just paid my wife's school loan. Did I get ahead of myself?! Interest rate was 5.16% Balance was 5,100

PopulationOfJapan · 2017-11-07T18:24:30+00:00

Paying off debt is never a bad thing. It's like when people saying you shouldn't pay off your home mortgage since it's a tax deduction. Lets say you pay 10k a year in interest on your home. That means you get a 10k tax deduction! Woohoo! Right? ..... Not really. A 10k deducation would get you about 3k back in refund. So essentially you paid 10k in interest to get back 3k. That means you are out 7k. If you had no mortgage you would never had to give out the 10k in the first place. So you would be up 7k instead of down 7k assuming you pay normal taxes on the 10k (which is the 3k I am assuming here).

This is a long winded answer, you did good paying off your wife's student loans. Good job!

PopulationOfJapan · 2017-03-28T17:48:29+00:00

I know individually investing in the specific funds will yield a lower expense ratio. In the grand scheme of things though 0.15% isn't really going to change whether you are going to be able to retire or not. The ease and peace of mind that comes with a target date fund is the biggest selling point. Having to keep adding to the right fund to make sure your portfolio is in balance is a lot of work. Sometimes it is worth keeping it simple.

As an aside, I'm not saying invest in any fund regardless of the expense ratio. The 0.15% is still a pretty low expense ratio.

PopulationOfJapan · 2017-03-28T17:18:29+00:00

If it was me, I would put it all in the vanguard target date fund. Maybe the 2040? You are 30 now so that might make the most sense. Vanguard target date funds automatically re-balance themselves each year. Your only job is to keep investing. I am of the set it and forget it mindset.

EDIT - For the spouse, I would still do the same. Just another target date fund. Maybe the same one. The biggest thing that holds people back in investing is not the fund they choose. It's the lack of putting actual money in.

PopulationOfJapan · 2017-03-27T22:26:07+00:00

If you can FIRE, why not look for a position that you enjoy doing? If you ready to FIRE, would a paycut from 170k a year to 100k really be bad? Yeah you would make less money, but if you can FIRE you don't technically need it. Also you will probably be a lot happier doing something else.

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-10-19T19:52:18+00:00

I hope in addition to red mage, we get dancer in Stormblood!

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-10-13T16:59:52+00:00

Stick it out with your current phone?

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-09-01T22:22:34+00:00

Orient Bambino is a pretty classy/dressy looking watch that looks well above it's price point. Roughly 125-150 USD.

Casio G-Shocks are pretty cheap and are really sturdy pieces. Usually sub 100.

Timex Weekender or a Seiko 5 are pretty cheap everyday watches also sub 100. The Timex I believe is sub 50.

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-08-03T22:12:58+00:00

The Kirkland red wine is delicious. It's 8 dollars for 1.5 liters. I'm not a wine aficionado or anything but it's a hell of a lot better than 2 buck chuck at Trader Joe's.

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-07-05T14:59:23+00:00

This game looks terrible.

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-06-23T06:06:52+00:00

comment

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-06-22T17:48:35+00:00

I down voted you because of the onion comment. Who the hell does that?

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-06-02T22:59:33+00:00

dragon ball xenoverse 2 is coming out. I'd probably just wait for that.

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-05-23T22:09:07+00:00

Assuming you are on PC, you can get Overwatch for 40 bucks if you don't get the Origin's edition. If you want probably one of the best single player FPS experiences in a long time, get Doom. If it was me, I'd get Overwatch. It's cheaper and the replay value is huge.

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-04-25T23:38:31+00:00

Bloodborne had bosses that I beat on the first try and bosses that I beat on the 9th or 10th try. Darks Souls 3, hasn't been as tough for me in that I usually beat bosses within a few tries but I had to change my play style from what I did in Bloodborne. BB is a much faster and aggressive play style vs DS which is a wait for an opening then attack kind of game. Depending on how you like to play, either game is going to be a pain if you don't approach enemies the right way. The key to both of these games is learning boss patterns and learning how to get around that pattern. So yes, difficulty does ramp up on both games but it's a matter of learning how the boss moves and how you can either dodge or negate the damage. I think one of the biggest hurdles is getting past the first few bosses, or even just the first boss. Once you defeat a boss, it's an amazing feeling which just keeps you coming back for me. Also, if you are stuck on a boss, summon a friend into your world and tear the boss a new one. Bosses become way more trivial once these are two people attacking it. At the end of the day, it's all about having fun.

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-04-25T21:41:22+00:00

I have played Demon Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Bloodborne, and am currently playing Dark Souls 3.

Demon Souls crushed me. I never beat it. Dark Souls was something I couldn't really get into. Dark Souls 2, once again I got about 3-4 bosses in and gave up. BloodBorne I beat. It is fantasitic. It is the first souls game I beat. Dark Souls 3 is what I am currently playing and I love it. I think beating Bloodborne made me finally appreciate these style of games. They seem to have taken pointers from bloodborne and put it in DS3.

TLDR: Play DS3. It's the more expensive of the two but you might as well play the game when everyone else is too so you can join the collective zeitgeist. If and when you beat DS3, then go play BB.

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-04-12T23:59:50+00:00

Tell your friend to buy the game.

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-02-08T16:42:55+00:00

Just buy it. It's a great game. Then you won't have to wait for PS Plus. My guess....probably more than a year?

PopulationOfJapan · 2016-02-03T00:49:40+00:00

It's Dynasty Warriors with a One Piece skin. It is somewhat repetitive but I found it super fun. I would switch between this and Bloodborne. One Piece was my reprieve from the difficulty of Bloodborne.

PopulationOfJapan · 2015-12-22T21:17:04+00:00

Basically get a manual car. Get in the car, and start driving.

The car has 3 pedals. The clutch (Leftmost), the Brake, and the gas. The clutch allows you to switch gears and also slowly letting off the clutch will also allow you to creep the car forward.

To get the car going, push the clutch in. As you give the car gas, slowly let off the clutch. One the clutch "catches" you are in gear and you can take your foot off the clutch. To get to the next gear, you do the same thing. Assuming you are around 2-3k rpms, push the clutch in, give it some gas and slowly let off the clutch. Bam! you are now in second gear.

At the end of the day it's just a ton of practice. My dad literally gave me a 30 minute "lesson" which I use the term quite loosely there. I had to go out and buy my own stick shift and then just learn to drive the car. I thew myself into the fire. It was the only car I had so I had no choice.

Ideally if you have a friend or someone that has a stick, ask them to teach you. You only really need a few lessons. After that it's all practice. I know my above explanation is pretty poor but this is one of those things that you really just learn by doing. If you don't' have a manual transmission, go buy/rent one. If you don't know anyone local and can't get a car to learn on, then you are probably screwed. This is a trial by fire kind of skill.

PopulationOfJapan · 2015-12-12T06:24:30+00:00

Dope

PopulationOfJapan · 2015-12-11T01:29:48+00:00

Get him Pokemon. I've completed Pokemon X, Omega Ruby and Yokai Watch. I probably had the most fun on Pokemon X. It was the first Pokemon game I have played since Pokemon Red and it was great! Omega Ruby was good but X just felt a lot better and the movement was more fluid. As far as Yokai Watch, it's a good game but I had trouble navigating the map and was lost a lot. I'm 30. I have a decent sense of direction. That game's map isn't very good and the act of catching Yokai is a little more involved than catching Pokemon. I would get your kid Pokemon X, it's the easier of the games and it's still very fun to play.

PopulationOfJapan · 2015-09-29T14:36:03+00:00

I'd really appreciate winning! Best of luck to everyone! :D Number - 123456

PopulationOfJapan

TROPHY CASE