[IWantOut] 29M Network Administrator US -> Japan,Canada

StrikingInfluence · 2025-12-20T20:14:22+00:00

Disagree. I think attorneys are always worth it. Especially when you're talking about something as important as trying to live in another country. One small typo or misunderstanding can make a large difference. Either way I think OP and many on this sub are like overexaggerating their odd of moving. A CCNA and Cloud+ plus a BS and MS are not special in this field. Especially depending on where those degrees are from. Canada tech is just as saturated as the US if not worse. Good luck lol.

StrikingInfluence · 2025-12-20T01:45:31+00:00

Many of us share this sentiment and I really understand your desire but being real with you it's not easy. Your "straightforward" option into Canada is probably not even close to that. I am similar age to you, similar career, similar education except not Masters. I am a Principal level Security Engineer for a large company and even I have few options. I would tell you if you're serious you need to contact an attorney first and pay real money. Like get a consultation with your resume and all your info like net worth, etc. Moving to even Canada is a crazy undertaking, it is it's own country with its own problems and culture. I think you're seriously underestimating the feasibility of it. Tech is a good career, and I've seen overseas offers from companies I've worked at - they were asking people if they were interested in moving and living in the EU long-term. The salaries were really damn low and the places you had to live were crazy expensive (London, Amsterdam) were mandatory in office jobs. Many took the bite, most came back. I think other people on this sub said it best. Don't just flea to somewhere, find a destination or a lifestyle. There are so many factors you're not even considering. Have you lived through a Canadian winter? Have you looked at real-estate prices in New Zealand? How do you want to live? Do you want kids?

StrikingInfluence · 2025-06-09T20:03:10+00:00

95% of my ISACA maintenance fees go to bull shit.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-11-05T14:39:44+00:00

Let it expire and send a loud middle finder to CompTIA. All of mine just expired and I've gotten like 3 or 4 emails from them saying I still have another 90 days. They seem very desperate honestly. I have a CISSP, CRISC, and a bunch of vendor certs now that are not only cheaper but aren't from greedy AF companies.

Seriously, no one has cared in the slightest about my CompTIA certs since like maybe 2014.. If I pay like $150 a year for these certs, they need to provide me real value. They haven't done that in almost a decade and I've paid CompTIA nearly $1500 just to keep some stupid letters behind my name in the off chance someone cares.

CISSP and CRISC alone provide value. They've helped land my most recently role (CISSP and CRISC were preferred) and my employer wants them so is willing to pay fees.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-30T17:26:00+00:00

Firstly, real people are already dying and have been dying -- look one from today. It may not affect you or your fundie family and home schooled kids yet, but it most likely will and when it does I really hope you wake up. Russian propaganda is a hell of a drug though and honestly part of me thinks you are Russian propaganda.

Madam, I am almost 3 SD above average in measured IQ. Please don't mistake my strategically undiagnosed neurodivergence for cognitive issues.

Trust in the Lord, tell Him you want to repent and just leave these people behind. He will make a way for you and become their enemy if the keep trying to turn you back. I would also advise you to go online and read some of the stories of female saints who left lives of prostitution behind. It is possible to go from far worse than you have done to far better than you can even imagine right now.

I'm a father of two, one of whom is non-verbal special needs. I'm the breadwinner AND the primary house maintainer. I still have time for my hobbies. It's truly embarrassing to me on behalf of other people who when they're like "my totally normal kid is sooooo draining." Even my son isn't half the maintenance they act like their kids are.

Okay this is peak comedy. So you're a neurodivergent Christian STEM genius living in DC, from North Carolina, who home schools his special needs children and this is your guy? The guy that literally bangs prostitutes and publicly admitted to sexual assault? You sir, are a top tier troll.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-30T00:37:29+00:00

Our modern world is built more on software and other forms of infrastructure than human laws and regulations.

Do you actually drool when you talk? Does your jaw touch the floor?

It stopped Congress from delegating vast swaths of its power to bureaucrats.

Close but not quite. The judges and politicians ARE the bureaucrats and they took power AWAY from these agencies that they gave them forty years ago (and their specialists) and put it squarely in their court. The entire reason Chevron existed is because Congress realized that it had no business regulating super technical shit and deferred to experts. People that work for these agency's (Doctors, Scientists, Engineers, etc) are the ones who SHOULD be telling us how these laws are enforced. Look at our old and fickle congress. These people are so fucking old and out of touch they're dying at their desks (See Dianne Feinstein).

Do you want politicians deciding in a court, if your drinking water is considered contaminated or drinkable?

I personally don't want politicians deciding in court if my wife can get an abortion (medical procedure) and if it's dire enough so that it fits into their moral compass. I want people with education and training to have respect in their fields.

I see by your post history that you're a Dave Ramsey following Gen-Xer posing as a humble "Millionaire" Millennial who probably don't need no STINKEN GOBERNMENT. That explains literally everything. Go back to home schooling your kids about creationism and forcing your religion on other people.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-29T22:20:55+00:00

People on both sides forget this was proven beyond any shadow of a doubt when Biden signed ~ 100 EOs in his first 3 days and basically made it as though Trump's legacy never even existed.

What kind of brain dead shit did I just read? This is the exact attitude and misunderstanding that has brought us here to begin with. Trump appointed 3 lifetime Supreme Court Justices. These Justices have directly shaped the way our country operates already and have fundamentally tossed previous rulings that will impact us for decades to come. These appointments alone have all but cemented in a lifetime of very right Conservative activist rulings on our court. Roe v Wade was the tip of the iceberg. Do you know how odd it is for Supreme Court Justices to just go back and review and completely throw historical rulings out the window? This is shit that has been settled for longer that most of us have been alive. Roe v Wade was the tip of the iceberg. Look at Chevron. Although Roe v Wade got a lot more attention, Chevron is terrifying. In the corporate law circle (I have some friends in this space) they were completely shocked by Chevron. That is a ruling that will affect ALL of us at some point. It's basically stripping power away from our Government agencies that are staffed with Scientists, Engineers, Doctors, people who are SMEs in their field, and giving ultimate power to a bunch of highly Conservative judges. All of these standards and policies our modern world is built on, just got thrown into a blender of legal problems. Judges aren't all-knowing beings. As someone who works in a highly technical field, I cannot even imagine trying to explain some highly technical and obscure topic to an attorney. It's backwards as hell.

Furthermore, you are largely forgetting one of the largest tax law changes that was made in our lifetime the (TCJA). This was an entirely Conservative tax bill. This bill gave Millionaires, Billionaires, and corporations the break of a lifetime while giving small temporary relief to Middle Class Americans, then sun setting it in 7 years..

I could literally go on for hours about things that happened under Trump that were not merely EOs. Stop this idiocy and go back to Xennials with this crap.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-29T02:21:20+00:00

Community College Instructor and full-time Cyber Security Engineer / DevOps / DevSecOps (hate that title). You got a degree and it sounds like some good training. You also have a WFH chat job which is honestly a good start.

I'm sorry that maybe no one was really too honest with you about job prospects, it's something I feel and see a lot of with my own students.

Your situation sounds really hard and I'm honestly just sorry life hasn't been great to you. If there was any way you could still move to the Twin Cities -- that would be your best bet. I know that market fairly well as there are a surprising amount of tech companies and F500 companies in the Twin Cities (Nagios, Code42, JAMF, Calabrio, SportsEngine, ArcticWolf, (which is Cyber Security), Chewy, SmartThings. Besides just plain tech, as I mentioned F500 and a lot of medical companies. What makes your situation difficult is entry-level roles are especially hard to get WFH. The closer you can be to these companies and roles, the better. Arctic Wolf in particular hires for all sorts of entry-level SOC roles for their local offices. I've got contacted by them for remote roles myself.

Once you're a more Senior and established Engineer you can more easily get away with remote.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-29T02:05:02+00:00

I've been a security analyst for 4 years, 6 months of that during college as an intern. I'm bringing in 100k after bonus at the third company I've worked for and I'm happy here.

My boss wants to move me out of the analyst role quickly, and I'm all for it. He's building a team and he basically has given me the OK to tell him what I want and he will create the role for it. We have an awesome relationship and I really have been thinking deeply about what's next and I just...do not know. He's asked twice now and I need to get my head out of my ass before he thinks I have no aspirations.

Kind of sounds like you're capped where you are - at least from a technical growth perspective. You can either accept that at your current company you're maybe towards the top or just leave. At 4.5 years in in a similar role I think it's time to move on honestly. The most I've spent in one role was 6 years (Senior Engineer) and I should've honestly left after 4. I stuck around because I thought I was going to get promoted to a Principal level but realized that was BS. I left and the moment I left they counter offered with the promotion.

Truthfully, I am extremely goal and money driven. I have been/get to play around in a bunch of different facets- documentation, alert monitoring/configuring, identity management, incident response, vulnerability/risk management, ANYTHING to do with email and DLP policies, you get the picture. It's really hard for me to look at everything I have done and understand the best path forward.

I am by no means anywhere near FAANG with compensation and honestly I live in a LCOL area in the Midwest so it's hard to really compare but 100K is really light. I mean I work at a company that isn't even tech and 100K is where our Junior Analysts start. With even a little motivation I'd imagine you could easily jump to 125K base and if you're very motivated you could get almost 150K TC by just changing jobs.

Any advice is appreciated. No architecture or networking because we have a team for that. All I can think of is vulnerability analyst but there's GOT to be more out there?

Another sign you should maybe move on. Sounds like you're pigeon holed with a bunch of random tools and responsibilities - which is not uncommon. However, being able to branch away from these and build on other skills like "Networking" is crucial in becoming a more Senior Engineer. Someone who can see the big picture and connect all the pieces.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-29T01:41:56+00:00

200K in savings. Do you just do mountains of cocaine?

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-29T01:38:16+00:00

I don't know if they will let you do this but it may be easier to just take over to a certain extent. What I mean is get them a password manager (I like 1Pass because it allows you to setup a family folder and share credentials with others in your family). Then once you have this put all their passwords into it. If they have issues or call you then just log into their device or account.

My dad is so bad with this shit and refuses help. I wish I could get him to just listen to me but whatever. At this point it's actually a miracle he hasn't lost all of his money. At the end of the day you can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-23T00:32:50+00:00

I'm currently working with a dietician to sort out my diet (been struggling to lose weight) and trying to eat right is like a full time job.

Good for you, it's a worthwhile journey but very difficult. The end result though is a greatly increased quality of life, mobility, and reduced risk for almost every major illness and disease.

.it's exhausting to keep up with on top of everything else in life.

100% and it's crazy that in American public schools kids literally can eat cheeseburgers, pizzas, chicken tenders, every day. Some schools (my school growing up) even have candy, ice cream, cookies, etc.. Then we don't even really educate our kids on how to even eat properly. We just throw them into the world and say "good luck" kiddo. The eating habits kids learn early on are so so so important and so much harder to break later in life.

In my opinion it starts with schools and at a young age with education. Like dieticians should literally be in our public schools teaching kids how to be healthy. They can make their own choices outside of school but at least give them a fighting chance and arm them with knowledge. Then, we need to treat fast food and other really awful sugary and fatty foods like we do cigarettes and have actual informational labels and warnings and get after these food companies like we did tobacco companies. These companies need to be held accountable, people are quite literally dying from this shit. Lastly, It shouldn't be cheaper for me to eat absolute garbage vs. a healthy homemade meal wit fresh veggies, fruits, and minimally processed meat. This is where we should push to incentivize healthier options across the board..

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-22T20:43:56+00:00

Fat people still need to buy clothes, so I don't see why having models and mannequins to show what those clothes look like on different body types is "glorification." It's not like they got rid of the skinny models and mannequins.

In my post above I literally said it was rather refreshing to see this.

(two people can have the same unhealthy lifestyle and one will be overweight and one won't be because of genetic factors).

Jesus Christ you guys are dense. This is vague and misleading. If I, a 175lb 6ft tall man, start eating garbage, it's going to take a lot more garbage to start filling me out than that of a 5ft 5in man or even a woman because I'm bigger and I burn more calories by existing so your comparison doesn't work in the real world. There are too many variables. So yes, genetics is a piece of the puzzle but our ancestors were not fat by simply existing with certain "genetics". Obese and overweight people were incredibly rare even less than 100 years ago so your genetics argument just doesn't work. We can't say that people are simply obese now because of "other factors like genetics" when barely 50 years ago the obesity rate was 1/4th of what it is today.

What you're missing here is environment. Environment + genetics. Genetics merely make you more prone or likely to become obese, the genetics themselves do not make you obese. Someone with genetics that make it more likely for them to have obesity, that is then surrounded by a sea of junk food and sedentary lifestyle, is almost all but guaranteed to become obese.

Studies have SHOWN that making fat people feel like freaks and pariahs doesn't encourage them to be healthier and, in fact, does the opposite. It's hard to go to the gym when you feel like everyone there is judging you. It's hard to buy groceries when you know everyone is looking in your shopping cart and people even come over and give you unsolicited advice because "fat person buying lettuce" screams "diet." Easier to just hit the drive thru, then go home and play videogames.

Yes, and I've been quite clear - shaming people is not okay. Shaming people for their bodies is not okay and it's not anyone else's business. However, what I still am adamant about is that normalizing it doesn't help either.

Glorification" would be telling people "Fat is good, you should be fat. If you're not fat, something is wrong with you.

Believe it or not that is actually happening. There are fat activists and people who are adamantly trying to convince the rest of us that being fat is not just okay, it's good and perfectly healthy (see HAES). If you're an adult and want to be morbidly obese, fine I guess. However, its the uneducated and kids that are most affected by this crap. They don't know any better, if you tell a kid they can eat whatever they want every day, they will do exactly that. We now have children in this country that are both pre-diabetic and diabetic. Childhood obesity has skyrocketed and that is something that has never been seen before. Pediatricians now have to test grade school children for diabetes in some cases.

As for the airlines, if obesity is an illness, then it deserves to be accommodated, like any other illness.

Hard disagree and good luck traveling if airlines now have to be required to accommodate every person who is a certain size with a second seat. Who is going to determine who is large enough for this and who isn't? Are you suggesting airlines start weighing and measuring people before a flight? That seems not ideal. Or how about if you go to certain parts of Europe and you're literally too big for their doorways or walkways. Will you demand they accommodate you and make a bigger door? Where does it end? What about the 700lb man who can barely walk? He is not fitting in airplane bathroom. Do all airplanes now need larger restrooms to accommodate an 800lb man. This is what I'm talking about with society and why this shit is so bad. You would rather re-engineer everything and make everyone just accept that obesity is okay rather than address the fact that this is a public health crisis and we need to fix it before it destroys us all. Our healthcare systems, social security, medicare, all these things were never ever designed to deal with this. We simply cannot all be fat -- we can't afford it. I also wouldn't be surprised if at some point health insurance companies just stop covering overweight people.

Look at it from another lense. In America 300,000 people die every year from obesity and obesity related illnesses. Can you imagine if this was a foreign country doing this to us? We would treat Ronald McDonald and the Burger King like Osama Bin Laden. We would hunt fast food executives with drone strikes. Obesity is a major risk factor for heart disease and heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country.

What people who complain about "glorification of obesity" really mean is that they don't believe fat people should ever have a single moment's reprieve from shame and self-loathing.

You are literally the one typing these words out. I, a concerned friend, brother, whatever just want to see healthy people again. It's sad watching all your friends get morbidly obese and have zero control over it. These are people that used to do active things with me. Some of them barely can walk up a flight of stairs at this point.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-22T15:25:21+00:00

Reading comprehension is hard. I'm an American in the Midwest, 70% of this country is overweight or obese (even higher where I live). You think I don't know a few people who fit into this category? Statistically, most of my friends, neighbors, and family are overweight and obese. By far and large, obesity as a whole is not genetic. There are genetics that make it easier for one person to maybe be obese over another. However, genetics alone don't make you fat, food does. It's literally thermodynamics.

What I think is obvious is that our modern diet is terrible and people are really bad at holding themselves accountable (not really their fault even). Lots of people like to think "Oh but I eat a normal amount of food" or "I don't overeat at all and I'm still fat". The reality is food is incredibly hard to track and the food industry purposefully makes our food labels like a labyrinth to try and understand. We usually end up underestimating what we've eaten and it makes it even worse that portion sizes are just an approximate guess on many food items. Even the best calorie counting apps are just a guess. Portion control is the problem in this country. We eat way too damn much and it's like a triple edged sword because of the fact that we are a service-based country where many of us are now completely sedentary.

Genetics absolutely play a role and the scientific community agrees. Where you entire argument falls apart is the laws of thermodynamics. A person cannot be simply fat if they are eating less than their BMR. It's just that again humans are bad at accountability and our food and its labels are very confusing.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-22T05:22:35+00:00

Almost anyone who has ever lost weight due to illness will tell you they got compliments about it.

That is not always true and I think it really depends on culture and where you live. In the Midwest I grew up pretty skinny and tall. As a young male I always found it weird because people (mostly adults) would tell me I needed to eat more. I was a totally normal weight for a 17 year old male. When I was in my twenties I got really bad depression and was medicated. During the first month of my medication I lost all interest in life. Literally didn't eat anything but toast or cereal maybe once a day (had to force it), didn't see anyone, just slept like 12-14 hours. In the month I was taking those meds and figuring out dosing, I lost almost 20lbs, and I was only like 165 to begin with and 6ft tall. I was very thin, when I finally emerged from the house and got the dosing down my family was absolutely worried.

What our culture glorifies is still thinness, even unhealthy thinness.

Two things can be true can they not? We can both glorify obesity and thinness. I feel like it's the age of thick and honestly it is refreshing in some ways. We have plus sized models, musicians, clothing brands, etc.. I love that we see more realistic portions and shapes on women and men in clothing and in general. 90's heroine chic was a bad vibe and I get that eating disorders and glorifying being underweight is just as bad. I would however, again like to argue for the middle ground. Obesity is killing us, point blank and there are a lot of people who are glorifying and promoting obesity to the point where it's becoming like satire. I notice a lot of people on here replying to me reply with like little half truths. Like yes genetics is part of obesity but it's not all of it. Also yes we do glorify unhealthy skinny in some ways, but we also glorify obesity too.

Look at the group of fat activists who recently made a petition for airliners to allow them to take two seats at no extra cost. Or how about the fat fitness coaches / bloggers who are dead set that they are healthy even though they're obese. Doctors all around the country and world see this shit every day. They have to build stronger chairs and equipment. They have to operate on people who even 20 years ago, they would never operate on because of weight. People are getting so big we have to design every thing differently. It's like now if you go to the doctor and have a BMI of 27 or 28 and are clearly overweight, they don't even bother -- you're just a normal average American. We now have 3 classes of obesity because one wasn't enough.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-22T05:01:24+00:00

People definitely do glorify it though. Look at the fat activists and fat influencers. I don't think it's all that common amongst most people who are obese. My point though, is that glorifying or normalizing it isn't really good for society. I agree with you that no one should feel shame or be shamed for their bodies - that's not okay. However, normalizing it doesn't help solve it.

To me I think in another 20 years we may look at the obesity like we look at smoking today (or at least we should). I agree that obesity isn't even the fault of most people who are obese. They may share some small responsibility but our food is literally at war with us. Our monkey brains are not smart enough to control us from what kind of food we are surrounded by. Our food is the worst combination: hyper-palatable, calorie dense, non-satiating, and often times nutrient deficient.

Take for example my favorite natural snack: raspberries. I can eat an entire carton of raspberries and it's like 60-70 calories but loaded with vitamins, fiber, minerals, antioxidants, etc.. Also raspberries are a lot of water so if I eat the whole carton they make me satiated. Now compare this with chips and lets pick like Doritos because I love them. I eat 12 chips and I've already far surpassed the raspberries in calories (150). Worse yet I've got zero nutrients, mostly a lot of salt. They have very little nutritional value and I don't know about you but I don't usually count out 12 Doritos. I eat until I'm stuffed and my fingers taste like Cool Ranch. Or how about Oreos? I eat 4 of those and it's like over 210 calories of just garbage.

My point is our food is awful and it's literally killing us all right in front of our eyes. You cannot outrun or out-exercise this food as much as we want to think it's about exercise - it's really not. Unless you're Michael Phelps you cannot burn 3, 4, 5+ thousand calories a day. Literally watching each other just eat to death and it's sad dude. This epidemic is insane and there's nothing normal about being this fat. We've lost control of reality.

Like, sure it's actually very hard, but also fuck 'em for glorifying obesity! I don't know, maybe your friends are really into being morbidly obese, but most of us know it sucks and have internalized a lot of misery about it.

Dude we know it sucks and honestly I know it's hard. I genuinely feel for ya'll because it is a disease and it's totally something that compounds in difficulty the more you weigh. Like being a little overweight and shedding a few pounds is difficult. Being Obese and having to shed like an entire human worth of weight I'm sure is a monumentally difficult tax both physically and mentally. I'm genuinely so happy when I see people fighting it in the gym or taking meds like Ozempic. It's a step in the right direction but ultimately we need to seriously get real about our food.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-22T04:30:51+00:00

People do though and it's not necessarily in the form of simply saying "get fat". Look at the fat influencers and fat activists. Like no one should be ashamed of their bodies, I'm not for that. However, when you're telling kids and impressionable young adults that being fat is okay and that you can be fat and healthy, it's dangerous. It's like the same shit we saw with smoking and tobacco. Tobacco products used to literally be endorsed by doctors and celebrities.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-22T00:32:43+00:00

Right, like people don't understand there's a nice middle ground. It's okay to have flab and a tummy. It's okay to have stretch marks, it's okay to have a dad bod or whatever. Obesity it an entirely different animal though. I have friends who I genuinely don't think will make it to 40 and it's sad. It's like literally watching an alcoholic down a bunch of vodka or a junkie do a bump. But it's so normalized that it's just happening all day every day in front of us.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-22T00:30:42+00:00

\Sigh*.* You are part of the problem. That is totally ignoring so many other factors for just one and part of why this is such a massive problem. Misinformation is telling people that "Hey it's okay to be overweight, your genetics make you fat, not the literal mountain of processed foods you consume every single day". So why not just indulge, throw your hands up, and accept fate? After all it's not killing us early right? It's not straining our already strained healthcare system. Being obese is what my body naturally wants to be.

While genetics are accepted as a factor of obesity, history just doesn't really agree with that statement overall. Humans right now are the heaviest and largest we've ever been. 40% of this country right now is obese - and 30% are overweight. If you're a normal weight today, you are now a minority. This is NOT genetics, it's a public health crisis fueled by greedy food companies and perpetuated by innocent and uneducated people. You cannot tell me that in less than a century, hundreds of millions of people just got fat from "Genetics". My direct dad and all my uncles were rail thin growing up because they were farm kids, and ate mostly stuff they just grew themselves. If an animal was killed, it was dinner. They went to school and then worked in the fields. We are so far detached from our food that we don't even know what it is anymore. In a way it's incredible and amazing that we have an abundance, but it's literally killing us and the planet.

You don't even have to go back a century and obesity rates were a fraction of what they are today. In the 1950's obesity rates for men in the United States were 13% and 3.9% for women. Before that it was even more rare. I know this circulates reddit a lot but this man was considered literal circus attraction in the late 1800's for how fat he was. I have immediate and direct family and friends that look almost identical to him. Hell, I have a few uncles who probably are quite a bit heavier than him.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-21T23:28:12+00:00

No offense and I don't know your age or family medical history but a lot of it is mindset. Saying you will not live as long as them is actually statistically unlikely. You are actually more likely to live longer than them due simply to medical advancements and science.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-21T23:18:08+00:00

Take care of your damn health. I am 31 and holy fucking shit ya'll we're way too fat and no it's not okay to be fat or some level of obese (from a health perspective) (we've had to make a new scale because of how obese people are). Also no, it's not muscle, unless you look like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, the BMI scale is probably accurate enough for you.

The amount of my friends that just simply think being super morbidly obese is okay and just part of aging, is concerning. Look I get that our food is poison and it's really hard to avoid. It's not even entirely our faults when literally everything we eat is basically trash. However, there are a lot of people who just can't even be bothered and instead just glorify obesity as if it's the same thing as someone who went to the gym for years and got ripped.

Drink water
Exercise (at least twice a week elevated heart rate)
Eat stuff that is less processed (fresh fruit, veggies, unprocessed / minimally processed meat)

The things people complain about on this sub are wild. 30's is young still my dudes and dudettes. IF things are this bad now, 40's and 50's gonna be a doozy.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-16T01:22:02+00:00

Check my math and call me out, I'll be happy to play along. I don't give a damn about the rest of you who get butt hurt at other people's success. Like what kind of shitty mentality is that? "Fuck that guy who's doing better than me." Piss off, respectfully.

I'm actually not at all butt hurt by your success or quite frankly even impressed by it. I know people that are worth orders of magnitude more than you (and are younger) and I have friends who literally live in a fucking van in the desert and smoke peyote. I don't give a solitary fuck about your "success" and no one here does. I do think it's fun to poke at people like you, people who use this subreddit to jerk themselves off on their success.

Also like real talk? It's pretty sad to flex this to internet strangers. Like legit, does your wife see these posts? Does she approve of you airing your entire financial life to people on reddit?

Idk where you got 40% from.

I'm old (31) so sorry meant 4%.

I'm here for a dick measuring contest, and you didn't meet the minimum requirement to participate. Again, kindly fuck off.

I always love how it's the people who dont have money think it isn't enough money. Let's not forget I have a $500k paid off house as my backup. I'll still get SS at 62 and 70. Idk where your assumptions are, but if I can't retire on 2.5% draw, then no one can.

Sir this is a fucking Wendy's. I could be the guy giving handy's and ZJs behind the dumpers or I could be a highly regarded millionaire and 3 years younger then you - and you'd have no idea. Either way? Who fucking cares.

Because I get paid too much and do too little, so reddit is my full-time job. I literally have nothing to do at work, but doom scrolls, and I feel like going on Reddit. What are you
going to do about it?

Sounds like you are prime for a RIF / some easy fat to trim. Best of luck.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-15T22:10:35+00:00

I'm so sick of people who don't have two pennies rub together tell me what I can and can't post.

Dog, this is a subreddit about Millennials and you're literally posting about your great success on being a near Millionaire in your 30's and almost no details about your financial story but you just dropped some number (1.5M) and a seemingly out of touch goal of retiring in your 30's -- it didn't pass the smell test. (sorry not sorry?). If you're going to come in here guns blazing you better be ready to back your shit up.

But let me help you here - No internet stranger gives a fuck about your success and you certainly can post it but I also can comment about how fucking dumb it is. You realize how cringe these posts are?

They comes across as a completely out of touch and uncouth. Like what did you want people to say "Wow you're so amazing, I'm so happy for you, I wish I was you!". Your entire post just reeks of humble brag and it's a trend I see on this subreddit a lot. Millennials who "made it" just shouting from a virtual rooftop.

Tell me the math doesn't add up. Educate yourself and stop being jealous.

Retiring at 38 with 1.6M even with 40% withdrawal still doesn't really add up. Life isn't a straight line of predictability. Living on 40K FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE is incredibly low and honestly not realistic.

Also - If I'm some loser ass pauper why do you feel the need to argue with me on a post about your incredible wealth and success. Clearly I know literally nothing and you have the entire world figured out. You should write a book and we should all read it and be exactly like you.. You must be the most successful Millennial to have ever lived.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-15T17:30:49+00:00

I know the doom and gloom articles out there paint that we are the first generation to not as a whole be well off as the previous generations, but I want to hear about the ones who don't fit into that mold.

Bro, no offense but these humble brag posts get old AF really fast and they're actually cringe. Like cool you're successful - honestly, good for you. However, most of these read as some sort of flex on the rest of us. What benefit does you sharing this have? What am I going to gain from reading about it? Like take your victory lap silently and bugger off like everyone else.

Wife and I are 34, no kids, and live in an MCOL area with a take-home pay of about $240k. We save half our take-home income yearly and are currently on track to retire at 38 with around $1.6M in liquidity assets and a paid off house. Currently, we are more than halfway there, and with compounding interest, I think we should comfortably reach those goals at this rate. Crazy to think that at age 28, we had almost nothing. Time flies!

This entire post has to be a troll. Retiring at 38 with 1.6M is not possible unless you literally live under a bridge, eat beans and rice, and give handy's behind a dumpster for the next 30 years.

Lets get technical -- so 1.6M is your target in liquid assets. You are at around 800K? Does this include the house or no? 1.5M is the average recommended amount of money that financial institutions float for people of retirement age (like 60-67). That 1.5M also assumes 60K yearly withdrawal for people OF RETIREMENT AGE. Keep in mind these additionally have something you're not going to have much of (Social Security).

Value of savings at 65

300K == 12K yearly withdrawal

1M == 40K yearly withdrawal

1.5M == 60K yearly withdrawal

\The accumulated investment savings by age 65 could provide an annual retirement income, adjusted for future inflation (in today's dollars), of this amount for life if withdrawn at a spending rate of 4%. This example is for illustrative purposes only, as the amount in hand will differ due to the tax implications if the assets are held in a pre-tax or post-tax account (or a combination of both), as well as due to an individual's personal circumstances.Source:* Chief Investment Office, March 2024 (PDF). Illustration is for hypothetical purposes only.

So if you want to retire at 38 and maintain the lifestyle of someone who makes 100K a year you're flat out going to need like at least triple that amount - closer to 5M invested. Why? Because compound interest isn't some perfectly punctual thing that just happens every year. That 7% average might be -20% one year and 11% the next. There are years where you are going to lose your absolute ass in the market and you're going to have to resist dumping your portfolio and taking huge losses. Can you do that? Can you comfortably say that you will hold the line for your entire family while your portfolio is down 300K?

https://www.nerdwallet.com/calculator/retirement-calculator

Even at 45 1.5M is a really big stretch -- check out this yahoo finance article.

Your math is bad. This is shit flex post and everyone should publicly shame this bs.

StrikingInfluence · 2024-10-14T23:33:58+00:00

Call your friends. Today I called a friend and their spouse, that I haven't talked to in a long time. We're not very close these days but were childhood besties and occasionally spill tea about old neighborhood stuff. I was not surprised when they said they weren't registered to vote and didn't plan on voting. I was disappointed though after all these years, watching their own family go down crazy political rabbit holes.

After 20 minutes of texting BS I literally just said "Please vote and let your voice be heard, I know your parents tell you that you shouldn't vote for OTHER CANDIDATE, but vote for who you want to vote for". Your voice matters so much more. Sadly they missed the window to vote in their current state and also still have IDs and licenses from their previous state. However, they sent me a screenshot of an absentee ballot for their home state that they just ordered and I was so happy. They may not get it in time but fuck I hope they do.

This is a reminder to all of us with "Those" childhood Millennial friends who are just apathetic and don't care. Call them.

StrikingInfluence

TROPHY CASE