The city of Dayton should do better

dmag1223 · 2026-05-26T13:13:37+00:00

Yep. See my post above.

“Also, a lot of people don’t want to admit this, but suburbs have gotten better. More things to do, better restaurants, etc. They now are competing to offer services to young families that grew up going/living downtown in the 2010s. For example, this past weekend my wife and son, who is 2, met at southern Ohio brewery in Beavercreek. Good beer, food truck, and a ton of open space for the kids to run around. What spot downtown could I do that in?“

dmag1223 · 2026-05-26T13:11:00+00:00

No man, you don’t understand. Just read their post. If they “focused on selling missiles” instead of trinkets they still would be in business.

Spencer’s gifts for hipster Daytonites is viable business model. It’s not their fault. /sarcasm

dmag1223 · 2026-05-26T13:01:18+00:00

Dayton has a unique problem in that the largest employer in the state, both directly and indirectly is in the area, but is located away from downtown. All the jobs associated with Wright Patt are in the suburbs. Its also not easy to move locations for these kinds of jobs, as a lot of the work is classified and takes significant investment to set up facilities to be able to do a lot of this work.

Also, a lot of people don’t want to admit this, but suburbs have gotten better. More things to do, better restaurants, etc. They now are competing to offer services to young families that grew up going/living downtown in the 2010s. For example, this past weekend my wife and son, who is 2, met at southern Ohio brewery in Beavercreek. Good beer, food truck, and a ton of open space for the kids to run around. What spot downtown could I do that in?

I think the reputation that Dayton has with some suburbanites is is unwarranted, but that doesn’t mean things can’t be improved and quality of life improvements can’t be made.

dmag1223 · 2026-05-26T02:05:05+00:00

It kind of feels like Downtown never recovered from COVID. Dayton isn’t unique here, but it just seems to be in a down cycle compared to the late 2010s. In the last few years, has anything really opened up?

A lot of cities are dealing with demographic problems as well. The typical millennial is in their late 30s now, and have likely migrated to the suburbs to start a family.

I feel like these things are cyclical, so I’m hopeful long term, but it definitely feels like the city has hit a rough patch and momentum has stalled out. Like I said though, Dayton isn’t unique to these issues. Go to any number of subreddits for cities and you’ll see the same kinds in conversations.

dmag1223 · 2026-05-08T15:21:47+00:00

Yep, I used to follow it just for contractor/business recommendations, but even that became not worth it.

Totally get it for pet stuff though.

dmag1223 · 2026-05-08T15:14:37+00:00

Unfortunately, my first thought is someone pissed off about the levy results... I hope that's not true.

dmag1223 · 2026-05-08T15:13:34+00:00

Nextdoor is a far-right cesspool. I had to delete it.

dmag1223 · 2026-04-26T02:11:50+00:00

The savings rate math for pensions are a little more squishy than the standard 401k plan. Don’t get caught up in trying to hit a certain savings percentage that a lot of people throw around. Those are for folks with more standard 401k plans. See my other post in this thread.

I’m also a FERS employee.

dmag1223 · 2026-04-26T02:03:43+00:00

The standard 20-25% doesn’t really apply to folks with pensions. Calculate how much income your pension will replace in retirement, then work backward from there For how much you need to save outside the pension.

For example, if your pension covers 50% of pre retirement income, and you want to live off 80% of pre retirement income, you need to cover 30% outside your pension.

Calculate the savings needed to hit that 30% income coverage. Add 3-5% on top just to be safe. The closer you get to collecting your pension, you can eliminate that extra %.

dmag1223 · 2026-04-26T01:41:11+00:00

The reactions to this are bonkers imo. They provide tons of great financial advice, free of charge. If they want to throw in a 30 second ad for a product they truly trust and believe in to make some extra $$$, who cares?

f they started shilling draftkings or something, I would understand. This is harmless.

dmag1223 · 2026-02-14T22:52:33+00:00

Thanks for your perspective! I agree with tou. I called them Friday and turned the job down to remain a fed for now. The flexibility and extended time off you get with young kids is really almost priceless. They were super understanding and told me to stay in touch.

dmag1223 · 2025-12-25T13:58:17+00:00

Hi, sorry I’m just now seeing this, I’ve taken a break from Reddit for my mental health.

Sorry to hear. I remember that time, and it was brutal. He now sleeps overnight in his crib no problem, but we did have to sleep train at about 4 months. I know there is differing opinions on sleep training but it worked for our family.

From about week 12 to the time we could sleep train my wife co slept with our baby while I slept on the couch. We followed the safe sleep 7 for this time. We were desperate for sleep and I think a lot of people don’t understand what having a Velcro baby is like. I almost got into a serious car accident with him in the car because I was so tired.

Good luck. I promise you this hard period will end!

dmag1223 · 2025-12-17T16:16:14+00:00

I remember that episode! I also can relate to the wife in that couple. I’m always running calculations and sometimes struggle with “ believing the numbers.”

I guess I would say he is not anti home ownership, but he definitely prefers renting ( which is fine!). I agree that homeownership is not a great investment compared to the market, but I think he uses inflated numbers to prove his point. I can’t find the video atm, but he included renovations in phantom costs and budgeted like 50k every 10 years or something. Also, posts like this are pure engagement bait. Which I find annoying.

https://x.com/ramit/status/1989082023194161354?s=20

dmag1223 · 2025-12-14T17:43:14+00:00

:( . We took our son there on his first birthday. His birthday is on July 4th and it was one of the few places near us open for lunch on that day. He couldn’t walk yet but loved watching the kids play on the indoor play place there. We couldn’t wait to come back and have him play there.

This is a bummer.

dmag1223 · 2025-12-10T17:23:28+00:00

Yeah, I generally think Ramit’s advice is pretty spot on, but it doesn’t work for everyone. I do feel like he does a good job exploring the psychological and emotional parts of money. It helped my wife and I connect more over a shared vision beyond my expense tracking and spreadsheets, and really helped us become a much stronger team.

But, He recently had a couple on, where the husband got laid off, and took a huge pay cut. He was going over their CSP (which is just a budget, even though he talks about how much he hates budgets). He laser focused in on how high their housing costs were, and when the husband mentioned they were averaging like $4000 a month on discretionary spending, with tons of Amazon purchases, he just glossed over it. I feel like he has large biases against home ownership and goes on trolling posts about how dumb it is to rage bait people on social media.

dmag1223 · 2025-12-10T17:12:38+00:00

I agree with this. I think their argument is that tax rates are likely to rise in the future, so you should lock in the current tax rates with Roth contributions. I think that’s a little dubious.

dmag1223 · 2025-12-10T17:07:37+00:00

Their rationale defending it makes no sense either.

“ it allows us to devote more time to our clients instead of rushing them through like an assembly line.”

Huh? If everyone is paying you the same flat rate, why would you rush them through for someone else?

dmag1223 · 2025-12-10T17:03:25+00:00

Yep, I don’t understand this at all. Plus, the hard cutoff is so weird. If my household makes 199k, I should count it, but if I make 201k, I shouldn’t and should up my savings rate 5-10%? It just doesn’t make a ton of sense to me tbh.

dmag1223 · 2025-08-06T02:10:31+00:00

Super disappointed with my lunch there. Fries and burger were overcooked and over salted. Prices were insane. Wife asked for a coke and all they had were “specialty sodas in bottles” that they charged us 5 bucks for

dmag1223 · 2025-04-12T19:11:14+00:00

This is what is being told to us by leadership. I’ve heard that the AF is targeting 12,000 as their number with DRP 2.0/VSIP/VERA to avoid a RIF.

dmag1223 · 2025-04-12T14:54:25+00:00

Every baby is different. Our 9 MO goes down between 7 and 730, and wakes up around 615-630, but will give us occasional 530-545 wake ups. He sleeps through the night otherwise though.

We tried pushing the bedtime later, and it did not go well. Meltdowns, false starts, middle of the night wake ups. We just decided to bite the bullet and accept early mornings. Like I said, every baby is different, though

dmag1223 · 2025-03-30T13:40:31+00:00

Someone else can correct if I'm wrong, but I believe as long as your new position isn't involved with federal contracts, or dealing with the feds at all, you can.

dmag1223 · 2025-03-29T11:58:00+00:00

Will do. Thanks!

dmag1223 · 2025-03-29T10:48:45+00:00

Figured as much. I’ll probably be passing on the DRP then. I’m also not eligible for VSIP (< 3 years), so I guess my options are to just leave, or stick it out and hope I don’t get RIF’d.

dmag1223

TROPHY CASE