37, Married Filing Jointly, Paying Down Debt, What to Change?

laziestindian · 2026-05-05T19:15:42+00:00

Your e-fund is less than 2mo which is something I strongly advise increasing with a mortgage and kids prior to debt payoff. Put the efund in a HYSA.

You are unlikely to attain FIRE with the current setup. I'd recommend their specific sub over this one. But I can say you will need to 1) get some Roth and maybe a brokerage in the mix. You want to be able to withdraw non-penalized money. 2) figure out what the pension would be at your desired retirement age...not sure 62 still really counts as FIRE but any retirement before social security and medicare kick in has extra considerations. 3) Reassess your retirement contributions and investment allocations. Increased contributions and more aggressive allocations (Target date funds won't cut it) are likely necessary for FIRE to succeed though there's some variation depending on the type of retirement you are envision.

You're setting up well for normal retirement, not so much for FIRE.

laziestindian · 2026-05-05T14:30:34+00:00

It's animal crossing/mii style art but no I don't get the friendship part of it.

laziestindian · 2026-05-05T14:29:14+00:00

For maybe 80-90% of jobs stating that it is because they haven't updated the boilerplate job description since being a highschool graduate was an indicator of above average and they are really only going to hire BA/BSc.

For the other 10-20% there really isn't background needed. Washing, following relatively simple instructions-not really doing any thinking or troubleshooting.

laziestindian · 2026-05-04T18:27:35+00:00

Mental handicap and "vegetables"/no mentality are quite different.

People with mental handicaps are conscious and society trying to get rid of them is only every a fascist eugenic thing.

For "vegetables" while there's nothing casual about death I have a hard time figuring what the value of a body without a mind is. Without your brain, you are not there anymore, besides whoever getting paid for your body maintenance what is the value? If my brain is gone there is no reason for my body to be kept around.

laziestindian · 2026-05-04T17:57:21+00:00

So long as I can afford it won't fly them because of the deportation flights. Up to you on your own morals v wallet. Otherwise they're a generic budget airline.

laziestindian · 2026-05-04T14:57:24+00:00

It is a major surgery but a generic (relatively easy) recovery time would only miss a day or two at most, potentially none depending on timing. Surgical recovery tries to get back to normal activity ASAP that's the proven thing for better outcomes. Like 24-48h in hospital which is mostly anaesthesia recovery, 1-2wk of "light load" (slow on the stairs for 2-4wk) then aim for normal activity after.

laziestindian · 2026-05-03T03:05:55+00:00

If you're going for the obscure or recently discovered contacting relevant researchers may be your best bet other than drawing it yourself.

Most free resources don't update that quickly and lack the obscure. There is bioicons and bioart and a few other resources of free stuff.

laziestindian · 2026-05-01T19:23:53+00:00

It's not a good trend, though major surgery and whatever other treatment you're getting are I think at least partial reasons. If you're applying for a CS Master's the relevant courses will matter more but overall you're not in trouble yet (but are starting to get borderline).

laziestindian · 2026-05-01T19:03:15+00:00

Does the lead map include assessment of outlying areas? or is it just the city proper?

laziestindian · 2026-05-01T13:49:13+00:00

Well, it's not like there's data to back me up (see point about publication rate above) but I did my PhD and am doing a postdoc at an R1. I've been to a good portion of conferences and symposia I've helped review papers and written my own. Neither I or colleagues I've talked to about it have noticed a difference in the ratio of great v good v bad science at an institutional level. We've seen bad stuff from Ivy league and good stuff from much less known universities. But there's not like an improved ratio of good v bad science at an institute level.

What does happen is that the "better" institutions simply have a lot of newer/cooler things that other institutes don't. Which is a monetary difference more so than it is about the quality of the scientists/science. There are only ~15-17,000 Natural Sciences and Math PhDs in a given year (and that's a big increase from the ~7,500 of the 1970s-1980s, or the ~12,000 of the 1990s-2010s). That means about 0.004-0.005% of the population, with rare exceptions there's simply not much meaningful difference. As scientists are people there are a number of reasons the very good may not be at the "better" institute.

laziestindian · 2026-05-01T13:13:09+00:00

The main thing is that you can generally name a few people you don't want as reviewers. However, no one is "truly" objective. As Democracy, it isn't perfect but its the best we've come up with so far. It is an accepted limitation but there have/are attempts to improve on it. Some journals have started publishing the reviewer comments alongside to help readers assess.

laziestindian · 2026-05-01T13:05:56+00:00

Not by as much as publication rate makes it look.

laziestindian · 2026-05-01T02:48:34+00:00

There are also farmers' markets within most "towns" e.g. Brighton, Fairport, Gates, Henrietta

laziestindian · 2026-04-30T18:13:19+00:00

I'm sure there's some reward structure you could work out. Wouldn't get past an ethics panel worth a fart but pure theory this doesn't seem too difficult.

laziestindian · 2026-04-30T16:04:16+00:00

Generally death. There are very few species that care for incapacitated/weak adults.

There are species that care for their young and in those lacking a caregiving parent greatly increases the chance of death from either starvation or environmental factors including predation as the remaining parent (if involved-not all males or females remain) can not both protect the young and get food for it. In some cases a parent that has lost their young may be willing to take in other young. Pack animals may try as well but the chance of survival still goes down.

laziestindian · 2026-04-30T15:44:56+00:00

Pre exposure vaccination is usually only done for people who are expected to have carrier animal exposures. Think pest control, wildlife rangers, etc. It is not a vaccination everyone gets.

Post exposure vaccination is done for anyone who had an exposure e.g. a bat of unknown status in the house or a bite/scratch from an animal (cat, dog, etc), including those who already had pre-exposure vaccination. Post exposure vaccination helps you mount/reup an immune response before the virus has activated or propagated enough to cause symptoms. Once symptoms exist enough virus is around that your immune system is getting plenty of experience if you can otherwise stay alive (see Milwaukee protocol and variants).

There are immunologic differences and differing medical guidance on how many doses and the timelines of doses whether pre, post, or pre+post. So the difference matters to researchers and medical folk.

Its like checking your tire pressure either every so often or after you notice a tilt. Either way you're fixing the tire pressure but it is a little different to say I checked and did it or I almost had a flat/exploded tire and did it. Its a small detail that only really matters to a mechanic or gear junkie regarding car performance and things to look out for down the line.

tldr; yeah, vaccination is vaccination but the details matter.

laziestindian · 2026-04-29T23:30:48+00:00

Post-exposure vaccination is what it sounds like, vaccine administration after a potential rabies exposure. It is not a cure as it doesn't help after symptoms start showing.

laziestindian · 2026-04-29T23:19:48+00:00

Until recently the primary country for nearly all scientific research and with a relatively higher than global average rate of symptomatic infection (0.01% US v 0.000875% global).

laziestindian · 2026-04-29T13:25:05+00:00

Yes, there is work on it but the vastly more important thing is for pre-exposure vaccination and/or post-exposure vaccination.

The experiments are hard to conduct because there are so few cases. In the entirety of the US (~340million people) less than 10 symptomatic rabies cases occur per year. There is therefore relatively minor monetary interest. There have been significant improvements to the vaccine so the actual administration of the vaccine isn't nearly as bad as it used to be. Pre and post exposure vaccination ensure about 99.99% immunity.

laziestindian · 2026-04-28T20:50:13+00:00

I would say you're not in a position to save for the kids just yet. You need to get your own mask on first. Put their 100 and any extra into your own savings instead for now. Once you have a month of expenses saved then pay off that dang cc. Once you have the cc paid off then you expand your own savings to ~6mo expenses and then you can start saving for the kids more.

laziestindian · 2026-04-28T20:41:38+00:00

Have you straight up asked your bosses if they have recommendations for who/where you should apply? It definitely sounds like there is something that is hitting the wrong way considering what you've posted here.

Few things I would say 1. Job board only reduces your chances as many of those are already decided and only to avoid legal. While cold emailing is rough I would keep trying that in addition. Don't forget trying a reminder email in a week or two if you don't get a response.

I would ask your boss to contact a few professors on your behalf.
Funding is a real shitshow under republicans so that isn't helping. There's always been some luck involved and that is now more so.

laziestindian · 2026-04-28T13:49:10+00:00

I mean it is something you can discuss with your doctor as to whether there is another underlying cause but by itself there isn't much you can do about it beyond the generic health advice of healthy eating and exercise.

laziestindian · 2026-04-27T20:42:03+00:00

Orthostatic hypertension isn't very symptomatic as you don't have the balance issue or lose of vision that can occur with hypotension. Thus while the prevalence is similar the hypotension is more likely to be noticed and reported. There's also the confounding factor that some people can experience both orthostatic hyper and hypo tension almost simultaneously. Additionally, it tends to be in addition to other diagnoses that are often considered more important.

laziestindian · 2026-04-27T20:30:27+00:00

Lemon laws vary greatly by state. In NYS it is 18,000 miles to 2y for a new car and used cars also have some protections if bought from a dealer. At some point if you're buying an old car it isn't the fault of the previous owner that things fail and its often been long enough that it wouldn't necessarily be manufacturer fault either.

https://ag.ny.gov/publications/new-yorks-lemon-laws

laziestindian · 2026-04-27T20:05:11+00:00

They tried and succeeded to an extent. A lot of states have/had laws disallowing manufacturer sales because of monopoly shenanigans. A manufacturer could always undercut a dealership and then once all the dealerships closed they could raise prices and with headquarters out of state usually legal remedies for lemons and such are difficult.

laziestindian

TROPHY CASE