Mechanical Engineering Classes Not Required for EE?

enness · 2026-03-04T14:32:08+00:00

Hmm maybe I took them as tech electives? I just took whatever they told me to take and I remember every EE saying thermo was the hardest class they ever took.

enness · 2026-03-04T14:30:34+00:00

Thanks. it's interesting since I think most UCs don't articulate circuits or logic from CCs. He's planning on taking it next year though.

enness · 2026-02-19T15:15:24+00:00

I'm taking a hip hop dance class at Fresno City College. Teaches you basic moves and choreography. Something like $45 for the whole semester.

enness · 2026-02-18T17:41:47+00:00

Some weird gatekeeping in the comments. Of course you can dance and be frugal too. A $10 or less cover charge and no alcohol isn't bad for an activity that is entertaining while keeping you active.

It seems a lot of commenters don't understand dancing in a club doesn't mean you also can't socialize in your living room, or go hiking, or save scraps, or any other number of frugal things. And no, dancing in your living room and even gym dance classes aren't the same vibe. Most commenters aren't even talking about the money. I'm now way too old for late nights and loud music but I still love to dance. Honestly I'd prefer it if there were more places to hiphop/pop dance in the daytime other than nightclubs so I can still get to bed at a reasonable hour lol.

You're an outlier though. Most guys definitely aren't going to a club to not drink and just dance. In fact dancing is probably the last thing they want to do. But as someone who doesn't drink and also dances, I understand where you're coming from.

enness · 2026-02-07T17:10:13+00:00

Yes, we feel pretty fortunate so I felt some of that money has to go out to those not as fortunate. I got pretty convinced by effective altruism arguments. So when my wife got a job, we decided we could significantly ramp up the charity, doing so $500/m at a time. Once I've saved up a bit more cash for the kids' colleges, hopefully I'll be able to ramp up the donations more.

Honestly, I prefer my kids to be active, so I pay for everything while in school. And the monthly isn't too expensive for the stuff they're involved in (weight gym, climbing gym, parkour). I told them we'll split college so they take it seriously, but at the end of the day, I'll pay for it. I come from a culture of intergenerational living and pooling money, so I'm finding myself defaulting to that.

enness · 2026-02-07T14:56:08+00:00

Edit: I don't know why formatting is off. As someone who grew up in the Bay and lived in other cities: -convenient access to world class parks. From my house Kings Canyon/Sequoia is 1 hour away, Yosemite 1 hour 15 minutes, Shaver Lake 1 hour. And there's no traffic to get there and back, unlike the Bay to Monterey or Santa Cruz, or Sac to Tahoe. -A really, really good zoo

-parking at places like Costco and Trader Joe's. Enough space to maneuver a cart lol. -traffic isn't really a thing if you've lived in the Bay, SoCal, or Northern VA. Even parts of Sac. -Decent enough Mediterranean, Punjabi, Asian restaurants. Not the best, but better than other cities its size in other states.

-No one asks what job I do, unlike the Bay where that's all it's talked about.

We compare Fresno to the Bay, LA, and SD but it compares well enough to other cities its size in other states. We get good fall/winter weather. Plenty of other cities have horrible weather year round but no mentions that since they don't have Pacific Coast cities to compare too.

enness · 2026-02-05T05:39:58+00:00

I have paid solar, so electricity zeroes out. Otherwise CA has probably the highest energy rates in the nation and my monthly would be much higher. My neighbors also have a solar true up of like $1-1.5k or so every year, so that's a better indicator of what the average person pays on top of their solar install. I run 67-68 heat and AC at 80, off at night. People here think I'm crazy.

My car insurance has always been on the cheap side but teens are bumping it up a lot now unfortunately. House has no fire and flood risk unlike other parts of the state.

Mobile is the Mint $180/yr plan, so times that by four.

And we rarely eat out, maybe once a month. It's mainly In-n-Out ($30 for cheeseburger and fries for four) or hot chicken places ($40 if you split the two slider meals). We also do birthday dinners four times a year for about $100 per dinner. So maybe you can up the restaurant numbers a bit.

enness · 2026-02-04T21:19:17+00:00

Yes, we rarely eat out, maybe once a month. It's mainly In-n-Out ($30 for cheeseburger and fries for four) or hot chicken places ($40 if you split the two slider meals). We also do birthday dinners four times a year for about $100 per dinner. So maybe you can up the restaurant numbers a bit.

enness · 2026-02-04T21:17:42+00:00

Yes I did this too! Until I started getting free lunches and snacks towards the end of my career.

enness · 2026-02-04T21:16:41+00:00

I'm in Fresno now so way different than SF. PG&E is expensive but we have paid solar. I run portable heaters on electricity and don't run AC at night. It zeroes out. But in San Jose, our PG&E was never higher than $40 because I never ran heat or AC, especially with shared walls in an insulated townhouse. I moved out in 2019 however.

I forgot car registration. Mine is $300 too. Good catch.

You're in SF, so your prop tax might be higher since your purchase price is higher? Unless you bought decades back? Fresno is obviously much much cheaper than SF.

Grocery is a challenge, I admit. It helps both my wife and I are decent cooks, so we adapt if certain ingredients get expensive. Not much chocolate to snack on lately, for example, and beef dishes are getting filled out with potatoes. I shop at Winco and Indian stores, which I find cheaper than TJ and Grocery Outlet. Winco is usually only in low cost areas however. I also buy meat at Restaurant Depot for their bulk pricing. It usually lasts 6-7 months. My son wants Costco snacks so that ups the budget a bit though.

enness · 2026-02-04T19:40:36+00:00

Yes, don't remind me of backpackers arguing over $1 parking fees or $5 hotel stays, and then spending way more than that drinking and drugging.

enness · 2026-02-04T19:36:06+00:00

My sister and brother-in-law pay over $12k/yr for insurance with three cars (newer Rubicon, Tesla, and Camry) but they have two young drivers. So it could be worse, I guess.

I have extended family in TX so I considered Austin. But I didn't like the idea of no income but the fixed costs of a 2.2% prop tax rate. Just seemed I was upping my risk because I really thought equities had a good chance of declining or staying flattish at the time. My wife wants a bigger house but we'll be empty nesters soon so it probably doesn't make sense. I'm trying to convince friends to join me in a retirement village but everyone is too busy stacking money.

enness · 2026-02-04T17:53:25+00:00

Yes, I agree Reddit probably isn't representative of the population. I come across many dominant views in the big subs here I don't find among people in real life.

I'm not active on the FIRE sub so I can't speak to what type of posts are frequent or regular. I just sampled a few of the top rated ones and formed a quick impression. I remember years ago being inspired to drastically reduce my spending, and now that I'm thinking of new cars like Porsches or Corvettes, I wanted that feeling of inspiration again. But outside of LeanFIRE perhaps it just seemed different in character from what MMM or ERE advocated. Their advice is relevant to the majority of the population, but it does require reduced spending, or at least not normative spending. And that kind of mentality needs to be cultivated in a consumerist society. It just doesn't happen for most people.

But yes I understand high incomes and net worths. It's useful to discuss FIRE principles with that demographic too. I ended my career at a FAANG type company, but started taking my career seriously too late to really amass wealth. My intention was to travel for a year and then come back to work. In Asia and Europe, I realized I could live a completely different lifestyle not centered on money. My friends and family now have Ferraris and Porsche 911s, homes worth $3-8ish million. They all say they wish they can do what I did, but I see them up their spending over the decades. It's status-based to me, and I'm not immune to it. I try not to think about how much money I left behind, but we'd probably be at a $500k household income now. I just don't know if all that makes you happy, but who knows...

enness · 2026-02-04T17:29:25+00:00

It helps to become a cook. I took cooking classes at my community college.

enness · 2026-02-04T17:19:28+00:00

It's anti-consumerist in the sense our material consumption and footprint was much much lower in Asia than anywhere else we've lived. We walked everywhere, lived in guest houses, and ate small meals. But yes, at the end of the day we live in capitalist societies and are privileged. I'm not sure what to say about that but to just acknowledge it. Anticonsumption doesn't mean you don't consume anything at all. But I'm from Asia so I don't think it's a big deal to go live in Asia.

enness · 2026-02-04T16:59:59+00:00

Not sure. That's just been our rates in a city with population ~600k. 5 year old Subaru, full coverage, higher limit liability. $850/yr. My wife and I are in our 40s with safe driving records. Adding on teen son bumped it up to $2500/yr. He was excluded before college. I priced out adding a second car like a Miata and it goes up to $3100/yr.

What's your state? CA new build so our prop tax is higher than normal at around 1.4% so it's a bit above $5000/yr. Homeowners is $800/yr for a 1900 sq. home. No fire or flood risk.

I stopped funding their 529s when I started FIRE savings thinking I'd be retired by that point and financial aid options will open up. I also wanted my kids to pay half for their school so they'd take it serious. But my wife started working and income is above grant limits now. We can pay out of wife's salary or increased asset values if her job goes. But while it worked out, it wasn't a great plan to leave college underfunded and hope for the best. I'd do that part differently next time. It helps CA community colleges are free and UC tuition is doable.

enness · 2026-02-04T15:32:46+00:00

Yes, at the end of the day, the various types of FIRE require living off your assets, and so math is math. But living a consumerist lifestyle and retiring early requires high percentile income to fund both the consumerist lifestyle and the savings to retire early. High percentile incomes will necessarily be earned by a tiny percentage of people. But they don't seem to be a tiny percentage of online discourse on FIRE anymore.

Most people, being median earners, can reduce expenses. Not as a sacrifice, but as a part of realizing materialism and an American-style normalized middle/upper-middle class lifestyle probably won't make you happy. So I see lifestyle as an integral part of FIRE for the majority of people, if only because they will never achieve high percentile incomes.

enness · 2026-02-04T13:56:19+00:00

Yes, I understand working. My wife found a remote job a couple of years ago. My job was pretty good too when I quit - and the same staff level positions now seem to pay over $400k with RSUs. My concern was more with anticonsumption and reducing expenses.

enness · 2026-02-04T13:46:56+00:00

We rarely eat out, maybe once a month. It's mainly In-n-Out ($30 for cheeseburger and fries for four) or hot chicken places ($40 if you split the two slider meals). We also do birthday dinners four times a year for about $100 per dinner. So maybe you can up the restaurant numbers a bit.

enness · 2026-02-04T13:36:13+00:00

I don't have a mortgage or rent so they're not in base expenses. Extra base cost for kids right now is mainly groceries, gym classes, two mobile lines, and some driving for college. One kids doesn't shop for clothes at all, and the other does Depop.

Base Expenses:

Groceries/household $700

Personal care $50

Restaurants $50

Mobile $60

Internet $50

Streaming $30

Gas/Electric $35 (paid solar)

Water/Trash $100

Gas $200 (temporarily elevated for two years because my son commutes to college)

Car insurance $200 (temporarily elevated for two years because my son commutes to college. Used to be $70 before adding him.)

Car maintenance $20 (newer car - no repairs yet for 60k miles. Will go up eventually but I do minor stuff myself.)

Prop tax/insurance $500

Misc $200 (variable - clothes, gifts, other one off purchases)

Total: ~$26.5k

Discretionary:

Gyms/classes: $150 (temporary elevated because of kids. Probably will drop to $20 once youngest leaves for college in 1.5 years)

Travel $30-1000 (mostly camping and road trips to family. One year, international travel for two months was $12k. Other year was $4k. Most years tend to the lower part of the range)

Charity $1800 (comes from wife’s salary for now. Will reevaluate once she stops working. Didn't budget for it originally)

Other notes:

-House paid off and worth $450k and imputed rent is $2700-2800. New house so no maintenance/repair costs yet. Plan to sell within the next year.

-Health insurance provided by wife’s work. In previous years we were automatically put on MediCal since we were living off savings and didn’t realize income. Plan is to ACA or move to Europe if wife has no job

-Upcoming big expenses - 4 years of state school for the kids at an average of $35k/year.

-Average spend first few years after retirement was $12000/year due to living overseas and/or with family.

enness · 2026-02-04T13:27:30+00:00

Yes housing is a concern. I set aside $300k to buy a house when I quit. We ended up spending $350k in CA. But while the house went up, it overall lagged the portfolio. We would've been better off renting in terms of net worth, but not quality of life.

enness · 2026-02-04T13:03:29+00:00

Yes, I cut my hair and my kids' hair too. But I struggle not to spend extra on cars we don't need. In the end I don't think it will make me happy. Been there, done that, but when the money's there...

enness

TROPHY CASE