Making It

By Sandy Yong on March 28, 2025
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

By Sandy Yong on March 28, 2025
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

With all the personal finance advice on social media, it can be challenging to filter good from bad. Here’s how to know if an influencer is trustworthy.

Young adults are eager to master their personal finances. And it’s never been easier to find all sorts of personal finance advice on social media, whether it’s on TikTok, Instagram, X/Twitter or YouTube. You can easily scroll through endless hours of posts and videos about money from influencers—or rather #finfluencers.

But it’s not always wise to follow the personal finance advice you find online. Viral #MoneyTok videos may point to ways you can earn fast money, but that doesn’t mean you should trust them. Some can be schemes to get you to pay to learn about products they sell, and others are sharing their money story—mistakes and all. So, how can you filter the good advice from the bad?

Many Canadians fall victim to scams that offer a fast and easy way to make money, including many involving cryptocurrencies. In 2024, Canadians reported losses of more than $310 million to investment fraud, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, much of it involving deceptive ads. Many victims believed they were guaranteed to earn quick cash, but they lost a ton of money instead.

That’s why it’s important to check if social media influencers (including celebs) are promoting risky and volatile investments. In 2022, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S. fined Kim Kardashian USD$1.26 million for unlawfully promoting and hyping up cryptocurrency to her social media followers without disclosing her paid partnership with EthereumMax. Other high-profile people criticized for their online involvement with crypto include Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, Reese Witherspoon and Matt Damon.

Of course, the issue isn’t limited to crypto. Bad financial advice and outright scams come in many forms, from get-rich-quick schemes to questionable real estate strategies and “fool-proof” investment opportunities claiming to be risk-free. Always assess the risk involved in any investment. And remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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