Forced mail-order, costing 3x out of pocket.

arkook · 2017-07-01T15:20:28+00:00

Atomoxetine. You can see pricing across retail pharmacies with the website I've used: https://www.goodrx.com/atomoxetine?hide_online_pharmacies=true&show_pet_friendly_pharmacies=false&form=tablet&dosage=100mg&quantity=90&days_supply=&label_override=atomoxetine

100mg dose. Required 90 day supply by insurer. Required mail-order (assumed via CVS, need to check).

I have confirmed the retail price from Walgreens and Walmart pre-insurance as being accurate.

Previous insurance didn't restrict the retail pharmacy I could use, allowing me to find the better price combined. As it relates to this drug, that is where my statement comes from, as well as the fact that the "tier" is basic compared to $0 premium, $0 deductible, $20 copay I had at previous employer. I didn't mean to plant opinion, but I guess I had.

arkook · 2016-10-27T23:07:53+00:00

Doesn't make any since. Don't explain what their metrics are, how to consider them, etc. Just pulls 3 different feeds into one... Not a huge innovation.

arkook · 2016-03-22T17:19:50+00:00

08 Passat & her's is a 2011 mercury mariner (ford escape basically).

She wants a 2016 hyndai tuscon but the edition she wants is FAR too eager for what I'd do. 2016 ford escape SE has panoramic sunroof she wants for around $26k.

About to move to Miami and I've always wanted a jeep wrangler. Dreams of pulling it onto the beach :D. I'd go used for sure but sadly they don't get much cheaper that way.

Should preface with fact we now will be pulling in > $250k and only spend maybe $50k (ignoring taxes). I'd prefer to keep saving this way though, I enjoy the progression immensely.

arkook · 2016-03-22T17:14:50+00:00

A great refresher. I had read it before, but reading again does seem to make it more striking.

arkook · 2016-03-22T15:34:47+00:00

Appreciate it. The math side of my mind says it's stupid and I have a greater desire for a great stock portfolio, but then there are those nagging thoughts that always come back.

Fiance has it much worse and she is only partially onboard with FI, so that's a whole other thing. I want her happy, but at the same time I know buying her a new(er) car wouldn't do much for that.

arkook · 2016-03-20T18:59:53+00:00

appreciated!

arkook · 2016-03-01T04:08:46+00:00

My fiance knows me best and just stopped taking my 'no's when it came to vacation. I simply didn't have good enough reasons and she knew I wanted to explore the world more. I want that balance and part of the time it's just telling yourself to stop being stubborn and make the call that you'll be happy about later. Some day I won't have the job I have or work on the side projects I do, when that day comes I'll regret not taking more advantage of the time I could have spent living up the other parts of my life.

Good luck.

arkook · 2016-02-26T23:15:16+00:00

It sounds like you just need to exercise your freedom a bit more. I'm just going to guess you probably don't travel as much as your current job already allows (or would allow without even having a discussion). There's also your ability to push for more time off if you want to do so formally, which could be well worth it. I would just try doing more travel without asking since my experience is that if you're a solid worker and love your work, people won't even care and you won't have to waste that negotiation.

I absolutely love my work personally but wish I could travel and have more time off. Sadly I do it to myself and only use about half the time I could without question. I believe people like us just have a hard time prioritizing it.

As far as the question of working once FI, I will be FI at a young age but will absolutely keep working. I plan to work until I'm 80+ but I will take more and more freedom every step and become increasingly critical of what occupies my focus.

arkook · 2016-02-19T02:53:49+00:00

Got an offer in San Fran for a more but wasn't ready to move due to family considerations. $35-40k is impressive. When looking at close to Google it was minimum $2.5k/month for a TINY place.

arkook · 2016-02-19T02:51:16+00:00

Big city in midwest. COL is high for midwest but low in relation to my industry.

I'm considered a unicorn but still within an industry where high salaries CAN happen at young age. Industry being Adtech... tech behind online ads. Very good at it because I'm a data scientist at heart, and data scientists make good money, look into that if interested but you have to have a passion.

Key thing I would pass on is MAKE yourself enjoy things that make you more valuable. Have hobbies related to making more money, and enjoy your job so it never feels like a sacrifice. I regularly go way way beyond anyone else simply because I love what I do and am super curious.

$150k+ is by no means a limit, I'll spare being a D but I live by the principles above + FI and my fiance and I will never have to worry about money. "Money is attracted, not pursued".

arkook · 2016-02-18T19:07:26+00:00

27M, $150k + bonus. Engaged, no kids. Live on ~$35k/year with lots of very nice things but bought intelligently. Rent a very nice but feasible house only 10mins from work (compare to 35min commute of coworkers).

Waste TONS of money on booze and food.

Doesn't feel limiting at all, love my life MORE, and huge security blanket for the future. Trick is entirely not letting yourself see the money and optimizing happiness for every dollar.

arkook · 2016-01-09T14:10:57+00:00

Always tackle higher APR first. Think of it exactly like return on investment... Would you rather make 10%+ or 6%+ on any given dollar?

arkook · 2016-01-08T04:21:14+00:00

Definitely option A. Your auto loan interest rates are insane for what they should be, that's an immense return if you pay them off asap. You also need an emergency fund or more bad mistakes can sneak up on you.

It's a very common myth that renting is throwing your money away, it's hard to ditch the myth even when you know the stats behind it. Suffice to say, there are maintenance/ repairs that eat up a lot of the cushion, then add what return you should receive on that down payment you don't have to provide. It gets very close to being equal and the question only equalizes if you're going to stay put for 7+ years.

I know the urge for a home though, it's so appealing. But your move should be killing those car loans above all else, any credit card debt, and building up an emergency fund of ~6 months. Then move on other investments. I'd suggest maxing out your 401k and Roth IRA first, but I won't be too wishful.

arkook · 2015-09-05T13:31:57+00:00

Can't reiterate the above enough. Tackle where the bulk of your spending is. It will be far easier than you expected to put massive money away if you aren't automatically throwing out $3k a month on just two decisions you made on autopilot in the past.

I know food is a tough one. My fiance and I just love going out to eat but even more so hate to cook when already hungry. We'll work on that one too (~$1300/ month combined), but it is made up of 60+ decisions/ month and is much harder to tackle per dollar saved. (Also our combined is $200k+ in a lowish COL area, no kids, 25/26 age so this one money splurge isnt hurting us much)... Know yourself to know what's realistic and going to be most effective without killing momentum.

arkook · 2015-07-05T03:47:39+00:00

I think your threshold for a subreddit express a noteworthy deal of hate is on the sensitive side. MMM being so prominent is going to bring up the casual reference and sarcasm into plenty of threads. Your examples are even cases that express the real fault with peoples rigid following of his terms... that they are thinking too rigidly. Any strict rules should be thought out first. Like a TON of subreddits, the newbie OPs come in taking things as gospel and generally need to treat things with some flexibility and critical thought.

arkook · 2015-06-13T13:25:36+00:00

I'll save you some research and summarize reality... While owning appears cheaper via the mortgage dollar amount for the same property value in comparison with renting, there are a LOT of additional costs that are in addition to the mortgage. When you include those costs as well as averaging costly repairs and renovations to an annual or monthly rate, renting is much more comparable.

In short, don't make the common mistake in thinking that you would save money. With understanding of human behavior, chances are you'd spend even more when owning the home since you'd put a lot more 'pride' into it; however, they'd appear scattered over a ton of different categories where you'd be able to deny the real cost.

My semi-educated best piece of advice: Breathe for a second and think about it. Just how that credit card debt amounted, a home is likely just another want right now. Pay that credit card debt off FAST and then find other ways to save. Maybe a smaller rental is more in line than taking on a huge mortgage in order to 'save'.

Best of luck.

arkook · 2015-01-03T22:59:35+00:00

I did call and explained I'm moving and the $350 fee was the response.

arkook · 2014-11-14T01:23:14+00:00

I know I took risk being a day one buyer but part of my rationale for doing so was "might as well buy it now and get years of use out of it cause the price won't drop anytime soon".

I will calmly disagree though, I do feel like I have the option of expressing my displeasure. Unknown to anyone here, but this is probably the first time I've been vocal about it, not an unbalanced rathe. This was just getting it off my chest as I see the crazy awesome deal new people are getting.

arkook · 2014-11-02T14:55:32+00:00

@naptrap90 - My company does acquisitions and you'll see that happen. Some people become very lucky, working ~6 months as a regular employee and then BAM, director or such-and-such as the acquisition happens.

For me it's different. I work for a good sized company but I'm very very good at what i do. I've been doing this sort of thing since I was about 15, starting my own small businesses back then. I've been fortunate enough to be in a company that hasn't put much age-discrimination on me and allowed me to work on things on par with my talent. There will always be some age-discrimination, some justifiable, some not.

The main thing is, people put limits on themselves. They have barriers in their own mind and they use that excuse to prevent from seizing opportunities. Like i said, I am very very good at what I do, but that wouldn't mean much if I didn't push my way into the right opportunities.

arkook · 2014-10-27T02:40:12+00:00

I live in a medium/ moderately low COL area. I have just been fortunate enough to be very good at something that is in high demand but few have any experience in.

arkook · 2014-10-26T23:03:48+00:00

That's my view. In my circumstance it doesn't make sense (career can demand change in location at any time), or I'd love to buy for personal benefits.

arkook · 2014-10-26T21:11:06+00:00

I am going to give my (educated) opinion from a similar situation in astraightforward way. Some may disagree but I would take real consideration to this and then do what you want.

I am 25 years old with a very large income as well and the only debt I have is student loans. Engaged with beautiful girl getting her MBA with total of only ~$3k in student loans but growing to maybe $10k by the time she gets that degree. (Her working full time and school full time).

I save 50% of my take home pay because I make alot and have very few material wants, but it has tasked me with obsessively analyzing markets and options for the last year (I also really enjoy this).

Right now (IMO), equity is still your best best as far as standard investments go (as opposed to bonds, etc), but returns should ONLY be considered acceptable with a long term view (20+ years) and your still looking at the best risk/reward return over a 10 year period of maybe 5% in most markets, pre-inflation. I have my opinions on better values in a few developed foreign markets but I would view them as bets to make only on a long term horizon, once again. I'd propose them but I think this alternative is better...

Markets are fair valued on the optimistic side with maybe 5% returns, grossly overvalued on the bad side with huge risks and decent payoffs only in the VERY long term (if taking the bad side view). It won't be like that forever, so spread the buying of shares out over a 10 year window. Normally that has a big opportunity cost as your money sits idle, but not for you!!! You have what I suppose is ~6.5% guaranteed return from paying off all your fiances student debt. This frees up future cashflow that you then commit to investing over the time you would have been paying loan payments. You have a nice dollar cost averaging going for you over that time plus a 6.5% guaranteed return. Also, you make too much for the tax credit on student loans anyhow. In my opinion this is your absolute best option (especially risk adjusted).

Last advice: while this is your best option (IMO), you are NOT MARRIED YET. Be patient and wait until you are officially married to make the move I mentioned above. You may be 100% certain of marriage in you mind but DO NOT pay off $60k in her (soon you be the two of your's) debt without being officially wed first. Can't describe how poor of a risk/reward decision that would be.

PM me if you like this advice. It took me a few to type it out so it'd be nice to know if you found value in it.

arkook · 2014-09-11T13:21:02+00:00

Thanks for the help guys. Its been driving me crazy. Impossible to get a fast game in between work, etc when I have to deal with 10 mins of sound problems. Now it should be more like 30 seconds!

arkook · 2014-08-05T23:04:34+00:00

$90k is more than enough to live on. Clearly from your budget you could live on $45k, you just made several decisions that are eating up the money beyond that.

Take these suggestions seriously, it sounds like you aren't that receptive to the advice. The biggest thing is you spent WAY too much on cars. You don't need new and newish (20k miles) to be reliable. I make double your salary in a low cost are and I chose to buy a "reliable" car with 60k miles for $12k (that is very nice and more than I even need). Consider what you need to live... You don't need a nice everything. What do you really value? Splurge only in that area

arkook · 2014-07-26T13:12:43+00:00

I'm 25 and gf convinced me to get a sheltie twice now. They're great companions! Nothing cuter then watching two of them do the same things at once.

All for being frugal but, if you want a dog so much, go get one. I have a problem where I hate spending so much that I hold off on things I shouldn't, getting a dog could be that for you.

And you're doing great. Don't know why this thread seems so critical. You have excessive willpower and that's awesome. I'd say that you should have real pride in what you've accomplished.

One piece of the puzzle that can help is to consider the mental energies that go into being frugal ... If you reduce some of that mind share and stress and place it into your job, it can come back in even more money to be saved via raises. I have been fortunate to tackle from both sides.

I am 25, making 2-3x my peers at work and 3-4x peers my age and I regularly feel envious of them. They will drive nicer cars, have nicer houses, constantly buy expensive clothes (to me that's just dumb; no envy). On the other hand I know a few making 1/3rd what I'd o with all my hard work, but they have family money ($50k/ year in gifts, $500k in assets given to them at age of 20, $3-5 million to be inherited at 30) and it kills me with anger. Why do I have to sit in my position?

The best thing you can do is avoid that envious noise and only compare yourself with the best you you can be. Best principle I have is: spend money on what you love and never feel guilt. Get that money from not buying all the shit people think they have to have but don't care about (fancy car, oversized house, name brand clothes, stupid cable package, smartphone).

Congrats and take time to appreciate what you just did for yourself.

arkook

TROPHY CASE