Great piece, I like the VIX part the best. Do you need any help with your site?

of course they are.

I worked as a part-time postman. This way earned some money and got needed walks. Also, got to meat some wonderful people along the way. Once my online venture started earning enough money I went back staring at the screen full time.

Oh, thanks for sharing!

Yeah, but no more easy jobs in your free time.

He tried, but they killed him. Didnt you watch The New Pope on HBO?

I scrolled all the way down to see the goddamned fixed backpack, but the image is not there...

If you don't watch out you'll spend all day writing essays about changing human behaviors but at the end you'll have forgotten to fix your backpack.

I'm with GP, some closure about the opening would have been nice.

y'all are right it's not the point, but here is the hn exclusive closure: https://s3.amazonaws.com/4rk/screen-shot-2020-03-21-20.12.13...

Do you ever feel like you wont have enough toilet paper for your next shit?

Introducing Grocy: easily find a missing product in your fridge,bathroom or an underground bunker. Always know what's expiring next.

Someone is reposting this every day from multiple URLs

Every day? I only found 3 previous links to this story, and one link to the explainer video.

Do you have links?

It is 2 black swans this time, coronavirus and gas prices, but yeah, you are right

Low gas prices would be good for airlines normally, because gas prices are a large portion of their operating costs.

+1 to this. I think it was 4 years back, the oil prices dropped hard and the airlines bought futures quantities in large supply to hedge for future needs. It was a smart strategy

...then they sold the futures when prices went back up to make a quick, tidy profit.

Except Southwest -- which had the other airlines whining because they had an "unfair advantage" with their locked-in lower prices.

Wow, do you have a source for that last part?

Oil prices have cratered, that should be a positive for the transportation industry.

Yes, but that's still only one event.

One is good (gas prices), but I'm skeptical that the other is even a black swan. Global pandemics have happened before (Spanish Flu), and airplanes have been grounded for a week in recent history followed by weak demand (9/11), but last I checked, planes have still been flying.

What are you renting for 3K? Seems to me your rent is your biggest problem here.

A < 500 square foot studio. It’s close to work at least.

Consider a room in a share instead? There’s a reason that’s the norm for the first 5+ years or so of a new grad’s life in a major city.

That's basically my only limit. I refuse to have a lower standard of living than my parents did when they immigrated to this country. And at best, I'd save $12k more a year, which is good, but that's like half of a FANG bonus.

That's absurd. For $3K, that's highway robbery. If you have decent credit, why don't you try to get a mortgage or something?

Ive considered it. I have around a 770, but I don’t have anywhere close to 20% down on the $700-1mil condos/townhouses near by (my total net worth is only around $120k today, which is honestly pitiful).

Congratulations, you've just insulted 99% of the population, and probably 99.9% if you are including countries other than the US. I hope you find a way to get "wealth", but you may want to start thinking about how you come off to other people. Calling everyone except for a few FAANG employees pitiful doesn't make you sound like a like-able person.

Perhaps that’s true, but it’s apparent to me that those people are the only ones with a chance at class mobility in this country now. At this point at least, it’s out of reach for me.

That is not pitiful.

I think you should recalibrate to the average. Most new grads have a negative net worth. You are far ahead of the curve and it’s good you are thinking about wealth building, but it’s very dismissive to say 120k net worth is pitiful.

I'd wager with 1.5 years of experience + internships most Google/Facebook new grads have a net worth that's double or more, especially including vested RSU appreciation.

I was talking to a new grad engineer at Lyft who joined the same time I joined my company - his net worth is around $300k now not including unvested RSUs.

Call me naive but I really don't believe that most google/facebook new hires have 250k in net worth.

Let's say that they started at 200k per year(that seems really high). Their take-home would be 135,000 in California. That means after 1.5 years they would have taken home 202500. Even if they managed to graduate from college not only free from student loans but with a net worth of 50k, they would need to save all of their take home for the first year and a half.

Do I think that some people with 1.5 years of experience have a net worth of 300k? Sure. But I certainly don't think it is most.

It's 200k, plus bonuses, plus RSU appreciation, plus savings from having a lot of needs taken care of (transportation, food, laundry, etc). A lot of them also made a bunch during their internships and got bigger signing bonuses than I did (I only graduated with around ~$40k through a handful of internships and college jobs)

Is an entry-level engineer's base salary really 200k?

> plus savings from having a lot of needs taken care of (transportation, food, laundry, etc)

This isn't additional revenue earned, this is just lowering your expenses. Yes, these perks are nice but they don't really contribute to net worth.

Graduating from college(which would cost somewhere between 150,000-500,000 for four years with limited ability to earn income) with a positive net worth is amazing. It is awesome that you were able to do it. I doubt most people are able to do so.

Comparing yourself to others is a sure way of feeling upset , there’s always going to be people with more money than you.

Life isn’t just about money or work. I have less net worth than you and a lot more years under my belt, the country I am in doesn’t pay as much for software engineers and that’s ok.