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Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

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Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#171

Post by slip »

sergiotapia wrote: post #147
lawlorino wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that's why if you're looking for any info, searching on reddit usually yields much more objective and generally better results. Agreed, I often default to Reddit or HN for a lot of stuff although there are an increasing number of obvious adverts disguised as genuine posts (see r/hailcorporate for some examples). More difficult to spot are marketing firms who curate a bunch of fake accounts, make them seem like "rea…

Advertising is a tumor on society - god damn.

Well, unscrupulous advertising and marketing is. I get the sentiment, because we are flooded with it. But there is honest and respectful advertising too... unfortunately, most companies gravitate towards making a quick buck instead of investing in earning trust.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#172

Post by beatgammit »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #90
willart4food wrote: post #75

If you want to see the future of Social Networks, look no further than Reddit. Reddit is the Future of Social Networks. The Next Social network, the one what will eat Facebook's lunch, just like Facebook ate MySpace's lunch, will not be people-to-people based, but it will be People-to-topic and topic-to-topic based; media-rich and mobile-friendly. And no, it won't be Reddit, too much Legacy crap with Reddit and not e…

Agree. I either want to talk to a community for each of my interests (on a subreddit or a dedicated forum) OR to a small group of close friends or family (messengers). Only rarely would I want to broadcast generic information / entertainment to everyone I know (facebook). One platform I'm missing is one where I could (anonymously) talk to strangers in my area. To discuss or ask about locally relevant things, or just…

Reddit does pretty well for the "random collection of locals". I follow a subreddit for:

- my state - the nearest metro area of my state - politics in my state

It seems like most of the posters are actually in my local area, so it's fairly easy to kick off a discussion about some local issue. The downside is that there's a significant leftist bias (true for most of Reddit), but it's fine if you take that into account.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#173

Post by scarface74 »

waylandsmithers wrote: post #161

I would personally advise against taking advice from Reddit beyond simply basic answers about various financial products and maths. My problem with larger communities on Reddit is that prevailing opinions seem to emerge, and anything that questions or disagrees with them gets downvoted to hell. On the personal finance subreddits these include ideas like "You should always have 18 months of expenses saved" and "Any mo…

I can’t tell which of the ideas you think are crazy.

- 18 months in low risk savings (not invested) - seems like overkill.

- I personally think any money spent on a wedding is overkill - we went to the courthouse and saved a ton of money by having a smallish reception (in fairness we were in our mid 30s and on our second marriage)

- 401K - I have no opinion either way. I haven’t thought about the pros and cons.

I don’t trust financial advisors. Unless you have a reasonably complicated situation the standard advice you can find from reputable sites like Vanguard would take you a long way.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#174

Post by scrooched_moose »

waylandsmithers wrote: post #161

I would personally advise against taking advice from Reddit beyond simply basic answers about various financial products and maths. My problem with larger communities on Reddit is that prevailing opinions seem to emerge, and anything that questions or disagrees with them gets downvoted to hell. On the personal finance subreddits these include ideas like "You should always have 18 months of expenses saved" and "Any mo…

Agreed. Their prevailing opinion is good on average and is probably better than someone with absolutely no knowledge about personal finance winging it.

But, like the infamous Air Force "Average Pilot" program [1], there are many things that will end up being wrong for the individual.

1) https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/01/16/when-us-air-...

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#175

Post by scrooched_moose »

YawningAngel wrote: post #170
ryandrake wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> prevailing opinions seem to emerge, and anything that questions or disagrees with them gets downvoted to hell Hmm... sounds like another community we all know. This is not a unique problem to Reddit or large communities. It's inevitable in any forum when you try to use crowdsourcing to moderate/curate content.

How do downvotes even work here? I've been posting here for years and (as far as I know) am in good standing and don't have the option.

I think it unlocks at 500 total karma, although that number has changed a few times and I'm not sure if it's current. Looks like you're still at 330.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#176

Post by scarface74 »

sergiotapia wrote: post #147
lawlorino wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that's why if you're looking for any info, searching on reddit usually yields much more objective and generally better results. Agreed, I often default to Reddit or HN for a lot of stuff although there are an increasing number of obvious adverts disguised as genuine posts (see r/hailcorporate for some examples). More difficult to spot are marketing firms who curate a bunch of fake accounts, make them seem like "rea…

Advertising is a tumor on society - god damn.

The best advertising I have ever found is in the Overcast podcast app. I’ve found a few interesting podcasts based on the ads. Marco Arment (the developer) created his own ad platform for his app so he would know who is advertising and he wouldn’t have any mystery meet third party binary blob in his code.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#177

Post by passivepinetree »

YawningAngel wrote: post #170
ryandrake wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> prevailing opinions seem to emerge, and anything that questions or disagrees with them gets downvoted to hell Hmm... sounds like another community we all know. This is not a unique problem to Reddit or large communities. It's inevitable in any forum when you try to use crowdsourcing to moderate/curate content.

How do downvotes even work here? I've been posting here for years and (as far as I know) am in good standing and don't have the option.

You need 500 “karma” IIRC in order to gain the privilege.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#178

Post by lotsofpulp »

waylandsmithers wrote: post #161

I would personally advise against taking advice from Reddit beyond simply basic answers about various financial products and maths. My problem with larger communities on Reddit is that prevailing opinions seem to emerge, and anything that questions or disagrees with them gets downvoted to hell. On the personal finance subreddits these include ideas like "You should always have 18 months of expenses saved" and "Any mo…

>I still think having a relationship with a financial advisor you trust is better than taking advice from strangers on the internet.

What financial advisor is going to be able to make a living telling people to buy and hold a target date retirement fund from Vanguard/Fidelity/Schwab?

It's all pretty common sense advice, that hopefully one can verify is correct with some basic arithmetic. And advice for 90% of people should be spend time and energy to figure out how to increase income.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#179

Post by Humdeee »

waylandsmithers wrote: post #161

I would personally advise against taking advice from Reddit beyond simply basic answers about various financial products and maths. My problem with larger communities on Reddit is that prevailing opinions seem to emerge, and anything that questions or disagrees with them gets downvoted to hell. On the personal finance subreddits these include ideas like "You should always have 18 months of expenses saved" and "Any mo…

Financial literacy is pure garlic to every common vampire financial advisor.

I have a couple friends right now that do not want wage raises because "it will knock them into the next tax bracket". Believe me, I've tried to explain how the simple concept of income and taxes work.

I trusted my financial advisor years ago when I started my career. It took me a couple years to realize I was the product, not his client with his best interest in mind. Strangers, especially from more disciplined subs and without skin in the (your own) game, have been more valuable many, many times over.

Everyone who takes what is said literally and in verbatim would be a fool. Validate what is said as it applies within your own context.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#180

Post by magduf »

speeder wrote: post #98
lawlorino wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that's why if you're looking for any info, searching on reddit usually yields much more objective and generally better results. Agreed, I often default to Reddit or HN for a lot of stuff although there are an increasing number of obvious adverts disguised as genuine posts (see r/hailcorporate for some examples). More difficult to spot are marketing firms who curate a bunch of fake accounts, make them seem like "rea…

I dated a woman that had this job, but using Facebook (this was some years ago too). It was not just marketing, but PR too, for example she bragged about when Whirlpool had a serious problem with one of their washing machines in my country, and it was going viral, so Whirlpool paid the marketing agency to make all fake profiles (even ones not belonging to their campaigns) make other viral posts to drown out the washi…

How long did you date this sociopathic woman?
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