Things I Wish I’d Been Told: Tips For Students with a Bachelors in Computer Science

Re:Things I Wish I’d Been Told: Tips For Students with a Bac... by orp on Thursday February 26, 2009 @06:03AM (#495735)

There's no such thing as 7% yearly interest without risk. It just doesn't exists.

If you look at government bonds (a.k.a. TBills), they'll tell you exactly how much interest a truly risk free investment is worth (in yearly interest). Anything higher then that is risky, by definition.

On top of that, you have to factor in inflation.

In other words, it's good to save money, but managing saved money is hard. Be ready for that.

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Re:Things I Wish I’d Been Told: Tips For Students with a Bac... by wmorein on Thursday February 26, 2009 @09:07AM (#495846)

"If you look at government bonds (a.k.a. TBills), they'll tell you exactly how much interest a truly risk free investment is worth"

That used to be true, but it isn't strictly true any more. The Credit Default Swaps for US Treasuries are priced to imply that you need to subtract around 1/10 of a percent (100 basis points) from the yield to get the real risk free rate. See http://www.fxstreet.com/fundamental/analysis-reports/sunrise...

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Re:Things I Wish I’d Been Told: Tips For Students with a Bac... by nandemo on Thursday February 26, 2009 @11:25AM (#496000)

A CDS for US Treasuries seems crazy. I wonder how many counterparties would be alive in case of a default...

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Re:Things I Wish I’d Been Told: Tips For Students with a Bac... by Shamiq on Thursday February 26, 2009 @07:17PM (#496649)

I think that's why they are basically risk free. When something that major goes down, chances are your greenbacks won't be worth a damn.

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