Great post!  Your right, we need to be careful of who we take advice from.  I know more accountants and CPAs with large amounts of debt and leveraged homes then I know ones who are debt free and have a fat stash in the bank.  Personally, I would not take their advice.  

On our blog we have a "Full Disclosure" on the side bar so that our readers can see what we are really doing.  We also don't post content that we don't do or have not tried.  We don't see any point in misleading people.  

www.notthejetset.net

Both Suze and Dave were able to get themselves out of debt using the practices they preach.  They got rich selling those practices in books, on tv, on the radio.   So are you suggesting that we all become personal finance experts and begin selling our wares on QVC?  

Ben Stein is just a hypocrite.

Orman is a fraud, she has latched onto a PBS contract and gives off the cuff advice to simpletons that sit in the audiance with drool dripping out of their mouths.  She does not put her money where her mouth is.  She has stated that she does not trust the stock market and has all her money in safe investment such as money market funds

Thanks for linking back to my blog. I thought the most striking thing was that Ben's unemployed 21-year-old son is MARRIED! To me, the best financial lesson Ben could have taught his son was: don't get married until you can support yourself.

Understand that in life you can and need to learn from everyone aroud you.  No one is an expert when it comes to predicting our economy.  But you can always learn something if you listen closely.  A while back a financial adviser pitched an ivestment to us, although the investment was not worth a nickle I did learn from the experience.  We have applied that new knowledge and it did help us make decision that did benefit us.

So yes it is good to hear and get as any points of view as possible it will enable you to beter analyze your own prsent position and here you want to get.  But never make any decision based on just one information source you need to do your homework.

By the way I hope no one is actually counting on making only with their retirement savings, you need more income then they will supply.

www.budgetingsense.com

First off, no one gets wealthy by placing cash into a "savings" account.  The bank must generate a profit, hence they pay interest below what they can sell for.  Seems obvious that if annual inflation moves along at around 5%, (we can argue the rate, but this is close) and the bank is offering 2% return, you are losing 3% a year because of the cost of funds and inflation.  

Everyone MAKES money by doing a simple thing.  Buying and selling.  That simple.   Buy stocks, and SELL them when you make a small profit.  The market traders do not buy stock and hold them for thirty years.  Nobody does that but uneducated and mislead normal working people.  Educate yourselves and take charge.  The nanny state that is quickly nationalizing the banking system WILL NOT HELP YOU!  It is not that difficult to set up a trading account, and with smarts, buy reasonable priced stocks, and when it moves up a dollar, sell them.  Do it over and over and over just like the big boys do.  You will take time, but you will make money!   Money attracts money.  Why is this concept so difficult?    Those of you who expect the government to save you are doomed to a life of bondage in your retirement years.   Go visit an old folks home someday soon.  Do you want to suffer like that?  Do you?  

These supposed guru's make their money from being public figures.  Stock brokers are only waiters.  They are order takers.  They don't know a dam thing about what stock to buy or sell,  anymore than the supposed faces on TV.   It is no joke that monkeys throwing darts at the stock pages of the WSJ, beat the experts!   Take charge of yourselves for crying out loud!  

Well, I don't expect some of these guys to follow thier own plan since they write their plans for other people in other situations.  Advice for joe the plumber is different thatn advice for someone with a lot of capital at their disposal (especially since someone has to be running the businesses whose profits fuel those investments.)

Of course, then there's the fun of watching someone's "yeahbut".  They preach all day, but have an excuse for tehmselves to not follow their own advice.  We're seeing a lot of that these days.

Perhaps the best way to survive is to never retire.  Everytime I turn around things are getting mor expensive.  I took my son to get a haircut and the price was now 15 dollars instead of 10.  I was shocked that it took longer for the hairdressor to walk to the convient store and get change for the 20 than it did for her to do the hiarcut.  

    I changed to this hairdresser because the price was recently 10 dollars.  Last week I took my other two sons and myeself to get a haircut.  It cost me 50 dollars for less than 30 minutes of work.  I was suprised when our local newspaper printed that hair dressers in our area make on average 11,000.00 a year.  I ran the numbers in my head and thought how could this be.  It wasn't until I asked the hairdresser and she told me that she only reports income when a check is written.  Cash is never reported as income.  Oh yeah, back to the point.  Keep working!!!!!!!!!

This article reminds me a lot of the people on MSN. :)

Ben Stein s behavior is that of the classic enabler. This is part of a co-dependency relationship that will bring great heart ache to both parties over time. the son is being deprived of the opportunity to grow up and become self-supporting.   Ben and his wife will never be free to enjoy adult years free of parental responsibility.   Truelly, a lose-lose situation.   This is the basis of many addictions i.e. food,alcohol,drugs,sex,etc.