Advice for the Masses

It is rare that advice should be given to the masses.  Mint.com a great site, came out with top 10 financial rules to live by.  Listed below with caveat.

1) Save at least 10% of your income - Makes no mention to how much you make surely a person with 20k/yr salary will have a different strategy than someone making 80k a year.
2) Have at least three months of living expenses in an emergency fund. - Do you have kids or single makes a difference plus *why not front load your Roth IRA contributions in the year so you can take out if you need if... wait they tell you not to every withdraw out of a retirement account.

3) Get a life insurance policy worth at least 6 times your household income. - See #2, there could be other vehicles of protecting those left behind than traditional life insurance.

4) Use the 20/4/10 rule when buying a vehicle. - Ok wTF came up with this the car sales people?

5) Save 20 times your gross income for a comfortable retirement. - How old are you 25 or 55? What if you spend your money now like a drunken sailor?

6) Put down 20% on a house and don’t borrow more than two times your income. - This one is not too bad but its the same as #4.

7) Subtract your age from 100 to determine what percentage of your portfolio should be in stocks. - What if I don't plan to retire when I'm 70 and what if my health sucks that I will die when I'm 65?

8) Pay off highest interest rate debt first. - Yes but what if the asset with that dept was making positive cash flow?

9) Max the match on your 401(k). - Its free money yes but its often comes with hidden fees and the crappiest investment options.
10) Don’t take out more in student loans than you expect to make your first year on the job. - If everyone followed this then no one would go to school.

Also some thoughts about the web app Mint.com.  

Mint is not for everyone. It can take too much time. It focuses on Accounting before and typically there is little energy to focus on behavior.