Latest news with #opportunitycost
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Three Things That Just Aren't Worth It
By its very definition, 'waste' means using your time, money, and resources on things unlikely to return value. It's an opportunity cost. By inverse, skipping wasteful things spares you from those stupid headaches. You invite more happiness and efficiency into your life. In 2024, a friend announced on her Facebook feed, 'If you plan on voting for Biden, just unfriend me now!' Shortly thereafter, she appeared in a comment section, all-caps replying to people over election issues. Each comment got more corrosive and insulting. People were name-calling and going deep into bitter 37 reply threads. A week later, she made another post ranting, 'Facebook is so toxic. I have found out who my real friends are. Time to take a break from this place.' Yet she was the one who invited this toxicity into her feed. To be fair, we live in an important swing state (Florida). Tensions run extremely high during elections. I've seen friendships dissolve over elections that went well beyond clicking 'unfriend'. John Stuart Mill, the father of modern utilitarianism, once wrote, 'So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains rather than loses stability by having a preponderating weight of argument against it.' More plainly, Mill saw that emotion entrenched people's beliefs. He inferred, 100 years early, that internet arguments are futile. Without underlying respect, two people can never hope to convince each other of anything. And in the veil of internet anonymity, respect is fleeting. Let's face it: Most internet users are only interested in being right. So don't bother reasoning with them. It's like arguing with a drunk person. The funny thing? When I've gone to writer meetups, the nastiest, most aggressive online writers who argue 24–7 with readers, are often the shyest in real life. They are meek. They stand in the corner during cocktail hour, smiling and not saying anything. And so I say to you — is it really worth going through your day, angry about what a stranger said to you online? Just as so many people are banefully toxic, many of you keep these exact people in your everyday life. You reason with them. You give them second chances. They cheat on you once again. They flake on dinner plans. You get begged into trusting them and being their friend/partner again. Only to get burned, over, and over, and over again. I never thought I'd be one of those people who got burned and then was talked back into being friends with that person again. I was just reading about a woman and her abusive partner. She described going back to him repeatedly after he apologized. I sat reading the story pleading to myself for her to stop doing it, even though this story took place in the past and that she was now free. On paper, these decisions are always so easy, especially from the outside. There's no emotion or shared history to cloud your judgement. The healthiest thing I ever did was face this hard reality: just because I love and care about a person, doesn't mean they should be in my life. My open-door policy and being too forgiving were ruining me. I was losing my spine. I was becoming a person I hated, letting other people completely walk all over me. Walking away is one of the hardest things I've ever done. It hurts and feels like having a death in the family. But if you don't cut toxic out, they'll just bring more havoc to your life. You'll be looking back 10 years from now wondering why it took you so long to figure things out. This chapter should have been closed in middle school. The number of unintended pregnancies continues to hover around 50% in the United States. Granted there are very real needs around education and access to contraception—there's also quite a bit of willful ignorance at work, as I've seen firsthand. People continue to wing it on birth control, or opt out entirely, using highly unreliable methods that just create an enormous problem they have to contend with (women especially). My friend told me a interesting story. He was 18, and still in high school. He was parked in front of a pharmacy during a storm. He needed to buy condoms but was so embarrassed and scared to do it, worrying about being judged. He kept sitting there, delaying and delaying, watching the rain hitting his windshield. He tried to pretend the rain was the reason he couldn't go into the store. Then, he had an epiphany, and realized, 'If I am not mature enough to buy condoms, I should not be having sex.' I thought it was a rare and candid moment that you rarely hear from a person. It's never my goal to call an unintended child a 'problem'. However, these surprise babies create a world of other problems for people who aren't ready to be a parent. They end up co-parenting with someone they can't stand — or hardly knew. They end up in a legal battle over visitation. I see friends, still dealing with drama co-parenting a kid they had more than 10 years ago. And then there's the cost of daycare, food, and the infinite list of unexpected problems you have to squash each day. Every tiny aspect of your life is forever changed because you didn't spend a few extra bucks on protection. After my divorce, I was absolutely stunned by the number of single parents I saw on dating apps. It felt like 1 in 3. Every other profile was a car selfie with a kid in the backseat. Sure, it might feel good to break rules and be naughty. Just mark my words — there's a haunting feeling that sinks in later. The affirming question I try to repeat to myself with risky decisions is, 'Will I be glad I made this decision, hours, days, or months from this moment?' I don't always get it right. But it was that exact question that helped me quit smoking. I knew I'd never look back and think, 'I wish I'd just smoked for a few more years.' Life is full of wasteful activities. Avoid them and you'll be ahead of the pack. Getting tied up in internet debates. Just move on. Trying to save dying friendships and relationships. Cut out toxic people. Treating birth control like a game you can wing it with.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Three Things That Just Aren't Worth It
By its very definition, 'waste' means using your time, money, and resources on things unlikely to return value. It's an opportunity cost. By inverse, skipping wasteful things spares you from those stupid headaches. You invite more happiness and efficiency into your life. In 2024, a friend announced on her Facebook feed, 'If you plan on voting for Biden, just unfriend me now!' Shortly thereafter, she appeared in a comment section, all-caps replying to people over election issues. Each comment got more corrosive and insulting. People were name-calling and going deep into bitter 37 reply threads. A week later, she made another post ranting, 'Facebook is so toxic. I have found out who my real friends are. Time to take a break from this place.' Yet she was the one who invited this toxicity into her feed. To be fair, we live in an important swing state (Florida). Tensions run extremely high during elections. I've seen friendships dissolve over elections that went well beyond clicking 'unfriend'. John Stuart Mill, the father of modern utilitarianism, once wrote, 'So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains rather than loses stability by having a preponderating weight of argument against it.' More plainly, Mill saw that emotion entrenched people's beliefs. He inferred, 100 years early, that internet arguments are futile. Without underlying respect, two people can never hope to convince each other of anything. And in the veil of internet anonymity, respect is fleeting. Let's face it: Most internet users are only interested in being right. So don't bother reasoning with them. It's like arguing with a drunk person. The funny thing? When I've gone to writer meetups, the nastiest, most aggressive online writers who argue 24–7 with readers, are often the shyest in real life. They are meek. They stand in the corner during cocktail hour, smiling and not saying anything. And so I say to you — is it really worth going through your day, angry about what a stranger said to you online? Just as so many people are banefully toxic, many of you keep these exact people in your everyday life. You reason with them. You give them second chances. They cheat on you once again. They flake on dinner plans. You get begged into trusting them and being their friend/partner again. Only to get burned, over, and over, and over again. I never thought I'd be one of those people who got burned and then was talked back into being friends with that person again. I was just reading about a woman and her abusive partner. She described going back to him repeatedly after he apologized. I sat reading the story pleading to myself for her to stop doing it, even though this story took place in the past and that she was now free. On paper, these decisions are always so easy, especially from the outside. There's no emotion or shared history to cloud your judgement. The healthiest thing I ever did was face this hard reality: just because I love and care about a person, doesn't mean they should be in my life. My open-door policy and being too forgiving were ruining me. I was losing my spine. I was becoming a person I hated, letting other people completely walk all over me. Walking away is one of the hardest things I've ever done. It hurts and feels like having a death in the family. But if you don't cut toxic out, they'll just bring more havoc to your life. You'll be looking back 10 years from now wondering why it took you so long to figure things out. This chapter should have been closed in middle school. The number of unintended pregnancies continues to hover around 50% in the United States. Granted there are very real needs around education and access to contraception—there's also quite a bit of willful ignorance at work, as I've seen firsthand. People continue to wing it on birth control, or opt out entirely, using highly unreliable methods that just create an enormous problem they have to contend with (women especially). My friend told me a interesting story. He was 18, and still in high school. He was parked in front of a pharmacy during a storm. He needed to buy condoms but was so embarrassed and scared to do it, worrying about being judged. He kept sitting there, delaying and delaying, watching the rain hitting his windshield. He tried to pretend the rain was the reason he couldn't go into the store. Then, he had an epiphany, and realized, 'If I am not mature enough to buy condoms, I should not be having sex.' I thought it was a rare and candid moment that you rarely hear from a person. It's never my goal to call an unintended child a 'problem'. However, these surprise babies create a world of other problems for people who aren't ready to be a parent. They end up co-parenting with someone they can't stand — or hardly knew. They end up in a legal battle over visitation. I see friends, still dealing with drama co-parenting a kid they had more than 10 years ago. And then there's the cost of daycare, food, and the infinite list of unexpected problems you have to squash each day. Every tiny aspect of your life is forever changed because you didn't spend a few extra bucks on protection. After my divorce, I was absolutely stunned by the number of single parents I saw on dating apps. It felt like 1 in 3. Every other profile was a car selfie with a kid in the backseat. Sure, it might feel good to break rules and be naughty. Just mark my words — there's a haunting feeling that sinks in later. The affirming question I try to repeat to myself with risky decisions is, 'Will I be glad I made this decision, hours, days, or months from this moment?' I don't always get it right. But it was that exact question that helped me quit smoking. I knew I'd never look back and think, 'I wish I'd just smoked for a few more years.' Life is full of wasteful activities. Avoid them and you'll be ahead of the pack. Getting tied up in internet debates. Just move on. Trying to save dying friendships and relationships. Cut out toxic people. Treating birth control like a game you can wing it with.
Washington Post
10-06-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
You can't save the birth rate, so at least save your brain
In today's edition: Ashes to ashes, bust to bust. Two essays today frame the breadth of human life, beginning with Eduardo Porter's on the big dip in fertility rates across the globe — the baby bust. A bunch of solutions have been proposed here in the United States, but Eduardo writes that no baby bonus or motherhood medal is going to offset the fact that the opportunity cost for having a child is now much higher for women than in decades past. Even in countries that have devoted lots of money to subsidized child care, such as France and the Scandinavian states, fertility is still ticking lower.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Is it time for investors to ditch the minimum five-year plan? Fink Money's DAVID BELLE has his say
David Belle is the founder of and a trader at Fink Money. When it comes to investing, financial advisers often recommend a minimum time frame of five years. This conventional investment wisdom is based on the idea that longer-term investments tend to deliver higher returns while smoothing out short-term market ups and downs. Historically, this approach has merit: over extended periods, markets generally trend upward, rewarding patience with growth. However, this one-size-fits-all advice isn't always the best fit for investors. By sticking rigidly to a five-year minimum, investors will often miss out on shorter-term opportunities that could offer significant gains or better align with their financial needs. This issue can be framed as an 'opportunity cost' problem, where the potential benefits of alternative investment choices are sacrificed for the sake of a long-term strategy. What is opportunity cost? Opportunity cost is a basic idea in economics that when you choose one option, you give up the potential benefits of the alternatives. In investing, if you commit your money to a five-year plan, the opportunity cost is the profit or flexibility you lose by not pursuing shorter-term investments instead. Long-term strategies can offer stability and growth, but they tie up your funds — potentially keeping you from jumping on market trends or unique opportunities that don't fit the traditional five-year mould. Why do advisers push the five year timeframe? For starters, advisers aren't wrong to suggest a 5-year horizon—there's hard logic behind it. Firstly, as we've seen since Trump announced his tariffs, markets can be a rollercoaster in the short term. Stocks might drop suddenly, and if you need to cash out during a dip, you could lose money. A five-year window gives investments time to recover and grow, lowering the chance of selling at a bad moment. Secondly, there's the magic of compounding where, over time, your returns can earn returns of their own. The longer you stay invested, the more this effect kicks in. Third, there's no doubt that short-term market swings can spook investors into rash moves, like selling low after a crash. A longer time frame, by contrast, encourages you to ride out the storm rather than panic. Fourth, some investments — like certain mutual funds or bonds — charge you for pulling out early. Advisers might suggest five-year time frames to dodge those costs. All these points make sense for a long-term approach, but not every investor's situation fits neatly into this box. The hidden cost of longer investment timeframes By locking your money into a five-year plan, you might miss shorter-term opportunities that could pay off faster or suit your goals better. For example, some industries explode with growth over a short period. Think AI and renewable energy. If you spotted the rise of electric vehicles early, investing in a company like Tesla or a related start-up could have brought big returns in just a couple of years. But if your money was tied up in a diversified five-year portfolio, you may have missed that window. Sector booms don't always need five years to play out and waiting that long could mean missing the peak entirely. Also, markets don't always move slowly. A market correction — when stock prices drop 10 per cent or more — can be a golden chance to buy low. Look at the Covid-19 crash in March 2020: stocks tanked as the pandemic hit but many bounced back within months. Investors with cash on hand scooped up bargains and saw gains by the end of the year. If your funds were stuck in a five-year investment, the opportunity cost was the chance to profit from that rapid recovery. Then there's the fact that most people's lives don't always follow a five-year schedule. Maybe you're saving for a house deposit in two years or your children's university fees in three. Tying up your money for five years could leave you scrambling when those deadlines hit. It blocks you from meeting real-world needs. Meanwhile, some investments — like initial public offerings (IPOs) or venture capital — can skyrocket in value fast. When Airbnb went public in December 2020, its stock nearly doubled on the first day. Investors who got in early made a killing in weeks, not years. But if you're locked into a long-term plan, the opportunity cost is the chance to cash in on a quick win. Old-school investment rules don't work for all Financial advisers can deliver real value for certain investors, but it's important people are aware that their old school, conventional advice can amplify opportunity cost issues — and cause some investors to lose out. Advisers may also be incentivised by longer term time frames. Some will earn a percentage of your assets under management (AUM) or commissions on products like mutual funds. The longer your money stays invested, the more they make. A five-year lock-in keeps their income steady, even if it's not ideal for you. Advisers certainly aren't villains, they're often just following what's worked historically. But their generic approach can blind them to shorter-term possibilities that may suit you better. Mix the long-term with the short-term What I'm categorically not saying is that people should ditch long-term investing entirely. Instead, they should implement a strategy that has some flexibility built in, one that bends to their needs and reacts to the markets. To this end, people should review their investments every few months rather every year. Are there new trends or personal goals to adjust for? Staying proactive keeps you ready for change. While it's important to put some money in long-term assets for stability, consider keeping a chunk in shorter-term options — like treasury bills or cash accounts — for quick moves. Maybe 70 per cent long-term, 30 per cent short-term, depending on your risk profile. Also, be sure to line up your investments with when you'll need the money. Short-term goals get short-term strategies; long-term goals like retirement can handle the five-year stretch. Finally, don't rely on one adviser. Talk to others with different specialties to spot opportunities your main adviser might miss. Short-term is not always a gamble Many will argue that shorter-term investing is too risky, as markets are unpredictable and jumping in and out can backfire. They're not wrong: timing the market is tough and frequent trades can rack up costs or taxes. But not all short-term options are wild gambles. Short-term bonds or CDs (Certificates of Deposit) offer steady returns with low risk. Plus, with research and a robust plan, you can cut down on reckless moves. The real risk might be sticking to a five-year plan that doesn't fit your life. The financial world isn't what it was decades ago. Technology, global events and instant information mean opportunities pop up — and vanish — faster than ever. A five-year horizon made sense when markets were slower, but these days, agility matters. A mix of short- and long-term investments can keep you sane and in the game. Carpe diem To wrap up, while a five-year timeframe has its benefits — less risk, steady growth — it's not perfect. The opportunity cost can be missing a tech boom or a market rebound. Advisers mean well, but their long-term bias or incentives can keep you from exploring all your options. Instead of blindly following the five-year rule, aim for a strategy that flexes with your goals and the market. Check your portfolio often, blend short- and long-term investments, and don't be afraid to shop around for advice. That way, you're not just playing it safe, you're playing it smart, balancing stability with the chance to seize the moment.
