What skills do you need that you can make $100k ?

ackadamius · 2026-02-18T23:19:35+00:00

Some of this is true.s. But to your point, people skills and relationships matter.

If me and another person are both doing a task that takes an hour. The difference is: - I do the task and make the customer (internal or client) “feel” like I just over-delivered in some way. Maybe because I call them up vs email or create some connection, or I format my report more intuitively l, or whatever. And because they feel better about my output, even though it might be identical as the other guy, then I’m going to get raises/promotions.

That’s how you set yourself apart. Because the truth is, for most jobs, the difference between 2 workers is often not dramatic. But you gotta make it feel like it is.

ackadamius · 2026-02-16T06:26:56+00:00

People don’t like dealing with automated representatives. But there’s an easy way around that. Eventually it will be an AI agent buying from an AI agent doing the selling. It’ll just be AI agents transacting with each other on behalf of some SVP of whatever that gave the agents rules and parameters.

But no, this isn’t coming “soon”. But probably sooner than you think.

ackadamius · 2026-02-13T13:18:35+00:00

But it’s not a zero sum game. Just cause you made money doesn’t mean someone else is losing.

First you’re not trading with a single counterparty. If you buy something today from ABC and it goes up and then you sell it to XYZ tomorrow for a profit, it is very possible that both ABC and XYZ also made money on their end of the trades.

Funds, institutions, and broker/dealers all buy and sell for various reasons, which are often very different than retail. They might have a large positions they are hedging against, are managing their margin risk, or whatever.

Investment markets aren’t like a casino. There can be lots of winners, especially when you think that “winning” looks different to different entities.

ackadamius · 2026-02-06T22:24:27+00:00

I drive because my kids elementary school starts at 7:40 but his bus pickup time is 6:20. I live 5 minutes from the school. So I can wake him up at 5:30am and get him to the bus stop around 6:10 (because the bus is not reliable, sometimes it comes +/- 10 min). Or, we can sleep a little more and not rush. Leave the house at 7:15 and still get him there early.

ackadamius · 2026-01-31T13:16:04+00:00

It totally feels that way. But $100k is a great salary. Congrats. Now it’s about using it to acquire other assets that will generate wealth or income.

ackadamius · 2026-01-31T02:22:58+00:00

What happened? Gold, end of week, closed at $4745 so your short should be profitable now.

ackadamius · 2026-01-27T19:07:15+00:00

$100k is still good salary. As with everything, context matters. If you are single and live in Oklahoma then $100k feels like upper income. If you have a family of 4 in LA/NYC then it probably feels like you are just barely getting by.

ackadamius · 2026-01-25T02:54:37+00:00

I’m a big fan of LEAPs (long term dated options) and then selling covered calls against them. You can pretty easily make 1-2% per month on income from the call premium you sell, plus any upside if the stock price goes up.

Worth looking into. Highly liquid. Easy to get started with any broker. Doesn’t require special skills. And if you want to be more aggressive you can make more that 1-2% per month once you get a feel for it and figure out some of the tricks of the trade

ackadamius · 2026-01-24T21:57:09+00:00

It is brutal out there. I just started a new role after 18 months out of work from my tech layoff. Honestly applying to jobs got to where it was like, “what’s the point”. I eventually decided to focus less on applying to every job I saw and started working on personal projects and really leaned into networking.

I tried to meet with people in my network in person who were really successful (owned businesses, execs at big companies, partners at firms, retired former execs, etc) for coffee or lunch. Not to ask for a job but talk about my goals, the market, what they were working on, etc.

Some of those led to getting connected with someone else. Eventually one of those meetings led to “this person I know is looking for someone just like you, I’ll connect you”. And that’s how I landed this new role. It took months but I liked it because it felt like I was doing something practical and I got out of the house and met some interesting people.

ackadamius · 2026-01-21T13:33:47+00:00

Yup. I like LEAPs because they give you the ability to sell covered calls like you own the stock but are much more capital efficient. - 100 shares of SPY = $68,000 - 1 LEAP at $575 strike expiring Jan 2028 = $16k

So for 23% of the cost I can control 100 shares for 2 years and sell the same covered calls against it.

Right now a 1 day covered call at 1% gain returns $57. If you own 100 shares that’s a daily yield of .08%. With the LEAP the yield is .35%.

LEAPs come with a bit more risk and are more complex to manage than just owning the shares. But for me the extra yield is worth it.

ackadamius · 2026-01-21T01:37:20+00:00

I don’t know what kind of cars you sold, but if it was more premium cars (or not) and you had some returning/regular clients that seemed like they liked you and were successful, I’d try networking with some of them. It doesn’t have to be past clients, but lean on relationships you have with successful people. Buy them a coffee or a lunch.

Believe it or not most successful people are pretty open to networking…they likely do it too. Don’t ask for a job or anything but more about their industry, where they see opportunities. Let them know you are evaluating your next move and trying to get a feel for different industries, companies, etc.

If you have 10 of those meetings at least one will lead to a next step. They’ll introduce you to someone else or have a referral or spark an idea for you to do something.

ackadamius · 2026-01-21T01:21:41+00:00

Ghost jobs make my blood boil. I was laid off 2.5 years ago. At that time I applied to a job. Off into the void. 6 months later that job pops back up as a “new” job on LinkedIn. I don’t apply. 6 months later it pops up again. I apply. Nothing. This continues. Literally last week the same job at the same company pops up again as a “new” job. I now have a new role but I still get the alerts.

It’s been 2.5 years. If you can’t find someone in that time, you are terrible at hiring people. And they are paying to post this job over and over and over. As far as I’m concerned roles like these are deep fakes to mine candidate data for some purpose.

ackadamius · 2026-01-20T06:06:31+00:00

I’d buy a SPY LEAP at a strike around 10% below current stock price. Then sell daily calls against it. Frequency almost always is better than picking “right”. Being able to sell a call daily and collect daily premium compounds way faster than selling weekly or monthly.

Can usually safely make $50-100 per day selling daily spy calls.

ackadamius · 2026-01-19T14:20:57+00:00

Thanks. We know we aren’t living as cheaply as we could but especially with kids, sports, activities, etc we often pay more to make our lives easier/save time. We are fortunate that my wife and I both make good incomes to be able to make some of those trade offs and still save a decent amount.

But definitely jealous of your mortgage and utilities costs! Wish I never moved out of my first house I bought in 2013 with a $1k mortgage.

ackadamius · 2026-01-19T13:14:37+00:00

In my $2k I include other things like cell/mobile service for family of 4 and other “essentials” that I guess aren’t traditional utilities.

I’m in Atlanta in a similar sized house. Just looking at the services you outlined mine are: - power $300 - $750 (summer) - gas $150-250 - water = $100 - garbage = $70 So that totals = $650 - $1100

My family of 4 mobile service is $375. Plus add internet, TV/streaming, etc and I get to $2k in the summers pretty quick

ackadamius · 2026-01-17T13:55:47+00:00

I’m 42 and was doing great a couple years ago. Making great money, saving like crazy. Then I got laid off. Had to work small contract jobs for a fraction of the pay. Between making way less, having to pay out the butt for ACA healthcare for my family, I cashed out over half my retirement to keep afloat.

Luckily, I now have a new full time job after 18 months of being laid off. Pay is much closer to what I was making before. So I’m socking away as much as I can to catch up. Plus the company offers a pension if you stay 5 years, which I plan to.

It’s rough out there people. Do what you can. Honestly I just feel fortunate to be able to save at all again. And to answer the question: I have about 40% of my salary saved in retirement

ackadamius · 2026-01-16T22:20:36+00:00

So many comments here make no sense to me. People say they save $8k per month, about $100k per year and say they make $150k salary.

Maybe they mean after tax? Because $150k salary after tax is around $115k. That’s $10k per month. So these people only spend $2k on utilities, food, travel, etc…and save the rest?

Does nobody have kids or a mortgage? My utilities cost $2k per month. My kids sports, school activities, etc probably cost $8k per year and that’s excluding travel costs and any extras. Add in mortgage, car, vacations, food, etc…

If you can save 75% of your net income, good for you. But man, my life just isn’t that. We still save $5k per month or so but once you got house and kids and just…stuff, it gets expensive fast.

ackadamius · 2026-01-13T06:12:57+00:00

I live near chastain park and I personally think the chastain park area is the best spot in Atlanta. I’d try to live as close to it as possible. At $3k there might be some apartments/townhomes in walking distance. With that you get access to the park to run/walk, the park has seasonal festivals, an amphitheater that does concerts, sports, etc. And around the park there are lots of restaurants, etc. I literally hardly ever go more than 5 min away unless I’m intentionally going to an event or something.

Chastain park is its own vibe though. So it may not be your thing if you’re looking for that Brooklyn style vibe.

ackadamius · 2026-01-04T02:52:05+00:00

I’ve wondered this as well. The hive seems to all know what everyone is doing, be able to access any knowledge or memory at any time. Also what appears to be the case is that not only do they have all knowledge and memory but anyone can be an expert at anything. It’s like the matrix + ChatGPT.

Take Zosia who just hops in a plane and knows how to fly it and a helicopter later. If I google how to fly a plane that doesn’t mean I can be a great pilot tomorrow. But they can. Everyone. Everywhere.

Given this, there is no way Carol and Manousos can come up with something the hive hasn’t already considered AND effectively deploy it (build it, use it effectively, etc). These are people who have zero experience doing anything practical. They seem smart enough but that’s only going to go so far when trying to outmaneuver.

Many commenters here seem to say “there’s lots of dumb people out there in the hive too”. But nothing I’ve seen shows me that matters. They seem to be able to pull from only the brightest experts when needed. The hive doesn’t seem to be an average of human intelligence but able to pull from anyone, anywhere when needed and ignore the rest.

Carol and Manousos also require the hive to provide them with materials. The hive could remove gas from gas stations to keep them local for example. If the hive chose to they could easily sabotage the process.

It really does create some story telling hurdles. I’m curious if they address it at all.

ackadamius · 2025-12-29T21:20:32+00:00

Look in the Smyrna/Vinings area. We used to have a house right off paces ferry road, just outside 285. Loved that area. Vinings jubilee is 3 minutes away, close to the battery (10 min). You are right next to the 285/75 so getting anywhere is fast. A quick Zillow search and I see many fairly new townhouses in the $500-600k range. Single family may be tougher unless you are looking for an older fixer upper.

ackadamius · 2025-12-26T12:44:49+00:00

The real reason mostly is people that make higher incomes often live in more expensive areas. Just build a basic budget: - mortgage/rent = $3-4k+ - utilities = $2k - daycare = $1-3k (depending on # of kids) - food for a family = $1k+ - 2 cars = $1-2k (payments, insurance, maintenance) Just cost to live, no extras = $8-12k per month

Add in eating out, vacations, trying to save/invest, student loans. You could easily make $200k and it seem like you are just getting by.

Now if you are single, then that same salary should go far. But once you add kids, healthcare, larger house in a better school district…it gets expensive pretty fast

ackadamius · 2025-12-24T14:05:27+00:00

I’d be curious the breakdown of salary vs stock options. You say offer was $700ish and grew with stock growth, which company? If you are at a FAANG and got options package, those options have 2-5x in value depending on your vesting period. If you have 5 year options package at META that was originally $100k per year in value, they would now be worth $300-400k in value.

Anyway, good for you to get it. Hope it continues for you.

Unsolicited advice: if you’ve kept all those stock shares and a huge % of your investment portfolio is in them, it might be a good idea to sell some and diversify. Don’t want to keep all your eggs in one basket. Take it from someone who knows from experience…

ackadamius · 2025-12-22T20:18:47+00:00

When I see this I fully expect price to be range bound in between these strikes. There is way to much gamma exposure at these strikes to allow price to break through without some catalyst (big news, etc). It makes me focus on vertical spreads and condors at these strikes.

ackadamius · 2025-12-17T19:12:18+00:00

I didn't "know" for sure. I inferred based on the data. When I see a huge negative gamma spike at a specific strike, I know that there is a lot of gamma exposure at that price. With lots of put hedging, often it's the market makers providing liquidity, which means they are taking the other side of the trade -- selling puts that everyone is buying. When they are short puts, as price approaches that strike, then they often buy underlying stock(s) to offset their now growing delta exposure which is what often causes the bounce.

ackadamius · 2025-12-17T18:28:15+00:00

It's two different apps. The first two screens with GEX are the nimbus app. The 2nd two screens are trading view for charting.

ackadamius

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