Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

news.ycombinator.com

161–170 of 341 posts

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

#161
post #91
post #74

Diversify in as many areas as you can. In income terms, diversify away from a single source by learning new skills, training up in areas you're a bit rusty in, learning totally new ones. In savings or investments: diversify where you put them, spread them around so you're not dependent on any one scenario. In eating: eat more interesting and cheaper things. Become vegetarian, if you aren't already. In exercise: drop…

Diversification is indeed the best strategy, but please do not become vegetarian on a whim. Consider the health implications it involves.

What do you mean? While strict vegetarian might not be the best it seems there are still more health implications to account for when eating meat.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

#162

I've always found that "living at my means" has paid dividends. To many folks, 'round these parts, they'd consider it "living below my means," but that's mostly because they "live beyond their means." I avoid personal debt like the plague. If that means living in a small house, and driving an old car, then so be it. I've also found that learning to deliver software, as opposed to just "writing" software, has made me…

> I avoid personal debt like the plague. If that means living in a small house, and driving an old car, then so be it. Going into debt that you can pay off and will make you a profit is good - because making a profit is literally the thing that gets you through bad times. (That's why having savings be 100% cash is riskier than investing - you are 100% guaranteed to not have it go up.) And recent years' zero-to-negati…

> But going into debt for a depreciating asset like a car is a bad idea, yes.

This is just as stupid as:

"But going into debt for a depreciating asset like a computer is a bad idea, yes."

They are both investments in potential tools. For many, an investment in a car can ultimately be cheaper than most other modes of transportation. Just like how companies finance their data centers with debt. Of course, it does not mean any car. Hell, it does not even imply a new car. But the advice of using debt to finance a car is always a bad idea is just patently false.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I avoid personal debt like the plague. If that means living in a small house, and driving an old car, then so be it. Going into debt that you can pay off and will make you a profit is good - because making a profit is literally the thing that gets you through bad times. (That's why having savings be 100% cash is riskier than investing - you are 100% guaranteed to not have it go up.) And recent years' zero-to-negati…

> But going into debt for a depreciating asset like a car is a bad idea, yes. This is just as stupid as: "But going into debt for a depreciating asset like a computer is a bad idea, yes." They are both investments in potential tools. For many, an investment in a car can ultimately be cheaper than most other modes of transportation. Just like how companies finance their data centers with debt. Of course, it does not m…

Not to mention even crappy used cars appreciated over the past two years.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect, this implies that you are not very good at cooking. You can make delicious, quick and easy food both with meat and with vegetables. If you try and cook a steak like vegetables, you will have poor results. If you try and cook vegetables like a steak, you will have poor results. If you treat each ingredient - meat, vegetable, or otherwise - in its own right and cook/season appropriately, then you can and…

Nope I've had vegetables at top class restaurants so my cooking abilities are irrelevant to my claim that (on average) meat takes less effort to cook and still tastes better. I enjoy all the food I cook, I just enjoy meat more and doubt I'm the minority, but thanks for condescending.

I have to agree. I’ve eaten and cooked (tasty) Indian food for most of my life. I’m biased, but Indian cookery has some of the most diverse and flavorful vegetarian dishes of any cuisine, and as a kid, I ate mostly vegetarian. After saying all that, I’m confident I _could_ be a vegetarian eating that diet (and have), but the meat dishes are still far tastier and something I’d prefer 9 times out of 10.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

#166

I've always found that "living at my means" has paid dividends. To many folks, 'round these parts, they'd consider it "living below my means," but that's mostly because they "live beyond their means." I avoid personal debt like the plague. If that means living in a small house, and driving an old car, then so be it. I've also found that learning to deliver software, as opposed to just "writing" software, has made me…

I think the key take away here is learning to deliver, as that is what companies actually, finally care about - everyone else is nice, but without the final person that ties the bow to get the product out the door, you're fluff.

And the advice to treat dept like a disease is worth following. There is no better feeling than telling the car sales failure you want $5K off because you're paying in cash, with a spreadsheet identifying that's their take from the financing you are not using.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I avoid personal debt like the plague. If that means living in a small house, and driving an old car, then so be it. Going into debt that you can pay off and will make you a profit is good - because making a profit is literally the thing that gets you through bad times. (That's why having savings be 100% cash is riskier than investing - you are 100% guaranteed to not have it go up.) And recent years' zero-to-negati…

> But going into debt for a depreciating asset like a car is a bad idea, yes. This is just as stupid as: "But going into debt for a depreciating asset like a computer is a bad idea, yes." They are both investments in potential tools. For many, an investment in a car can ultimately be cheaper than most other modes of transportation. Just like how companies finance their data centers with debt. Of course, it does not m…

> For many, an investment in a car can ultimately be cheaper than most other modes of transportation.

That's a joke, right? It's entirely dependent on one's location, and i think for more people here on HN the inverse would be true ( I'm assuming the majority of users here live in or around big cities, where tech was traditionally concentrated). In well developed big cities ( so excluding the many failures at urban design and planning in the US) public transit is at least decent, and i don't think there are any places around the world where owning a car is cheaper than paying for public transit ( with the caveat that depending on how you measure the time spent could alter that)

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

#168
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Become vegetarian, if you aren't already. A laudable goal in terms of sustainability and health, but in most developed countries not a cost saving measure. Meat is way too cheap, and often forms part of the bargains supermarkets use to attract customers. In the long term and the most pessimistic scenarios doing without meat may be cheaper though.

If you consider the cost of healthcare in developed countries, it may be that meat is much more expensive.

You're somehow implying that eating meat is bad for human health, which considering how general a statement it is, is bound to be completely false.

Human beings have thrived eating meat for hundreds of thousands of years. And it's a lot harder to completely address all the nutritional requirements on a purely vegetarian diet, but not impossible.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

#169
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diversification is indeed the best strategy, but please do not become vegetarian on a whim. Consider the health implications it involves.

What do you mean? While strict vegetarian might not be the best it seems there are still more health implications to account for when eating meat.

I am very much in the valley of despair on this manner, but for me individually (and food is indeed very individual), meat consumption leads to a much greater quality of life, with perceived health benefits.

I went fully carnivore and it lead to various health improvements. While I moved away from it due to my foodie tendencies, I currently do consume mainly animal products.

I plan on doing a vegan experiment as well, but I am just not getting convinced by the vegans I listen to, so I need to do more research. As it stands, I believe eating meat that grew naturally (e.g grass fed beef as compared factory farming) is more healthy and sustainable than veganism.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for hard economic times?

#170
While you can't control all costs, one of the most direct and impactful is food. Good food matters to the whole family, but you have to take a careful look at what defines "good," because in times like these where supply lines are changing rapidly, some foods will become much more expensive than others for reasons not related to their relative nutritional value. Where you can, stick to things that can be either grown locally or canned and stored for long periods, and try to make the home cooking process simple and repeatable, even if you have to sacrifice variety.

Likewise, durables can be hoarded before price hikes hit. Try to figure out all the incidental Regarding the financial investments, the model I would use for crises is migration. When people move their money around and put it in different assets, train for careers, etc they are migrating from one "place" to another to avoid impending disaster, just as people migrate seasonally to go where the food and good weather is. If you get this simple call of "stay or go" right, you avoid the majority of the impact from economic crises, and can even come out ahead.

For me, I've set crypto as the place, and privacy coins as a large part of the allocation. It's probably not the place for everyone, and I respect the people going with cash, but it's a call made specifically on the premise of migrating to something that governments have little influence over, since, as you've probably noticed, they're doing all sorts of things that upend investments lately. And if I got the call wrong, they'll ban it and render my assets illiquid, but I'm relying on a game theoretic analysis that says that some countries will embrace it in order to get ahead of those that ban it, and therefore I'll have a way out to fiat when I need it.

Post reply on HN