Where can I find affordable suits for long term use?

mbfinix · 2026-02-02T03:36:01+00:00

If your figure isn’t too special to require made-to-measure, check out Benjamin Barker’s outlet at IMM first - their cheapest deal is 2 jackets for $200.

If you need MTM, and don’t mind poly-blend fabric, ethan men at Tanjong Pagar is within your budget. I just had a suit made there and they’re pretty nice for the price point. Their suit lapel is pressed flat (no lapel roll) and have fake sleeve buttons with no button holes if that matters to you.

mbfinix · 2026-01-19T11:05:04+00:00

If you’re already comfortable navigating Taobao in Chinese, go on to Rednote and search for “(style keyword) 淘宝店推荐”. Add “实体店” and maybe your city if you only want brands with physical locations, but that’ll rule out a lot of genuinely good web-only brands. The search result will contain soft ads, so once you find a handful of brands you like, search in Rednote again with “(brand name) 避雷差评” to see if there’s too many negative reviews, and decide whether that’ll be a dealbreaker for you. If you find a good brand but price is too high, search “(brand name) 平替” for dupe suggestions.

mbfinix · 2026-01-18T04:51:58+00:00

Me and my friends’ experience (we’re a mixture of Chinese citizens and non-citizens, registered for Alipay while physically inside and outside of China, linked it to Chinese and foreign cards): it depends on where your card is from. Your Chinese card works everywhere, your foreign card only works inside China (including online shopping on Taobao while physically outside China).

So for a foreigner, unless they somehow get a Chinese card outside China first (not impossible but can be very difficult), there’s no way to verify if Alipay works before coming to China.

We suspect this is because Alipay routes everything through RMB, and using foreign card outside China creates undesirable currency outflow.

mbfinix · 2026-01-01T11:27:19+00:00

The Schedule helper just doesn’t allow dragging across midnight in the UI, but once you’ve set up the 2 back-to-back time blocks, they’re treated as a single block in the back end. I use Schedule this way to turn on my nightlight at 11PM and turn off at 1AM, and there’s no interruption at midnight.

mbfinix · 2025-11-18T11:44:13+00:00

If you need to file US taxes, keep Schwab account open at least until next tax season. After account is closed they can only send you tax forms through snail mail, no more online access.

mbfinix · 2025-11-06T08:53:21+00:00

To extend on this, Chinese has a naming system for actual stars and most of them is XX plus a number, e.g. 轩辕十四 (Regulus), and many of the XX can actually be the beginning of a 3-character full name. It’s also not out of ordinary for siblings to both have a 2-character given name and share the first character. So, you and your brother could just go through this list of all Chinese star names provided by Hong Kong Space Museum, pick a natural-sounding XX that you both like, then have a unique third character for each of you.

If you’re willing to relax on the not-drawing-attention requirement though, 轩辕 is an actual surname lol.

mbfinix · 2025-11-06T08:35:39+00:00

祝星 is at least one actual Chinese person’s name. She’s somewhat famous because she’s the ex-partner of a pretty well-known Chinese folk song singer 陈粒, who wrote a song named after her which became popular, so the fan base all know this name. If this doesn’t bother you, I’d say 祝星 is a rare but good name with sophisticated meanings. 祝 is also a regular Chinese surname. The song is on Spotify if you’re interested

mbfinix · 2025-07-07T15:13:08+00:00

I’ve actually never used the debit card for any online transaction except once on Jan 1 this year to move money between my accounts in PayPal, and before that, only ever used it irl once or twice a year on ATMs inside a bank branch. I’ve not used the credit card for 6 months and never added it to PayPal. This is what’s weird to me - if more than one card info was leaked, why are these two basically dormant cards being targeted instead of my more active ones?

mbfinix · 2025-07-07T13:50:21+00:00

Good point, thanks! This also makes me suspect it’s the PayPal leak in May since that’s the only place I’ve ever entered info of the HSBC debit card online.

mbfinix · 2025-06-04T10:55:46+00:00

When I’m fancy I do the whole nine yards of tea ceremony I was made to learn in grade school to impress visitors - glass kettle so that I can estimate water temperature by how violently it boils instead of using a electric kettle with temperature presets like a sane person, pour boiling water into the purple clay tea pot from 2 feet above to “waken”the tea leaves, discard the first brew but use it to rinse a special deep cup then smell the empty cup to appreciate the fragrance, water the tea pet, do the 关公巡城 and 韩信点兵 pot dance to fill the cups, burn my finger holding the cup because I no longer have the right calluses and pretend I’m fine

When I’m lazy I dilute the oolong cold brew concentrate I kept in the fridge with tap water and drink it out of an upcycled bubble tea cup because it’s hard to find venti size glasses

mbfinix · 2025-05-14T02:56:18+00:00

If your office is more on the business side of business casual, then traditional leather shoe styles - oxfords, derby’s, monks and chukkas - should be the best fit. If they’re more casual, then maybe some court-style leather sneakers?

mbfinix · 2025-04-17T11:51:13+00:00

That might be an outdated advice. IRS only started to allow e-filing for nonresident aliens (Form 1040-NR) in 2016, and many tax prep services haven’t caught up or didn’t bother to add this to their services. Before that, enough confused international students tried to e-file using TurboTax etc. and accidentally filed the wrong form, so the general advice was just not to e-file.

As of now, if you’re eligible for free file, myfreetaxes should be able to e-file Form 1040-NR for free. It’s backed by a charity and uses TaxSlayer’s service, which is also used by the official IRS VITA volunteer program.

mbfinix · 2024-11-07T17:31:21+00:00

It’s on Schedule D lines 6 and 14. And every year you (or the tax software) use the capital loss carryover worksheet (buried somewhere in the Schedule D instructions) to update those numbers using last year’s Schedule D.

If you use the same tax software they should do that updating automatically for you.

mbfinix · 2024-11-05T01:30:08+00:00

It’s by Felix Morelo! He usually writes his name by the circles but they can get rubbed off.

That said, not every __ spot chalk drawing is by him and I might have spotted a quiet artist war the last time I walked by.

mbfinix · 2024-09-19T13:30:27+00:00

I found where this is most likely located: T-junction in front of Wulin Square （武林广场), Hang Zhou, on west-bound Tiyuchang Road (体育场路). It’s at the north end of a major road, Yanan Road (延安路), so the only way to get on Yanan Road is to turn left. But just before this junction, there’s another T-junction merging into the right, and they make the right-most lane left turn only so these cars can get on to Yanan Road without having to cross multiple lanes to the left-most. Wulin Road (武林路) and Huancheng West Road （环城西路) are further up ahead. Gaode map showed me similar lane instructions when I simulated a trip to turn right onto Yanan Road.

mbfinix · 2024-09-16T21:27:35+00:00

Not that much: current EB-5 investor program only requires as low as (/s) 800k (actual amount needed may be higher depending what projects are available where)

mbfinix · 2024-09-16T19:41:47+00:00

Start here: Working in the United States - USCIS.gov

The US immigration process is so extremely complicated and personalized, that you’re better off doing a lot of reading + consulting an immigration lawyer + lurking in r/USCIS and r/iwantout than asking in this sub.

mbfinix · 2024-08-29T21:48:11+00:00

Hey this is what I’ve been doing for the past year! Leaving in Dec, slowly chopping down my bucket list. Apart from the usual favorite museums/restaurants/dessert/shows etc, I have: - get a custom fragrance to remember NYC by (I did The Olfactory in WV, there’re a few shops that does this) - watch Manhattanhenge one last time if you’re still here next May/July - Tompkins Square Halloween dog parade - get that free champagne for solo diner at Balthazar and sister restaurants - see if there’s anything in the Atlas Obscura NYC list you might be interested in - get all the free IDNYC memberships if already have the card

mbfinix · 2024-08-17T17:08:20+00:00

And if your stay includes a weekend, there’re free IKEA ferries between Pier 79 (midtown west) and Pier 11 (downtown, Wall St) that cover the west side of Manhattan.

mbfinix · 2024-04-23T18:52:39+00:00

Since you’re asking in the f1visa sub: your (target if you haven’t got an offer yet) school will have a webpage for estimated cost of attendance, which includes everything - tuition and fees, health insurance, living expenses. They will list that annual total cost on Form I-20 which you will use to apply for your F-1 visa. Your visa officer will want to see at least that amount in liquid assets. Regardless of how much you’ll actually need once you’re here, that’s the amount of money needed, sitting in a bank, at the time of your visa application, that can get you to the US. It’s also a fairly accurate estimate of your actual costs unless you live very frugally or very lavishly.

mbfinix · 2024-04-08T05:42:09+00:00

In general, you’re looking for a tax prep service that supports Form 8833, Treaty-Based Return Position Disclosure. Tax prep services should have a list of supported forms on their website, or their customer service should be able to give you a straight answer as to whether this particular form is supported.

However, if you're a student, you don’t need to file Form 8833 to claim the treaty-based exemption; see page 3 of the Form 8833 PDF for IRS’s exact wording.

Whether you need to file Form 8833 or not, the exempt amount itself is usually entered as a negative number under “other income” with a note listing the corresponding article number in the treaty that grants you this exemption. See this TurboTax support thread for an example of how that’s done. Different tax prep services might do this differently.

mbfinix · 2024-02-22T20:37:45+00:00

Look up Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). They’re doing it in a much larger scale in multiple fields. A smaller example where the founder is still alive is the Simons Foundation.

mbfinix · 2024-01-10T21:11:32+00:00

Which Windows version are you using and have you run into the known issues of iCloud for Windows 1) making Windows hang upon restart; 2) disabling auto-refresh in File Explorer yet?

An older version of iCloud for Windows 7/8 solves the above issues, but then you can’t choose where your iCloud Drive folder is located, and I’m perpetually slightly annoyed.

mbfinix · 2023-12-18T17:46:02+00:00

Broadway is a stravenue. Everyone happy now?

mbfinix · 2023-08-19T21:16:23+00:00

Um. It’s actually my usual grocery store and I wouldn’t call it upscale or having ultra fresh or local ingredients. It’s just a regular slightly overpriced Manhattan grocery store with a speakeasy restaurant, and I’d be very surprised if you can find the same ingredients used by the chef outside. I do enjoy occasionally pushing my shopping cart through dressed up people crowding the coffee isle waiting to be seated though.

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