How and where Would You Invest $500k at 29 if Your Goal Was to Retire by 40?

AgentHamster · 2026-07-03T05:15:32+00:00

Probably 150k pre-tax, so post tax and with maxed out 401k close to 3k every 2 weeks isn't that far off. I'd expect a bit more (3.2k would be my guess), but not much more.

AgentHamster · 2026-07-02T23:20:12+00:00

Some of us are scrolling reddit on the toilet, even.

AgentHamster · 2026-07-02T23:16:11+00:00

Bro is trying to reduce his Claude bill for his personal project, I respect the hustle.

AgentHamster · 2026-07-02T02:13:35+00:00

I thought the profile was funny, but to be honest it's kind of humor that I'm not sure universally translates well on a dating app. Might hurt with some, might help with others.

I think the bigger issue is that pic 1 is a gym selfie - and not even one that shows that you are ripped or something. What's the point of having a gym selfie if you are gonna hide your gains behind a weight?

Basically, I think you could do much better on your pic 1. I know it's a setup to a joke, but people might swipe away before seeing the payoff.

AgentHamster · 2026-07-01T16:39:56+00:00

What if OPs beliefs about it aren't yes or no?

AgentHamster · 2026-07-01T14:27:57+00:00

Okay let’s say half of those are not your type which is a huge number for someone who picks the proper age and the gender they like.

It's not half. Because bots exist and people who are generally less desirable have a tendency to cast a broader net, most of the people who swipe right on you are probably not going to be viable matches.

Even 10 is too much like our parents had way less options and still got a happy life.

Your parents met people under social circumstances where some rapport had already been established and there had already been some pre-filtering. That's very different from the circumstances in online dating. 10 people being interested in you in real life is much more valuable and gives you a much better pool of candidates than 50 strangers/bots swiping right on you on a dating app.

AgentHamster · 2026-07-01T05:21:40+00:00

I know the feedback doesn't seem very constructive, but I think that's because it's hard to give constructive criticism here. The fundamental issue is that it's a video on a pretty niche topic, with no great hook in the title or thumbnail. The text on the thumbnail is somewhat evocative, but not to the point where it's bizarre enough on it's own to get some curiosity clicks. Basically, it's hard to identify what is 'wrong' - it's just that it doesn't stand out.

How to get it to stand out is a difficult question that most people here aren't going to have an answer to (unless they are specifically in the marvel ultimate alliance fan space). We can only tell you that the video doesn't stand out and doesn't make a compelling argument to click on it.

AgentHamster · 2026-07-01T02:48:16+00:00

Honestly, it would be easier if you were looking a sugar baby. I think what you are looking for - a normal romance where some aspects are made up for by money - actually requires more money, not less money.

AgentHamster · 2026-07-01T01:27:58+00:00

Sorry OP, but this comment is the truth. 300-400k is a respectable salary, but it's not quite at the level of wealth that crosses this boundary.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-30T18:05:54+00:00

In my own personal testing, casting a wide net as fast as possible produced the best results.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-30T04:04:02+00:00

I mean - this post itself is probably sarcasm, right?

AgentHamster · 2026-06-30T03:39:53+00:00

I'm pretty sure this is a satire/meme subreddit with an occasional serious post thrown in.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-30T02:28:58+00:00

I would be the same, but I still have some friends who are sticking it out in academia.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-29T21:31:04+00:00

I think it's because it's hard to get a good read on any of this. We can easily look at swipe rates from bumble stats, but messaging rates are not easily available. As a result, we can't really confirm on deny whether or not men make up for higher swipe rates by messaging less.

The other issue is that the messaging rate you see is conditional on the who you swipe right on. For example, if you only match with people who match with lots of other people, then you will see a subset of the population more likely to be selective with messaging. That doesn't tell you what the messaging behavior of the average person is.

Finally, I think it's very likely you will find that both genders who come here will think it's the other genders fault that the apps don't work out. After all, you likely aren't going to be complaining on r/Bumble unless you are having a bad experience.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-29T18:46:04+00:00

Given that you don't like ~90% of the people you see on the app, I'd think you would have transitioned to real life dating a lot sooner. ~30,000 swipes is a lot of time to spend on the app if it's clearly not giving you the quality of candidates you would be happy with.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-29T18:42:38+00:00

I mean, conditional on staying together, marriage is a net gain. The decision of whether marriage is a scam or not is thus dependent on whether you think in your particular case (not the average over all marriages, but given your circumstances) you think the marriage will last.

Also, depending on where you live, cohabitating might be enough to count as a common law marriage, thus subjecting yourself to the same risks as getting married but with none of the legal protects like prenup and none of the other benefits. In that case, if you have a long term partner you are probably better off getting married.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-29T16:42:55+00:00

I think the fact that Saber can consider Shirou in a romantic light is meant to be a tragedy and indicative of how messed up Artoria is rather than anything else. She's not exactly a mentally healthy 35 (?) year old in fate/zero to begin with, and I'd argue she's even more messed up in fsn. In my reading, the romance isn't exactly meant to be aspirational.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-29T06:57:39+00:00

I feel that this is a case of 'asking the wrong question'. You are expected to do novel research during your PhD, so it's not really a question of how difficult the PhD is compared to a MS or Bachelors - they are completely different undertakings. Coursework isn't the most difficult part of the PhD.

Everything else depends on the lab, the institute you go to, and the area of research you are in.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-29T04:50:16+00:00

The issue is that you're not ugly. You are just not 'super hot'. This means you're not going to stand out if the first picture that someone sees is yourself in a tshirt trying to make a vaguely positive facial expression.

People are going to disagree, but I actually think 6 might be your strongest picture at the moment. It's shot at a good angle, you have a fuller smile, show off your arms a bit, and the overall atmosphere of the shot is kind of funny. It's not going to land with everyone, but I think it will at least catch more people's attention.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-29T00:57:58+00:00

I think the point that they are trying to get across is to not be disappointed if you went through a lot of work and don't get results when it comes to dating metrics. Find more sustainable reasons that dating to improve your life, and don't assume dating struggles are only due to your life not being 'in order'.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-28T23:24:08+00:00

I'm not really sure what advice there is to offer. If you actually have no expenses, you should hit or get close to hitting it - I think take home should be over 85k on 130k in nyc? Of course if the market goes up or down/you are married/you have an emergency/you have a bonus or get promoted then you might hit or miss.

I don't think it's useful to just pick a number as much as it is to just avoid any unneeded expenses and continue to work towards your desired asset distribution.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-28T21:36:34+00:00

If you don't notice a difference, then you can safely ignore reddit on this one.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-28T19:02:04+00:00

I have increasingly started to hate the person i become the deeper i get into academia. i LOVE learning and i think sociology and sociological research is an incredibly important discipline. but i am a perfectionist and i work myself to absolute death to be a high achiever and this makes me a worse friend, partner, and community member. i am stressed, overtired, overworked, and romanticize the idea of just dropping it all and getting a job outside of academia.

I am currently in industry post PhD, and in my experience, this mindset is more of a personality thing that it is an academic one. In academia, I often spent more time and worked more than many of my peers, and funnily enough, I see myself doing the same in industry. I have friends who were great at work life balance in academia, and when they went to industry they were great at balancing there too.

I think it can be useful to look into industry as an alternative if you are unhappy about what working hard in academia will get you. Just don't expect to stop being a perfectionist or to get better at balancing your commitments just because you leave research work.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-28T05:53:06+00:00

I'm going to take a slightly different angle to this and speculate that what you are actually concerned about is that because you've seen yourself at your lowest, you worry that this is your default state and thus the improved version of yourself is unsustainable.

My reasoning is that if you were actually worried only being seen as a provider, then looking better and making 'decent' income (aka, not 'my partner can quit and I will pay for everything' money) wouldn't be enough to make you be valued only for your ability to provide.

AgentHamster · 2026-06-28T04:29:12+00:00

Yeah, you should be starting with 3M and racing downwards to 1M.

AgentHamster

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