Bruce Williams is a Big, Fat Idiot.

Since my business involves personal finance, I keep up with the growing number of financial advice writers and columnists.

Some are not bad. I like the Motley Fool. I think Andrew Tobias is funny but think that Bruce Williams is a big, fat idiot.

Suze Orman writes very good books but I hate her television show. She will answer questions on topics that she knows nothing about and her voice is as bad as sitting through a Yoko Ono concert.

I view financial advice columns in the same vein that I view professional wrestling, I know it is not real but realize there are people who believe that it is.

Common sense would dictate that someone with a financial problem would hire a trained professional instead of writing to a journalist.

Yet, people write to financial advice columns expecting real answers. They aren’t getting them from hosts like Bruce Williams.

Since all of Bruce’s pictures look like they were taken in 1955, it is hard to know if Bruce is really fat. Someone once pointed out that Bruce “sounds fat” but I am not one to talk. In keeping with the title that I borrowed from Al Franken, I feel strongly that Bruce is an idiot.

Williams has successfully made himself into a public figure. He has a website that hawks his ability to make personal appearances, do voiceovers, sell his newsletter, and sell holiday gift items. You can spend $1800 for a week long cruise with Bruce and there is a link to a hearing aid company. Bruce is also big in the flower shop business.

A few years ago, I saw firsthand the potential Bruce had to do damage when he gave bad advice to the parents of an injured 18 year old in Cleveland. I responded with a letter to the editor, which was printed by several newspapers who ran his column.

Here is a little of what I said:

Dear Editor,

As a financial consultant with 19 years experience, two masters degrees, four professional designations, over 30 scholarly articles published, and over 100 academic lectures, I have often been horrified by the lack of financial knowledge that Bruce Williams displays in his newspaper column and radio show.

He is an entertainer and buffoon. However, it frightens me that some people take his financial advice seriously and papers like yours print his drivel.

Mr. William’s whale size ego would not allow him to admit that he is wrong but I would be willing to debate him at any place, at any time, in the hope that he might offer advice that actually helped instead of hurting people.

Sincerely,
Don McNay

I’m still waiting for Bruce to schedule our debates.

Any place, any time, Bruce.

The advice that prompted the letter was not an isolated case of Bruce having a bad day. Bruce is wrong so often that it scares me.

It also scares me that millions of Americans feel connected to a media figure they have never met and discuss some intimate details of their live with him. It scares me that newspapers and radio stations that carry his show do not check into Bruce’s background and see that he has no formal training in finance.

It scares me that Bruce has enough of a following so that people write him, call him, listen to him, buy his newsletter, go on his cruises, buy his flowers and use the hearing aid he endorses.

People need to take charge of their own finances or hire trained advisors who know what they are doing. If someone feels compelled to write to an advice columnist, Dear Abby is still around. Her advice would be a lot less damaging to their financial health than what Williams is pushing.

There are a lot of people looking for answers about their money, just like there are people looking to lose weight. Next week I will address both topics in a column, “Eight Simple Rules to being Rich and Thin.”

Don McNay, President of McNay Settlement Group, has had extensive education and training in financial advice, none of which involves the writings of Bruce Williams or Suze Orman.