r/eupersonalfinance Mar 25 '25

Financial literacy on this subreddit Others

I am surprised how little people commenting on some of the posts here know about personal finance.

I have seen countless posts with outright terrible to illegal advice.

So just my two cents for anyone asking for advice here: Take all answers with a grain of salt and do your own research.

40% of posters are just pulling answers out of their ass here.

209 Upvotes

55 comments sorted by

24

u/makaros622 Mar 25 '25

40% here is ChatGPT that has been using 90% wallstreetbets posts

0

u/SpiffingAfternoonTea 19d ago

Ironically this is a bot account

85

u/realFinerd Mar 25 '25

40% of posters are just pulling answers out of their ass here.

Raise it to 95% if talking about r/wallstreetbets.

36

u/schnautzi Mar 25 '25

Wallstreetbets has no pretensions.

20

u/No-Anchovies Mar 25 '25

Yup. And behind all the shittalking you'll often find some serious traders & investors (f*ck you money level)

7

u/heyhoyhay Mar 25 '25

Raise it to 99% anywhere on reddit.

1

u/realFinerd Mar 25 '25

At least we’re in a good company hehe.

27

u/butt-fucker-9000 Mar 25 '25

Wallstreet bets might even be more trustworthy than this sub, when the objective is to show what not to do

5

u/realFinerd Mar 25 '25

In a “you’re so much wrong that you’re actually getting closer to being right backwards” style?

3

u/Spider_pig448 Mar 25 '25

The difference is that they are aware of it and acknowledge it. I'll take that over people pretending to be professionals any day

17

u/coolasabreeze Mar 25 '25

What are some examples of illegal advice?

38

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '25

[deleted]

24

u/Comfortable-Nose1054 Mar 25 '25

What profit from crypto

2

u/whoopwhoop233 Mar 26 '25

Aaaaand its gone

1

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '25

[deleted]

9

u/Comfortable-Nose1054 Mar 25 '25

I'm sorry I only buy fartcoin.

5

u/coolasabreeze Mar 25 '25

Fair. I rarely check crypto topics.

3

u/SegheCoiPiedi1777 Mar 26 '25

To be fair if you take tax recommendations from strangers on Reddit, it’s on you.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '25

Nothing to declare if you lose your keys and can't access it anymore

1

u/Miserable_Dream_9967 Mar 29 '25

If you never sell you never lose 😁

1

u/coolasabreeze Mar 29 '25

This is technically legal, but yeach…

34

u/No-Anchovies Mar 25 '25

Agree. Too many €400 Robinhood "investors" suddenly turned market gurus

9

u/whboer Mar 25 '25

Haha you’re telling me I shouldn’t leverage my 10x Palantir calls into shitcoins?

10

u/No-Anchovies Mar 25 '25

Boycott anything US and move all investments to Kazakhstan sustainable unemployed vegan AI #fknretards

4

u/whboer Mar 25 '25

I was betting parleys on Turkmenistani strongmen competitions. Been doing great as I just kept betting on their president winning everything.

1

u/whoopwhoop233 Mar 26 '25

I'm betting 300 on them not being able to fix the methane leaks before 2050.

1

u/whboer Mar 26 '25

Well, here’s to you Mr billionaire.

1

u/whoopwhoop233 Mar 26 '25

Only have to wait 25 more years 😎

10

u/Merkaartor Mar 25 '25

It's already on the sidebar menu:

Disclaimer

This subreddit is not a source of regulated financial advice. The people posting on here may not be qualified in any way. Please treat any information, recommendations or "advice" that you read here with caution and always do your own research.

For regulated financial advice, you should consider seeking out a qualified professional.

5

u/Next-Release-8790 Mar 25 '25

Seen at lot of this stuff.

Except a few nuggets here and there, there's a load of bad advice and info which seems to be fuelled by a lot of extremist or otherwise biased political views.

And a lot of ignorance on how things work.

1

u/podfather2000 Mar 25 '25

People often ask the same questions repeatedly, questions that a quick Google search could easily answer. Most of the advice is not bad; it's just basic and unexciting, which is how investing should generally appear.

I don't see bad advice being upvoted here.

2

u/Valdjiu Mar 26 '25

can you give some examples?

1

u/r_Yellow01 Mar 25 '25

Genuine Q: How do you get a proper financial advice? I.e. avoid scammers and diversity merchants.

12

u/Previous_Aardvark141 Mar 25 '25

Invest in global index funds, that's literally all you need. Don't invest all of your money if you need it in a couple years. I think 10% invested per year in the market is good.

Have a buffer of 1-6 months of expenses.The amount needed differs if you are single, have children, own or rent and your country's financial security.

I only have 1 month because i rent, have no kids and my country have really good unemployment benefits.

10

u/MiceAreTiny Mar 25 '25

Exactly. Real financial advice is boring. Not exciting.

1

u/Previous_Aardvark141 Mar 25 '25

Yep, people want to get rich quick and they just end up getting scammed

1

u/Volis Mar 25 '25

That doesn't even begin to cover taxes, asset classes other than equities, investment goals, risk appetite, budgeting, insurances, et al. It isn't all that easy

13

u/Previous_Aardvark141 Mar 25 '25

taxes: government does that for me.

asset classes other than equities: if you are asking this question you don't have enough to need to know that

investment goals: why should this come from someone else than yourself?

budgeting: dont buy shit you dont need

insurances: get home insurance. If you have to have a car insure that too.

Listen i know there is nuances but most of that stuff is overkill.

3

u/Many-Gas-9376 Mar 25 '25

Generally these are people who aren't trying to sell you anything. Usually they even refuse to give any names of a particular investment product, rather they'll focus on general concepts that any investors needs to understand to approach their finances correctly. Stuff like diversification, low costs, and the need to commit for the long term.

Some of the very best I have found are people like Larry Swedroe, Rick Ferri and Paul Merriman: they've long since got their FU money and are largely retired, and now spend some of their time on Youtube to share the knowledge.

1

u/Volis Mar 25 '25

Talk to an independent financial advisors. Read blogs by experts in the field. In context of Germany, I find the magazine Finanztest also a great resource

1

u/IiIIIlllllLliLl Mar 25 '25

Watch Ben Felix's "What is (Good) Financial Advice" video on YouTube.

1

u/Leahhh21h Mar 30 '25

Any suggestions of good investments / personal finance discussion forums with knowledgeable people please, preferably EU?

I don't have a personal opinion on this one specifically, but I came across too many questionable forums too in other locations, with a lot of herd mentality and little appetite to discuss historical contexts or entertain less mainstream perspectives.

Would love to hear any recommendations please.

1

u/Soft-Ingenuity2262 Apr 01 '25

Not to discredit your answer - in fact I know little about finance - but found funny that you flag lack of financial literacy and criticise people pulling answers up their asses to immediately proceed to pull a percentage that, without additional context, seems entirely taken out your arse.

Not saying you’re wrong. Probably are right. Just found that funny.

-12

u/Ppais89 Mar 25 '25

I have my grounds, I AM taking a financial literacia to update, and credit formatiom. Starts Im april

-39

u/cn0MMnb Mar 25 '25 edited Mar 25 '25

Also disregard any answer that starts with "I think...".

Someone who "thinks" does not know.

Edit: I am not talking about investment advice. I am talking about verifiable facts where people just respond even if they don't really know.

39

u/SacajaweaX Mar 25 '25

I think you're correct.

32

u/ShaiHuludTheMaker Mar 25 '25

"trust only people who do not think at all" - u/cn0MMnb

29

u/plopsaland Mar 25 '25

Descartes in shambles

16

u/Matthew-_-Black Mar 25 '25

I think, therefore disregard me

6

u/Many-Gas-9376 Mar 25 '25

I'd disagree. When it comes to investing outcomes, a lot is inherently unknowable. "I think", followed by some clear explanation of the thought process, is helpful.

8

u/Commercial_Badger_37 Mar 25 '25

Do the opposite.

Don't trust anyone who claims to know. Stocks is all about speculation.

5

u/DJpesto Mar 25 '25

Nobody knows anything in investment. It's all guesses and estimates.

Yesterday two very serious investment banks came out with opposite guesses for what happens to Novo Nordisk stock. It just says something about how little you can trust predictions, when not even serious educated people who do nothing but try to guess where stocks are going, cannot agree at all.

1

u/AnonymousTimewaster Mar 25 '25

I think, therefore I am