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This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

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Re: This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

#151

Post by scythe »

baddox wrote: post #20
ChuckMcM wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So in the ideal world everyone around you is doing the same thing as the card. If that is true, then when something goes wrong there will be plenty of safeguards already in place. It takes a special kind of hubris to social welfare benefits believing you will never need them.

> So in the ideal world everyone around you is doing the same thing as the card. That still doesn't constitute financial advice, unless your choice to follow the card somehow influences others to follow the same card, which is unlikely at any measurable level.

I think it is representative of the political volatility of many commenters here that they have chosen to interpret the last line as referring strictly to government programs. The world used is social, which could easily apply to, say, Masonic lodges, labor unions, or even (quite liberally) employer-funded disability insurance.

Re: This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

#152

Post by dragonwriter »

mrb wrote: post #58
zedpm wrote: post #37

Seems like good advice, though a great many Americans are at a disadvantage because their employer doesn't offer a 401k. Even with no employer match, a 401k allows an individual to save much more money in a tax-advantaged account ($17,500 for a 401k vs. $5500 for an IRA). If you're a W-2 employee but your employer doesn't offer a 401k then you're pretty much stuck paying higher tax rates on any savings beyond $5500/y…

With no employer match, a 401k has ZERO tax advantages. Because it merely delays when your income is taxed: after withdrawing it from the 401k. Mathematically you end up with the same capital whether your pay income taxes today and invest post-tax money, or whether you invest in a pre-tax 401k and pay taxes later.

> With no employer match, a 401k has ZERO tax advantages. Because it merely delays when your income is taxed: after withdrawing it from the 401k. Mathematically you end up with the same capital whether your pay income taxes today and invest post-tax money, or whether you invest in a pre-tax 401k and pay taxes later.

If you are paying a higher marginal income tax rate now than you will be when you retire (before considering the income from withdrawing retirement investments), you are better off with a tax deferred retirement account.

If you are paying a lower marginal income tax rate now than you will be when you retire (before considering the income from withdrawing retirement investments), you are better off without a tax-deferred retirement account.

For most people, the former is more likely than the latter.

Re: This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

#153

Post by jrkotrla »

jellicle wrote: post #80

There are a couple of good parts about this post. The first is the HN comments, which are an unintentional fountain of hilarity. But the second is the assumptions. 50% of the US population can't afford to put even a dollar into any sort of investment security. Of the 50% of the public that does own some sort of security, most of them are in the three-figures range. This index card, without realizing it at all, has ta…

you are wrong. I was saving money in an IRA when I had a salary of 25k. 2011 Median income was $50k. That may not be much in the SFO and ATX and LGA's that HN populates, but for the majority of the country where the majority of the population lives, that is a good salary.

I know that HN is full of tech people who think that six figures is slumming in SFO, but you are desperately out of touch with reality. If a family of five (my dad, mom, and us kids in the 80's) can set aside money money on $22k a year, then the median family at $50k can set aside money in 2013.

Re: This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

#154

Post by dragonwriter »

carsongross wrote: post #109
mrb wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With no employer match, a 401k has ZERO tax advantages. Because it merely delays when your income is taxed: after withdrawing it from the 401k. Mathematically you end up with the same capital whether your pay income taxes today and invest post-tax money, or whether you invest in a pre-tax 401k and pay taxes later.

That's not true: the capital gains you accumulate are pre-tax, so your entire investment is taxed once, upon withdrawal, as income. With up-front taxation you still end up paying additional capital gains taxes at the end of the day on your total capital gain. There are conceivable situations where you end up paying more in taxes, if your retirement income tax rate is higher than your current income tax rate plus your…

> With up-front taxation you still end up paying additional capital gains taxes at the end of the day on your total capital gain.

Not true if it is a Roth IRA, which is post-tax contribution but tax free on withdrawal.

Re: This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

#155

Post by dragonwriter »

staccatomeasure wrote: post #132
jellicle wrote: post #80

There are a couple of good parts about this post. The first is the HN comments, which are an unintentional fountain of hilarity. But the second is the assumptions. 50% of the US population can't afford to put even a dollar into any sort of investment security. Of the 50% of the public that does own some sort of security, most of them are in the three-figures range. This index card, without realizing it at all, has ta…

It says it has all the financial advice you could ever need, not all the advice you need right now. Poor people: save money and pay off credit card debts. Middle Income And Above: do that + other rules. And saying poor people couldn't save even a dollar is nonsense. Poor people are not 100% optimal in their spending and financial matters - often quite the opposite. Furthermore, poverty is often something people grow…

> Poor people: save money and pay off credit card debts.

So, "poor people, get surplus income".

Or, equivalently, "poor people, stop being poor".

> And saying poor people couldn't save even a dollar is nonsense.

If you can reliably meet the requirements of life without charity or depletion of reserves, you arguably aren't meaningfully poor. Poor people can save sometimes, but that's mostly saving a reserve for the bad times that will come (usually fairly soon and frequently), not net savings over the long term.

Re: This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

#156

Post by staccatomeasure »

dragonwriter wrote: post #155
staccatomeasure wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says it has all the financial advice you could ever need, not all the advice you need right now. Poor people: save money and pay off credit card debts. Middle Income And Above: do that + other rules. And saying poor people couldn't save even a dollar is nonsense. Poor people are not 100% optimal in their spending and financial matters - often quite the opposite. Furthermore, poverty is often something people grow…

> Poor people: save money and pay off credit card debts. So, "poor people, get surplus income". Or, equivalently, "poor people, stop being poor". > And saying poor people couldn't save even a dollar is nonsense. If you can reliably meet the requirements of life without charity or depletion of reserves, you arguably aren't meaningfully poor. Poor people can save sometimes , but that's mostly saving a reserve for the b…

No. Poor people cut out non-essentials, be more efficient, and save money. A lack of nice things now will help later.

Buy cheaper clothes, stop smoking, stop drinking, eat out less, don't have a fancy car...etc. Don't live beyond your means and consider your means what allows you to save 20%. Exactly what I'd have to do if I wanted to save more money. Stop pretending like poor people are all dizzy starving idiots that can't do a damn thing to better their condition. People tend to live up to their expectations.

Re: This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

#157

Post by ajuc »

jellicle wrote: post #80

There are a couple of good parts about this post. The first is the HN comments, which are an unintentional fountain of hilarity. But the second is the assumptions. 50% of the US population can't afford to put even a dollar into any sort of investment security. Of the 50% of the public that does own some sort of security, most of them are in the three-figures range. This index card, without realizing it at all, has ta…

You have food stamps, cheap oil and electricity, unemployement smaller than 10%, and if you are homeless you can move to a state that doesn't have winters capable of killing you.

People in Eastern Europe save money and 50% of Americans can't?

Re: This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

#158

Post by kondro »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #42
kondro wrote: post #6

I would have an opinion but Australian law prevents me from having one without providing a statement of advice.

I doubt anybody could construe a general opinion that's not tailored for a specific individual's situation as financial advice, if that's what you're getting at. Maybe it's different in Oz.

You'd be surprised. Our law assumes quite a large amount of potential uneducation and general stupidity when it comes to an unsophisticated investor interpreting financial advice.

Re: This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need

#160

Post by kjs3 »

[deleted] wrote: post #148
kjs3 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get over yourself. What is total bullshit is entitled twats like you mentally rewriting the article so it's not "all the financial advice you’ll ever need" as claimed but "all the financial advice you’ll ever need if you're in the minority and an up and coming middle class wage earner who has sufficient disposable income to act on the advice".

[deleted]

Are you really trying to equate cost of living and saving rate in the US vs China with a straight face? I got nothing.
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