• Phate18@lemmy.world
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    15 minutes ago

    This is a person who doesn’t understand how the fixed income market works.

    He’s assuming he’s buying $3m notional of a bond yielding 8% and paying for the face value $3m (i.e., he’s buying it at par). This is not how it works, even if you’re somehow subscribing at issuance as a retail investor.

    You’re going to be buying the bond at bid, which is going to be higher than par when prevailing future yield expectations are lower than the coupon rate of the bond.

    TL,DR: You can’t buy $3m of a high-yielding sovereign bond for $3m today. You’ll get less of the bond for the money if it’s yielding more than the market is expecting base rates to be in the future.

  • WereCat@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    I didn’t buy Twitter and saved over $40B now I don’t have to work my entire life

  • Anna@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    Hey if you don’t have 3million stuck between your couch then that’s your problem.

  • Zoidberg@lemm.ee
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    9 hours ago

    What a silly post…

    First, where are you going to find a 8% treasury bond? Even a few months ago, when they were giving record yields, it didn’t even get close to that.

    Second, if you borrow $3m with high interest rates (needed to get high yield treasurys) you’ll also pay a high rate on your loan. Duh.

  • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    Sweet, I just need a small, interest-free loan of 3 million dollars and I’ll pay you back $10,000 a month for 300 months. Don’t believe me? Here, check out my credit report.

    Credit report: trust me bro

  • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    So I know this is satire but I wouldn’t buy a us bond. I would much rather buy one from a stable country.

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      9 hours ago

      The US economy is like the most stable economy in the world. And they don’t double tax you, depending on where you live and the tax treaty.

      • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        We have had 2 assassination attempts on someone running for the highest public office in the country in 3 months. One of the people currently running for office who has a chance at winning tried lost the last election they were in and then tried to take over the government by force.

        Our country is not stable.

        I would much rather invest in a more stable country like Sweeden or Switzerland.

        • Saryn@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          Just 10 or 12 years ago or so, the US and EU had comparably sized economies. Today the EU economy is between 25% to 30% smaller than the US one. And yes, I include the UK in the EU calculations just to prove the point. The reason? Higher stability and growth on average. What might seem like small differences on a year-on-year basis add up and prove to be quite substantial in terms of decades.

          So you can invest in Swedish and Swiss bonds and/or companies if you want, but chances are you’re gonna lose out compared to person investing in US-based entities.

          Sincerely,

          An EU citizens who is sick of hearing Americans bashing their own country based on ignorance. There’s plenty of reasons to be upset with and critical of the US. But an unstable economy is not one of them, relatively speaking. Get your facts straight.

        • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          Oh wow tell me more about Sweeeden. What knowledge do you have that makes you think that tiny economy is more stable than the US economy?

        • T156@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Politically, maybe, but economically, the US remains a major powerhouse, and if nothing else, that might be the sole factor that makes them try to keep things stable.

          It’s one of the few things much of the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy tend to both want, particularly for those who have a decent amount of wealth tied up in the American market, and a fair amount of money might be spent to that end.

        • JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch
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          5 hours ago

          But a lot of european countries are pushing pretty hard to not borrow and have a zero balance or positive budget. So e.g. Switzerland don’t sell that many bonds and yield on a lot of them is 0.5%, maybe 2% on long term ones vs around 4% for US ones.

        • Jrockwar@feddit.uk
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          2 hours ago

          That article brushes over many things, like some of the big contributors to the economy being straight up amoral organisations that will do anything for money.

          Nestlé, facing constant boycotts for things like the formula scandals, their damage to the rainforests, and so much more.

          Big pharma running what you could call price rackets.

          Banking sector which will happily take money from arms dealers and the like and turn a blind eye to that.

          That all gets you a very profitable economy, sure, but not all is rosy.

          Then you go to Geneva and somehow, despite all that sweet tax money, you still have buses from the 1980s and public buildings that haven’t seen a renovation in the last 60 years. The airport terminal is straight up run down if you compare it to European airports like Heathrow, Barajas, Schiphol…

          Then people struggle with the cost of housing - median salary is around 6k CHF (monthly), with 2k of deductions that give you a 4k net. According to rentola.ch, the rental for a 1-bedroom flat in Geneva costs on average 3.2k CHF a month, meaning you need about 3x the median salary (!!) to be able to afford a 1-bedroom flat within the recommended 30% of your salary. Working hours are longer than the neighboring countries.

          So yeah, they have a great economy because the numbers are skewed by many-million-francs salaries of the corporations in there. If you’re not in a C-suite or visiting as a Sheikh wanting to spend a few millions in Geneva, quality of life is absolutely nothing to write home about.

        • Saryn@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          Yeah no, that’s not how information literacy works. An article on usnews.com proclaiming Switzerland as the best country in the world based on self-reporting is the opposite of objective. Making an international economics-based comparison takes more than a quick google search. And keep in mind some people actually live in unstable economies. So stop bashing your country for the sake of it.

          Sincerely, An EU citizen who has lived in Switzerland and visited the US on numerous occasions.

        • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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          3 hours ago

          Wait what, Federer is still playing?

          And the article didn’t even mention the why behind the political stability, low corruption and respectfulness; the half-direct democracy: though not without faults (too influencable through media upheavals), even the 7 presidents are “just doing a special job” and can take public transport.

      • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        It’s almost like not starting a war in 500 years and being as neutral as possible lead to being a stable country.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    A treasury bond delivering 8% is probably one from a dangerous country to invest in.

  • Blackout@fedia.io
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    20 hours ago

    I just walk to the 7/11 and buy a scratcher. I never win anything but I could make at least $100,000 in just one day!

    • ceenote@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      I know you’re joking, but I used to work at a convenience store and the scratcher addicts were the most depressing part. I guess I should be grateful that the store I worked at wasn’t in an area where more depressing kinds of addicts would be around.

      • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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        19 hours ago

        I remember one day walking into a 7/11, in maybe 2002, and there were 2 guys in suits, totally dishevelled, collars undone, looking like they’ve been awake for 3 days, depression coating their faces, and they had a stack of scratch tickets that they were silently just scratching off.

        The story I have in my head is that their business fell apart and this was some past ditch desperate attempt to save it with the little money they had left. I have no idea what actually happened but here we are 20+ years later and I still think about them occasionally.

        • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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          19 hours ago

          The one thing that going to a real casino taught me is that, despite what Hollywood would have us believe, casinos are not full of impeccably dressed classy people, but very old retirees that look like they only have a few years left to live, and disheveled men who look less well dressed than me in my PJs at home, who are gambling away large sums of money in a fit of anxiety and addiction.

          Really depressing crap.

          • OpenStars@discuss.online
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            18 hours ago

            And yet Donald Trump still managed to lose money somehow, which should have really told us something about his supposed “business accumen”.

            • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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              9 hours ago

              Oh yes. The bankruptcy of Trump’s casino was a thing to behold. I wish I could find the video of the people who worked with him back in the day as they all remarked as to just how absolutely ignorant he was about all aspects of both gambling and managing a casino.

              • OpenStars@discuss.online
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                2 hours ago

                But with the power of daddy’s money, he “earned” his position as CEO/owner nonetheless!

                Which is already so cringe it hurts, but then to turn around and use that to prove how “well” Trump - not daddy, but himself - could run the entire nation…

                img

                As a nation, we deserve our fate I suppose.:-( We should do better. We need better. We won’t survive unless we aim to be better.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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            19 hours ago

            I associate my time in Las Vegas mostly with elderly people with oxygen tanks, chain smoking while they put coin after coin in the slot machine. Just sad.

        • Blackout@fedia.io
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          19 hours ago

          The guy who started FedEx literally put his company’s payroll on a roulette table just to make enough to stay in business.

      • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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        49 minutes ago

        Dude it was depressing stopping off at the beer store on the way home from work for a 6pack so I could kick it and relax on the couch…

        …and there’d be a group of blue collars going there to cash their weekly paychecks, buy a couple 40s and $50 worth of scratchers. They’d win $10, and buy $10 more worth of scratchers. They’d win a TICKET, get another and win nothing, then complain that they were “so close” to winning 10-grand.

        • Zirconium@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          Work at a rutters. had multiple guys who were serious come in with like 20 $1 and 5 $20 every other day. We had one guy who’d buy $100-$200 every visit (up to 3 times a day). Must’ve been in his 50s but he said his wife didn’t know. Scratch offs scare me now I’ve only ever seen one $1500 win but I’d only work part time so.

            • Zirconium@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              As far as I know, I would get told he already visited by people in 1st shift and he’d come in like 6 and spent $100-$200 then come back an hour later

      • Sabata@ani.social
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        19 hours ago

        I know of a few small stores that owe their livelihoods to the local gambling addicts and the lottery machine. The entire business if dedicated to a few whales since selling snacks and coffee to randos didn’t work out and they would otherwise close. They even set up private rooms where they could sped the day scratching tickets as they would come in and blow and entire pay/welfare/retirement check.

        The logic is always the same, “I’m up $500 today” not even calculating the losses and “I just need one big win”. People will farm gamblers like cattle.

        • Aviandelight @mander.xyz
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          18 hours ago

          That’s really sad. It’s the equivalent of putting lab rats in a cage with a cocaine/amphetamine button.

          • Sabata@ani.social
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            17 hours ago

            Perfectly legal since the state owned the equipment being used to ruin lives.

        • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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          17 hours ago

          A similar establishment by me also diversified into bongs. A wall of bongs, a wall of lottery, a wall of smokes, a locked case full of smaller smoke accessories, half a wall of cooler, and three tiny islands of “food.” It’s very bright and clean but also sad as fuck.

    • Damage@feddit.it
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      20 hours ago

      I never understood the appeal of scratch offs, 100k? If you gotta dream, dream big, play the lottery

      • Zirconium@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        I won like $250 on the first scratch off I got with my boyfriend. Broke my reality, I want to try it one more time to see if we’d win anything but I gotta stay safe

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        18 hours ago

        The keno addicts at the bar i work at are wild. They just keep silently putting in money and watching the drawings. I prefer that to the ones who try to explain their strategies to me or complain that some number appears in every drawing. Or the guy who came in Wednesday night and kept betting $10 that the first pitch of every at bat of the Mets/Brewers game was gonna be a strike. It’s bleak.

        • Damage@feddit.it
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          6 hours ago

          Our national betting company has started showing “stimulated” football games for people to bet on, with screens showing highlighted actions and all… It’s so depressing.

      • YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub
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        19 hours ago

        I remember hearing a story like twenty years ago about a person that figured out that serial number were disclosing payouts. They would buy a bunch, find the winners, scratch them, then return the losers for their money back. I think I heard about it on a planet money or this American life ages and ages ago.

        • Vent@lemm.ee
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          18 hours ago

          Who in their right mind is accepting returns of lottery tickets, scratched or not???

          • rtxn@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            Store clerks who just want to get through their shift without committing battery upon their customers and are definitely not paid enough to deal with that shit.

            • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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              16 hours ago

              I just quit after calling the police. Dude said they were too hard to scratch off and wanted his money back. Was dressed to the nines (as was his date), in a seedy movie rental store, trying to return lottery tickets by amicably dropping threats of coming behind the register.

              I sure hope his date was impressed. Nobody else was.

              Edit: also, this was about 20 years ago, so may very well have been a scam attempt.

            • Vent@lemm.ee
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              17 hours ago

              Not paid enough to say “no refunds” but given the ability to authorize giving out money for unofficial reasons? If it’s unauthorized, then they’re essentially stealing cash and assuming an extremely high risk of getting fired to avoid confrontation.

              I’ve never worked a gas station, but I’ve worked fast food and I would have been fired soooo fast if I were giving out unauthorized refunds. Maybe even prosecuted if the amount was large enough. I’ve seen people fired for less.

              • RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                3 hours ago

                I work at a gas station that does food, and we can refund almost anything at the whim of the cashier, sure there should be a reason, but you don’t ask a manager or whatever you just do it if it’s the right thing.

                Lotto on the other hand belongs with things like phone credit and fuel. If the system even lets you, it’s going to log it and management will know and expect a good explanation on what the fuck you are doing.

    • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      It’s like those educational explanations of compound interest I remember from childhood that tried to encourage you to save money. They would always start with 1 dollar and a savings account with 20% interest, and end up retiring as a millionaire.

      • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        I remember getting really frustrated as a young man when I decided to take that advice, and wasted hours looking for these mythical 18% return accounts.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          Yep those 10 percent accounts got me laughed out of the bank. One banker did helpfully ask how much I made though. Actually that was what set off the laughing. At any rate that was the year I learned rice stretches any food. No relation I’m sure.

          • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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            12 hours ago

            In college I was frequently hungry without any food. One of my friends said “buy a 20 pound bag of rice and you’ll never go hungry again”, and he was right. Idk how I forgot that, considering I was raised on beans, rice, and government cheese. I just needed someone to connect the dots for me.

        • WolfdadCigarette@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
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          18 hours ago

          Three million is the joke, 8% is the hint that it’s a joke. It’s the same sort of satire that Lemmy frequently reposts. “I became wealthy with hard work, determination, and a small loan of a million dollars.”

        • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Well, both of us are socialists (I can’t comment on the other person). We think about money in such a different way that any money joke about investment is going to lose it’s humor. I don’t understand it as a joke either, but I definitely understood the financial advice. He selected some large, relatively uncontroversial companies that will pay you part of the quarterly profits based on the number of stocks you own. Tbh I’d avoid the day trading and choose high dividend ETFs instead. $100k is still very out of reach for most people, but it’s a reasonable investing portfolio.

          • Asafum@feddit.nl
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            18 hours ago

            I get conflicting information about high dividend ETFs. Some people swear by them, others say they’re terrible or at least should be avoided. I’m too ignorant to know why either way :/

            • sparkee@lemmy.world
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              14 hours ago

              Many people in The US who are trying to save for retirement attempt to have fewer dividends since that becomes taxable income. They would prefer just a higher stock value and pay the taxes later when presumably they are retired and in a lower tax bracket. That premise is probably good but you never know how the government is going to change up tax rates in the future.

            • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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              17 hours ago

              By the nature of ETFs, you’re definitely going to make less income because your money gets put into an investment pool and returns are proportional. However it makes you less tied to the stock market, which is increasingly tied to a person’s ability to retire

              • Asafum@feddit.nl
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                13 hours ago

                Those are my main investments outside of my 401k from work, I was just curious about the high dividend ones but someone else answered what is going on there. Thanks for the info!