In mid-1700’s France, there lived an artist and writer on the brink of poverty.

His name was Denis Diderot.

And he made such a massive financial mistake that it remains a cautionary tale, even 300 years later. 👇🧵 He had been born into an established family, the son of a successful craftsman, and he obtained a Masters of Arts, bound for a noble career in clergy or law.

But Diderot dreamed of becoming a writer.

When Diderot was 21 years old, he dropped out of school.

Okay let's take a FIRE perspective on Wall Street Bets --

1) Earlier this week, there were 900k users on WSB. Today, within 72 hours, the users grew to 3.3 million. This indicates that many of the people piling into WSB recommendations are noobs

/thread /1 2) Newbie investors often lack the experience to assess risk/reward, to know if there's a bubble, to even know *what* a bubble means. They often have small holdings -- $3k, perhaps, or $5k -- but it represents an outsized proportion of their savings. A loss would hurt.

/2

On December 23, 2019, Breonna Taylor tweeted about how happy she felt about paying off her debt. She would start 2020 debt-free, and that accomplishment "makes my whole heart smile."⁠
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Today I cannot read that without my heart breaking.⁠
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[thread] 👇🏾

https://twitter.com/PrettyN_Paidd/status/1209212320888561665

Look at her Twitter handle, "Pretty N Paidd."

She should be alive today, tweeting about paying off debt, telling stories about budgeting and saving, on Zoom calls with the debt-free community, launching the Pretty N Paid Podcast.
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She should be here with us today. /2

“And just like my fashion decisions might vary from circumstance to circumstance, my language decisions do too.”

——-
As a child, I made the choice to legally change my name from Pragya to Paula.

Often, well-intentioned white people will say “that’s a shame!”

(Thread)👇🏽 /1

https://twitter.com/vauhinivara/status/1308807717612552199

Their argument is: “that’s a shame, you should keep your culture, you should keep your identity.”

It took me 36 years to find the words to express how I’ve always felt: The real “shame” is that they think it’s appropriate to tell me how to identify, how to relate, who to be. /2

I don't recommend individual stock picking for 90-95% of your portfolio (if you choose to do it at all).

But if you hold individual stocks, know your ideal sell price and/or stop loss price.

Unlike index funds, individual stocks are not necessarily ... /1 #Thread 👇🏾 ... an asset that you want to buy-and-hold forever. After all, how many companies have lasted for 50+ years?

Instead, you'll want to decide -- upfront -- that once a stock crosses $ X per share, or enjoys Y% in gains, you'll either (1) sell, or (2) enter a stop-loss order. /2

“In a research working paper financed partly by [HUD], Mr. Garboden wrote that amateur investors were vulnerable to exploitation by those who “evangelize” the process and tend to play down the risks of investing in “low-end” urban real estate.”

/1 Thread
nytimes.com/2019/03/25/bus… This is precisely why it’s so important to be thoughtful, cautious, and careful about who you’re learning from.

There are real estate “teachers” who play down the risks of leverage, of Class C properties, of turnkey companies, of all types of considerations.

And if you ... /2

FIVE DAYS LEFT!! If you're a small biz owner, the deadline to apply for funds from the PPP is August 8th.

You can't apply directly; you need to go through a lender. Gusto.com/paula maintains a frequently-updated list of lenders still accepting applications. #thread /1 (Full disclosure, they're a podcast sponsor; you can get a free account for 3 months by using that link).

If you already have PPP funds, but need more cash, the EIDL is accepting applications. You can't use PPP and EIDL funds for the same purpose, but your biz CAN get both. /2

There's a difference between something being political, meaning it concerns policy change and relates to the public affairs of a nation, and being partisan, which in the U.S. means the perspectives are split among party lines. A thing can be political without being partisan.
/1 I do not think that being anti-murder, anti-racism, anti-brutality is a partisan stance.

I see this as a moral issue, a spiritual issue, a human issue. When people are getting murdered because of the color of their skin — I don’t think it’s a stretch to be anti-murder.

/2

As a former newspaper reporter and as a member of the media, I've decided to donate to The Committee to Protect Journalists, a 501c(3) nonprofit that right now is defending and protecting the journalists who are being targeted. ⁠⠀
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Thread / 1 As a former resident of Atlanta, I've decided to donate to Atlanta Community Food Bank, a nonprofit that serves 755,000 meals/year, holds a 4-star Charity Navigator rating, and has an independently-audited impact report showing $2 provides a meal to a person in need.⁠

Thread/ 2

Dear “the gov’t shouldn’t restrict our freedom to risk infection” crowd:

1) Do you pledge to live alone? Otherwise, you are risking the lives of your kids & spouse.

2) Do you volunteer to waive all medical attention? Otherwise, you are risking the lives of healthcare workers. Sure, you can put yourself in danger, but you don’t have the right to jeopardize the lives of other people.

Drunk driving is illegal, not just because you might get hurt, but because it endangers the lives of others.

You cannot risk infecting yourself w/out endangering others

Things I learned from having coronavirus:

1) Getting a phone call with a medical professional is TOUGH. The system is overloaded; it took me 5 days just to get a phone call.

2) Deciding whether or not to urgent care / ER is a hard decision. You don't want to infect others ... 2) ... but you're worried you might have pneumonia and think you should be checked out. But then again, you're too weak to drive, you can't ask anyone to drive you (because you're infectious), and it's not serious enough to merit an ambulance. It's a tough spot to be in

Quarantine Day 10: 2/ I took acetaminophen, and I’m now down to 97.3 degrees.

This emphasizes the importance going into quarantine even when you feel healthy. Thank goodness I’ve been quarantining as a precautionary measure for the last 10 days.

Thread: How can we help our friends and neighbors who are hourly workers, who rely on tips, and who otherwise are the most economically vulnerable? Here's a series of ideas below, please add to this: 2/ If you’re a landlord, tell your tenants that the last thing in the world that you want is for them to drive for Uber with a cough for the sake of paying rent. Tell them if they’re struggling, they should call you and you’ll figure something out together.

Please, and I cannot emphasize this enough, take the coronavirus threat seriously.

1: The virus can be asymptomatic for 14 days, which means thousands of people are carriers but don’t know it, spreading the infection everywhere.

(Continued below) 2: The virus is 10-35 times deadlier than the flu.

3: If you are young and healthy, and likely to make a quick recovery, that’s fantastic. Now please please stop mass indiscriminate killing people.

if you’re under 40, social isolation is not for the sake of your own life ...