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

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 2:44 AM UTC

staccatomeasure wrote: post #156

dragonwriter wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 tha…

Post by elasticdog » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 2:55 AM UTC

jcdavis wrote: post #115

tptacek wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The top 10th percentile of earners in US are barely even eligible to use Roth IRAs, which have gross income participation limits.

One can do a backdoor Roth conversion to get around that limit. (but you need to have no money in regular pretax IRAs to do so)

Post by joonix » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 3:00 AM UTC

jellicle wrote: post #74

staccatomeasure wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think with good domain knowledge and basic knowledge of economics and finance your average Joe can do better than the market. There's a lot of low hanging fruit in the stock market that a small investor in particular can grab because their size allows a certain level of under-the-radar activity.

> I think with good domain knowledge and basic knowledge of economics and finance your average Joe can do better than the market. There's a word for people like you: suckers.

Post by derekp7 » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 3:16 AM UTC

superuser2 wrote: post #147

derekp7 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've owned cars since I was 17 year old, and never had to borrow money for a car till I decided to buy a brand new car years later Since then, I've decided to do the following: So you make "car payments" into your savings account every month, and after 1 - 3 years you can get a usable or very nice used car. Then continue to make car payments into your savings, and 5 years afterwards you can get a brand new car -- one…

Buying brand new cars is not good financial advice either. Instant depreciation, no time for problems to blow up in someone else's face first, tiny longevity gain over buying a 2-3 year old car for drastically less.

Post by MacsHeadroom » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 3:20 AM UTC

ajuc wrote: post #157

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?