Bad advice gets more dangerous when it reaches the next village.

I recently saw a financial strategy aimed at business owners: don't claim legitimate expenses so your income looks higher when applying for a mortgage.

Get the mortgage. Refile your taxes afterward. Then a realtor commented that this was something buyers should talk to their advisors about — a trade many would take “without blinking.”

And just like that, the idea reached the next village.

The realtor isn't the problem. They're doing what good professionals do: looking for strategies that might help their clients.

The danger is when questionable advice comes from someone who appears credible, gets picked up by another trusted professional, and starts borrowing their credibility too.

That's how financial folklore spreads.

The oracle in the original village becomes the expert's expert.

So maybe we should take a minute to blink, and dig into what this strategy really is.

I did. Here's what I found: