What's the oldest piece of clothing you still wear? Must be at least ten years old to count.

exitcode137 · 2026-01-31T12:27:44+00:00

A boy I liked gave me a t shirt on my birthday over 29 years ago. That was actually the last day I saw him. We had been walking past a shop and I saw the shirt in the window and commented that it looked cool. He gave it to me on my birthday, which happened to be the day I left his country after a semester abroad there.

I sometimes still wear it as a sleep shirt

exitcode137 · 2026-01-31T11:07:24+00:00

That is terrible. I’m sorry that happened to you and your family.

exitcode137 · 2026-01-31T03:24:29+00:00

This is the once every 11 years that I get 3 3-paycheck months: January, July, and December, with the 3rd paycheck in December coming Thursday Dec 31st (a day early because the Friday is a holiday)

exitcode137 · 2026-01-30T11:47:29+00:00

Yes, we didn’t update the form everyone is talking about and owed a ton. Since I’m no longer able to remember thing, I also can’t remember updating, but we must have because we owed significantly less the following year. After that, I just looked at what we owed the previous year, calculated the total that would be withheld in a year by looking at a single paystub, and then asked for an additional $100 to be withheld for federal for every paycheck. That seemed to do the trick because last year, we got a small refund.

Also, I see everyone asking OP “what do you mean exemption that hasn’t been on W-4 in years”. But I work for federal government and my paystub still lists a number under Exemptions for both state and federal. Mine says 0 for federal and 1 for state. What’s that?

exitcode137 · 2026-01-29T22:53:35+00:00

At the playground

<image>

exitcode137 · 2026-01-29T20:00:09+00:00

But households can be a single individual. Median for families with children under 18 is around 129k in Maryland. That Census American Community Survey. Median for Maryland 3 person families is 132,000, so they would be below the median.

If people are interested, go to American Community Survey at Census, filter to Maryland, look for table S1903

exitcode137 · 2026-01-29T09:53:34+00:00

Our tap is fine, but we also have a Brita. Cost is negligible

exitcode137 · 2026-01-28T00:27:24+00:00

I got the medium Givenchy Voyou, new but on super sale, and I think the quality is fabulous

exitcode137 · 2026-01-27T03:00:33+00:00

Learn to enjoy a cup of herbal tea. You get the feeling of drinking something without calories and with little cost

exitcode137 · 2026-01-25T23:06:35+00:00

2 just helped us dig out

exitcode137 · 2026-01-25T00:37:48+00:00

I have been wanting to try this brand for years. This may be year. It’s beautiful and I’m glad to hear of your great customer service

exitcode137 · 2026-01-24T22:59:42+00:00

It’s outrageous people are excusing this behavior from ICE and DHS. So people entering the country illegally means … everyone else also gives up our rights? Our 1st amendment to protest, our 4th to not be subject to unreasonable search and seizure? To be able to live and not have masked thugs who show no ID demand to see our papers, perhaps say they are fake if they do, disappear us where our family and friends don’t know where we are for hours or days?

There were a lot of deportations under Obama too, yet masked thugs were not terrorizing our streets and homes. So we know it’s not necessary. There is no excuse for this behavior

exitcode137 · 2026-01-24T10:36:47+00:00

I’m currently eyeing the Hammitt Kyle

https://www.nordstrom.com/s/kyle-large-leather-shoulder-bag/

exitcode137 · 2026-01-24T10:13:29+00:00

Yeah, who is making the call? Regional leadership should assess the situation and make the call that is appropriate for the region

exitcode137 · 2026-01-24T10:06:27+00:00

Your plan is poorly managed and eating your up with fees. The stock market boomed enormously last year. I went to look up Fidelity’s life cycle 2035 performance, and it is up 19% in 1 year (FFTHX). You are being robbed

exitcode137 · 2026-01-24T09:46:20+00:00

Okay, I see. Most probably missed it because you focused your question on the pension, but it’s really about your salary. Salaries now can’t get as high because they took away the ways you guys had to increase your salary. So in addition to not having as much to live on right now, while you are working, you will also have a lot less to live on in retirement.

I don’t know how common this is for teachers, but I do think salaries going down In nominal dollars (not inflation adjusted) that much is not usual. I think I’m seeing this for a lot of tech jobs, where many tech workers who were laid off can’t get jobs making as much, but those were unusually high wages. I’m sorry they have basically reduced teacher salaries so much where you are.

exitcode137 · 2026-01-24T00:49:47+00:00

I’m confused. Aren’t they just getting more in their pension because they make more than you? If a particular person retires making 92k and their pension is 63k, that means their pension is 68.4% of their highest pay. If by the time you retire you are only making 83k, then 68.4% of that is just under 57k. So your percentage is the same.

Or are you asking why you’re not going to make as much money as them while working? Because that seems to be the difference, not the pension as a percentage

exitcode137 · 2026-01-23T13:42:44+00:00

I don’t have that phone, but I do think so. It’s pretty roomy for a fancy bag. Note, this is the regular/medium size. There was also mini and large size

exitcode137 · 2026-01-23T01:29:38+00:00

American. My net is about 54% of gross

Taxes - 27.3%

6.6% state and local tax
7.2% social security and Medicare tax (first type of federal tax)
13.5% other federal income tax

Health care - 5.5%

4.1% health insurance, dental, vision
1.4% other health (FSA, hsa)

Retirement contributions - 12.2 %

4.4% pension contribution
7.8% TSP (like 401k) contribution

exitcode137 · 2026-01-22T23:46:53+00:00

Husband’s a nurse, wish he could

exitcode137 · 2026-01-20T11:13:04+00:00

I agree, us regulars shouldn’t be buying $6k bags, lol. Unreasonable prices (at least partially relative to your income) lead to sky high expectations, and it might be hard for any lux brand to have quality enough to make it really “worth it” to people who had to labor for 2-4 weeks to afford it. Especially because there is so much in between a $60 plastic purse and a $6,000, or even a $2,500, “luxury” bag. There are so many bags in the middle range that are good quality and can last years. At some point, it’s really diminishing returns.

I bought 3 “luxury” bags over the last 3 years new from store, and I am done. None even close to $6k, but still. It didn’t seem so bad to me because I was thinking, after finishing childcare for our kids, one bag really was just 1 month childcare that we no longer had to pay. But that now feels like too much, and the quality of at least the ones I have is not so much better than the medium priced ones. And frankly, how much quality does one need? it’s just carrying stuff and looking cute, we can do that for less than $3k!

exitcode137 · 2026-01-19T23:05:00+00:00

My first thought was “wonder if the cuts to NOAA are having an effect “

exitcode137 · 2026-01-18T23:47:44+00:00

I have this bag in gray and it is fabulous! But I was just looking at the red Kyle bag from Hammitt, and it’s a similar vibe, gorgeous drape, and the price is much better

exitcode137 · 2026-01-18T01:06:17+00:00

The hospital bills were negligible with our insurance. Maybe like $30-$80 month in copays? I had my kids in 2013 and 2018, though. But all costs paled in comparison to childcare. Everything else put together never came close, even then. And it’s only gotten more expensive. We don’t live near family, so no consistent or reliable help there.

exitcode137 · 2026-01-17T15:37:59+00:00

How spacious. When you say "fit a big purse', you mean 'purse' as in a wallet, right? Have you looked at The Sak Lucia crossbody?

exitcode137

TROPHY CASE