Financial advice is everywhere these days. In the digital age, you can find insights and tips about how best to save, invest, and manage your money from adviser and financial services websites; YouTube, TikTok, and other social media platforms; podcasts, newsletters, and Substacks; and your 401(k) provider, among other outlets.
Then there are all the traditional sources, such as your financial planner, newspapers and magazines, and even your dear Uncle Lou, who always has a money tip or two to dispense. (Yes, despite all the new founts of financial wisdom, Americans are still more likely to turn to family and friends for money advice than any other resource, a recent Gallup survey found.)
The challenge, of course, is figuring out whether any of the many financial recommendations you come across are actually the very best advice you could get for your circumstances. This is guidance that will not only help you manage your money wisely, but also provide perspective to keep you grounded, whatever opportunities, obstacles or challenges life throws your way.
That’s why we asked a diverse group of 35 top financial experts—acclaimed investors, advisers, money managers, economists, influencers and more—to share their very best advice. The essential question we put to them: Of all the many recommendations or insights about money you’ve given or received, what are the best, most meaningful or most impactful tips you want to pass along?
Their answers include not just practical suggestions on how to manage your money, but also insights that help put money and how we feel about it in perspective. We hope you find their responses as smart and useful—and, at times, surprising, moving and funny—as we did.
Managing Money
Stick With the Basics
“There’s no shortcut or hack, no easy button, no Amazon for your money that’s going to show up on your porch on Tuesday. You’ve got to do the work and do the journey: Live on less than you make. Invest regularly. Stay out of debt. It’s hard—that’s the bad news. The good news is that 100 percent of the time, it works.” — Dave Ramsey, founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions, cohost of “The Ramsey Show,” and author of “The Total Money Makeover” and other books
Be Your Own Best Advocate
“You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. I’m not sure who told me this or where I heard it, but this insight has been living rent-free in my head for the past 25 years. It has led me to never assume I’m just going to be handed a raise, a financial break or a career opportunity. You have to work for it, be strategic and be your biggest advocate. It won’t always work, but you greatly increase your chances of success.” — Farnoosh Torabi, host of the “So Money” podcast and author of the book “A Healthy State of Panic”
Get Help, When and as You Need It
“Money is a team sport. Many people think they have to navigate their finances all by themselves, or magically know everything just because they’re an adult. The older I’ve gotten, the more I realize there’s no way I can possibly know everything. So I ask a tax person about taxes—just like if I had something wrong with my eyes, I would go to an ophthalmologist.” — Tiffany Aliche, founder of The Budgetnista, a personal finance education company, and author of “Get Good With Money”
Even ‘Good’ Debt Can Be Bad
“Be wary about taking on debt, even so-called ‘good debt.’ It’s a slow killer of financial dreams. Everyone talks about mortgages and student loans like they’re investments in your future, but any debt becomes bad debt when it’s excessive or you don’t have a clear payoff strategy.” — Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, known as The Money Coach, is the author of “Bounce Back: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Resilience and founder of the Financial Influencer Network”
Let Your Values Be Your Guide
“Align your life and money so your money has assignments. Do the mindful work of discovering what you value most, then be intentional, strategic and systematic about where your money goes. You end up investing in more than markets, but also in meaning. When you manage your money holistically with your life, you stick to a financial life plan that helps you flourish.” — Dr. Preston Cherry, certified financial planner and founder, Concurrent Wealth Management; author of “Wealth in the Key of Life”
Think About the Broad Impact When You Make Money Decisions
“Think of money as a tool to invest in all aspects of your life. Financial planning is not just about numbers in your investment portfolio. It’s also about your relationships, your health, or even your ability to hire tutors for your kids. Bring financial decisions down to the level of how they will impact your everyday personal life, and use money as a tool to create a better quality of life.” — Louis Barajas, CFP, and cofounder and CEO of International Private Wealth Advisors; author of “My Street Money”
Look Past the Math
“Sometimes I hear advice dispensed that makes good financial sense but doesn’t really consider a person’s peace of mind. For instance: Don’t pay off your mortgage early; if you can earn a higher rate of return on your money, then use it to invest instead. I completely understand the math behind that, but what people underestimate when dispensing that sort of one-size-fits-all wisdom is the peace-of-mind benefits people gain from being debt-free.” — Christine Benz, director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar and author of “How to Retire”
Make Good Habits Automatic
“People give too much advice, like telling people to spend less, that relies on motivation and has a negative connotation, like you are somehow the problem. I prefer to create automatic systems so that doing the right thing with your money is the default. For example, my entire paycheck does not go directly to my checking account; I’ve signed up in advance to parse money out to my different accounts for retirement, my emergency fund and paying my bills. Then the balance goes into my checking account.” — Megan McCoy, certified financial therapist and acting personal financial planning program chair, Kansas State University
Marry Wisely
“This is unconventional, but my best advice is to pick the right life partner. That’s a decision you have to live with for the vast majority of your life, and you’re financially tied to that person. That person could be your biggest cheerleader, or they could hold you back. Choosing that person has a cascading effect over the rest of your life. If your partner is smart and savvy, you can hit your goals faster as a duo. But if they don’t respect their own finances, you’re going to have to climb twice as hard.” — Vivian Tu, author, founder and CEO of Your Rich BFF and chief of financial empowerment at SoFi
Family Finance
Be Open About Money
“It’s super important for partners to be honest with each other and share everything about their finances. A lot of couples have one personality who is more financially aware and one who is happy to let the other person take care of everything. But that can get dangerous when there is a death, disability or divorce. The person who didn’t do much financially may not even know what they own or where their assets are. I handle most of the investment decisions in my marriage, while my husband handles the bills, but we do an ‘audit’ once a year, where we review everything and make sure we both can log in to all our accounts. So, neither of us is living blindly, and we know how to do something the other does, if we need to.” — Carolyn McClanahan, CFP and founder of Life Planning Partners
Don’t Keep Your Children’s Inheritance a Secret
“You shouldn’t be a lottery to your kids. It’s good for your children or heirs to know what money they’re going to get from you. One of the worst things you can do to a young or middle-age adult is to have them wonder what they’re going to receive, because then they can’t do their own financial planning.” — Teresa Ghilarducci, labor economist and retirement security expert, professor at The New School for Social Research and author of “How to Retire with Enough Money”
Give With a Warm Hand
“With people living close to 100 years these days, it might not be the best practice to wait until death to leave an inheritance to your kids, who may be in their seventies and retired at that point. Maybe the best thing you could do for your children and grandchildren is to give some of that money to the parents when that baby’s first born. Then the parents have more resources to either get good day care or go to part-time work themselves to be able to invest more in these little ones when they really need it.” — Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity and psychology professor at Stanford University
Explain Your Financial Choices
“Growing up, we didn’t talk about money in our household. If there was enough money, our parents didn’t talk about it. If there wasn’t, they would fuss and argue. With my own children, who are 11 and 15, I do the opposite; we talk about money in age-appropriate ways so they understand how and why we choose to spend our money. We almost never go out to eat, for example, so we can spend our money on travel and education, which are our priorities.” — H. Jude Boudreaux, a CFP and senior financial planner and partner at The Planning Center in New Orleans
