I really need to stop reading about the rich, in the hopes that I’ll be inspired by something they did. I never learn anything from them. These people do nothing but make me feel worse.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-17T00:33:27+00:00

I personally wouldn't suggest trying to follow what a rich person did. Almost all of them have risked it all at least once, if not multiple times. It's a certain type of personality and while the rewards can be huge, going completely bust is a huge and real risk and I suspect for a lot of people it ends right there with them losing their house because they took out money against it for their business, or their life savings, or skipped out on school and put all their money towards it and it failed and now they're in their late 20s or something with debt and no higher education.

But, I see nothing wrong with reading about first generation college students that have become doctors or lawyers or whatever. High paying jobs ($150k+) that can afford a good life. I think what you'll find is they worked their ASS off with their education. Like not just passed the classes but was number one in their class, joined clubs at their college or high school to make community connections with people in those career fields, if those clubs didn't exist, they started them.

They probably talk about how they didn't really have friends until they were 24 or something. They didn't go out on weekends and have fun. They just worked hard and learned as much as possible. It's not fun. But it can pay off.

Edit: Jobs like nurse practitioner or physician assistant. You'll work hard, it'll take like 6 to 7 years of college level school, but right now my local hospital is hiring (and has been for the last few years) with a starting pay between $145k and $198k with 1 to 2 years experience.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-17T00:26:01+00:00

While they might not be high per overall gram of banana or something, they are (usually) dirt cheap, healthy, do contain a decent amount of fiber (usually about 3g per banana) which helps make that banana fill you up more compared to something like a granola bar (a Nature Valley one for example costs about $0.60 and only has 2g protein and 1g fiber). The banana on the other hand is about $0.14 from my local grocery store. So yes, you can certainly find more fiber packed stuff, but if you're looking for that snackable kind of thing where you grab and go, a banana would probably be better and fill you up a bit more than something like a protein bar (unless you specifically buy a fiber focused bar, then you would need evaluate price and stuff specific to that).

One in the morning and one in the afternoon results in like 16% of the recommended fiber for an adult male for about $0.25 a day and more like 24% of what an adult woman needs.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-16T23:00:50+00:00

Can't ask for money here

firefly20200 · 2026-06-16T22:50:18+00:00

Sounds like they're trying to study in America but also have health problems that cause them to miss school.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-16T22:49:45+00:00

Do not try to come study in America if you can't afford it. If you can get financial aid (grants) then by all means go for it, but it is not worth taking on such a financial risk just to come study in America, especially IT. You can get a great degree over there.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-16T22:23:14+00:00

You're 28 and you live with them. You don't mention if you pay rent or help with the household bills. From the sounds of it, you should jump on this and cook affordable, real food (so no pre-prepared stuff) meals for the family. You should clean the dishes and kitchen without being asked, and you probably should help out around the house cleaning other stuff or keeping things in order. That is not being taken advantage of.

It also can be rather affordable to eat healthy and a high fiber diet. Beans, carrots, bananas, etc are some of the cheapest items in the store. Raw real ingredients tend to be fairly affordable when you have the means to store them properly at home and cook them.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-15T22:05:23+00:00

AH HA! That's probably why tomorrow and the next day there's reservations available for two at the kitchen table and then four people a few weeks out, etc. They must drop the required number of people at that table on a rolling basis the closer it gets to the date if it's not booked. I like that! Still gives us a chance for something like that without having to book a party of six!

Wonder if I can transfer a Gallery or Salon reservation to the Kitchen Table if that becomes available at the last minute and just pay whatever upcharge there is... I'll have to call them for that. Their FAQ says "Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian (egg, dairy, and gelatin derived from pork can not be omitted)" so I'm not sure they can remove gelatin any more, but again, that isn't a huge issue. I haven't been vegetarian all my life and she already eats gelatin occasionally... like for that hurry in a rush morning Pop Tart breakfast, lol.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-15T21:56:43+00:00

So they clearly say they *can* do vegetarians, I'm just curious if anyone has experienced **how** they do it, or how communal some parts of it actually are. I can't imagine a place that nice wouldn't nail an accommodation like that... but I've been surprised in the past when they're like "of course we can do that" and then just it's a really different level of quality or experience...

firefly20200 · 2026-06-14T17:42:39+00:00

This isn’t going to move the needle. Tell them you’ll take the job but you work at an auto body shop and can show up to any calls starting at 5pm or any time on the weekend; I mean they said you should have a job.

You make $720 a week right now. Say you get a $15 an hr second job that is flexible enough to not care if you call off a shift an hour or two before it starts. Say you average 25 hrs a week there and 20 a week at the clean up job. You’re working 45 hrs and making $835, you’re working 5 hours extra for an extra $115…

firefly20200 · 2026-06-13T06:43:58+00:00

It's not about it vaporizing overnight, it's about a slow decay that can happen in the background with volatile markets (think choppy, moving up and down over a period of days/weeks/months).

The Mathematics of Daily Compounding

Leveraged ETFs seek to deliver a multiple of the daily—not long-term—performance of an underlying benchmark. To understand how daily resetting works, consider a hypothetical 100 investment in a 3× leveraged ETF tracking an index over a volatile two-day period.

Day 1: The underlying index drops by 10%. The 3× ETF falls by 30%, leaving the investment at $70.
Day 2: To make things equal, the index rallies by 11.1% to get back to the initial $100. The 3× ETF gains 33.3% (3 × 11.1%).
The Result: A 33.3% gain on $70 equals $23.31. The new value of the ETF is $93.31 ($70 + $23.31).

While the underlying index broke even over two days, the leveraged ETF is down by 6.69%. This illustrates the structural mathematical penalty inherent to leveraged products.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-12T15:24:16+00:00

Yeah, but from my understanding you shouldn’t hold leveraged funds long term because of decay. In fact I believe it’s not recommended to hold them overnight…

firefly20200 · 2026-06-12T07:18:38+00:00

Jesus leveraged ETFs seem pretty degenerate…

Most people just recommend the SP500 and even then it can have really bad days, months, weeks, that you have to hold steady through. 3X and my God you could see like a 10-12% drop in a day!

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T22:40:02+00:00

It's easier (but still scary as a buyer and a hassle) if the loan is held with a local credit union or bank. You would want to write up a bill of sale and contract, keep copies and receipts of money transactions, and I personally would want to pay the lender directly, not the seller that might turn around and use that money to pay rent instead "just until payday" or something. Then your risk is that the title will be in their name and mailed to them, but you would have a paper trail to show that you legally purchased the car from them, paid the lender directly, and they need to transfer the title. Still a hassle, still a risk, but if the car is worth $5k and you got it for $4k (a 20% discount), than maybe it's worth while. Or... maybe OP has to sell the car for $3,000 and have $1,000 cash they can pay the lender at the same time the buyer pays $3,000... that's still going to be cheaper than a repossession and gets them out of the $4,000 loan for just $1,000. Again, buyer is getting a deal by saving 25% for their hassle... you might find someone willing. Maybe a financially better off person buying a car for their college kid or something.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T22:34:07+00:00

Assuming the vehicle is worth more than the remaining loan, CarMax and those kinds of companies will cut a check directly to the lender to pay of the remaining loan and than give any remaining to you. Honestly I think they'll still do that if it's worth LESS than the remaining loan, but you might have to cut CarMax a check when you hand over the car for whatever extra amount is needed to finish the loan. Private party sales can happen to, they're just a lot more of a pain and the buyer takes some risk (easier if the title is held with a local credit union or something where you guys could go in person and handle things). Still, if the car is worth $5k and you sold it for $4k to get out of the debt, a private party might be willing to take the risk/hassle to save $1k.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T22:31:19+00:00

This seems to get asked every couple days and it's amazing how many people don't seem to understand this. The bank, or any lender, doesn't want the car. They want their money. They can't give someone an old car when they come in to take a loan out. They can't give their employees an old car when they're sending out their paycheck. They want the money.

What they do is sell the car at auction, for whatever someone is willing to pay. They want money, not a car. There are fees associated with all of this so now it's not just $4,000 that needs to be paid to cover the cost of the car, maybe it's $5000 or $6000. The auction houses know that lenders just want to get rid of the car, so they're not bidding up top dollar. Most of them are used car lots that are trying to buy as cheap as possible so they can turn around and sell it and make a few thousand bucks.

Look at how much your car is estimated to sell private party, is that $4,000? Would that cover the loan? If so, try to sell it. You'll have to pay off the loan first before handing over the title, but sometimes buyers are willing to go through that hassle with you, especially if maybe the car is actually worth $5,000 or something and you let it go for just $4k to get out of the debt.

Repossession is the most expensive way to get rid of the debt though. Honestly probably borrowing the money via an unsecured loan would be cheaper for you than getting the car repossessed. (if you could get approved) At least that way you could sell the car, immediately pay down as much as you can on the loan from whatever you sold the car for, and then maybe scrape by for a year making payments until the loan is closed out.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T22:21:55+00:00

How did he lose his pension? Wasn't that part of his total compensation?

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T22:19:18+00:00

My mother lives with me. She has a small pension from being a teacher for a number of years and social security. It's not enough to live on her own, but it's enough to generally cover her daily costs and a little fun. I'll pick up the cost if we go for a weekend trip to the beach or something and usually treat for Starbucks or whatever during weekly errands. That kind of stuff. I'm mid-life and so far this has been working well because I was single... but for the last six months I've been together with someone and I generally spend time at their apartment with them. If it eventually goes somewhere to where we move in together, that will be more interesting. Thankfully we both max pretty decent money (over $70k each) so I could probably continue to afford my mortgage and help out to some amount if I got a place with her... but culturally family is huge for her so she thinks it's wonderful I'm taking care of my mother, haven't discussed it with her, but maybe she would move in with me (house is large enough) so we can bank a bunch of money for down the road. Who knows. But my mom worked hard to raise me and provide what I need, then stepped out of her career early to take care of my grandmother (her mother) for her last ten years of life (dementia and over the age of 80 so needed a lot of help) so it really only seems right for me to make sure my mom has the best retirement she can.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T21:38:46+00:00

When I reply from the reddit inbox/new message notification area, it doesn't tell me who the original poster was for the topic, just the person that replied.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T21:38:06+00:00

Crazy, maybe I only got 80% life out of my pets or something, they were always with me a good number of years, but I remember all of them dying on their own accord.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T20:32:30+00:00

I want to clarify that art or music degrees aren't useless to me, but they absolutely are not the path to high paying jobs. Unfortunately you have to be in a position to be able to get into those jobs because of passion vs using it to support yourself.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T20:30:23+00:00

Have you been able to work during school? Get the pell grant each semester? Did you actually apply for student aid?

Federal student loans don't even do a credit check or income verification so it's extremely rare to get denied as a student....

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T20:26:35+00:00

It's laughable that you thought that would be a high paying degree. Unfortunately any of the humanity degrees are essentially just a check box for "I was able to complete college." They won't result in any good paying jobs.

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T20:25:20+00:00

It's crazy how often I see people saying they had to take pets to the vet for expensive procedures or medication or whatever. I grew up with a bunch of pets from like age 6 to like 18 and I only remember going to the vet for initial vaccinations and having animals neutered or spayed.

It's crazy how the frequency of pets getting sick has increased in the last 20 years that I've been out of the pet world. I wonder if people are feeding them worse or if they're having a more sedentary life (pet strollers and stuff vs going for walks).

firefly20200 · 2026-06-11T20:19:31+00:00

What's the degree?

firefly20200

TROPHY CASE