clients promptly ignored. Drop us a note or write on our Facebook page.
The worst advice emanated from my own tendency to think that I was smarter than the general herd. I like to understand the principles behind any financial or societal phenomenon and reflexively question what I disdainfully think of as "herd movements". I listened to advice to sell my Whole Life Insurance Policy with Northwestern Mutual because I could do better myself. Of course with an ubermensch mentality I never expected to be in the mendicant victim class which is so common today. Now with my head injury I am barely scraping by. To stick with the herd is not always bad and I should have stuck with NWM as experts and another layer of institutional security. I still distrust government but am now paying for my hubris. There are good and bad institutions and corporations.
