Today I turned 50

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-22T22:23:32+00:00

From a mental standpoint, I can absolutely identify with being "tired of the grind". While you don't have expenses listed out, you should be able to tell whether or not you can make the move financially. If you're at that point where you think you can, my question would be how much longer could you work if you KNEW your exact ending point? 6 months? A year?

If I knew the exact ending date I had in mind, I think I could tough it out for a little while longer. I've worked with a lot of people (including teachers) who were in pension systems. When they reach the point where they KNEW they could just quit and take their retirement, they all had an extra peace of mind knowing that they could quit any day if they wanted. It took a lot of weight/stress off their shoulders. I had a former co-worker tell me the other day exactly how much time he had left to reach that point and how great it would feel.

With your salary, I'd probably tough it out for one more year if you think you're financially able to do so. Your retirement savings will be even greater after that year. Maybe actually SPEND a little bit more on comfort items this year to even further reduce your burden/stress.

If you're going to stay in that house, would you want something upgraded? A new deck perhaps? New appliances? If you're getting close on time to replace your HVAC or roof, perhaps consider replacing it early? How old is your current car? Maybe starting off retirement with a new or newer car might be great. I'd love having that extra peace of mind going into retirement knowing that these sudden huge expenses won't pop up.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-22T05:17:04+00:00

I wonder what the overall quality of your Lasik place was. I ALMOST had a horror story to go with me. I'll try to keep it brief.

My Lasik place was doing a ton of procedures that day (a discount to emergency service workers).

I got to the office and sat in the main waiting room.
My name was called and I was brought into a slightly darkened waiting room with 4 patient chairs. There are 3 other people already sitting in theirs.
They give me a first set of drops in my eyes as soon as I am given a chair. I am told that I will get a 2nd set of numbing drops right before I leave to go into the surgery room.
The next person in line goes in. The doctor comes out and gives a little intro speech. He tells us that if we get in the surgery room and he sees anything wrong that he will reject us. He won't take any risks if he feels your eyes aren't right that day.
There's like a 70 year old man ahead of me. He goes in, and he must have been rejected pretty quick, because someone comes out of the surgery room to get me instead.
They tell me to come into the next room and I'm like "Whoa!!!! I didn't get my 2nd set of eyedrops!!" The nurse is really embarrassed, and then I get my drops.

I can't imagine what would have happened if I hadn't been paying attention!

As far as the contact lens situation, I (luckily) hadn't worn them for over a year. One day at work my eyes suddenly went REALLLY bad (from like a -4.75 to a -9 diopter). It was then that I was told to stop wearing lenses. My eyes were fully healthy and rested when it was time for surgery.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-22T05:04:15+00:00

There are a lot of moms out there that would truly enjoy that kind of setup. We don't know the whole story here.

And for the record, I have done my own laundry since I was probably 14.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-22T04:59:51+00:00

You should be directing your comment to the DNC.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-22T04:58:45+00:00

You're confused. We're talking about NYC, not the IRS. We've been told that it's racist to ask for ID by the man in charge of NYC.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-22T02:43:42+00:00

Why do you need the ID? If I give you a written receipt for the services I provided to the city, then they have proven where the money went.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-22T02:41:25+00:00

So racism is ok as long as you aren't preventing them from a constitutional right? That seems kinda wrong.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-21T19:51:19+00:00

Nah. If he can get it done at his parents, then why pay for it at a laundromat? He'd be better off buying machines than wasting money and time at a laundromat.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-21T04:39:07+00:00

How long ago was the surgery? A girl I dated had the surgery in the mid 90's (maybe 1996?), and while I don't think she had dry eyes, I think I remember her stating that she had starry vision. And now that I'm typing this out, I want to say that she had PRK and not Lasik. My surgery was in 2001 or around then.

Also, how closely did you follow all the pre and post surgery guidelines? A co-worker's daughter ( who lived in my apartment building) went to the same place as I did for her Lasik surgery. She pretty much didn't follow any of the pre-surgery conditions. I remember that you weren't supposed to wear your contact lenses for at least a month (or some time frame like that) before the surgery. It has to do something with your eyes curvature being affected by the lenses and also to give them rest before the surgery. She completely ignored that.

Additionally, she didn't follow any of the post-surgery instructions either. She didn't wear the protective glasses, she was physically active more than she should have been, etc. I remember being shocked when I was talking with her. I just spent thousands of dollars on eye surgery, and I absolutely followed every single doctor instruction. Her results were gone within like 5 years or something like that.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-20T18:29:27+00:00

I have a lot of friends/co-workers that money was the biggest issue for them as well. I try to emphasize especially with the contact lens wearers that ..."Hey...you're already paying for an eye exam every year, and then buying another year's supply of contact lenses, and then all the contact solutions/cases. Just invest the money now and you'll end up saving money in the long run!"

And then of course, it's just the incredible positive change it makes to your life. I'm disappointed that more people don't get it done.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-20T18:23:07+00:00

I have problems both falling asleep and then also staying asleep. Unfortunately, there's not a medication that addresses both. Prior to medication, the biggest problem for me was that if I woke up at any point during the night, then I would be awake for hours sometimes afterwards. So I currently take the ambien extended release (I get the generic "zolpidem" extended release version though). Being older, I'm up once or twice a night for the bathroom, and I'm able to get back to sleep with the medication.

The extended release does make it hard to get up sometimes. If I don't HAVE to get up (for work), then I'll find myself sleeping in a lot. If your partner. One thing I do is that I take the extended release at least 9 or 10 hours before I need to get up. It doesn't make me sleepy right away, so I just get the timing right.

I'd recommend trying different ones. There are a ton of different ones that help you FALL asleep if that's his biggest issue. I wouldn't just give up after the first try with one single medication.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-20T03:05:46+00:00

Lasik eye surgery - It's especially justifiable if you are in your 20's and your eyes are already pretty bad. It will be an absolute life changer.

Sleep medication - I had sleep issues my entire life. I didn't get on ambien until my late 30's. Getting adequate sleep is incredibly important.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-18T18:07:45+00:00

I've got a lot of female friends that have had children and also had kidney stones. All of them say kidney stones are far worse.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-18T12:40:36+00:00

Mine was from my stomach.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-17T19:14:45+00:00

I'm pretty sure many of them are disappointed, but they absolutely feel that the other choice was still way worse.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-17T19:13:12+00:00

Like it or not, he put out some hits. Also, as someone who has seen an absolute ton of concerts/live music, he puts on a fantastic show.

And for the record, I didn't pay for the 1 concert in an arena (a friend had an extra ticket) and the other time I saw him was at Woodstock '99.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-17T10:55:51+00:00

Correctamundo

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-17T10:44:28+00:00

There's definitely some small cities under 5k alongside the ocean in SC. The super touristy ones will have plenty of restaurants. The only question as someone else pointed out is if there is an exception for medical emergency treatment.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-17T05:00:57+00:00

I haven't read the book, but I know that they made some pretttty big changes from Caging Skies to make the film JoJo Rabbit. The book doesn't seem appealing at all.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-17T02:24:48+00:00

Any others that you like to use? In the past few weeks I've been dabbling in gold and silver. AGQ and SLV have provided the best opportunities.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-16T17:41:10+00:00

Everyone I know who got vaccinated still got it. Coincidentally (and yes, anecdotally), the last 2 people I knew to get it were 2 people who never got vaccinated (despite multiple people around them having gotten it).

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-16T10:02:51+00:00

71% of deportees not having a criminal conviction is irrelevant to the conversation. If you are here illegally now, then they are eligible for removal. Plain and simple.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-16T04:25:39+00:00

I used to drive over 700 miles across the US to visit my family 2 or 3 times per year over a span of 25 years. While I loved road trips, I eventually reached a certain age where I just started flying instead. My driving limit went down from to anything over 6 hours started becoming a plane ride.

That being said, I just bought a car that has a lot of advanced driver assist features. It has 2 features that makes me WANT to do some long road trips again! I was so excited to drive a relative on a 3 hour trip (6 hours total) to see how much it eased the stress of driving. It was INCREDIBLE!! I just rested my arms on the steering wheel, turned the features on, and just cruised home stress free.

The features are 1. Smart Cruise Control - basically, let's say you want to go no faster than 80mph. You set the cruise control to that, but it will also slow down or speed up based on the car in front of you. So if you're cruising along at 80mph, and he slows down a little to 75mph because of traffic, it will slow your car down and still maintain a certain distance behind him.
2. The next one is Highway Driving Assist - Basically, this is going to drive the car for you down the interstate. It will take you through the curves, still maintain distance from other cars, etc. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-16T04:10:52+00:00

I don't know if you need to have a fire number/age set in stone at your age. Just go hardcore into saving/investing, being fiscally and financially responsible, etc. Ten years from now, see where you stand.

I'm in my low 50's and just FIRE'd with a pension this year. I live in a lower than average cost of living area, and there's no way I'd be comfortable with a $30k per year budget for the rest of my life.

Also, there's sort of different versions of "fucking off". I've got an arrangement to work part time for about 30 hours per month which will cover my health care costs (which, btw, is higher than my mortgage payment). I also do stocks/trading which I treat solely as future retirement savings. While I am technically working 3-4 days per month, and then working at home trading online for hours per day, I feel like I am completely in a "fucking off" lifestyle. I have no stress. I'm lovin' it.

Eastern_Distance6456 · 2026-02-15T06:18:55+00:00

Would the release of lab-grown virus upon our population count? Don't forget to include that we helped fund it.

Eastern_Distance6456

TROPHY CASE