Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Homeless Lose a Longtime Last Resort: Living in a Car

online.wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–82 of 82 posts

Re: Homeless Lose a Longtime Last Resort: Living in a Car

#81

Post by muzz »

sologoub wrote: post #9

It's very unfortunate, but the main character also an interesting study in skill set relevance and retirement planning (or lack thereof). He's a software engineer in SV... By all the common stereotypes, he should be in the winner circle and living the life. Agism is definitely an issue in tech, but it's likely that he is not up to date with some of the more modern languages or techniques, resulting in lack of employm…

> Agism is definitely an issue in tech, but it's likely that he is not up to date with some of the more modern languages or techniques

Why do you suspect that he is likely not up date? The first part of your sentence mentions ageism, although the second part sounds a lot like it.

Re: Homeless Lose a Longtime Last Resort: Living in a Car

#82

Post by Natsu »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #59
Natsu wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about links, but the basics are simple enough: track what you spend and save some % of what you make. Avoid debt for things that lose value (e.g. cars). Debt for things like houses that retain value can make sense, though. Always keep money in reserve. Pay off the high-interest debt (e.g. 30% APR credit cards) first. If you do buy any complex investments, keep in mind what conditions cause gain or loss.…

> Avoid debt for things that lose value (e.g. cars). This is actually not terribly good advice. Debt does not become especially bad depending on whether what you used it for is gaining or losing value. This rule is really a proxy for, "Don't buy an expensive car, boat, or plane, relative to what you are making." Now that is a good rule. There's no reason to hide it behind a false rule. Financing a purchase that you c…

If you fall on hard times, you can sell things. If you have to sell something like a car that lost value, it won't be as good as being able to sell something like a house that holds value.
Post reply on HN