kspaans

9 ms·

31.
by kspaans 9y ago
One way to do this is to modify property tax into a Land Value Tax that's only accessed against land values, rather than land + buildings. This means property owners aren't "punished" for improving their buildings or bui
32.
by kspaans 9y ago
It's the land underneath that appreciates, not the structure of the house on top of the land.
33.
by kspaans 9y ago
Don't forget to look North. The housing bubble in Canada never popped in the first place.
34.
by kspaans 9y ago
Yes, and as I said the S&P500 index excludes companies like Snapchat with the founder-has-most-votes trick. I suppose the real issue here is how much money goes into which indices, and which ones exclude companies like these.
35.
by kspaans 9y ago
It's a lot easier to fix though: make minimum ticket prices higher. At $20 or $100 each, there is more sticker-shock friction to prevent overspending on lottery tickets.
36.
by kspaans 9y ago
False! SNAP has been explicitly excluded from the S&P500 index for exactly this reason[0]. I'm not sure if "whole market" passive funds would include it or not. At the very least VTI has 0.03% of assets in SNAP[1]. Not mu
37.
by kspaans 9y ago
Vanguard is hardly a passive owner: https://about.vanguard.com/investment-stewardship/policies-a...
38.
by kspaans 9y ago
My first job out of university was for $70k in Waterloo, working at BlackBerry, back in 2012. I recently received an offer for $115k at a startup in Toronto (office in Libery Village).
39.
by kspaans 9y ago
Or if your land gets up-zoned and suddenly is worth 3x as much, and your property taxes go up accordingly (if you don't live in CA at least).
40.
BlackBerry on the rebound: Why John Chen's plans actually seem to be working(theglobeandmail.com)
1 points by kspaans 9y ago|0 comments
41.
by kspaans 9y ago
That's why there is a minimum contribution to the HSA before you're allowed to invest it. It's for healthy people who have saved up a big chunk and don't expect to need the money for 10 or more years, so they can park it
42.
by kspaans 9y ago
Is it a worse scam than savings accounts where you lose money to inflation? You don't have to invest 100% in stocks. If you want to see less volatility you could hold mostly bonds, less risk but less reward. You don't even have to
43.
by kspaans 9y ago
The article does make the unstated assumption that you're able to 1) rent for cheaper than the cost of a mortgage + extras, and more importantly 2) invest the difference. If your individual circumstances don't allow that and you&#
44.
by kspaans 9y ago
The Globe and Mail also has a great comparison of rent vs buy using numbers from Toronto (includes closing costs, taxes, maintenance, inflation, etc): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZR_vMTLfIk (buying comes out slightly a
45.
by kspaans 9y ago
Yes but... any other company could do that instead of paying dividends? What makes AMZN so special?
46.
by kspaans 9y ago
Can someone explain the economics of this? Presumably the landlords in the working class neighbourhood are already charging as much rent as the market will bare. When richer people moving in, are they outbidding locals? Are the landlords lo
47.
by kspaans 9y ago
Disagree: you are avoiding taking a gain (assuming the stock grants are below the market value of the stock) in order to avoid taxes (but you will still GAIN money, even after taxes), in exchange for risking that the stock will decline in v
48.
by kspaans 9y ago
Logged at my day job using toggl: around 50% at most (if you include reviewing others' code). Closer to 25%-30% if you're only talking about writing. Another solid 25% of my average day is taking breaks.
49.
by kspaans 9y ago
Easier said than done: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2010/01/26/the-trouble-with-l... You basically have to continuously time the bull-markets for the decade.
50.
Index Investing Doesn't Distort Anything [pdf](larrysiegel.org)
1 points by kspaans 9y ago|0 comments
51.
by kspaans 9y ago
My first job in 2012 at RIM in Waterloo: Junior Developer / RIM / $70k base (didn't stay long enough to get any bonuses)
52.
by kspaans 9y ago
And that's indeed what I do! ;)
53.
by kspaans 9y ago
Yes, I think the clarification needed was that you can reduce capital gains tax rates but not income tax rates.
54.
by kspaans 9y ago
Right, I was assuming sjg007 was talking about tax treatment of the capital gains if you hold onto the stock after the RSUs vest.
55.
by kspaans 9y ago
Long Term Capital Gains Tax treatment when you sell (20%) after at least one year vs regular Income Tax treatment if you sell right away.
56.
by kspaans 9y ago
Higher taxes generally reduce property prices. As the carrying costs get higher, only those who can make efficient use of property (or who really want to live there) can justify the payments. In other words, it reduces the profits of income
57.
by kspaans 9y ago
And most of those stock indexes recovered within 1-2 years. If you didn't panic sell your paper loses would have gone away pretty quickly. Not to mention almost no one's cost basis would be the peak price from 2007, most people wo
58.
by kspaans 9y ago
Dollar-cost-averaging and diversifying your portfolio are orthogonal to active/passive investing. (Though arguably DCA is a bit more on the passive side, as it avoids trying to time the market.)
59.
by kspaans 9y ago
If the money isn't going to be used for 30+ years it really, really doesn't matter if it gets invested today right before a downturn. And if it is going to be used in significantly less than 30 years it should be something other
60.
by kspaans 9y ago
If savings are put into banks or investments, is there even a significant difference between saving and spending (for the whole economy)?

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