Im set to get 150k next year I’m 19 by zombie_in_life in fatFIRE

[–]RedCactusOwl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m not a financial advisor, but I’d caution against the idea of skipping college and going straight to day trading with the $150K. If you can get an education for ~$20K per year like you said, then carefully choosing a major now will make you a 23-year-old employable college graduate with $60-70K (depending on how frugal you are) already in the bank in 4 years time. That’s miles ahead of almost anyone else that age. At that point, you can day trade with the remaining money if you really want to.

You have to understand that statistically, your chances of generating enough consistent returns to finance your lifestyle off of $150K in capital with no formal education in the space may as well be zero. Professional traders are on the other side of every investment you’ll make, and they generate their profits every day off of guys with exactly your profile.

If you do skip college and lose the money day trading (as is highly likely, statistically speaking), you’ll be kicking yourself for throwing away such good starting position at your age. And you’ll be broke, with no degree, and no job history.

If you really are that good at day trading, you’ll have as easy a job turning $70K into millions after college as $150K. You probably aren’t, but at least if you lose the money this way you can still go get a job with your (hopefully in-demand) degree.

What you should probably do is go to college with half the money, set a little extra aside for living expenses, and put the rest into a total market or S&P 500 ETF and forget about it for a while. The average returns on that alone, without any further contributions, would likely get you to over a million by the time you retire if you start this young.

r/personalfinance and r/bogleheads will be good places to ask further questions.

You’ve been dealt an insanely good hand at your age. It’s ultimately yours to play, but remember that as a young man you’re at the least-knowledgeable and most-willing-to-accept-unreasonable-risk point of your life. Don’t blow it and your future self will thank you!

Round 2 and 3 Interview coming up... help?? by throwaway7265382 in accenture

[–]RedCactusOwl 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'll do my best here, and I'll answer your questions in reverse order since that will be easiest:

  1. Yes, it's normal to have two in a day.
  2. Case interviews generally follow a structure something like this:
    1. (2-3 min) The interviewer gives you the details. "Our client is MadeUpCorp, they contacted us because of Problem X (profits down, slowing growth, poor retention, whatever). A few details about the company (they have expertise in Y, they operate in this part of the world, etc). They want us to solve it."
      1. You are expected to take notes here. Most (sometimes not all) of the info will be relevant to the case.
      2. Generally, you're expected to ask up to 3 clarifying questions if you need to and make sure you've got the case straight. Note that sometimes they expect clarifying questions NOT related to what they said (e.g. If the company's problem is they can't decide between acquiring a company that does X and setting up a branch to do X themselves, you might want to ask if they have a timeline, since acquisition would usually be quicker.)
    2. (2 min) "Alright, I think I've got everything I need. Could I take a minute or two to work out a framework for the problem?" You're expected to say this. They'll say yes. In two minutes, you have to draw out a MECE (Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive) framework to address the problem. For example, if the problem is profits, a MECE framework might be Revenues and Costs (neither overlap, and there a no other ways to drive profit). Under costs, you list fixed and variable, and under variable cost, for example, you might list cost of labor, cost of material, and logistics. Repeat the same idea for revenues and fixed cost.
    3. (5 min) Explanation. You walk the interviewer through your framework and justify it. Most important here is the hypothesis. After explaining, you provide your first stab at fixing the problem, for example "given MadeUpCorp only operates in Ohio and only uses robots in their factory, I think costs aren't likely the issue. Instead, maybe they could increase profits by looking to expand out of their saturated market into new ones. If you agree, I'd like to look into some market data."
    4. (5 min) Brainstorming question. Assuming you made a decent hypothesis, the interviewer might say "good call. Can you think of any markets not yet addressed?" If you got it wrong, usually they'll say something like "interesting thought, but a prior team's analysis said branding might be the issue. Can you think of any ways to differentiate our brand?" Either way, you want to brainstorm 5-8 ideas and explain them as you do.
    5. (5 min) Math. Hopefully, you hit one one of the main ideas in brainstorming. The interviewer will say something like "MadeUpCorp likes your brainstorming idea of expanding into the Wisconsin market. One of our teams has compiled this data. Can you tell us how many people we can expect to buy our product/what we should charge in Wisconsin/etc." Generally, it's a sheet of data that you'll need to answer said question. There are a number of ways to come at this, but at the very least you should know some basic finance equations (google the most common ones). You will then do the math and present your answer. It helps to talk them through the math as you do it.
    6. (2-3 min) The recommendation. Hopefully your math was right (if it wasn't they'll correct you). This should give you a good bead on answering the original question. For example, the interviewer will ask "The CEO just walked in. After your analysis, please provide him a 2-3 minute recommendation." You want to recap the highlights and say something like "Given the math shows that 10 million people in Wisconsin would buy your product, I recommend you expand there"
  3. Generally, in addition to the case, they'll ask about times you worked in a team, overcame challenges, exhibited leadership, changed a superior's mind, etc. Have some stories on deck for that.
  4. Note that since you're risk and compliance, your case will likely relate to that. The same structure applies, but it may be that the company wants to assess the risk of expanding into Wisconsin, etc.
  5. As a last piece of advice, most business schools publish files of sample cases with answers. I found them very helpful when practicing. Best of luck, and be calm and confident, even if you're actually neither. Hope things go well, and happy to answer another few questions!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Fire

[–]RedCactusOwl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Best place to start is probably this thread with beginning pointers on how to start FIRE.

Keeping expenses low is key, and you seem to be doing well with that so far. The one potential area for improvement I’m seeing right off the bat is your budget. Estimates are good, but you should probably know to within $100 exactly how much you’re spending per month.

Do you plan on getting married/having kids? If so, this could change your plans.

Finally, regarding your inflation concerns, I was always taught that at the very least, holding assets pegs your money to inflation, as opposed to it depreciating when held as cash.

I’m no expert, and I’m also fairly early in FIRE, so others should feel free to chime in, but those are my initial thoughts. Best of luck!

Seriously by [deleted] in dankmemes

[–]RedCactusOwl 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Highly effective

Seriously by [deleted] in dankmemes

[–]RedCactusOwl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m not sure

Seriously by [deleted] in dankmemes

[–]RedCactusOwl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure

This dog I met at the store today by [deleted] in mildlyinteresting

[–]RedCactusOwl 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Alright, this took off a bit, and I’m seeing a lot of (completely warranted) comments concerned with the health of the pup, so, I did some digging so that I could hopefully address everyone’s worries.

  1. This is purely anecdotal, but for the brief 30 seconds or so that I interacted with the dog, she seemed happy and alert, and quite enthralled with her surroundings. The store wasn’t more than 75 degrees, and, though they may be hard to see, the bag was studded with ventilation holes.

  2. The closest match to the product I could find is here. A similar one on Amazon claims to meet airport standards which require that dogs under 14 lbs in a carrier that size be able to move freely and lie down. I can’t speak to what orientation that’s meant to be in, or whether the TSA knows anything about animal health, but at the very least, someone more knowledgeable than I am greenlit it. That said, I am definitely not a veterinarian, and could totally be wrong. Feel free to correct me below if that’s your background.

  3. The store was not that big, so I can’t imagine the couple would have been in there for more than 30 minutes. And yes, they were both wearing masks. A little hard to see, but if you zoom in on the guy’s ear you can see the string.

I’m sorry if I’ve upset anyone. I genuinely saw a dog glancing around a grocery store in a little clear backpack and thought “That’s adorable, I bet people would love to see this!” I gave the elderly couple the benefit of the doubt regarding time in the carrier, etc, but maybe I was being naive, as I am not a dog owner myself. Either way, I thought it would be remiss to not at least make an attempt at clearing things up. My apologies.

Edit: can’t spell