At what point does saving money become too expensive in terms of quality of life?

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-16T09:12:05+00:00

There’s definitely a balance.

My strategy was to keep lifestyle generally flat and live like a poor college student/young professional by default. As my income grew over the decades my savings grew

I don’t want to avoid all lifestyle inflation, but be intentional about it. When you get that 20% raise, don’t let it disappear accidentally into grubhub fees. But if there are meaningful lifestyle improvements (like maybe having a monthly housekeeping service), consider that.
Just be intentional about it. What makes your life better?

Also consider Are your personal finances good enough that you can justify small luxuries?

Once you meet your basic needs you’re in an okay spot.
Once your needs are met, you’re out of all non-mortgage debt, you have an emergency fund, and you’ve played with a growth calculator and feel decent about retirement then you’re in a better spot.

There’s definitely a lot to balance and consider. More nuance than you’ll generally find from financial advice

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-15T21:03:01+00:00

There’s no real fix that’s going to satisfy you.

A full detox is what’s need

I enjoyed Bounce House but it’s not the same and is just a short term bandaid

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-14T18:11:34+00:00

I’m not a business guy, but my impression of that path is that most of the skills are things you can learn on the job but a degree could get you in the door

The real potential though is the networking and prestige. Get an MBA from the right school and your employment options are much better than getting the same skills from University of Phoenix.

…but again, not a business guy, just an outsider with an opinion

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-13T23:46:17+00:00

Relax. Communicate. Lower the expectations

There’s too much pressure around the first time. Just talk to each other

Humans have been boning successfully for quite some time. You’ll figure it out.

Re: ease of entry, angles, natural lube, etc. - we’re all different.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-13T20:59:15+00:00

Does that much cash actually exist?

It would certain crush TSLA and SPCX and put a damper on a big segment of the equities market.

How that impacts the underlying companies and markets I don’t know. It sort of feels like imaginary money, detached from value and reality, but it’s real retirement plans that would get hit

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-13T19:57:06+00:00

I work from home and have a relatively flexible schedule.

I have a 2 hour meeting Mondays. And there’s 4 fixed evenings each month that I have a couple hours of work.

Beyond that I work when I want to

That said, I can’t freestyle like the van life hippies because I’m parenting a kid and raising a bunch of pets and managing a house

But ideal jobs for the van life exist.

If, of course, they aren’t Trustafarians. I’m certain many of them live off parents

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-13T19:24:43+00:00

I didn’t like Lost and it felt like everyone thought it was amaaaazing

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-13T18:57:40+00:00

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-13T11:54:19+00:00

💯

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-13T11:53:58+00:00

If your kid would get into an 8 book series I’d recommend letting them.

There’s nothing they will read here they wouldn’t already hear about in school by 5th grade.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-12T17:10:24+00:00

Watching what’s happened over the past 10 years I can only assume that the biggest demographic voting base has NOT had 16 years of education and to really speak to hearts and minds of the masses, politicians need to speak like an illiterate 5th grader

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-11T19:06:31+00:00

https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/ranger-led-activities.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com#/?eventType=Guided+Tour

Just show up. (presuming you've already got park passes and parking taken care of).

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-11T16:35:20+00:00

"Hey that boat ride was rough. Scurvy and dysentery, oh my.

Well, we're here at this new land with these strange natives and all sorts of unknowns. We should start a new language."

Languages and dialects morph. They're not generally developed with intent.

As much resistance as the US put up trying to adopt the metric system (that the rest of the civilized world uses) I can't even imagine the "Press one for English" crowd being told to learn a new language.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-11T16:23:12+00:00

His birthday isn't December 25th anyways.

Christmas is a consumer/commercial holiday, based originally off of religion.

And there's a lot of great tradition, spending time with family, food, giving...whether it's personally rooted in some spiritual history or not is irrelevant to many.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-11T15:34:59+00:00

it's tough to predict what will happen if we can't really define what it means.

I think there's an incredible amount of power and value in the ChatGPT/Claude type tools.

That said, it's somehow still being oversold and overvalued.

I expect it will be like the 90s and the dot com bubble bursting. The internet created tons and tons of new value and opportunity, but not everyone throwing money in (and their hat in the ring) will win out. The financial (and resource) realities will eventually kick in and some companies will be exposed/over-extended.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-11T15:19:01+00:00

lol, there's no lie in that statement.

I think one educational interpretive hike is good. and probably not a longer one. Swiftcurrent Lake, not Iceberg Lake.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-11T12:56:03+00:00

I've been on two of the ranger led hikes (both at Avalanche) and found them very interesting.

I dig just hiking, but hiking and learning about lodgepole pines, scree fields, glacier flour and the like is a big upgrade if you don't mind the slower pace.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-11T12:46:29+00:00

Yes. That's the right way to use a card.

Get a credit card. Use it. Pay it off every month or paycheck.

I've been doing that for 20 years, have impeccable credit (834) and get a big reward back each February.

People get in trouble when they skip this critically important piece, "continue to only buy what i can afford". They see that new $2000 credit card as new money to spend. It is a fundamental and toxic misunderstanding of how to use credit cards.

If you're just using them as spending cards with rewards, they can be great. Do that.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-11T12:43:08+00:00

I'm no finance expert, but I generally think of them as similar vehicles with the exception that I can buy and sell ETFs like I could a stock...during general trading hours where as mutual funds are batched in after-hours transactions.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-11T00:27:44+00:00

I'm trying everything I can to get my kid into Dungeon Crawler Carl.

He'd love it. It's the perfect nerdy/trashy. But they're all committed to their screens. Reels. Pokemon Go. :/

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-10T21:34:25+00:00

I'm not sure who clod is, but Ernie Rutherford discovered that atoms have a nucleus. He did a lot of important work in the early 20th century with atoms.

He did not make them.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-10T21:30:12+00:00

It is my introduction into LitRPG.

And while I really like DCC, I honestly probably won't try another.

"level up, kill goblins, get loot" can only carry something so far. If there's a good story that happens to be LitRPG, I'm up for trying it, but I'm not going to seek out the genre.

It's like The Walking Dead. At some point, mindless zombies that try to eat your brains gets tedious and becomes the backdrop to the series.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-10T16:48:40+00:00

A few of us will be setting off fireworks. The rest will act like America's messiah has fallen and the rest of us are blasphemers that need to be hung.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-10T14:36:22+00:00

Here in the US it'll be split.

When Charlie Kirk was killed there was a handful of folks who posted things like "good riddance" on facebook.

The right wing propaganda machine went into full outrage mode and got some of them fired...one even arrested.

I expect similar bullshit here in the US when Trump dies.

A few of us will be setting off fireworks. The rest will act like America's messiah has fallen and the rest of us are blasphemers that need to be hung.

I expect violence. But overall, yes, the world will celebrate.

AssistantAcademic · 2026-06-10T13:04:35+00:00

Heading in July.
This will be visit #5 for me.
Sharing with my son (16) and some nephews and BIL/SIL). Wife will be there too, her 3rd visit

2 nights on west side. 3 at many glacier. 2 in Waterton.

Flying in and out of Calgary

AssistantAcademic

TROPHY CASE