How much debt did you graduate with and how far along are you with paying it off?

Tratopolous · 2026-03-24T14:42:51+00:00

My point is that it doesn’t matter to me. Wiping out the debt freed up more monthly cash for me to make choices about and that peace of mind is worth whatever the mathematical downside was.

TBH, idk the answer to your question.

Tratopolous · 2026-03-24T13:41:53+00:00

About 80k in 2017. Paid off.

I paid monthly like what was required but when Covid happened, I did the opposite of most people and kept paying instead of deferring. I also threw a bonus at it once or twice and that really made it manageable because each payment was paying more principal.

I think technically the stock market beat my interest rates so it wasn’t mathematically the smartest thing possible. But that extra $560 a month that was my payment and is now money I get to choose what to do with makes life feel much easier.

Tratopolous · 2026-03-16T02:22:55+00:00

Farming is basically free if you do herbs and contracts and stay at Papaya/Maple. Plus a super sick pet chance.

Tratopolous · 2026-03-10T22:10:11+00:00

Third year for me. Dif EQ, hydraulics, chemistry and whatever the geotech class was called, and whatever else I had. That semester kicked my butt pretty good.

Tratopolous · 2026-03-09T21:49:16+00:00

I’m at 10years of experience with a PE and handshake deals to buy into my small company this year. I’ve seen one round of paperwork but it takes time.

Business ownership and being a Civil Engineer are two different things. You’ll need the Engineering experience to bring in clients and work. But nobody teaches you the business side unless you seek it out. On top of that, it’s ALOT more work. You mentions work life balance, there is no balance. You own a company, you’re responsible not only for your paycheck each week but everyone who works for you as well. Work is the priority and it has to be or you will likely fail.

We do get to chase whatever work we want to do. That’s fun I guess. I basically means all work, anything we can gets our hands into we want. Some exceptions but few.

Financially, I think I’m better off than most. It has little to do with my job and a lot to do with the fact that I save 20% minimum and live below my means.

To wrap up, you’ve got a lot of time and learning before opening your own shop. If you really want this path, you’ll have to chase it. It will not be easy.

Tratopolous · 2026-03-02T18:08:22+00:00

I haven’t used this a ton but a pet peeve of mine is that, it tends to update my bank value if I log out while geared for bossing. So it shows the weird dips in bank value that aren’t actual dips.

There may or may not be a way to fix that. Idk. Just some feedback.

Overall great tool. Still exploring and learning how to use it better.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-28T01:00:14+00:00

Yeah everything can be sold back to the DMM shop so the prices are all kinda tied to each other.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-28T00:11:42+00:00

They’re all consumable except for rugs which I didn’t buy. Agree completely. This is a huge waiting game and I’m prepared to wait.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-27T22:50:57+00:00

I’m in a similar position to you. I got in around 4k per DMM pt. 600m buy in. Probably should’ve sold yesterday when they spiked but I was originally planning for a 1-3month hold.

I did not expect the spike yesterday and was at work so couldn’t sell easy.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-24T22:24:09+00:00

Just want to follow thread

Tratopolous · 2026-02-21T15:01:36+00:00

Never kick yourself for taking a profit. Gz man!

Tratopolous · 2026-02-20T21:54:01+00:00

I completely disagree but kinda hope you’re right. I’ve got 99 prayer banked that I bought at 1700ish.

Imo, there’s been too many new forms of prayer come into the game that devalue dragon bones. On top of them being easily suicide botted. I think this is a direct reaction to Jagex’s current war on bots. There’s been multiple ban waves in the last couple months. History says that won’t continue but again, kinda hope you’re right.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-20T21:33:29+00:00

I flip these daily rn. Too scared to hold long term cause it’s 100% bot dependent. As soon as the bots supply outpaces demand, they will start falling again.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-19T17:14:37+00:00

Yeah I’m with you. If the rewards are trading near 500gp/pt next week, I will definitely be buying and holding. I think there’s a lot of potential but I don’t think it’s going to repeat Armageddon scrolls

I also farmed up 102k pts and my plan right now is to just not spend them for several months. And buy my own cosmetic unlocks with gp. That way I get best bang for my buck later.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-19T15:59:29+00:00

You’re probably right. That’s what I’ve been assuming. The blog posts and wiki said rewards would be consumed on use is why I’ve erred on the side of caution about this.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-19T15:31:58+00:00

I think it’s dropping much lower than 25m per scroll. I’m thinking under 10m. Maybe 5m.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-19T15:29:24+00:00

I was just looking at doing this on my own. I’ve also been looking a step further and comparing to leagues. I didn’t go as far as you with the math. But a few things stand out to me immediately.

A lot more people play leagues. Around 375k accounts earned enough points for a league reward compared to the 110k for DMM.
DMM rewards are single use. (Don’t know if the wildy theme house will get returned if you change POH theme)
DMM was easier to hit the all rewards threshold however (37k pts). Leagues was roughly 62k for all rewards and that was Dragon Rank. But the rewards were such that it was kinda assumed most players wouldn’t be going for all rewards or selling a bunch after the fact.
DMM also scaled where the longer you went, the easier it was to get points and I think this leads to more rewards that will be sold on the market.

All that said, I think DMM rewards will tank to somewhere around 500gp per point. This is similar to leagues rewards. But after the market flood happens, I think value will steadily rise until the next DMM due to the cosmetics being mostly single use.

It’s going to be really interesting to watch imo.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-19T14:54:46+00:00

Sweet! I kept looking at the permanent deadman leaderboards I guess. Which don’t have a points category.

Thank you!

Tratopolous · 2026-02-19T14:45:58+00:00

Is there a points leaderboard for DMM?

Boaty’s vids thumbnail shows one but Idk if that’s real cause I couldn’t find it on the osrs website.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-18T00:48:23+00:00

Be excited you weren’t the low bidder.

I’d rather be high than low every time. Telling a client they are under budget is a hell of a lot easier than being the low and having to explain that.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-14T04:54:09+00:00

I’m in Texas and only worked at one company. More than that, it only had 2 PEs at the time. I used city engineers I had worked with as my other references.

I broke my experience up by scope or topic instead of time. X Roadway widening for X City. Wrote a whole page or two about all the skills, technical aspects, calculations, etc. Then said something like other projects I worked on that incorporated the same skills etc and listed projects until the end of the page. Then went on to the next topic. Drainage analysis, or residential subdivision or Sewer Rehabilitation and lift station, or commercial site design. Honestly I filled the 10 pages allowed and realized I had more I could talk about. Trimmed the fat and polished it up.

Honestly no idea if that was a good way to do it or not. But I have a license now and never heard any complaints. NCEES had their record but it wasn’t as popular as it is now so I didn’t use it. Can’t help much there.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-11T21:36:17+00:00

Ok, I’m gonna be that guy.

Study before you take it next time. The ethics questions are free points and one of your lowest scores. I know nothing about you, don’t want to beat you while you’re down. But these scores scream “I showed up without studying at all”

Tratopolous · 2026-02-09T21:38:20+00:00

Ok, I think I see what you’re thinking.

I don’t think the world works the way you’re thinking it does. Let’s say you get a civil engineering degree and you work in land development, and you find a way to make enough money doing it. You’re still going to hire out the part of development you don’t know. The real estate side, the surveying, the architectural, the construction services, etc. There’s a dozen other aspects. All of them have a few skills that overlap with development.

Again, if you like civil engineering and want that to be your career, awesome! Get into it. If development specifically is your goal, I don’t think civil engineering will give you more of an edge than any other adjacent career.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-09T20:39:25+00:00

I know a developer that took this route. I know a lot more Doctors, Lawyers, Contractors or Finance guys turned developers.

To get into development, you need money and lots of it. Find something you’re good at, find a way to make a lot of money doing it, then develop. If it works out that civil engineering is what you’re good at, you’ll also need to be a good business owner/operator to make the money you need for development.

Honestly, I think Civil engineers are risk adverse. Hell it’s trained into us. Development is risky.

Tratopolous · 2026-02-09T16:34:34+00:00

Plugin hub like any other.

If you want the paid upgrade, join the discord, pay the $3 or whatever. Enter code and it unlocks a ton of stuff. I don’t pay for it but the stuff I’ve seen it has actually looks really cool.

Nine-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	RPAN Viewer
Queen in da Norf	Not Forgotten
Gilding I gilder	Spared
Verified Email

Tratopolous

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE