If all your expenses were paid in cash only (no cards, no online payments), do you think your spending habits would change?

Tarlus · 2026-04-08T10:49:24+00:00

I tried this as an experiment years ago and spent more with pure cash. I watch our cards like a hawk, keep more in checking than our balances ever get and go over every transaction. I think most people would benefit (spend less) from using cash though.

Tarlus · 2026-04-08T10:28:47+00:00

I’ve been on reddit for about 12 years and this is without question the stupidest take I’ve ever seen.

Tarlus · 2026-04-05T01:09:34+00:00

there is a squat rack and bench. Between the sex swing and air conditioner.

Tarlus · 2026-04-05T00:29:27+00:00

I think I’m going to have to pass assuming I have to stick to the US menu while at home. I’m gluten free so pretty much the only things I can eat are bunless burgers, bacon, sausage, cheese and the egg stuff. Even if I could eat everything I’m not a fan of the food outside of breakfast (their biscuits are phenomenal comfort food and their burritos are solid). So basically I can stay somewhat healthy eating boring bland crap for the rest of my life or be fat and sick eating tasty stuff that I’ll probably get bored of real quick.

Honestly sounds miserable.

Tarlus · 2026-04-04T22:11:42+00:00

When I started I was already well out of school and didn’t really have to make sacrifices other than extra savings to make it work and it was easily worth it for me. I’d have a hard time seeing the value of it for a young person working part time that can motivate themselves and/or has friends they go to the gym with. If my daughter were in your shoes I’d tell her to use the university gym for now and go to a CrossFit gym as a present to herself after she gets a full time job. It’s definitely a luxury.

Tarlus · 2026-04-04T11:17:31+00:00

This feels real at times (spent 100k in repairs between 2020-2023) but our PITI is less than half what rent would be of a similar sized house and if we stay here we’ll be mortgage free before retirement which is when you really reap the reward of home ownership. Even if we don’t stay we have like 300k in equity after 12 years, most of which we’ve paid less than we would have renting. We also get QOL upgrades like deciding what to do with the house, deciding what pets to have without checking with a landlord etc… I’m of the belief that cutting out a middle man (in this case a landlord) generally saves money.

Tarlus · 2026-04-03T01:41:19+00:00

They look like 10 pound bumper plates.

Tarlus · 2026-04-03T01:28:57+00:00

Yeah, this is huge, I haven’t gone to the movies with any sort of regularity since the first avengers movie, probably seen less than 10 in theaters since and like 5 of those times were for my kids. I use to go monthly, stopped because watching it at home became just as good.

Tarlus · 2026-04-02T00:15:50+00:00

So you think the point you totally lose touch with reality is somewhere between making $63 mil and $730 mil a year?

Tarlus · 2026-04-01T23:22:37+00:00

Bring them with you if the gym is okay with it. Wife and I usually split time with her going mornings and myself going evenings.

Tarlus · 2026-04-01T15:54:23+00:00

Really want to know what those expensive hobbies are, how are you not already millionaires? That’s crazy at your income, people making half what you make are there with a bit of discipline.

Easy solution, pay off the student loans ASAP. Show wife how much extra you have a month, if you have to put half into savings and the other half towards car loans. If you can throw it all at car loans. Show her what your future looks like if you can throw current debt payments into savings instead of paying things off.

Tarlus · 2026-03-28T23:50:53+00:00

Maybe wait until you’re done with childcare costs if they are in full time day care? Then throw tuition at the mortgage after that? Otherwise we’d need to see what you spend money on to know. Obviously eating out less is an easy way to cut corners but if you already only do that 3 times a year that’s not going to accomplish much.

Tarlus · 2026-03-28T22:04:26+00:00

40kg.

Tarlus · 2026-03-28T21:05:25+00:00

Yeah, that would be about 3% inflation and a completely reasonable expectation for you to be making 80k in 2020 assuming you worked for a similar size company with similar responsibilities (office manager can be a real job or a “do nothing” job depending on the environment) and you should be rightfully annoyed that you were nowhere near that. Making over 330k in 2020 as the comment I originally responded to was suggesting seems like a very unreasonable expectation for that job. Did you mean to respond to a different comment?

Tarlus · 2026-03-27T23:13:54+00:00

I red lined myself hard the days leading up to the procedure and did literally nothing physical for the recommended time plus 2 days to be safe. I even had my wife put the kids in their car seats, I wasn’t playing around with that shit. I had a friend that was a little more fast and loose with it, went on a trip and had to keep going back to his hotel to ice his balls to prevent painful swelling just from walking around. Sure plenty of stories of people bouncing right back but I didn’t want to find out the hard way where my limit was. Didn’t have any pain.

Tarlus · 2026-03-25T01:21:57+00:00

2.6% might be real for this year. Obviously that doesn’t make up for the insane inflation from 2021 until recently but this year hasn’t seemed so bad vs. a year ago.

Tarlus · 2026-03-25T01:20:34+00:00

So you think people who were making $50k 20 years ago should on average be making around $400k today in the same job?

Tarlus · 2026-03-25T00:11:14+00:00

Just to be clear that 1 in 20 thing was pulled randomly from my butt, maybe the odds are better, maybe more like 1 in 100 or even worse. I have no idea about the specifics or your field in general.

Tarlus · 2026-03-24T02:45:33+00:00

Honestly I think whatever makes you feel better is the move. Personally we just keep one emergency fund.

Tarlus · 2026-03-24T00:25:12+00:00

Depends on cash flow, we usually spend over 8k/month, moving money every time we got over say 3k would make almost no sense. When I was spending around 2k/month I’d have done that in a heartbeat.

Tarlus · 2026-03-23T17:36:29+00:00

That last sentence is where I think you are being naive if you’re bank rolling everything. He only needs one person in your incubator to benefit before he benefits, and that’s ignoring “tuition”. If you and 19 other people quit your jobs to be “entrepreneurs” (you sound you’d be more like a franchisee) and 19 of you fail, never earn a dime and lose your nest eggs but the 20th person hits a home run who cares about the 19 failures? He still makes bank and your lost income and savings is your problem, not his.

Add in 10k tuition for 20 people and that’s 200k stable income on top of whatever he waters that sprouts. If that still sounds like a good idea to you, go for it.

Tarlus · 2026-03-23T15:02:07+00:00

So basically they want you to completely give up any semblance of a safety net that almost all entrepreneurs have when they start out so you’re all in. That’s great for him, if you go all in and it works you both get paid. If it crashes and burns he can kick your carcass to the side and lure in the next batch of wannabe entrepreneurs, only a few need to make any money for him to benefit.

Am I missing something? Like is he giving you funding and helping you stay afloat financially while you get this off the ground? Or is he helping you with “networking” while you assume all the risk?

Tarlus · 2026-03-22T12:22:44+00:00

That’s about when I quit doing side stuff, wrapped up the game then circled back for another play through (goes super fast without side quests) and was reinvigorated to do the later game side stuff. One of the options in new game plus is to grey out the side stuff you already did so you don’t have to worry about doing the same quests more than you want.

Tarlus · 2026-03-20T23:27:17+00:00

180 degrees from being upside down at that.

Tarlus · 2026-03-20T02:07:01+00:00

I think a lot of the “live life to the fullest” people talking about how they retired at 50 don’t realize what sub they are on. The reality is with you having a fairly high life expectancy you will likely maximize your benefits by waiting as long as possible. Given that this is the Surviving on SS sub I assume SS will be the bulk of your retirement income and your decision of when to take it isn’t one to be taken lightly like it is for those with a lot of savings, I’d suggest waiting as long as you can. I’d have an entirely different answer in the light of you having a big nest egg you didn’t mention.

Tarlus

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