The TikTok generation turns to social media for personal finance advice. A survey last year by digital KiwiSaver adviser BetterSaver found 27 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds turned to social media for money advice.
That’s not all bad, because plenty of social media channels offer sound pointers to people of all generations. The issue is that sandwiched between the good is some truly jaw-dropping advice. I keep a file of some of the truly awful social media advice. Whenever I review it leaves me speechless, yet again.
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Mastodon or other social media platforms all have channels with useful commentary. Whether it’s 20-somethings like GirlsThatInvest; the once young gun Scott Pape of Barefoot Investor fame, who is now in his early 40s; or Dave Ramsey, who’s 62, the messages are roughly the same, just delivered in a different style. They’re not revolutionary, but these authors’ TikToks, podcasts, and books can help people create good personal finance habits. For the record, so too can those of my colleagues Mary Holm and Frances Cook.
Where social media users need to be especially careful is in comment threads where randoms spout rubbish. Some of these comments send shivers down my spine with “advice” such as putting your entire nest egg in cryptocurrency. On a thread entitled: “WWYD with proceeds of a house sale while you wait for the market to stabilise?” The poster asked: “She’s going to live with us while she looks for another property but anxious what to do with the money ($1.5 million) in the meantime.” Bitcoin or Dogecoin was the answer from two commenters. A year ago I saw similar responses to virtually the same question. The homeowner would have halved the capital had he put the house proceeds in cryptocurrency at that time. I still see people recommending that people move their KiwiSaver money from a growth to a conservative fund because the market is down, which couldn’t be worse advice.