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Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

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Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#171

Post by jacquesm »

switch007 wrote: post #169
jacquesm wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The parking brake is a PEDAL and the release is a totally separate lever. That has two functions in one go: first of all it stops your potentially deranged passengers from pulling on the handbrake and second it allows for much more force to be applied to the pedal than you could ever achieve while pulling on a lever. This means that if you need the parking brake for it's backup emergency brake function it will like…

Some valid points, but I was mostly commenting in the context of it being a rental and expecting a car to be like other cars. > ...the same as it would be in some other EU cars "some" (which, out of interest)?. Not anywhere near being a majority e.g. BMW, Audi, Ford, VW > Similar to the speedometer erring on the side of caution. I can do that. I can set it to 119 instead of 120. Leave me in control (OK, it's the crui…

The Citroen DS had both the parking brake and the gear shift in that exact configuration and this was a very common configuration in the past.

Here is a picture of the gear shift lever:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c3/56/58/c356581ab...

That's a half-automatic gear box, so gears but no clutch! (Not bad for the early 60's, as well as hydraulic suspension, power steering and headlights that point where you're driving).

I've even seen it on some American cars. Eventually the shifter for automatics moved to the transmission tunnel (if you had one) as well but it wasn't always so.

I suspect the re-occurrence of this has to do with the mid console in high end cars now more and more occupied with electronics and infotainment rather than the drive train and associated levers.

Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#172

Post by aagha »

im3w1l wrote: post #126
edanm wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are things from 1000's of years ago that are still relevant. But I think it's mostly survivorship bias. The very few things from long ago that we still read, are still relevant today. That's why we know about them! Take a random book from from most periods of history, and it will be uninteresting, if not outright unintelligible, to a modern audience.

> Take a random book from from most periods of history I'd be very interested in doing in doing just that. How would I go about it? Weighted by popularity in that era would be fine, but not weighted according to current popularity.

I'm sure you can find old books scanned online [0], or you could go to library--especially if you're in a town with a lot of history (Boston, NYC)--even better if you're in Europe.

Librarians are fantastic for this kind of thing. Tell them what you're trying to do, and they're marvelous and helping you find a way to use books and other resources to help you.

0 - https://www.google.com/googlebooks/about/

Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#173

Post by meric »

rorykoehler wrote: post #149
meric wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who see the stock market that way are merely gamblers and will have their chips taken away in the next financial crisis. During 2014-2015 I've participated in a lot of share issues to provide cash for gold mining companies requiring capital to move into or expand production. These are companies with a few hundred shareholders or so. The profits I've made in the past few months from gold mining companies, I thi…

I don't resent anyone who chooses to play the game and wins. We just make the best of the system we exist in however I do believe in being honest about the system too. Gold has a value purely due to it being vital in many technologies. That said I can't imagine the price we pay for mined material, gold or otherwise, even comes close to reflecting the cost of what it will take to repair the damage we are doing to our…

Yes, I only invest in gold mines in my own country, where there are more strict protocols with regards to the environment, where a 'environment cleanup' bond must be lodged with the government before mining begins. The area is rehabilitated when mining completes.

The down cycles and bubbles are pumped up by central banks. When the stock market isn't doing well central banks lower interest rates, encouraging people to take out loans, to buy houses and stocks, and if they didn't, the central bank would lower the interest rate until they did.

It is market intervention that is exacerbating the phenomenon you're talking about. A small down cycle is a healthy event that cleans up all the almost productive companies and reallocates their capital through liquidation. It is zombie companies propped up by government subsidies and central bank intervention that is causing the rot in America's economy. It is akin to a forest fire burning all the weeds so the forest can rejuvenate.

Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#174

Post by dasil003 »

purplelobster wrote: post #141
dalke wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Sweden, people have a debit card or use a debit app. Most people here easily get through life without a credit card. While I don't think it's true that "most westerners can't imagine not having a credit card", I don't have a sense of how much other Western countries use credit cards as compared to debit-based systems. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5380718.stm from 2006 says that UK has the most credit c…

Funny thing is, as a European I never saw the point in credit cards. So when I lived in the US I didn't get one for a few years. Finally my girlfriend pushed me to get one for the free cash back, but the application was denied since I had no credit history (yet a high-paying job and $100k in the bank...). Just weird. You have to be in debt to show that you're responsible enough to handle debt.

You don't have to be in debt, paying your credit card in full each month is an excellent way to build credit, and you will never pay a cent in interest as long as you pay in full without fail.

I can see how it all appears to be a silly game if you never actually need credit, however there are material benefits (cash-back, rental car insurance, etc) of playing the game. In some cases the benefits you receive are nonsensical until you realize they are subsidized by irresponsible individuals paying huge sums of interest. There's a special kind of smug pleasure reserved for those who are financially responsible in America.

Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#175

Post by sk5t »

gdubs wrote: post #165
tmd wrote: post #145

A lot of old-school financial advice seems to focus on the importance of saving and avoidance of debt. It seems reasonable but I always wonder how applicable that is in the modern times with our record-low interest rates. Short look at the tables in [1] suggests that, for example, you could gen 5% after-tax real returns on government bonds in the 19 century. Today, that would be unthinkable. [1] http://efinance.org.c…

Low interest rates make saving and debt avoidance even more important, since you can't rely as heavily on the market to grow your savings.

On the contrary, near-zero interest rates recommend more debt and more risky investments, because (a) debt is cheap, and (b) inflation (stagflation perhaps) will nibble away your savings if you try to ignore the equity markets.

Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#176

Post by rorykoehler »

tomp wrote: post #163
rorykoehler wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many. To name a few: synthetic CDOs (the 2008 mortgage crisis), insider trading (Martha Stewart), rate rigging (LIBOR scandal), Ponzi schemes (Madoff) and straight up cooking the books (Enron). I hope that's enough to refresh your memory? It's irrelevant to my original point though as capitalism is by definition hoping to get something from doing nothing (or making money work as the propagandists like to dr…

Apart from Enron, the rest have little to do with capitalism but mostly to do with markets (or, more precisely, our fucked-up financial institutions and deficient financial regulations). > It's irrelevant to my original point though as capitalism is by definition hoping to get something from doing nothing You have to be really stupid to think that, and deny all the benefits to our society that capitalism enables. Or,…

>You have to be really stupid to think that, and deny all the benefits to our society that capitalism enables.

I never did that. I'm well aware of the benefits capitalism has brought society, just as I am aware of the damage it has also caused. I can guarantee you the majority of capital pumped into businesses does not come from the people who will do the work.

Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#177

Post by 77pt77 »

WavingThe44 wrote: post #164
77pt77 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 5. Never put "Standard Oil" trades in writing This is good advice?

The list (and book) was written by a guy who suffered from his financial dealings with Standard Oil and he is essentially explaining how they were able to get him over the barrel. It is a very cynical list.

That makes a lot of sense.

Thank you.

Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#178

Post by yason »

purplelobster wrote: post #141
dalke wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Sweden, people have a debit card or use a debit app. Most people here easily get through life without a credit card. While I don't think it's true that "most westerners can't imagine not having a credit card", I don't have a sense of how much other Western countries use credit cards as compared to debit-based systems. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5380718.stm from 2006 says that UK has the most credit c…

Funny thing is, as a European I never saw the point in credit cards. So when I lived in the US I didn't get one for a few years. Finally my girlfriend pushed me to get one for the free cash back, but the application was denied since I had no credit history (yet a high-paying job and $100k in the bank...). Just weird. You have to be in debt to show that you're responsible enough to handle debt.

I've never had credit card debt (I just pay back once in a while, or every few hundred euros, to keep the balance out of red) but I've found good way to categorise my spending using credit cards. For example, I use one of my cards for personal expenses whereas we use a joint debit card account from the same bank for household expenses only. Then we have another joint credit card that we use on holidays etc. for shared expenses that aren't strictly household expenses or personal expenses... Very convenient. Also convenient is that instead of keeping lots of money on my day-to-day debit card account I'll just top up the c/c balance once in a while. The opposite would be to move money to my debit card account beforehand, and let it sit there even if I'm not sure I'll spend it in a week or three weeks.

Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#179

Post by tomp »

rorykoehler wrote: post #176
tomp wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from Enron, the rest have little to do with capitalism but mostly to do with markets (or, more precisely, our fucked-up financial institutions and deficient financial regulations). > It's irrelevant to my original point though as capitalism is by definition hoping to get something from doing nothing You have to be really stupid to think that, and deny all the benefits to our society that capitalism enables. Or,…

>You have to be really stupid to think that, and deny all the benefits to our society that capitalism enables. I never did that. I'm well aware of the benefits capitalism has brought society, just as I am aware of the damage it has also caused. I can guarantee you the majority of capital pumped into businesses does not come from the people who will do the work.

> I can guarantee you the majority of capital pumped into businesses does not come from the people who will do the work.

Well, it comes from the people that invest money (investors), others invest work/time, and they all get the benefits.

Funny enough, a large chunk of invested capital these days (both in equities/index funds, as well as hedge funds and PE/VC) comes from... drumrol: workers (or, more precisely, their pension funds)! In this case, I actually totally agree that it's stupid and unrealistic to expect a risk-free, forever-growing, >4% compound return by doing what everyone else is doing, but unfortunately, the whole pension system is flawed this way, there's not much we can do about it (individually).

Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)

#180

Post by gdubs »

sk5t wrote: post #175
gdubs wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low interest rates make saving and debt avoidance even more important, since you can't rely as heavily on the market to grow your savings.

On the contrary, near-zero interest rates recommend more debt and more risky investments, because (a) debt is cheap, and (b) inflation (stagflation perhaps) will nibble away your savings if you try to ignore the equity markets.

Ah, I can see how it read that way but I wasn't implying that one shouldn't _invest_ their savings.
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