When it comes to financial strategies celebrity endorsements are all too common. We see Fred G. Thompson promoting reverse mortgages and William Devane talking about precious metals, but remember, these people were paid a lot of money to promote these concepts. These products are great, but may not be appropriate for you. Actor Kevin Spacey pitches E–Trade’s Investing Insights Center to help DIY’s spot trends and pick stocks. Not a good idea unless you have had a great deal of experience and success doing this in the past and can stomach big losses from time to time.
Radio and TV Commercials
The same holds true for TV or radio commercials. It may sound like a great idea to put all your assets in gold to protect yourself from market volatility but the fact is the gold market can be scary too. The only way to truly protect yourself from big corrections like we saw in 2001 and 2008 is to make sure your portfolio is properly diversified.
If you are getting close to retirement and planning on generating income from your assets, your risk tolerance likely needs to change. The bottom line…the only way to know for sure if a product or strategy makes sense is to do your own research and get professional advice.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/should-you-take-financial-advice-from-a-celebrity-2015-01-27
