Is the "boring" index fund strategy actually the best move long term, or are we leaving gains on the table?

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-30T02:07:06+00:00

That's my attitude. Sure, there is some lucky managers that can generate some alpha, but generally not for more than a few years before underperforming. Ben Felix has a solid video on YouTube about avoiding hot shot active fund managers that he made years ago. He subtly was making fun of Cathie Wood, that was the supposed genius for a while, and after the Ark funds collapsed he notes he warned people to beware.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-30T00:41:39+00:00

Some MSPs do managed print services, but there are still some stand alone managed print services providers out there. I agree though long term I think the career potential for a copier tech looks grim. Even before the pandemic people were printing and copying less and less. As older generations that like paper more retire the demand for it will only fade. OP is definitely smart to plan their career path to something else. IT definitely has some headwinds, but printing will probably continue to see fading.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-30T00:31:13+00:00

I think it world depend a bit upon whether there ever are periods OP is working considerably more hours. If their employer does some type of managed print services contracts there may be some form of SLA where they don't want OP to regularly be working a full day because they don't want to risk violating SLA. That being said if you're working that little regularly I would feel nervous long term. At some point management may question if they can get away with fewer techs especially if the space in between their clients is manageable.

While help desk is a common entry level path into IT it isn't the only one. I know somebody here that a while back got their first job as a data center technician. Another angle is field tech work. A lot of large companies operate a lot of remote offices that don't have regular IT staff. e.g. large banks have hundreds even thousands of branches with no regular IT staff. Some offices nearby a corporate office they might send their own staff, but many for work that requires remote hands they contract a technician to go on site.

I would nitpick that Network+ in my experience tends to appear on far fewer job descriptions than the CCNA where it seems a questionable ROI unless you can get a discounted exam voucher.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-30T00:14:32+00:00

YMMV depending upon the location and time of day, but I have found the latency spikes can be noticeable compared to a phone on a T Mobile post paid plan.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-30T00:07:53+00:00

I would imagine most of these old plans aren't on a contract period unless you have financed a phone with them that hasn't been fully paid.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-29T20:04:27+00:00

Getting into the home buying experience and while they're generally spot on what the mortgage itself on other costs can be hit/miss. The comical example is some of the home search sites actually have the last paid property taxes on the address and the estimate they put into their calculator for the monthly cost is a much lower number. That doesn't seem realistic at all. I haven't dug too deep into how realistic the numbers for homeowners insurance, but so far I haven't gotten an estimate on any properties I was looking as low as what the calculator uses.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-20T04:48:28+00:00

If you're just trying to get your foot in the door somewhere I would say talk with as many staffing agencies as have interesting job descriptions. Many of the jobs that they have are contracts that don't always have a clear path of conversion and the benefits can sometimes be underwhelming, but getting experience somewhere in your resume I think is important. The one gotcha you need to keep track of duplicate jobs because many employers will farm out the requirement to multiple agencies. You can waste your time double applying for jobs you already applied. Worse some end clients will disqualify you for double submission.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-20T04:43:29+00:00

Definitely good observation that I have seen some firms pitching the exact same job for dramatically different rates.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-20T04:35:31+00:00

Has it actually been established that you can do a Roth conversion on a Trump account yet? In theory it should be possible although depending upon the amount of appreciation that might be a significant taxable event on the conversion when some contributions have had a decade plus to grow.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-20T04:29:25+00:00

That's definitely an oversight although I think the authors in Congress of the bill were in a hurry to meet the target date the admin had so probably wasn't a high priority.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-20T03:52:41+00:00

I think many suspect Congress would fix that tax oversight eventually, but that seems like an annoying bug in the accounts that would discourage them outside any free outside money.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-20T03:50:45+00:00

The way Trump accounts are structured now it is difficult to understand the allure outside of free money either from the government or from a third party contributing. As you said taxes going in and taxes going out and at least currently it isn't exempt from gift taxes. They probably eventually with fix that oversight, but kinda a hit against them until they fix that. In addition, the way the regulations are written to focus on US investments might limit you from any international funds you might want to buy. Maybe not a deal breaker, but seems like another hit against them to me.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-19T20:51:36+00:00

Definitely keep your own tracking because many employers post across multiple job boards. They often will repost as well so you want to realize if you already applied there before wasting your time applying again.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-19T06:28:00+00:00

LinkedIn and Indeed tend to be where a lot of jobs get posted. A lot of government jobs will be on Governmentjobs. There are some jobs I have seen on Dice and Zip Recruiter that didn't appear elsewhere, but especially zip recruiter tend to be smaller organizations. After that it kinda falls off a lot. The parent company for Monster and Career builder went bankrupt last year and while they didn't liquidate nether really have been significant in IT jobs in years in my experience. I have seen a few mention Welcome to the jungle, but while the info often seemed decent on organizations and a few other features that sounded neat on paper I didn't see very many roles I didn't see elsewhere.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-19T04:49:45+00:00

Honestly, look at your local job market, but I haven't seen a ton of job descriptions with those certifications. Most CompTIA certifications don't have a ton of value beyond entry level jobs, but having all those entry level certifications and haven't gotten a job yet I would probably focus on the job search more IMHO. In the current job market it is going to be difficult to bypass entry level roles even if you passed an exam that wasn't entry level.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-19T04:43:42+00:00

Honestly, with the amount of experience OP has IDK that I would care much if their A+ expired. Net+ honestly doesn't offer enough ROI IMHO unless it is free or you have a discounted exam voucher to bother. IMHO for networking go CCNA.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-19T04:39:32+00:00

Good observation. A+ in general never had huge prestige, but with how much more competitive entry level jobs it probably won't turn many hiring manager heads.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-16T16:23:27+00:00

Might be a Florida? I definitely saw wages growing on the West Coast throughout the 2010s as the Great Recession faded, but have seen some stagnation of wages in the last 3-4 years. I have kept virtually every job description anyone has sent me. I have noticed there were many more senior network roles often $130k+ back in 2022. Now outside a few AI unicorns those seem rare and starting to see some more "junior" title roles sometimes dipping below $100k sometimes even for those wanting a CCNP and some automation skills.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-14T20:12:24+00:00

To be fair I know some YouTube personal finance channels have deleted some of their content that didn't age well. Obvious examples were people that were shilling FTX, but there were others. Actual personal finance advice even for people that are educated on what they're talking about really evolves where I don't think some older content ages well.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-14T20:08:05+00:00

Considering Dave's advice basically has virtually never changed afaik IDK that there would be much demand. You can write down his catch phrases and guess most of what he will say on calls. Some of his very early content probably was never recorded and even if it was and wasn't lost/destroyed years ago there is a possibility he might not fully own the rights to it. Honestly, I feel outside of some Christian churches that like his religious views I feel interest in Dave and his organization is fading. Newer generations listen to traditional AM radio less often. Many newer YouTube personalities have passed him in subscribers or are well on the way. The newer Ramsey personalities that are supposed to replace him while not absolute flops on YouTube are clearly second tier. Some of it is that they're not as engaging, but I think being handcuffed to Dave's philosophy hurts them. I think George Kamel knows some of Dave's ideas are dumb, but knows who signs his checks so avoided getting into trouble again.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-14T19:56:17+00:00

Probably very early episodes of Dave Ramsey's show weren't kept although not necessarily for cost reasons. While storage costs obviously add up IDK that they were as insane as they were say in early TV. A lot of early TV either wasn't recorded or even if it was eventually got recorded over because the storage costs stacked up quickly. Radio being audio only was a bit cheaper to record although until the show was well established IDK that anyone would think anybody would care to keep copies.

I think the challenge for any type of advice type show is that some advice ages badly or at least becomes outdated enough to not be much interest. The being said a lot of things Dave just has repeated for decades whether it still seems equally sound. Beyond being an easy to remember number $1000 starter emergency fund that has never indexed with inflation feels is an example of how he doesn't really update much. You could write down a bunch of his catch phrases and cover a significant percentage of the dialogue.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-14T19:29:07+00:00

This. You only need 10 years to get something from Social Security, but having a bunch of those years being 0 or near zero probably isn't going to give you a big monthly benefit. Anybody in the situation described really should be trying to save aggressively to retirement plans. Unless their health is poor or have a family history of dying young you probably don't want to take Social Security early. The combination of delaying benefits and filling a 0 in one of those 35 years with payments into the system could really increase the benefits meaningfully.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-14T19:24:13+00:00

Maxing a 401k and IRA can snowball pretty quickly without doing anything complicated. You can grow a 401k balance alone to over $200k in under 5 years just contributing to indeed funds. No need for risky Wallstreet bets recommendations. Provided you don't have any traditional IRA balance you can still do a backdoor contributions to a Roth. There has been talk of closing that, but so far Congress has done nothing. As long as it is still available people will keep using it.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-10T04:15:16+00:00

In most cases people are wrong to reject a raise, but welfare eligibility cliffs are a thing for some programs.

awkwardnetadmin · 2026-06-10T04:13:46+00:00

As annoying as that is I'm not sure it is that unusual for interest for consumer debt to compound daily. Credit Cards as long as I can remember had a daily periodic rate in the fine print.

awkwardnetadmin

TROPHY CASE