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

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

#331

Post by davedx »

ianai wrote: post #219
davedx wrote: post #142

So much complicated advice in this thread, wow. Keep it simple: do things that let you accumulate cash, so if you lose your job you won't also immediately get kicked out of your house and you'll have reserves to draw on. Consider that you might need to re-train etc. Just build your savings. Don't do risky things that add to the complexity and your stress levels. Avoid crypto in particular. I also have a family and I'…

And the traditional, near-cash liquidity hedges like precious metals already follow inflation. No need to dabble into such risky things as crypto.

What do you mean "follow inflation"?

Gold certainly hasn't tracked inflation

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

#332

Post by [deleted] »

jjav wrote: post #324
sofixa wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 d…

> That's a joke, right? Certainly not a joke. Unless you live in Manhattan, or happen to luck into a house within walking distance of your job (ignoring pandemic WFH), then in order to maintain a lucrative career you need to get to work, in time, without spending most of your day waiting for buses. That means investing in a car. A car by itself is of course a terrible non-investment. But if it brings home that high s…

[deleted]

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

#333

Post by tharne »

hackerfromthefu wrote: post #315
tharne wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is excellent advice. The number one thing you can to do to improve your financial resiliency is to avoid debt.

Over the last 50 years this has been terrible advice on balance. With more nuance it makes sense - avoid bad debt for lifestyle that doesn't produce future economic value, and avoid an excess of investment debt but carry enough investment debt in well considered assets that you can be part of our economic systems growth which is built into our society by design and enforced by our government systems.

Your advice is great for fairly financially savvy individuals, but most of us are not especially financially savvy. For the vast majority of people simple, albeit less than perfect, advice is much better than really good, but complex, advice.

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

#334

Post by tharne »

jjav wrote: post #325
blaser-waffle wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made it around just fine in Seattle, Vancouver, DC (Tenlytown), and Nashville without a car. Bikes and ubers. Everywhere but Nashville was pretty easy to be a person, and Nashville was a PITA at times but doable.

> Bikes and ubers. Ubers are cars, just with an extremely high markup. I had a coworker so proud of not spending money on car. So he commuted on Uber. Over $50/day. That's over $1000/month!

> Ubers are cars, just with an extremely high markup.

This should be be on a billboard.

You could even take it a step further, ubers are worse than just owning a car. If I drive my car somewhere, I stop driving it when I get there. Ubers on the other hand, have to deadhead between different pickups and drop offs in addition to the mileage racked up during the pickups and drop offs themselves. So folks using uber are contributing more vehicle miles on a per trip basis than folks who are using their own vehicles.

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

#335

Post by hgomersall »

tharne wrote: post #275
CPLX wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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) That's the world's biggest caveat. Investment in a modest car that stops you from spending 3 hours each way commuting over 4 separate bus routes from exurban home to exurban job is about as high a return on money as you'…

> That's the world's biggest caveat. Exactly. Not having a car is only a money saver if you place next to zero value on your time and what you can do with it. If I switched to taking public transit to work, the additional childcare costs alone from the increased hours I'd be outside of the house would likely negate any savings I might have otherwise achieved.

Often on public transport, you can usefully do far more than you can driving, so it's not entirely wasted. I used to joke I was most productive on a train and so should set up my office on one.

Similarly for active transport, you get free exercise.

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

#336

Post by wsc981 »

hackerfromthefu wrote: post #317
ploika wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to push back very hard on the notion that it's easier to feed your family by picking up farming than by going to the supermarket.

Yup, if 'both you and your wife are doing farmwork' then who's got the time and energy to pursue a lucrative career? At least you could read about it on HN!

Maintaining a farm doesn’t have to be a full-time job. Try to find a part-time job and it should be easily doable.

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

#338

Post by gaws »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #238

Learn how to do things yourself. Learn how to cook, fix your car and repair your house. I've saved so much money over the years by being a DIYer and it's very fulfilling. Some examples of me saving money: Replacing the transmission in my truck: shop wanted $7k, I did it all for $2.5k. Fixing my deck and expanding it: contractor wanted $55k, I did it for $7k. Leaky pipe in ceiling: plumber wanted $1k, I fixed it for $…

> Replacing the transmission in my truck: shop wanted $7k, I did it all for $2.5k

> Fixing my deck and expanding it: contractor wanted $55k, I did it for $7k

> Leaky pipe in ceiling: plumber wanted $1k, I fixed it for $25.

How did you learn to do these things? There are many chances where things could go horribly wrong.

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

#340

Post by errantmind »

Live below your means and you will rarely, if ever, have financial issues. This requires a different perspective on 'having money'.

For this you have to ditch the idea of signalling your wealth to your friends and colleagues and, instead, be content to be seen as poorer than you are. Perhaps you don't buy a new car (ever). I'm still driving the car I bought in ~2010. Perhaps you live in an ugly/old building.

You also have to be willing to continually trim spending to exactly what you value. For example, I personally value eating food made with high quality ingredients, so I'm willing to spend more on these ingredients, but this also means I need to spend less elsewhere so I stopped going to bars and cut down on my eating out.

The upside of this approach is being able to do the things I really value while still having a large buffer of funds in case something happens to me or the economy as a whole.

The end result is total financial peace of mind.

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