When someone gives us advice regarding how to spend our money, particularly if it means spending it with them, it would be prudent to examine that person’s motives.

When someone gives us advice regarding how to spend our money, particularly if it means spending it with them, it would be prudent to examine that person’s motives. For example, what are mine? If I stand to make money off the advice that I give you, my advice is subject to question. I have an inherent conflict of interest because I am exposed to the temptation to give you advice that benefits me. That is inherently a “conflict of interest”. Much so-called “investment advice” contains this conflict of interest. Further, if I have a genuinely good idea for making money, won’t I just do it myself? Why should I tell you or anyone else about it? Unless I am very close to being a saint, my basic motivation is to make money for myself first and for you second. And yet, a lot of investment advice says, “Here’s a great idea that I just wanted to share with my friends”. Friends? And he doesn’t even know you? Yea, if we believe that line, there is an old adage for us: “Fools and their money soon go separate ways.”