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JL Collins
Personal blog · jlcollinsnh.comeconomicsbusiness
JL Collins writes JLCollinsnh, a personal blog at jlcollinsnh.com about economics and business. Since 2013, 41 different Hacker News readers have linked it 52 times, most often “A house is a terrible investment (2013)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-30, and you can follow it by feed.
52mentions?
41HN people?
2013–2026first – last linked?
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Most-linked posts?
- A house is a terrible investment (2013)8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2019-10-16
- /stock-series/8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2014-01-10
- /stock-series/6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2018-12-05
- Why a house is a terrible investment (2013)4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2016-10-24
- /2012/02/23/rent-v-owning-your-home-opportunity-cost-and-running-some-numbers/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-04-11
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-06-23
- /manifesto/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-12-29
- Why your house is a terrible investment2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-11-17
- /2011/06/06/why-you-need-f-you-money/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-11
What Hacker News says?
Read https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?”Submitted Why a house is a terrible investment (2013) as a story · 66 points
HN discussionI think it's incorrect to compare marginal rates as well. It makes more sense to compare your Effective Rate in retirement versus your Marginal Rate of today. This article explains the math: http://www.gocurrycracker.com/roth-sucks/ Your effective tax rate is likely to be much less than your marginal rate. Also, for anyone interested in financial independence and simple investing with your 401k and IRAs, I'd like to…
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “Investing for Geeks”Submitted A house is a terrible investment (2013) as a story · 20 points
HN discussion> strongest correlating factor with financial independence and overall net worth If the only way people save is "force saving" by diving headfirst into something that sucks all of their other assets in, sure. How could we make housing a terrible investment? * It should be illiquid. We’ll make it something that takes weeks, no – wait – even better, months of time and effort to buy or sell. * It should be something th…
Comment linking /2013/05/29/why-your-house-is-a-terrible-investment/
on “Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level”Submitted Why your house is a terrible investment as a story · 6 points
HN discussion> even these numbers do not guarantee anything at this point a reasonable response is "there are no guarantees". If the 4% rule was back-tested through the great depression and generally came out fine, it's probably in the right ballpark. As another FIRE blogger puts it, "3% or less is a near sure bet as anything in this life can be" https://jlcollinsnh.com/2012/12/07/stocks-part-xiii-withdraw...
Comment linking /2012/12/07/stocks-part-xiii-withdrawal-rates-how-much-can-i-spend-anyway/
on “Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level”Submitted Why your house is a terrible investment (2013) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI've recently started learning about the benefits of passive investing in index funds. I learned a lot from this blog. Maybe you'll find it helpful too: https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?”Submitted Why your house is a terrible investment as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe best advice I’ve ever gotten: https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?”Submitted Why your house is a terrible investment as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttps://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?”Submitted How to think about money as a story · 1 points
HN discussionIf you have money to invest, invest in low-cost, broad-based index funds. I personally bias slightly towards small cap (said more precisely: I avoid biasing toward large-cap, but to many people, that looks like biasing towards small caps). One specific choice is VTSAX from Vanguard, but there are many others. Keep an emergency fund of 2-4 months in cash or equivalents, and invest everything else that you can when yo…
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “How to get rich without getting lucky”Most people have a financial adviser, but for the industrious I recommend: http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/ And for the lazy, this is a good resource: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “Investing Returns on the S&P500”Here’s an interesting analysis of shortage: https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/is-there-a-housin... I like the comment: “I think one of the problems in this discussion is that the word ‘shortage’ doesn't have a clear meaning. If gas is $6 a gallon, should we say there is a shortage of gas? If I get stuck in traffic on the way to work, can I say there is a shortage of roads? If I have to park 4 blocks away fr…
Comment linking /2013/05/29/why-your-house-is-a-terrible-investment/
on “How This Ends”A deliberately-one-sided note of the downsides of home ownership: http://jlcollinsnh.com/2013/05/29/why-your-house-is-a-terrib...
Comment linking /2013/05/29/why-your-house-is-a-terrible-investment/
on “Renting is Throwing Money Away, Right? (2015)”http://jlcollinsnh.com/2012/02/23/rent-v-owning-your-home-op...
Comment linking /2012/02/23/rent-v-owning-your-home-opportunity-cost-and-running-some-numbers/
on “Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters”I recommend the book or the blog posts of JL Collin. His posts are all about how to achieve financial independence https://jlcollinsnh.com/
Comment linking /
on “You can't tell people anything (2004)”This is a fantastic point. It's just another transaction, like the hundreds of other ones you do every month. You can almost always find somewhere cheaper to live. Can't find a house/apartment to rent in your price range? Get some roommates, or see about renting a room in a house, it'll be much cheaper. People tend to get seriously up in arms about renting, when in reality it's not nearly as bad a deal as they make…
Comment linking /2012/02/23/rent-v-owning-your-home-opportunity-cost-and-running-some-numbers/
on “What if the problem of poverty is that it’s profitable to other people?”When buying on leverage is actively encouraged to the masses, a crash usually follows. Before the 1929 crash, buying stock/equites on extreme margins became normal; Before the 2008 crash, buying real estate on extreme margins became normal; today we are seeing higher education being purchased on extreme margins. Now higher education is a different beast than the others, so it is hard to say how a economic event stem…
Comment linking /2017/07/26/time-machine-and-the-future-returns-for-stocks/
on “Wall Street Banks Warn Downturn Is Coming”One reason is that you get greater returns by diversifying. Unfortunately, diversifying correctly is hard. A second reason is that younger people typically can afford to invest more aggressively and older people should typically invest more conservatively. So an investment strategy depends on your personal goals and attitude towards risk. Finally, it doesn't take personal aptitude into account. By investing in an in…
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “Money and wealth”> a gobsmackingly terrible investment decision Speaking only about the "investment" part of home ownership, I found this blog post insightful, and maybe interesting enough to share here: http://jlcollinsnh.com/2013/05/29/why-your-house-is-a-terrib... Here is a somewhat paraphrased version of the author's main points: * Not just an initial, but a relentlessly ongoing drain on the cash reserves of the owner requiring…
Comment linking /2013/05/29/why-your-house-is-a-terrible-investment/
on “The Great American Single-Family Home Problem”Stock being certainly higher risks than housing and still people invest a lot in stocks. I would say low cost index funds are a much lower risk investment than a mortgage. They also have the advantage of being very liquid in the case of actually needing your money. Rent is not a sunk cost, this is a common misconception. There are many good reasons to buy a home, but do not think of it as an "investment". Compared t…
Comment linking /2013/05/29/why-your-house-is-a-terrible-investment/
on “Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent”Quick answer: You could do a lot worse than parking it in an index fund, so yeah, that's a good approach :) If you have a 401(k) or other retirement account, it is quite common for those to offer an S&P 500 index fund where you could invest your money. If you want to do it in a taxable brokerage account, you should open an account with Vanguard and buy their Total Stock Market index fund (VTSMX, or VTSAX if you have…
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “Are Index Funds Eating the World?”Europeans are much less likely to be retail investors, I'll buy. But there's very little stopping Europeans from buying Vanguard funds or ETFs, so this is a cultural phenomenon, not because of any legal barriers. http://jlcollinsnh.com/2014/01/27/stocks-part-xxi-investing-...
Comment linking /2014/01/27/stocks-part-xxi-investing-with-vanguard-for-europeans/
on “Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers”It's also known as "fuck you money", and there's a really good scene with John Goodman in The Gambler about it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdfeXqHFmPI So many people, especially in tech, work jobs that pay really, really, really well compared to most people and piss it away on stupid shit. You can choose to save a lot of that money instead and still have a very good and fulfilling life. Eventually, when you ha…
Comment linking /2011/06/06/why-you-need-f-you-money/
on “The Programmer’s Guide to a Sane Workweek”For what it's worth, I believe this phrase, at least within the realm of financial bloggers, originated here: https://jlcollinsnh.com/2011/06/06/why-you-need-f-you-money/ I've followed a few, Get Rich Slowly, Mr. Money Mustache, and Jim Collins, which has a great series of posts on long-term investing. I'm wrapping up six months of unemployment this week, and I didn't have a care in the world during that time. We di…
Comment linking /2011/06/06/why-you-need-f-you-money/
on “The Joy of Fuck-You Money (2018)”Note: the author also has a freely-available blog post series that summarize most of the material. http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/
Comment linking /stock-series/
on “A Tiny Hedge Fund Made 8,600% on a Vix Bet”
