Official Finance/Economics Thread • Page 3

FEAR OF A CORPORATE PLANET 2.0

I just found out that the people who make your Mar's bars also own Dolmio and Uncle Bens.

I've been saying for years that one day in the future that one vastly powerful cabal will merge with Government and the military and run the entire world!! Take Uni Lever for instance. That English/ Dutch company own over 400 brands including Dove, Hellmans, Flora, Magnum, Surf and eats up other companies as well. Did you know they also own Ben and Jerrys ice-cream? Which kind of goes against their happy go lucky family branded image.

You should also note that nearly all the words massively commercial music is owned it in it's entirely by something like 6 vast companies. . .

Control the stimulation and you control the population

IS THIS something to fear or a blessing in disguise??? The only real question is will the world end up like some kind of Utopian Star trek like future, or some dark cyber punk hell like Syndicate???

 

Anyone have a go-to starting a personal budget type page or anything? Girlfriend and I are moving in together at the end of the month and plan to start being a lot more conscious of our money for our future/possible purchase of propery

 

Mint

 

I made my own using a google docs spreadsheet. If you look at examples online and just customise your own as you go along, it's not too bad.

I have a couple of tabs:
1. House Savings Tracker - I have budgeted what i want to save per month and monitor to see if i fall below, meet it, or exceed it. It squares back to a savings account.
2. Savings Tracker - Essentially just a combination of all my investments to see my total networth. Although, its not really a savers market at the moment which sucks.
3. Monthly Spend/Budget - I have not done much on this yet. I have took down my monthly consistent costs and check to see if anything can be cancelled that I didn't use. I then checked bank statement for prior year for any yearly payments. I have probably saved about 3 or 4 hundred pounds this year.

Mine is pretty basic, but slowly getting there. Interested what everyone else has on theirs.

I have tab for inventory. I have not done this but apparently a good idea to keep a record of tech items and serials for insurance purposes!

 

Worth the read:
Short-Termism Is Harming the Economy

 

It has less to do with "short termism" and more to do with public investors' low tolerance for risk relative to their limited wealth. It's also ignoring the real issue here, which is income inequality. The wealthy can afford longer term investments in private companies/start ups and use the public markets to cash out. At this point, that's all public markets are good for, while the small investor just indexes in their K's.

Good example - WeWork & Uber aren't public because they don't make any money. Public investors won't invest in that because they can't afford the risk of bankruptcy. But rich VCs can.

 

I think Matt Levine's take on this article and subject matter is interesting: CEOs Still Don’t Like Short-Termism

"But in general it always seems to me that the 'short-termism vs. long-termism' debate is really about something else, especially when the critics of short-termism are CEOs of public companies. Then it sure seems like their real complaint is that pesky shareholders keep trying to hold them accountable for creating value. Just chill out and leave us alone, the managers say, and everything will eventually work out fine for you and for us. That message is a lot more appealing and believable when it comes from Warren Buffett, but not every CEO is Warren Buffett, and it makes sense that shareholders would want to see some results before trusting their CEOs forever."

 

Matt Levine is the man

 

If anyone has a new years resolution to get their finances on track or do a better job of saving more money throughout the year then I encourage you to check out Acorns. It has been a great way for me to set aside extra savings that get invested into the stock market without me even noticing the money being taken out of my bank account because the savings can be small but add up quickly.

Sign up using this link for an extra $5 added to your account after you make your first investment: https://acorns.com/invite/KYL74U

Full Disclaimer: I work for Acorns and if you sign up using my link and add funds to your account before Jan 12th then you can help me in a referral challenge in which I may get a bonus. Your help is appreciated! Invest at your own risk and discretion, returns are not guaranteed.

 

Much prefer to go the wealthsimple route no offence.

The fee structure at Acorns is kind of shady.


Those are quite high management fees for investing.

 

Fidelity is also now offering investment funds with $0 minimums and 0% expense ratios.

 

Ya, no offense at all. I won't give my take on why I think that is an extremely flawed way of looking at the $1 fee, but to each their own. As long as people are saving, that's all I care about.

 

Completely understand not wanting to comment on something related to work on a public forum. A lot of personal finance is behavioral and anything that gets people to save a bit more is probably a good thing.

 

John C. Bogle, Founder of Financial Giant Vanguard, Is Dead at 89

RIP

 

Alan B. Krueger, Economic Aide to Clinton and Obama, Dies at 58