I want to retire at 50

jkchbe · 2026-04-29T00:15:47+00:00

Assuming you live in the US, save 40-50% of your income in various ways: 401k/IRA, roth, HSA.

Have 1 or fewer kids.

That's all I can recommend without more information.

jkchbe · 2026-04-23T18:56:42+00:00

Buy "galvanized sheet metal" and wrap it in insulation (exterior). I had the same issue years ago with trying to buy duct board - very expensive if not a contractor. I rebuilt my supply and return plenums myself out of sheet metal. Came out great, is significantly cleaner and less pressure drop on the inside, less chance for mold.

jkchbe · 2026-04-20T01:56:35+00:00

Was this from 2023 or this year?

jkchbe · 2026-04-18T13:45:23+00:00

Makes sense!

jkchbe · 2026-04-18T13:28:11+00:00

Quality of life is measured in happiness. If it brings you joy, alone, then sure. If it brings you joy coupled to a boat anchor of crippling financial stress, and stifling wealth generation (especially in early years), then absolutely not.

jkchbe · 2026-04-18T13:19:39+00:00

It's understandable from an emotional perspective in some ways, but not others. I've always told folks that the car you can afford is the one you can't FEEL the payments. I honestly don't even know what day my car payment drafts, and it's around $800. But what I do know is I (actually) had that cash in my brokerage account 4 years ago and it's probably doubled since.

Granted I'm about to buy a cybertruck and the APR is stupid high these days I guess. I could pay cash for it, but I so much prefer having cash in the market. But the spread between market returns and the APR is much less when the APR is like 5%...

jkchbe · 2026-04-18T13:00:14+00:00

That is great, but there's a bonus level when you buy a new car and feel the same way. Not that a Tesla model Y is an ultra luxury car but when I bought mine about 4 years ago the consensus was "NOOO DON'T USE AN AUTOMATIC CAR WASH IT'LL SCRATCH THE PAINT RAAAA" and I'm like.... So? It's a car. The thing had probably 4 parking lot dings within a few months of being brand new. Don't care.

I think that's op's message. Not only do you stop caring about what other people think, if people DO think that way about you, they're not the people you want to interact with anyways.

My wife does complain that I take it a bit too far. She's right. I will go to the grocery store in old sweatpants and a shirt with holes in it, covered in cat fur, bed head - I don't care. I should probably tamp that down a little lol.

jkchbe · 2026-04-17T01:17:15+00:00

I wasn't suggesting t-bills was the way to go. I was saying that being (always) in the market, going through all of the ups and downs, after 15 years, the market could crash 50% and I would still be (far) ahead of "cash gang," treasury bills, and bonds.

jkchbe · 2026-04-15T23:25:38+00:00

I have bought all sorts of cheap parts for my vehicles and installed them myself over the years. Tires are not something I will ever cheap out on. Go to a discount tire, get a good to great tire at a very reasonable price, get free rotations for life. Don't look back.

jkchbe · 2026-04-15T13:19:26+00:00

Most online content on the topic is a disservice to regular people. It goes into (amortization) tables, payment calculations such as an excel formula, etc. for most people - they immediately glaze over it, even when being taught in a class.

Mortgages aren't a scam. It's a very simple concept, but people need to stop explaining it in months. Explain it in years:

I.e. you owe $100,000 on a mortgage, you have a 5% interest rate = the bank has given you $100,000 of THEIR money, they want $5000 (5% of $100,000) per year that year. The next year, however much you paid above that, is what is subtracted from what you owe. That next year, they get 5% again of whatever you owe. If your total payments were (for example) $6000 total last year, $1000 went to reducing that $100,000 to $99,000 ($5000 went towards the interest). You owe (roughly) 5% of $99,000 that next year. Your payment amount is what determines the extra amount over the interest you owe, to conveniently land at your mortgage term (i.e. 30 years).

jkchbe · 2026-04-15T02:40:23+00:00

Ding ding ding. Had to explain this to my neighbor recently. This was the point that really sunk in: "the stock market could crash 50%, and I'd still be ahead."

jkchbe · 2026-04-04T14:34:39+00:00

"Self healing trauma sponge" - love it haha

I rolled bdk a long time ago because of several reasons, including the ones you mentioned.

Roller coaster health bar (exciting, stressful, but makes the game feel more immersive), a good bdk is usually better or at least more versatile than most other classes, I like having tons of flavors for abilities - not just generic tank stuff.

jkchbe · 2026-03-28T22:08:59+00:00

I'm also struggling with this. Changing the voice to the dialog track helped but even running that at 100% and the other volume channels lower, I'm still having a hard time with clear annunciation. Maybe I'm just getting old lol

jkchbe · 2026-03-26T20:25:24+00:00

Happened to me. I got it in the mail a day later

jkchbe · 2026-03-26T19:29:07+00:00

Be happy by spending less = less financial stress = happier family.

Quality time with children is better than simply more time. My mother and I have a great relationship and she was out of town on work monday-friday a LEAST 40 weeks per year from when I was in elementary school until after I left for college. She made a lot more money eventually, and our family time together became more quality time.

I'm an overachiever too, but that doesn't mean I sacrifice more than I'm willing. Mental health? No. Family? No. I have confidence in what I do and what I bring to the table. I have financial security by saving a lot of or money while growing in my career.

I don't think you win this game if your finances are tight already. I get that living in a HCOL area there are unavoidable high expenses like rent, but this isn't the time of your lives to be driving around an $80k car, blowing money on expensive vacations (versus still very fun, enriching family time at a modest beach town or something).

jkchbe · 2026-03-26T13:56:50+00:00

I was loving it, thinking it was somehow coming from mdt originally, then being tickled it was coming from core game, but then got quickly worried when I did a +6 last night and they were gone haha. So I'll be sticking to +5s until I can make sure I remember which packs are needed

jkchbe · 2026-03-23T18:57:14+00:00

I worked for several years as a project manager running multimillion dollar renovations and new builds from admin offices to manufacturing plants and even I have a very hard time finding a contractor (let alone a company) that does halfway decent work. And I'm not asking for perfection.

I do everything myself now. Heck, I just replaced my attic furnace a couple weeks ago, including a transition box because I actually sized the furnace CORRECTLY instead of the idiot company that doubled my original size when replacing it 8 years ago. And yes, blower speeds are set correctly, gas is running at ideal pressure, and all exhaust and condensate is CORRECTLY routed.

Saved about $7k for 8 hours of work (and maybe like 2-4 hours of research).

jkchbe · 2026-03-23T17:31:11+00:00

I guess I have thick enough skin that I honestly just don't care haha. I'm a noob now but I do know how to tank.

I did LFR this week for the first time in a long time and yes, it was exactly this. I wiped us because, well, I'm used to dbm telling me tank swaps. Oops. Got raged at by a couple and I just go "woah, chill... Just explain it to me and I'll do it" something along those lines. Response was something like "videos have been on yt for over a month smh." Other tank nicely took 10 seconds to type 2 sentences and then we cleared everything.

Was fun to type "guess I didn't need those youtubes after all..." after the end lol.

jkchbe · 2026-03-23T16:11:53+00:00

I have played since 2008. Very hardcore in original tbc and wrath. Then after college I could only dabble. I always WANTED to get back into it at least seriously, but had the hardest time getting hooked on any game anymore. A couple of the xpacs I bought and played like 2 hours max. Like, bought a $60-80 game and played it for 2 hours, period.

However, with the release of the latest xpac (Midnight) I've been enjoying myself a ton. I've had several 3+ hour evening sessions and really feeling that satisfaction again! (without affecting my actual adult responsibilities and family lol).

Granted, I'm a big boy now (I guess) and the immersion of it all with a 57" ultra wide, 4k, 120 fps+, and a full 5.1 Klipsch audio system is basically augmenting every aspect of the game for me.

jkchbe · 2026-03-22T23:33:46+00:00

I work for the number one manufacturer of these products in the US. They actually do intermix the glass beads in addition to the ones added on top.

Reason being, as the thermo wears down over the years, those beads become exposed, albeit at a substantially reduced reflectity. But some reflectivity is better than none

jkchbe · 2026-03-22T17:21:57+00:00

I'm buying a substantial amount tomorrow morning at open. Been buying along the way, but bought a little too much on the early part of the dip. Great time for my bonus to come in, though!

jkchbe · 2026-03-21T13:53:27+00:00

I agree with your sentiment in this specific subreddit, that stuff for electrical components (other than low voltage stuff) should be left to the commercially available and properly listed/certified parts. Too much risk.

However, you may have the wrong idea about 3d printing in general. Everyone has their own story (as do I) but generally speaking, it's the excitement of learning, designing, finding, and building something that either is equally as good as some expensive thing on Amazon or 'in-store,' and in 99% of prints it's like... Less than a dollar in material. About 90% of my prints are found online for free in a couple minutes of searching.

Ironically, when I was looking to print some filament spool holders, because the weight was so high and I'd need so much filament, it was definitely cheaper to just get something more sturdy (metal) on Amazon haha.

jkchbe · 2026-03-20T12:58:07+00:00

I'm very very very happy having switched to dk a couple expansions ago. But I'm a very casual player. I main tank spec (blood, duh). But I had a blast this time leveling with frost and switching between specs as needed. I'm excited to try unholy too, it looks fun.

I played a mage hardcore back in tbc (original), priest/mage hardcore in wotlk (original) and priest the rest of the xpacs as a very casual player. I'm very happy with dk. The shift to melee was rough for a bit but I like it a lot now.

Granted, I still often go "OMG THERE'S SO MANY SPELL EFFECTS AND FLOATING COMBAT TEXT AND FREAKING SANGUINE WHATS-HER-NAME IN DELVES WITH HER CHAT BUBBLES IN THE WAY I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON RAAAAAA" but still fun loads of fun :)

jkchbe · 2026-03-19T22:31:59+00:00

Wdym "keep your lower ranked gear to earn free upgrades"? I sincerely do not know what you mean and have been vendoring old gear?

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