1. Only the financially illiterate have problems with financial wellness.

According to People Management, employers are making the mistake of thinking that only employees who are poorly educated on money will have trouble with their finances.

Financial wellness has much more to do with how much money people have and how far they’re able to stretch it than it does on whether they know the ins and outs of finance (although it is true that if they know more they might be able to avoid some common mistakes).

More education on how to manage available funds never hurts, and can help a great deal.

But when a worker is trying to stretch an income designed for 20 years ago to cover constantly escalating college and health care costs today, not to mention inflation, no amount of financial education will substitute for More. Money.

The slides that follow show five financial myths that will not get you through a career and a retirement without a strong dose of reality to counteract them.

You might get there in spite of them, but not because of them.

Unfortunately, money statements that we classify as myths are often used simply to shame people over their financial choices. And shaming, as you know, is no way to change people's behavior. (Photo: Shutterstock)

5. Give up avocado toast.

An Australian tycoon made headlines for himself not too long ago by blaming millennials’ financial woes on their fondness for, of all things, avocado toast.

He had the audacity to claim that young people were spending so much on the brunch favorite that that was all that was standing in the way of their being able to afford to buy a house.

Even though avocado toast can be pricey—and getting pricier, thanks to the current border fracas with Mexico—the same is true of houses.

In fact, it’s doubtful you could eat enough avocado toast in the course of a year to amount to the down payment on a house.

4. Don't talk about money.

Shame and fear of being judged usually stops any conversation about money in most families or even with sympathetic friends. But it's not wrong to be honest that you're cutting expenses or have trimmed your budget -- in fact, rather than judging you, friends may appreciate your honesty or even disclose that they need to do so as well.

And when it comes to talking about money in families -- why shouldn't older children be made aware that the Bank of Mom and Dad isn't infinite? It's not a reason to feel shame or to fear provoking anxiety in your children -- it's a fact of life they'll also deal with when they're adults. Speaking of families, a conversation with older generations also is in order as decisions about retirement, long-term care, and matters such as handling household finances and keeping wills updated affect adult children.

3. The 4 percent rule.

Yes, that’s standard advice—withdraw no more than 4–5 percent of your retirement accounts annually and you’ll have plenty to see you through.

But these days that advice is going by the wayside, what with lower rates of return on the fixed-income investments that still make up part of retirement portfolios and the volatility of the market—which may go up, but can also come down again with a crash.

In addition, people just aren’t saving enough to create a pool of retirement cash large enough to support that rate of withdrawal.

And unfortunately, 4–5 percent won’t be enough to cope with medical costs if you’re unlucky enough to suffer from ill health as you age.

2. Lose those lattes.

Yes, we already talked about food. But coffee is and has been for several years the biggest target of self-proclaimed financial gurus, especially those who use money-shaming to get their message heard.

The Atlantic points out that no less an expert than Suze Orman has scolded young people for their fondness for fancy lattes, completely losing sight of the fact that sometimes a person needs a small luxury just to deal with the grinding realities of the long haul. And you'll find quite a few articles where people have run the numbers and determined that a latte-less life does not guarantee masses of retirement money.

1. Only the financially illiterate have problems with financial wellness.

According to People Management, employers are making the mistake of thinking that only employees who are poorly educated on money will have trouble with their finances.

Financial wellness has much more to do with how much money people have and how far they’re able to stretch it than it does on whether they know the ins and outs of finance (although it is true that if they know more they might be able to avoid some common mistakes).

More education on how to manage available funds never hurts, and can help a great deal.

But when a worker is trying to stretch an income designed for 20 years ago to cover constantly escalating college and health care costs today, not to mention inflation, no amount of financial education will substitute for More. Money.