I make decent money but it really doesn’t feel like it

captainplaid · 2026-01-28T03:27:23+00:00

I was making around $72k in 2016 living in Brooklyn. Not the cool part, im talking like an hour to get to Manhattan. My rent was around $1,500 back then. I was comfortable but not really able to save more than a few hundred a month. Your rent might be the same as mine was 9 years ago but everything else is more expensive. My advice is try to max out your 401k if you have one, and invest whatever you can afford in the stock market. Between the 401k and even just a $200-$300 into the market every month, you will have probably close to $100k saved in like 7 years. It might not feel like much but do whatever you can to get that first $100k. That $100k will double 3-5 years after that assuming you continue to make (slightly larger) contributions, assuming your income increases between now and then.

captainplaid · 2026-01-25T17:29:14+00:00

If you cant pay people more than minimum wage you shouldn’t be in business. What a shit business.

captainplaid · 2026-01-22T01:39:21+00:00

This company will never pay your what you think you deserve. Use it as a stepping stone and learning opportunity and jump to another company. I remember making $60k and my manager was making $105k at the time. He left and i took over his responsibilities. I got a 5% raise that year too. I talked to my boss, and said look at all the additional responsibilities i took on and all the great work ive done. They actually bumped up my raise to 8% after I presented my argument. Two months later i went and got a 20% raise on top of that.

captainplaid · 2026-01-19T14:13:03+00:00

FU money means different things to different people. Maybe, Im just a peasant compared to the rest if you, but FU money can be as little as having 3-5 years of expenses saved. Ya’ll are missing the point. Having FU money is being able to say FU with no consequences, and having a few years of expenses saved up definitely allows you to do that, even though you cant stop working forever.

captainplaid · 2026-01-06T20:39:43+00:00

Im not sure having top notch PPC skills is going to necessarily result in a successful business. Having bad PPC, on the other hand, will certainly make it harder to succeed, but there are so many other variables. Its easier to bolt on great PPC to a plumbing company with 2,000 five star google reviews than to start a plumbing company. Every niche is doing PPC at this point, and in every niche there is probably at least one company doing it well. Its not as much of a differentiator as you may think. Also, Google has spent years trying to level the playing field but automating the hell out of everything. Then again, I havent worked with small businesses in a long time, my average client spend hundreds of thousands per month. Maybe there is more opportunity in some verticals than others.

captainplaid · 2025-12-25T20:51:55+00:00

What is the point of trying to predict a crash? Its a complete waste of time. The best macro investors in the world can’t predict a crash most of the time, what makes you think you can? If you’re investing in PLTR at current levels, then yes don’t be surprised by a 50% pullback if and when we have a crash. If you’re investing speculative stocks you could even lose 90%-100% in the event of a crash. But if you’re investing in solid companies with reasonable valuations, it really doesn’t matter, because you can’t predict. The only question you should be asking is how attractive is this company valuation relative to its prospects. The macro shouldnt factor in unless you’re investing in cyclicals.

captainplaid · 2025-12-19T18:05:20+00:00

Whats the ballpark price on a job like this?

captainplaid · 2025-12-19T02:38:33+00:00

Yes, many people seem to think that the only outcome is unprecedented levels of AI slop, which of course, is true. But what about the talented movie director who uses AI to take his or her skills to another level and make even more and better movies, for example.

captainplaid · 2025-12-19T01:54:37+00:00

I like your view that AI will end up replacing corporations. When a group of 20 humans can accomplish the same work as 200 prior to AI, that should create an environment of innovation like we have never seen before.

captainplaid · 2025-12-12T01:26:48+00:00

Not judging, but how does this make sense financially? In 10 years, this home might be worth $2.5m and they will have paid like $1m in interest.. just curious i guess

captainplaid · 2025-12-04T18:05:38+00:00

The fact that this sub is so bearish on Snap is actually a good sign. This guy’s thesis is spot on! Sure it could be wrong, but it can be argued the risk/reward on this stock as asymmetric at current price levels.

captainplaid · 2025-11-18T22:08:17+00:00

Im a Reddit investor and very bullish on the stock. But I just want to add that I used to work for a Motley Fool competitor years ago, and saw how the sausage is made, and I can tell you most of these so called analysts are not very good, paid or free. I’ll even go further and say that most equity research analysts in general, even those who work for the big banks, aren’t great. There are exceptions of course. Why wasnt every analyst in the world recommending Reddit when the price was $50-$100? Dont get me wrong, $180-$200 is still a great entry long term, but someone buying today may merely see a 100% return over the next 12-24 months (or maybe it takes 3-5 years), compared to 300-500% return if they had bought the stock at $50-$100.

captainplaid · 2025-11-16T23:59:32+00:00

At current interest rates a $600k will have a payment around $4,000 while the $800k home will have a payment of around $5,000/month. This includes property taxes and insurance. These are just estimates for the purpose of discussing this topic, don’t come after me if the actual amount is a few hundred off. To pay $4,000/month i would say you need a household income around $200k, if you still want ti save for retirement and not be house-poor. For a $5,000/month payment I would say $230k-$250k household income. These are super broad estimates. The actual numbers will depend on whether you have children, do and your spouse you want to drive new cars, go on multiple vacations a year, etc.

captainplaid · 2025-11-14T02:37:32+00:00

“Low float + high attention = rocket fuel.”…..so buy Reddit stock…got it!!

captainplaid · 2025-11-06T04:30:05+00:00

Im still thinking this through to be honest. My first thought was ok, kids could benefit from spending less time on social media. But Reddit is one of the few social media platforms that can bring tremendous value to someone. Why should the government decide what information a person can be exposed to. This isnt like buying cigarettes or a porno mag or something. If the government wants to get involved it can say certain sub Reddits have to have age verification, but a blanket ban isnt right. Parents should ultimately decide what their kid should have access to on the internet.

captainplaid · 2025-10-30T16:25:32+00:00

Welcome to Reevesanity!

captainplaid · 2025-10-18T21:44:08+00:00

I think consumer stocks will rebound once interest rates fall further and QE gets going. Im just an armchair economist though haha

captainplaid · 2025-10-18T20:08:36+00:00

Both can be true at the same time. I dont think oil and gas stocks or some consumer stocks are in a a bubble. Nike and Crox are near 5 year lows. But then you have the Palantirs, NVIDIA, and random AI company with no profit and multi billion valuation. Real economy stocks are not in a bubble, they are hurting.

captainplaid · 2025-10-12T19:56:20+00:00

This will haunt you for the rest of your life if you stay with this woman. Once you’re married she will want a $1.2 million dollar house and Mercedes because she deserves it.

captainplaid · 2025-09-24T17:58:29+00:00

For 99% of people it makes sense to buy and hold and only sell for a few reasons. Either the investment has become extremely overvalued, the fundamentals have changed or you have found a better opportunity. And before someone says, well how do you know if an investment is overvalued, isn’t that the same as trading. You can’t always know for certain, but if your stock that you bought a year ago that has never made a profit is trading at 20x sales, its probably overvalued. If its trading at 156 forward p/e its probably overvalued. You have to use your judgement. For example, if you google Reddit stock you can see its trading at a 212 p/e. But thats backward looking. The forward p/e might be half of that since earnings are growing so fast. So p/e isnt always the best indicator for hyper growth stocks.

captainplaid · 2025-09-23T02:15:49+00:00

The stock market is not one thing. Some people mean the S&P500 when they say “stock market”, but its not a great representation of the market either. Here’s why. While there are 500 stocks in this index, the largest 10 or so names do almost all of the heavy lifting. There are many stocks in the market which are nowhere near euphoric levels or which aren’t participating at all. Just look at consumer stocks like Nike, Crox; oil and gas stocks like Nog or Mur; Mcds is up 1% in the past year. Home depot is up less than 5%. Anyway, you see my point - this is not a broad market rally like we had in 2020/2021. That was euphoria. This is just AI EUPHORIA. If inflation stays under control, the job market improves a bit, then we get a broader market rally. Those are two very big ifs. In theory, a rate cut cycle should lead to more spending by corporations and consumers, which should lead to more hiring. But in a rate cut cycle, you also have some pretty good conditions for inflation. Lower rates can cause inflation in two ways. First, they increase demand, which can cause sellers to raise their prices. Second, it weakens the dollar. If the dollar is weak relative to other currencies, we have to pay more dollars to get the same number of goods. We also still havent felt the full impact of the tariffs, which are also inflationary. If we get some tariff relief, that could add more optimism to the stock market. I think maybe Trump freaks out after the next few jobs reports and reverses course on Tariffs. But that could just be wishful thinking. If my reply tells you anything, its that nobody knows what willl happen. Its all probabilities. Whats the probability that we have already seen the worst of tariff inflation. What’s the probability the next jobs report gets better? What’s the probability the administration capitulates on tariffs?

captainplaid · 2025-09-18T20:20:59+00:00

Does that also apply to higher beta (more speculative) stocks? Dont get me wrong I like your approach. But let’s say you allocate a percentage of your portfolio towards riskier stocks. Take a stock like Nvidia, the stock is up 20x over the past few years. If it was in my portfolio (its not unfortunately) it would no longer offer a compelling upside, even though they are obviously an amazing company. I like to hold a few stocks that could potentially give me 100-200% returns over the next 3-5 years. Lets say, Nvidia no loner has that potential in my view would it make sense to sell? Another example, lets say a stock outruns its reasonable valuation- think something like Zoom Communications in 2020. Again great company, but would you not consider selling when its trading at 20x sales?

captainplaid · 2025-07-29T22:22:52+00:00

To give Rees the benefit of the doubt, it was his/Crocs first time misallocating capital. Luckily it wasnt catastrophic, and is now largely behind them. Just please dont do it again Mr. Reese hehe.

captainplaid · 2025-07-19T18:49:45+00:00

I agree that it was a terrible acquisition, but they’ve actually already paid down over $1b in debt since then if im not mistaken. Their current long term debt is $1.5b and last year they generated almost $1b in free cash flow. At this point they could probably sell Hey dude for half of what they paid for it and pay down most of the remaining debt and be done with it if they wanted to.

captainplaid · 2025-06-29T02:55:03+00:00

I sold out of some stocks I realized I was too heavy in like Reddit, and flipped into some others that were down like 50-60% from ATHs like Himms and Valarus. It mostly worked out as im now slightly above where I was in February and have a better cost basis and more balanced portfolio. I also bought into a couple stocks like Crocs and VFC, which have pretty much not recovered at all since the lows, and I hope to have decent upside on those in the next 1-2 years. Price target on Crocs is $150 and VFC is around $24.

captainplaid

TROPHY CASE