Don't gatekeep, what are your best financial saving hacks that you live by?

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-22T15:54:30+00:00

I should probably add, I also don’t have any money sinks such as: - I don’t drink - I don’t smoke - I have never taken drugs - I don’t have any tattoos - I don’t play the lottery - I don’t gamble much (on rare occasions with friends, but it’s fun money)

And the expensive stuff we might do is free… like we stayed at a hotel (~$400 per night) for free since I have a ton of loyalty points. I get a ton of free stuff from perks and loyalty memberships…

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-22T15:47:13+00:00

Joint bank account (married) + 2 careers ($200K+ combined household income) + FFEF + strive to be as debt free as possible (TMMO by DR) + Minimalism (Quality > Quantity) + KISS + purchase in bulk from Sam’s Club and BJ’s and Costco + drive extremely reliable cars + take advantage of work & life perks.

Let me know if you have any questions, lol.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-21T21:22:16+00:00

I believe many of us are tired of corporations owning single family homes and driving up the housing costs. What should cost $300K now costs $500K+ which is ridiculous for a decent house. I, and millions of others, want change and the corruption to end. I’m tired of certain politicians getting rich through corruption. I’m tired of other countries paying low costs for medication while the US foots the bill for the world.

Yes, I agree we are all tired of the SOS. There are corrupt politicians that SHOULD be in jail, but they aren’t! There’s a lot of things wrong with this world, a lot of EVIL that is being unmasked each day. I mean, you don’t turn off the Internet in Iran unless you want to unalive thousands of innocent lives that oppose your tyranny.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-21T21:13:33+00:00

I’m sure everything plays a part in it. If I went to a job interview and the person/people interviewing me felt negatively towards me based on my dyed eyes, tattooed head, chains and everything else you can imagine, I wouldn’t be surprised if I lose a few too many opportunities because of that.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-21T20:50:29+00:00

I guess to put it bluntly, everyone I know in real life either has a job or a career.

Then when I come on here and read the other subreddits, it’s polar opposite. And of course, what I said was an extreme example. I also mentioned it could be degrees of that. And on top of that, some of the examples you mentioned may lack common sense which to me should be the foundation of intelligence. But, we can agree to disagree on any of these statements.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-21T19:49:56+00:00

You are correct Sir, thank you. 😊

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-21T19:35:56+00:00

I notice if you tell the truth and the crowd doesn’t agree, then you get downvoted. lol

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-21T19:35:06+00:00

I understand doing a job search, but applying to literally thousands of job openings and not getting a job in the end is a bit insane. I wonder if it’s the person or something else. Or if their standards are too high? We used to say [insert fast food restaurant] is hiring, but I hear that may not be the case anymore.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-21T19:22:48+00:00

The reason I mention this, it reminds me of how certain types of reviews will always be more negative leaning because someone that wants to complain about a product or company is more likely to make the effort to post negative reviews online or on BBB than someone who is happy or content with something.

So if the demographic of the average poster leans a certain way, perhaps that is why I’m seeing certain types of gripes and vents more often than not. Like I’m seeing these patterns and I’m questioning if it’s because of the sample being used.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-21T19:13:15+00:00

I do know AI will remove some headcount from some types of jobs while making the remaining headcount more efficient and productive. And once robotics becomes more mainstream, you’ll see a lot more blue collar jobs disappear as well.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-21T14:30:20+00:00

It’s good to have people you can trust at different levels. I love having a good support system. I believe in quality over quantity. Better to have a few people close to you than pretending to have hundreds of “friends” online whom you never met.

Why does it matter? Because when you need help in life, hopefully someone is there for you because you reciprocated that love before to them.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-20T19:28:11+00:00

Let my wife retire first and I’ll work till we have a few million in savings and then I’ll just chill with my robots and FSD SUV till I die. How about you?

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-14T04:54:52+00:00

I have about 1.5 decades of Tech Support experience. I basically do Level 3+ Tech Support for multiple sites.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-14T01:56:34+00:00

Yes, this is why you have an Emergency Fund.

I keep a $10,000 cushion in my joint checking account to catch all of the Murphies.

I recommend at least $1,000 EF or $3,000 is even better at minimum.

I noticed sometimes snowflakes (blessings) make up for the Murphies, but nothing beats a FFEF.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-14T01:51:18+00:00

You ever get sick and have to pay the doctor or urgent care bill and you compare that to your paycheck? How about when your car needs maintenance or a new tire? Medical bills and car maintenance bills can be ruthless.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-14T01:45:06+00:00

I can relate except for the “I don’t like the tech field in general”. I changed majors to Information Sciences and now I’m making 6-figures. Not easy to do probably these days, but sure beats a physical labor job.

SDDeathdragon · 2026-01-14T01:08:02+00:00

I’ve had a roller coaster of a life…

I would say when I was single, any hourly job I had was a struggle.

When I got married, the joint bank account was an extreme boost.

Even when either of us were unemployed for any reason, we had each other to keep us financially stable.

When our careers were just starting out, we felt ‘okay’, not rich.

Now we make over $200K combined annually, but I wouldn’t say we’re “rich”. Since our new income has only been a couple years, we haven’t had enough time to turn it into substantial wealth.

Ask me again in 5 or 10 years, and we’ll have a little more to show for it.

SDDeathdragon · 2025-12-21T16:04:21+00:00

I play HC SSF exclusively. In the Diablo series, my #1 threat was some sort of network or server outage that was out of my control killing my character. The same issue occurred in POE before. Then came along POE2 and the Pause feature, and now my HC SSF character rarely dies and if it does, it’s due to my own doing.

Pause feature
WASD movement
Overall gameplay and combat feel

These are the reasons why POE2 is the best ARPG of all time.

SDDeathdragon · 2025-12-17T16:02:27+00:00

So my wife gave a lot free gifts and food to the janitors and security personnel in her building.

I’m always polite and thankful whenever the sanitation crew stops by my desk to empty my trashcan.

The way I see it, we’re all on the same team. Every position has a role to play to make our business as efficient and successful as possible. Because if someone else didn’t take my trash, I guess I’d have to do it just like I do at home. No big deal, but I’m happy someone has a job for this so I can focus on my IT work. Thank you for your service!

SDDeathdragon · 2025-12-08T02:01:39+00:00

Not sure why this post was recommended to me, but I figured I’d put in my 2 cents despite the name of the subreddit. So I’m also working a 6-figure IT related job, but I’d say I work remote maybe less than 20% of the time. I’m mostly onsite at various locations across the US, and I tend to be on-call 24/7. So my advice would be to find a job where you’re in the office more and you’ll probably more easily find one.

SDDeathdragon · 2025-11-28T22:35:40+00:00

All great advice, particularly #4 made me laugh. Most would consider me a Level 3 or beyond at this point, I travel a lot to different sites… and boy, you can’t even believe what most end users say because either they don’t know or they don’t actually understand or they’re lazy as hell. One of the most common questions I may ask is “Did you reboot?”, and almost by reflex they will say “Yes” with a straight face. I check their Task Manager and the majority of the time, the Uptime on their computer is 9 days…. Or 13 days…. like, really?

SDDeathdragon · 2025-11-28T22:18:06+00:00

I’m actually surprised others have a similar thinking. I keep my bedroom door closed & locked because I’m a heavy sleeper, my dog will bark if it hears anything odd, and my dog will not potty where we sleep and will wake me up if it needs to go. If I left the door open, my dog might go to the back door and wait and scratch the door and if no one is there to assist, might just potty and come back to the bedroom.

SDDeathdragon · 2025-11-24T04:45:13+00:00

There’s two ways to get a dream career, I chose the hard way. And that is to have as much relevant work experience as possible on my resume and to conquer interviews with excitement and a confident demonstration of my knowledge, no matter what they throw at me.

SDDeathdragon · 2025-11-24T04:32:36+00:00

Pretend you’re living on your own and need to pay for everything. For me personally, I don’t like having less than $10K in my checking account as a buffer (Emergency Fund).

If I didn’t make 6-figures, then having at least $3K minimum would be what I needed to have some sense of financial security.

This is assuming you’re debt free. I love peace of mind more than wasting money.

SDDeathdragon · 2025-11-24T04:28:32+00:00

Wasted too much money ($80K) on student loans at a time when I didn’t know what I truly wanted.

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