site banner
birb_cromble  9hr ago (text post)   130 thread views

Weekly Finance Thread - 2026-06-13

A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.

Ground Rules

  • Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
  • Keep culture war in the culture war thread. Yes, global events may impact our personal finances, but that does not mean we have to incessantly harp on culture war aspects here. If you are going to discuss it, please stick to the practical impacts of it on an individual level.
  • Be kind. Remember that everyone here comes from different circumstances. We all have different resources available and different risk tolerances.
  • Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better is better. Celebrate people when they take a step up and work to move their finances in the right direction. Don't flame out because they haven't followed what you consider the optimal path. Everybody has to start somewhere.
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

How do you balance FIRE with not wanting to be a miserable tightwad? Most specifically interested in if anyone has thoughts on that in context of marriage + children + income gap (let's say 4 me:1 her). A particular potential (pun intended) Mrs. Lagrangian likes travel and activities more than I do and I have trouble thinking about that, especially in context of the income asymmetry.

You are supposed to pick a standard of living and develop your long-term budget accordingly. The subreddit's standard terms are "leanFIRE" for being a "miserable tightwad" and "fatFIRE" or "chubbyFIRE" for living large.

Can someone more knowledgeable than I am explain what the purpose of an annuity is? They seem like a fixed income investment bound together with a life insurance policy. Is that the whole point? Am I missing something that makes them more attractive than that?

They are a means to have fixed income for you. And they are (usually) issued by life insurance companies.

Normal Term Life Insurance:

  1. at age 30, you pick a term life insurance to safeguard your family.
  2. You pay $1000 (called premium) to the insurance company every year and depending upon the risk of you dying, the company assesses its risk, and is ready to pay your family in case of your death, a sum assured amount like say $1 million.
  3. if you don't die in year 1, you pay $1000 next year (as premium) to continue having this benefit for your family.
  4. You do this for the term of your insurance policy. Say 30 years.

Normal Fixed Annuity:

  1. At age 60, you look at your portfolio and say that you need some kind of income throughout the rest of your life.
  2. You go back to the life insurance company, and pay it $1 million and the company says, okay now you got an income stream which we will pay throughout your life period. There are multiple options in an annuity and based upon the parameters, the company will pay higher or lower amount.
  3. If you don't have anyone around you, so you say to the company, I just want an income for my life, after that keep the amount with you. Depending upon how long the company thinks you may live, it can offer $60,000 a year all your life.
  4. If you have a kid(s) or some nephew/niece for whom you want to leave that $1M, you tell the company, I want an income stream while I live, then you give back that $1M to my nephew XYZ. So, they will reduce the amount to give to you, and will pay out say $30,000.
  5. Then there are variable annuities, inflation step up annuities, joint life annuity, joint life annuity with Principal back, etc.

So it's a bet between you and the insurance agency that you're going to live longer than they think you will?

A pretty loaded bet, I think, they charge a big premium. It makes people feel safer though.

It's kind of the opposite of life insurance, really. The point of an annuity is that you can't outlive it, so you purchase annuities as a hedge against living longer than you anticipate, where life insurance is a hedge (you erect for others) against dying sooner than you anticipate. I think many annuities also have death benefits associated but I assume that is to mitigate unjust windfalls to the brokers.

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