I could whip out a ton of tired old cliches…in fact, I think I will. A penny saved is a penny earned! Look after the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves! Nothing good comes from an ATM visit after midnight! Ok! So I made up the last one but it doesn’t detract from the financial wisdom they put forward.

There’s all kinds of “investment” experts out there that will tell you to save or invest. But here’s the rub! If you borrow money for a car or a house and are paying 3% – 20%+, any investment you make needs to earn you better than that to make any sense. You’re better off to pay down your debt quickly than carrying it and trying to scam up some dough with this crazy notion of making a killing on the market. A typical savings account will earn you 2%-3%. Some bonds will yield around 5%. If you have a car loan and are paying 6%-13% on it, dumping your cash into a low yielding investment shorts you by anywhere from 3%-10%. Your money isn’t working FOR you…it’s working AGAINST you! Pay down your house in 10 years instead of 30 and you stand to save $100,000, $200,000 or more in interest and payments. How many funds do you know of that pay you that well over 20 years?

What do you know about any of that, anyways? That’s right! Diddly squat! So what you end up doing is lending money to some investment guy who in turn lends it to a fund or big nameless corporation. Unfortunately, the only ones making any money are those two – not you! I’m not saying that investments are bad. Quite the opposite! But at the same time, I’m saying if you owe money, you’re in no position to be lending any! You’ve been carrying $4000 on your credit card for 2 years but you cotton yourself some kind of investment guru because some guy gave you a lead and wants you to hand him $5000 with the promise of doubling it in 6 months? Is he starting up a credit card company? Moron!

Are you picking up what I’m laying down?