
Most women are accustomed to being confronted with advice. About our bodies, our behaviour, parenting methods, about managing careers, relationships and finance.
Much of it is unsolicited; even more of it, unqualified.
And when it comes to money management, in particular, that can have life-altering consequences.
'You should invest in this...' 'Get this type of credit card...' 'You should deal with your debt by...'
With this cacophony of counsel, it's little wonder that research by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission found that 41 per cent of Australian women feel 'stressed or overwhelmed' about dealing with money.
Watch: Barefoot Investor Scott Pape shares his number one money tip for single women. Post continues after video.
Mamamia asked women to share some of the most questionable, or downright nonsensical, financial advice that's been heaped upon them over the years.
Here we sift through some of the most common, with expert insight from the founder of Talking Money, Melissa Meagher — a money coach with over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry.
'My parents told me, "Don’t go into debt." If only we had borrowed heavily, we could have an amazing property portfolio by now!'
This is based on the idea that debt is always a negative thing, which is not necessarily true according to Melissa.
She explained that debt is often referred to as one of the following: bad debt or good debt.
'Bad debt' includes that from credit cards, personal loans, buy-now-pay-later services and so on.
"There's absolutely no benefit, no tax relief, from having that debt in place. And a lot of times, you're paying very high interest rates as well," she said.
"Then there's what we call 'good debt', which is borrowing to build wealth. So buying an investment property or portfolio, investments — that sort of thing."