Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save • Hacker News Board

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#21

Post by atlasunshrugged » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:34 PM UTC

This reminds me a bit of Long Game which I thought was super cool. Best of luck!

https://www.longgame.co/

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#22

Post by onnnon » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:34 PM UTC

The grand prize will be paid as a one-time, lump sum payment of $5,800,000. This is the current present cash value of a $10,000,00, 40 year annuity. The odds of winning this amount are 1 in 3,277,899,625.

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#23

Post by unwoundmouse » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:34 PM UTC

CJefferson wrote: post #12

The grand prize of $10,000,000 will be paid out as... $5,800,000? I don't understand how you justify saying (as far as I can tell) "The grand prize is $10,000,000. We reckon you could invest $5,800,000 and make $10,000,000 in 40 years, so we will give you $5,800,000 instead".

damn this is true. hella shady marketing

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#24

Post by adammoelis » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:35 PM UTC

CJefferson wrote: post #12

The grand prize of $10,000,000 will be paid out as... $5,800,000? I don't understand how you justify saying (as far as I can tell) "The grand prize is $10,000,000. We reckon you could invest $5,800,000 and make $10,000,000 in 40 years, so we will give you $5,800,000 instead".

A fair point for sure. The rationale is the $10 million headline is the annuity value of the jackpot, and it's standard practice for sweepstakes or the PowerBall/MegaMillions contests to use the annuity value for promotion in marketing materials and on the website.

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#25

Post by unwoundmouse » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:36 PM UTC

adammoelis wrote: post #24

CJefferson wrote: post #12

The grand prize of $10,000,000 will be paid out as... $5,800,000? I don't understand how you justify saying (as far as I can tell) "The grand prize is $10,000,000. We reckon you could invest $5,800,000 and make $10,000,000 in 40 years, so we will give you $5,800,000 instead".

A fair point for sure. The rationale is the $10 million headline is the annuity value of the jackpot, and it's standard practice for sweepstakes or the PowerBall/MegaMillions contests to use the annuity value for promotion in marketing materials and on the website.

So if I buy into a 100m dollar powerball, I'm actually getting the net present value of 100m in 40 years? I'm amazed this is standard practice

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#26

Post by adammoelis » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:37 PM UTC

pinfisher wrote: post #19

"Win up to $10 million by saving in an FDIC insured account." I see that . Sounds scammy and gimmicky. Close page.

We have had this issue for sure, and it's a great point. Any suggestions to help us make it sound less scammy but that also communicates something similar?

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#27

Post by dyeje » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:39 PM UTC

I'm surprised the play here is to make your own bank rather than integrate existing banks. I've never worked in finance though, maybe integrating with banks is a PITA.

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#28

Post by adammoelis » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:40 PM UTC

tych0 wrote: post #18

adammoelis wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Right now, the EV from prizes is actually higher than that. We are subsidizing to provide an even better value for early users. But in the long run, that's exactly right. The base rate plus prizes will be, on average, what you would earn in a vanilla but high yielding HYSA

And can/will you disclose the difference? :D

We can and may do this sometime soon. The official rules has the prizes and odds laid out, so you could back into it with some math.

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#29

Post by adammoelis » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:41 PM UTC

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #21

This reminds me a bit of Long Game which I thought was super cool. Best of luck! https://www.longgame.co/

Thanks! Yes Long Game is similar, but we are trying to take a much simpler and more social product approach

Re: Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save

#30

Post by dharness » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 2:42 PM UTC

adammoelis wrote: post #24

CJefferson wrote: post #12

The grand prize of $10,000,000 will be paid out as... $5,800,000? I don't understand how you justify saying (as far as I can tell) "The grand prize is $10,000,000. We reckon you could invest $5,800,000 and make $10,000,000 in 40 years, so we will give you $5,800,000 instead".

A fair point for sure. The rationale is the $10 million headline is the annuity value of the jackpot, and it's standard practice for sweepstakes or the PowerBall/MegaMillions contests to use the annuity value for promotion in marketing materials and on the website.

There's that psychology "helping" us