Hacker News Reader

Comment by takno | Hacker News Reader

I invested my spare money in a computer, and it's definitely paid back more than the S&P 500 in salary. Using up limited funds in childhood on financial investments is just madness

View on HN

I don't think anyone is suggesting to not educate yourself and instead invest, but the point is what even a small amount of money can do over a long time.

...or how little it can do.

I think the point is that there are some non-stock investments that also pay off. Looking at something like this can feel very either/or: "If only I didn't do X, I could have invested the money."

Nice comparison! I feel the same about my education, pays back about my total investment every couple of months. Of course in my country (Netherlands) I pay back a lot more in taxes.

Just out of curiosity, how much do you pay in taxes? If you're a sillicon valley engineer on the higher end, you end up paying 30-40% federal + 10% state and local taxes.

This is the most recent table: Belastingschijf Wage(per year) Loonbelasting

schijf 1 € 0 t/m € 19.922: 36,55%

schijf 2 € 19.923 t/m € 33.715: 40,15%

schijf 3 € 33.716 t/m € 66.421: 40,15%

schijf 4 € 66.422 or more: 52,00%

That's comparable to what we pay here in California, minus all of the nice social programs and universal healthcare.

Healthcare (obligatory but subsidized for lower incomes) will cost you an additional 95 euro/month (with an "own risk" of about 375 euros). I always thought the entire US paid a lot less taxes to be honest...

Thankfully as a valley engineer your healthcare is mostly paid for by your company.

The maximum federal tax rate is 40%, with California's rate being something like 10%. Most people don't pay the high end. Rich people generally have tax accountants and attorneys that are able to navigate the overly complex US tax system to find every loop hole. The majority of taxes are paid for by the upper middle class.

I really do not think the creator of this site is suggesting that children invest in the stock market. After all, how exactly does a 1 day old child do so? Instead, I think this is just an interesting tool demonstrating a "what if?" scenario.

That said, investing a dollar a day on behalf of your child and tracking the progress of the account with them over time would be a cool way to teach them about money. You could even give them the option of instead of receiving some portion of an allowance, invest that as additional money into the account. There's all sorts of possibilities.

Instead of $1/day, do $365/year to limit transaction fees.

You could even offer to let them withdraw the dividend each month as an allowance or let it reinvest.

Yes, practically speaking that'd make more sense, but you could still frame it as a dollar a day for a child.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com