Generally speaking, as a whole they're not militant enough in their opposition to consumer debt, and there isn't enough of an emphasis on frugality. You'll fin

Generally speaking, as a whole they're not militant enough in their opposition to consumer debt, and there isn't enough of an emphasis on frugality. You'll find highly upvoted submissions there encouraging people to go into debt for a vehicle, for example. They'll justify it saying the interest rate is 3% which is less than the average return of the S&P 500. The problem with that argument is that the financing was also used as a justification to buy a more expensive vehicle, which is a rapidly depreciating asset. Vehicles are a massive drain on wealth. They're a cost center to be minimized as much as possible, but in that subreddit they're treated like a game where you do numbers on financing to get into the nicest car you can. That isn't personal finance, it's financial debauchery. Some examples: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/521p56/best_advice_my_dad_has_ever_given_to_me_1_if_you/ https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/521p56/bes... ^ 13.8k net upvotes encouraging people to take on 3 years of auto loan debt. Brilliant. https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/63eukr/paying_off_auto_loan_as_fast_as_possible_vs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/63eukr/pay... ^ Here the subreddit encourages a couple who doesn't even have enough for a down payment on a house, to go into debt and make minimum payments on an 18k car. Brilliant. https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/6wkiv6/how_to_determine_if_you_can_really_afford_that_car/ https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/6wkiv6/how... ^ Here the subreddit basically reveals that almost everyone in that subreddit is in auto loan debt, feels good about being in auto loan debt, and they all pat each other on the back and encourage each other to keep being in auto loan debt. Cars depreciate in value by about 20% annually. It's on average the worst-performing financial asset that people own. To go into debt so you can get as much of your wealth into the -20%/yr asset is just about the stupidest thing I can imagine. It's right up there with payday loans on the stupid scale. So that's one example. What the subreddit does with credit cards is spend a lot of time arguing and doing math over cash back percentages and point rewards systems. If you spend $1000/month on credit cards, the difference between 1% rewards and 2% rewards is $10/month. It doesn't fucking matter. What actually matters about credit cards is that people have a strong tendency to overspend when they use credit cards. They also have a strong tendency to incur annual fees and interest and penalties. If you're disciplined enough to use credit cards without letting them effect your spending and without ever incurring any fees or carrying a balance, then go ahead and use one if you want. If you can't, then cut them up and use cash or a debit card. The rewards points don't matter and neither does the interest rate.