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277 points cebert | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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PostOnce ◴[] No.44361768[source]
Theoretically, credit should be used for one thing: to make more money. (not less)

However, instead of using it to buy or construct a machine to triple what you can produce in an hour, the average person is using it to delay having to work that hour at all, in exchange for having to work an hour and six minutes sometime later.

At some point, you run out of hours available and the house of cards collapses.

i.e., credit can buy time in the nearly literal sense, you can do an hour's work in half an hour because the money facilitates it, meaning you can now make more money. If instead of investing in work you're spending on play, then you end up with a time deficit.

or, e.g. you can buy 3 franchises in 3 months instead of 3 years (i.e. income from the 1 franchise), trading credit for time to make more money, instead of burning it. It'd have been nice had they taught me this in school.

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1. _DeadFred_ ◴[] No.44369614[source]
I bought a boat on credit. It was the dumbest financial thing I could ever do. It was the best thing spiritually/emotionally I ever did. All of those weekends/vacations boat camping with my kids when they were young. All those times going out after work. So many experiences I would not have gotten to enjoy if I waited until I was 60 to buy in a smart way.

There is such a thing as opportunity cost. Putting dinner on a credit card is dumb. Putting a dinner on credit that ends up being a first date creating a memory and connection with your future spouse is life making. Or dinner with grandparents and kids that might not be around long.

You have completely ignored opportunity cost in your factoring. And it is probably the most important 'human' factor and is just as tied to your 'time' argument. We have 60 some rotations around a star, and stages in life during that time. That needs to go into your 'optimization' as well.