Thursday 2 February 2017

Shitty Financial Advice







Look! Just cut your tennis balls in half and you can save more space! Wah lah!


Don't laugh.



Just look at some of the shitty financial "advice" out there:


1)  The more you spend the more you "save" kind...

Enough said.



2)  Collect air miles and fly or upgrade for free!

Hello, unless your Ah Kong (corporate company) pays for the air tickets, or you charge your business expenses on your personal credit card, these air miles are not "free".  



3)  And then there's this come here little mouse... See the loops and hoops over there? Now jump through all of them and we'll "reward" you with a little cheese as in 1% extra interest.

That's how Jedi use their mind control technique on feeble minds...






Tip:  Try to see things from the perspective if you are the sales or marketing maverick making the above proposals to your bosses.

Why throw away good margin away by offering these "incentives" to your customers?

What would you say to "sell" why its in the best interests of your corporation to do so?




9 comments:

  1. I kena this before. >.<

    I used to have this "money-saving" app. Do this, get points, claim award, must use award (discount at eateries/restaurants) within one month. After claiming one "freebie discount" at a restaurant, I asked myself why am I doing this.

    App deleted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unintelligent Nerd,

      You are free from the Matrix now ;)


      If not careful, all these rewards programs or members' discount schemes can lock us in like drug addicts and prevent us from having an unbiased and unvested perspective...

      Delete
  2. These lucrative proposals are meant to entrap a certain percentage of the population that are more vulnerable. There are always mice that got away with the free cheese without getting caught :D

    (1) is fairly situational. Free is probably the wrong word (click bait haha) to use for (2), as there is opportunity costs e.g. cash rebates you could have earned in place of miles. For (3), I'll admit Citibank got me for this many yrs ago (oops). Been avoiding such tactics like plague after that -.-

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kevin,

      The best kind of "free" cheese are those CapitaLand vouchers I got just for making a purchase at one of their malls.

      After I've made a purchase above $100 plus, the retail shop tells me I can take my receipt to the information counter to claim my $10-20 vouchers?

      Its "free" because I didn't know about it in the first place! LOL!


      But I'll never make a $100 plus purchase at their malls just to "earn" those CapitaLand vouchers ;)



      Delete
    2. Ya! Received $50 Taka vouchers and $20 Fraser gift card on the last two months. Now I'm thinking I need to get from those places .

      Delete
    3. Kevin,

      Good, better, best right?

      Especially if the vouchers were given to us without us "planning" for them ;)

      Have fun shopping!

      Delete
  3. temperament,

    I know everyone has to make a living but nobody knows what will happen in the future...

    When CPF was first liberalised for "investments", banks were touting mutual funds and what not...

    And insurance companies were hawking Investment-linked policies...

    Well, after 20 years, how many "investors" made money?


    Fast forward to today, now there's another group of well-intentioned people trying to help others be "financially free".


    Let's stick around for another 20 years to see how things turn out?

    Stay healthy now ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Best financial advice?

    "Save more money", but it's not intellectually stimulating enough for smart people to take seriously.

    That's why smart people tend to fall for complex financial advice. It might sound cleverer to their ears. For it to work as prescribed on paper one just has to stay rational for a long time. Nobody can stay rational for a long time. Emotions always win.

    Most fields have a positive correlation between effort and results. I guess investing is one of few where the correlation is negative, especially for us amateurs. The higher our IQ is, the harder it is to accept this.

    I am (or was) guilty of that. Not the higher IQ, of course, but the reluctance to accept this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andy,

      Precisely!

      I showed the below example at a comment to a lady blogger:

      Strategy: Earn and save $50K per year.

      Year 1 - $50K

      Year 2 - $100K (Hey! My portfolio of cash doubled!)

      Year 3 - $150K (Now it grew 50%!!!)


      Without a single percentage of sexy "investment" returns, this boring earn and save strategy would beat the pants off most retail investors and/or traders out there ;)

      Look mom! No capital loss!

      LOL!


      I never exhort others they must "invest" or else. I know from painful personal experience that to "invest" means we must accept there will be losses to our capital :(

      That's the price for experience!

      Delete

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