site banner
bolido_sentimental  1yr ago (text post)   3347 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 25, 2022

Merry Christmas, everyone!

4
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Day trading is a bad idea. The overwhelming majority of investors lose money.

How you invest the money depends on when you will need it. If you don't need the money in the next ten years or more, you a better off putting it in an index fund. Vanguard does the ones with the lowest fees.

Index funds can also be 'income' rather than 'accumulation'. This means that dividends are paid out as cash target than being reinvested in the shares that make up the fund. If you intend to spend the income from your savings (rather than just getting the pot) then this might be a better idea.

Index funds can also be 'income' rather than 'accumulation'.

How does this work if the investment is losing money? Are you then expected to put up more money to compensate for the loss?

The price of the shares can go up or down, which would bring the value of the fund up or down. But every quarter the dividend payments from the shares would be paid out to the fund holders. This is usually around 2% of the value of the fund, but obviously can be lower in a poor business environment.

An accumulation fund would just take these dividends and buy more shares with them.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats