Spotting the difference: Financial Advice Seminar or Scam!

Is it Financial Advice or a scam? Roy McDonald has a great resource and a recommended site called;

http://www.understandingmoney.gov.au/

This site has great resources with financial advice the Do’s and Don’ts of financial advice or financial education.

Here are some of the things that can be included in seminars:

• How to manage your debt
• The option available in investing or savings
• Differences between investing areas like share trading VS real estate
• How to save money
• A product range the content and characteristics

Now Roy made this point very clear that if you don’t have a (AFS) Licence then you should not be giving the following advice at a seminar. (Australian Financial Services (AFS) Licence)

• Giving advice that this product is the one to use
• Giving advice of which option is best
• Or advice on which product is best
• Advising where to put their money

When people are giving this advice it is to particular and narrow in a seminar environment Roy McDonald said it is general advice because everyone is different and that kind of very narrow, this product or that is best, will not suit everyone. We all have different commitments with bills; real estate, personal homes, cars, small loans, phones. What you will really need to know to stop being scammed is your position in detail, have an important documents file with all your details up to date so you can see in an instant and even know to a degree if you are ask how much and where your money is coming from and going too.

The important note here is; if you are at a seminar and worried that an investment in a product from them will be a scam then check in with yourself and your financial position. Am I a person that suits share trading and also will it work with my portfolio? How high is my financial education in this arena, out of 10? Can I afford for everything to go bad if in the worst case it dose.

Stick to your goals as Roy has said before and start simple, here is an example of starting small with a bank account. Roy calls it the Wealth Account, you can find the e-book here;

http://www.slideshare.net/RoyMcDonald/wealth-account-by-roy-mc-donald