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Must admit, reddit got me caring more about my finances. It seems not many people are taught about money properly. I certainly wasn’t and non of my friends whe
by tiew9Vii 7y ago
Must admit, reddit got me caring more about my finances.
It seems not many people are taught about money properly. I certainly wasn’t and non of my friends where.
I’ve always been good in that I never spent what I didn’t have and lived within my means. What savings I did have where in a zero interest current account though!
Following the finance Reddit’s at least put me in the right path. 6-12 months cash savings now in a high interest account, now have a pension plan, putting money in to ETF’s until I have enough in the ETF’s I’m willing to by some individual stocks which may not be as stable as the ETFs I have.
As someone who’s been a senior dev for 10+ years doing well but stuck in a rut I’m also finding the various cscareers Reddit’s useful about the job market. Seeing people’s salaries, negotiations, what jobs to look for, what companies to look for etc etc.
- mlrtime 7y agoDo you mind sharing the subreddits?
- whatsmyusername 7y ago/r/personalfinance ignore the subreddit and read the sidebar
- abrugsch 7y agoand sibling /r/UKPersonalFinance for UK specific advice (since finance products, terms and laws tend to be different in different countries) There are probably ones for most other countries too. At least Aus from what I saw yesterday
- randlet 7y ago/r/personalfinancecanada is the Canadian version.
- carstenhag 7y ago/r/Finanzen for Germany, Austria and Switzerland :)
- ptd 7y agor/fatfire
- swarnie_ 7y ago/r/wallstreetbets
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- toberej 7y agoJust lost all my savings, thanks.
- rashkov 7y agoI know we’re discussing reddit here, but let’s please keep the reddit-style quips off of HN
- seattle_spring 7y agoKnowing that sub, there's a really good chance that the person you responded to was not joking.
- WA 7y agoDon’t know who downvoted you, but as someone who joined WSB two months ago, it is mind blowing. Yes, these are bets. You are likely to blow it all. But imho it gives perspective to the topic of personal finance. Even if it’s just to understand one’s own limits. Valuable sub.
- toberej 7y agor/fire - financial independence, retire early. r/fatfire - same thing as above but for people looking to have more than "just enough" to retire (multimillion, mostly full of high earners like SWE's, agents or successful entrepreneurs where this goal is somewhat realistic). r/personalfinance & r/ukpersonalfinance - well rounded finance forum. r/frugal - okayish for if you are in a really tough spot. If you are doing ok I generally don't recommend them because ultimately you are trading your time/health using most of the hacks from here.
- frosted-flakes 7y agoThere are other country-specific personal finance forums on Reddit too, such as r/PersonalFinanceCanada.
- sf_rob 7y agor/financialindependence is the bigger FIRE subreddit
- thisisnico 7y agor/personalfinancecanada for Canadians, lots of great information here specific to Canada.
- heywot 7y agoI'm partial to /r/financialindepedence
- basch 7y agonot a subreddit but I cross-reference bogleheads wiki and /r/personalfinance wiki anytime I want to look for consensus or diverging opinion. Bogleheads still has a slight edge on /r/personalfinance for its specific topics. https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page
- Jesus_piece 7y agoBetween Reddit and bogleheads, that is all the financial wisdom you need. Bogleheads has deeply shaped my investment approach and it should be the same for 95%+ of other people as well.
- P_I_Staker 7y ago> What savings I did have where in a zero interest current account though! That's not great, but overall, I'm not making very much money from my "high-interest savings account". Maybe a grand or two over decades, but even that's generous. I don't know if it's worthy of an exclamation mark. The biggest losses are prevented by not overspending and some of the other things you mentioned.
- cheese4242 7y agoVery true. Reminds me of this quote I had saved (I don't recall the source) "Personal-finance gurus obsess over buying coffee not because it is unsustainable, Vanderkam suggests, but because being a personal-finance guru is. “The strongest finance advice can be summed up in a couple sentences,” she explains. Maximize your income. Limit your big monthly expenses. But if your job depends on doling out financial wisdom, Vanderkam notes, “you have all this real estate you have to fill on your blog, your podcast, and your books. That’s where all this little stuff winds up coming in, but in the larger scheme, it’s kind of irrelevant.”
- war1025 7y agoThis is such a true sentiment and is actually true for a lot of advice. I think it's why a lot of people end up switching to giving talks or some other repeatable income stream. Once you've written a blog post, that info is out there. But if you can make it an "event", you can give the same advice over and over again.
- magduf 7y ago>my "high-interest savings account". Maybe a grand or two over decades Huh? Either you have very little savings for someone on this site, or your "high-interest" account isn't high-interest. Ally Bank currently has 1.6% interest on their savings account, so you'd make $1000 in interest in 1 year with a balance of about $62k. If your savings account doesn't have at least 1.5% interest, then why do you have it? There's lots of places with rates of 1.5-2%.
- 7y ago
- basch 7y ago>putting money in to ETF’s until I have enough in the ETF’s I’m willing to by some individual stocks which may not be as stable as the ETFs I have. Are those retirement accounts or taxable brokerage. Because for many people, maxing out their IRA, 401K, and HSA is like 35K a year alone, and putting money into taxable brokerage should take a backseat unless 1) you like the gambling for its entertainment factor 2) you choose to keep your short term savings / emergency cash in the market (*I much prefer a combination of 6 months savings invested a little riskier than it should be + a large line of credit. Then you have the choice of selling stock or borrowing at 10% APR, for something you can hopefully pay off very very soon. A 15K LOC at a credit union is a godsend.) But other than my asterisk, taxable investments are usually an inefficient use of funds. 401K match and HSA are top priorities.
- JibJabDab 7y agoThe downside is that putting money into those makes it harder to withdraw for when you do need those funds. Savings accounts makes it much easier to pull available funds. Other than that, you're right.
- basch 7y agoThats what the line of credit is for. When you need immediate money, dont want to cash out stock, can pay it back in a month, or to give you a month to park it somewhere with a lower interest rate. You can spend out of a brokerage account as if its a savings account. Sell your stocks, and youll have cash.
- thekyle 7y agoAnother thing is that 401k and IRAs might not be great for someone hoping to retire early because of the early withdrawal penalties.
- magduf 7y agoMaybe I'm missing something, but HSAs seem to me to usually only be available if you have a high-deductible health insurance policy. That can be OK if you're 25 and very healthy, but for many other people is a high risk.