Photo By: Michal Matlon
Today I will be talking about the worst advice I have ever seen in my work. I work in finance, so I hear bad advice from customers all the time.
They say the customer is always right, however, anyone who has worked with the public can tell you the truth. The customer can’t be convinced they are wrong, so don’t waste your time trying. I have heard all sorts of bad advice while working at my job. Most of it centers around money, and how to manage it.
The worst advice I have heard was someone saying they keep their money in cash at their home. That way they don’t have to pay taxes on it. There are a lot of things wrong with this. Keep in mind I am in the U.S. so these may not apply where you are.
We don’t report your money to the government. In the U.S. the person who is giving you money is the one who reports to the government. That means that you are not hiding your money from taxes. You are just putting it at risk. This brings me to my other issue with this.
Your money is safe in the bank. There are a lot of people who keep all their cash because they worry about the bank going out of business or running out of money. That can’t happen. Well, it could, but it would mean the government has failed. If that the case you would have bigger issues to worry about. Banks in the U.S. have government-insured deposits. Meaning that even if they suddenly went out of business, which is highly unlikely, the government would return all your money to you. This insurance does have a limit, $250,000.00, in most cases, but that’s not an amount most people have to worry about. If you do have that much money you should probably have it spread out across multiple banks, or invested in something that can bring you decent returns.
The final issue with this advice is that it puts your money in a lot of danger. If someone breaks into your house, or if it’s destroyed in a storm, or burns down you are just out of luck. Even if the financial institution you deposit your money in just magically vanishes overnight you will still get your money back through government insurance.
That’s the worst advice I’ve heard. I hope all of you have safer places to keep your fiat than under your bed. We all know digital currencies are just as good, if not better than physical fiat.
