According to a 2024 study from Talker, 53% of Americans plan to take financial advice from FinTok — the financial side of TikTok. Topics they are most interested in include: budgeting, saving, investing, credit, credit scores, inflation and cash flow.
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While TikTok influencers can (and often do) have good financial advice, not everything on the platform is gold. Even advice that seems helpful on the surface isn’t always as straightforward or effective as it might seem.
Here’s some of the worst financial advice from TikTok and what you might want to do instead.
According to TikTok influencer Kris Krohn (@kriskrohn), you should never pay off your house. Instead, you should take out a home equity line of credit (HELOC) that’s tied to the equity in your home and use that to purchase another property (like a rental).
Essentially, you won’t need to save extra money for a down payment. You can just use the HELOC. Assuming you get a low interest rate and high enough return, you could see positive cash flow.
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There are several issues with this advice. There’s no guarantee on returns, potentially high HELOC interest rates can seriously cut into your profit margin, you’ll still need to pay the second property’s mortgage and you run multiple other risks (like problems finding renters).
Fe2014: Dave Ramsey would Not approve this
As for what to do instead, financial guru David Ramsey suggests paying off your mortgage early while still investing 15% of your income for retirement. Having a fully paid-off house gives you more financial stability and can save you money each month.
TikToker Karlton Dennis (@karltondennis) said a private chef isn’t tax deductible, but if he hosts daily business dinners and calls a private chef in to cook for them, he can deduct the cost. This method, he said, lets him afford a private chef year-round for meals for himself, his wife, family, friends, and business clients — some of whom are also family members.
Tax giant, H&R Block took to his comments with their take on his advice: “For anyone in the comments: don’t do this.”
Some business expenses are legitimately tax deductible, but family dinners (and the private chefs who prepare them) are not. If you want to find tax write-offs, consult a CPA.
According to Grant Cardone, every 15-year-old kid should use their allowance to get into real estate investing. A kid who gets an allowance of $300 a month (Cardone’s example) should use that money to buy a piece of real estate that pays them $30 a month. That kid should then only use the $30, but never touch the initial $300 investment.
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