In this insightful episode of Money Talk with Tiff, host Tiffany Grant delves into the critical topic of evaluating the reliability of information and advice provided by social media gurus, especially concerning financial decisions. Tiffany provides practical tips on how to fact-check sources and verify data to prevent falling for misinformation—particularly emphasizing the case of a viral claim about a major bank's alleged financial woes.

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Timestamps

[00:00] Tiffany's Take: Fact-checking social media gurus.

[03:57] Questioning funding source and credibility of information.

[06:47] Check various sources before believing any story.

[12:06] Be critical and skeptical, and do your research.

Key Points

• Trace the Original Source: Always verify the authenticity of the information by tracing it back to the original source, ensuring it is not simply secondhand information.
• Check the Author’s Credibility: Investigate the motives and background of the content creator. For instance, a self-proclaimed financial guru pushing for certain financial products may have an underlying agenda.
• Verify with Reputable Sources: Cross-check claims with reputable sources to confirm their validity. If only one obscure source is making a dramatic claim, it’s worth being skeptical.
• Use Fact-Checking Websites: Utilize platforms like Snopes or FactCheck.org to verify widespread rumors or claims.
• Assess the Evidence: Evaluate if the information is backed by data, expert quotes, or credible research rather than mere opinions.
• Beware of Misleading Headlines: Sensational headlines often do not accurately reflect the content. Read beyond the headline to understand the true context.
• Consider the Publishing Date and Context: Information might be outdated or taken out of context to push a particular narrative.

Practical Tips

• Tiffany emphasizes the responsibility of social media users to share accurate content and encourages a critical approach to consuming information.
• Encourages listeners to perform their own thorough research before forwarding or acting on sensational news.

Resources

• Popular blog posts on passive income ideas, turning $10,000 into $100,000, and financial literacy in schools
• Snopes - http://www.snopes.com
• FactCheck.org - http://www.factcheck.org
• Poynter Institute's PolitiFact - http://www.politifact.com
• Subscribe, share, and leave a review for the Money Talk with Tiff podcast to support the show and provide valuable feedback.

Remember, stay critical and analytical, especially about the financial advice you consume on social media. Have a great week ahead, and keep your finances in check!

Support this Podcast

Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money

nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings

and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff

podcast.

Hey, hey, and welcome to another episode of Tiffany's Take, where I

answer your questions right here on the podcast. So if you

would like your questions answered, go to

www.moneytalkwitht.com

axtiffany and I'll be more than happy to answer for you. Now,

let me forward on and say that I'm not feeling good

today, so I'm gonna try to make this short, sweet, and to the

point because I know my voice sounds a little,

eh, so I don't want to tear up your

eardrums too much. But what I want to talk about

today, I've been getting a lot of people sending me videos and

messages like, is this real? Is this real? And usually they're referring

to some social media video or some post that they've seen,

and so they're trying to get my take on it. Now, with that being

said, most of the ones that I get sent, I'm like,

yeah, this is b's, or, yeah, this makes no sense,

or this is not true, or half true, or whatever the case may be. So

I wanted to take this so to just over some things that

I do when I fact check some of these social media

gurus on the types of things that they're talking about,

and maybe you can do the same on your own.

And if there is something that you would like me to investigate a

little further or have questions about, just let me know. I'm available

in all DM's, my email, what have you. I'm

onytalkwitht on all social media platforms, so, and I do answer

my own DM's, so I will get you an

answer. But with that being said, one of the things that someone

sent me just this morning was someone on social media

talking about how Wells Fargo is going to go bankrupt

and, you know, take all your money out and none of these

banks are safe, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, crypto is the way to go,

blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Now, with this particular video,

upon doing my research, which gets me to my first point, which is

trace the original source. As soon as I saw it, I said, okay, let

me google some of the stuff that he's saying. Lo and behold,

none of it came up. So there's no news articles, there's no

insider information out there about it, none of that.

So pretty much. He's taking what he thinks is going to happen

or what he thinks is happening and putting his own spin on

it. So always trace the original source. So if

you come across something and it's somebody

reporting on something, and I'm doing air quotes or given secondhand

summaries or interpretations of what they found in the news or

whatever, make sure you go look for it yourself.

Always seek out the original source of the information. So

find the original article, the study, the report, rather

than solely relying on them. Because the thing is, with this particular

video in the comment section, people were like, oh,

should I move my money? Who is this? I need to follow da da da

da da. And everybody's going all in a tizzy on something that's not even

true. So just keep that in mind. And this video had

hundreds of thousands of views, hundreds and thousands of likes.

And so all of these people are now thinking that this is the

truth because they haven't done their own due diligence. And so, of course,

my comment was like, make sure you all do your own research. And

that's why I decided to do this episode today. So, number

one, trace the original source. Number two, check the author's

credibility. So investigate the author or the organization that's

responsible for the content. To give you an example, if you see a report out

there and they're saying, oh, make sure that you take your money

out of a bank. And the studies show

that 60% of people don't believe in the banking system

or whatever, right? I'm just pulling stuff out the sky. Is it

a credit union that's funding this? Is it the crypto bros.

That's funding this? Like, who is funding this information? Who is

funding the study? If you see a study and it's like, cigarettes are good

for you, and you go and look, and the cigarette

companies are the ones that are funding this research,

then that's something that will add a different lens to it.

That's something that, oh, they actually have a benefit in this study,

and so it may or may not be reputable. So always

check the author's credibility. So, with this particular video, we'll stay with

this one that I'm talking about. I did my research on the guy.

Come to find out he's an insurance salesperson, and one of the things that he

was saying in the video was, take your money out of the banks

and put it in, in universal life

policy. For me, that was a red flag. I said, is this guy

an insurance agent? Lo and behold, he was so

always, always check the author's

credibility. Check what it is that they get out of the

situation. Are they an expert in the field?

Do they have a history of reliable reporting? Evaluating the

credibility of the source can provide significant insight into

the reliability of the information. Had he not been

an insurance agent, and he said that, okay, maybe I'm

still going to do some additional research, but me knowing that he is an

insurance agent and saying that, I'm like, oh, well, you just want to

make some money, you know what I'm saying? Because he was

also saying, oh, you know, you should take your money out because

investing anything can happen, but not telling people

that these life insurance policies are also investing your money.

So, yeah, it's just, it's really interesting.

So number one, trace the original source. Number two, check the author's

credibility. All right? Number three, look for corroboration

from other reputable sources. So that's one of the steps that I did. As

soon as he started talking, I went straight to Google. I said, are they going

bankrupt? Because, I mean, express is, you know, somebody told me that,

I looked it up. Lo and behold, there's a bunch of different articles

saying how express is going bankrupt. When I searched, well, Wells

Fargo this morning, the only things I found was the

issues that they had a few years ago when they were making accounts,

fraudulent accounts and stuff like that, which he did bring up in the video, which

was a true part, but he was making it seem like it was recent. And

then that's why they're going bankrupt. And so also beware

of that where someone might say something that has

a truth in it, but then they're spending it to meet their own

needs. So look, look online. Look other

places to see if other people are saying this. If the story is true, it's

likely that there are other credible media outlets, research

institutions, or official organizations that are also reporting on

it. Like, when I looked up express, there were lots

of articles on it. When I looked up Boston market going out of business, there

were lots of articles going in, going on about it. And

one thing that this guy said was, I have insider information

on this. That should be a red flag, too, because

that means he's covering himself. If you go look it up, it's not going to

be there, you know? Now, don't get me wrong, there are some people that do

have insider information, but like I said, take it

with a grain of salt. All right? So number four, use fact checking

websites. So there are some fact checking websites that you can

use, like Snopes or factcheck.org. Or the

Poyntner Institute's politifact if it's something political.

But these sites specialize in investigating rumors and verifying the

accuracy of widely circulated information. So if it's something that you heard

that's widespread, those websites probably have something on

it. So check there as well. And you have to realize

that journalism is a whole career. There's

people that are trained in how to get good information.

And so that's why I'm, like, social media gurus and

stuff. Even me, I'm like, I'm not a journalist. Like,

being a journalist is a whole career. And so I'm not a

journalist. But there are people that have spent their lives

and dedicated their careers to making sure that people get

accurate information. So don't confuse social media

gurus, bloggers, and things like that as actual

journalists, unless they are. You know what I mean?

Because don't get me wrong, I know people that are

journalists that also make social media content and things

like that. But that goes back to my number

two, check the author's credibility, and you can use

these fact checking websites to see if they have any information on it, too. Number

five, assess the evidence. So, does the post or article provide

evidence for its claims? Reliable information is typically supported

by data, quotes from experts, or links to research. So be wary

of claims based solely on personal anecdotes or unsupported

assertions, like this guy was doing in this video. This is all his

personal beliefs about things. It had nothing. No

data. He didn't mention any data. He didn't mention any quotes from experts.

He didn't put any links down in the comment section or anything to where

he's getting his information from. It was just all off the top of his

dome. And a lot of people do that for engagement. And

especially now that everything is monetized, people are

just trying to get the money. So be extra careful about

anything that you read on these social media platforms. It has gotten

infinitely worse. Y'all. Y'all know I've been doing this for a long time. Since

2017, I've been a social media influencer, blogger,

whatever. And it has been getting worse because

people are now just trying to get these checks from these social media

companies. So you have to be extra diligent in what you read

and consume on these platforms. Okay? So number six,

beware of misleading headlines or images. Headlines or images

that seem designed to elicit strong emotional reactions are often red

flags. And I know you've been there. Sometimes I stumble

across them on YouTube, where it's like, you know, saying something that they

know you're gonna click on. But when you get to the video has nothing to

do with whatever they were talking about. So usually they're

intended to mislead or sensationalize the information. So

look beyond the headline by reading the full content,

checking out the context, and making sure that

everything aligns. So if you see something that's good to

be true, like, for instance, this guy's video, I think it was

called, like, Wells Fargo's going out of business. Get an

iul to keep your money safe, be your own bank or something like

that. Red flag. Red flag.

So, speaking of context, though,

number seven, consider the publishing date and the context of

what you're reading. So, information might be accurate at one point in

time, but it might be outdated by now, or it may have been taken out

of context. And I keep picking on the same video, but he's

hitting, like, all seven points for me. And so,

like I said before, he took a real news thing

that happened back in, like, 2017, 2018,

and he's carrying it into today and using

that to justify why he thinks Wells Fargo is going out of business.

Now, don't get me wrong side note, I do not like Wells Fargo

personally. I have a history with them. I do not like them,

and I do not think that they're a good bank. However,

I'm not going to say, well, you should move your money out of Wells

Fargo, and they're going bankrupt because of my personal preferences. You know what

I mean? So always check the date of publication and

consider the current context to ensure that it's relevant

and accurate. Okay, so something can be true at one point, but it

can be not true the next point. So make sure you take all of that

into consideration. So I say all of this to say,

whenever you are ingesting anything on social media, or

any platform for that matter, even news, take a

critical approach. In an era where anyone can be

an influencer, anyone could be a publisher,

anyone could be a journalist or whatever, it falls on

each of us to be discerning consumers and responsible

sharers of information. Usually, I don't share something unless

I look it up, and there's been situations where

I just hit the share button and I have to go back and delete it

because I find out something else. So now I'm very, very careful

with sharing information on my page if it's not accurate, because,

honestly, that is a bad look for me, right? If I'm sharing

false information, somebody looks it up and they're like, well, Tiffany,

this isn't true, or why are you sharing this? Or whatever? Now it looks bad

on me and people might not listen to what I have to say. So I

say that to say, always be critical, always be

skeptical, always do your own research and that's how you can

stay out of trouble. So that's all I have for you today. If you

have any questions you want me to answer on the podcast, just go to

www.moneytalkwitht.com

x tiffany. Also, make sure you all are checking out the blog.

There's a ton of information over there. I'm publishing

articles pretty regularly, so even if you checked it out before,

there's probably some new stuff up there. One of my most popular

blog posts is different ways that you can make

money. One of my most popular blog posts is 40

passive income ideas. Definitely take a look at that.

Another one is how to turn 10,000 into

100,000. So take a look at that. And then

also one more is financial literacy in schools. And

I talk about the pros and cons. So definitely check it out.

I'll make sure I have all those links in the show notes. But thank you

so much for listening to the podcast. Be sure you like subscribe share

this episode if you felt that it was helpful. Also make

sure you're rating and reviewing the podcast. That's really helpful for

us as well. I think right now we're up to like 40 review, 40

something reviews. So thank you so much to everybody that has done it.

But I know there's so many of you out there that haven't. So please

just take some a quick minute to type in something really

quick. Let people know what you think of the podcast. Let me know because I

read all of them and some of them do get posted on my social media.

So if you would like that, please make sure that you are

reading and reviewing for me. I appreciate you tuning into me

every week, twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It means so

much to me. So I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week.

And remember, stay skeptical, stay critical, and stay

safe. Bye. Thank you for listening, joining

and being a part of the Money Talk with Tif podcast this week. You can

check tiff out every Thursday for a new Money talk podcast. But

if you just can't wait until next week, you can listen to previous podcast

episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or

follow TIFF on all social media platforms at

moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise

by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is

always sufficient.