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

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

#221

Post by DavidPeiffer »

glern3692 wrote: post #143
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".

I’m a little confused why that is relevant. Is there any payment in life that isn’t taxed? When you interview for a job, and the salary is 100k, should they advertise it as 70k?

I think it will always make sense to show gross salary. Various things can affect tax rate, such as 401k and HSA pre-tax withholdings, and the income of your spouse.

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

#222

Post by rapnie »

zomglings wrote: post #70
Jommi wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a mathetmatician how can you ever justify participating in a lottery where there is a possibility of no-winners or shared winners. It just destroys any hope of any positive EV.

The point is that my personal happiness level does not only depend on positive expected gain in capital. I gain happiness also from the miniscule hope of the life-altering outcome of winning the lottery. That gain in happiness is occasionally worth the price of a lottery ticket.

Yes, I know the feeling from the times I bought a ticket myself, against rationality.

I'm not an expert, but seems to me this feeling is also the main driver leading to gambling addiction, which ultimately leads to addicts saying things like "It's not about the money, but the game itself", after having lost a ton of money.

Wonder if Yotta can lead to the same addiction, and if so if it is then solely applied for positive objectives (i.e. saving money), or lowers the barrier to entry for other gambling schemes that are less beneficial.

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

#224

Post by the_dripper »

zomglings wrote: post #61

This is an awesome idea, and I intend to try it out. I am a mathematician, and at the same time I can't resist the temptation to purchase the occasional lottery ticket. What most people miss about the lottery is that there can be utility to variance - the opposite of ennui. Have you guys read The Lottery in Babylon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery_in_Babylon

Is it worth buying his "Ficciones" compilation ? I have heard about the Story "Funes the Memorious", which is also included, and have been Interested in reading it since. Altough I still have 2 or 3 more books to read.

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

#225

Post by zbruhnke »

Hey guys please don’t take this the wrong way but as a consumer when I saw the behavioral psychology headline in this post I got really excited.

Suffice it to say I was sufficiently disappointed to find out it was a prize linked savings account ... these have been run in the US for years, one of the largest in the US right now Is run by wal mart.

I LOVE nudge and I love behavioral psychology but this is not that.

Check out what we’re building at HMBradley if you want to see a real nod to creating habits.

I was hoping to see a new and interesting take here so I’m kind of curious why you settled on this angle?

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

#226

Post by kvee »

I signed up and deposited $25 to test it out, with a recurring monthly $25 deposit.

Seeing that it's effectively a 3% interest rate, I'm now trying to deposit a much larger amount.

However, it's infuriating to do so, because the only way I can figure out how to deposit more money is in $25 increments.

I also can't figure out how to do a single deposit instead of a recurring deposit.

Is there no way to enter the specific amount of money I want to deposit?

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

#227

Post by slymon99 »

kvee wrote: post #226

I signed up and deposited $25 to test it out, with a recurring monthly $25 deposit. Seeing that it's effectively a 3% interest rate, I'm now trying to deposit a much larger amount. However, it's infuriating to do so, because the only way I can figure out how to deposit more money is in $25 increments. I also can't figure out how to do a single deposit instead of a recurring deposit. Is there no way to enter the speci…

On android at least, you can click to edit the number and manually type in your larger amount

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

#228

Post by [deleted] »

Jommi wrote: post #58
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

Did some quick excel sketching here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17t00LzdgRcC8dtVKnTwK... Odds from here: https://www.withyotta.com/official-rules I might be completely wrong but looks like your estimate yield is heavily dependent of amount of other people saving as well. I bet the real model gets pretty damn interesting. Would love to get a closer look for sure. If you wanted to be a bit more "evil genius…

[deleted]

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

#229

Post by kvee »

slymon99 wrote: post #227
kvee wrote: post #226

I signed up and deposited $25 to test it out, with a recurring monthly $25 deposit. Seeing that it's effectively a 3% interest rate, I'm now trying to deposit a much larger amount. However, it's infuriating to do so, because the only way I can figure out how to deposit more money is in $25 increments. I also can't figure out how to do a single deposit instead of a recurring deposit. Is there no way to enter the speci…

On android at least, you can click to edit the number and manually type in your larger amount

Thanks. It looks like you can on iOS too, though I would probably never figured that out myself.

Turns out there's a $8000 deposit limit. Not sure if that is daily or what.

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

#230

Post by schoen »

schoen wrote: post #182
mD5pPxMcS6fVWKE wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But people routinely buy insurance, and it's considered a right and moral thing to do. Though the math is exactly the same as with the lottery. Statistically, odds are unfavorable. But it buys peace of mind, so people pay.

The insurance is given a polarity and connection to the rest of your luck in such a way that it smooths out your risks. On the other hand, playing the lottery makes your good luck spikier. (Though there are more specific ways to say it, we could say that insurance is meant to make your life less impacted by chance -- more predictable -- while insurance is meant to make it more impacted by chance -- more unpredictable…

(whoops, I mean "while the lottery is meant to make it more impacted by chance")
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