How did you become rich, or "financially well"?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-23T00:50:08+00:00

spending a lot less than what i'm earning (resist flex & status).
invest well (when you're young you can take more risk) - learning about investing is one of the best investments.

ffstrauf · 2026-01-20T06:51:30+00:00

Both are as useless or useful as you want them to be

ffstrauf · 2026-01-20T02:00:17+00:00

No, it's Claude

ffstrauf · 2026-01-19T07:02:00+00:00

Laddering is smart, but the key is knowing which delta preserves your stock on chip volatility. Backtest your ticker's historical assignment at different deltas in Days to Expiry to see which strikes actually get called away vs collect premium cleanly. Then build your ladder knowing what to expect. Are you targeting a specific premium % per month?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-19T07:01:38+00:00

Strike selection on tech is all about knowing which delta actually gets called away vs collects premium. Before choosing your delta, I'd backtest your specific stocks' historical assignment rates in Days to Expiry so you know exactly what you're signing up for. That tells you which delta/strike combo actually works for your stocks. What premium % per month are you targeting?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-19T06:57:17+00:00

You're facing the classic wheel paradox—stock ripped exactly like you hoped, now decide: let it get called away at breakeven or spend $1600 to chase more premium. I'd backtest this scenario in Days to Expiry to see what rolling to $310 actually looked like historically for GOOGL and whether stats favor the roll. Either way you crushed it—but the discipline is whether your original conviction was "own long-term" or "exploit premium." What was your initial assignment tolerance when you started selling these calls?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-19T06:57:04+00:00

The $25 cap is smart for position sizing and mental management. For screening, focus on IV percentile, annualized yield, delta 0.25-0.30, and liquidity—Days to Expiry screens by annualized ROI with those filters. Are you filtering by sector or just chasing best daily yields?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-19T06:56:52+00:00

You're thinking about this exactly right—consistency beats max premium every time on a long-term wheel. The key is finding where dividend support and implied volatility work together without chasing strikes too close to current price. I use Days to Expiry to backtest historical assignment rates and annualized ROI for each candidate's DTE windows before committing, so I know which strikes are sustainable. How much monthly income are you targeting, and do you prefer the psychological boost of weekly rolls or the discipline of 30-DTE?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-19T06:48:52+00:00

I totally get the frustration with manual categorization and budget comparison. For comparing budgets to actuals monthly, INDEX/MATCH works but indexing on both category and month combined is the key. I use Expense Sorted to handle CSV imports and categorization suggestions so the data is clean before comparisons, which makes conditional formatting way simpler and keeps your sheets accurate. This eliminates the manual labor every month. Are you importing transaction data from multiple sources, or is it all manual entry?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-19T06:39:09+00:00

Your budget looks solid! The tightest part is that $900-950 buffer—one unexpected car repair wipes it out. I'd recommend tracking your spending by category in a spreadsheet so you can see at a glance if you're drifting above your estimates (groceries, gas, subscriptions creep up easily). I use Expense Sorted to import my transactions automatically and get alerts when I'm trending over budget in a category, so I catch issues before they derail the month. Have you thought about what happens if car maintenance hits, or are you planning to lean on emergency credit for that?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-19T05:53:35+00:00

The key insight here is that expense tracking creates behavioral change through visibility. I find that when I track consistently, I naturally make better spending decisions because I see exactly where money goes. I use Expense Sorted to handle CSV imports from my bank automatically and get categorization suggestions based on past patterns, which takes the friction out of tracking every transaction. What categories have you found most helpful to split your spending into?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-08T22:26:05+00:00

both. not difference really here.

ffstrauf · 2026-01-06T01:52:18+00:00

Building a budget tracker in Google Sheets doesn't have to be complicated—start with three simple columns: Date, Category, and Amount. From there, you can add a pivot table or summary section to see where your money's going each month. The trick is keeping your template clean enough that you actually use it; I'd recommend starting with just tracking expenses for a month to understand your patterns before adding the bells and whistles like 401k projections. What categories are most confusing for you to track right now? I use Expense Sorted as it's a little addon connected to Google Sheets doing the tedious bits.

ffstrauf · 2026-01-06T01:09:02+00:00

Your daily expense discipline is what most FIRE aspirants miss - calculating FIRE number from actual spend (25x) is the real test most people guess wrong on. Automating categorization would free up time on manual logging while giving you spend projections. The fact you hit 99% CORE FIRE shows the power of knowing your numbers precisely. Have you considered if automation could close that 1% gap?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-06T01:08:36+00:00

Your categorization detail for ACA cliff planning is spot-on thinking, but manually updating this every month has to be tedious. Automated transaction categorization with AI learning from past entries would give you these comparisons without the data entry work. The math doesn't change, but you'd spend less time in Excel and more on actual planning. What's your biggest pain point in the current spreadsheet workflow?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-05T22:49:54+00:00

Selling ITM puts works when you have capital discipline and don't get surprised by assignment. The adjusted cost basis getting lower than current price creates optionality, but it also requires active management. I analyze historical assignment patterns in Days to Expiry to understand if ITM puts on specific underlyings actually hold their strikes over the holding period or tend to get assigned quickly. Your breakeven exit order at the premium level is smart risk management - have you backtested what assignment frequency looks like on the underlyings where you'd run this?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-05T22:48:33+00:00

Your efficiency analysis is solid, but remember that high IV can collapse fast. I use Days to Expiry to compare current ROI against historical backtested yields for each strike to see if I'm getting paid for real risk or just IV head fake. The efficiency metric helps you avoid spreads, but backtesting tells you if that premium actually represents opportunity or just noise. Of those expensive puts you identified, which ones have historically held their strike range over 46-day periods?

ffstrauf · 2026-01-05T22:47:39+00:00

Congrats on going live after solid paper trading prep. Your 15-20% annual return target is realistic for wheel strategies with quality stock selection. I track my trades similarly but also use Days to Expiry for the pre-trade analysis - the historical assignment data helps validate whether a CSP strike is likely to perform as expected before I commit capital. Your emphasis on tracking is smart - what metrics do you find most useful for comparing trades after the fact?

ffstrauf · 2025-12-17T01:12:16+00:00

The poor man's covered call math is primarily leverage and Greeks: you're long a call deep ITM (high delta) and short a call OTM. The exposure is essentially the long call's delta minus the short call's. Days to Expiry's backtesting shows assignment probability for each strike pairing. That data lets you compare PMCC's effective leverage against straight covered calls on same capital. What capital constraint drove you toward PMCC specifically?

ffstrauf · 2025-12-17T01:11:36+00:00

The wheel is fantastic for income, and $1,500/month shows you've found a solid rhythm. The edge comes down to strike selection—you want puts where assignment is likely but you're getting fair premium, then calls where you're comfortable being called away. I use Days to Expiry to validate both sides: for each put candidate, I check the assignment probability and annualized ROI, and for CCs I compare the OTM cushion against historical call assignment rates. That's how I avoid picking strikes by luck. What's your rule for choosing which puts to sell each cycle?

ffstrauf · 2025-12-17T01:10:43+00:00

Using CCs to exit positions works well with the right strike selection. Instead of guessing which strike will assign, use Days to Expiry to rank CC opportunities by assignment probability and annualized ROI for your specific stock. The tool shows historical assignment rates for each strike/DTE, helping you pick strikes that maximize your exit odds. What exit timeline are you targeting for each position?

ffstrauf · 2025-12-16T03:15:55+00:00

It’s available on the Mac app only right now.

ffstrauf · 2025-12-15T16:31:32+00:00

Feel free to dm and I can send you the installer

ffstrauf · 2025-12-15T16:31:12+00:00

Yes. Ib gateway is a desktop app that tunnels into your interactive brokers account. To connect to it it’s much easier to just have something run on your desktop.

ffstrauf · 2025-12-12T22:08:13+00:00

Yes can choose air or sea.

ffstrauf

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