You Most Likely Shouldn't Be Making The Same Money Moves As Your Friend, LFG Daily - December 9, 2025

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One Person’s Perfect Money Move Could Be Your Worst Decision

In personal finance, we love simple answers.“Always pay off your mortgage early.”“Never carry a credit card balance.”“Max out your 401(k) no matter what.”“Buy, don’t rent.”

These statements make great headlines… but terrible financial plans.

The truth is this: the right financial move for one person can be the absolute wrong move for someone else. Money is personal. Goals are personal. Life circumstances are personal. And when you copy-and-paste advice from the internet, you’re essentially gambling your financial future on someone else’s situation—not your own.

Let’s break down a few real-world examples.

Example 1: Paying Off the Mortgage Early

For some people, paying off the mortgage early feels like freedom.

Maybe they’re approaching retirement and want fewer fixed expenses.

Maybe they hate debt psychologically.

Maybe their investment time horizon is short.

For them, eliminating that payment is a slam-dunk.

But for someone else?

Paying off a 3% mortgage while you’re 35 could mean locking up cash that could’ve been compounding at 7–10% for decades. It could mean missing tax advantages, losing liquidity, or reducing flexibility when life throws a curveball.

Same decision. Two very different outcomes.

Example 2: “Max Out Your 401(k)”

This is often great advice—but not always.

If you’re 45 with no emergency fund, maxing out your 401(k) while your credit cards sit at 21% interest is like trying to fill a bathtub while the drain is wide open. The math doesn’t work. Paying off high-interest debt first is almost always the smarter move.

But if you’re younger, debt-free, getting a company match, and have decades of compounding ahead?

Max it out. Pour gas on the fire. Your future self will thank you.

Again—two different financial lives, two different strategies.

Example 3: Renting vs. Buying a Home

The internet makes this sound like a moral issue:“You’re throwing money away if you rent!”“You’re crazy if you buy in this market!”

The reality?

If you’re early in your career, moving often, or don’t want to dump your savings into a down payment, renting might actually give you more opportunities.

If you’re settled, want stability, and can comfortably afford a home? Buying could be the right long-term decision.

It’s not a moral judgment. It’s a math and lifestyle equation.

Example 4: Aggressive Investing vs. Playing It Safe

Some people need growth—they’re young, behind on retirement savings, or have the income to take risk. For them, being too conservative is actually dangerous. Their biggest risk is not growing enough.

But others?

Maybe they’re retiring in three years.Maybe they need capital preservation.Maybe their assets are meant to fund a specific short-term need.

For them, taking on high volatility could be catastrophic.

This is why cookie-cutter portfolios fail people.

Your Life Doesn’t Fit Into a Template

Financial advice on the internet isn’t wrong—it’s just incomplete.

It’s like reading a prescription for someone else’s medical condition and assuming it’ll cure your symptoms, too.

Your financial plan should be built around:

• Your goals

• Your timeline

• Your income

• Your liabilities

• Your risk tolerance

• Your tax situation

• Your family dynamic

• Your psychology around money

• 
  

No algorithm or blog post knows all of that.

This Is Why True Financial Planning Needs to Be Customized

At Lloyd Financial Group, this is exactly why we build plans backwards—starting with your life and aligning your financial strategy to it.

Not the other way around.

The right move for you might be the wrong move for your neighbor, coworker, or the influencer on TikTok who bought Bitcoin at the top.

Your situation is unique. Your plan should be too.

If you want a financial strategy built specifically for your life—not some template pulled off Google—schedule a planning meeting with us. You’ll walk away with clarity, confidence, and a roadmap built for your goals and your future.

Don’t leave your financial future up to chance. Let’s build a plan that gives you confidence today and peace of mind for tomorrow. Click here to schedule a meeting — I’m here to help you take the next step toward financial freedom.

Colin Symons, CIO Lloyd Financial Group

NY Fed Consumer Expectations saw inflation expectations hold steady at 3.2% for 1Y and 3% for longer durations.

The BoJ said they plan to ramp up bond buying again if long-term interest rates rise sharply.

In a bit of a surprise, the BLS will produce the October PPI report with the November report.

They previously cancelled the October CPI report, as they didn’t have the data needed.

The CFTC announced a pilot program to allow bitcoin to be used as collateral.

Trump said chips could be sold to China, and apparently Xi is onboard, if to a limited extent, which is interesting.

Toll Brothers (TOL) gave a cautious outlook as housing demand remains soft, leaving shares -5%.

JOLTS Job Openings and ADP Employment, today.

What does it all mean? We’ll see more on how the jobs market is today but liquidity keeps trending better.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time talking about how things can work out over the last few weeks. As I said yesterday, though, I take the downside fears pretty seriously. To me, it’s a question of timing. There are problems, but nothing seems so imminent that I want to front-run it versus owning current opportunities.

What are the problems? While we saw some economically discouraging data, last week, such as jobs and manufacturing data, the idea of a substantive slowdown is still too distant to act on. Similarly, inflation data is currently trending lower, as slowdown concerns rise. The more immediate potential issue, in my mind, is in liquidity.

Again, to me, liquidity trends have been getting better, which is why I’m in no hurry to jump out of risk. At these stretched valuations, though, it may not take much to see trouble.

Where could we see problems, though?

To me two potential problems are rate stress and trade trouble. Let’s go over them.

First, what are the basic rate stress problems? In theory, the FOMC meeting could signal future short-term hawkishness. We’ve already seen a bit of that, with a rate cut getting priced out for next year and hitting stocks, but the new Fed President is expected to be named soon, so the power of that hawkishness may carry less power.

Also, if someone like Bessent does get named Fed President, I’d worry that the long end may price in too much dovishness, something we’ve also seen a bit of, already. Those higher rates would make equities, particularly long-duration, growth names, look less attractive.

Second, how could trade trouble assert itself? There are a few ways, really. For instance, if Trump thinks he’s on solid footing, or perhaps due to a Supreme Court decision on current tariffs, we could see tariff battles crop back up. In theory, we could get something like the decline we saw in April, though perhaps not as bad in the second round. The basic problem here is that our trade deficits get recycled into US assets, and tariff fights damage that game.

Another problem is that if our trade partners have sufficient trouble to mess with flows. In theory, I think we could see problems from China or the UK, but the real concern, of late, has been Japan. They have an inflation problem and just reported a weak GDP number, which may be why markets are having some trouble, today.

Is that an imminent problem? Maybe, but I balance that against Japan’s ability to manage the problems and coming economic support in the US. While Japan’s market was down a bit on this toxic mix, it wasn’t down very much.

I freely admit there are serious problems lurking, but I’m unwilling to try to sell in front of that, as I believe too much has the potential to go right. That means if there is real trouble, we won’t get out at the best price. That’s life. To me, the potential for upside remains too high to want to deleverage now.

Recently we’ve seen stress from perceived Fed hawkishness and Japanese problems. Can those cause immediate problems? If we can’t get further upside soon, with the Fed meeting and coming positive seasonality, though, then we will look at deleveraging. I don’t think it will come to that. but we’ll see what happens.

Don’t leave your financial future up to chance. Let’s build a plan that gives you confidence today and peace of mind for tomorrow. Click here to schedule a meeting — I’m here to help you take the next step toward financial freedom.

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