DEV Community: Ivan Smirnov

Investing Starter Kit

Ivan Smirnov — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 22:58:17 +0000

I strongly believe that access to financial knowledge should be universal. Personal finance is often viewed as a scary or taboo topic, but it really doesn't have to be.

All of the knowledge is out there, and everyone deserves to be wealthy.

Here are some starter resources to get you started on your journey. I'm always happy to make time to chat with you and help you discover your goals - all I ask is that you pay it forward and share this knowledge with others who may need it.

Remember: you should not have to pay to get this knowledge. There are no "secrets" that a special guru can teach you for the "low price of 19.99/mo". All of this knowledge is free and accessible to anyone who looks.

Investing is the key to wealth. At first, you work for money. Later, your money should be working for you. The power of compound interest is unimaginable.

Examples of Compound Interest

Scenario 1:

If you start with $1,000 and invest $100 every month, over 10 years your portfolio can grow to $20,514 (assuming an 8% return). [calculator]

Scenario 2:

If you have more resources that you can put towards your portfolio, the growth is even crazier. Let's pretend you have $20,000 to start with and can invest $400 every week. You will end up with $362,768 in 10 years. [calculator]

Notice how during the later years, your interest actually starts catching up to your contributions. This is the power of compound interest. Your money starts to work for you faster and faster, all while you sleep.

Market Investing: Stocks, Bonds, and Funds

So, where do you start? First, you must learn. Read up on the basics, go through the guides and try out the simulators. Once you are comfortable, start with a small amount of money that you won't lose sleep over, and just start practicing. It's much better to lose $1,000 in your 30's compared to losing $100,000 in your 50's. Start now and learn on small portfolios, so that later you can make great decisions.

Basic Guides (start here)

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/11/3-s-simple-investing.asp - Simple guide that gently introduces you to various common terms and concepts. There are more links in the sidebar.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/stocks-vs-bonds - Stocks vs Bonds guide.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/what-is-an-etf - Guide for ETF's
https://www.fool.com/investing/how-to-invest/ - Starter guide that covers the basics.
https://www.millennial-revolution.com/investworkshop/ - this is an excellent starter guide. It explains the basics of stocks, bonds, ETF's, portfolios, and more.

Practice

Once you are ready to play, you can use these two tools as simulators with "paper money" to get a sense of how things work.

Investopedia Simulator
ThinkOrSwim - you can set up an account and practice using a more advanced interface. MAKE SURE that you are using your paper funds and not real money.

Tools for Analysis

Backtest Portfolio Asset Class Allocation - as you start to form an opinion about what you would like your portfolio to look like, you can use this tool to see how you WOULD have performed. I typically set it to start in 2000 or 2009, since the world has changed a TON since 1980.
Personal Capital - Provides an excellent visualization and overview of what your accounts look like. I'm a big fan of the "Net Worth" chart, since it shows how you are doing overall. There are also some planning and simulation capabilities in there.

Books:

One Up on Wall Street - I've heard really good things about it. Haven't read it yet, but it's come up enough that it's a good candidate for you to check out.
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
Anti Recommendation: I have read Rich Dad, Poor Dad several times, but I didn't actually see tons of useful insights in there. It's considered a classic, but it's honestly mostly just a memoir of a real estate mogul who managed to achieve success. The biggest takeaway is: have your money work for you, and optimize for passive income growth. Don't trade time for money directly. Make your resources (money or your business) work for you.

Broker Choice

Once you are ready to start investing for real, you will need to pick a broker.

Common choices are:

I have strong opinions about which ones to use and which ones to avoid, but in the interest of fairness I will simply list them all and let you decide for yourself. Key things to look out for are no commission fees (you shouldn't have to pay to buy or sell stocks) and a good selection of ETF and mutual funds.

You can see comparisons on https://www.nerdwallet.com/best/investing/online-brokers-for-stock-trading and other similar sites.

General Financial News and Analysis

None of these sites are required or part of the basic toolkit I list above. If you want to dive deeper into this space, these can be a good starting point to get the lay of the land.

https://seekingalpha.com/ - This is an interesting site. It's more focused on individual stock picks, and they will try to up-sell you to pay for their premium analysis. I don't think it's worth it. However, this can be an interesting site to peruse every few months to see what the latest trends are.
https://www.ft.com/ - Good overview of general market trends and situations.
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights - High level overviews of the business world and long term trends. Not related to specifically market news.
https://www.fool.com/ - Similar to Seeking Alpha. General Ticker news.

Real Estate Investing

This is a topic I am still quite new to, but I have already found a number of highly useful guides and resources.

BiggerPockets - This is the best site out there for comprehensive advice. They have an excellent Ultimate Beginner's Guide that covers everything you need to know.
https://www.madfientist.com/tax-benefits-of-real-estate-investing/
How to analyze a real estate market in 60 minutes - Neal Bawa - worth watching in its' entirety. Neal runs MultifamilyU and has a course on Udemy with the same material.

Final Comments

A few words of advice:

Make sure you understand all the basic terms: stocks, bonds, funds, portfolio allocation, backtesting, SP500 index, bear market, bull market.
AVOID OPTIONS AT ALL COSTS. These are very powerful tools which can make you a TON of money if you know what you are doing. However, it is my strong recommendation to avoid options (calls, puts, straddles, etc) until you have spent at least 2-3 years investing in basic financial instruments such as ETF's and mutual funds.
Take everything you read online with a grain of salt. There are many people who claim they are "experts" and can beat the market. Don't believe them. Ask to see their historical returns. To the best of my knowledge, there is no one that has consistently outperformed the SP500 or general stock market over the long run. Anyone can outperform the index by sheer dumb luck over a short enough time horizon. It's consistency that matters.
Beware of advisory fees or high expense ratios. Some of the ETF's or mutual funds you may find (such as blackrock, etc) are professionally managed and charge up to 1% management fees. That eats into your profits, and you pay the fee no matter if you made money or lost money. Vanguard funds charge 0.04%, which is a much better deal.
Understand you HAVE NOT LOST MONEY until you sell. Your portfolio can be down 50%, but it's only when you sell your assets at a loss do you lock in your losses. Do not panic - you might have lost tons of value on paper, but it's not the same as getting your bank account robbed.
Understand what you are investing in. There are tons of new financial instruments coming out, proposing investments in art, wine, crypto, and more. Read the fine print on these and seek to understand what is it exactly that you are investing in, and what are the hidden fees.
Not all stocks are listed on the Nasdaq or New York stock exchange. There are markets all over the world: https://craft.co/nasdaq/competitors . Don't be surprised if you can't find a particular company.
If you have the funds and interest, I wholeheartedly encourage you to set aside some small percentage of your portfolio for gambling with individual stocks. I find that it's a great way to scratch that itch of picking stocks. After a few years, you can compare your returns to the standard ETF portfolio you probably set up and draw your own conclusions about whether the time and effort you put into day trading is worth it.

Go forth and prosper!

Just Ask

Ivan Smirnov — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 16:49:00 +0000

I had an interesting phone call with a hotel chain the other day, where I called to politely express some concerns I had with my experience. There was a massive voltage surge that fried all the lights, so I had to move out by flashlight late at night into a different room.

The conversation went roughly like this:

Me: Hi, my name is Ivan and I had some concerns about my recent stay {list concerns here}. Could I get some rewards points for the inconvenience?

Rep: Sure, let me look into that. {after a 15 minute hold} Hi there, we can give you X points.

Me: Thank you, that's very kind. Given the nature of the concern, could you do more?

Rep: Since you asked, the max I can do is 1.5X. Here you go.

And that was that. I earned a fairly significant volume of reward points for a hotel chain that I enjoy, simply by being polite. The biggest showcase here is that second question:

Can you do more?

Most people never even ask the first question. I know many folks who will complain or boycott the hotel. Yet, it always amazes me when those same people don't call and ask for points or other perks.

If you never ask, the answer is always no.

It's incredible how often a simple ask, followed by a humble clarification if this is the most that is possible, leads to incredible results.

It's important to never be entitled or expect anything. Most service reps that you chat with are underpaid and working long hours. Coming into the conversation with compassion and politely asking for the benefits that you would like has a surprisingly high success rate.

I have called and used this technique many times. Just asking one question has been enough to double my signing bonus, get tickets to sold out shows, and so much more. It doesn't always work - sometimes there really is no leeway. But, by calling and politely asking you are already doing more than most.

Don't be afraid of rejection - the worst that happens is that some call center representative you will never talk to again says "no". If you are polite, you are not imposing on them. They are trained for this and want to help you out and make things better.

Just ask.

One Handed Typing

Ivan Smirnov — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 16:47:00 +0000

A short while back I had a small sports accident and injured my left thumb quite badly, to the point that my left hand needs to be left alone to heal. As a software engineer, this presents a major challenge.

I decided to look into one handed typing layouts. Mechanical Keyboards have been making huge leaps and bounds with hardware and sofware design, and as a corollary folks have gotten VERY deep into ergonomic keyboard layout design and scientific optimization based on biomechanics.

After some initial research, I found two layouts optimized specifically for one handed typing:

Both of these remind me of ASETNIOP used by the Ginny, but that one is aiming to be a stenographic keyboard for two handed typists.

The community around Frogpad seemed a little less engaged, so I joined the Artsey.IO discord server and started diving into the layout. I picked up a Boardsource 3x4 macro pad and flashed Artsey.IOon it.

The training is slow, but it's better than not being able to type at all.

My Top Book Recommendations

Ivan Smirnov — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 16:39:04 +0000

I deeply enjoy reading books. Here's a short list of some of my favorites.

Non Fiction

Every book on this list has changed my life in a pivotal manner. I invite you to read them for yourself and hope it brings about positive change for you as well.

How to Win friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - great foundation on interacting well with people.
Getting Things Done by David Allen- the root of my time management philosophy.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo - great philosophical foundation.
Esentialism by Greg McKeown - pivotal work on how to priorize in life.
Deep Work by Cal Newport - a must read on how to work better.
Algorithms to Live By - fun read on how to apply computer algorithms to optimize your daily life.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari - an excellent history of the human race.
Give and Take by Adam Grant - understand different types of people and how to interact best with them.
Atomic Habits by James Clear - an actionabe guide on how to set up proper habits in life.
All books by Malcolm Gladwell

Fiction

Sometimes you just need to decompress. I like reading books with well developed worlds and consistent logic.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - A mind blowing fan fiction with deep tenets in rationalism and science. Extremely enjoyable. Familiarity with original Potterverse is a must.
Deathworlders - excellent web serial about humans in space. Touches upon all parts of life, and characters and world are incredibly well developed.
Mother of Learning - a fun web serial about a mage in a time loop. Download here.
Nexus Trilogy by Ramez Naam - This is a very interesting series about the emergence of superconsciousness and how the world reacts to it. I believe that it is entirely possible that events such as these will unfold in our future here on Earth, and found the description of events here very enlightening and thought provoking.
Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - A very fun read, set in an alternate universe in medieval times. What I liked about this series was that it was more than just action and drama - the author managed to encode some very interesting discussions and thoughts about morality, life, philosophy, and ethics. Very enjoyable read, and quite deep.
Tide Lords by Jennifer Fallon - This was definitely more of a fun time killer. Action, magic, and a captivating plot. Grat for a nice vacation.
All works by Terry Pratchett. Here is the suggested reading order.

Reflections on Mindset and Framing

Ivan Smirnov — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 07:08:37 +0000

I recently had a chance to visit the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. It's a curious system of caves with various stalactites and stalagmites and interesting rock formations, located in the ancient seabed in the mountains.

I found the experience enjoyable, but at times it felt slightly underwhelming because of the lack of color variety. One could say that a cave is a cave, after all.

As I descended into the earth, I started playing with different framing and mindset adjustments. On the surface level, my experience boils down slowly walking into a dark cave on a path.

Going one level deeper, I started to appreciate the incredible volume of work that went into creating the pathway that I was on. It was smooth concrete with metal guard rails the entire mile down. There were lights placed to illuminate the rock formations from the most appealing angle, and various signs with educational texts. Given that this was in a cave, all of the materials must have been carried in by hand or at best wheeled in. Some of the passages were narrow and I could tell that they were carved out by hand.

Thinking about it even deeper, I realized that the cavity that I was descending into was the vacuum created by the absence of a truly incomprehensible volume of water that used to be the body of a sea. I was walking into a geological crypt, seeing the bottom of an ocean as it slowly receded it into the earth over the aeons. It no longer became just a cave, but rather a unique experience with sights, smells, and sensations that can only be experienced here.

Going even one level deeper, I started ruminating about the relative time scales of events. Some of those stalactites grew at most a fraction of a millimeter during the entirety of my lifetime, and with luck will continue growing long past the human race expands into the universe. If my entire life is but a fleeting moment on the geological time scale, what do my accomplishments mean? Which one of my creations will stand the test of time, and what failures of mine will fade into oblivion?

Reframing this walk lead to quite curious ruminations. I have noticed similar anecdotes from other events in my life. A boring party can turn into a fascinating anthropological event. Misfortune at work can highlight the incredible nuances of human collaboration. A failure of plans can lead to novel spontaneity. I'm really enjoying exercising this muscle of gratitude and appreciation and rumination about the different mindsets I can simultaneously maintain in an experience.

In a way, all of the viewpoints are correct. I spent an hour walking in a dark hole. I spent 60 minutes traversing what took years to build for humans. I spent 3600 minutes walking through the tomb of an ancient sea. And finally, I spent 3,600,000 microseconds walking past growing structures to which I myself am but a fraction of a moment.

Fixing DNS for Wireguard on MacOS

Ivan Smirnov — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 23:55:00 +0000

If you are using the Wireguard MacOS App with your VPN's, you will notice that your custom DNS entries are not getting set at the system level.

You can manually edit Network Preferences -> Wi-Fi -> Advanced -> DNS and add your DNS server, but that will cause DNS errors if your VPN drops and your system DNS still points to the wireguard DNS instance.

A workaround is to add a PostUp and PostDown option to your wireguard config:

[Interface]
Address = 10.200.200.1/24
ListenPort = 51820
PrivateKey = SERVER_PRIVATE_KEY

# DNS server
DNS = 10.66.66.1

# Commands to set and clear DNS
PostUp = sudo /usr/sbin/networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi 10.66.66.1
PostDown = sudo /usr/sbin/networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi "Empty"

[Peer]
# foo
PublicKey = PEER_FOO_PUBLIC_KEY
PresharedKey = PRE-SHARED_KEY
AllowedIPs = 10.200.200.2/32

Wireguard Sample Configuration

The wireguard GUI will not read the PostUp and PostDown, so you will have to run your wireguard commands from the command line.

Solution: Use the CLI

First, install the tools:

brew install wireguard-tools wireguard-go

Then, save your config to the folder:

vim /usr/local/etc/wireguard/myvpn.conf

Finally, launch your VPN - using the same name as the conf file.

sudo wg-quick up myvpn

Bonus: Alias/Visudo

You can set up an alias with alias vpnup='sudo wg-quick up myvpn'

If you don't want to enter your password each time, simply run sudo visudo -f /private/etc/sudoers.d/wireguard and paste the following contents, replacing myuser with your username.

myuser ALL = (root) NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/wg-quick

Abusing Public DNS for Zerotier Routing

Ivan Smirnov — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 19:11:22 +0000

Picking a Mesh VPN

I've been a big fan of mesh VPNs for many years now. It's great to not have to deal with Strongswan or OpenVPN on a central server. Mesh VPN's also come with intelligent routing, so if both of my devices are at home on the same network they will dial each other directly. This concept also combines nicely with my interest in setting up a BeyondCorp analog for my home use.

I used to run a private cloud on Tinc, but adding new devices was extremely cumbersome and there is no mobile device support.

After looking into alternatives, I discovered Tailscale and Zerotier. I don't need the hardcore firewall rules of Tailscale, so I decided to set up Zerotier on all of my devices. The installation truly is less than 5 minutes - I am impressed.

Abusing DNS

I can set custom IP's in my class B address space (prefix 172.xx), but I don't want to memorize them all. Even though it's not up to DNS spec, we can set internal IP's as A records on Amazon Route53 and have them resolve to the Zerotier address space.

I don't view it as a strong security risk, because even if someone knows my internal VPN IP, they still have to break into the network to route any requests to my devices.

By setting up semi-proper DNS for my machines, I can completely detach from the physical network layout and have all of my proxies and scripts reference the internal VPN DNS names. This works extremely well - I can move my server and plug it into any network, and still be able to access it.

Mobile Support

Most importantly, I now have easy addresses to use on my mobile devices. I can install the app and join my network, then use Files, Termius, or Solid Explorer to view my files and media on the go.