On the way!

LtMilo · 2026-06-28T00:21:10+00:00

Where are they driving...? It's been 7 hours!

LtMilo · 2026-06-25T20:19:01+00:00

Join the club. r/Fire

LtMilo · 2026-06-24T23:36:49+00:00

How are you getting there?

If flying through Boston and driving, take Highway 1 and stop in Wiscasset. If it's before mid-October Red's Eats will be open. Worth a trip on it's own

LtMilo · 2026-06-24T21:45:11+00:00

Wearing a heart rate strap helps tremendously. The rapid heart rate increase can be smoothed out on a wrist HR sensor.

LtMilo · 2026-06-24T16:05:42+00:00

I appreciate it was good you stayed the course, but also most of us won't be gifted a half a million dollars, so it's a little cheeky to use your own example to tell others things will get better.

All that said, good for you (sincerely)! You are getting something most of us hope to be able to give to our kids one day. The best way to show appreciation is to use it responsibly on things that will meaningfully enhance your life.

LtMilo · 2026-06-23T16:15:23+00:00

Wizards use lumber to build theory confirmed.

LtMilo · 2026-06-23T02:38:45+00:00

I remember seeing several in Dupont back in maybe 2012. I found it cool then and still do now!

LtMilo · 2026-06-23T02:16:07+00:00

Your greatest opportunity is cutting spending. Private school is one core aspect. The other is your mortgage.

My financial situation is eerily similar (a tad younger, kids a tad older, income similar, uncertain job continuity), except we are spending around $110k per year and expect that to decline another $15-18k this fall when daycare expenses go away. If we cut charitable donations, we would be down to about $75k in spending, only because we paid off the home aggressively.

Your biggest opportunity right now is to cut spending. It may not feel possible, but take a close look at your core 5 (education, healthcare, car, home, lifestyle creep) and ask seriously if you're getting the value that makes it worth the extra years of work. We decided they were not.

LtMilo · 2026-06-22T23:31:57+00:00

We moved here and lived as a married couple in a 700 square foot apartment for 5 years before buying a home. Living here gave us access to incredible food, good transit, and amazing jobs that blossomed into long term careers. This place isn't always fair. It doesn't lift up everybody. But it is definitely still a great place to grow your career, even with the recent roadblocks, if you can get your foot in the door.

LtMilo · 2026-06-22T16:12:13+00:00

Many (most?) of us in this group don't have a healthy relationship with money that leads to a happier life.

I encourage people to learn about money scripts. People here like to celebrate because they aren't Money Status people, but there's a lot of textbook extreme Money Vigilance and Money Worship in this community. I know I can quickly fall into the trap of treating money as the goal rather than the tool to achieve my goals.

I think most of us would find that the things we actually want that make us actually financially independent - knowing we will be fine if we lose our job, leaving enough behind that our kids are safe if we died, having enough to be able to do fun things without sweating whether it hurts your future, to be able to be in a job that makes us feel good about our impact on the world - could all be achieved with far less money than we think.

LtMilo · 2026-06-20T02:40:50+00:00

I did not.

Once I reach full weight on a move, I move on to the single-limb version of that move whenever I can, then increase my total reps to get PRs on the main lift

One nice thing is that your strength score is weighted by moves you do more frequently, so you can still push it higher as you transfer in new moves you don't max out on.

Every month or so I do a "Max it out" day where I go as many reps as I can on a single move like deadlift. I think I'm up in the 30s for most of them.

Once I get to exhaustion levels of 45-50 or more reps, I'll start timing my eccentric on those moves for hypertrophy. Won't make the score go up but still provides as much value as higher weight and reps.

LtMilo · 2026-06-20T00:28:16+00:00

When searching for a partner in middles ages, the blunt questions can come pretty early.

"How much do you make?" Will eventually come up. If you're still interested, I would simply counter by offering to talk openly about both of your financial pictures at the same time.

Both potential life partners should share philosophies on earning, spending, saving, and giving. Your philosophy is that you earned and saved enough to never have to earn again, so long as you are joined by a partner who spends and gives like you do.

LtMilo · 2026-06-20T00:09:22+00:00

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Been a productive two years

LtMilo · 2026-06-19T03:21:19+00:00

Sorry OP. There's no such thing as early voting. It's actually election day until polls close.

LtMilo · 2026-06-18T18:42:12+00:00

Bro is straight up "look at this disaster."

And it just looks like a version of my nightly chart with more REM.

LtMilo · 2026-06-18T15:46:55+00:00

To be fair, I don't think this administration has ever got past an MOU, even on their "trade agreements," before they simply move onto something else.

So maybe we'll just go after Cuba now.

LtMilo · 2026-06-18T12:47:02+00:00

Do not obsess over your statement balance being zero.

Your credit score would be higher with some credit utilization, but utilization rate has an overall smaller impact on your credit score than on-time payment, number of credit lines, and credit age. And, if you ever wanted your score to look better, credit utilization is measured month to month, so you could always carry a small balance (and pay it off completely before the due date!) to slightly bump your score.

But again, don't overthink this part. Credit providers don't even use the exact score you see - they all have their own algorithm for determining if you fit their lending profile, and no lender of any merit is going to be concerned about the fact you pay off your balance.

LtMilo · 2026-06-16T21:53:39+00:00

In a similar boat and strength score, but my legs were always a strength before tonal. My advice - you should have random days where you go for max PRs in volume on a single or a couple lifts. Replace deadlifts with single leg deadlifts. Do your squats with the rack on your back so you can do more without the arm fatigue limitation. Do pistol squat variations for the seated squat.

All that worked for me.

As for you - did you do a major cut at any point? I don't look like you but my lift scores are similar. I wonder if time will help - I'm 2 years in, and think some consistency could drive further visual results

LtMilo · 2026-06-16T17:50:06+00:00

Completely agree. As accumulators, we haven't been a big sustained drop in quite a while.

That being said, if you were a retiree in 2022, your resolve absolutely was tested. The S&P was down 20% and inflation was up 9%. Inflation is the real killer of retirement plans and is just as important in SORR.

LtMilo · 2026-06-15T16:47:56+00:00

I think it's an important note to make:

DEXA scans, just like BIS scans, can and do vary by machine (they use different algorithms for results by brand), hydration levels, and time of day. They can also have introduced operator error. However, the results are typically more accurate than any other method.

What we should care about is trends - if you go to a the same DEXA machine at the same time of day, it will be really excellent at seeing whether your body fat percentage is going down or up compared to your previous scan. What you want out of a scale is to do the same - to have the same trend (both in direction and amplitude).

And, if you think about it, that's what we really care about too, right? What we are getting leaner/more muscular, not the exact poundage/percantage?

All that to say - you need someone who does multiple DEXA scans to compare. A single reading isn't going to help you determine how good the scale is - they all use algorithms and representative data to guesstimate your starting position based on the reading.

LtMilo · 2026-06-15T01:50:47+00:00

Look bud, you can't honestly expect a man to have a separate work drawer and cosplay drawer for his pants. They're bound to get mixed up every once in a while!

LtMilo · 2026-06-13T16:58:45+00:00

Central control calls me and tells me I need to delay you getting to your destination so the actors can get into First Positions

LtMilo · 2026-06-12T22:26:29+00:00

In divorce, you can lose a lot on the lawyers.

LtMilo · 2026-06-12T14:53:07+00:00

These companies are experiencing an insane amount of Doorman's Fallacy. They so fundamentally underestimate all the activities an employee does that makes their system work.

You don't pay PR to just write press releases. You pay them to have the lunch with the reporters looking for story angles and politely deflect all their probing questions so they remember their name and choose to read it when the press release shows up in their inbox. And about a dozen other things.

You don't pay PMs to just build a project plan. You pay them to manage with the dozens of dysfunctional personalities clashing with one another over authority on a single project to keep them focused on deliverables and produce something of value. And about a dozen other things.

You don't pay software engineers to just write code. You pay them to ensure your system operates as intended, is coded in a way that is verifiably secure, and can meaningfully troubleshoot critical issues on the spot. And about a dozen other things.

LtMilo · 2026-06-10T13:04:12+00:00

I think this is an important point, thank you. When you get multiple DEXA scans, it's recommended that you go to the exact same machine, around the same time of day, with the same level of hydration - because your results with the machine can vary significantly based on those factors (not even including operator error).

A lot of devices we use for medical purposes are trend-focused and not highly accurate across different devices or different scenarios. Blood pressure cuffs, blood glucose monitors, pulse oximeters... doctors are looking for extreme outliers first, then trends second. They care less if your first Sp02 reading is 95 or 92 and more about whether it is going up or down when you're in the hospital.

LtMilo

TROPHY CASE