Money Myths Exposed: 5 Finance Lies You Need to Stop Believing

Ready to bust the biggest personal finance myths holding you back? In this episode, we tackle common money myths about debt, budgeting, investing, and more. Discover the truth behind these myths and get practical, actionable insights to help you build wealth with confidence. Whether you’re just starting your financial journey or looking to sharpen your money skills, this episode is packed with clarity and real-world advice.

Chapters🕓
00:00 - Intro
00:47 - Myth-Busting Your Money Mindset
01:21 - Myth #1: All Debt Is Bad—What’s Really True?
03:11 - Myth #2: Budgeting Means No Fun—Why This Is Wrong
04:20 - Myth #3: Investing Is Only for the Rich—Demystified!
05:19 - Myth #4: Talking About Money Is Taboo—Let’s Break the Silence
06:06 - Myth #5: You Need a Finance Degree to Succeed
07:23 - Closing: Your Money Myths, Answered!

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Transcript

>> Wes Cuprill: 0:00

Hi there. I'm certified financial planner Wes Cuprill and this is Wealthwise Women, the show that's rewriting the narrative that personal finance and investing are just for men and just for insiders. Because whether or not the rest of my industry realizes it, the future of wealth in the United States is female. And I aim to foster that future one episode at a time. So join me as I attempt to add humor and entertainment to the otherwise snoozefest that is personal finance, addressing along the way various topics from the lens of how they affect women in particular. And if you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe to our channel and our newsletter. The link to which you can find in the episode details that being said, let's get to this week's episode. Hello there and welcome to another episode of the Wealth Wise Woman podcast. This week I'm going to do a little bit of myth busting. Now, I think there are numerous myths that exist in the world of personal finance, investing, money, etc. Today I want to go through just a few that I think are very relevant in today's world. At the end, if there's any myths that I missed that you'd like me to address, just leave a comment or shoot me a note. I'd love to know if there are other firmly held beliefs out there that may not actually be accurate. But to go through my list, the first myth that I want to start with and address is that all debt is bad. Now this is going to sound very much like a Dave Ramsey conversation, though I would argue that Dave uses all debt as bad. I do think there are some good debts, though the list is very short. Now Schwab has a list out there of good debts versus bad debts. I'll agree on two of their good debts, one of them being a mortgage. I don't think a mortgage is ever a bad debt because homes are usually appreciating assets, so as long as the equity is above the amount that you owe, you're in good shape. Another good debt is a business loan. I think if you're taking, out money to start a business, that is always a good endeavor to go through. So I don't think business loans are bad debts. Now Schwab does consider student loans to be a good debt. I would say that there's a balance here. If you are taking out a loan to get a degree that is going to set you up for long term financial success. I think that student loan is a very good loan. But in today's day and age, we have this huge student loan bubble, and I think a lot of it is driven by students taking out large amounts of loans and getting degrees that don't necessarily pay them well in the long term. And so that's where I would call that a bad debt. Now you can come back at me and say, well Wes, shouldn't education this or that? Education is good, shouldn't matter what you get your degree in? I'm not going to have that debate. That may be something that we can discuss later on. But I firmly do believe that if you're taking out the loan to get a degree that pays you in the long term, but you need to understand that if you're taking out a large loan for a degree that may not pay you well in the long term, I'd consider that a bad debt ultimately. But again, if you want to have that debate, I'm certainly happy we can make that a future Wealth Wise Women Podcast Episode Some other bad debts though. Credit cards, obviously a bad debt. Car loans, I think are a very bad debt, especially today. Some rates are 7, 8, 9%, 72 month loans and cars are depreciating assets, so that's a bad loan. Loans for luxury goods, payday loans, all that out there. So not all debt is bad. Most of it is, but there are some good debts out there. So I just think it's very important to realize that it's okay to be in debt as long as the asset underlying that debt is more than the debt itself. So just something to consider. The second myth is that budgeting means no fun. I think most of us look at budgeting as putting constraints on our lives, and I don't think that's necessarily the case at all. I think budgets are good for helping us live within our means and just bring structure to our lives and organization to our financial lives. Budgeting enables us to understand how much are we bringing in and know that, okay, these are the constraints that we have. But it doesn't mean that you can't go out and do fun things. In fact, one of the recommendations out there is to allocate 30% of your income to what we would call wants. That way you can say, all right, every month I have a certain amount of money that I can put towards doing fun things. So while budgeting does get a bad rap, and it may not be for everybody, if you are somebody who doesn't spend a lot, it may not be necessary to sit down and record every single purchase that you make. But I still think it's important to know, okay, how much is coming in and how much is going out and are you staying within those means? And budgeting does not necessarily mean that you have to live like a popper. It's just something that you should build into your budget if you are doing that. Third myth, Investing is only for the rich. Now I think in recent times this has become less of a held myth by a lot of people. I think a lot of that was busted during COVID when that whole GameStop short squeeze happened. I think it showed that the everyday person can really put the hurt to the big boy hedge funds. And there's a lot of different apps out there and just the Internet has made has really democratized investing and building wealth and you don't necessarily need a lot of money to get started. Just a few bucks a month is more than enough to use one of these apps to start building a portfolio. And I talked about it recently in another episode. Procrastination is something that could hold us back. There is no better time to start than now. So even if it is just a few bucks a month, put it away and start seeing that money grow over time. Because investing is not only for the rich. Fourth myth and this is something that I've talked a lot about recently, the myth is that talking about money is taboo. And it is not, especially since politics have become such a common topic of conversation amongst group of groups of people. And I wish we'd go back to when politics and religion were taboo conversations because they've just, they've caused so much divide, I think amongst people. We live in such a polarized world now and you know, we can't have this conversation anymore where you know, two people disagree, they can't be friends, it ends up resulting in people hating each other. So money is something that shouldn't be tapoo. And ultimately again I talk about how you don't necessarily need to open up your checkbook to your friends and say here's how much I'm worth. But it's good to talk strategy. It's good to sit down and say, hey, have you thought about this? One topic that I think was really common for conversation a few years ago was I bonds. People talked about I bonds a lot and it led to a lot of people investing in those I bonds because they were paying 8, 9% in interest. So it's just little things like that bringing awareness to all of the various things that exist out there to ensure that people know all of the wealth building tools that exist. So I'm probably going to harp on it Again and again, in and again. Huh? How? Talking about money should not be taboo. You don't need to tell people your net worth, but you should say, hey, did you hear about this? Or hear about that? Because the more that people understand about building wealth, the better it is for the entire world. And then the last myth is you need a finance degree to succeed. This is very much not true. And I'll be the first one to admit, because I don't have a finance degree myself. I actually studied supply chain at Indiana, and I made the change later on. Now I got certain certifications that enable me to do this job and learn all the expertise. But you, you yourself do not need to have any deep expertise in investing. Mean, heck, I'll admit that. Why? Partially why my job exists, because I'll be the expert and enable you to focus on whatever it is that you want to focus on. But this idea that, you know, it's a complex world and it's designed to keep out the everyday person, I'll admit Wall Street's done a very good job of making what they do sound extremely complex, and only for super smart people. That's not true, really. At the end of the day, money is very simple. Now they've created a bunch of complicated derivatives and other products as a way to make themselves seem indispensable. But ultimately, the everyday person can succeed and grow wealth in the long term. And that's something that I enjoy helping our clients do. So if that's something that you're looking for a partner to help you do, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. Just go to visitwithm.com, book a day and time that works best for you, and let's get you on the track to financial success. But like I said, those are just some of the myths that I thought I would address this week. If you have any deeply held beliefs that you don't think are necessarily true, I'd love to hear about them. I'd love to just get a sense of what's on people's minds. What are some various things that concern them when it comes to finances? Because I'd love to address them. My job is all about giving people clarity, peace of mind, et cetera. So if I can do that for you, I'd love to be able to do so. Hope you enjoyed this episode and I'll see you next week. Thanks.