Merry Christmas, everyone!
Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 25, 2022
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What is this place?
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Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
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Notes -
Day trading is a bad idea. The overwhelming majority of investors lose money.
How you invest the money depends on when you will need it. If you don't need the money in the next ten years or more, you a better off putting it in an index fund. Vanguard does the ones with the lowest fees.
Index funds can also be 'income' rather than 'accumulation'. This means that dividends are paid out as cash target than being reinvested in the shares that make up the fund. If you intend to spend the income from your savings (rather than just getting the pot) then this might be a better idea.
How does this work if the investment is losing money? Are you then expected to put up more money to compensate for the loss?
The price of the shares can go up or down, which would bring the value of the fund up or down. But every quarter the dividend payments from the shares would be paid out to the fund holders. This is usually around 2% of the value of the fund, but obviously can be lower in a poor business environment.
An accumulation fund would just take these dividends and buy more shares with them.
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