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

roberdam.com

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

#221

Post by ivape »

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…

Actively invested retirement funds throughout 30+ years can also catch more concentrated moves if you are educated on a sector. For example, choosing the mag7 in the early 2010s vs just the SPY. Following the market could also let you pull out during serious world events.

There is definitely money left on the table when you ignore the market, even in a retirement fund.

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

#222

Post by koakuma-chan »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #219
koakuma-chan wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> social security, pensions, and lump-sum savings

Isn't that very little money?

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

#223

Post by bluGill »

triceratops wrote: post #129
ericyd wrote: post #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…

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…

I give my kids a copy of their 529 accounts I opened and contribute to in their name. This is real money and they can see a return on investment and growth happening.

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

#224

Post by czottmann »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #195
czottmann wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Your comments make me think you've never seen hardships in your life that weren't self-afflicted.

Life can be cruel even if you've made great plans and took all the precautions you could think of. Illnesses, accidents, the lack of a social net because your country was set up that way, crime, the list goes on.

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

#225

Post by intrasight »

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…

Same. But is same for most people. Average American retirement savings is like $200k. I've done better that that but not by orders of magnitude.

About six years ago I was hired to make an investment simulator. I wish someone had show the results to me when I was a teen. I did show it to my daughter at the time (she was in college), and used it to explain the power of compounding interest.

I found they still an old preview online (sorry not https)

http://simulators.gibsoncapital.com/new-preview-for-total-si...

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

#226

Post by skybrian »

bluGill wrote: post #204
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…

Investing for retirement at 17 is a bad idea! At 17 you should still be thinking about investing in education - the right education investment today will pay back far more than any other monitory investment. There are of course bad education investments, and some are not willing to study even more (or not able to pass a good education course), in that case retirement might be the best investment you can make, but it…

It seems like learning about personal finance is itself educational, and there are a lot of jobs where you deal with money. So this isn't entirely separate from investing in education, depending on which kind of education you mean.

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

#227

Post by dragonwriter »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #222
pinkmuffinere wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> social security, pensions, and lump-sum savings Isn't that very little money?

While defined-benefit pensions are less and less common, they may not be small.

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

#228

Post by sebastiennight »

roberdam wrote: post #157
sebastiennight wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can they pull money out? I don't see any place to update the balance up or down as the kids want to add money into the piggy bank or withdraw it.

features coming with the next update, meanwhile they can withdraw at any time

> meanwhile they can withdraw at any time

How does the withdraw work? You manually reset the date to today and the amount to what it was last time you saw it minus the withdrawal?

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

#229

Post by sebastiennight »

bluGill wrote: post #204
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…

Investing for retirement at 17 is a bad idea! At 17 you should still be thinking about investing in education - the right education investment today will pay back far more than any other monitory investment. There are of course bad education investments, and some are not willing to study even more (or not able to pass a good education course), in that case retirement might be the best investment you can make, but it…

As with many times when we use the word "should" (and you've used it a lot), the perspective you're sharing is deeply influenced by your own cultural background and might not apply to many people reading.

A few examples: school loans, considering a house purchase to be a sound investment, purchasing once-in-a-lifetime household items, saving for a wedding (from the age of 17!?) or marriage (not sure what you even mean by that if you don't mean the wedding itself?).

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

#230

Post by jamie_ca »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #173
onli wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the amount people usually trade $10 is a huge percentage. When you factor that in with the missed compound interest of that money you usually lose tens of thousands of dollars until retirement, likely more. There is no need for a big bank here, in Europe. If one of those regulated companies goes bankrupt the etf is still yours and transferable to a different institution. War in Europe is the remaining risk facto…

Not sure how it's like over in EU, but in Canada, at this point, I assume all fin tech startups are scam. Neo financial and wealth simple are definitely fucking scam. Major banks may suck but at least you get what you pay for.

Curious about your opinions on WealthSimple, if you can share. I got introduced to them when they bought out SimpleTax, and so far they've been pretty reasonable for investments.
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