3 totally common financial tips you should probably ignore

by. Erin Lowry

Whether you get your financial tips by asking friends and family or checking out library books, attending seminars or searching online (at sites other than DailyFinance), impractical pieces of advice abound.

Too many personal finance experts tend to populate their cable appearances, books, columns and blogs with the same simple tidbits. But some of that common advice is also … useless. For each of these three cliched tips, let’s look at some better alternatives.

1. In Debt? Cut Up Your Credit Cards

Certain financial gurus advise people in debt to cut up all their plastic and consider using credit cards the eighth deadly sin. Here’s some advice: don’t.

People land in debt for various reasons, and some — like student loans — don’t have anything to do with credit cards.

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