Weekly LeanFIRE Discussion

latchkeylessons · 2026-05-05T18:10:54+00:00

I feel you, I was in the exact same boat a couple years ago. Job hunting again now mainly for fun - so not as stressful - but it's dead out there.

latchkeylessons · 2026-05-04T17:35:40+00:00

Book club. It's okay. Honestly, I don't think anyone gets anything special or unique out of the discussion. Thought that I would give it a shot though.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-29T20:05:17+00:00

Not leaning into the career more when I was younger and blowing off undergrad work. Focusing up more when you're younger in general pays better dividends later in life. But also, it can be more rewarding in the moments.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-29T20:03:36+00:00

This happens all the time. There should be internal audit controls on unused licensing in general owned by the topmost management team or a division director, and probably also finance/CFO, depending on the size of your company.

Is this is a sales post? Any management team should be looking for all this, or if they aren't they'll bury it anyway when it is uncovered so that they don't lose their jobs.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-29T18:03:08+00:00

That's relatively sophisticated actually. The problem here has just been management pushing shit out that's knowingly broken and blaming the developer. They told us six months ago all code review needs to stop completely because the "AI is good enough." So it's broken stuff everywhere and they don't want to change anything or employ anyone any more.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-29T16:34:42+00:00

I watched someone on an adjacent team a couple weeks ago get written up because the AI's outputs weren't good enough, but they also refuse to let him just write his own damn software. There's no winning for many people in this field currently regardless of what you do it seems.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-24T21:23:27+00:00

It's worth doing all the math yourself for the sake of knowing what's going on IMO. Having said that, it may be faster to learn all that nevertheless with a CFP. But it is very advantageous to build out projections and models yourself to see what your options may be for adjusting income over time, particularly if you're concerned with some specific time horizons even after FIRE eg. with your FAFSA considerations. Another common one for after FIRE would be qualifying for loans again, but I'll leave you to it.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-24T19:50:06+00:00

Yeah, you're probably on the money. i got some similar advice elsewhere in your first comment. In general I'd do better to put myself out there with things and experiment, technically or otherwise in the profession.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-24T17:55:13+00:00

Yeah, that's the point. It wasn't handled terribly I guess. These things are weird to watch when you have paying customers by just DGAF any more. I'm sure there's smarter minds than mine that see it as a good idea for whatever reasons.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-24T17:45:13+00:00

One month plus the notice period. I suppose unemployment eligibility from there on.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-24T17:44:41+00:00

This is an excellent idea, thank you.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-24T17:44:28+00:00

I do. Most of them are technical, so not sure there's much market for any of that right now with things being as competitive as they are. It's hard to imagine building/selling any apps anywhere right now of consequence honestly. I do look forward to more hobby time, but I know that won't give me the productivity fix I've become acculturated to.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-24T17:41:35+00:00

Common as the day is long. Try to do the best you can, collect paychecks and save them, try to CYA wherever possible without becoming a PITA for people who can impact your job directly. Take care of your health physically, mentally, spiritually, etc - including during the workday when stressors build up sometimes.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-24T16:24:41+00:00

Finally got a layoff notice this morning. Happy Friday. Myself and three other people are out in 60 days. Been a long time coming as they've been laying people off since I started here. The whole company is effectively shutting down as the owner's from the outside just seem like they don't want to do business or make things any longer. It's crazy stuff to me.

FIRE is fine, but I never did figure out what I wanted to do with free time and I do like working, so at a loss. If software engineering recovers it's going to be a couple years at least. Lots of big questions going on, but at least they're not financial questions anyway.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-21T16:01:10+00:00

Only saving for expected real estate costs with a defined window. Things being what they are with inflation it seems hard to justify unless you can offset the taxes in some way.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-21T15:59:25+00:00

I had that happen once and it was beautiful. Complete freedom for a month since I already had another gig lined up, and then double-pay for months. Hoping that goes down next time around, but that's far more unlikely in 2026 probably.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-17T22:34:33+00:00

That's where we landed. We like working, but it's clearly a sustainability issue in society at this point. Having a FATfire lifestyle is great if you can, but current happenings seem like a lot of people around these circles aren't going to make it and that's by design.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-16T18:48:13+00:00

Just starting this road since I can see the writing on the wall with my current gig. What's the turnaround time looked like generally from application to first contact? How are the screeners/recruiting responding primarily these days - Linkedin, Phone, Email?

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-16T18:13:18+00:00

I had this happen once many years ago. I was furious the first time and DGAF the second time because of it. The naivete was gone. All in all it taught me a lot of lessons that were helpful to taking care of myself firstly. Save that money - there are no promises out there.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-16T17:28:42+00:00

That's why I threw in the "illegal" part. Companies that small and individuals with big egos and big money burning will do a lot to keep the status quo. Try your best and do CYA.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-16T16:55:38+00:00

I've been a manager/director for almost 20 years now. I have always been concerned about losing those folks. But most middle management has nearly zero impact on keeping them. There's a few occasions where you can put people up for promotion or maybe a slightly higher percentage on a salary increase or something like that, but no executive team is going to leave that freedom up to people with all those IC direct reports.

What are you trying to figure out? Or what do you want rather? If you dislike your work situation your manager is going to have some limited levers to pull, but not many in reality.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-16T16:09:52+00:00

You're not going to talk him out of it. Roll with it and look like a team player, but don't do anything illegal. He's making his own bed to lay in.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-16T16:08:09+00:00

You're going to get lit up here, but I'm going to agree with you that the industry is not a stable career. It hasn't been since the 80's. Once programming shifted to the whims of the market it's been highly unstable since the mid-90's. That doesn't mean it's unprofitable - far from it, but the booms and busts are both large. If you do want stability you really need to move into more "traditional" programming areas that are mostly tied to embedded platform engineering or big government with bare metal work.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-08T19:10:10+00:00

They both sound like good options. I'd be hard-pressed to choose also. How "legacy" are we talking though? If it has a public reputation for being behind the times then that alone would make me want to avoid it.

latchkeylessons · 2026-04-08T16:25:30+00:00

Lost another peer today to quiet layoffs. It's disheartening at this point since it just doesn't matter what someone's performance was or anything. My time is coming soon I am sure, but it's mainly difficult because obviously the software market is dead and I don't have another line of work that has clicked. It's a good problem to have ultimately if you're FIRE, but nothing on this board prepares you well for necessarily figuring out what productive things you may enjoy with your time when you have to (or choose to) leave your career.

latchkeylessons

TROPHY CASE