So I browse Tildes, Hacker News, and Reddit, but I'm wondering if there are online communities or hubs out there where entrepreneurial folks discuss actionable business problems and projects, instead of news or memes.

I notice that people will spend endless time online discussing the minutiae of their personal lives, celebrity lives, politics, and son, which are fine. But I want to read about how people are working out the kinks of drone delivery, improving access to and availability of mental healthcare, making municipal permitting more streamlined, and other processes.

Hi Friends,

I'm in the (very) early stages of creating a financial endowment fund for a small non-profit community organization I help out with. I feel they're a good fit for such an investment vehicle: their current revenue stream fluctuates a bit and many of their events rely heavily on attendance fees for funding, which is unrealistic when they attempt to cater to lower-income demographics. However, they have a relatively wealthy patronage that tends to remain involved for years or decades, and I believe they have the institutional stability to operate more complex financial instruments.

I pitched the idea of an endowment at a high level to the Chairwoman last week, and the Board is interested in moving forward. We haven't decided how exactly we want to structure the endowment yet: restricted endowment, quasi-endowment, etc. We also haven't determined exactly how much money we should fundraise for a principal investment, what our portfolio spread should look like, and how much of the annual interest we can afford to spend. (I have estimates, but they're not final.) I'm particularly interested in resources that can help the institution plan for inevitable economic downturns.

Has anyone here done this kind of work before? If so, would you be willing to chat about some of the nuances of organizing it, and/or do you have recommendations on reading material to help with the creation and maintenance of such a fund? We plan to receive consultations from an accountant and a lawyer, but I don't have much formal background in finance and would welcome any experience, advice, warnings, or external resources Tildesians can offer.

Thanks,
Atvelonis

For example Vanguard Russell 2000 Growth ETF shows a pe ratio of 19.5 on it's portfolio page, but etf.com (which reportedly calculates PE ratio in the "logical" method we probably all think of) says it's 236.89.

There is also the russel 2000 etf, which shows 14.3 on vanguard and 43.63 on etf.com (I saw no clear indication on the vanguard website they are removing losing companies), ishares does say that for it's etf.

I want to know the PE ratio because economic bubbles (like the dot comm bubble and japan stock market bubble) were characterized by very high pe ratio, and there is historical evidence low pe performs better (probably because of the optimism bias).

I can use etf.com, but would like another source to validate etf.com is reporting correctly .

I have mixed views on arbitration, it does lower costs, but arbitrators rarely see things from the consumers' perspectives.

Here are the instructions for opting out, which I will be recommending to all my friends (followed by a link to the form):

You can choose to reject this Agreement to Arbitrate (“opt-out”) by mailing us a written opt-out notice. For new Venmo users, the opt-out notice must be postmarked no later than 30 days after the date you accept the User Agreement for the first time. If you are already a current Venmo user and previously accepted the User Agreement prior to the introduction of this Agreement to Arbitrate on May 23, 2022, the Opt-Out Notice must be postmarked no later than June 22, 2022. You must mail the opt-out notice to PayPal, Inc., Attn: Litigation Department, Re: Venmo Opt-Out Notice, 2211 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95131. For your convenience, we are providing an opt-out notice form you must complete and mail to opt-out of this Agreement to Arbitrate. You must complete this form by providing all the information it calls for, including your name, address, phone number, Venmo user name, and the email address(es) used to log in to the Venmo account(s) to which the opt-out applies. You must sign the opt-out notice for it to be effective. This procedure is the only way you can opt-out of the Agreement to Arbitrate. If you opt-out of this Agreement to Arbitrate, all other parts of the User Agreement will continue to apply. Opting out of this Agreement to Arbitrate has no effect on any previous, other, or future arbitration agreements that you may have with us.

The form:

https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360062640153

It's a very hard topic to research lately because of the crypto-bros lately and it's very hard to trust a stranger on youtube spouting financial advice.

Can tildes suggest any must-read books and/or resources to become more financially literate?

Background: I'm a software engineer from Germany, I'm making decent salary, but I've always been incredibly bad with money. I just spend what I need and almost never look after my financial state. The result, as you can imagine, is a very low rate of savings and a lot of unrealized gains.

Honestly, it's kind of embarrassing to ask, I lucked into a great industry, but has been so irresponsible with my money, I guess the first step is acceptance.

Over the past few years, I've become increasingly uncomfortable with continuing to invest in broad market index funds, given the bulk of my money is being invested in industries or companies that actively go against my moral beliefs, e.g. Facebook, Wal-Mart, fossil fuel companies, etc. There are "ethical" index funds, but I've had a hard time finding ones that are broad and fit my beliefs (e.g. Vanguard's ESG funds exclude nuclear energy), but there are ones that are close, so maybe this is a good option. I also could invest in specific companies that fit my goals, but my pool of money is small enough that that would be pretty risky.

Of course, the caveat of all participation in the stock market is some shade of unethical applies and that my individual choice would be drastically overstated if compared even with a drop in a bucket, but if my goal is to minimize my harm while still growing my savings at a rate slightly above buying bonds, what would you do? Assuming that becoming a landlord is also off the table. Are there ethical investment options you like or participate in? How have you navigated this with regards to your own personal philosophy?

Hey everyone, as a goal for this coming year I’d like to better put to use the small amount of savings I have.

My first idea is:

• 3k emergency fund in a NS&I Government insured account.
• 2k in a Vanguard index fund.

A few questions:

1. Is this sort of setup the best use for such a sum?

2. If so, with the impending brexit, does it makes sense to move the money out of the U.K?

3. Is there much maintenance with an index fund or is it sufficient to let the money sit? I’m aware anything of this nature is essentially a gamble.

4. How do you calculate a worthwhile amount to invest considering the on-running service costs?

5. Does anyone have experience with ethical index funds? If so which? And how have they performed for you?

Any help is most appreciated.

My background: I've run a small bookkeeping business in California for the past 6 years, and worked as a bookkeeper for another 6 years before that. Over the years I've been deep in the books of dozens of businesses, both successful and not. In the process of working closely with the owners of said businesses, I've learned a lot about what makes a small business work and what means I shouldn't get too attached. I'm a generalist, working with for and non-profit businesses as well as well to do individuals (who often have financial lives more complex than my business clients.)

I'm bored and it's a smoky Sunday trapping me indoors, so if you have a question about bookkeeping or running/starting a small business, fire away.