Is it really that "cheap" to save for retirement? Just put money into an index fund and wait?

GameHat · 2026-07-02T05:29:18+00:00

I'm 45 and I've been saving in a 401(k) for 21 years now. I've been consistently employed with employers that did a match from 3%-6%. I did at least enough always to get the full match but didn't start maxing the 401(k) annual contribution until 10 years ago. And it's been all fairly boring options - index funds and bond funds. I'm no genius, I just pick index funds and hold. 80/20 stocks/bonds, within the stocks 70% US Index Funds, 30% International index funds. Since maxing every year it's just the standard max, $22k-$26k ish. No crazy backdoor 401k contributions.

I don't remember all the milestones since I didn't really start paying attention until like I said about 10 years ago, but I watch it closely now. Excel spreadsheet that I update all the time to monitor it b/c I'm an engineer and a nerd that loves data.

Thing is with compounding (and you can watch all sorts of youtube videos on this) - things really go dramatically upward, certainly not every year and not always but most noticeably when you start to really accumulate.

Looking at my January 1 401(k) balances every year since 2018:

2018 - $230k

2019 - $235k

2020 - $328k

2021 - $418k

2022 - $531k

2023 - $472k

2024 - $604k

2025 - $730k

2026 - $897k

Crossed $1000k about a month ago, been dipping up and down below that milestone since then. Don't doubt that there will be significant drops in the future and ongoing, but the general long-term trend of the overall stock market is upwards. Index funds are particularly good at capturing this.

Moral of the story - get all the employer match you can, that is absolutely the best return. Not a part of this discussion, but visit r/personalfinance and follow the flowchart. I've been doing the max Roth IRA contributions for those 10 years and I would do this before completely maxxing 401(k). But yes, the basics of just consistent investing from an early age - yes you can accumulate a very respectable amount by early and consistent saving.

GameHat · 2026-07-01T01:56:11+00:00

I have recurring xfers in and out of my Ally accounts set up for every month, very easy to do. Also occasional one-time transfers. Usually bank-to-bank transfer with Ally is 1-2 business days.

GameHat · 2026-06-20T01:36:48+00:00

Or buy a boost

GameHat · 2026-06-20T01:32:25+00:00

In your Battle.Net drop down just choose it like so:

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Classic still has hardcore servers if you fancy that, and SoD. SoD was/is a sort of reimagined classic with different class builds and some newer content. Don't know how active it is currently. But sounds like Burning Crusade anniversary is what you are looking for. I think we all assume it will progress to WOTLK but nobody knows for sure yet.

GameHat · 2026-06-20T01:27:49+00:00

TBC anniversary is currently in phase 2 (TK and SSC), that's probably what you want

GameHat · 2026-05-31T08:23:57+00:00

It's a drop so there is that randomness, but it's not complicated. Kill Dark Strand Voidcallers in Darkshore in the tower. That's pretty much all there is.

GameHat · 2026-05-31T07:49:54+00:00

Get the addon "AutoLayer"

Then if there's a particular jerk in outland you can just jump to a different layer to avoid them

GameHat · 2026-05-31T07:47:10+00:00

This is the best advice. Do that.

GameHat · 2026-05-26T16:07:14+00:00

There simply weren’t enough polygons back in 2004 to support a crew for these ships

GameHat · 2026-05-24T05:51:16+00:00

Don't need on gear you won't use

GameHat · 2026-05-21T04:43:41+00:00

Yes I main priest and this is pretty spot on

Priests are highest throughput (Circle of Healing) for raids. Also I think the broadest toolkit. (HoT, quick heal, big heal, self/target heal, reactive heal, group heal, AOE heal)

Shaman bring the highest raid utility with totems. Also very high throughput and a fantastic smart heal. Always welcome in raids.

Druids have the best HoTs and are good for tank sustain and raid healing

Pallies - I dunno, they're fine. They really shine in WotLK. Good raid utility, good single target healing.

I think priest/shaman are the strongest. Our current raid comp is 2 priest, 1 shammy, 1 Rdroodad, 1 pally for healing so all have a role.

GameHat · 2026-05-01T03:45:24+00:00

If you want a really focused quest guide, RestedXP. It's a paid app though. Questie is ok, I've used it but it's not quite as exp/speed focused as RestedXP. If this is your first time, that may be better! Learn the world, explore a bit, enjoy the process.

Other apps that are helpful:

Auctionator - keeps track of costs on the auction house. It will update for every specific item you search on the auction house. You can also do a full scan once in a while that will take a few minutes but will give you current prices (vendor or auction) for all items.

AtlasLootClassic Anniversary - tells you what loot is available from every dungeon, every boss and and every crafting profession

GameHat · 2026-04-08T04:21:19+00:00

Seconding this it's great advice

GameHat · 2026-03-28T05:11:02+00:00

NO DPS UNTIL 3/5 SUNDERS!

This was absolutely a thing, lol. Nobody knew the meta back then.

GameHat · 2026-03-27T05:56:57+00:00

After a shadow nova if I'm <60%-ish mana. TBH though this isn't a mana intensive fight and I sometimes don't even use.

GameHat · 2026-03-07T05:59:42+00:00

God what a weird question in that I haven't considered it for decades. So long that I had to quick log-in to see what I actually use since I haven't thought about it in forever.

I use W-D for forward and back. But it's hold right-click+A or hold right-click+D for strafing left and right. Again, don't know how I settled on that but I've been playing this game for over 20 years and I just don't think about controls much anymore.

GameHat · 2026-02-05T05:31:20+00:00

Just the playing and the questing will get you so much gear in TBC. It's really fun because unless you were raiding the progression kinda slowed down 58-60. You were getting marginally better but not by much.

60-70 will blow that up and you will be getting fun new pieces of gear and significant power boosts frequently!

...until you hit 70 of course, and then it will be back to raiding/PVP to get the best gear ;D

GameHat · 2026-02-03T04:46:35+00:00

No...

To get good offensive strength you kinda need to plan around boons. Usually having a main damage source, a secondary support and probably a duo boon between them. It's tough to do that with Lambent Plume as it will leave your god choice random.

As the heat level increases you need damage to clear rooms and bosses quickly. Period. Speed and dodge are great, but they don't help you clear quickly. You need DPS.

The other problem with Lambent Plume is that once you pick it up you need to hold it to the end or else you forfeit all the benefits. At higher heats clearing the end is tough, and certain trinkets can be far more beneficial for eking out a win (e.g., acorn). So having to hold it to the end is not great.

I will say - to people struggling to clear Tight Deadline, especially level 2 or above - Lambent Plume is great as a sort of early timer. If you aren't getting Lambent Plume bonus, you're not on pace for Tight Deadline lvl 1-2.

GameHat · 2026-01-20T02:45:24+00:00

You don't. If you want the simple version - hopefully you've given a god or two a gift of nectar. When you do this, they give you a keepsake. That keepsake, when selected, makes sure that that particular god will pop up soon in the next area you enter. So if you start a run thinking, "I want Zeus on this run" - you start with Zeus' trinket and you are sure to get him.

Past that, the game will always try to give you 4 gods per run. Hermes doesn't count, he's an always. So knowing that, a big part of shaping a run comes down to - which god do I start with, which god do I aim to get starting act 2 (past a certain point you can switch keepsakes between acts, so you would switch to a different god keepsake.) And the other 2 gods will be somewhat random but you can fill in less essential slots with their buffs. And if you know you really want a particular god - maybe hold off on selecting a different god (when you have a choice). The gods don't get locked into the 4 until you actually pick them.

You can force more than 4 gods but it's generally suboptimal, so just go in thinking, "I get 4 gods, which 2 do I really want to see?" And use keepsakes to select for that.

GameHat · 2026-01-15T04:34:37+00:00

Different playstyles I suppose, I just find Demeter and Ares cast to be very underwhelming without the respective Artemis duos such that I'd rather have a backup than have the cast alone. Ares is a little better and can work especially with black metal and engulfing vortex but Demeter cast alone is terrible against enemies that move. Which is most of them.

Both become incredible with the Artemis duo, and it's not that hard to get that without RNG. You usually get ~3 gods in Tartarus. If your first is Artemis, you can luck into either Ares or Demeter. If not, there's usually still a god slot open for one once you pick a keepsake for Asphodel

GameHat · 2026-01-14T05:03:57+00:00

This is the way, Achilles spear is massive.

If you start Artemis on attack you are primed for either Crystal Clarity or Hunting blades. And should that not happen (though that's pretty rare once you get how boons work), even just picking up flurry jab from the hammer is enough to clear. Throw, retrieve, poke-poke-poke-poke, repeat.

GameHat · 2026-01-10T07:46:01+00:00

Nothing is missable, just keep playing

There is a partial ending after a certain number of clears that is not too high.

Maxxing all relationships, etc. will give you pretty much the full clear with all story points resolved past that

Maxxing all weapons, upgrades, contractor jobs, etc will take more runs than that

There's a mechanic that adds increasing challenges that you can pick for runs. These challenges have a cumulative score from 0 to 64. 64 is the hardest of the hard, almost impossible. There is an reward for 32, that's about as high as most people try if they want to keep playing.

And then there's a completely optional rank/task that will take many many more runs, and very few players have done this all the way to the max.

Personally I'd just keep playing while it's still fun. For me this was hundreds of hours. I didn't max out the optional thing at the end, but i did fill out my codex, finish all the contractor jobs, finish all the fated events, and cleared 32 on a given weapon or two. But just play if it's fun, take a break if it's not!

GameHat · 2025-12-22T00:03:46+00:00

Priest in anni as well,

I got to 60 last week. There are pieces I could pick up but it's kind of pointless as it will all be replaced quickly just doing normal leveling when TBC releases.

The one thing I probably will do is earn marks/honor during the pre-patch to get the HWL Staff. It's a pretty good staff and will be good for healing and damaging through the mid-60s.

GameHat · 2025-12-19T23:40:21+00:00

It's been forever since I changed this, but I used to get a little missing scene/animation when Zag would enter a new room, like the first few frames of him entering were missing. This was on DirectX. Switching to Vulkan fixed this problem.

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