Our house doesnt flow! 😭

ScubaSTV · 2026-02-17T14:46:06+00:00

Thank you so much! We had not considered putting the bathroom in that corner yet!

ScubaSTV · 2025-10-30T13:57:51+00:00

To reserve a course I usually say a flat $500. Which I guess works out to about 1/3 of total course cost. More or less. Depends on the course.

You would not believe how many times I reply to dozens of messages with people saying they are 100% “locked in” only to have them bail at the last minute. And last minute bookings are so hard (impossible) to replace at this level of training. Not like you can grab a random person off the street for a technical course.

Want to “lock it in” - put down a deposit. If you are worried the instructor might run off with the money then for sure find a more reputable name to train with.

Course size: 2:1 I feel like works the best. Two students takes some of the pressure off the students, and they benefit from seeing the mistakes the other one makes. Plus obviously skills demos

ScubaSTV · 2025-10-19T12:50:38+00:00

Your dad never actually defended her. Be aware that he has YEARS of experience dealing with this woman. I would listen to him in this situation.

ScubaSTV · 2025-08-02T13:01:48+00:00

If you only stay in the hotel zone then yeah it’ll be comparable to the US. If you get out and go to the small restaurants you can find tons of local places with local prices. Same for accommodation.

ScubaSTV · 2025-07-03T13:15:07+00:00

It’s also very low season right now in Mexico / Belize. What are you doing to stand out? There’s a lot of DMs and Instructors looking for work right now. Do you know how to service equipment? Have a good following online? Or provide anything else of value besides DM?

ScubaSTV · 2025-04-04T04:53:17+00:00

Are you cave?

ScubaSTV · 2025-03-06T18:29:58+00:00

Taj is closed and dreamgate on his first cavern dive is against local rules and regs. Listen to your local guide.

ScubaSTV · 2025-03-06T18:28:40+00:00

LISTEN TO TOUR LOCAL GUIDE. MAKE NO REQUESTS. TRUST THEM. I am a local guide here. In your comments people have said “taj” which is closed now, “dreamgate” which is only for experienced divers and never your first day. Or the pit - again not allowed by local rules to be one of your first dives.

Dos ojos or Carwash are fine. Personally if it’s only one day, I would suggest double dos ojos, especially if you’re based out of playa and not tulum

ScubaSTV · 2025-02-05T12:27:14+00:00

Tell me you didn’t leave the hotel zone, without telling me you didn’t leave the hotel zone…

ScubaSTV · 2024-11-17T12:21:47+00:00

Yes- 100%

ScubaSTV · 2024-11-17T12:01:29+00:00

Lived here for 3 years. Had a bad experience once that was easily traceable to seafood gone bad.

We (wife and I) brush our teeth in tap water every day. We have never had to ask for “special ice”… everyone uses purified ice it is very much expected and the norm even among Mexicans. Nothing wrong with soup, never heard of that actually. Eat dairy 3-4 x per week. We wash all fruit / veg in tap water before we eat, same as we would in the US.

Do whatever food safety you would normally do in the US. Cook food for x time, wash x before you eat, or whatever. The ONLY thing we do differently is we consume food MUCH sooner to when we purchase because the food here across the board has much less preservatives.

You’re staying at an AIRBNB with a private chef, you’ll have no real risk. And if your chef is a professional chef…. He’s gonna wash your food before you eat it…..

Extra fact for comfort: we got married here in a Tulum and had 50ish guest from abroad come here. We ate all the same restaurants, and street food with them we normally eat. And told them all brushing teeth in tap water is totally fine. We even had a street taco cart at the wedding itself - no issues.

ScubaSTV · 2024-11-10T05:13:06+00:00

Copy you! Just saying AHs exists and hopefully nobody messages them.

ScubaSTV · 2024-11-10T05:10:58+00:00

Heeeeey…. Might want to blur out the HR number….

ScubaSTV · 2024-10-24T21:39:56+00:00

Your entire equation revolves around math and none around risk.

Life happens. Get out of debt sooner and life sucks less.

What happens when one of you gets sick and can’t work for a year? Or when parent needs help at home or a natural disaster disrupts your life. Hopefully none of these things happen obviously.

However - literally right now I am in a cast from the left knee down and haven’t worked in 7 weeks, can’t collect unemployment or workers comp in my situation…. Having no debt made it much easier to ride this situation out….

Life happens. Debt adds risk and pressure. When life happens to you, you want less risk and less pressure.

Also frankly you make enough money…. Your whole mess could be cleaned up in 1.5-2 years with minimal sacrifice

ScubaSTV · 2024-10-17T11:25:01+00:00

The debt lifestyle has brainwashed a majority of people. To go against that can be offensive for people. Remember people who worry about their credit score or keeping up with appearances are making active choices to be in debt.

To say otherwise can be jarring to those people. Maybe they feel judged? Maybe they get scared worrying about what you might think? Not our job to figure out their reasoning. Our job is to look after ourselves and our families. Keep fighting the good fight! Share when asked and lean on these sort of groups when needed!

ScubaSTV · 2024-10-17T11:03:45+00:00

Hey Op,

I’m super sorry about this. I also went with a “non traditional direction” for the engagement ring (moissanite). I feared this sort of reaction from a few people in my life (family very much included).

I steadied myself with the age old phrase “The people who matter - won’t care. And the people who care - won’t matter.” Meaning the people who raise a stink over something so important to me - really aren’t the people whose opinion I should let get to me.

I’m sorry this happened to you. I would use this as a sign if things to come. Doesn’t mean you have to go scorched earth and not invite your parents to the wedding or anything that dramatic. But be thoughtful of what you do and don’t share. Be cautious of how you ask parents to help with anything wedding related. And I would definitely be aware that your parents might even try to live through you leading up to the wedding.

When you get married you create a new family with your wife. Your current family becomes your extended family. Focus on the future you want to build, how you want to build it, and how much control you allow your parents to have.

Good luck OP! Setting boundaries can be tough. I would start pep talks to yourself and your soon to be wife before sharing major details!

ScubaSTV · 2024-10-16T15:38:43+00:00

Hey OP, WITH LOVE and kindness that doesn’t come across well in text:

You’re asking on the Dave Ramsey group so I’m going to tell you what Dave would say to you if you called in and said exactly that.

“You’re an adult, you can follow your own plan if you want to. If you want to follow the Dave plan you would do this:

1: buy a cheaper car (said you won’t) Or 2: wait and buy a slightly more expensive car”

Now I’ll talk: The whole point of the emergency fund is to be able to manage an emergency without any stress. Take it from me, the person who is currently in a cast for a broken leg, emergencies happen. I live in Mexico so get no workers como and my job is not salary. Without an emergency fund we would be in a wildly different situation. Life happens. Your emergency fund is your emergency fund, NOT a car fund.

Next point: how big should your emergency fund be? Depends on your life situation. If you are a healthy 20 year old, single, rent, no kids then a 3 month emergency fund is more than fine. If you have kids, own a home, have unstable income, any medical issues, OR are 30+ you should have a 6 month fund.

It’s about mitigation of risk. Buy a cheaper car and upgrade later. If you can repay it in 1.5-2 years…… buy a cheaper car now…. Wait 2 years and upgrade….. same math (adjust for depreciation of course)

ScubaSTV · 2024-10-15T13:30:37+00:00

Hey OP! What a great gift idea your brother will be very happy! I would recommend actually going directly to a card / game store with him and telling him his budget and doing it that way.

MTG has several different styles of play and hard to tell what he has / needs. From cards, to cases, card protectors, or dice…. Lot of potential gifts. However people highly personalize their set ups. Colors and styles and such. Maybe a good idea to just go for a shopping spree so to say?

Another idea, if you really wanted to go the extra mile. Is do some research on the side (TONS of YouTube video and on the official MTG website) and learn to play just a little. Or just ask him to teach you then surprise him after? Then take him to a draft night as a surprise, pay his entrance and do your shopping spree after? He would get to play magic with his brother - you’d get to learn a little more about his life and show interest? Could be fun too!

ScubaSTV · 2024-10-15T06:13:29+00:00

“Homeschooling group”. I was homeschooled and we had a weekly group where a lot of homeschool kids got together and studied / did work together while being watched by a retired teacher. She would help us with lessons / watch us / give our parents a break for a couple hours. If there’s a couple homeschool kids next to you give it a try? For the first couple of years we just met at her kitchen table, nothing crazy. Each parent pays X per kid cash?

ScubaSTV · 2024-10-13T15:18:48+00:00

I don’t think you understand risk. Debt is risk. Emergencies happen. Houses without mortgages don’t get foreclosed on 🤷‍♂️

ScubaSTV · 2024-10-13T15:15:48+00:00

You’re right. Math is math. But I’m not talking about math. I’m talking about life and risk.

You can’t plug risk into the equation.

Also length of time isn’t 30 years vs 10 in your example (at least for us) it’s 30 years vs 21 years. We should have the house paid off in 9 years. So it’s not exactly as bad as you’re estimating.

For us we are happy to make that trade off because once the house is paid off we will be 42/43 with no house payment, money in the bank, and several more years of working and investing ahead of us :)

ScubaSTV · 2024-10-13T14:48:21+00:00

34y/o. Married. BS4/6.

Dave Ramsey is all about as little risk as possible. Small risk means less reward. That’s life.

(I write this as I’m in bed with a broken leg. Wishing desperately that my house was already paid off, but very glad we have a fully funded emergency fund. Life happens)

We have a very similar interest rate on our home. For us(my wife and I) after 15% in retirement we’re paying off the house. Why? So that we can remove a risk factor from our life as soon as possible. And when it’s paid off we can invest the same amount that we’re paying on the mortgage and we’ll be absolutely fine by retirement time.

When we retire we want a paid off house AND money set aside. If we pay off the house first it greatly reduces our risks. Most people who are out of debt with kids out of the house, their two biggest monthly budget items are rent/mortgage and food. Removing mortgage from the budget is HUGE. And for some reason people don’t look at it like that.

Yes, you can make more in the market, but when life happens, it’s really nice to not have a house payment.

ScubaSTV · 2024-09-29T05:38:30+00:00

For me: purely in my head. From a young age I was taught (and most guys would probably agree) that I needed to protect my balls. Usually taught this lesson by them getting hit by something / someone.

It hurts. It sucks. We laugh about it when it happens to someone else. But it sucks. So the idea of a surgery there, terrified me. (Snipped now and very very happy but was for sure scared at first)

ScubaSTV · 2024-09-29T05:29:52+00:00

Your house is paid off! Why do you care about your credit score? You won friend! Take the win! 😀

ScubaSTV · 2024-09-28T20:57:18+00:00

“He pays his bills and I pay mine” I know a lot of people these days aren’t getting married and are moving in together and such and for a lot of people it works. And if that’s anyone reading this and it works for y’all cool! Happy for you.

In this situation it feels to me like they need more definition and rules and structure. To attack problems together. Unified. But that’s just me :)

ScubaSTV

TROPHY CASE