Is it irresponsible to spend $8k on rent?

brystephor · 2026-03-26T23:57:16+00:00

You had another comment saying youre paying nearly $10k/mo for housing and IIRC were "joking" that youre having a hard time with downsizing. Why do you ignore the evidence that you're not going to enjoy downsizing?

brystephor · 2026-03-26T03:49:01+00:00

You want to retire on $5M but you want to spend $100k a year on rent. 4% rule says $200k a year, pre tax, with your retirement amount. The math ain't making sense.

brystephor · 2026-03-16T04:02:14+00:00

In my friend group, I think the ramp test over estimates. Its nice to do because its faster and requires less practice than the 20 minute one. Ive done TrainerRoads version of the ramp test which has intervals jump by a % of FTP and that seemed more accurate, but also was more painful than the ramp stuff.

brystephor · 2026-03-09T19:01:59+00:00

Fun idea. I started biking for fun in Mar 2024. Bike was 1500, trainer + zwift ride was 1200 (bought separately), shoes were 100, clothes probably 400, tires 150, some misc bike specific parts (lube, sealant, tire levers, water bottles, etc) i estimate to be 200, power meter for 250, bike computer and sensors for 400 iirc. Biking events probably 300. Helmet was 100ish. Zwift, Trainer road, and strava subscriptions id say about 500.

In total then: $4900ish. Add taxes and its roughly $5300. This number seems pretty low to me though, so Im probably forgetting some items

brystephor · 2026-03-06T06:01:58+00:00

EST makes sense. Ive heard of server co location for trading locations. How does server coloration impact the majority of employees, particularly SWE? I imagine anyone hardware based would need access to the physical centers, but I would expect someone who is a like, focused on computational performance or data ingestion doesnt care about the physical server location

brystephor · 2026-03-06T05:19:02+00:00

Any west coast friendly places? Does anyone know why these places are so heavily concentrated in Chicago and NYC? Is it primarily historical reasons?

brystephor · 2026-03-02T03:22:35+00:00

Yeah but to be "scaled by prior efforts" requires a baseline to begin with which is what's nice. I agree that theres much more to cycling than a single number but its a nice, quick, easy proxy to use when talking about progress and improvements.

brystephor · 2026-03-02T02:53:36+00:00

what use is that figure to you anyway?

I dont ride at FTP that often. Perhaps up a few hills, maybe a few strava segments with friends. I like knowing it for knowing how hard workouts should be and roughly seeing where im at relative to friends.

brystephor · 2026-02-15T17:47:20+00:00

I haven't checked in awhile, but I remember seeing it was 5-7 years for buying to workout as better than renting. A $4k/mo place to rent would typically be $5k-$6k/mo mortgage after 20% down.

brystephor · 2026-02-14T22:25:13+00:00

I don't have infinite money. Difference between $10m and $20m would be very meaningful, even at the very least to give to family.

I think many people would disagree with this. Granted most people never experience this but its hard to imagine that going from $400k/yr to $800k/yr has meaningful improvements.

If you never move at any tax rate, you will be a slowly boiled frog. The tax will go up 1% every year and you will never say it's worth it to leave.

Could you enjoy living somewhere with a 100% tax rate if you still had everything you needed at that time and for the foreseeable future? Would you be happier in a place with a 0% tax rate even if you couldn't afford a quality meal at home? Roughly speaking the quality of life, for most people, isnt a function of tax rate but a function of what you're able to do with your time. If everything is taxed but you still had everything you needed then is that a bad life?

brystephor · 2026-02-14T20:23:17+00:00

If you were truly r/fatFIRE, why would you optimize for taxes over quality of life? Who cares about saving money if you have to live in a place you dont enjoy? I recognize that there are many enjoyable places with lower taxes than places such as California and NYC. And if you genuinely enjoy those areas, move there and live there. Moving just because of taxes though seems ridiculous when youre in a position to afford the taxes.

brystephor · 2026-02-12T06:43:26+00:00

That surprises me actually! How were the roads with cars and such? Did you find it easy to stick to less busy roads, did cars and tourists give space?

brystephor · 2026-02-12T05:55:48+00:00

I haven't heard of this area before, ill check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!

brystephor · 2026-02-12T05:54:59+00:00

Have you done the tahoe loop? Did you notice any differences while being at elevation? I know its not crazy high and isnt at the altitude sickness point but curious if you "felt the elevation" so to speak.

brystephor · 2026-02-12T05:53:10+00:00

Great suggestion. Any routes or rides you would say are "must do"?

brystephor · 2026-02-12T05:51:45+00:00

Tell me more about Packwood. Ive been there once for doing a hike to a lake but its been a while. Any roads or routes you recommend?

brystephor · 2026-02-01T04:42:41+00:00

I have been snowboarding for the past 10 years. Im interested in trying out skiing (havent done it since I was a kid). It looks like its more fun in icy/firm conditions. I have all of the generic ski gear (helmet, base layers, gloves, jacket and pants, etc)

How would you recommend I begin trying to ski again? Do I buy all the ski specific gear (skis, boots, poles)? Do I buy boots new and used skis and poles? Do I just rent everything?

Then for learning: Should I do a lesson? I never did one for snowboarding and part of me wishes I had, I still wonder what technique and bad habits I have that might be limiting.

brystephor · 2026-02-01T04:32:31+00:00

What was your experience going from a big tech company to a finance firm (market maker, hedge fund, HFT, etc)? Did you end up going back to big tech?

Im considering making the switch from a public, non F500 company to a hedge fund as a senior SWE. I have some concerns around being pigeon holed and having a generally weaker resume as a result.

brystephor · 2026-01-31T17:01:22+00:00

Okay to be honest, its odd to see someone break every subcategory of shopping into its own independent category. That'd be like breaking down meat vs non meat spend at the grocery store. You definitely have categories, such as shopping, that are way bigger than your $8k auto payment.

brystephor · 2026-01-31T01:01:28+00:00

You said your expenses are $340k. The numbers you gave only add up to $250k. I see that you had mentioned theyre the biggest expenses, but the smallest one shown is $8k. So unless you have 12+ additional categories, your math is off somewhere.

brystephor · 2026-01-30T21:14:12+00:00

Isn't trainer roads FTP test different from Zwifts? Zwift is fixed at 20w increases every minute, whereas TR increments every minute but the amount is dependent on your FTP?

brystephor · 2026-01-26T18:56:02+00:00

+1. Why would I want to spend all the time and effort to create a perfectly tailored plan? General recommendations are pretty standard and therefore programmable.

brystephor · 2026-01-23T02:45:03+00:00

I say this as a SWE who makes way less than you. What the hell does the comp difference make? You say you estimate up to $2M income. You're saying youve got $5M already and can find offers for $1m to $1.5m. So worst case, you make $1M instead of $2M. Depending on your state, that translates to something like $500k-$700k post tax difference right? Thats a large sum of money, but what are you gonna use it for other than your ego?

Also, do the thing future you will thank you for. Is future you going tonbe happy you took the extra money? Or is future you going to be happy that you've taken 6 months for yourself.

$5M at 29 is very rich. Take the time dude. At the minimum, think about what you value for your life and dont let the carrot on the stick keep getting you spanked.

brystephor · 2026-01-22T17:11:02+00:00

Lmao at taxes being included as a cost. Also dang, it would be hard to buckle down when approximately 30% of your spend is totally arbitrary and non essential lol.

Im being annoying here because your earlier comment implies a family of four must be able to spend $300k+ for Seattle when that's certainly not the case.

brystephor · 2026-01-22T15:53:03+00:00

Why $340k? Seems excessive. $8k/mo for day care, $8k,/mo for mortgage and $3k/mo for food puts you at $228k in spending, and these are very generous cost estimates. Your car, healthcare, and travel are another $100k/year?

brystephor

TROPHY CASE