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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

#321

Post by outworlder »

Domenic_S wrote: post #295
bityard wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you don't get as much "blogspam" on Reddit, it has a very different problem today: The amount of misinformation and echo chambering of said misinformation on Reddit is simply staggering. Very few subs have FAQs or rules asking newbies to search the sub for their question. As a result, most of the subs I follow are littered with the same questions over and over. The other problem is that when someone does ask fo…

> As a result, most of the subs I follow are littered with the same questions over and over. I answer questions in r/personalfinance's "new" area, and the split is something like: "I am upside down on my car loan/loan is too expensive/want to get out of my current car" - 40% "How do I do I make [some crazy ROI]? I have [$small amount] to invest" - 20% "I have no money and need to pay my bills" - 20% "Can I afford to…

> So many car questions come up I'm tempted to write an ebook on it and sell it for $1 - I sold cars in college and have a lot of info on how the sausage is made.

You should, but charge the full price, if you genuinely have useful information. The perceived value of an item changes according to the price you charge.

Given that cars are multi-thousand dollar expense, investing a tiny fraction to get better information is a good return of investment.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#322

Post by Nursie »

magduf wrote: post #180
speeder wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Oh but it's just marketing...

Yeah those excuses run thin. Actively participating in this stuff is not acceptable.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#323

Post by robotnikman »

virgil_disgr4ce wrote: post #150
speeder wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The next logical step—as terrifying as it is—is automation. Generate those people with GANs, then you 1) don't have to pay the photo companies (and producing photos with real actors in real locations has MASSIVE overhead compared to just some compute time) and 2) the photos can't be found online. You can similarly generate the history and backstory of each fake person, complete with realistically banal social media p…

IIRC this has already been spotted in action on Facebook. I can't find the article, but about a month or 2 ago there were thousands of profiles being created on Facebook with profiles pictures created using GANs.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#324

Post by Nursie »

magduf wrote: post #184
slip wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly. Letting people know you have a product/service which will make their life easier isn't a bad thing, and you have to have some way of communicating that to prospective buyers. The problem is when you start lying about your product, or use psychological tricks to get people to buy something they don't need.

> you have to have some way of communicating that to prospective buyers.

Only if the prospective buyer is actually interested. This too often gets translated to "I have a right to spam everyone!"

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#325

Post by Tycho »

throw0101a wrote: post #283
Tycho wrote: post #205

Here's a simple personal finance question that seems very hard to answer: should you overpay your mortgage, or put more money towards retirement? The well informed answers you tend to see on sites like MoneySavingExpert seem to converge on putting money towards retirement. They cite things like difference in interest rates and tax relief. But I feel the analysis is too one-dimensional, and there's actually a myriad o…

We get this question a lot in /r/PersonalFinanceCanada/ and the 'towards retirement' answer is the "mathematically correct" one because most mortgage rates are 5%. However, in Canada, if you put money into your RRSP, which is a tax-deferral account, you get a refund: so a popular option is to save for retirement and use your tax refund for your mortgage. Lastly, the other thing generally mentioned is the observation…

Yes there is the psychological utility consideration of not having debt hanging over you. But in a less subjective sense aren't there also considerations of risk of ruin and optionality? If you have no mortgage to pay off, you are free to do a lot of things you could not do otherwise (including buying more property to get rental income). If you have a lot of debt, you are in a leveraged position where some bad luck could bankrupt you.

Then there's stuff like, just cause you have a lot of money in your retirement account, doesn't mean you can actually consume it all, depending on the rules of your country.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#327

Post by dwild »

dwild wrote: post #249
magduf wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the US not have marginal tax brackets? That seems really odd and dumb. The benefit cliff you cite is real, but for actual income taxes, there's no such thing as a reduction in income from higher earnings. Going to a higher tax bracket just means you pay higher taxes on money over a certain threshold. So if bracket A is 20% under $50k, and bracket B is 30% over $50k, if you make $51k, you'll pay 20% of 50k, plus…

> It's never disadvantageous to make more money (except if you're on government benefits as mentioned, where there are some weird effects) It's never disadvantageous except when it is? That sound like the classic anchorman citation: 60% of the time, it works every time Sure your tax bracket won't directly means less returns, but switching from a tax bracket to another may means having access to less benefits, which m…

I just saw that I was downvoted... I have no idea what's wrong with my comment. That downvote button should definitely force to comment and explain why you downvote.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#328

Post by thisisnico »

sf_rob wrote: post #252
toberej wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

r/fire - financial independence, retire early. r/fatfire - same thing as above but for people looking to have more than "just enough" to retire (multimillion, mostly full of high earners like SWE's, agents or successful entrepreneurs where this goal is somewhat realistic). r/personalfinance & r/ukpersonalfinance - well rounded finance forum. r/frugal - okayish for if you are in a really tough spot. If you are doing o…

r/financialindependence is the bigger FIRE subreddit

r/personalfinancecanada for Canadians, lots of great information here specific to Canada.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#329

Post by jeremyashort »

GordonS wrote: post #299
mfoy_ wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all "financial advisors" are really just in sales.

In the UK (and, AFAIK, across the EU) we have IFAs (Idependent Financial Advisors) who follow rules, such that they are nit permitted to get kickbacks from investments. Does such a thing not exist in the US?

In the US we have "Fee-Only Financial Advisors": https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmarotta/2012/06/11/fee-onl...

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#330

Post by jakehilborn »

isoskeles wrote: post #318
magduf wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>my "high-interest savings account". Maybe a grand or two over decades Huh? Either you have very little savings for someone on this site, or your "high-interest" account isn't high-interest. Ally Bank currently has 1.6% interest on their savings account, so you'd make $1000 in interest in 1 year with a balance of about $62k. If your savings account doesn't have at least 1.5% interest, then why do you have it? There's…

Really, 2%, where? Also, that’s probably going to get knocked down this week given the announcement from the Fed, unfortunately.

I get 5% interest on up-to a $20,000 balance in a high interest checking account. You'll see higher returns using a high interest checking as opposed to savings account if you can find one you qualify for.

High interest checking accounts: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/high-interest-savings-to-get/... Automation for meeting minimum spend requirements: https://github.com/jakehilborn/debbit

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