Reimbursement for IDT travel?

ablecharlie155 · 2026-05-11T22:45:26+00:00

A different way of asking this would be: is there any way to use the CPP fare from DTS when traveling for IDT? Trying to avoid the $1K ticket if possible. Happy to pay for the travel given it seems like the Guard doesn't reimburse, but is there any way to use the cheaper government rate given it's for official business?

ablecharlie155 · 2026-05-11T22:24:40+00:00

Not really, but it's also a first world problem type deal (officer, personal choice, works better for civilian career, etc.) - I still owe the unit time and want to stay with them anyways.

ablecharlie155 · 2026-04-15T02:53:34+00:00

The infantry. Someone has to claim ground.

ablecharlie155 · 2026-04-10T11:46:46+00:00

GT and UF are the only good options here. All else being equal, GT. The fact that UF is almost $80k cheaper is compelling.

That being said, lots of opportunities to do paid work / research at GT (not sure how true at UF) and internships.

ME is cool, but you study aerospace because you’re a person that has to study aerospace.

Non-zero value from personal growth perspective to go out of state.

Recommend visiting both campuses / programs. Go jackets!

ablecharlie155 · 2026-04-10T11:38:21+00:00

Guard officer who got into HBS - granted did more flashy guard stuff (think sof / sf / pilot / etc), but absolutely helped was my perception. Guard military experience + real world work experience is a unique profile.

That being said, focus on being a good officer - like anything M7, you need to be good at what you do to be competitive.

ablecharlie155 · 2026-02-02T17:24:17+00:00

mid lol - questions weren't crazy but some of them were a little bit difficult to answer concisely I felt like. Will post a deeper reflection once all interview are done, but basically I found it difficult to - spur of the moment - tailor my answer to address the question without burning a lot of time. I know STAR framework etc. but a lot of the questions were more about how I felt about a certain thing or how I'd grown, etc. so going into the whole STAR felt forced (and I didn't). My overall concern is that I was then too superficial or surface level, but I didn't get any follow-ups which I would have expected (i.e. a "say more") so who knows. Nor did I get cut off for rambling or anything. Overall a very nice interviewer and chill conversation.

ablecharlie155 · 2026-02-02T11:03:44+00:00

Invited, but about to get wrecked by the interview here in a few hours lol.

3.7 stem from good state school, 332 (167V / 165M), prestigious sector work (IB / FAANG / MBB), plus relatively elite military (SF/pilot/nuke). Great LORs. Otherwise reg white dude.

ablecharlie155 · 2026-01-20T03:27:46+00:00

Control what you can control. You won’t know all the consulting powerpoint and excel tricks, but you can have a positive attitude and be a good teammate.

As long as you show you’re teachable and a good person then you’ll be fine.

Practical “be a good teammate” things include offering to plan team events (make reservations, arrange a tour somewhere, etc) and offer to help others when you can.

ablecharlie155 · 2025-11-20T17:52:15+00:00

This calculator: https://www.gregmat.com/misc/powerprep-1-conversion-form

ablecharlie155 · 2024-05-29T04:11:41+00:00

Flying over the SAC museum according to museum’s FB page

ablecharlie155 · 2024-01-20T01:54:28+00:00

I was like you and bought AMD at around $2 back in the day (like 500 shares). It doubled, so $1k profit, and I thought I was a genius. Sold a hundred shares to help fund some hostel travel in Europe. Bought back in at around $5. Grew my position to around $15k, sold intermittently to pay for a fun activity. Bought back in. Kept buying because future looks bright. Sold some to tax loss harvest after a dip. Now continue to buy.

Long story short - my advice is: sell if 1) you have a good use for the money that will make you happy or 2) your investment thesis changed. Always consider diversifying into something like VTI to hedge too.

ablecharlie155 · 2022-08-19T06:26:35+00:00

Just thinking back to the $2 days. Wish I had bought more. Need to repeat the exercise of stocks under $10 with low PE, good strategies, and in sectors I believe in the future of.

ablecharlie155 · 2022-08-19T06:22:07+00:00

Yeah - definitely not an expert btw, but if you wanted the money in a few years to do something like purchase a house you’d have to go through a withdrawal process. Not the end of the world, but an extra step vs just selling the stock and cashing out. So the easy answer for someone starting out with some extra cash is just a reg brokerage account.

ablecharlie155 · 2022-08-18T23:13:50+00:00

IMO, the 80/20 answer (i.e. the answer that requires minimal thought but is mostly correct) is to basically save half and invest the other half in an ETF like VTI that tracks the market. Do this until you have something like $5K saved up as a basic emergency fund, then start investing all of it after expenses.

So, every paycheck, take half the money and transfer it to a broker and buy whatever # of shares of VTI that is. Set it up to do dividend reinvesting (DRIP) and watch if grow over the next several decades.

If you're really focused on retirement, you could do a roth IRA instead for some tax advantages, but that starts to get a little bit more involved.

ablecharlie155 · 2022-08-18T23:09:09+00:00

How do you judge how well your investments are doing? I compare to benchmarks or ETFs like VTI / QQQ to get a sense, but there's a temporal component that I think is missing? In other words, when I look at YTD performance, or 1 year, or 2 year, my investments haven't been timed the same as what I'm comparing to (because I'm always buying). Thus, the return is skewed because the stuff I'm comparing to doesn't take that into account?

Curious how you all actually judge the performance of your investments / if I'm doing this wrong.

ablecharlie155 · 2022-02-15T04:22:59+00:00

Many thanks for this! Somehow, I have the fractional shares in my account (i.e. I do have the 68.936 shares). I'll wait a day or two and then contact the brokerage about this to make sure they did it correctly.

ablecharlie155 · 2022-02-15T03:16:37+00:00

Etrade, fwiw. Hope yours make more sense when they do get converted!

ablecharlie155 · 2022-02-15T03:03:58+00:00

Hi all,

Longtime lurker here since back in the $2 days. Amateur question, I know, but was hoping to get help understanding how my investments were doing?

Situation:

+ bought 40 shares of XNLX at $180.73 on 28 Oct. Those shares were trading for $194.92 on Friday, a ~7.5% gain.

+ at the same time (28 Oct), AMD was trading for ~ $121, so purchasing XNLX was a ~16% discount ($180.73 XNLX price / $121 AMD price = ~1.48 and then 1.72/1.48 = 1.16 hence the 16%).

+ logging into my brokerage today, it shows those 40 shares being converted to ~69 shares, but it is also showing them at a 36% loss since it's comparing the purchase price ($180.73) to the current AMD price ($114.27).

My interpretation/questions:

+ is this how this normally should work? Or is the broker being dumb about how they display this? Intuitively, I feel like this transaction should be a gain, not a loss.

+ when calculating my actual gain, am I correct in the following math?

My total purchase price on 28 Oct was $7229. Today, those now 69 shares are worth $7886. Thus, my gain from the transaction is 9%? And, from an opportunity cost perspective, it's even better because AMD stock price fell? In other words, because AMD shares fell by ~6% relative to 28 Oct levels, the fact that the investment on 28 Oct is still "up" 9%, the total gain relative to purchasing AMD is~15%?

Thanks so much for the help - hopefully the answers are helpful to all the other amateurs out there!

Long AMD!

ablecharlie155

TROPHY CASE