I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand.

It's time for some money rehab.

It's only in the last few years, really, that people have been looking more critically

at MLMs, the multi-level marketing model.

Even if you haven't heard them called MLMs, you know what I'm talking about.

In some ways, it has some overlap with the franchise model.

If you're participating in an MLM, you buy the company's product, maybe it's makeup

or leggings or home goods, and then you turn around and sell that product.

That in and of itself is pretty standard and above board.

The issue with MLMs is that it is often a big part of the strategy not to just sell

the products, but to recruit new salespeople to sell them products to sell.

So that is why MLMs are often referred to as pyramid schemes.

Today I'm chatting with Roberta Bleffens.

She's an anti-MLM advocate.

And as you're about to hear, the jury for me is still out on MLMs.

While I've heard a lot of horror stories, I've also heard some really good ones.

Like I've heard from full-time parents who do some MLM work on the side, and they say

that MLMs have given them financial independence and a greater sense of purpose.

But where I think Roberta and I can both agree is that MLMs can really go wrong.

They can go from being a side hustle to a money pit very quickly.

And Roberta tells me some of these horror stories today.

Here's that conversation.

...