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The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

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Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#151

Post by jjeaff »

Jiro wrote: post #32
Taek wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's about the lesson more than anything else. I really want my kids to learn how to save and be well practiced at it, even though the utility function doesn't make a ton of sense.

Learning to manage money includes making correct decisions about whether a course of action is worth it. Forcing a child to save when he'd be better off not saving teaches the right lesson about what saving is, and the wrong lesson about when you should save.

Not saving comes natural to most people. Learning to save is the hard part. Most children don't ever make enough money that saving would make financial sense. The reality is, teaching kids to save their money is more a lesson in delayed gratification than it is a financial lesson.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#153

Post by epgui »

capableweb wrote: post #149
epgui wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand why so many people “save money” but then just keep cash under a mattress or in a savings or checking account. If you want to win at life, you “save money” by purchasing non-cash assets like stocks.

> If you want to win at life, you “save money” by purchasing non-cash assets like stocks. "Win at life" == "save money" == "owning stocks" ??? Winning at life is about everything that is not about money. Winning at life is being able to be happy no matter how much or how little money you have. Sure, up until one point, more money can help you get happier, but if you don't have the baseline happiness, you will never b…

I believe you’re doing what is called an equivocation? (edit: not sure exactly what it’s called, but you’re arguing against something I did not say or mean)

We’re talking about money, in a thread about money, on a post about money. At no point did I suggest that money makes unhappy people happy.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#154

Post by Nasrudith »

moonchrome wrote: post #94
Certhas wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a childhood lesson you don't need crazy inflation for this to hold true though. Anything that takes more than a few of months to save up to just doesn't make sense as a kid. Your disposable income goes up by factors of ten every few years. You have 2$ to spend at 5, 20$ at 10, 200$ at 15. Then it slows down but you might still get to 2000$ at 25. Saving as a kid really never seemed worth it to me.

>Saving as a kid really never seemed worth it to me. Also saving during 20s for this reason - if you're just starting out in a career and expecting your income to rise rapidly the money you save on interest is going to be irrelevant.

Depending upon a rapid rise of income is a very good way to wind up buried in debt at the slightest complication makes it not come when expected. There are a few times when it can work like say medical school's debt stack.

Saving in my twenties gave me good returns despite issues starting my career but that involved some exceptional circumstances from getting in on Tesla relatively early.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#155

Post by MisterSandman »

lottin wrote: post #115
imtringued wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why exactly do we want to reward already rich people at the expense of poorer people? Somehow, people convinced themselves that giving money to those who don't need it is efficient.

You don't have to reward anyone. Just don't borrow. But if you want to borrow the lender will expect a reward. Simples.

It's a lot easier for the rich to "just not borrow" that it is for the poor. Capitalism was designed so people HAVE to borrow money to do things, so saying that you can just avoid things by not borrowing is elitist at best.

University, Medical Bills, Housing - all are things that many people (in NA at least) need to borrow money for. Borrowing money is an integral part to move up the social and economic ladder for most people alive today.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#156

Post by drbojingle »

Taek wrote: post #12
Certhas wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a childhood lesson you don't need crazy inflation for this to hold true though. Anything that takes more than a few of months to save up to just doesn't make sense as a kid. Your disposable income goes up by factors of ten every few years. You have 2$ to spend at 5, 20$ at 10, 200$ at 15. Then it slows down but you might still get to 2000$ at 25. Saving as a kid really never seemed worth it to me.

It's about the lesson more than anything else. I really want my kids to learn how to save and be well practiced at it, even though the utility function doesn't make a ton of sense.

If the utility isn't there why teach it? Feels like it won't connect. Better to teach them to have self disciplined and minimalistic isn't it?

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#157

Post by scarface74 »

nobrains wrote: post #61
Taek wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's about the lesson more than anything else. I really want my kids to learn how to save and be well practiced at it, even though the utility function doesn't make a ton of sense.

We put our children's savings (money for good school results, birthday money, eid money, etc.) into 3 separate envelops, equally: SPEND, SAVE, CHARITY. SPEND: They are encouraged to spend 1/3rd of the money. Whatever they want to buy. They have become online discount shopping experts, whether getting rubiks cubes, roller blades or harry potter merchandise. SAVE: 1/3rd goes into savings, which we will let them tap onc…

I hope by “charity event” you mean “an opportunity to give” and not an actual “event”.

https://www.socialvelocity.net/the-problem-with-nonprofit-ev...

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#158

Post by narrator »

Capira wrote: post #15

bitcoin fixes this

A friend of mine lives in Argentina. He pays his living expenses in Bitcoin to other Argentinians. They are very happy to take it, even without legal tender laws because it doesn't rapidly regularly devalue like the Argentinian currency.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#159

Post by markvdb »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #125
epgui wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand why so many people “save money” but then just keep cash under a mattress or in a savings or checking account. If you want to win at life, you “save money” by purchasing non-cash assets like stocks.

> you “save money” by purchasing non-cash assets like stocks Bonds aren’t great for building wealth. But they’re fine for preserving it. Saving money via a mix of inflation-indexed and fixed-yield debt will generally preserve your purchasing power over long time intervals.

While that has been true for the US the past ~250 years, the US are to some extent an anomaly.

Most of the world has seen bond owners get eaten almost completely really. Almost all of Africa, large swathes of Asia, much of Europe including Germany and Russia, most of South America...

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#160

Post by OGWhales »

treeman79 wrote: post #11
slg wrote: post #9

Argentina has experienced multiple rounds of hyperinflation due to failed monetary policy. Saying this story is a "lesson about the power of inflation" is like saying "the sun is hot". Yes, it certainly is, but it is so far beyond normal definitions of "hot" that people will have a hard time understanding it. This is more a story about the failures of Argentina's governments over the last 50 years than a story about…

There are a lot of people that think we can print spend endless amounts of money without consequences. Heck an alarming amount of people don’t understand that bonds need to be paid back.

> There are a lot of people that think we can print spend endless amounts of money without consequences.

I’ve seen this said more than I’ve seen people who actually think that. Most people have heard horror stories of hyperinflation and, if anything, are overly weary of inflation than not.

The comment above makes a good point. These types of hyperinflation situations are the result of serious mismanagement and deeper issues. When considering inflation, it’s important to study real resource constraints and any debts that need to be paid back in foreign currencies. All the famous examples of hyperinflation involve issues with these factors.

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