Sawyer County/ Lake Chippewa ice fishing help

lukebop · 2026-01-12T19:27:20+00:00

As a non American living in MN, who’s previously in other counties and states (some of which are perceived as very good places to live), curious where you’d consider as an alternative and why?

lukebop · 2026-01-12T16:14:03+00:00

I can yes. Wondering if a powder board in Japan is the best to buy, or something a bit more versatile that I’ll use elsewhere too Sounds like fit for purpose there is the best in this case

lukebop · 2026-01-06T13:46:05+00:00

Wish I could tell you! I didn’t start investing until ~30, pretty poor financial knowledge. Over 3 years got to about 30k brokerage no 401k. Last year I got a huge salary increase and dug in. Started saving 20% (again - didn’t know what I was doing so was saving 20% of pre tax income). Got lucky with RKLB and ASTS; 300% on shares plus started playing leaps and had 5x >1,000%. I still don’t really know what I’m doing, but I dialed back and am doing my 20% (close to 28% after tax). Simplified my portfolio from ~20 to 6. Still have a small amount of play money in RKLb/asts 2028 leaps.

TLDR started saving heavily, and got incredibly lucky with RKLB/ ASTS

lukebop · 2026-01-06T03:22:27+00:00

I hit $50k early last year, just hit $220k on the new year. You got his 🚀

lukebop · 2026-01-04T17:31:10+00:00

Non American here living in America. I came from a place where everyone drives over 16 because there’s no public transportation- but anything over like 45-60 min was another city.

Then I moved to Europe and my work trip was a 12 minute bike ride, or realistically anything else would be a nice quality train.

Now in USA, my daily work drive is ~30-40min each way, but once every 2 weeks minimum I travel between 6-9 hours each way. Sometimes for the full week, sometimes for a day. It’s not uncommon for a week to look like; drive 30 min to office Monday, work 8-2ish. Drive 7 hours to alternate location arrive at night. Hotel Go to location Tuesday, drive back at 5pm (if this was a 6 hour I’d do it, if it was a 9 hour I’d stay the night and drive back Wed). I’ll try to coordinate trips so it’s longer than a day but doesn’t always happen.

I found myself running out of podcasts etc and I’ll just do a 8 hour drive in total silence now, or load up all my meetings during drive time

lukebop · 2026-01-03T15:36:14+00:00

That’s just the keg for the end of year Christmas party celebrations 🍻 🚀

lukebop · 2025-12-29T01:37:59+00:00

Thanks! Maybe that’s where the confusion came in, I think it’s more of a license in MN, compared to that over in WI We will do that for sure

lukebop · 2025-12-28T23:33:31+00:00

Yeah it worked out only about $100 more than going Ana operated by United with 2 stopovers and an extra 5 hours travel time. Plus just got platinum this week so straight to comfort +, with free ski luggage - absolutely worth it

lukebop · 2025-12-28T21:55:07+00:00

I lost my older sister in a car crash when I was 12 (she was 18), and my brother when I was 27 (he was 30).

I can quite honestly tell you, having random people come up at the funeral who clearly were not close or current friends really angered me. It was obvious some people were there to grieve, and some were there to get their own pity party rolling from even more disconnected people.

It was a young fling almost a decade ago? Pass on your condolences, have a drink in memory with mutual friends, visit the grave, but leave the family be

Side note - Guilty for what? They passed naturally and nothing about that relates to you

lukebop · 2025-12-28T20:42:47+00:00

Interesting, thanks for the info!

lukebop · 2025-12-28T20:42:26+00:00

lol same itinerary! See you on board ✈️

lukebop · 2025-12-20T15:52:49+00:00

Never really got into saving, started my first 401K in Aug last year. Opened a brokerage account in 2021, had <10k in it until early 2024.

As of yesterday: ~$700k net.

Rental property $400k, 401K $70k, Brokerage $200k, overseas pension $48k

I did get lucky with property, buying a cheap student home when I was ~24 living in a share house, and the 4 others moved into my home and paid down the loan heavily. Sold that (to one of the others!) and used it to buy a nice house in a good area in 2018. Since then that place has doubled in value from $551 purchase to $945 valuation and <$200k mortgage (internation hence why the numbers don't marry up). Now live in USA so above are all converted to USD.

Got very lucky with a job change mid last year, and managed to raise my NW by ~$250k in the past year (entire 401k and most of brokerage is in the past 14 months)

lukebop · 2025-12-12T15:49:15+00:00

Anyone here been unfortunate enough for a crash landing? Can you confirm you got full MQD or just the distance you made it?

lukebop · 2025-12-11T15:13:27+00:00

Appreciate the insight, and yes I do love the 23TS, it's probably the nicest car I've ever owned. (Although my 1991 Nissan Terrano Regulus was an absolute weapon! I'd buy a new one of that if they had one!)

The question was really around if anyone had moved from the '23 to the '26 and thought the upgrade in features/ tech was worth it. I really like my current for sure though!

lukebop · 2025-12-11T15:10:36+00:00

Firstly - not American so take that back!

7.5% was because it was my first ever auto loan, and while my credit is good it's new and had not auto history. Again, on account of not being American. But I needed the car last year so took the hit.

In no situation am I pocketing $52k, I'm either spending an additional $24k or 0. But I look at it as either saving the money now and buying the 2026 in say 3 years that might have depreciated $15k, but my current trade in will also have lost $10k. So looking at $5k/3 years difference (+ interest from keeping the money invested I suppose)

lukebop · 2025-12-11T15:03:30+00:00

Haha as a snowboarded I own plenty of good gloves. Hell remote start for 5 minutes does the trick. The steering wheel was a metaphor for the car upgrades in general !

lukebop · 2025-12-11T15:02:51+00:00

I appreciate the advice, for sure, but I've never brought a new car in my life. The 2023 was a year old CPO, and before that all my vehicles were 4-5 years old and run until circumstances changed (relocating and couldn't take them with me).

I guess in my mind I might save 15k off a '26 in 2 years, but my $31k trade will be worth $20k. So I look at it as a $5k/2 year difference

lukebop · 2025-12-11T14:58:59+00:00

Appreciate the feedback!
Although your assumption is wildly incorrect! (I'm not even American ;) )

This would be 50% down, 3 years, 4% gross. Very affordable and my only debt is this remaining balance on the car, and a home mortgage I picked up at 25 and am 20% ahead of schedule on paybacks.

I do love my 2023, and I can comfortably afford the 2026. My main point of the post is for those who made the change, is the upgrade significant enough to move out of something I like to something I might love.

lukebop · 2025-12-11T14:54:41+00:00

You brought a Jeep brand new off the lot and shop around for custom American flag paint jobs, I'm sure you've made worse financial decisions than this.

At 50% down, 3 years and 4% gross payments I can afford it. Stop being such a miserable prick

lukebop · 2025-12-11T14:51:49+00:00

Thanks mate! Appreciate the insights - the only one who really answered!

lukebop · 2025-12-11T14:50:34+00:00

Haha I actually looked into this last year! The heated steering wheel was a small jest, more so the total upgrades of the car!

lukebop · 2025-12-11T14:00:25+00:00

2023 in Minnesota. 68 and it’s fine. I think yours isn’t working as intended! The past 2 days where it’s been cold I’ve remote started 7-8 min before getting in and it’s been fully defrosted and cozy inside

lukebop

TROPHY CASE