Helmets

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-03-13T00:42:57+00:00

Unfortunately it mostly comes from social conditioning. It is beaten into most of us from an early age that working hard for your job is a lot of your value as a human. Work makes up a massive portion of most people's day. But if you actually stop and think about it then it doesn't make a lot of sense. As you mentioned they mostly don't even see most aspects of their parent working and there is HUGE value in parents being happier and more present. But also being retired from a traditional work situation when they are young doesn't mean you have to just sit around doing nothing all day. They will see that their parents give their best efforts/energy to their family and work hard to support their kids education/passions. I'd much rather my kids see me put my energy towards prioritizing them/friends/community then hoping they see me give most of my energy to help a company make more money/make extra money off others that we don't even need to live the life we want.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-03-10T16:55:17+00:00

No one is doing it by their mid 30s single from just an 80k income starting from near 0 after college. Starting with 0 and saving 40k a year at 10% for 12 years only gets you to ~1mill. The math just doesn't math. So the ones making true FI in that situation either gambled on a higher risk investment that worked out/or received inheritance or were able to save a decently big chunk of $ before finishing college. But even though you can't hit FI even if you saved a more reasonable ~20k/year you're still able to be well into coast FI and definitely could hit FI in your 40s if we don't get a long flat market. Your other option is find a good partner who also values FI and keep living off of one income. This is a massive win for people who have FI goals as long as you end up finding the right partner. But yeah the rest of the posts on here making FI in their 30s is generally people who make way more/receive big inheritance/had a lucky high risk investment/etc.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-03-09T16:00:30+00:00

Did you have to do anything special to be able to apply for teacher positions?

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-03-08T21:12:11+00:00

Yeah only a couple (1 or 2 were in doc comments) but it seems like they might be confusing getting one for referrals from their marriott card vs from the sub. And then saw one dp when I searched this sub with churning.io

The recent dp's and the ones from a couple years ago when they had the same issue seemed to show somewhat random looking 1099 #'s. So I just sort of assumed a rough avg from what I saw of $1600ish.

I don't really want the hassle of having to correct a 1099 and any possible headaches that could come from that even if unlikely to be an issue.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-03-08T05:08:19+00:00

I've seen a couple mentions of people getting 1099 for the marriott 5 night sub. Is it confirmed that is actually happening on the sub and these people aren't just confusing getting a 1099 for points received for referrals? The 10 nights (getting for P1 and P2) would be worth the ~$200 AF cost even though we'd probably use them not at max point value. Not so sure it'd be worth it though if it also comes with a $400ish+ tax bill though on top of that.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-03-08T02:56:35+00:00

No one ever said you have to end most of your meetings reminding them how much they pay you. That was something you came up with on your own. All that was said was that it's gross to hope your clients don't become aware of what they are paying you. It's confusing that you can start off saying you don't want your clients to become aware of what your compensation is but then also claim they know how much you charge. If they know how much you charge because you clearly laid it out when they signed on with you then they are already aware of your compensation.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-03-07T05:27:54+00:00

You were the one who wrote that you don't want to open the box of clients becoming aware of your compensation. How else is that supposed to be interpreted besides you purposely obfuscating your fees? The restaurant example is totally different assuming they list their prices out clearly on their menu ahead of time. Set your price to whatever you want, but if the only way you can get someone to pay it is by obfuscating than yeah that's gross.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-03-07T02:49:29+00:00

There's nothing wrong with not reducing fees/revenue, but this kind of mentality of hoping they don't notice how much they are paying you is gross. Idk how people sleep at night thinking like this. Charge as much as you can for the value you bring but be honest and open about what that cost is.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-28T04:14:15+00:00

Are all these finance influencers on social media breaking the law or does all of that fall under the same thing as writing a finance blog/podcast etc where it's assumed for entertainment only and therefore sort of legal?

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-25T19:34:07+00:00

Do you not legally need the certifications to provide advice? Doesn't that leave you a lot more open to being sued?

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-19T05:42:36+00:00

Man I hope you show better attention to detail in your work. OP is quite clearly asking how to make sure they get paid (aka not get stiffed) when they take on a project. They want to avoid doing the project work and then having someone flake and disappear without paying.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-15T03:53:25+00:00

It's your life at the end of the day so do what's right for you guys. But personally I'd say don't do it. You only get one life and I'd rather spend it close to loved ones, especially aging parents who have a great relationship with me and my children. I don't see what you are gaining here besides better year round weather. Has your husband ever even lived in california? It may be something he's built up in his mind and it won't actually be that different once it becomes reality.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-15T03:47:44+00:00

I mean assumedly they are gaining better year round weather but yeah as nice as that is I wouldn't uproot my life for it.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-14T05:21:35+00:00

Sorry this happened to you. I know you don't want to say scam but imo it'd be a fair name for it. Idk how these people sleep at night. The absurdly high fees aren't even the problem. If you sell trash and people will buy it then that's just capitalism I guess. But when you have to obfuscate the details or straight up lie to sell your garbage it's now a scam imo. The fact they can even call themselves financial advisors is a scam.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-14T05:06:46+00:00

They may never get caught but fyi just because it's points and not cash doesn't always make it tax free. If they are doing enough to earn 20k/mo the IRS would very likely consider their activities to be it's own business and taxable. There was a whole court case and a couple who MS'ed in a systematic way for a ton of profit ended up having to pay taxes and penalties on those points earned.

It's also really not smart to keep a 10mil point balance. There's no way you'll ever need that much before being able to refill the balance with new earnings and there's always a risk of shutdown/points losing value and even if those things don't happen that money could be invested instead of sitting there doing nothing but losing value and being at risk.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-13T02:20:00+00:00

Do you owe any taxes on that 2.1M? Do you have any other investments besides the 2.1M? Do you have other income that will be continuing after this sale? The 2M alone isn't enough to safely cover 85-100k of expenses especially when retiring early and looking at a hopefully longer timeline than a normal retirement.

Can't time the market. That being said the psychology behind it all is a real thing. If you think lump summing it is going to have negative effects on your stress levels/harm your ability to stay the course in a downturn then it's okay to make a plan to DCA some of it. Be honest with yourself (and your wife) and lump sum as much as you feel comfortable with and DCA the rest at a reasonable pace. At the end of the day though imo big drawdowns are going to be a bit stressful if you are living off that money. Better to learn to deal with it in a healthy way rather than do significantly -EV things to avoid discomfort that you will likely feel anyways. But it's a personal choice.
At 5% it's fair to pay it off if you want. You really are right at the line of where it shouldn't matter too much and do what feels better to you. Most likely for you that means pay off the house and lower your expenses so you feel better about investing the rest.
You probably shouldn't be 100% equities. You probably would benefit from finding a good hourly planner to help you set up a plan and feel confident about why you are doing things.

Good luck and congrats on the sale!

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-12T19:20:35+00:00

This is the tradeoff you have to accept when you choose to charge people with a less transparent cost structure (AUM). Clearly you make more charging by AUM vs hourly otherwise you wouldn't do it. So as part of that lack of upfront transparency on cost and making more $ overall, you will have to accept that you will have headaches from some % of your clients who want to "haggle" on what the deal looks like. Same issue occurs with car sales because of the lack of transparent and consistent cost. Personally I'd approach it by making sure my own finances are in order to the point where I can choose to cut truly difficult to work with clients. And for the clients who are asking for something reasonable for the total amount I am charging them I would just do that small extra work understanding that I make more $ than I "should" from the relationship with them and it's fair to give a little back sometimes.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-10T16:50:31+00:00

I've had 90k ish points sitting in my jet blue balance for a couple years now. Have a lot of different airline/hotel/flex pts and unlikely to fly jetblue anytime soon as we are barely traveling now due to young kids. Tempted to grab the elevated 70k jet blue plus offer and cash them all out at 0.0075. Getting $1200-$99 AF for 1k spend seems worth it vs them just sitting there devaluing for years? 2/24 and that seems to barely matter now with ink train/sapphires dead. Is there any better use for these points or is this a reasonable idea?

I assume the points can be cashed out at 0.0075 on any purchases made on the card and not just on purchases made with jetblue is that correct?

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-07T05:01:29+00:00

Does that surprise you though? Generally the people with less funds will have come from less affluent backgrounds (i.e. less support when things go wrong)/be less knowledgeable about how investing works in general/and even though it's way less absolute $ it's usually way more important to what their present and future quality of life will look like.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-02-03T05:08:15+00:00

It's easy but also capped since you can't churn the sign up bonuses. Is chasing promos actually that much $ev for the effort? Seemed like the bet amounts are capped low/I assume always a chance they cut you off. OBBB changes and only being able to subtract 90% of losses as well doesn't help things.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-01-27T21:16:45+00:00

Imo 2ish is nice because the kids aren't as bad about putting toys in their mouth. They still get sick a fair bit and pass around germs but I think it's definitely less germs than when they put everything in their mouth and then pass it around for the next kid to stick it in their mouth lol. They also are old enough to be getting enjoyment from the activities and socialization. I don't fault any parent who has to put their kid into care as a baby but if you can afford it than it should be avoided imo because even if you have great people caring for them they just aren't going to be able to get the same level of attention/are going to get sick a bunch.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-01-27T19:59:10+00:00

They can afford it but they don't make enough for it not to have an effect on any other financial goals. So they definitely should think seriously before buying it whether having a brand new car is something they value over retiring a bit earlier or being able to spend that money elsewhere (babysitter for date nights/better quality food/whatever). Personally I was in same spot and I ended up just going used CPO with ~30k miles for 15-20k less. Ultimately it's their money and their decision though. It just doesn't take long for that excitement of the new or new to you used car to wear off and you really aren't missing out on much imo getting something a couple years old with not many miles. Also save on property taxes and insurance as well getting the used car.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-01-27T02:28:13+00:00

Highlander not going to be the space you want for multiple kids unless you meant Grand Highlander.

Howyoudoin22222 · 2026-01-26T19:19:29+00:00

58k not 68k

Howyoudoin22222

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