I can’t help but question what he’s actually learned when his links don’t actually explain a topic. He says he learned about mega backdoor IRAs, but then links to a thread about regular backdoor IRAs. I’m not sure he does know what differentiates a “mega” from a regular backdoor.
Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
51–60 of 417 posts
Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
#52I think a much bigger point can be summarized with this sentence from the article: > Seven of the top ten results are trying to sell you something, which really makes you question the objectivity of the advice. This is true when searching for pretty much everything in Google nowadays, that's why if you're looking for any info, searching on reddit usually yields much more objective and generally better results.
I just finished listening to an engaging series of podcasts by Michael Lewis (author of Flash Boys, The Big Short etc.) about the loss of referees in our society. It's called Against the Rules: https://atrpodcast.com/
Much of reddit still has functioning referees in the form of its moderators, but I'm seeing signs of it cracking — e.g. when I researched the backgrounds of certain moderators I found out that they produced content in some space and would allow their own stuff to get posted while blocking other people's submissions.
Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
#53I think a much bigger point can be summarized with this sentence from the article: > Seven of the top ten results are trying to sell you something, which really makes you question the objectivity of the advice. This is true when searching for pretty much everything in Google nowadays, that's why if you're looking for any info, searching on reddit usually yields much more objective and generally better results.
I just finished listening to an engaging series of podcasts by Michael Lewis (author of Flash Boys, The Big Short etc.) about the loss of referees in our society. It's called Against the Rules: https://atrpodcast.com/ Much of reddit still has functioning referees in the form of its moderators, but I'm seeing signs of it cracking — e.g. when I researched the backgrounds of certain moderators I found out that they prod…
To me it seems like this is an enternal struggle of /having to be/ a "hipster", and move to the newest services/forums. In the sense that the only untainted grounds will be the ones where there's not that many people yet, or people joining/promoted to influencial positions are scrutinized.
It takes very few bad actors to poison the well. At least on Reddit, there's a myriad of small subreddits which makes it more difficult to infiltrate all of them effectively.
Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
#54Reddit is a weird mix of mechanical-turk-search-engine and social media lite. It doesn't do anything except facilitate people doing things... To be clear, I'm not criticising reddit. I'm just saying, reddit isn't doing this, reddit is a tool for people to do this.
So reddit isn't literally conscious with intentionality?
You can basically say the same thing about literally anything that is not a person.
Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
#55I think a much bigger point can be summarized with this sentence from the article: > Seven of the top ten results are trying to sell you something, which really makes you question the objectivity of the advice. This is true when searching for pretty much everything in Google nowadays, that's why if you're looking for any info, searching on reddit usually yields much more objective and generally better results.
I often use google to search specific sites, because of this reason.
The simple issue is that people who make money from being first page on Google can afford the money it takes to game the index to their benefit.
This would be true of other search engines too if they were as popular as Google, so I don't blame them for it. Nor do I envy their task. I imagine making SEO gaming harder would be in Google's benefit, so they could sell more advertising.
Commerce has ruined Google's results consistently for years now. It is just what commerce does to everything, when there is money to be made from it. You can't even fly on a plane you paid to be on without being advertised at as thanks for your patronage.
Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
#56I think a much bigger point can be summarized with this sentence from the article: > Seven of the top ten results are trying to sell you something, which really makes you question the objectivity of the advice. This is true when searching for pretty much everything in Google nowadays, that's why if you're looking for any info, searching on reddit usually yields much more objective and generally better results.
That sentence would probably hold true if you went to ten financial advisers.
Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
The group consensus seems to be to get the largest mortgage your bank will give you, buy an oversized car on a 7 year contract plan and fritter the rest on beer and takeaways. The best financial advice is usually drowned out by the consensus.
What? This is absolutely the opposite of the consensus advice you'll get somewhere like r/personalfinance. It sounds like you're completely ignorant of the subs in question, and just spouting off whatever comes to mind.
It's basically the word for word consensus advice of decades past. At least two generations grew up in a world where "take out the biggest mortgage you can" was considered good advice by default. As history has proven that is not a consistently successful approach for individuals and has some pretty severe trade-offs at the societal level. I'm not sure if it was the point he was trying to make but in any case it should probably serve as cautionary tale that consensus is not necessarily correctness.
Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
#58/r/wallstreetbets is to finance as Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop are to professional, rigorously scientific medical advice.
There's more to financial subreddits than just /r/wallstreetbets, thankfully.
Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
#59I think a much bigger point can be summarized with this sentence from the article: > Seven of the top ten results are trying to sell you something, which really makes you question the objectivity of the advice. This is true when searching for pretty much everything in Google nowadays, that's why if you're looking for any info, searching on reddit usually yields much more objective and generally better results.
I just finished listening to an engaging series of podcasts by Michael Lewis (author of Flash Boys, The Big Short etc.) about the loss of referees in our society. It's called Against the Rules: https://atrpodcast.com/ Much of reddit still has functioning referees in the form of its moderators, but I'm seeing signs of it cracking — e.g. when I researched the backgrounds of certain moderators I found out that they prod…
I have actually read that some country specific subreddits that are moderated by people who are not from the respective country.
Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance
#60Yes! I have learned tremendously about personal finance from ukpersonalfinance. For anyone based in the UK, please go and read the content at https://ukpersonal.finance/ , it is invaluable for your future. Financial literacy for the millennial generation is my #1 recommendation for general life improvement. It doesn't matter what situation you are in: in debt; with lots of savings; lack of credit options; etc... You…
There are communities by country indeed. For France /r/vosfinances is similarly very helpful.