Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#661

Post by sn9 » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 8:26 PM UTC

yonibot wrote: post #115

jrheard wrote: post #13

Young hackers who have a surplus of income and have funds to spare that aren't being channeled toward debt / family / donations, heed me: save as much of your salary as you can, and put it in boring investments (index funds / etc), probably through vanguard.com (no affiliation, I just use them and have heard nothing but good things from people I trust). You can pretty easily set up your job's direct-deposit system so…

This book taught me the fundamentals of passive investing ( https://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Down-Wall-Street/dp/03933... ) and this website is THE online community for Bogle-style, passive investors ( https://www.bogleheads.org/ ), once you understand the basics.

Ramit Sethi's I Will Teach You to be Rich is the personal finance book that introduced me to all the basics (e.g., paying off debts, how credit scores work, why not investing in index funds across diverse asset classes is moronic, etc.).

Dead practical advice despite the somewhat sleazy writing style (see title of book).

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#662

Post by brianwawok » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 8:34 PM UTC

antr wrote: post #648

brianwawok wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that seems a pretty risky investment to me. Only a few percent profit for the risk of eating a giant monthly bill.

"Risky" investment for commercial real estate in a tier I area in a European capital? I find any residential property more risky and volatile, at least from a price elasticity point of view. I guess we have different views on how we perceive risk. But that is ok.

I am not saying commercial is more risky than residential. I am saying for the low gain, I would not take that kind of risk (i.e. more than near 0)

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#663

Post by madaxe_again » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

dorfsmay wrote: post #633

madaxe_again wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I ran an ecommerce platform and had a £3bn p.a. mixed basket of goods being sold on the platform. Since 2012 goods have increased in price by about 6% p.a. To say there is nothing to see without looking at any data is ass-hattery.

So 1.5%/year, which is a lot closer to 1% than 10%.

6% p.a. - per annum. Before then it was more like 2-3% p.a.

It's subtle, but present - a big driving factor has been unavailability of credit, which forces smaller batches for fabrication, which drives up price. This has commensurately resulted in a whole host of businesses in turkey and china who specialise in short-order just-in-time manufacturing.

But either way, prices have increased far more than is immediately apparent, particularly food, garments and low value giftware. The pinch is a lot harder at the bottom than the top of the market, too.

I obsessed over this data for years, as it was the key to understanding where to position (I.e. Who's making margin?), which retailers would be risky clients, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#664

Post by fantominous » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 9:49 PM UTC

Zelmor wrote: post #660

thecrazyone wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I invest the automated way too and figured that's the best way given I know this is important for nest egg and such and I want to spend as little time as reasonably possible managing investments . For my Indian friends here (or people interested in investing in the Indian market), I'd suggest http://scripbox.com (no affiliation, just a happy customer). I started a year ago when I was 25, and am glad I started thi…

Do you have any thoughts or sources on Indian micro-loan investments? It looks like a way to help people in need while gaining some profit off their success. I'm more interested in the former, but I do not wish to simply donate. I do not believe it to be the way to go about these things.

Do you mean something like Kiva or Zidisha? They're quite popular, but there's a very real chance that the borrower can default on your investment. Not a huge deal though, because if you're micro-lending then this is expected. I don't think the interest rates are good either.

Doing it for charitable reasons is fine, but it's not a great way to make money IMO.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#665

Post by martin_a » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:24 PM UTC

jsaxton86 wrote: post #472

It seems like the vast majority of employment contracts prohibit side projects like this, or at the very least, require explicit company approval. I'm interested in hearing strategies on how to best pursue side projects without violating one's employment contract.

In Germany tax laws might help you a little bit with this.

If you build something with the main interest of making money out of it, the state (and most probably your employer) will treat it as a business and want you to run a business for that or will likely forbid to do it. But if you build something because you need it for yourself and are running it more like a hobby but make profits from it, there´s something called "Liebhaberei". This special status mainly has tax implications (you can´t get refunds on losses from your Liebhaberei because it´s not qualified as a business, tax-wise...) but I´ve had friends which got their side projects "approved" by their employers because they did not look like real businesses and were run on this Liebhaberei status.

So if you like miniature railways and build a niche site around it, which will give you beer money (or a bit more), the tax people most probably won´t have any problems with that. You should avoid doing things that look like you are running a business (having a shop, selling stuff), but most of them probably won´t even notice affiliate links or understand what that does.

This can also help you with your employer. "Boss, I have this site about my miniature railways and now it´s making 50 bucks a month, is that a problem?"

Or you go the right way. Be honest and say that you´d like to do something for fun but there could be money involved and you just wanted to make sure that´s okay for everybody. I found employers to be unexpectedly tolerant when you´re honest.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#666

Post by stevenmays » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 11:57 PM UTC

yonibot wrote: post #461

stevenmays wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put 25k into my investments this year, and I made 40k in unrealized gains, following the above strategy. It works folks. My blog post about financial independence: http://mays.co/why-financial-independence/

Nice blog, but watch out for advising people that putting money in index funds 'pretty much assumes an 8% return'. Returns can vary wildly year by year even if 7-9% annual is accurate over the last 20-30 years or so. Bogle (and others) is estimating the coming year's returns to be lower than 7.

Thanks! I've heard that comment a few times so I think I will make a quick edit. Appreciate it.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#667

Post by xapata » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 12:51 AM UTC

gragas wrote: post #373

xapata wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. If the interest rates are reduced because the economy improved, then the growth could stay similar.

Interest rates go up when the economy is improving.

Oops. That's what I meant to say: s/reduce/increase/

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#668

Post by xapata » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 12:53 AM UTC

stana wrote: post #301

xapata wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. If the interest rates are reduced because the economy improved, then the growth could stay similar.

Aren't interest rates reduced to stimulate a struggling economy, and increased if economy improving?

Right. If interest rates are increased, that's a sign of a stronger economy and the market might go up in response. On the other hand, traders might decide the Fed is mistaken, the economy is not in fact stronger, and they'll react to the higher interest rates by taking fewer loans and the market will go down.

Basically, the change is already priced-in and you shouldn't worry about timing the market. Buy and hold.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#669

Post by dorfsmay » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 1:11 AM UTC

madaxe_again wrote: post #663

dorfsmay wrote: post #633

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 1.5%/year, which is a lot closer to 1% than 10%.

6% p.a. - per annum. Before then it was more like 2-3% p.a. It's subtle, but present - a big driving factor has been unavailability of credit, which forces smaller batches for fabrication, which drives up price. This has commensurately resulted in a whole host of businesses in turkey and china who specialise in short-order just-in-time manufacturing. But either way, prices have increased far more than is immediately…

ah! I missed the p.a. = per annum. Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#670

Post by jamez1 » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 1:39 AM UTC

qwrusz wrote: post #639

jamez1 wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Academia doesn't pay that much attention to the real world. Most of the papers out there are rubbish and would be considered junior level work, except with way too much detail. There are pretty much no econ papers that would describe what happens inside the high end systematic firms. (Source: I work in the industry) Bringing up the outliers is a perfect counterexample when wild sweeping statements are made. These are…

Illuminati confirmed then right. My bad. Professional investors are not pretty consistently beating the market... secular ! Anyone can have a good year or two. I'm not talking about dudes talking their book on CNBC. Yes there are shops that beat the market, but if you have beaten the market 5 years in a row, you can't keep it a secret even if you want to.

How exactly do you think the performance is made public, if the fund doesn't want it to be? This isn't about illuminati, this is just logic. You can't hide what you're doing from the institutions you have to deal with, but they won't exactly disclose it to general public.

Why would you promote your fund, if you have all the FUM you need? If you are doing well, why would you tell people about it? It is funny that your position is because you haven't seen it, it doesn't exist.