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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

#431

Post by sebastiennight »

throw-qqqqq wrote: post #426
sebastiennight wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 observ…

> You didn't answer my second question I purposely didn’t because strictly that is not a median. Stupid example: median of 1,2,3 is 2 and 67% >= 2 here. We do agree that as N grows, the difference shrinks (to the point of no meaningful difference). My point was that mathematically there is no contradiction. Let’s say half the population has $200 monthly expenses (3mo is then $600 saved), the median is $600 and it che…

Thanks for your response.

I appreciate you taking the time to geek out on some statistics with me (and you even had me look up medians again because I was confused at your reply!)

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

#432

Post by sureglymop »

buenzlikoder wrote: post #206
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…

Are you saving for retirement or buying property? Then start filling your 3rd pillar (Säule 3a) first because of the tax cut. Ideally in a low cost provider (viac/finpension), but the bank you already have probably has an offer too. It might be a bit more expensive than viac, but still much better than not investing. Stay away from 3rd pillar at insurance companies, they might be hard to cancel. Do yourself a favor a…

Thank you, that seems like reasonable advice!

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

#433

Post by simianparrot »

mathgeek wrote: post #391
simianparrot wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This comment perfectly illustrates the mindset folks are talking about. "I'll give when it doesn't hurt me so much" is another form of "I'll give when I have more." It doesn't make the person "bad" or any such thing for not giving, but you won't convince folks to not give by saying "but what about you, don't you want nicer food/clothes/etc."

I live in reality. It's me first, then it's my family and my close friends, and then my local community and then, finally, local charities. That's how my budget works. A budget is money in and money out. And when all of that is good, then maybe I'll think about larger charities where I can't be directly involved to see where my help actually goes.

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

#434

Post by dostick »

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…

And be the richest man in the cemetery?

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

#435

Post by spectrum1234 »

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…

Economics was optional in high school. It was also extremely basic. It was quite basic in college and also never covered this.

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

#436

Post by [deleted] »

tinfoilhatter wrote: post #412
ryandrake wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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,…

[deleted]

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

#437

Post by whoooboyy »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #345
whoooboyy wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Median rent value in Seattle is $2300/month if you are looking for a one bedroom, a little cheaper if you are looking at a studio. Minimum wage here is $21/hr. The first quartile for rent is $1600. Assuming you work full time, you are making $3360 a month, less taxes. That means that even if you get the bottom 25% of rents, over half your take home pay goes to rent. Then we need health care, food, taxes, transportati…

I rent a room. But to be fair when I first came to Canada and was told by a local "of course you won't get to have a whole apartment all to yourself" my mind was blown away.

So people's work shouldn't result in private housing? That's an acceptable outcome? I'm not clear what your insinuation is here. People should live in communal bunks but also be saving for retirement?

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

#438

Post by whoooboyy »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #234
czottmann wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Illnesses and accidents are exactly the things you need savings for, and aren't really relevant here because they don't prevent you from saving until and after they happen. The issue appears to be that 50% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck and have no savings? I can't imagine how this could be anything other than them just spending money on shit they don't need. And yes, I am assuming you live in a developed cou…

Shit you don't need like what? Rent is over 40% of pre tax income for most Americans. Health care is 30% of income for lower income Americans.

That's not leaving a lot of space for food, clothing, heating, transportation, education, entertainment, etc.

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

#439

Post by encrypted_bird »

unmole wrote: post #373
yaky wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is definitely a single point, but that is who this post immediately made me think of. And to be fair, investing does not apply to most people either.

> And to be fair, investing does not apply to most people either. Why doesn't investing apply to most people?

Because most people are neither properly educated about investing nor have the money to spare to even start.

Most people are living paycheck to paycheck.

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

#440

Post by encrypted_bird »

yaky wrote: post #297
dangus wrote: post #75

Being encouraged to invest is nice but having the ability to is a massive luxury. I knew I wanted to save a lot for my future and retirement since I was in high school. I didn’t gain any reasonable ability to do so until much later. A much better life skill in my opinion would be to teach about budgeting, how to cook economical meals, how to avoid debt traps and lifestyle inflation.

HN is a very specific and privileged demographic, very far from an average citizen. (of the US at least)

Not the OC, but yeah I've noticed this myself actually. I read HN because I love science and technology, but I don't work in either area. I work at a dead-end job as a cashier and barely make ends meet. Some of the people on here are exceedingly privileged and really don't realize it.
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