Just applied for a new job for the first time since a couple of years ago. Here's hoping it works out, since it would pay more, have more PTO, and would give me more retirement accounts to max out (pension, 403b and a 457!). I've been in my current role closing in on a decade. Usually, when I apply for other jobs by the time I get to the interview stages I'm not as interested in leaving. I'll see if that happens this time around or not, since I'm doing this in response to RTO after being WFH for the past 4 years.

Haven't checked my balances this week due to taking an unexpected trip. I'm assuming it's going great.

I've snagged a few deals on CDs but haven't done bonus churning. I feel like having to move my money in and out of various institutions and holding it for the required period is too onerous. I'd rather just shovel any extra funds into investments and forget it.

That's what I'm hoping. My manager has been WFH herself for over 15 years, so I think it shouldn't be a huge issue. Last time I was very upfront about not wanting to go back in, and it sounded like the worst case would be being reclassified as a remote employee. Hopefully that remains the case.

My manager informed me that word is they are going to start pushing RTO again. Last time they tried was the end of 2021 and it failed miserably, since everyone just ignored it. I told her it just doesn't make sense for day to day work when the team is not co-located. We'll see what they do this time around to get people to actually show up. I've now spent an equal amount of time at this job between going in full time (pre Covid) and WFH. I really like WFH and it is one of the major reasons I haven't seriously job searched recently. I may have to ramp up applying to new jobs if this mandate has any teeth.

What are everyone's thoughts about paying off your mortgage pre-retirement?

I got enormously lucky and refinanced at the very bottom of mortgage rates in 2020. Conventional wisdom would be to never pay this off as it's effectively free money. However it is costing us roughly $20k a year in added expenses, which I could see as having a massive impact on ACA and FAFSA (assuming a future child) in retirement.

I'm getting to the point where if I want to pay this off before retirement, without having to sell investments, I'd need to start diverting funds from investments into a cash account (since HYSA is currently > mortgage rate) to have enough saved to lump sum in at retirement. Another option I've been considering is saving enough cash/equivalents to cover mortgage payments without paying it off. However I'm looking at roughly 20 years of remaining payments at retirement and I'm not sure if that is a good strategy or not. Thoughts?

Pleased to realize that between my taxable account and Roth IRA contributions, I now have 5 years expenses saved to support a future conversion ladder in retirement. I'm still a ways out, but it's cool to realize that even if I don't save anymore post-tax, I'll be able to access my funds penalty free.

I'd consider a CD ladder with the amount needed for each tranche maturing at the time I'd need it (depending on rates I could get compared to HYSA rates).

Holy compounding growth! I can't believe that I just crossed the $500k invested mark in January and I'm already just one more good day from hitting $600k. I very well could cross that line in time for the end of month spreadsheet day. (Don't worry, now that I've put that thought out there, we'll certainly see a market crash)

A particularly sucky way to save money: skip your spouse's birthday celebration because you both got sick just in time for their birthday.

I feel especially bad because I dragged them to an event last week and they've been sick since we got home. Of course karma means they gave me their illness and I've been feeling bad since yesterday.

I've done similarly. I reached a breaking point where I'd hear about a show or movie and think I'd like to see it, only for it to be on one of the bazillion services I don't have. Now if there's something I want to watch, I'll check if it's on a service I have access to. If not, I'll get it through other means.

Frugal "win" of the day:

I over stretched my hamstring last week and sitting all day hurts. I was able to scrounge a perfectly sized box to transform my normal desk into a standing desk. Now I'm just hoping I can reduce the pain enough to survive the major tournament I'm travelling for next week.

Good for you. Every little bit helps!

Canada! Specifically Ontario and Quebec

Next week I'm going on vacation. The senioritis at work is real! I have no desire to do anything productive this week (besides obsessively checking the weather forecast for my destination)

Today's my wedding anniversary (sort of, thanks to COVID causing us to have multiple anniversary dates).

It's amazing how much marrying the right person can accelerate your timelines. My spouse was in the "work til I die" camp when we first met. However, they were always very frugal. Now we both dream of FIRE and have a pretty significant net worth.

Most likely. I would guess 4-5 years if no major changes in lifestyle. Longer, and harder to guesstimate, if we decide to have kids.

My most recent meaningless milestone:

With a 4% withdrawal rate, my current investment balance supports a monthly equivalent to my takehome pay of one paycheck. So I'm basically getting 12 additional paychecks a year from my investment balance.

I decided to sign up for a giant national competition for my hobby sport today. Between entrance fees, flights, and hotel it was a very spendy day.

Build the life you want and then save for it...right?

Also, the last time I tried to do this event I came down with COVID the week before and lost out on a bunch of non-refundable deposits. I'm really hoping that doesn't happen again this time.

I used to work in the news and fires were one of my favorite things to be sent to film. It's so powerful and destructive, yet so incredibly beautiful.

Had my first foray into bread making this weekend. It turned out surprisingly well considering the fact that I'm a terrible cook/baker. It was way easier than I expected (granted I did use a stand mixer). Is it worth replacing my normal bread consumption with homemade? Not sure on the cost side of things (I maybe save $1 on the equivalent amount of bread), quality does seem improved though from the standard loaves of white bread I buy from costco.

I absolutely love it. Granted I have a ton of hair, so I end up taking fairly long showers. I would quite often run out of hot water when we had a tank. It probably does encourage wasting water, since it takes longer to heat up and then you don't have a sudden influx of cold water to speed you up at the end of the shower.

For all those considering buying vs renting into retirement:

Owning a house is freaking expensive. Last year we spent ~15k on a new HVAC system. I figured this year would be cheaper, since we didn't have any major repairs that high on our priorities. Until this weekend when my spouse realized the pipes to their shower were leaking. Considering the general state of the shower, we're leaning towards ripping it all out and just getting a new one.

Then my spouse fell for a door to door sales person and we ended up getting a quote for new attic insulation. They want >20k for everything or ~13k for their most basic install. While we do need to upgrade our insulation, best case scenario is a payoff in over 16 years, likely way longer as well.

The insurance also rejected our claim for roof damage saying there were just some shingles needing to be replaced which costs less than our deductible. So if we want a new roof, that cost is on us as well.

We've lived in our house for 4 years now, and I think our cheapest year we only spent ~5k on repairs (new tankless water heater install after our old water heater died).

Adam Savage

Lol just asked it how much I should have saved now if I want to retire at 40. I don't think you should take AI's advice when it comes to retirement...

Here's a rough estimate to get you started: if you plan to retire at 40 and spend $30,000 per year, you'll need to save around $180,000 by then. This is simply your annual spending multiplied by the number of years until retirement. However, this is a simplified calculation and doesn't take into account factors like inflation, investment returns, or your desired retirement lifestyle. To get a more accurate idea of how much you need to save, you can use a retirement calculator or consult with a financial advisor.

Decided to play around with AI and asked it to create some outlines for a couple of story ideas I've had bouncing around in my head for years. Damn, they were pretty good. I may have to use this as inspiration to actually write these stories instead of waiting until I reach FIRE.

Side note: I tried asking it to do my job, and was decidedly not great. Granted I had to give it generalized instructions, but still. Fairly safe to say that AI can not replicate the domain knowledge of a human in my role just yet.

Been having some knee issues so I'm trying the knees over toes exercises to try to avoid having to go to PT for it. Last year I spent $1200 getting my other knee checked out only to be told it would get better on its own in 1-3 more weeks. Figured I'd try to save some cash and diy it to try and regain my mobility faster.

I'm very skeptical of this guy since everything about him comes off as bro-science/steal your money through over hyping it, but also there doesn't seem like anything wrong with the exercises themselves from my athletic layman's perspective. I found a free copy of the program so figured if it is just a scam I'm not out anything.

Yet to be seen. We either nailed the timeline or there is a massive problem with the code. The person who could confirm was on PTO.

Holy cow. I just had an unexpected call with my manager and they told me I was getting a 10% raise starting in April. While it's been quite some time since I've seen a raise, this definitely makes up for some of it. Combined with my bonus, it looks like I'll break the 6 figure mark for income this year!

Now I just have to go update some spreadsheets!

Could be, but they would still be required to pass tests to prove their hormones are in the appropriate range, just like cis women have to do when tested for doping with testosterone.

If there's any real debate to be had, it's along the lines of male hormones and penises. Should either be present in a place which essentially only exists for the purpose of keeping those things out?

They are. Every sporting governing body I'm aware of requires trans women to be on hormone therapy for a minimum of 2 years before they can compete in the women's category. This is completely in line with the medical community's research into how long it takes before the benefits of being biologically male are counteracted by the hormone replacement.

The debate has been had in the medical community and has been resolved. Now random people who never gave a fuck about women's sports before think they should have input when they have no qualifications, just because they have prejudices.

I'm so glad WFH has stuck with my company thus far, especially after weeks like this one where we were buried in snow. As of this week, I've officially spent 50% of my tenure in my role as WFH. That seems crazy to me, that I've been at this company so long and that COVID lockdowns started 4 years ago.

I no longer buy cereal because it has become way too expensive for the low nutritional/satiety value. Sorry, Kellogg, you'll have to do better if you want to convince people to eat more cereal.

My favorite from my time working in the news industry:

Neighbor puts toilets in their yard facing other neighbors house. That neighbor builds a fence so they don't have to look at the toilets. Original neighbor then hangs toilets from the tree so it is visible over the fence. Cue complaints to get toilets removed by city/county.

I believe the original dispute had to do with tearing out a shared bush and parking on lawn, but I don't recall the details.

I didn't have very high expectations of it going in, but I was absolutely blown away. It deserves all the acclaim it's received.

I just finished watching The Bear. I absolutely loved it, though there is certainly a lot of yelling in that show.

Oh fun. $330k for a 500sqft shack that is partially collapsed. The only info on the listing states the lot will need to be scraped, so basically that is the cost of an empty lot.

Going out a bit further, you can find a couple of houses around $350k that are liveable. They are 700-900 sqft and 0-2 bedrooms.

It's just lovely when a c-level exec makes delivery promises to a customer without consulting with the development team. Now we have to somehow complete a very complex feature across multiple teams in 1 month.

At least I'm that much closer to RE with today's ridiculous market gains.

How high are you OP?

A while back I applied with the USPS and got called in for an interview. It wasn't a real interview, but more of a presentation on all the required next steps to be hired (there were at least 20 of us in the room). I ended up getting a different job before my start date, but if you were able to do all the steps by the deadline the job was yours.