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Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

roberdam.com

71–80 of 448 posts

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#71
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 11% is a safe interest rate on my country 11% may be the safest bond you have access to, but that doesn't make it _safe_ in absolute terms.

up to 30k, cover 100% by the central bank

Look, you do you, but rest assured that you don't get 11% for no reason.

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#72
post #64

> One thing that school doesn’t teach you (not even high school) is how to manage your personal finances. Can we stop with this myth? Most states require financial literacy courses to graduate. The reason it feels like it isn't happening is because it's boring and most just don't pay attention or absorb the lessons.

> Most states require financial literacy courses to graduate

What's a state? Pretty sure we don't have those here.

Even if it was true for America (probably not), it certainly isn't true for the entire rest of the world.

Maybe they should be teaching Geography.

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#73
There’s an old story about Rothschild getting a haircut when the barber started giving him stock tips. Rothschild thanked him, left the shop, and immediately sold all his holdings. The reason was: “When even the barber is investing, the market’s gone too far.”

I might be wrong, but reading this, I couldn’t help but think: if we’ve reached the point where we’re building apps to get our kids into investing, maybe we’re living through our own “barber moment.”

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#74
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 11% is a safe interest rate on my country 11% may be the safest bond you have access to, but that doesn't make it _safe_ in absolute terms.

up to 30k, cover 100% by the central bank

So, bonds basically all tend to converge on the same risk adjusted yield. If you're seeing yields that look like this, the market believes the currency will slip or there's repayment risk (relative to USD bonds that are in the 4.75% range.)

Imagine you have a scenario where inflation is 0 in currency A and 10% in currency B. Would you rather have a 2% bond in currency A or a 9% bond in currency B? This is why Euro bonds go negative sometimes, when USD interest rates were very low and the Euro was deflationary relative to the dollar, it could push rates even further lower.

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#75
Being encouraged to invest is nice but having the ability to is a massive luxury.

I knew I wanted to save a lot for my future and retirement since I was in high school. I didn’t gain any reasonable ability to do so until much later.

A much better life skill in my opinion would be to teach about budgeting, how to cook economical meals, how to avoid debt traps and lifestyle inflation.

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#76
post #6

This is frankly depressing. > As my eldest son’s birthday was approaching, we suggested that instead of asking for physical gifts, he ask for their equivalent in money. That way, he gathered a decent amount of capital for his first investment adventure. Yes, why would you want a toy or a book? Why waste time having fun or learning? You could instead watch a number go up slowly while you do nothing. Fun for the whole…

He's teaching them the most important lesson of living in a capitalist system: wealth comes from having money, not from earning money.

It's better to invest in assets though than just the stock market. The wealthy build wealth by borrowing and buying assets like real estate. This ways makes it easier to avoid income taxes and capital gains taxes and you also get massive tax deductions for asset deprecation that you can use to offset most or all of what income it does provide.

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#77
post #61
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay thank goodness I’m not the only one who finds this incredibly sad. Especially as someone who is trying to make money less important in my life.

In what way are you doing that? Not that I disagree just curious how

The simple way would be to not "manage" your finances, don't build an investment portfolio. Have an honest work, live happily within your means and save whatever's left in cash.

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#78

There’s an old story about Rothschild getting a haircut when the barber started giving him stock tips. Rothschild thanked him, left the shop, and immediately sold all his holdings. The reason was: “When even the barber is investing, the market’s gone too far.” I might be wrong, but reading this, I couldn’t help but think: if we’ve reached the point where we’re building apps to get our kids into investing, maybe we’re…

The reasonable interpretation of such a project is not to pump the stock market even higher by getting children to invest their savings into it, but to inculcate the habits of investing over time so they can do it properly as adults.

I'm sure Mr. Rothschild would be fine with this learning tool.

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#79

There’s an old story about Rothschild getting a haircut when the barber started giving him stock tips. Rothschild thanked him, left the shop, and immediately sold all his holdings. The reason was: “When even the barber is investing, the market’s gone too far.” I might be wrong, but reading this, I couldn’t help but think: if we’ve reached the point where we’re building apps to get our kids into investing, maybe we’re…

The market's are different now. Everyone's 401K plans are automatically investing in them each month (my theory on why equities are so expensive now).

Re: Show HN: In a single HTML file, an app to encourage my children to invest

#80
Financial literacy is a gift, and absolutely omitted from standard education, which is unfortunate.

That said, I don't think knowledge of investment gets you very far if your job pays subsistence wages. I worked for a popular fintech focused on personal investment and their narrative was essentially "financial freedom through investment". I think it's important to understand that even the most sophisticated knowledge of investment and personal finance does nothing substantial if you aren't making surplus money to begin with.

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