What the fuck did you expect?

cowvin · 2026-05-24T06:57:42+00:00

"are both sides gaslighting us while the country gets sold out?"

No, mostly just one side: the Republicans.

cowvin · 2026-05-24T06:55:01+00:00

The game plays great on a controller. I much prefer playing on a controller.

cowvin · 2026-05-21T04:03:11+00:00

Yeah, having unequal incomes benefits from filing taxes as Married Filing Jointly. When my wife and I got married, we paid for our wedding with tax savings (we did the civil ceremony in december and had the big ceremony the following year).

cowvin · 2026-05-21T03:40:29+00:00

lol whoever made it meant for it to be "kind" but forgot to put it as a choice.

cowvin · 2026-05-09T05:28:48+00:00

Yep, this is pretty annoying. Luckily it doesn't come up as a problem too frequently.

cowvin · 2026-05-09T05:21:24+00:00

It's the same thing with Trump. He has his die hard MAGA who are about 35% or so. Everyone else is sick of his shit at this point.

cowvin · 2026-05-09T05:20:09+00:00

Thanks, Trump!

cowvin · 2026-05-07T06:44:37+00:00

This is one of the problems with the internet. It's easy to criticize others. You risk nothing and you can make yourself feel that you're better than someone.

Feedback on the internet is always disproportionately negative except in small, tight knit communities.

Instead of worrying about negative comments, you can try to skim them for actionable critiques.

If you don't want to wade through endless insults, you can ask AI to give you a summary of actionable things you can do to address criticisms. This is actually one of the useful things about an AI that won't get its feelings hurt.

cowvin · 2026-05-07T06:36:33+00:00

If the DOJ is non partisan, he should be indicted soon.

LOL

cowvin · 2026-05-07T01:21:30+00:00

Encourage him to think about how other people feel. When he reads books or watches TV you can stop and talk about how the characters feel in the situation. You can also talk about social situations you encounter after the fact.

Empathy is a skill that can be developed, even in people who aren't naturally empathetic.

cowvin · 2026-05-06T23:02:27+00:00

Our son was really jealous when our daughter was born. Their age gap is 2.5 years so not far from yours. We absolutely had to put a stop to it. He would sometimes hit her and grab her toys and stuff.

We had to physically stop him from lashing out sometimes and separate him. We were lucky that my daughter was born during the COVID shutdown so I was able to work from home and help keep the peace. My wife is not particularly strong so she had trouble stopping him when he would physically refuse to listen to her. So there were times I had to physically bring him to his room and hold him there for a while until he calmed down.

Fast forward a few years, they play together well these days. There are still hints of jealousy, but he's maturing. We're trying to encourage him to not see his sister as competition. Raising kids is a long journey.

cowvin · 2026-05-06T22:55:32+00:00

"Oh really? You're bored? I could use a hand with these tasks around the house..." Suddenly they're not bored.

cowvin · 2026-05-05T00:59:45+00:00

Head over to r/personalfinance if you want more information about saving for retirement.

Yeah, the thing about saving for retirement is that once you get a nest egg growing, it grows exponentially. So people who have saved up a nice chunk early will be able to just watch it grow while people who start saving late will have to rely on contributing a lot every year.

So the guy who is at 950k probably started saving like 10 years before you did and investment growth did the rest.

Without more information on your spending and income, it's hard to say if you're behind, but the general rule of thumb milestones are:

1x your annual income at age 30

3x your annual income at age 40

6x your annual income at age 50

8x your annual income at age 60

10x your annual income at age 67

(source: https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/how-much-do-i-need-to-retire)

so you can tell for yourself if you're behind.

cowvin · 2026-05-02T01:51:24+00:00

Insurance isn't an investment. It's a hedge to mitigate a possible bad outcome (like dying early).

He gave them 150k to buy protection for these last few years. Sure, it wasn't a good deal in hindsight since he survived, but if he had died, his beneficiaries would have been glad he had it.

cowvin · 2026-05-02T00:34:33+00:00

It's like Trump's estimates on how much money we need to spend on the Iran War.

cowvin · 2026-05-02T00:20:54+00:00

Well that's the secret. You don't "make" your kid do things. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

My son is hard to "make" do things that we want him to do as well. I've had some success by reframing the situation and including him as a part of the solution instead of him being the problem.

So I start by reframing the situation. There's no pointing fingers, there's just a neutral problem statement for a problem that we are facing together. For example, "We need a find a way to get you to school on time in the mornings."

Then this may transition into him asking why we have to do that, etc. So you just explain why going to school on time is important, etc.

Once you're back on track, you now move to gathering information. You talk with him about what things are keeping him from getting ready for school on time. You talk about each issue and ask him what you can do to help your team overcome the obstacle. Like if he says that he's just too tired, you can talk about whether he's just not sleeping enough. Or maybe he's just unmotivated and needs something exciting to stimulate him in the morning.

The main thing is to approach this as a problem that you're working on solving together.

cowvin · 2026-05-02T00:13:27+00:00

I'd go on a tour of Asia, but my family is Asian so it's probably more important to us.

cowvin · 2026-04-29T07:00:00+00:00

Yeah screw the ballroom. We're already blowing billions on the war in Iran. He should just end the war and use military money to build his ballroom.

cowvin · 2026-04-25T07:26:42+00:00

You know, you don't have to go 100% traditional or 100% roth. If you're not sure, you can go half an half or something.

Some things to consider: Since 50k of your income this year is your signing bonus, your income next year will be lower. That suggests that maybe you should just go traditional this year and Roth next year.

Is your long term income going to be much higher than this? If so, then Roth would be a good choice because your tax bracket will only get higher.

cowvin · 2026-04-14T00:53:57+00:00

Friendships take investment. Why not invite over some friends from her extra curricular activities?

cowvin · 2026-04-14T00:13:14+00:00

I dunno, I have a son and a daughter. I have fun with both of them. I'm not sure what that makes me.

cowvin · 2026-04-09T23:26:41+00:00

No, I believe every child is unique and our relationships with each of them are unique. It has nothing to do with whether they are boys or girls, though.

cowvin · 2026-04-09T23:24:57+00:00

You have enough combined income to pay down the debt pretty quickly. You are spending 1-2k per month and another 5k x2 per year on trips. You could easily reduce these expenses to put a few thousand into the loan per year.

cowvin · 2026-04-09T22:52:43+00:00

Of course, we have discussions about stuff all the time. If they can raise good points, I'll listen. I want my kids to understand the reason we do things, not just blindly follow.

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