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

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

#211

Post by matheusmoreira » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

ashleyn wrote: post #201

ffsm8 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It remains to be seen what's going to happen over the next few decades. It's entirely possible that it'll all get wiped out (the substantial gains, not all value). While the market was a very good bet for the last 50yrs, its not a guarantee. Especially in the current climate you should be fully aware that it's significantly more risky to start investing today vs 10 yrs ago. (Riskier doesn't mean it's necessarily a ba…

Your money has to go somewhere or it will rot to inflation. If you're ultrabearish on stocks, snap up bonds. If you're bearish on stocks and bonds alike, snap up gold. Either way, bare minimum of what to do with your money long term is to preserve its value across inflation. But really I would recommend nonetheless staying the course with investment advice on a stocks/bonds balance relative to your age. Increasingly,…

> Your money has to go somewhere or it will rot to inflation.

Inflation is mainly created by this act of "putting your money somewhere". For most people, this "somewhere" means loans. Money is being loaned out to people, spent, deposited back into the bank, and loaned out again, on and on it goes until $1,000 turns into $100,000 in circulation, not a cent of it real until all loans are paid back.

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

#212

Post by roberdam » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:06 PM UTC

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…

Thanks for your encouragement!. I started investing in my mid-30s, and compound interest really works wonders after a while. I hope my kids do better than me, though.

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

#213

Post by coldpie » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:06 PM UTC

linsomniac wrote: post #192

elictronic wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Ah, she's barely out of her teens, give her a break :) Better things to spend one's life on in those years than worrying over a few hundred bucks in a bank account. She'll come back around in a few years.

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

#214

Post by wiseowise » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:09 PM UTC

ascendantlogic wrote: post #10

cluckindan wrote: post #3

Wait until they want to divest their portfolio and start hyping meme stocks and shitcoins because number go up faster. Then orchestrate an artificial bubble and crash

What's the point of this comment? To discourage investing? Reddit-style shitposting? Not sure what you're going for here.

Investing is not a safe piggy bank where you add coin and see green numbers go up.

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

#215

Post by Esophagus4 » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:12 PM UTC

zipy124 wrote: post #166

Esophagus4 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the trick with houses is that it’s the only chance most retail can get 5:1 leverage. Your brokerage will never extend that to you to invest in equities. But without leverage, long run return of residential real estate is like 3% after costs, which is less than equities but above bonds. At least that’s what I tell myself as I go to sleep in my apartment, a non-homeowner watching people accumulate serious paper ga…

Leverage comes with a cost though through interest rates. It is entirely possible (and even typical) to come out with a loss even on appreciating real estate, since your house must appreciate by more than the interest on your loan. In the UK at-least you can get 1:5 leverage on equities, but you'd be looking at a 20-25% APR, instead of the 5% mortage. The paper "the real return on everything" notably cuts off in 2010…

Good points! And the period since 2010 has been mostly up and to the right.

While the housing market as a whole may go up, the likelihood that any individual house will go up probably varies more.

How do you get that much leverage from a brokerage to invest in equities? In the US we have something called Reg T, which basically says brokerages can only lend at 2:1 against securities in most cases.

Even most leveraged ETFs will generally stop at 3X.

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

#216

Post by EvanAnderson » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:14 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #210

linsomniac wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That young you should be investing in a 527 education account not a ROTH retirement account. Education is a much better ROI when you are young than anything else. As you get older the value of education decreases. In generally the cross over is sometime in your early/mid 20s (Could be as young as 16 if you don't do well in school, or as old as 35 for things like medical doctor) If you don't live in the US you will ha…

The spiraling price of college in the US today has been questioning the assumption that education has a better ROI.

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

#217

Post by Maxamillion96 » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:19 PM UTC

johntiror wrote: post #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…

the story is about Joe Kennedy and his shoeshine boy

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

#218

Post by bluGill » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:22 PM UTC

koakuma-chan wrote: post #136

_vqpz wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is one of the most common reasons people invest though so it's entirely relevant

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.

Be careful here. You should have some "rainy day" savings. You should have some retirement plans. You can save for big items like a vacation.

However you don't know how long you will live. Don't be a miser who spends nothing. If you have surplus after the above you should either spend it or donate to charity.

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

#219

Post by pinkmuffinere » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:23 PM UTC

koakuma-chan wrote: post #118

alxmdev wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably, because everything would collapse if everyone was an "investor" and fewer people did actual work to keep the world going.

There are people who don't invest? Do they just keep their retirement savings in cash? I imagine for most people either the government or their employer invests for them.

Most of my family and extended American family doesn’t really invest. I think probably 10% of us “believe” in the stock market. The rest sometimes buy houses (which I encourage because it’s better than nothing), but otherwise are planning on social security, pensions, and lump-sum savings to cover their retirement

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

#220

Post by kmijyiyxfbklao » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:23 PM UTC

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.

Even saving can be seen as greed. Someone can focus too much on accumulating for themselves. Both investing and saving can be seen as preparation.

To avoid things becoming evil, you just need to make sure that your interactions with other are cooperative and not zero sum, and not all investments are zero sum.