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There's an awful lot of negativity here, but as someone who's 55 and has earned a good wage since I was 17, I really wish I had taken investing more seriously f

• nxor 1y ago
  Retirement is not mentioned in the post
  • _vqpz 1y ago
    It is one of the most common reasons people invest though so it's entirely relevant
    • koakuma-chan 1y ago
      I don't think you need a reason to invest. You should be making more money than you spend, so you might as well put the surplus to work.
      • _vqpz 1y ago
        Okay
        • koakuma-chan 1y ago
          I said that because I find it puzzling when asked the reason why I invest. They're like, are you saving for a house? No, I'm saving in general, and then I buy whatever I want.
          • _vqpz 1y ago
            Nobody here asked you anything
            • koakuma-chan 1y ago
              I put my thoughts out here for others to see and comment if they wish.
      • bluGill 1y ago
        Be careful here. You should have some "rainy day" savings. You should have some retirement plans. You can save for big items like a vacation. However you don't know how long you will live. Don't be a miser who spends nothing. If you have surplus after the above you should either spend it or donate to charity.
• sureglymop 1y ago
  You say that now but as a young person with a decent income and no family or many responsibilities it's hard to even know where to start. And I'm not even talking about what to invest in, I'm already confused at which platform/bank/whatever to do it through. The "meta", if you will. I just want to invest the 70% of my salary I don't need every month and not think about it for 40 years but how? Maybe an important detail, I'm from Switzerland, perhaps it's easier in the US with things like Vanguard.
  • whoooboyy 1y ago
    Read "The Four Pillars of Investing". Basically index funds, diverse whole markets, leave it alone and watch it grow. I did this at 22, and that seed money has grown a ton.
  • koakuma-chan 1y ago
    Your bank probably has an investment platform, you can just use it, it doesn't matter. My portfolio is 70% XEQT 30% CASH.TO—don't bother with anything else.
    • onli 1y ago
      Oh, that can be bad advice. It does matter a lot if the bank asks for high fees, which would be the case with all(?) German banks, and I'd be surprised if that's different in Switzerland.
      • koakuma-chan 1y ago
        My bank also charges a trade fee which I think is bullshit, but at least it's a major bank. It's like $10 so doesn't matter all that much, not sure how much it would be for Switzerland, but you could just buy the stocks in larger batches if trades are expensive.
        • onli 1y ago
          With the amount people usually trade $10 is a huge percentage. When you factor that in with the missed compound interest of that money you usually lose tens of thousands of dollars until retirement, likely more. There is no need for a big bank here, in Europe. If one of those regulated companies goes bankrupt the etf is still yours and transferable to a different institution. War in Europe is the remaining risk factor, but if that happens it won't matter anyway.
• ashleyn 1y ago
  Sometimes I feel like I started investing late at 26. Already, six years into the best decade for compounding in your life. But such was the power of compounding that I had reached a substantial net worth by age 35. So even just nine years can make such a tremendous difference even into later ages. It's never too late to sock money away.
  • ffsm8 1y ago
    It remains to be seen what's going to happen over the next few decades. It's entirely possible that it'll all get wiped out (the substantial gains, not all value). While the market was a very good bet for the last 50yrs, its not a guarantee. Especially in the current climate you should be fully aware that it's significantly more risky to start investing today vs 10 yrs ago. (Riskier doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad idea. It should just be a conscious decision under the acknowledgement that the upward trajectory is not certain. Especially in current political climate - and that "hodl"-ing doesn't necessarily mean you'll eventually get back what you invested, if a downturn manifests)
    • skeeter2020 1y ago
      >> Especially in the current climate you should be fully aware that it's significantly more risky to start investing today vs 10 yrs ago. First, I don't think this absolute statement is true; I think you need to look at it from the alternatives perspective. If not investing then what? bury gold? spend it all? Second, are we at a much riskier time than past history, both short & long term? I made significant contributions in 2014, saw 30%+ wiped out within 6 months and seen it all come back and more with the power of long timeframes. Third, investment can take a lot of forms, not just today's hot tech stocks. I won't get into it beyond the standard think long term and avoid leverage, which seems to be completely inline with start early; start now.
    • ashleyn 1y ago
      Your money has to go somewhere or it will rot to inflation. If you're ultrabearish on stocks, snap up bonds. If you're bearish on stocks and bonds alike, snap up gold. Either way, bare minimum of what to do with your money long term is to preserve its value across inflation. But really I would recommend nonetheless staying the course with investment advice on a stocks/bonds balance relative to your age. Increasingly, the economy distributes not through labour but through capital and holding stocks is essential even with their inherent risks. Even in light of that CNN article about meme stock and crypto investors having the last laugh over the past decade, indices of ordinary large-cap stocks bring you exposure to these things.
• elictronic 1y ago
  I started my daughter investing with a custodial account at 13. She put a few hundred dollars of her money in and I convinced her by matching her investment and told her if the amount ever went below the original investment I would backstop any loss. Investing is all about that long term gain and slow growth. Having 10 years of experience after finishing college will do so much more than Robinhood for refrigerators.
  • linsomniac 1y ago
    I've made a similar deal with my kids: Around 7 years ago I set up a "kid retirement" plan for them, where they couldn't touch the money until they were 18, but any money they put in I would match, and I'd also give them 10% APY with monthly compounding. My daughter aged out of it a couple years ago, she got something in the $100 range. Her brother still has a 18 months left, and I just recently rolled his over into the custodial account, he's got over a grand in there currently. My daughter I just recently set up a ROTH for her and told her I'd match anything she puts into it, and stressed she should put something into it now from her savings, and then put some of her paycheck into it, anything is better than nothing. So far she's declined the free money. I'm going to set one up for my son, once he's at the point of having an income to justify it. She's very smart, but in some ways she's very stupid.
    • bluGill 1y ago
      That young you should be investing in a 527 education account not a ROTH retirement account. Education is a much better ROI when you are young than anything else. As you get older the value of education decreases. In generally the cross over is sometime in your early/mid 20s (Could be as young as 16 if you don't do well in school, or as old as 35 for things like medical doctor) If you don't live in the US you will have different options, but the idea still applies
      • EvanAnderson 1y ago
        The spiraling price of college in the US today has been questioning the assumption that education has a better ROI.
• bluGill 1y ago
  Investing for retirement at 17 is a bad idea! At 17 you should still be thinking about investing in education - the right education investment today will pay back far more than any other monitory investment. There are of course bad education investments, and some are not willing to study even more (or not able to pass a good education course), in that case retirement might be the best investment you can make, but it should not be your first choice. A different reply said they waited until 26 to start - that is probably about the right time to start saving for retirement. Maybe a little late, but close enough. Before about that age you are still getting started and so you have little spare cash. You need to pay off school loans (if you took any). You need to save for down payment on a house, and buy a lot of those will last a lifetime household items everyone needs. You should be thinking about marriage and saving for it (even if you don't get legally married most people will live with someone else and should be planning on how to make that life work). Most important: you don't know how long you will live. Save for the future, but not everything - you have no guarantee you will live to tomorrow - if you are under 60 odds are strongly in favor of it, but people die young all the time. You should have a little play money as well in your budget. Go climb Mt Fuji while your body is young and healthy enough to do so (I picked a random activity here, you should decide what you care about, not rush to Japan)
  • skybrian 1y ago
    It seems like learning about personal finance is itself educational, and there are a lot of jobs where you deal with money. So this isn't entirely separate from investing in education, depending on which kind of education you mean.
  • sebastiennight 1y ago
    As with many times when we use the word "should" (and you've used it a lot), the perspective you're sharing is deeply influenced by your own cultural background and might not apply to many people reading. A few examples: school loans, considering a house purchase to be a sound investment, purchasing once-in-a-lifetime household items, saving for a wedding (from the age of 17!?) or marriage (not sure what you even mean by that if you don't mean the wedding itself?).
• roberdam 1y ago
  Thanks for your encouragement!. I started investing in my mid-30s, and compound interest really works wonders after a while. I hope my kids do better than me, though.
• ivape 1y ago
  Actively invested retirement funds throughout 30+ years can also catch more concentrated moves if you are educated on a sector. For example, choosing the mag7 in the early 2010s vs just the SPY. Following the market could also let you pull out during serious world events. There is definitely money left on the table when you ignore the market, even in a retirement fund.
• intrasight 1y ago
  Same. But is same for most people. Average American retirement savings is like $200k. I've done better that that but not by orders of magnitude. About six years ago I was hired to make an investment simulator. I wish someone had show the results to me when I was a teen. I did show it to my daughter at the time (she was in college), and used it to explain the power of compounding interest. I found they still an old preview online (sorry not https) http://simulators.gibsoncapital.com/new-preview-for-total-simulator/ http://simulators.gibsoncapital.com/new-preview-for-total-si...
• nonethewiser 1y ago
  That's why you shouldn't leave it up to a kid with very little money who quite literally cannot understand the long term impacts of their decisions to invest or not. Instead, put aside something for them. You can even start well before they are 17.
  • linsomniac 1y ago
    Naw, dawg, Imma try and try to encourage them to get started early and put a little bit away, because it's good for them. I'm acutely afraid of a scenario where they have bad habits and anything I leave them they flush down the toilet because of those bad habits. I'm hoping to leave them plenty, but they need to be in a position to not waste that for it to be worth anything.
    • nonethewiser 1y ago
      Yeah you can do that. Doesn't prevent you from setting something aside for them and giving it to them if and when there is a good time.
      • linsomniac 1y ago
        With the way housing prices are, it doesn't seem like I have an option NOT to. ;-/
• dingaling 1y ago
  > and let him pick a couple stocks to put some money into And yet we complain that corps today are too focused on their market valuation over everything else; customer experience, longevity, worker conditions, R&D are all being neglected in order to make the needle go up. 'Investing' in stocks in order to flip them when the price goes up is feeding this insanity. Teaching kids that this is perfectly rational seems selfish and short-sighted. Our children should be encouraged to invest into something like bonds which actually help promote economic growth.
  • kelvinjps10 1y ago
    Bonds returns don't match inflation so long term you're loosing money to inflation, it might be better to spend it
  • triceratops 1y ago
    Investing in stocks and bonds both helps promote economic growth. Corps have always been focused on their market valuation. It's up to society, and the laws it passes, to change their incentives.
  • sokoloff 1y ago
    Teaching children to invest in bonds is spectacularly bad asset allocation. Investing in stocks or bonds both help promote economic growth. For me, the notion of teaching kids to invest in some company they know (Disney, McDonalds, Coke, Apple, or whatever) and telling them that they are buying a tiny, tiny share of the company is an important mental model to help shape in them.
  • a96 1y ago
    Stock picking and speculation especially with a single company is indeed a spectacularly bad strategy, but it can be a motivating start. A well diversified fund would be the better alternative if you need to aim at a single thing. But it's hard to say what's the better first step if you're trying to teach personal finance management.
• toomuchtodo 1y ago
  Please share https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started with your son.
  • roberdam 1y ago
    great resource, thanks for sharing!
• abc3 1y ago
  > There's an awful lot of negativity here, but as someone who's 55 and has earned a good wage since I was 17, I really wish I had taken investing more seriously from the very beginning. While I knew of compound interest, I really didn't understand it until like a decade ago. If I'd started putting 5% of my money into a target retirement plan from 17, I'd be retired now. As it is I'm not doing badly, but I really wish I'd started earlier. I'm 55, too. If I'd started studying HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, and Rust at 17, I'd be retired now. Waitaminnit.... Sarcasm aside, target retirement plans wouldn't come along for decades. Investing was very, very different when we were 17. And many of the people who were 55 when we were 17 had just lost a terrifying amount of their life's savings in a stock market crash that made Taleb rich because he'd bet against the market. It seems extraordinarily unlikely that a 17-year-old today should do exactly what we wish we could have done when we were 17. About the best they can do is follow advice that's now centuries old: make friends, learn skills, live below their means, and, maybe, earn credentials.
• dostick 1y ago
  And be the richest man in the cemetery?