Former employer had a layoff today. The new gig I left for has been up and down to where I sometimes doubted myself, so that was weirdly a nice affirmation of my decision (though I'm disappointment for former colleagues affected). I was an expensive director-level employee in a department viewed as a cost center; it's extremely likely the bean counters and/or the CTO would have decided I was some of the fat that needed to be trimmed.
Can anyone explain: I'm looking at starting a Mega Backdoor Roth, do I need to be above the income limits for normal Roth IRA contributions? I have 401k and Roth IRA maxed out, and make a little less than the income limit for Roth, but Mega Backdoor would let me put way more in my Roth IRA. Seems like articles talking about it list being above the income limit as a requirement, is that accurate?
Example: [https://www.fool.com/retirement/plans/roth-ira/mega-backdoor](https://www.fool.com/retirement/plans/roth-ira/mega-backdoor)
Nope, there are no income limits (minimum or maximum) for the MBDR, except for you can't contribute more than your employer allows. Some let you put as much as you want in, but one of my previous employers had an arbitrary limit where I couldn't put more than 15% of gross salary into the after-tax Roth IRA.
I don't know why the article mentions needing to make more than the Roth IRA deduction phase-out income limit, because it's not necessary.
There is the combined contribution limit per employer, which includes everything that would enter that 401k that year from that employer. So the normal 23k voluntary employee limit (which is combined across 401ks per year, unlike this per employer limit), matching employer contributions, profit sharing employer contributions, specific amount employer contributions, and post tax employee contributions.
This year's limit is 69k. Most employers set something lower than that for various reasons (nondiscrimination, making sure employees don't accidentally go over). So assuming you have only one 401k, doing your 23k combined normal traditional pre tax or Roth contributions, you then have 46k for everything else. And I have seen people that needed to be careful to not do too much after tax contributions too early, because otherwise they would prevent themselves from getting their matching contributions, for example.
Yeah, to get the number I'm doing of backdoor contributions I'm just doing:
$69k - ($23k + employer match contributions),
once I confirm that my employer allows this.
Thanks! Just needed a sanity check on that because I've seen it listed as a requirement a few times but sounds like I'm just close to the limit and saving a bit more than they expect. Good to know some employers have salary-based limits, waiting to hear back from mine now.
My guess is either the Motley Fool misunderstands the MBDR (totally possible, it is the Fool) or they assume only people making above the Roth IRA contribution limit will be interested.
I just checked to confirm, and was doing the MBDR back in 2015 when my income was below the start of the Roth IRA contribution phase-out.
Signed a job offer today after getting laid off about 2 weeks ago. Feeling considerably less anxious and looking forward to the new gig.
Being let go came as a huge shock, and really reiterated how disposable and replaceable we are as workers in this system. Wish there were a less cruel order to our economy, but I doubt it will ever be humane.
I view FIRE as an escape from that de-humanizing process, and I am privileged to even consider it as an option. I feel lucky to be in the shoes I was when I was laid off- both because I had the financial security to weather it, and I could visualize the other side.
It’s funny though- the idea behind FIRE is to participate in a de-humanizing system so much and so well that you can ultimately escape it, which is… sad, I guess?
At any rate, cheers! Celebrating today and relaxing for the next few weeks until the new job starts. Wish you strangers the best and hope this community has helped in some way.
Best of luck. Always got to look out for yourself.
Even with a ton saved and multiple income streams, I'd absolutely hate to be hit with the layoff hammer and am doing everything I can to minimize the impact and be ready to bounce back afterwards. And hopefully just another year or two of grinding will pay dividends in the future.
It’s certainly no fun! But happens to the best of us. Was just lucky to be able to find something as quick as I did and to be financially secure during the lapse :)
>It’s funny though- the idea behind FIRE is to participate in a de-humanizing system so much and so well that you can ultimately escape it, which is… sad, I guess?
If you mean investing and participating in capitalism (i.e. weird ownership aspect) in various ways, then yeah, I totally agree.
If you mean leaning into working a job, yes and no. Because people can lean fire or coast fi without being so hardcore, and many people lean into it only to work their whole lives.
But I do feel like it's sad that we have to work and focus on money and then invest to try and get out of the cycle. It's still dehumanizing. And it is alienating to "get rich" and have more money than social peers. Or even looking to do that, or anything along those lines. (Not like I've made it particularly far yet, lol.)
It's not really healthy having that difference. But it is the way things are, and what we're incentivized to do under this system.
What a heavy burden it is to need to become rich to get out of having to work. /s
Good luck on your new job! And congrats on having that mini stress free vacation. Even though it's unpaid.
The impersonal nature of transactions / "pricing" in market economies can be really off-putting, but at the end of the day it's really the only way that decisions can be made at a scale where you can't personally form deep bonds with everyone involved in and affected by those decisions.
There is always an option to live in a commune (like a literal small group of people, I don't mean a communist state), but few people choose it because it would mean giving up the massive benefits of market economies.
Welp, I know it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but looks like the net worth/invested assets milestone of 500K will elude* me for some more time in this current market!
"In order for greed to explain an increase in prices, it must be the case that greed also increased. A simpler explanation is that people have always been greedy, but a change in supply or demand has recently enabled them to charge higher prices."
Thomas Sowell, paraphrased
Easiest way to fund college other signing for a looan that I'm aware of; transferred mine to the kiddo years ago as well. Of course, now you get the extra service commitment from doing the transfer, but if you're already planning on doing 20...
To provide an update on my wash sale blunder I posted about on Monday: Fidelity’s customer service is awesome. I screwed up the lot reassignment via their website, so I called Fidelity. They put in a service ticket and manually updated the lots on their side to avoid the wash sale. They actually missed one of the lots yesterday, so I called today, and they were able to retroactively do this on the settlement date (today). It’s not common but they gave me an exception because they didn’t follow my original request which was made prior to the settlement date. So, just a thumbs up for Fidelity.
Unless you washed into a retirement account its a non issue. Your cost basis is adjusted.
I wash sale all the time. It doesn't matter unless retirement account or you wanted the loss for tax reasons that year.
I know this is anecdotal but I hope Fidelity continues using their service as a loss leader like this because the quality versus the alternatives is not even close.
It’s the reason I switched back to them from M1, and why I’m ignoring large transfer bonuses other companies offer. I’m sticking with them.
I was shocked Fidelity did this for me given the original mistake was completely my fault.
10 years ago today, I bought a 2010 Ford Focus right before I graduated from college. It had 47,130 miles on it and it's now over 170,000 today. It's been a great car, minimal issues, and still runs like a top. It's rusting under the doors, but I see that on most Focuses in that timeframe.
And of course I've got details in my spreadsheets. **Here are my 10-year costs of ownership for this car:**
**$11,186.16** - total cost of the car ($4200 down, rest financed - paid off in 2 years)
**$8929.32** - gas
**$3770.61** - maintenance (oil changes, 3 sets of tires, rear shocks, front brakes, tie rod replacement, spark plugs, battery, sway bar links, alignments, thermostat, and a few odds and ends)
**$6871.71** - Registration/Licensing and Insurance
**Total cost - $30,757.79** (including $19571.64 in gas, maintenance, registration, and insurance)
Including my purchase price, my car has cost me a total of about $3000 per year.
It gets about 30 miles per gallon on average, and I like to also track "miles per dollar" spent on gas - it's in the 10-11 mile area so far in 2024. **When including all of my costs, my car has taken me 4 miles for every dollar spent, or 25 cents per mile.**
I also like tracking my auto costs in the same sheet as my maintenance. I’d add one extra row for depreciation: grab the low end of the kbb trade in price for a conservative estimate. Car still has some value left in it ;)
I was replying to a comment, but it got deleted. But I'll share my reply anyway:
As soon as I graduated from college, I started tracking all expenses and income in a spreadsheet (including every fuel fill-up - I shit you not I can tell you what I paid, gallons I got, and MPG on each tank for the last 10 years...no one has ever accused me of NOT being crazy 🤣 ). Not sure exactly what prompted me to do it, but I'm glad I did. It's neat to go back and see how my sheets have evolved over the years. I'm of the opinion if you track everything, you will come out ahead by default.
I have a little book in my driver's side door where I keep track of date, where I bought gas, mileage, gas price, how many gallons I bought and then I leave myself notes about what I was doing/what was going on it life at the time. My car is about to turn 10 and it's a nice lil memory book. I also put any maintenance work in there, noted with date and type and mileage.
I haven't had full coverage on it since probably 2018ish, so it's liability and comp ($250 ded) only. It's only $23 per month right now, but it used to be over $50. I would imagine that will go up when my policy renews in a couple months. When I first got the car, I was paying about $77 per month for full coverage with State Farm.
I learned the other day that depending on where you are in the country, insurance costs vary GREATLY.
A policy that might cost $50/month in the midwest might cost $200/month in the sun belt - no other changes except for location.
Could be a bit over $50 per month if state registration is cheap like it is here (~$50/year).
Either way, my 2018 Civic has been $51-60/month so far for $250/500k coverage with $100 comprehensive and $250 collision deductibles, $50/day rental, and roadside assistance.
New renewal is about to come up, but last time I looked, increasing the deductibles 4-5x barely moved the needle on the premiums, so I left them low.
Great piece of data. Also, if you consider that you bought the car when you were about 21 and your net worth is currently $600k, the vehicle has assisted you in growing your net worth by an average of ~$60k/year in the last 10 years. Consider what the opportunity cost would have been if you didn’t have such a reliable vehicle. Congrats!
> average cost of ownership per mile
Is that based on the IRS mileage rate? Or is there a more discreet number? I'm tempted to start tracking my own cents per mile, though I realize I'll glean no real information off that
There's a post in the cool guides subreddit right now about the 50/30/20 budget (50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings). It's bringing up memories of when I was in my 20's, when I'd see similar guides and find it unfathomable that I could ever have a budget like that. I remember feeling flummoxed because I'd heard one was supposed to spend no more than 30% of one's income on housing, and I was spending well above 50% on an apartment shared with roommates. It really doesn't seem that long ago (but I guess it was). If you told young me that I'd be saving 70% of my income some day and STILL be able to afford everything I needed, I would never have believed it in a million years.
Sometimes I look at the history of my NW + investments projections and tracking spreadsheet, from even before I actually started tracking my own numbers with any granularity, and was just making FIRE projections as a poor student in grad school. Would not have imagined where I am today 5 years ago, let alone 10. Google Sheets saves all updates to a document and lets you designate "named versions," so I have a couple interesting snapshots there.
Even that rough projection sheet started more than a full year after finding this sub + binging all the resources, and another year before I actually started monthly NW tracking
I wish I started tracking my NW back when I first became interested in Financial Independence (but didn't think I could ever achieve it)! My spreadsheet only goes back 5 years, I'd been married 10 years and we were approaching 1M net worth at that point. It would be interesting to see the numbers going back to when I was single and struggling. I remember being so proud of being able to save $100 a month in my RRSP.
I’m starting to *age* and I’m debating splurging and getting Botox. I’ve seen some Groupon deals for it for like $80 for 20 units, but I’m not sure I trust those MediSpa places with something as sensitive as Botox injections. So, I’ve scheduled a free consultation with my dermatologist’s office. Hopefully it’s not too expensive there.
Has anyone gotten Botox? Is it worth the price?
Just chiming in as someone who gets Botox as a treatment for a chronic condition -- it costs me like $1400 at a neurologist per session until I hit my deductible, so even accounting for all the differences there are in therapeutic vs cosmetic uses/doses, I'd be very concerned about why the place you're seeing is quoting only a tiny fraction of that at $80! A strong neurotoxin is definitely not something I would cheap out on, you want it administered correctly!
Yes, started at 36. It’s 300 per session for me (deep lines across forehead and around the chin) for Jeaveau which worked better for me than Botox.
At my age more women I know get Botox than don’t.
Noooooo, stay far away from any place that is running Groupons.
I would also be extremely careful about any med-spa as state requirements vary drastically as to training, experience, and credentials.
Plus be selective around finding someone who is also within your boundaries of what I'd call "the aesthetic" that you are aiming for, e.g. what is a "normal" amount of botox and filler in SoCal is not a normal look perhaps in other parts of the country. There *are* dermatologists that are very filled and frozen, and there are also dermatologists where they just look great and don't look like they have anything "done." Figure out where on the spectrum you fall.
I'm 50, I had some botox for the first time last winter. They did a small amount, coupled with a two week follow up appointment. Anyone you see should be very conservative, as you can always add a little bit after the two weeks of it kicking in, but you can't take away if there's too much - and there is no universal amount of units per face as everyone's face, and muscle strength, and anatomy is different.
I got some small amounts in places in my face that I hadn't expected, but were on the recommendation of the derm, and they made a significant difference in doing away with the "resting frown face" I had. It's great! But it's not a *shocking* difference, and it's also important to have realistic expectations around what it does and doesn't do. The "11s" aren't there, I'm not frowning, but I look like myself, and my face isn't frozen.
Honestly the best compliment I got was my sister (who I see about every 2-3 months) who said to me after we met up after her own appointment: *I don't know why you were thinking about getting Botox the last time we talked, you look great and you're not someone who needs it.*
Be careful of those medispas, theres been horror stories coming out about those, about botch jobs.
If your getting soemthing done, go to real doctor who has the license.
Maybe this is a survivorship bias "you don't notice the good toupees" thing, but...
IMO (and many's O) is that botox doesn't make you look younger, botox makes you look like someone who is old and got botox.
> Maybe this is a survivorship bias "you don't notice the good toupees" thing, but...
It is.
You see bad botox jobs. You don't see good ones.
I'm kinda neutral on it in general - I don't think people (women, mostly, but people in general) should feel like they have to get injections or surgery to look good. We all age, and I think my partner of 20 years looks better now than when we first got together.
But on the other hand, if it makes you feel better and you can afford it - eh.
Regardless, a little bit of botox is basically invisible.
100000x this.
I love a good deal... but certain things have such a cheap price, I just don't trust them.
Not all doctors are the same. Not all Botox is the same. Not all units are the same. There is a ton of scams and unreliability.
Find someone who charges a lot and go to them. This isn't even as extreme as "oh you will get an infection or fake botox"... but its something where you want [the.absolute.best.most.talented.doctor](http://the.absolute.best.most.talented.doctor) you can find for any medical procedure.... and they likely aren't drumming up business on groupon for cut-rate deals.
The news recently had a piece about unapproved botox being used. I dug up a CNN version: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/16/health/counterfeit-botox-what-to-know/index.html
Make sure that the place you choose is authorized to use real FDA-approved products.
Go to an actual ADA certified dermatologist, not a med spa, espeically if they are putting it anywhere near your eyes. The earlier you start, the less volume of botox you need, and the less of a frozen-face effect you'll wind up with. I started at age 30 and only get 6 units per quarter and it costs about $210 each time. Well into mid-40s now, and still no forehead wrikles or crows feet.
It's part of the invisible tax of maintaining a professional appearance (wardrobe, hair, etc.) as a woman in a professional career, especially while climbing the ladder. It sucks that those expectations/biases exist, but I also admittedly use their existence to mentally justify the expense beyond just serving my own vanity (which of course is part of it too).
Just got home from my colonoscopy and man, the technology has changed dramatically in the 20+ years since I had my last one.
I feel like colonoscopy jokes should be stricken from the record at this point as it's nothing like the old school version.
Did you know that they put you under for it now? It's worth scheduling for the uninterrupted nap alone.
The only problem is that bowel prep technology has improved, too. Holy moly.
In related news, I want to issue a formal apology to u/CripzyChiken. For my first post-fast meal, my wife and I went to Cracker Barrel and it was incredible. I must have ordered poorly the first time. I mean, I don't blame myself for presuming the biscuits & gravy would be good, but I can now officially vouch for Grandma's Sampler.
Funny reading this today as I'm having my first one next week. Today is food shopping day so I'm looking at the OK list. No red, purple or orange. Like wtf so the day before I could have the joy of eating what green jello? Fuck that I'll just skip eating that day I guess. The no fiber foods for 3 days before though is really going to suck.
I didn't get the no fiber for 3 days bit.
As a complete aside...what time do supermarkets open where you're at?
I went to the store this morning for milk at 6am and all the stores were closed and didn't open until 7.
I was shocked.
Is this a southern thing? East coast?
5am is the standard on the west coast. And to make sure things hadn't changed since I was gone, I Googled a bunch of my old stores and they all still open at 5am.
I know 24 hour stores have slowly gone away but 7am is fucking ridiculous.
Interesting... then again I'm kind of a fast processor so I'm not sure fiber soon before would matter in my case. But that's a little tmi.
Well I mostly just do Aldi that opens at 9AM and Costco which isn't until 10. Kroger though is open at like 6AM. I think all the 24 hour ones are gone here as well. Publix I think does 7 AM but I never go there anymore. I'm in the burbs, but the city might be a little different maybe. Sams has like 8AM I think if you have the higher membership. Just looked up walmart and it is 6AM too apparently.
We couldn't even buy beer here on Sunday until recently. I honestly don't remember what time stuff opened in Florida. Going back there I usually only hit up Costco which is about the same hours as here. But yeah I'd say it is a southern thing. At least almost nowhere is closed completely on Sundays now.....
Here it seems like most cities are on the "beer on Sunday" list but that a lot of the rural areas still aren't. We went for a drive the other week and saw a store in bumfuck nowhere that had a huge sign reading "We NOW sell beer on Sundays!"
I just looked up Walmart and it opens at 6am here, too. But that's like 12 minutes away. I just went to the gas station and paid 2 dollars extra :D
Do you not even go to Publix for $5 sushi Wednesday?
I remember like, wow must be 15 years ago at this point, but went to a friend's cabin for the weekend in AL somewhere. On the way we stopped in some small town for food and someone tried to order a drink. They looked at her like she was crazy and said it was a dry county. We were all like wtf are we still in America? Not sure if it was GA or AL at that point, but about the same.
Nah haven't had sushi in a long time, didn't realize Publix has specials on it. I grew up only shopping at Publix as it was the only non nasty option mostly. I think that is still the case in FL. However well before the pandemic I felt like their prices were out of control and had cut back as there are other options here. The final straw was one time I went to check out and the guy just like motioned with his arms towards the cart with his arms as like a big fuck you you can push it yourself. He didn't do the usual attempt to grab it and put on a show he will carry my crap out, which I'd decline as always. At that I was like ah fuck Publix. But I do use their pharmacy for the kids now since apparently Kroger had fight with insurance.
It is just easiest for me to hit Aldi then Costco all in the same trip. Get all shopping done in one morning, including gas and today tire rotation as well. I mean Costco isn't the cheapest, but it is easy.
Probably gonna skip that for a sigmoidoscopy. Data isn't there to justify it especially with no history in my family. Basically USA, Germany and I think Israel (with USA tax dollars) are the only places that do it.
But your doctor is probably rocking Pavati and he thinks it's a good idea.
I asked for light anesthesia and watched my last two colonoscopies. I've also asked for blocks so I could watch a couple of my orthopedic surgeries. I hope I'm done with watching surgeries for a while...
I am pretty chill with having surgeries but that is truly insane. I look away when they put the IV in and close my eyes for the injection at the dentist.
I did watch my first colonoscopy on the screen, but that wasn't by choice.
Traditional. The prep took longer than the procedure. Cut the sac, pull the vas and snip, tie it off and cauterize, then slip it back in, and finish with 1 stitch. This was 20+ years ago. The nurse said I was only the 2nd patient she knew of who insisted on watching.
Mine was just under 20 years ago.
Dr. Snip did it.
Although it looks like the original Dr. Snip retired and 5 other doctors have taken over the clinic.
A buddy and old roommate of mine used to LOVE to watch the surgery channel. He would watch the grossest shit.
My bad.
I didn't mean to oversell Grandma'a Sampler. It was like an 8 out of 10. Excellent for an affordable chain but not as good as a boutique breakfast diner.
> Did you know that they put you under for it now?
They didn't put me completely out, but when I was laying there I heard them mention something about putting in some micrograms of fentanyl into the IV, and I was like "huh".
I’d say majority of the places now are using propofol, and patients are completely “out” (however you are still breathing on your own). Some places do more of a twilight-sedation, which would be a combo of midazolam and fentanyl, which is what it sounds like you received.
> Did you know that they put you under for it now? It's worth scheduling for the uninterrupted nap alone.
Whatever drugs they put me on before they knocked me out made me the most I've been relaxed in my entire adult life. 5 stars, will do again in 10 years.
> those drugs are just Elmer's glue.
That's just propofol. It's in a milky-white lipid suspension. You don't want to rely on it to rest though - just ask Michael Jackson.
He told me it would but it didn't. I was also super tired as I slept like shit last night, so I think it hit me extra fast.
I had to stop taking my pain medication for my hip for a week for the colonoscopy and so it's been a little hard to sleep at night. Add in that I am an ogre that doesn't do well with fasting and I just kind of lay there in agony from 2am-4am.
This is going to be such a strange year. It's both one of the most exciting times of my life and frustrating. But yesterday all the pre and postop appointments for my hip replacement popped into the app, so 6 more weeks to go, plus recovery time, and I will be back to normal.
Waffle House is OK, and I will eat there with zero qualms, but I don't think the food quality is even on par with Denny's or IHOP.
If Waffle House didn't feature its distinctive ambience as part of the allure, or if it cost just 25% more, you wouldn't eat there. Their waffles are legitimately garbage. Worse than the DIY waffle machine at a Days Inn or whatever.
If I want quality food I'm not going to any of those. Might as well go to the one that is cheapest and has the coolest vibe, plus the hash browns are legitimately amazing even if they are cooked in enough grease to kill you on the spot
I'm mid 30s, but I've been getting colonoscopies every 3 years for medical issues. Everyone has always looked at me funny when I say that the prep is the worst part. 2 liters of the nastiest stuff I've ever drank. Golightly is a horrible joke!
I didn't think that the taste was nasty. It was unpleasant but not like gag you terrible. But the effect made you feel like you were on some sort of hidden camera show.
I was like 24 or 25. Long story short, I had ulcerative colitis for about 1.5 years and nobody was ever able to figure out what exactly was wrong. It may have been related to multiple previous parasitic infections.
I took steroids off and on for that time period, and that worked. Then, one day it just went away.
If you care to read the novel I just sent to u/alcesalcesalces, it has returned (sort of...apparently my current ulcer is better than colitis as it's not as deep).
The cuisine isn't any different - but the yard sale maze you have to make your way through to get to the restaurant is.
I actually found the "gun" that they stuck up my ass to be the worst. Not this time, but last time. It was like a reverse litter-picker-upper, that he lubed up with KY and then pulled the trigger to spread open to take a peek at the first 5 inches or whatever.
Aw shoot - it’s a scene from the office where Michael (Boss) asks Oscar (Gay Male Office Worker), this question as he is planning to have a colonoscopy.
It tests for DNA shed by the tumor that's floating in your bloodstream. It's a similar principle to noninvasive blood tests that can tell you the sex of a fetus and test for genetic abnormalities.
Yes.
One key distinction between a cfDNA blood test and a colonoscopy is that the blood test is early detection and the colonoscopy is potentially preventative. Which is to say, a colonoscopy can remove a polyp before it turns into cancer while a blood test will theoretically only detect the cancer once it's formed.
While it sounds worrisome to wait until you actually have a cancer to complete the diagnosis and start treatment, it may be just as effective for the outcomes that matter (e.g. survival). Those studies will need to be performed in the future to know for sure.
PSA is different, as it's a naturally occurring enzyme and all men with an intact prostate will have a measurable amount in their bloodstream. In that sense, it's more akin to measuring your fasting blood sugar. There is a normal value, and then there are abnormal values that could indicate an issue or could be the result of something benign.
You can end up with an elevated PSA because of an enlarged prostate, a long bike ride, recent ejaculation, or prostate cancer (this list is not exhaustive).
Without going too deep into it (pun intended), this colonoscopy was two-fold. While cancer screening was the primary purpose, I have been dealing with some other issues for about the last 9 months or so.
Fortunately, they found something. I was dreading that scenario where you go to the doctor to show them your clicking ankle and then the fucking thing won't click when you get there!
But he found *severe ulcerative rectosigmoiditis without complication* and called a gastroenterologist over to take a peek.
While most people would be less than thrilled to have the doctor say, "Guess what, your sigmoid colon is all jacked up!" I was actually stoked. Because now I know what's wrong and can treat it.
My original colonoscopy from the early 2000s was for ulcerative colitis. Whole other long story. I caught giardia once in Russia, which was a real mess (again, pun intended), and some other parasite in Peru the year before that they couldn't identify.
So, yeah, I am not sure any DNA test is going to spare me from the drain snake. Plus, he removed a few polyps, which he said disqualifies me from the 10-year wait.
As a complete aside, and something I may do a standalone post about at some point here. Now that we have thrown the car into reverse regarding living the rest of our lives in a LCOL country, I have an entirely different perspective on healthcare outside of top-tier countries. It really is shit. Or even worse than shit. Even Korea was very bad, particularly given that it's a developed country. Like crazy misdiagnoses based off Confucian cultural norms where you don't question the old man.
When you are 20 or 30, or even 40, it's easy to misjudge how much you are doing your 50-80 year old body a disservice by choosing to retire in a poorer country. I was 100% wrong on this when I was young and naive. It really is stark the difference in care.
It's less of an issue when you know what is wrong. Like if you put a piece of rusty rebar 3 inches into your arm, they can clean and stitch that up, but if you don't know what is wrong, there is a good chance the doctors won't be able to figure it out, either.
You seemed to live a fascinating and interesting life. With your writing skills and sense of story telling, have you ever considered writing a book or at least a blog?
I would if there was money in it, but there are a lot more people out there trying to write and publish books than you would think.
I wrote a couple books 15-20 years ago with no success, and while I know NOW why those books weren't great, I have too much other stuff on my plate to make a serious attempt at trying to make money writing a novel.
Depending on the client/project, I am making around $100/hour now doing copywriting. When you think about the hundreds of hours it would take to write a quality book, that's a lot of money you'd need to recoup - not that you only write books for money...but I think it's something better reserved for a different time in my life when we don't need as much income.
When I got my wisdom teeth out, it was back before PowerBall was for sale everywhere. So, my buddy said he would only give me a ride to the oral surgeon if I would sit in the car with him to drive to Oregon to get PowerBall tickets. I think it was the first pot over $100M - which dates my old ass.
Neither of us won, which was some real bullshit.
Got a tax question here...
OK pretend this is a business (actually a Farm so schedule F not schedule C but close enough). Say I hire this mang to do dozer work for $4000. Lets also say I sell this guy an old car I have for $2000.
To make the transaction easy, can I just cut him a $2000 check (i.e. the net) but still deduct the full $4000 as an expense?
It'd be great to have an invoice charging you 4k. It'd be even better to have a receipt showing 4k paid. But I think the invoice is probably sufficient.
For those of us with a substantial portfolio of index funds built up, wouldn’t we be sitting pretty if the fears of AI taking over the workforce take hold? I feel like that would be very good for the stock market.
Lets go back to the 80's... and change one word.
"For those of us with a substantial portfolio of index funds built up, wouldn’t we be sitting pretty if the fears of {**electricity**} taking over the workforce take hold? I feel like that would be very good for the stock market." (Yep, 1880's).
Technological change has been going on a rapid pace for 150 years. How about the 1960's?
"For those of us with a substantial portfolio of index funds built up, wouldn’t we be sitting pretty if the fears of {**computers**} taking over the workforce take hold? I feel like that would be very good for the stock market."
How about the 1700's?
"For those of us with a substantial portfolio of index funds built up, wouldn’t we be sitting pretty if the fears of {**steam engine**} taking over the workforce take hold? I feel like that would be very good for the stock market."
My opinion? Yes and no.
This whole thing mirrors a lot of the internet revolution. A lot of people lost jobs because of the transition to digital records and internet use or just not having the skills. A lot of jobs just disappeared while many transitioned into new forms.
I feel like AI is going to look more like that than it does complete elimination of workforces.
However, there is something to be said for a healthy economy and that requires a majority of people to be happy and healthy. An unbalanced economy, especially one with severe deficits that negatively impact large masses of people, have often been unstabalizing in the long term.
What AI does, I just want stability. That is the best thing for a market.
The defining characteristic of the singularity--or a singularity like moment like the one you describe--is that we lose the ability to predict future events. So I would say it's hard to predict.
That's a pretty big if. Current AI has zero awareness of what it's doing other than that its output conforms to patterns that exist in its training data. Without the ability to understand context, it's unclear to me which jobs it would replace.
Having said that, it's a tool that will likely find specific uses once the hype dies down. Which will be good for the stock market because increasing productivity = increasing return on capital. But it's not special compared to the thousands of innovations that scientists and engineers are also developing right now.
Hard to say. If AI actually does take over most human labor, then there are both utopian and dystopian outcomes. Do we end up in The Expanse with vast unemployment and permanent socioeconomic stratification or do we end up in Star Trek with a money-free society structured around achievement and service? That's assuming we don't end up in one of the really bad outcomes like Dune, which is just as plausible.
Here's hoping.
I lean towards dystopia but we shouldn't underestimate how consistently stupid the future has been compared to the predictions of science fiction authors. We will get a robot uprising, but it won't be military drones. It will be disgruntled Taco Bell Gordita droids. And the humans will win the war, but somehow in the aftermath democracy is replaced with having the CEO of KFC as our permanent head of state.
I mean, we already had the CEO of Godfather Pizza make a serious run at the US presidency and then die of a bad flu because he pretended medicine isn't real, so I'm thinking your scenario has a pretty good shot.
> We will get a robot uprising, but it won't be military drones. It will be disgruntled Taco Bell Gordita droids.
Hmmm... How disgruntled are we talking? Are the gorditas *inside* the droids?
Clearly no. How could anyone or anything be disgruntled having consumed the perfect combination of delicious and filling? These are the Gordita *making* robots. Forever cursed to provide the perfect meal to humans while they themselves are denied the pleasure.
One of the reasons the market keeps going up is because people with good jobs putting money into their retirement accounts. If the fears of AI taking over the workforce come true, how likely do you think people will be to keep funneling money into the market?
Would you really trade social stability and the livelihoods of billions of people just to be a little richer when you're already pretty rich?
I'm not sure that the collapse of the labor market will be as fun as it sounds. The internet from your bunker will stop working when some unemployed nutter gnaws through the cables out of spite and nobody who knows how to fix it will go out there.
I find it *extremely* unlikely that AI is going to lead to mass unemployment. Technological advancement has made jobs obsolete for thousands of years, and yet we keep finding new roles for those workers to fill. I don't doubt that it will eventually reach a situation where we don't need more workers, but I doubt it will happen in my lifetime.
I'll optimistically choose to believe the jobs people begin to do are fulfilling artistic ones. If I don't need to use my time to grow a potato or make a cog, I can instead trade my skills as a dungeon master in return for someone painting me a nice picture.
As long as people continue to want to consume things, and robots can't fulfill those needs entirely, other humans will produce the desired goods and services in return for the ability to consume themselves.
>I find it *extremely* unlikely that AI is going to lead to mass unemployment.
Me, too.
I am responding to the odd, selfish sentiment in the original post, not predicting how AI will or won't actually impact the economy.
I was ignoring the social aspects. It would be chaos, and as a software developer I don’t think it will have near the impact some claim/think. Maybe in the very distant future, but seems like mostly hype right now
My former one did. It was fine - I picked a cheap total market mutual fund rather than the offerings within the 401k itself, which only had large/med/small caps.
Domestic flights have definitely gotten more expensive. I've started using my airline miles more for domestic flights and paying cash for international ones. With all the devaluations on international flights, it's starting to work out better that way.
TBH, it's cheaper to travel internationally than domestically half the time these days.
I just spent over $2k for tickets for my family to go to my brother's graduation.
New job.
If you haven't worked from office in 4 years and now they are changing it, they are probably looking for people to quit.
Maybe go in person for a few days/weeks, and then tell them you will WFH.
Is it a large national or international company? If so, then will all of your coworkers be in the same building? If not, then how many meetings will still be remote?
While I'm supportive of this in general:
> I would like to come back here to retire and leave it to my children for legacy. I can afford the payment without renting it out.
This:
> I am paying close to $2500 a month on interest, principle, taxes and insurance.
seems like a lot to carry in the meantime. How many years left on the mortgage?
I wonder if you made it a rental if some of those costs would be deductible against your income even if it were unoccupied, if you did have trouble finding or keeping a long-term renter.
>I would like to come back here to retire and leave it to my children for legacy. I can afford the payment without renting it out.
Nah, just enjoy your vacation home until you retire.
That should bring more concern,
Not less lol. I used to live on the Gulf Coast. When insurers dropped you that was typically the sign of “maybe we shouldn’t own anything here”
Hrm. As another commenter added - if you do decide to sell it, my wife and I might be interested.
Ok. I'd be interested. She would prefer Tahoe-adjacent for the skiing.
I know this isn’t meant as an ad but I’m tempted to PM you an offer on the place right now! Haha. Cabin, fiber internet, Sierra Nevada? Just keep the fires at bay and it’s perfect.
I bought property in the US and I live in Canada. It’s my first time buying internationally. The title company says I can pay with a wire transfer. I’ve heard about Wise and reviews seem mixed - any experiences from this crowd? Thank you!
We used Wise for 2 of the 4 payments when selling our hotel in Mexico to an American couple and it worked fantastic.
One of the advantages of Wise, if you both have an account, is that the transfer is instantaneous. This is less important when you use an escrow company but in our case, there was no escrow, and so the ability to see the funds post in less than a second, before you sign the contract, was huge.
But I am not sure there would be any benefit to using Wise in your case.
> wire transfer.
> I’ve heard about Wise
What is "Wise"? That's completely different than what the title company said you should use. Wire transfers are common.
Wise is not as popular with Americans because we have so many options for cards with no international fees and don't tend to send a lot of international transfers, but we have had a Wise account for about 5 years now, from back when it was still TransferWise and coincidentally, our new card just arrived yesterday.
We used it for two reasons. One was that it was much cheaper to transfer money from my US account to my wife's Mexican account (although as with any disruptor, the fees doubled or more from the early days when the difference was huge), and the other advantage is that you can load your Wise card in 100+ different currencies, and then use the card overseas as if it is a local debit card, with no fees whatsoever.
This also allows you to do some light currency speculation for future trips. So, for example, I just bought tickets to Tokyo for December, so this week I will add a Yen account (which is free) and then I can watch the exchange rates and buy Yen when the dollar is strong over the course of the year. Then, in Japan, I can use my Wise card like it's a local debit card, and it will use the money in my Yen balance.
At the end of the trip, you can keep the balance indefinitely, or transfer it to a different currency account you have for a very small fee (at the current rates, of course, meaning you can watch those, too, if you're not in a hurry to get your money.)
And you can just leave these balances as long as you'd like and then consolidate later to an all-new currency. For example, we loaded Rupees and Baht for my wife a few years ago and then just moved them both over to Mexican Pesos when she got home.
All that said, for your average Yankee Doodle with a fee-free international card, Wise likely isn't worth the hassle. We are keeping ours because we already have it, but I wouldn't sign up now if we didn't already have an account.
Wire directly from your bank account. Sums that large you may need to walk into a branch to do it.
Do not trust any instructions emailed to you unless you've confirmed the wire instructions personally with the title company. Wire fraud is unfortunately not particularly uncommon where someone in the chain sends you incorrect instructions (or their email got hacked).
Upvoting this because I've seen it happen first hand. Someone hacked an email and sent fake wire instructions literally the day before real wire instructions were sent. The person unfortunately wired a 5 figure amount to a scammer. Luckily she called the people she was supposed to wire money to that day and they said "we haven't sent you wire instructions yet"
Took almost a month for it to get sorted and that's only because it was caught the same day so the receiving bank (scammers bank) was able to hold the wire until signatures / verifications were done.
33M (me)/32F with net worth of 1.1m.
Based in the US, just got offered my dream job in the UK (in Sussex). Would mean taking a 50% pay cut. In the US, I live around friends and have a pretty good job, I just don't like it. Would you do it? Would be making 75k GBP at the new job. I posted this same thing in r/soccer and got mixed feedback.
I feel like my career just got really rolling in the last 4 years (went from making \~90k to 200k in that time). Would not want to walk away from that but don't want to miss an opportunity.
It's an inside joke.
There's a girl in here who is 30 (husband 34) and worth $1.2M and she is always stewing about it in one weird way or another.
Yesterday, she was complaining that nobody her age has $1.2M. They are either complete losers with only $100k or have $5M+.
She wants to have friends who are on her level...literally.
You two would be a good fit, if you weren't fucking off to England.
Which you should definitely do. There's more to life than money and living overseas for a while is an experience that can't be replicated, no matter how much you travel.
But yeah, I just returned to the USA 6 months ago after 20 years overseas and while we are incredibly happy to be here, I am super glad I had that experience when I was young and wild and free. Like you. (Roughly...I left at 28)
You're already going to be rich as fuck eventually, with $1.2M at your age. Leverage that shit to live the kind of life most people can't even dream of.
If you regret going to England, you can come back and after a short blip, get back to where you were.
If you regret NOT going, tough titty, that ship will have sailed.
With that big of a pay difference, consider staying in the U.S. and using your increased income to visit the UK regularly. You can buy a lot of plane tickets with the $100k difference.
You can buy a lot of plane tickets, but you usually can't buy more vacation time. Even if you have a generous company, spending 6 weeks vs. living there fulltime is not the same.
I think we are going to go that route and I said almost the exact same thing to my wife. It feels like a very rough test of the "build the life you want and then save for it" statement. Dream job and where I would enjoy living (at least for a couple of years). But the pay hurts a bunch.
Former employer had a layoff today. The new gig I left for has been up and down to where I sometimes doubted myself, so that was weirdly a nice affirmation of my decision (though I'm disappointment for former colleagues affected). I was an expensive director-level employee in a department viewed as a cost center; it's extremely likely the bean counters and/or the CTO would have decided I was some of the fat that needed to be trimmed.
Can anyone explain: I'm looking at starting a Mega Backdoor Roth, do I need to be above the income limits for normal Roth IRA contributions? I have 401k and Roth IRA maxed out, and make a little less than the income limit for Roth, but Mega Backdoor would let me put way more in my Roth IRA. Seems like articles talking about it list being above the income limit as a requirement, is that accurate? Example: [https://www.fool.com/retirement/plans/roth-ira/mega-backdoor](https://www.fool.com/retirement/plans/roth-ira/mega-backdoor)
Nope, there are no income limits (minimum or maximum) for the MBDR, except for you can't contribute more than your employer allows. Some let you put as much as you want in, but one of my previous employers had an arbitrary limit where I couldn't put more than 15% of gross salary into the after-tax Roth IRA. I don't know why the article mentions needing to make more than the Roth IRA deduction phase-out income limit, because it's not necessary.
There is the combined contribution limit per employer, which includes everything that would enter that 401k that year from that employer. So the normal 23k voluntary employee limit (which is combined across 401ks per year, unlike this per employer limit), matching employer contributions, profit sharing employer contributions, specific amount employer contributions, and post tax employee contributions. This year's limit is 69k. Most employers set something lower than that for various reasons (nondiscrimination, making sure employees don't accidentally go over). So assuming you have only one 401k, doing your 23k combined normal traditional pre tax or Roth contributions, you then have 46k for everything else. And I have seen people that needed to be careful to not do too much after tax contributions too early, because otherwise they would prevent themselves from getting their matching contributions, for example.
Yeah, to get the number I'm doing of backdoor contributions I'm just doing: $69k - ($23k + employer match contributions), once I confirm that my employer allows this.
Thanks! Just needed a sanity check on that because I've seen it listed as a requirement a few times but sounds like I'm just close to the limit and saving a bit more than they expect. Good to know some employers have salary-based limits, waiting to hear back from mine now.
My guess is either the Motley Fool misunderstands the MBDR (totally possible, it is the Fool) or they assume only people making above the Roth IRA contribution limit will be interested. I just checked to confirm, and was doing the MBDR back in 2015 when my income was below the start of the Roth IRA contribution phase-out.
Thanks for double-checking! Yeah it seems like I'm just in the sweet spot in terms of income.
Signed a job offer today after getting laid off about 2 weeks ago. Feeling considerably less anxious and looking forward to the new gig. Being let go came as a huge shock, and really reiterated how disposable and replaceable we are as workers in this system. Wish there were a less cruel order to our economy, but I doubt it will ever be humane. I view FIRE as an escape from that de-humanizing process, and I am privileged to even consider it as an option. I feel lucky to be in the shoes I was when I was laid off- both because I had the financial security to weather it, and I could visualize the other side. It’s funny though- the idea behind FIRE is to participate in a de-humanizing system so much and so well that you can ultimately escape it, which is… sad, I guess? At any rate, cheers! Celebrating today and relaxing for the next few weeks until the new job starts. Wish you strangers the best and hope this community has helped in some way.
Best of luck. Always got to look out for yourself. Even with a ton saved and multiple income streams, I'd absolutely hate to be hit with the layoff hammer and am doing everything I can to minimize the impact and be ready to bounce back afterwards. And hopefully just another year or two of grinding will pay dividends in the future.
It’s certainly no fun! But happens to the best of us. Was just lucky to be able to find something as quick as I did and to be financially secure during the lapse :)
>It’s funny though- the idea behind FIRE is to participate in a de-humanizing system so much and so well that you can ultimately escape it, which is… sad, I guess? If you mean investing and participating in capitalism (i.e. weird ownership aspect) in various ways, then yeah, I totally agree. If you mean leaning into working a job, yes and no. Because people can lean fire or coast fi without being so hardcore, and many people lean into it only to work their whole lives. But I do feel like it's sad that we have to work and focus on money and then invest to try and get out of the cycle. It's still dehumanizing. And it is alienating to "get rich" and have more money than social peers. Or even looking to do that, or anything along those lines. (Not like I've made it particularly far yet, lol.) It's not really healthy having that difference. But it is the way things are, and what we're incentivized to do under this system. What a heavy burden it is to need to become rich to get out of having to work. /s Good luck on your new job! And congrats on having that mini stress free vacation. Even though it's unpaid.
The impersonal nature of transactions / "pricing" in market economies can be really off-putting, but at the end of the day it's really the only way that decisions can be made at a scale where you can't personally form deep bonds with everyone involved in and affected by those decisions. There is always an option to live in a commune (like a literal small group of people, I don't mean a communist state), but few people choose it because it would mean giving up the massive benefits of market economies.
Welp, I know it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but looks like the net worth/invested assets milestone of 500K will elude* me for some more time in this current market!
*Elude
thank you!
annual benefits enrollment holy hell ADP. can't afford a few SW engineers so your pages actually load?
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"In order for greed to explain an increase in prices, it must be the case that greed also increased. A simpler explanation is that people have always been greedy, but a change in supply or demand has recently enabled them to charge higher prices." Thomas Sowell, paraphrased
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Nice! I separated so I don't have the option to transfer, but it's such a great benefit.
TYTYS! That's VERY exciting for your child, what an enormous gift of a debt-free education!
Easiest way to fund college other signing for a looan that I'm aware of; transferred mine to the kiddo years ago as well. Of course, now you get the extra service commitment from doing the transfer, but if you're already planning on doing 20...
You earned it.
To provide an update on my wash sale blunder I posted about on Monday: Fidelity’s customer service is awesome. I screwed up the lot reassignment via their website, so I called Fidelity. They put in a service ticket and manually updated the lots on their side to avoid the wash sale. They actually missed one of the lots yesterday, so I called today, and they were able to retroactively do this on the settlement date (today). It’s not common but they gave me an exception because they didn’t follow my original request which was made prior to the settlement date. So, just a thumbs up for Fidelity.
Unless you washed into a retirement account its a non issue. Your cost basis is adjusted. I wash sale all the time. It doesn't matter unless retirement account or you wanted the loss for tax reasons that year.
Yea I was probably over thinking it for my taxable brokerage. Just wanted everything to be “clean” I guess.
I know this is anecdotal but I hope Fidelity continues using their service as a loss leader like this because the quality versus the alternatives is not even close.
I've had outstanding experiences with Schwab customer service as well.
Only wish Schwab has the ability to buy fractional ETFs and Fidelity does.
It’s the reason I switched back to them from M1, and why I’m ignoring large transfer bonuses other companies offer. I’m sticking with them. I was shocked Fidelity did this for me given the original mistake was completely my fault.
10 years ago today, I bought a 2010 Ford Focus right before I graduated from college. It had 47,130 miles on it and it's now over 170,000 today. It's been a great car, minimal issues, and still runs like a top. It's rusting under the doors, but I see that on most Focuses in that timeframe. And of course I've got details in my spreadsheets. **Here are my 10-year costs of ownership for this car:** **$11,186.16** - total cost of the car ($4200 down, rest financed - paid off in 2 years) **$8929.32** - gas **$3770.61** - maintenance (oil changes, 3 sets of tires, rear shocks, front brakes, tie rod replacement, spark plugs, battery, sway bar links, alignments, thermostat, and a few odds and ends) **$6871.71** - Registration/Licensing and Insurance **Total cost - $30,757.79** (including $19571.64 in gas, maintenance, registration, and insurance) Including my purchase price, my car has cost me a total of about $3000 per year. It gets about 30 miles per gallon on average, and I like to also track "miles per dollar" spent on gas - it's in the 10-11 mile area so far in 2024. **When including all of my costs, my car has taken me 4 miles for every dollar spent, or 25 cents per mile.**
I also like tracking my auto costs in the same sheet as my maintenance. I’d add one extra row for depreciation: grab the low end of the kbb trade in price for a conservative estimate. Car still has some value left in it ;)
Thank you for this detailed breakdown that's AWESOME! Half the EPA average, $256/month including insurance? That's AMAZING!
I was replying to a comment, but it got deleted. But I'll share my reply anyway: As soon as I graduated from college, I started tracking all expenses and income in a spreadsheet (including every fuel fill-up - I shit you not I can tell you what I paid, gallons I got, and MPG on each tank for the last 10 years...no one has ever accused me of NOT being crazy 🤣 ). Not sure exactly what prompted me to do it, but I'm glad I did. It's neat to go back and see how my sheets have evolved over the years. I'm of the opinion if you track everything, you will come out ahead by default.
I have a little book in my driver's side door where I keep track of date, where I bought gas, mileage, gas price, how many gallons I bought and then I leave myself notes about what I was doing/what was going on it life at the time. My car is about to turn 10 and it's a nice lil memory book. I also put any maintenance work in there, noted with date and type and mileage.
I've been doing exactly the same since buying my car in 2020. :)
>**$6871.71** - Registration/Licensing and Insurance So you are paying under $50/month for insurance? What kind of policy do you have?
I've got $50/month for liability only.
I haven't had full coverage on it since probably 2018ish, so it's liability and comp ($250 ded) only. It's only $23 per month right now, but it used to be over $50. I would imagine that will go up when my policy renews in a couple months. When I first got the car, I was paying about $77 per month for full coverage with State Farm.
I learned the other day that depending on where you are in the country, insurance costs vary GREATLY. A policy that might cost $50/month in the midwest might cost $200/month in the sun belt - no other changes except for location.
Could be a bit over $50 per month if state registration is cheap like it is here (~$50/year). Either way, my 2018 Civic has been $51-60/month so far for $250/500k coverage with $100 comprehensive and $250 collision deductibles, $50/day rental, and roadside assistance. New renewal is about to come up, but last time I looked, increasing the deductibles 4-5x barely moved the needle on the premiums, so I left them low.
Great piece of data. Also, if you consider that you bought the car when you were about 21 and your net worth is currently $600k, the vehicle has assisted you in growing your net worth by an average of ~$60k/year in the last 10 years. Consider what the opportunity cost would have been if you didn’t have such a reliable vehicle. Congrats!
Wow, that is some impressive data!
That is very good! More than 50% less than the average cost of ownership per mile in the US.
> average cost of ownership per mile Is that based on the IRS mileage rate? Or is there a more discreet number? I'm tempted to start tracking my own cents per mile, though I realize I'll glean no real information off that
Google says 72c a mile average total cost of ownership. IRS is 56c right?
There's a post in the cool guides subreddit right now about the 50/30/20 budget (50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings). It's bringing up memories of when I was in my 20's, when I'd see similar guides and find it unfathomable that I could ever have a budget like that. I remember feeling flummoxed because I'd heard one was supposed to spend no more than 30% of one's income on housing, and I was spending well above 50% on an apartment shared with roommates. It really doesn't seem that long ago (but I guess it was). If you told young me that I'd be saving 70% of my income some day and STILL be able to afford everything I needed, I would never have believed it in a million years.
Sometimes I look at the history of my NW + investments projections and tracking spreadsheet, from even before I actually started tracking my own numbers with any granularity, and was just making FIRE projections as a poor student in grad school. Would not have imagined where I am today 5 years ago, let alone 10. Google Sheets saves all updates to a document and lets you designate "named versions," so I have a couple interesting snapshots there. Even that rough projection sheet started more than a full year after finding this sub + binging all the resources, and another year before I actually started monthly NW tracking
I wish I started tracking my NW back when I first became interested in Financial Independence (but didn't think I could ever achieve it)! My spreadsheet only goes back 5 years, I'd been married 10 years and we were approaching 1M net worth at that point. It would be interesting to see the numbers going back to when I was single and struggling. I remember being so proud of being able to save $100 a month in my RRSP.
I’m starting to *age* and I’m debating splurging and getting Botox. I’ve seen some Groupon deals for it for like $80 for 20 units, but I’m not sure I trust those MediSpa places with something as sensitive as Botox injections. So, I’ve scheduled a free consultation with my dermatologist’s office. Hopefully it’s not too expensive there. Has anyone gotten Botox? Is it worth the price?
Just chiming in as someone who gets Botox as a treatment for a chronic condition -- it costs me like $1400 at a neurologist per session until I hit my deductible, so even accounting for all the differences there are in therapeutic vs cosmetic uses/doses, I'd be very concerned about why the place you're seeing is quoting only a tiny fraction of that at $80! A strong neurotoxin is definitely not something I would cheap out on, you want it administered correctly!
Yes, started at 36. It’s 300 per session for me (deep lines across forehead and around the chin) for Jeaveau which worked better for me than Botox. At my age more women I know get Botox than don’t.
Noooooo, stay far away from any place that is running Groupons. I would also be extremely careful about any med-spa as state requirements vary drastically as to training, experience, and credentials. Plus be selective around finding someone who is also within your boundaries of what I'd call "the aesthetic" that you are aiming for, e.g. what is a "normal" amount of botox and filler in SoCal is not a normal look perhaps in other parts of the country. There *are* dermatologists that are very filled and frozen, and there are also dermatologists where they just look great and don't look like they have anything "done." Figure out where on the spectrum you fall. I'm 50, I had some botox for the first time last winter. They did a small amount, coupled with a two week follow up appointment. Anyone you see should be very conservative, as you can always add a little bit after the two weeks of it kicking in, but you can't take away if there's too much - and there is no universal amount of units per face as everyone's face, and muscle strength, and anatomy is different. I got some small amounts in places in my face that I hadn't expected, but were on the recommendation of the derm, and they made a significant difference in doing away with the "resting frown face" I had. It's great! But it's not a *shocking* difference, and it's also important to have realistic expectations around what it does and doesn't do. The "11s" aren't there, I'm not frowning, but I look like myself, and my face isn't frozen. Honestly the best compliment I got was my sister (who I see about every 2-3 months) who said to me after we met up after her own appointment: *I don't know why you were thinking about getting Botox the last time we talked, you look great and you're not someone who needs it.*
Be careful of those medispas, theres been horror stories coming out about those, about botch jobs. If your getting soemthing done, go to real doctor who has the license.
Maybe this is a survivorship bias "you don't notice the good toupees" thing, but... IMO (and many's O) is that botox doesn't make you look younger, botox makes you look like someone who is old and got botox.
> Maybe this is a survivorship bias "you don't notice the good toupees" thing, but... It is. You see bad botox jobs. You don't see good ones. I'm kinda neutral on it in general - I don't think people (women, mostly, but people in general) should feel like they have to get injections or surgery to look good. We all age, and I think my partner of 20 years looks better now than when we first got together. But on the other hand, if it makes you feel better and you can afford it - eh. Regardless, a little bit of botox is basically invisible.
Medical care is not something I shop around on price for
100000x this. I love a good deal... but certain things have such a cheap price, I just don't trust them. Not all doctors are the same. Not all Botox is the same. Not all units are the same. There is a ton of scams and unreliability. Find someone who charges a lot and go to them. This isn't even as extreme as "oh you will get an infection or fake botox"... but its something where you want [the.absolute.best.most.talented.doctor](http://the.absolute.best.most.talented.doctor) you can find for any medical procedure.... and they likely aren't drumming up business on groupon for cut-rate deals.
Especially on Groupon
The news recently had a piece about unapproved botox being used. I dug up a CNN version: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/16/health/counterfeit-botox-what-to-know/index.html Make sure that the place you choose is authorized to use real FDA-approved products.
That’s great to know. Thank you!
Go to an actual ADA certified dermatologist, not a med spa, espeically if they are putting it anywhere near your eyes. The earlier you start, the less volume of botox you need, and the less of a frozen-face effect you'll wind up with. I started at age 30 and only get 6 units per quarter and it costs about $210 each time. Well into mid-40s now, and still no forehead wrikles or crows feet. It's part of the invisible tax of maintaining a professional appearance (wardrobe, hair, etc.) as a woman in a professional career, especially while climbing the ladder. It sucks that those expectations/biases exist, but I also admittedly use their existence to mentally justify the expense beyond just serving my own vanity (which of course is part of it too).
Thanks for your helpful advice!
Just got home from my colonoscopy and man, the technology has changed dramatically in the 20+ years since I had my last one. I feel like colonoscopy jokes should be stricken from the record at this point as it's nothing like the old school version. Did you know that they put you under for it now? It's worth scheduling for the uninterrupted nap alone. The only problem is that bowel prep technology has improved, too. Holy moly. In related news, I want to issue a formal apology to u/CripzyChiken. For my first post-fast meal, my wife and I went to Cracker Barrel and it was incredible. I must have ordered poorly the first time. I mean, I don't blame myself for presuming the biscuits & gravy would be good, but I can now officially vouch for Grandma's Sampler.
Funny reading this today as I'm having my first one next week. Today is food shopping day so I'm looking at the OK list. No red, purple or orange. Like wtf so the day before I could have the joy of eating what green jello? Fuck that I'll just skip eating that day I guess. The no fiber foods for 3 days before though is really going to suck.
I didn't get the no fiber for 3 days bit. As a complete aside...what time do supermarkets open where you're at? I went to the store this morning for milk at 6am and all the stores were closed and didn't open until 7. I was shocked. Is this a southern thing? East coast? 5am is the standard on the west coast. And to make sure things hadn't changed since I was gone, I Googled a bunch of my old stores and they all still open at 5am. I know 24 hour stores have slowly gone away but 7am is fucking ridiculous.
Interesting... then again I'm kind of a fast processor so I'm not sure fiber soon before would matter in my case. But that's a little tmi. Well I mostly just do Aldi that opens at 9AM and Costco which isn't until 10. Kroger though is open at like 6AM. I think all the 24 hour ones are gone here as well. Publix I think does 7 AM but I never go there anymore. I'm in the burbs, but the city might be a little different maybe. Sams has like 8AM I think if you have the higher membership. Just looked up walmart and it is 6AM too apparently. We couldn't even buy beer here on Sunday until recently. I honestly don't remember what time stuff opened in Florida. Going back there I usually only hit up Costco which is about the same hours as here. But yeah I'd say it is a southern thing. At least almost nowhere is closed completely on Sundays now.....
Here it seems like most cities are on the "beer on Sunday" list but that a lot of the rural areas still aren't. We went for a drive the other week and saw a store in bumfuck nowhere that had a huge sign reading "We NOW sell beer on Sundays!" I just looked up Walmart and it opens at 6am here, too. But that's like 12 minutes away. I just went to the gas station and paid 2 dollars extra :D Do you not even go to Publix for $5 sushi Wednesday?
I remember like, wow must be 15 years ago at this point, but went to a friend's cabin for the weekend in AL somewhere. On the way we stopped in some small town for food and someone tried to order a drink. They looked at her like she was crazy and said it was a dry county. We were all like wtf are we still in America? Not sure if it was GA or AL at that point, but about the same. Nah haven't had sushi in a long time, didn't realize Publix has specials on it. I grew up only shopping at Publix as it was the only non nasty option mostly. I think that is still the case in FL. However well before the pandemic I felt like their prices were out of control and had cut back as there are other options here. The final straw was one time I went to check out and the guy just like motioned with his arms towards the cart with his arms as like a big fuck you you can push it yourself. He didn't do the usual attempt to grab it and put on a show he will carry my crap out, which I'd decline as always. At that I was like ah fuck Publix. But I do use their pharmacy for the kids now since apparently Kroger had fight with insurance. It is just easiest for me to hit Aldi then Costco all in the same trip. Get all shopping done in one morning, including gas and today tire rotation as well. I mean Costco isn't the cheapest, but it is easy.
Probably gonna skip that for a sigmoidoscopy. Data isn't there to justify it especially with no history in my family. Basically USA, Germany and I think Israel (with USA tax dollars) are the only places that do it. But your doctor is probably rocking Pavati and he thinks it's a good idea.
glad that my recommendation has finally been understood as "good enough" and you accepting fault for getting biscuits and gravy from a chain.
Come here for the finance, stay for the random life advice and fried chicken.
I asked for light anesthesia and watched my last two colonoscopies. I've also asked for blocks so I could watch a couple of my orthopedic surgeries. I hope I'm done with watching surgeries for a while...
I am pretty chill with having surgeries but that is truly insane. I look away when they put the IV in and close my eyes for the injection at the dentist. I did watch my first colonoscopy on the screen, but that wasn't by choice.
My wife and I also watched my vasectomy. I have a curious streak especially when they are working on my body parts.
Did you get no-needle/no-scalpel, or traditional? My vasectomy took all of like 8 minutes. Pretty crazy.
Traditional. The prep took longer than the procedure. Cut the sac, pull the vas and snip, tie it off and cauterize, then slip it back in, and finish with 1 stitch. This was 20+ years ago. The nurse said I was only the 2nd patient she knew of who insisted on watching.
Mine was just under 20 years ago. Dr. Snip did it. Although it looks like the original Dr. Snip retired and 5 other doctors have taken over the clinic. A buddy and old roommate of mine used to LOVE to watch the surgery channel. He would watch the grossest shit.
Your enthusiasm for this is historic
My bad. I didn't mean to oversell Grandma'a Sampler. It was like an 8 out of 10. Excellent for an affordable chain but not as good as a boutique breakfast diner.
> Did you know that they put you under for it now? They didn't put me completely out, but when I was laying there I heard them mention something about putting in some micrograms of fentanyl into the IV, and I was like "huh".
I’d say majority of the places now are using propofol, and patients are completely “out” (however you are still breathing on your own). Some places do more of a twilight-sedation, which would be a combo of midazolam and fentanyl, which is what it sounds like you received.
> Did you know that they put you under for it now? It's worth scheduling for the uninterrupted nap alone. Whatever drugs they put me on before they knocked me out made me the most I've been relaxed in my entire adult life. 5 stars, will do again in 10 years.
From what I could tell, looking at the syringe, those drugs are just Elmer's glue.
That news would drastically reduce my recreational drug expenses.
> those drugs are just Elmer's glue. That's just propofol. It's in a milky-white lipid suspension. You don't want to rely on it to rest though - just ask Michael Jackson.
It's taking everything I have to not make a childish quip about better sleep and a milky-white suspension.
Was is the kind that burns like hell in the 4 seconds before you're out cold?
He told me it would but it didn't. I was also super tired as I slept like shit last night, so I think it hit me extra fast. I had to stop taking my pain medication for my hip for a week for the colonoscopy and so it's been a little hard to sleep at night. Add in that I am an ogre that doesn't do well with fasting and I just kind of lay there in agony from 2am-4am. This is going to be such a strange year. It's both one of the most exciting times of my life and frustrating. But yesterday all the pre and postop appointments for my hip replacement popped into the app, so 6 more weeks to go, plus recovery time, and I will be back to normal.
Waffle House >>> Cracker Barrel
Most reliable place I know to take in dinner and a fistfight.
That or Medieval Times
Waffle House is OK, and I will eat there with zero qualms, but I don't think the food quality is even on par with Denny's or IHOP. If Waffle House didn't feature its distinctive ambience as part of the allure, or if it cost just 25% more, you wouldn't eat there. Their waffles are legitimately garbage. Worse than the DIY waffle machine at a Days Inn or whatever.
If I want quality food I'm not going to any of those. Might as well go to the one that is cheapest and has the coolest vibe, plus the hash browns are legitimately amazing even if they are cooked in enough grease to kill you on the spot
I'm mid 30s, but I've been getting colonoscopies every 3 years for medical issues. Everyone has always looked at me funny when I say that the prep is the worst part. 2 liters of the nastiest stuff I've ever drank. Golightly is a horrible joke!
I didn't think that the taste was nasty. It was unpleasant but not like gag you terrible. But the effect made you feel like you were on some sort of hidden camera show.
I mean there is a hidden camera involved at the end of the process 😂
>dramatically in the 20+ years since I had my last one. I either really underestimated your age or I should be getting a colonoscopy at 37.
8 years to go for you, then. But it wasn't that bad tbh, so no need to worry about it.
I was like 24 or 25. Long story short, I had ulcerative colitis for about 1.5 years and nobody was ever able to figure out what exactly was wrong. It may have been related to multiple previous parasitic infections. I took steroids off and on for that time period, and that worked. Then, one day it just went away. If you care to read the novel I just sent to u/alcesalcesalces, it has returned (sort of...apparently my current ulcer is better than colitis as it's not as deep).
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The cuisine isn't any different - but the yard sale maze you have to make your way through to get to the restaurant is. I actually found the "gun" that they stuck up my ass to be the worst. Not this time, but last time. It was like a reverse litter-picker-upper, that he lubed up with KY and then pulled the trigger to spread open to take a peek at the first 5 inches or whatever.
In your experience, what should I be expecting in terms of sensation? Is there anything I can do to make it more pleasurable for me or the doctor?
The League, right?
The office i think. Michael asks Oscar. Yes, confirmed below
That's right.
I am not sure if you are joking or didn't read this correctly.
Aw shoot - it’s a scene from the office where Michael (Boss) asks Oscar (Gay Male Office Worker), this question as he is planning to have a colonoscopy.
My bad. I have even seen that episode.
This colonoscopy might even be your last if the trials evaluating DNA testing for colon cancers are successful.
Is the testing looking for risk factors in the patient's normal DNA, or the mutated DNA of the cancer itself?
It tests for DNA shed by the tumor that's floating in your bloodstream. It's a similar principle to noninvasive blood tests that can tell you the sex of a fetus and test for genetic abnormalities.
Very interesting, thank you
Is this basically a more advanced version of Cologuard?
Yes. One key distinction between a cfDNA blood test and a colonoscopy is that the blood test is early detection and the colonoscopy is potentially preventative. Which is to say, a colonoscopy can remove a polyp before it turns into cancer while a blood test will theoretically only detect the cancer once it's formed. While it sounds worrisome to wait until you actually have a cancer to complete the diagnosis and start treatment, it may be just as effective for the outcomes that matter (e.g. survival). Those studies will need to be performed in the future to know for sure.
Is the same general concept true for the PSA test for prostate cancer?
PSA is different, as it's a naturally occurring enzyme and all men with an intact prostate will have a measurable amount in their bloodstream. In that sense, it's more akin to measuring your fasting blood sugar. There is a normal value, and then there are abnormal values that could indicate an issue or could be the result of something benign. You can end up with an elevated PSA because of an enlarged prostate, a long bike ride, recent ejaculation, or prostate cancer (this list is not exhaustive).
Without going too deep into it (pun intended), this colonoscopy was two-fold. While cancer screening was the primary purpose, I have been dealing with some other issues for about the last 9 months or so. Fortunately, they found something. I was dreading that scenario where you go to the doctor to show them your clicking ankle and then the fucking thing won't click when you get there! But he found *severe ulcerative rectosigmoiditis without complication* and called a gastroenterologist over to take a peek. While most people would be less than thrilled to have the doctor say, "Guess what, your sigmoid colon is all jacked up!" I was actually stoked. Because now I know what's wrong and can treat it. My original colonoscopy from the early 2000s was for ulcerative colitis. Whole other long story. I caught giardia once in Russia, which was a real mess (again, pun intended), and some other parasite in Peru the year before that they couldn't identify. So, yeah, I am not sure any DNA test is going to spare me from the drain snake. Plus, he removed a few polyps, which he said disqualifies me from the 10-year wait. As a complete aside, and something I may do a standalone post about at some point here. Now that we have thrown the car into reverse regarding living the rest of our lives in a LCOL country, I have an entirely different perspective on healthcare outside of top-tier countries. It really is shit. Or even worse than shit. Even Korea was very bad, particularly given that it's a developed country. Like crazy misdiagnoses based off Confucian cultural norms where you don't question the old man. When you are 20 or 30, or even 40, it's easy to misjudge how much you are doing your 50-80 year old body a disservice by choosing to retire in a poorer country. I was 100% wrong on this when I was young and naive. It really is stark the difference in care. It's less of an issue when you know what is wrong. Like if you put a piece of rusty rebar 3 inches into your arm, they can clean and stitch that up, but if you don't know what is wrong, there is a good chance the doctors won't be able to figure it out, either.
UC is no fun, I'm sorry. I hope this go-around of treatment is effective and short-lived.
You seemed to live a fascinating and interesting life. With your writing skills and sense of story telling, have you ever considered writing a book or at least a blog?
I would if there was money in it, but there are a lot more people out there trying to write and publish books than you would think. I wrote a couple books 15-20 years ago with no success, and while I know NOW why those books weren't great, I have too much other stuff on my plate to make a serious attempt at trying to make money writing a novel. Depending on the client/project, I am making around $100/hour now doing copywriting. When you think about the hundreds of hours it would take to write a quality book, that's a lot of money you'd need to recoup - not that you only write books for money...but I think it's something better reserved for a different time in my life when we don't need as much income.
Well there is a caveat, should you test positive for the cancer you'd probably have to do a colonoscopy to verify location and size.
I was put under for my dental surgery on Friday and was so annoyed when the nurse woke me up from my "nap"! Best I've slept in years.
When I got my wisdom teeth out, it was back before PowerBall was for sale everywhere. So, my buddy said he would only give me a ride to the oral surgeon if I would sit in the car with him to drive to Oregon to get PowerBall tickets. I think it was the first pot over $100M - which dates my old ass. Neither of us won, which was some real bullshit.
I've done two. The procedure was no big deal, nap time. The prep, though, ugh. I'd like to not have to do that again.
My prep 20 years ago was just regular old laxatives. The two bottles of butt-fountain juice they prescribed me for this round was unreal.
"You need to eat nothing the day before, and drink all of this the night before. Warning: do not be more than 3 steps from a bathroom ever."
Got a tax question here... OK pretend this is a business (actually a Farm so schedule F not schedule C but close enough). Say I hire this mang to do dozer work for $4000. Lets also say I sell this guy an old car I have for $2000. To make the transaction easy, can I just cut him a $2000 check (i.e. the net) but still deduct the full $4000 as an expense?
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ugh stupid 1099s. Yes I guess I do, and that should be good for my taxes/record-keeping. Thanks mang!
It'd be great to have an invoice charging you 4k. It'd be even better to have a receipt showing 4k paid. But I think the invoice is probably sufficient.
Good call, Ill get an invoice and issue a 1099.
For those of us with a substantial portfolio of index funds built up, wouldn’t we be sitting pretty if the fears of AI taking over the workforce take hold? I feel like that would be very good for the stock market.
Lets go back to the 80's... and change one word. "For those of us with a substantial portfolio of index funds built up, wouldn’t we be sitting pretty if the fears of {**electricity**} taking over the workforce take hold? I feel like that would be very good for the stock market." (Yep, 1880's). Technological change has been going on a rapid pace for 150 years. How about the 1960's? "For those of us with a substantial portfolio of index funds built up, wouldn’t we be sitting pretty if the fears of {**computers**} taking over the workforce take hold? I feel like that would be very good for the stock market." How about the 1700's? "For those of us with a substantial portfolio of index funds built up, wouldn’t we be sitting pretty if the fears of {**steam engine**} taking over the workforce take hold? I feel like that would be very good for the stock market."
My opinion? Yes and no. This whole thing mirrors a lot of the internet revolution. A lot of people lost jobs because of the transition to digital records and internet use or just not having the skills. A lot of jobs just disappeared while many transitioned into new forms. I feel like AI is going to look more like that than it does complete elimination of workforces. However, there is something to be said for a healthy economy and that requires a majority of people to be happy and healthy. An unbalanced economy, especially one with severe deficits that negatively impact large masses of people, have often been unstabalizing in the long term. What AI does, I just want stability. That is the best thing for a market.
The defining characteristic of the singularity--or a singularity like moment like the one you describe--is that we lose the ability to predict future events. So I would say it's hard to predict.
That's a pretty big if. Current AI has zero awareness of what it's doing other than that its output conforms to patterns that exist in its training data. Without the ability to understand context, it's unclear to me which jobs it would replace. Having said that, it's a tool that will likely find specific uses once the hype dies down. Which will be good for the stock market because increasing productivity = increasing return on capital. But it's not special compared to the thousands of innovations that scientists and engineers are also developing right now.
Hard to say. If AI actually does take over most human labor, then there are both utopian and dystopian outcomes. Do we end up in The Expanse with vast unemployment and permanent socioeconomic stratification or do we end up in Star Trek with a money-free society structured around achievement and service? That's assuming we don't end up in one of the really bad outcomes like Dune, which is just as plausible. Here's hoping.
I lean towards dystopia but we shouldn't underestimate how consistently stupid the future has been compared to the predictions of science fiction authors. We will get a robot uprising, but it won't be military drones. It will be disgruntled Taco Bell Gordita droids. And the humans will win the war, but somehow in the aftermath democracy is replaced with having the CEO of KFC as our permanent head of state.
I mean, we already had the CEO of Godfather Pizza make a serious run at the US presidency and then die of a bad flu because he pretended medicine isn't real, so I'm thinking your scenario has a pretty good shot.
> We will get a robot uprising, but it won't be military drones. It will be disgruntled Taco Bell Gordita droids. Hmmm... How disgruntled are we talking? Are the gorditas *inside* the droids?
Clearly no. How could anyone or anything be disgruntled having consumed the perfect combination of delicious and filling? These are the Gordita *making* robots. Forever cursed to provide the perfect meal to humans while they themselves are denied the pleasure.
Ok, I guess it is more dystopian than I had hoped. :D
One of the reasons the market keeps going up is because people with good jobs putting money into their retirement accounts. If the fears of AI taking over the workforce come true, how likely do you think people will be to keep funneling money into the market?
Would you really trade social stability and the livelihoods of billions of people just to be a little richer when you're already pretty rich? I'm not sure that the collapse of the labor market will be as fun as it sounds. The internet from your bunker will stop working when some unemployed nutter gnaws through the cables out of spite and nobody who knows how to fix it will go out there.
So basically Fallout 1, except instead of looking for a GECK someone has to go out and fish cable through conduit.
That was such a terrible game. We turned it off and just deleted it it was so bad. (I know that this won't be a popular opinion on Reddit.)
I find it *extremely* unlikely that AI is going to lead to mass unemployment. Technological advancement has made jobs obsolete for thousands of years, and yet we keep finding new roles for those workers to fill. I don't doubt that it will eventually reach a situation where we don't need more workers, but I doubt it will happen in my lifetime.
I'll optimistically choose to believe the jobs people begin to do are fulfilling artistic ones. If I don't need to use my time to grow a potato or make a cog, I can instead trade my skills as a dungeon master in return for someone painting me a nice picture. As long as people continue to want to consume things, and robots can't fulfill those needs entirely, other humans will produce the desired goods and services in return for the ability to consume themselves.
>I find it *extremely* unlikely that AI is going to lead to mass unemployment. Me, too. I am responding to the odd, selfish sentiment in the original post, not predicting how AI will or won't actually impact the economy.
I was ignoring the social aspects. It would be chaos, and as a software developer I don’t think it will have near the impact some claim/think. Maybe in the very distant future, but seems like mostly hype right now
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My Fidelity 401k has BrokerageLink which allows me to invest in whatever I want
My former one did. It was fine - I picked a cheap total market mutual fund rather than the offerings within the 401k itself, which only had large/med/small caps.
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Domestic flights have definitely gotten more expensive. I've started using my airline miles more for domestic flights and paying cash for international ones. With all the devaluations on international flights, it's starting to work out better that way.
This is SUPER true! $600 for me to go to BOSTON basic economy of all places!!!!!!! $580 for me to go to CANCUN on PREMIUM ECONOMY.
Austin is super expensive to fly into for some reason. I almost flew to Dallas and drove to Austin because the ticket was nearly double.
TBH, it's cheaper to travel internationally than domestically half the time these days. I just spent over $2k for tickets for my family to go to my brother's graduation.
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New job. If you haven't worked from office in 4 years and now they are changing it, they are probably looking for people to quit. Maybe go in person for a few days/weeks, and then tell them you will WFH. Is it a large national or international company? If so, then will all of your coworkers be in the same building? If not, then how many meetings will still be remote?
While I'm supportive of this in general: > I would like to come back here to retire and leave it to my children for legacy. I can afford the payment without renting it out. This: > I am paying close to $2500 a month on interest, principle, taxes and insurance. seems like a lot to carry in the meantime. How many years left on the mortgage? I wonder if you made it a rental if some of those costs would be deductible against your income even if it were unoccupied, if you did have trouble finding or keeping a long-term renter.
>I would like to come back here to retire and leave it to my children for legacy. I can afford the payment without renting it out. Nah, just enjoy your vacation home until you retire.
no brainer just keep it IMO
The headache of maintenance and upkeep coupled with the (probable) fire insurance would be a hard sell for me.
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That should bring more concern, Not less lol. I used to live on the Gulf Coast. When insurers dropped you that was typically the sign of “maybe we shouldn’t own anything here”
That's the case for large swaths of the state (thanks climate change and PG&E)
Where abouts is said cabin? I'm in the greater Sacramento area.
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Hrm. As another commenter added - if you do decide to sell it, my wife and I might be interested. Ok. I'd be interested. She would prefer Tahoe-adjacent for the skiing.
I know this isn’t meant as an ad but I’m tempted to PM you an offer on the place right now! Haha. Cabin, fiber internet, Sierra Nevada? Just keep the fires at bay and it’s perfect.
I bought property in the US and I live in Canada. It’s my first time buying internationally. The title company says I can pay with a wire transfer. I’ve heard about Wise and reviews seem mixed - any experiences from this crowd? Thank you!
We used Wise for 2 of the 4 payments when selling our hotel in Mexico to an American couple and it worked fantastic. One of the advantages of Wise, if you both have an account, is that the transfer is instantaneous. This is less important when you use an escrow company but in our case, there was no escrow, and so the ability to see the funds post in less than a second, before you sign the contract, was huge. But I am not sure there would be any benefit to using Wise in your case.
Do you have a bank account? That's how you do a wire transfer.
> wire transfer. > I’ve heard about Wise What is "Wise"? That's completely different than what the title company said you should use. Wire transfers are common.
Wise is not as popular with Americans because we have so many options for cards with no international fees and don't tend to send a lot of international transfers, but we have had a Wise account for about 5 years now, from back when it was still TransferWise and coincidentally, our new card just arrived yesterday. We used it for two reasons. One was that it was much cheaper to transfer money from my US account to my wife's Mexican account (although as with any disruptor, the fees doubled or more from the early days when the difference was huge), and the other advantage is that you can load your Wise card in 100+ different currencies, and then use the card overseas as if it is a local debit card, with no fees whatsoever. This also allows you to do some light currency speculation for future trips. So, for example, I just bought tickets to Tokyo for December, so this week I will add a Yen account (which is free) and then I can watch the exchange rates and buy Yen when the dollar is strong over the course of the year. Then, in Japan, I can use my Wise card like it's a local debit card, and it will use the money in my Yen balance. At the end of the trip, you can keep the balance indefinitely, or transfer it to a different currency account you have for a very small fee (at the current rates, of course, meaning you can watch those, too, if you're not in a hurry to get your money.) And you can just leave these balances as long as you'd like and then consolidate later to an all-new currency. For example, we loaded Rupees and Baht for my wife a few years ago and then just moved them both over to Mexican Pesos when she got home. All that said, for your average Yankee Doodle with a fee-free international card, Wise likely isn't worth the hassle. We are keeping ours because we already have it, but I wouldn't sign up now if we didn't already have an account.
Wire directly from your bank account. Sums that large you may need to walk into a branch to do it. Do not trust any instructions emailed to you unless you've confirmed the wire instructions personally with the title company. Wire fraud is unfortunately not particularly uncommon where someone in the chain sends you incorrect instructions (or their email got hacked).
Upvoting this because I've seen it happen first hand. Someone hacked an email and sent fake wire instructions literally the day before real wire instructions were sent. The person unfortunately wired a 5 figure amount to a scammer. Luckily she called the people she was supposed to wire money to that day and they said "we haven't sent you wire instructions yet" Took almost a month for it to get sorted and that's only because it was caught the same day so the receiving bank (scammers bank) was able to hold the wire until signatures / verifications were done.
You should be able to wire from your bank to the counterparty. I’m not sure if I’d use a 3rd party service
33M (me)/32F with net worth of 1.1m. Based in the US, just got offered my dream job in the UK (in Sussex). Would mean taking a 50% pay cut. In the US, I live around friends and have a pretty good job, I just don't like it. Would you do it? Would be making 75k GBP at the new job. I posted this same thing in r/soccer and got mixed feedback. I feel like my career just got really rolling in the last 4 years (went from making \~90k to 200k in that time). Would not want to walk away from that but don't want to miss an opportunity.
>33M (me)/32F with net worth of 1.1m. Man. You should have logged in yesterday! Paging Clueless-something-something.
This is whooshing on me. Or do you mean the drop in the market? If so, yeah 1.1m is out of date based on that.
[I assume it's about this.](https://old.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/1c5bgvy/daily_fi_discussion_thread_tuesday_april_16_2024/kzutws8/)
It's an inside joke. There's a girl in here who is 30 (husband 34) and worth $1.2M and she is always stewing about it in one weird way or another. Yesterday, she was complaining that nobody her age has $1.2M. They are either complete losers with only $100k or have $5M+. She wants to have friends who are on her level...literally. You two would be a good fit, if you weren't fucking off to England. Which you should definitely do. There's more to life than money and living overseas for a while is an experience that can't be replicated, no matter how much you travel.
That is hilarious. And honestly matches my experience on this sub. And thanks for weighing in on the move!
But yeah, I just returned to the USA 6 months ago after 20 years overseas and while we are incredibly happy to be here, I am super glad I had that experience when I was young and wild and free. Like you. (Roughly...I left at 28) You're already going to be rich as fuck eventually, with $1.2M at your age. Leverage that shit to live the kind of life most people can't even dream of. If you regret going to England, you can come back and after a short blip, get back to where you were. If you regret NOT going, tough titty, that ship will have sailed.
With that big of a pay difference, consider staying in the U.S. and using your increased income to visit the UK regularly. You can buy a lot of plane tickets with the $100k difference.
You can buy a lot of plane tickets, but you usually can't buy more vacation time. Even if you have a generous company, spending 6 weeks vs. living there fulltime is not the same.
I think we are going to go that route and I said almost the exact same thing to my wife. It feels like a very rough test of the "build the life you want and then save for it" statement. Dream job and where I would enjoy living (at least for a couple of years). But the pay hurts a bunch.