A Simple Mistake That Cost Me Thousands in Home Buying Benefits
When I was preparing to buy my home, my financial advisor who arranged the mortgage told me that the lender ‘didn’t accept’ help to buy ISA’s, so told me to transfer the money to my savings account and withdraw the full sum in bulk.
I later found out that’s not how it works…! I missed out on the government grant. I would have reported but I have no evidence as the advice was via email while I was using my work email address of a workplace many workplaces past!
Still bugs me when I pass his office 🙃
Related Horror Stories
Playing it too safe
Can a financial advisor give the wrong advice? Yes, especially towards young people who are starting which was my case, they went way too safe and too conservative to the point that my savings in my retirement account were gaining peanuts barely over 2% a year. I switched banks and never looked back.
Either too safe or too risky. You probably hear tons of stories, especially wasting many years of young people who could have put those crucial early years to better use under a better advisor.
Churned and burned
Some time in the past, a “financial advisor” convinced me that I could make a lot of money trading commodities. Wrong! I figured out he was just “churning” me (putting me into and out of too many positions, just to earn the commission), and I closed the account, buy not until he lost 80% of my money in less than a year!
Pressure Tactics and Poor Advice
I had one guy INSIST that I buy a costly Variable Life insurance policy. “Don’t read the prospectus! TRUST ME!” Sorry. “We’re not leaving until you sign!” Okay well you may want to order a pizza, because it’s gonna be a looooooooooong wait!
Another time I met with reps from a major financial firm who asked how my investments had been doing. “For the past ten years my compound returns have been 27%.” (That is, my portfolio was up 10x over ten years.)
This upset then tremendously, like I had just told them I kidnapped babies to use as firewood. “Well, THAT’s totally unsuitable!”Well, what do YOU recommend? “We have a program that will deliver 7% a year. But no promises!” (Perhaps double over ten years.) Okay! We’re done here!
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