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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

#331

Post by InvisibleUp »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #293
whoooboyy wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I.... they are dealing with systemic poverty. Being poor is expensive. They absolutely know they need to save, but if the choice is "starve to death today but save for retirement OR don't die, but don't save for retirement" most people are going to choose the latter.

I just checked and McDonald's pays $15 an hour, no? That's more than enough to not starve.

McDonald’s will not let you work 40 hours a week, or any consistent schedule at all. You will show up when they tell you to and that’s that. Same with grocery stores or most retail jobs.

Also you’re neglecting the cost of transportation (almost certainly a car, with gas and insurance), rent, and medical expenses.

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

#332

Post by sebastiennight »

throw-qqqqq wrote: post #323
sebastiennight wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The math doesn't add up here? You're saying that $500-600 (the amount you claim 50% of people have saved up, if it's the median) covers 3 months of expenses?

I mean no offense, but your understanding of a median seems flawed. The median is the number/point that separates the upper half from the lower half - it is not what 50% has. The math does add up. There is no contradiction in your parent’s post.

I'm not sure I catch your explanation, so let's try with some simple numbers and you'll tell me where I'm wrong.

I have a family of 10 people. These people have, respectively,

$0 ; $0 ; $1 ; $5 ; $49 ; $51 ; $190 ; $8,000 ; $150,000 and $1,000,000.

What's the median amount of savings in this group?

And what amount would complete the sentence : "50% of people have ..."?

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

#333

Post by ryandrake »

dottjt wrote: post #300
bluGill wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think it's actually a bad thing to think about money early on. Because it adds a layer of responsibility which I think takes away from simply enjoying life and focusing on what you might be truly passionate about. One of the things I hate about my 30s is that I'm focused on money now and it feels like I'm not living the life that I want. It just feels like I'm preparing for death. Which I'm not saying isn't the sen…

The earliest years of your earning life contribute overwhelmingly more to your final retirement figure than your later years. Anyone lucky enough to have a job in their teens that gives them disposable income after each paycheck really, really, really should be saving and investing. Like OP, if I was more serious about investing in my early years, I would be retired by now.

One can lead a meaningful, enjoyable life while also considering their finances.

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

#334

Post by throw-qqqqq »

sebastiennight wrote: post #332
throw-qqqqq wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean no offense, but your understanding of a median seems flawed. The median is the number/point that separates the upper half from the lower half - it is not what 50% has. The math does add up. There is no contradiction in your parent’s post.

I'm not sure I catch your explanation, so let's try with some simple numbers and you'll tell me where I'm wrong. I have a family of 10 people. These people have, respectively, $0 ; $0 ; $1 ; $5 ; $49 ; $51 ; $190 ; $8,000 ; $150,000 and $1,000,000. What's the median amount of savings in this group? And what amount would complete the sentence : "50% of people have ..."?

The median of those ten numbers is 50.

If the count of observations is even, it is usually the arithmetic mean of the two mid-points, so (49+51)/2 in this case.

The median does not have to be in the finite set of values.

Maybe Wikipedia can explain better than I can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median

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

#335

Post by bigyabai »

b_e_n_t_o_n wrote: post #319
freitzzz wrote: post #26

Hi, sorry to be that guys, I just wanted to make some corrections on what you call your app a "plain html file". Your HTML file loads: - react app - pwa manifest - tailwind css This is not at all a "plain html" file.

Why apologize and do it instead of not do it and no apologize?

Pedantry earns upvotes like bread beggars butter. I don't blame them.

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

#336

Post by pinkmuffinere »

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?

In short, yes, but my family is very cheap, so it is doable with sacrifice. I think I'm middle class (or maybe upper-middle?) now, but I think I'm the first generation that can say that. And even I rented closets, garages, and spaces behind TV's until about 4 years ago, lol.

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

#337

Post by anonymous908213 »

yed wrote: post #92
alias_neo wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

My mistake, it's just such a common trope in the US I didn't realize it was a universal complaint. It is true for US incidentally, people generally don't remember it because a) the learning and real world practice are too far removed b) people often are poor with finances regardless of knowledge.

Have you considered that "people generally don't remember it" because most of them graduated before 2020? People are going to reflect on their own experiences at school, which will often be from decades ago. If they aren't a teacher, they probably aren't going to find out about any changes to the curriculum. Maybe if they have a child, but that potentially takes an 18 year delay between implementation and learning about it if it's about a high school, if the teenager bothers to report that they had a boring finance class to their parent.

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

#338

Post by koyote »

Waterluvian wrote: post #160

I had a very similar idea this summer. But my kids are 6 and 8, so I approached it using the video game approach. It's been an absolute smash hit and entirely altered the habits of doing chores in this home. It's been about 3 months and it's still going stronger than ever. The whole thing is a static page, driven by a Google Spreadsheet that Mom and I edit to adjust goals and track progress. https://ibb.co/RTw5sCDJ h…

That is very cool! Do you have any details on how it was built or is the source code available?

Also, what happens if one of the daily missions is not completed? Is there a passive income from those?

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

#339

Post by sebastiennight »

throw-qqqqq wrote: post #334
sebastiennight wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I catch your explanation, so let's try with some simple numbers and you'll tell me where I'm wrong. I have a family of 10 people. These people have, respectively, $0 ; $0 ; $1 ; $5 ; $49 ; $51 ; $190 ; $8,000 ; $150,000 and $1,000,000. What's the median amount of savings in this group? And what amount would complete the sentence : "50% of people have ..."?

The median of those ten numbers is 50. If the count of observations is even, it is usually the arithmetic mean of the two mid-points, so (49+51)/2 in this case. The median does not have to be in the finite set of values. Maybe Wikipedia can explain better than I can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median

You didn't answer my second question. Yes the median in my example is $50. Thus it would be accurate to say "50% of people in that sample have $50 (or $51)". But not anything further than that middle point.

Back to the original post:

I'm assuming that "three months of expenses" would be roughly $6,000.

The parent post had the median at $500.

1. Given the sheer number of adult Americans (hundreds of millions of observed data points), wouldn't you say it's quite likely that the two mid-points are very close to each other (eg $499.97 and $500.02)? But definitely not (-$5,500) in debt for one mid-point individual vs $6,000 in savings for the next individual (which comes out to $500 in median and "top half has $6k")?

2. In the first scenario (almost continuous curve at the midway point), how likely do you think it is that somewhere right after that $500 mid-point, there is a huge discontinuous jump to $6,000 to accomodate the idea that the rough top half of observed savers has "3 months of expenses" saved?

3. Is there any other scenario I'm not foreseeing, that can reconcile: "the median is $500" with "the top 50% have $6,000+ in savings"?

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

#340

Post by bruckie »

I run a "Bank of Dad", tracked in a spreadsheet for my kids. They can choose to "invest" their money with me or not. To make investing meaningful for them, I pay 10% interest per month, up to a $50 balance.

To avoid bankrupting myself—and to encourage them to get a real investment account when the time comes—the rate drops as the balance increases, similar to progressive tax brackets. By the time they get to $1000 balance, the annualized rate works out to ~6%, and after that it drops fast enough that it's essentially free for me to operate.

Overall, it's been quite successful. Now whenever the kids get money, they invest it immediately. And they often delay or forego spending so that they can get more interest the next month. They haven't turned into complete misers, but it has encourage a mentality of thinking about saving, and I think the concept of interest has landed quite well. I think things really started to click for them around age 8 or 9.

If you're interested in doing something similar, I made a sanitized version of the spreadsheet. Feel free to copy: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f3FgHUohw26sHuCoO40s...

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