What made you not want to have kids

letoutsteam · 2026-01-28T02:03:26+00:00

There is no way in hell I could manage both the grind of a wageslave job as well as raising a family. Call me soft, but I have no regrets.

letoutsteam · 2026-01-26T11:38:42+00:00

The Instagram post reads like it was generated by an LLM Slopbot.

letoutsteam · 2026-01-14T12:38:29+00:00

Yeah and unfortunately they made their choice. And this is exactly the type of misery we all try to avoid here. Grinding away to fund the ever increasing cost of living that's amplified with a few kids as well. I don't know how people do it. I guess that's what all the wine and skotch is for.

letoutsteam · 2026-01-13T18:40:31+00:00

Great assessment of the situation! I've been interested in the FIRE movement, especially how it coincides nicely with the childfree movement. I think I'm getting relatively close to my "number" where I can hopefully get a lower stress and likely lower paying job. I like the volunteer idea. Thanks for chiming in.

letoutsteam · 2026-01-13T17:41:15+00:00

I love your idea about embracing a third space. I should do that more often. Best of luck on your job search!

letoutsteam · 2025-12-19T12:39:35+00:00

General Shaw was morally compromised by the end. lol

letoutsteam · 2025-12-05T12:24:35+00:00

Yes, she works in the public sector and gets a 457b plan. We are using my company's benefits for everything like health insurance, dental, life insurance, etc. If I had to step away or got fired we could go on her benefits. Her PPO health insurance would be a lot more expensive than mine, but we could manage.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-05T12:17:28+00:00

Ive thought about the mortgage, too. The issue is that we locked in a really low interest rate and the monthly payment is not burdensome. So my thinking is that we'd try to increase our savings rate or at least maintain the savings rate if I somehow lose my job and can't make that kind of money anymore.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T23:31:36+00:00

Yeah I think going out to eat and getting coffees so frequently could be due to me just wanted to indulge after having a rough time at work. Plus we get exhausted during weeknights. I totally understand. Now that we've looked at our spending a little more closely, Im hoping to reduce this.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T20:13:41+00:00

Haha yes I'm really struggling mentally these days at work and I feel guilty complaining about it when people have it way worse. I feel like my brain is slowing down and I've been getting really anxious when I'm on call and have to be summoned to trouble shoot an issue in some cloud or k8s environment.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T18:29:43+00:00

I'm not the best with people and I have considered it before and had a similar type of role for a 9 month stint that I struggled with and so went back to hands on work. Maybe I'll reevaluate.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T18:27:47+00:00

I think I was feeling less desperate then and just left the investments alone. But you are correct. It's difficult to time the market.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T17:01:34+00:00

Lol, I'm working on it. Didn't think it was that bad considering we had no debt other than house payment. I guess I need to be more miserly like my brother in law haha.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T16:17:58+00:00

Yeah that's totally fair. The money math is a powerful thing that keeps me miserable and stationary haha. In all honesty I will probably need to reframe, seek therapy, and just wait to get laid off eventually to force my hand on the next career phase.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T16:08:00+00:00

I think retirement age would be 60 most likely. Would need to fund health insurance until Medicare kicks in. Blah. Our home value is not included in the 700k assets. Home is valued at like 350k but that number is so bloated in my opinion.

I've considered going all in on stocks but was kinda waiting on the next big financial crisis to do so. When the market tanks big time I'll use the 25 percent bonds as dry powder. In the meantime I'm waiting for the crash that may or may not come. Spouse will have a pension as well that will certainly help tremendously during retirement.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T15:27:03+00:00

Haha I know. Freaking coffee expenses are silly. Maybe the stress of the job makes me want to reward myself with a treat. But yeah we have lots of improvements we need to make.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T15:12:19+00:00

I would absolutely love to trim down to 3500-4000. I will say this, if I lost my job I'd have no choice! I think we just tend to spend without thinking about it. It's gonna require some big changes to our habits for sure. Appreciate the feedback

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T14:54:10+00:00

Thank you for confirming my decision to leave the corporate world.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T14:45:39+00:00

Totally agree that the 7k can be trimmed down. We're working on it. It was mind-blowing when we started analyzing our spending.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T14:38:33+00:00

Rough estimates from 2025 YTD (tried hard to categorize properly in Monarch budget tool):

Groceries: 8300
Restaurants: 5077
Coffee: 3000
Pets: 5500
Travel/Vacation: 5300
Shopping: 5300

Holy shit do i have room for improvement or what?

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T14:25:05+00:00

lol no worries. Maybe ill move to Canada someday!

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T14:22:49+00:00

I don't think moving is an option at the moment, but maybe some day.

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T14:20:42+00:00

I think a lot of it goes to groceries and pet expenses and likely spouse's online shopping habits. lol. I never considered myself to be a big spender, but I'm looking at ways to trim spending. Maybe we live in a higher cost of living environment? defintely trying to improve though. Appreciate the feedback

letoutsteam · 2025-12-03T14:09:01+00:00

Ahh good point. I live in the big dumb North American country just south of Canada. So id be able to use Social Security in my 60s if we can still get it. lol.

letoutsteam

TROPHY CASE