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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

#411

Post by abc3 »

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…

> 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'd started earlier.

I'm 55, too. If I'd started studying HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, and Rust at 17, I'd be retired now. Waitaminnit....

Sarcasm aside, target retirement plans wouldn't come along for decades. Investing was very, very different when we were 17. And many of the people who were 55 when we were 17 had just lost a terrifying amount of their life's savings in a stock market crash that made Taleb rich because he'd bet against the market.

It seems extraordinarily unlikely that a 17-year-old today should do exactly what we wish we could have done when we were 17. About the best they can do is follow advice that's now centuries old: make friends, learn skills, live below their means, and, maybe, earn credentials.

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

#412

Post by tinfoilhatter »

ryandrake wrote: post #370
tinfoilhatter wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I don't really understand the difference between the words family and bloodline, because what is a family besides a lineage of people connected by blood? Just for clarity - I am referring to Mayer Amschel Rothschild and his descendants who have been and continue to be involved in central banking. I am most definitely not referring to all Jewish / Ashkenazi Jewish people, any ethnicity or anyone with the last nam…

"Blood" euphemisms are commonly used by antisemites and racists of all types. Hitler made many reference to "German blood, "Jewish blood," "our blood," and so on, essentially as shorthand meaning ethnicities. The KKK repeatedly emphasizes the importance of "blood purity" to promote its ideology. Which is why Trump's recent claim that immigrants are “poisoning the -blood- of our country” got so many people riled up--i…

Thank you for shining light on these examples for me. I've been studying quite a bit of history, esoteric spirituality and the occult sciences over the past few years and have fallen into the habit of using this term when talking about lineages of influential people and their families.

I definitely did not mean to sound like I was into eugenics or racial purity - I think these concepts are grotesque and as you said, people that focus on them or use them to excuse atrocities are indeed, very bad people. Thank you for giving me the benefit of doubt and highlighting why my choice of language is problematic.

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

#413

Post by Brendinooo »

simianparrot wrote: post #386
Brendinooo wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More or less: yup. The great thing about saying "give 10%" is how well it scales.

Except it doesn’t. If you’re poor, 10% directly impacts your life negatively. It means less (or lesser quality) food. It means less money set aside for yourself in the case you need it — and you will. 10% for middle class is fine. That’s just one less night out. People should not give to charity if they themselves are likely to be dependent on charity.

I could get into virtue ethics or religion but I know this is Hacker News, so maybe I can frame it like this:

Telling people to wait until they're financially stable before giving risks creating a dynamic where people never start. The person who says "I'll give when I can afford it" at $30k is likely to say the same thing at $100k, because the scarcity mindset scales with income.

Small-scale giving early on helps build the identity and habits of someone who contributes to their community rather than just consuming from it.

And arguably there are network effects formed from generosity of time/money that can bring long-term benefits as well. It's a spicier idea, but I could even suggest that giving helps you see money as a tool rather than as security itself.

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

#414

Post by Shopper0552 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #184
roberdam wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

great!, mobile app?

It’s just a static hosted page they run on the family iPad. There’s no server at all! I should really clean it up and make a blog post about it. But wanted to share it here because this project reminded me of it :)

This is such a great idea, I would love to implement this for my kids! Could you post a link to your blog or GitHub so people who want to know can follow you when/if you release it?

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

#415

Post by Tyrannosaur »

ryandrake wrote: post #349
tinfoilhatter wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So when authors of history-related works criticize or make remarks about bloodlines such as the Hapsburgs or the Medicis or the Colonnas are you equally as outraged as when it involves a bloodline of Jewish people? If I navigate to - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy_of_the_Rothschild_fa... - every section of the page mentions the family being involved in banking. Am I stereotyping members of the Rothschild blo…

I think the word "bloodline" has gotten people wrapped around the axle. You could have just said "the Rothschild family" and been in the clear. "Bloodline" veers a little close to smearing an entire ethnicity over the actions of one relatively small family. I'm sure it's not what you meant, but as soon as you start talking about the contents of people's blood, people's ears start perking up and looking for bigotry.

For what it's worth, my reaction to the word "bloodline" used in this way is exactly what it would have been to the word "dynasty".

"Bloodline", as in, the line of inheritance for an extremely wealthy and powerful family, like Medieval monarchs.

Perhaps we should be a tad more careful about our language use, but I see far too much outright bigotry to be worried about something obviously not used as a dogwhistle.

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

#416

Post by wbadart »

OP, love the idea, and cool to see a useful PWA!

One note: I noticed when opening the installed PWA in airplane mode, styles didn't load. You might be interested in this article on PWA caching from MDN:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web...

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

#417

Post by roberdam »

wbadart wrote: post #416

OP, love the idea, and cool to see a useful PWA! One note: I noticed when opening the installed PWA in airplane mode, styles didn't load. You might be interested in this article on PWA caching from MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web...

thanks for the comment & tip!, I'm going to try to make the app without external dependencies.

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

#418

Post by xboxnolifes »

ffsm8 wrote: post #138
ashleyn wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I feel like I started investing late at 26. Already, six years into the best decade for compounding in your life. But such was the power of compounding that I had reached a substantial net worth by age 35. So even just nine years can make such a tremendous difference even into later ages. It's never too late to sock money away.

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…

There is never a guarantee, but all I can say is that there have been people claiming we're in a bubble for over a decade now. Maybe we are, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be investing instead of spending all of your money.

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

#419

Post by ncruces »

triceratops wrote: post #409
TeMPOraL wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only you can, I still don't see how the financial "magic of compounding" isn't bullshit for vast majority of people - you can't really make significant money this way in reasonable time spans (5 years rather than 50).

5 years isn't a reasonable timespan. Compounding over the course of a 35 year career, earning a modest wage, will fund a comfortable 20 year retirement. If that's "bullshit" for most people then too bad. Good things come to those who wait etc.

A 20 year retirement on the back of 35 years of working means dying before you're 80?

Given current life expectancy, and particularly if you find a life partner, the chances of at least one of you surviving through at least 85 are pretty high (like above 60% for the US).

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

#420

Post by triceratops »

ncruces wrote: post #419
triceratops wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 years isn't a reasonable timespan. Compounding over the course of a 35 year career, earning a modest wage, will fund a comfortable 20 year retirement. If that's "bullshit" for most people then too bad. Good things come to those who wait etc.

A 20 year retirement on the back of 35 years of working means dying before you're 80? Given current life expectancy, and particularly if you find a life partner, the chances of at least one of you surviving through at least 85 are pretty high (like above 60% for the US).

I assumed that a "real" career and substantial savings, after paying off debt, begin at age 30. And the 20 year retirement was me being conservative. In truth, saving only 20% of your take-home for 35 years will be more than enough for 40 years.
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