The Money Mustache Community
Around the Internet => Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy => Topic started by: Alternatepriorities on November 23, 2015, 05:49:02 PM
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This sounded like a mustachian idea until I saw they are effectively charging a 20% sales commission on the smallest cards! Even the 100 dollar card is at 8%!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-buy-shares-companies-apple-160000740.html
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That's in line with how much it would traditionally cost, it's just a very small transaction. Also, it's better than somebody paying that cost for a Visa gift card, at least this is investing rather than paying to gift money.
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These guys will probably do pretty well, I wish I had thought of this. I don't think the fees are a very big deal. The target group isn't mustachian investors buying up loads of cards and trying to optimize for the lowest MER, it's grandparents buying one or two for their grand kids birthdays or Christmas presents. The life effects of getting kids interested in saving and investing will far outweigh the slightly higher fee for the convienence of the cards. I say this is actually a fairly badass idea
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Cash is still King... ;)
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Reminds me of when I was growing up and relatives would give savings bonds as gifts.
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The target group isn't mustachian investors buying up loads of cards and trying to optimize for the lowest MER, it's grandparents buying one or two for their grand kids birthdays or Christmas presents. The life effects of getting kids interested in saving and investing will far outweigh the slightly higher fee for the convienence of the cards. I say this is actually a fairly badass idea
That's a good point. Helping a kid become interested in investing instead of just consuming is probably worth paying a little extra. I guess I've already gotten a little spoiled by Vanguard's fees...
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The target group isn't mustachian investors buying up loads of cards and trying to optimize for the lowest MER, it's grandparents buying one or two for their grand kids birthdays or Christmas presents. The life effects of getting kids interested in saving and investing will far outweigh the slightly higher fee for the convienence of the cards. I say this is actually a fairly badass idea
That's a good point. Helping a kid become interested in investing instead of just consuming is probably worth paying a little extra. I guess I've already gotten a little spoiled by Vanguard's fees...
Yup! Giving a kid a bond and say that you paid them $100 for it, but that it will be worth ____ when they are 18 is a great moment. The return may not seem like much, but anything that can get them to think of compound interest is money well spent.
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The target group isn't mustachian investors buying up loads of cards and trying to optimize for the lowest MER, it's grandparents buying one or two for their grand kids birthdays or Christmas presents. The life effects of getting kids interested in saving and investing will far outweigh the slightly higher fee for the convienence of the cards. I say this is actually a fairly badass idea
That's a good point. Helping a kid become interested in investing instead of just consuming is probably worth paying a little extra. I guess I've already gotten a little spoiled by Vanguard's fees...
Yup! Giving a kid a bond and say that you paid them $100 for it, but that it will be worth ____ when they are 18 is a great moment. The return may not seem like much, but anything that can get them to think of compound interest is money well spent.
Also, I imagine there are a certain percentage of people (adults) who would never consider investing even $100 in stocks (mostly because of fear of losing it), but if they were gifted a card already worth $100 in a company, they might become very interested and figure out how to register it and enjoy watching the value rise and fall. Just maybe that would help those people overcome the fear and the learning curve of investing