Reddit has become a guide to personal finance • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#361

Post by basch » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:01 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #331

magduf wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm missing something, but HSAs seem to me to usually only be available if you have a high-deductible health insurance policy. That can be OK if you're 25 and very healthy, but for many other people is a high risk.

HSAs are a no brainer if you can afford to spend the out of pocket maximum. Either you pay the insurance company more in monthly premiums for a lower deductible, or you pay a lower monthly premium and invest the difference in an index fund and you keep the returns. Which grow tax free in an HSA. Your probability of having a healthcare expense does not change based on the type of insurance you choose (high or low dedu…

Its a Traditional IRA that doesnt tax growth. Its tax free going in, on its gains, and going out. Theres really nothing like it.

Best case scenario, spend all your health care with cash. Let the HSA grow as long as you can. Reimburse yourself for a decades worth of health care spending when you need the cash.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#362

Post by basch » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

JibJabDab wrote: post #256

basch wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>putting money in to ETF’s until I have enough in the ETF’s I’m willing to by some individual stocks which may not be as stable as the ETFs I have. Are those retirement accounts or taxable brokerage. Because for many people, maxing out their IRA, 401K, and HSA is like 35K a year alone, and putting money into taxable brokerage should take a backseat unless 1) you like the gambling for its entertainment factor 2) you c…

The downside is that putting money into those makes it harder to withdraw for when you do need those funds. Savings accounts makes it much easier to pull available funds. Other than that, you're right.

Thats what the line of credit is for. When you need immediate money, dont want to cash out stock, can pay it back in a month, or to give you a month to park it somewhere with a lower interest rate.

You can spend out of a brokerage account as if its a savings account. Sell your stocks, and youll have cash.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#363

Post by noizejoy » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

sli wrote: post #345

cookiengineer wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have found that subreddits almost become an anti-expertise forum over time - when actual experts show up to give advice, they are often downvoted if their advice goes against whatever that subreddit is cargo culting (which, as you mentioned, is often not great advice in the first place). Then the expert is discouraged from participating ever again. /r/programming in a nutshell.

/r/programming is not an anomaly. My experience is that programming-related discussion boards everywhere are like this, almost from day one. The rampant tribalism and insistence one groupthink is incredibly strong, to the point where even typos can cause a relentless dogpile and accusations that said person "has clearly never written real software in their life." You simply cannot make even one mistake, no matter how…

> rampant tribalism and insistence one groupthink is incredibly strong

Could that be, because so much of programming is a group activity (understanding, maintaining, and evolving other people’s code), and thus actually benefits (in an evolutionary sense) from simplistic group think more than from innovation and perfection?

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#364

Post by palebluedot » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

debaserab2 wrote: post #296

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…

I have found that subreddits almost become an anti-expertise forum over time - when actual experts show up to give advice, they are often downvoted if their advice goes against whatever that subreddit is cargo culting (which, as you mentioned, is often not great advice in the first place). Then the expert is discouraged from participating ever again. I've witnessed this pattern in an array of subreddits spanning from…

My favorite example of this is that Popehat (Ken White) was banned from /r/legaladvice.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#365

Post by Sohcahtoa82 » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

dwild wrote: post #327

dwild wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Think of it another way. This statement:

> It's never disadvantageous to make more money (except if you're on government benefits as mentioned, where there are some weird effects).

is essentially equivalent to:

> If you're not on government benefits, where there are some weird effects, then it is never disadvantageous to make more money.

But if the wording was done the second way, you probably wouldn't have had a problem with it.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#366

Post by lonelappde » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:13 PM UTC

palebluedot wrote: post #364

debaserab2 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that subreddits almost become an anti-expertise forum over time - when actual experts show up to give advice, they are often downvoted if their advice goes against whatever that subreddit is cargo culting (which, as you mentioned, is often not great advice in the first place). Then the expert is discouraged from participating ever again. I've witnessed this pattern in an array of subreddits spanning from…

My favorite example of this is that Popehat (Ken White) was banned from /r/legaladvice.

Just the opposite.

/r/legaladvice is heavily moderated to keep it clean and high quality.

Ken White was banned for deliberate persistent rule breaking and hijacking the sub to make it popehatLegalAdvice.

https://amp.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/7xpggl/what_i...

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#367

Post by aguyfromnb » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:15 PM UTC

jakehilborn wrote: post #330

isoskeles wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

>High interest checking accounts:

I clicked through a few of those offers. Each one has a balance limit (after which interest drops to near zero), monthly fees, sign-up fees, or requires you to generate banking fees through another service.

And how could they not? Finance isn't magic, and we are in a world of all-time low rates. There is no possible way these companies can be paying you 5% on cash without making it up elsewhere.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#368

Post by InitialLastName » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:15 PM UTC

bobloblaw45 wrote: post #308

Domenic_S wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I noticed a good amount of of young people humble-bragging too. Like "I just got out of college and I make 6 figures, should I eat lentils or splurge and get Sizzler?" To be fair I haven't seen much recently they seemed to be more common in the past.

> To be fair I haven't seen much recently they seemed to be more common in the past.

I wonder if that's usable as an indicator?

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#369

Post by gniv » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:15 PM UTC

koboll wrote: post #277

xelhark wrote: post #23

I 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.

>searching on reddit usually yields much more objective and generally better results. Well, search on reddit has always been pretty terrible. I find that appending `inurl:reddit` to a Google search gives the best results.

> I find that appending `inurl:reddit` to a Google search gives the best results.

That works, but for many searches will include results from other sites, since the operator works on the entire URL, not just the domain. If you want to limit to just reddit.com, use `site:reddit.com`.

Re: Reddit has become a guide to personal finance

#370

Post by lonelappde » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

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…

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