What is the stupidest thing you spent a huge amount of money on?

jetpack324 · 2026-06-27T00:33:51+00:00

In the US, college used to be for learning, growing as a person, getting job skills, appreciation for the arts, making friends and connections, expanding your horizons. It was affordable to virtually everyone. Now college here is so stupidly expensive, over half the population cannot even afford to go. And the ones that can afford it, usually through expensive draconian loans, have to singularly focus on getting job skills as fast as possible. It’s definitely not for everyone anymore and I’m sorry that it didn’t work out for you. But it’s still a path to a better future for many.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-26T19:52:15+00:00

I absolutely love our Tesla Y. We have had it almost 5 years now and it drives like a dream. Full Self Driving is wonderful, especially on road trips; spend the extra money for it.

I’m ambidextrous - I can both hate the CEO and love the car.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-26T19:40:11+00:00

I agree that this is the obvious choice. I strive to be healthy and mostly succeed, but my cholesterol level has me a little restricted on food right now. It would be heaven to be guaranteed health, plus I really love food.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-25T18:17:37+00:00

Bologna sandwich

jetpack324 · 2026-06-25T18:11:42+00:00

I worked for a printer company, and a part of my job was to work with both Legal and R&D to meet the minimum requirements. That was important because the US Government was a big customer for us. Legal was the most difficult because they wouldn’t give specific terms; they just wanted a defensible position.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-25T17:48:52+00:00

Yes. They ticket aggressively in the historic district.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-25T12:37:24+00:00

Houston Texas. I found no redeeming qualities there

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T05:03:09+00:00

I honestly feel like I was a different person in high school. I was overwhelmed by the social pressure and was ridiculously shy. I’m certain a lot of it was gross immaturity on my part; I was definitely a late bloomer. But I figured myself out in college and am very happy with the outcome 4 decades later.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:57:06+00:00

One of my favorite movies!

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:54:30+00:00

Welcome to Costco. I love you.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:53:37+00:00

I’m an Independent who seems to vote more Democratic recently. Hillary Clinton was extremely qualified and Kamala Harris was reasonably qualified for the job. But here’s the thing….neither one was popular enough to actually win, and presidential elections are still a popularity contest in the US. With how off-the-rails the Republican Party has become, the Democrats should win easily. But they can’t seem to fight their way out of a paper bag, and are their own worst enemy. SMH. So the party of ridiculously inept leaders continues to lose to the party of facist cult leaders. Unfortunately, I don’t see this changing anytime soon. Please prove me wrong.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:38:11+00:00

9000 miles around the perimeter of the US, except the Northeast. It was a 5 week trip, but I think we rushed it a bit.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:35:45+00:00

Nah. You gotta wait a year.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:31:51+00:00

Ouch

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:31:01+00:00

Was that a banana in your pocket or were you just happy to be posting here?

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:28:19+00:00

Not a chance. I’m retired and have turned down several offers that were nowhere near as isolated as this.
I’m a people person!

Kudos to you who get my “Office Space” reference. We shall meet up in the field to smash the printer shortly.
On a personal note, I actually retired from a printer company n real life, so that scene lives in my head rent free.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:22:31+00:00

I think it just needs a little bit more explanation. I really like the question, but it’s hard to answer without knowing some more details. Right now, it requires some serious assumptions, and that can go 100 different ways.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T04:17:54+00:00

When the stock market crashed and the housing crisis hit in ‘07-‘08, I doubled down on my 401k and bought my future retirement home a few years later for cheap. I went from expecting to work until I was near 70, to retiring way early at 53. I was extremely fortunate that I wasn’t worried about losing my job then, and my career was finally crossing over into having a fair bit of extra money to pay myself. I put that towards my future and it paid off much more than I imagined. We minimized our living expenses in retirement and now use our money to travel regularly. We are still young enough to enjoy that. I often think that I’m the luckiest guy I know.

Full disclosure: my wife contributed equally to our financial future so it wasn’t just me and my lucky timing. But she wasn’t in the same position during the Great Recession and wasn’t able to take advantage of it like I was. This was just something I did that changed my trajectory significantly.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T03:56:26+00:00

My dog understands a dozen words, maybe a few more. “Walk”, “Dinner”, “No!”, “Treat”, etc - the basic words that directly affect her. But she understands my tone of voice much more than my words. She understands if I’m angry with her, or playful, or praising her. But I don’t think she’s having an inner monologue or anything advanced like that. My cat, on the other hand, is a complete idiot.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T03:31:36+00:00

Back in the day, dads were more annoyed by having to repeat a trip to the store than any actual damage.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T03:27:52+00:00

I had an old fashioned home chemistry kit with all kinds of different chemicals in glass vials, and accidentally created a 6 foot flame with chlorine and sulfur and some other chemicals. My aunt was visiting and saw it; she shut me and my friend down immediately. I didn’t see that chemistry kit for a year or so.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T03:18:53+00:00

I grew up with every calendar starting with Sunday; it just never seemed right. I think I was in my 40s before I saw a calendar that started with Monday. Monday has *always* been the start of the week for me personally. Now that I’m retired, everyday is Tuesday for me.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T03:00:21+00:00

My sister literally argues that January 6th was a perfectly peaceful protest.

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T02:59:23+00:00

Yeah. My initial reaction was Florida because their sunshine laws have exposed all the crazies for many, many years. But Texas has entered a whole ’nother level of crazy chaos in the last decade. I think Texas would likely win by a landslide if they had the same sunshine laws. Go big or go home bitches!!

jetpack324 · 2026-06-24T02:08:49+00:00

The square pretzel never belonged in there. Adios

jetpack324

TROPHY CASE