海角大神

Should you trust finance publications?

Personal finance advice that runs in publications can be useful, but it's not always unique

When I first started writing The Simple Dollar, I was a big proponent of financial publications like Money Magazine, 碍颈辫濒颈苍驳别谤鈥檚, SmartMoney, and so on. I read them. I referenced them in posts. I even suggested that people subscribe to them.

For a long time, though, I鈥檝e scarcely mentioned them. What happened?

First of all, the articles on basic personal finance in those publications are solid. They do provide good advice on budgeting, frugality, and other such topics, though many of those articles are matched by good blog posts out there.

Where these publications run into trouble with me is when they start talking about specific investments.

Let me explain what I mean.

As The Simple Dollar has become more popular, I鈥檝e been the recipient of more and more PR releases related to the finance industry. Every day, my inbox is filled with people wanting to tell me about their financial product that will solve everyone鈥檚 problems, their mutual fund that鈥檚 on a 鈥渟tunning鈥� run of success, and so on. They鈥檙e press releases, filled with the best possible picture of a particular item. I understand that.

What鈥檚 disturbing is that I sometimes see the same exact talking points in other publications. I can take the key words out of some of these press releases, Google for them, and find many sites that have the information from that press release posted as a story. Sometimes, it鈥檚 reworded a bit. At other times, it鈥檚 just a verbatim copy of the press release.

This isn鈥檛 just online, either. More than once, I鈥檝e seen major publications do this exact thing. I鈥檒l see a press release and then, a few months later, I鈥檒l see that mutual fund or that financial product promoted in the text of a major publication.

Am I accusing these publications of being unethical? No, not really. I鈥檓 accusing them of being overworked, like many publications are. When you have a bunch of pages to fill and a limited amount of time to do so, it鈥檚 very easy to just re-fit some content from a press release into the body of a story. 鈥淚 need a few paragraphs about a mutual fund and I have thirty minutes to do it. Let鈥檚 see what鈥檚 in the PR file鈥︹��

What have I learned from this?

I tend to trust the media less and less. Every time I see a positive article in the press, I now wonder how much of it was taken straight from a press release paid for by the person the article was written about.

I tend to trust individual people much more now than I trust publications. If a specific writer has a good track record, I鈥檒l follow that writer to whatever medium they use. If a writer is just mailing it in with reshaped press releases, I just avoid that writer. The publication itself, whether it鈥檚 a personal blog or a major publication, just doesn鈥檛 matter to me that much, at least not compared to the value I place on the specific writer.

I do my own research whenever possible. Sure, someone might list a bunch of great index funds to invest in. I still won鈥檛 put a dime in them until I do my own research on those funds with real numbers. The same goes with things as mundane as frugality tips. Does this really work? I鈥檒l try to run the numbers first before diving into any tip.

In the end, it is always best to find out information for yourself as best you can. The ability to research and track down information is a valuable one, and the better you are at it, the better your chances of making great choices for yourself and your family.

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