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

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

#191

Post by triceratops »

recursive wrote: post #145
triceratops wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what you mean by that. They teach compound interest in every school. Basic economics too. Anything more advanced is going to be lost on most kids, because that's most adults' level of financial literacy too. The problem is many kids don't have much money to save or invest. Or if they do, real banks kinda suck when you only have a kid amount of money ("Here's the 0.2% interest on your $37 balance"). So th…

Where do you send your money to invest? What is a stock? This is the type of information missing.

> Where do you send your money to invest?

If they had taught you that in high school 10 or 20 years years ago, it would be outdated by now. People used to save in savings accounts. Then 401ks. Then individual brokerage accounts with index funds. Now crypto or whatever is hot using some fintech app.

> What is a stock?

That's fair. It can come up in basic economics but not always.

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

#192

Post by linsomniac »

elictronic wrote: post #175
linsomniac wrote: post #102

There's an awful lot of negativity here, but as someone who's 55 and has earned a good wage since I was 17, I really wish I had taken investing more seriously from the very beginning. While I knew of compound interest, I really didn't understand it until like a decade ago. If I'd started putting 5% of my money into a target retirement plan from 17, I'd be retired now. As it is I'm not doing badly, but I really wish I…

I started my daughter investing with a custodial account at 13. She put a few hundred dollars of her money in and I convinced her by matching her investment and told her if the amount ever went below the original investment I would backstop any loss. Investing is all about that long term gain and slow growth. Having 10 years of experience after finishing college will do so much more than Robinhood for refrigerators.

I've made a similar deal with my kids: Around 7 years ago I set up a "kid retirement" plan for them, where they couldn't touch the money until they were 18, but any money they put in I would match, and I'd also give them 10% APY with monthly compounding. My daughter aged out of it a couple years ago, she got something in the $100 range. Her brother still has a 18 months left, and I just recently rolled his over into the custodial account, he's got over a grand in there currently.

My daughter I just recently set up a ROTH for her and told her I'd match anything she puts into it, and stressed she should put something into it now from her savings, and then put some of her paycheck into it, anything is better than nothing. So far she's declined the free money. I'm going to set one up for my son, once he's at the point of having an income to justify it. She's very smart, but in some ways she's very stupid.

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

#193

Post by pmg102 »

You're giving a 15% growth rate with zero volatility? That isn't going to teach many important lessons.

How about offering a range of rates with volatility increasing as rate increases. Then they can think about the benefit of guaranteed return vs the benefit of long-term growth, or a combination of both.

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

#194

Post by kaggie »

nxor wrote: post #61
kaggie wrote: 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

All I mean by that is having an honest job I don’t totally dread, not getting a high-paying job that wrecks my mental health solely because it pays a lot, buying only what I need with minimal wants, trying to live simply without extravagance. I do in fact track budgeting very consistently and have a 401K, among other things, so that I avoid homelessness and stuff. But I do not think about how to make more and more money constantly.

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

#195

Post by koakuma-chan »

czottmann wrote: post #188
koakuma-chan wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it doesn't occur to them that they will need money when they're old and can't work? Incredible.

I am very certain it does occur to them but they simply have no financial means to do anything about it. Which must be soul-crushing to them. Rest assured it usually isn't their choice.

> Rest assured it usually isn't their choice.

People choose to marry, have kids, and buy a house.

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

#196

Post by mattmanser »

thw_9a83c wrote: post #162

Nice! I also created a "virtual bank account" for my kids when they were 7-8yo. They can choose to take the weekly cash or put it in their savings account. My bank gives them a 5% interest rate per month, which isn't bad. Explaining the idea of compound interest this way is easy. However, I think that's the easier part of being an investor. The more complicated part is risk management. With a savings account, there i…

5% per month? Where is this crazy money generator? Assume you meant per year here!

It's not zero risk:

- Your currency may collapse, see Germany 1930s, Argentina, Zimbabwe, Venezula, etc.

- Only a certain figure is protected in savings, though governments will act aggressively to protect that (see 2008 + the Icelandic/UK/Dutch palava)

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

#197

Post by davsti4 »

freitzzz wrote: post #46
brazukadev wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is plain html different from single HTML? Because it is a single HTML that you can "Save as" and have one html with the working app.

In my opinion this can't even be labeled as a single HTML file, because it loads external files to complete the app. But back to the question, a "plain html" file doesn't load any external resources and is usually semantically described.

Agreed - which is disappointing.

My firewall shows blocked connections to cdn.tailwindcss.com and unpkg.com

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

#198

Post by kccqzy »

ho_schi wrote: post #90

At the point with investment I was lost. Children should learn to be patient (saving money) and prepare for bad situations (saving money). That’s enough. When older we can teach them what capitalism considers as investment. Capitalism is a longer word for greed. Money doesn’t work. Employees do. Customers pay. Both suffer to make greedy persons rich. Give them a piggy bank. Teaches the concept of preparation.

You say "when older we can teach them what capitalism considers as investment" but you never specify the age. What exactly counts as older? My mom started telling me about how the new home we just moved into was both a place to live and also an investment at age 8. My dad started telling me about his brokerage account when I was 7. My dad also explained to me why the new car we just bought was not an investment when I was 6.

That's to say, I strongly disagree. It's almost never too early to teach this to children. As soon as children know money could be spent on exchange for things, they should begin to think about how money is made.

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

#199

Post by koakuma-chan »

_vqpz wrote: post #189
koakuma-chan wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you need a reason to invest. You should be making more money than you spend, so you might as well put the surplus to work.

Okay

I said that because I find it puzzling when asked the reason why I invest. They're like, are you saving for a house? No, I'm saving in general, and then I buy whatever I want.

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

#200

Post by linsomniac »

Brendinooo wrote: post #182
sureglymop wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that now but as a young person with a decent income and no family or many responsibilities it's hard to even know where to start. And I'm not even talking about what to invest in, I'm already confused at which platform/bank/whatever to do it through. The "meta", if you will. I just want to invest the 70% of my salary I don't need every month and not think about it for 40 years but how? Maybe an important deta…

My understanding is that, if the market generally continues on the rate of return it's averaged throughout its history (that is, if you're not a doomer), then the single most important thing is showing up to play. People who try to time the market or wait for a perfect time or pick the exact right blend of stocks, on average, don't do as well as people who pick a boring index or mutual fund and forget about it for 40…

Yes, however: My father in law gave me some great advice: Pick a stock or two and put some small amount of your investments into it, like 1-5%. This makes the investing more fun. And he was very right, not the least of which because the stock I put $7K in exploded and ended up worth over $200K. ;-)

My BIL put money into Underarmor (he's an outdoors guy) and Electronic Arts (he's also a gamer), both of which have done good for him. My son put some money into Roblox (he's a gamer), and that's done well also.

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