TikTok content creators are doing a lot more than slick choreography on the platform. Increasingly, accounts feature millennials and Gen Zers dishing out financial tips to their peers who range in age from late teens to late 30s.
Just because the advice is there and available, however, doesn t make it worth following. Before you appoint your favorite financial TikToker as your de-facto financial advisor, it helps to take social media money tips with a grain of salt. These three best practices can help you do just that.
1. Don t fall for financial trolling
It should go without saying in 2021, but not everything you see on the internet is true. And not everyone professing to know what they re talking about when it comes to money actually does.
1. Getting your employer s full match
If you re not yet taking advantage of your employer s matching program, it could help you double what you re saving.
Matches work exactly as they sound when you contribute up to a certain percentage of your income, your employer contributes that amount, too. And, it all happens automatically every month. The part I love about the employer match, or employer plans in general, is you don t have to think about it. You set up a percentage that you want to defer, and it happens automatically every month. You get used to it, you don t notice that that money s coming out of your paycheck anymore, Richardson told Insider.
1. Make sure your retirement account is invested properly
It can be all too easy to simply set up a retirement account and then not actually invest it, or to invest it too conservatively. That said, you ll want to check in on your retirement accounts periodically and see how your portfolio is growing. If it s not growing much, you may need to make an adjustment.
Financial planner Jovan Johnson of Piece of Wealth Planning suggests changing how your account is invested. You can switch to low-fee investments, that s always a great option. Or, consider being more aggressive for a higher return if you re younger and OK with that additional risk, he says.