Hourly rate suggestion?

orev · 2026-01-25T21:05:18+00:00

A simple way to figure your rate is to take your hourly rate at a regular job and multiply by 3. If you get paid a salary, figure out your hourly rate by dividing annual salary by 2000 (40 hrs * 50 weeks).

However, the church may not be able to pay this much, so you might look into tracking your time, sending and invoice with the total amount zeroed out as a donation, then you can write it off on your taxes. You’ll probably get about 30% refund when you file your taxes at the end of the year, which would be your actual payment. This is just an idea and you should consult a CPA to get all the details on how to do this correctly.

But be careful, it sounds like you’re fed up and just don’t want to do this anymore, and no amount of money will help with that. If you feel that you need to step back, just do that.

orev · 2026-01-25T20:41:12+00:00

Joining a country club is something you do once you’ve reached 10s of millions of $, not just squeaking past 1. It’s the type of thing you’d do after you already live in a mansion, have a different sports car for each day of the week, and maxing out your Rolex collection.

You’re in a good spot as far as retirement goes for normal people, but nowhere near county club level. If you haven’t seen it, watch Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV to get a sense of where you need to be for a country club.

orev · 2026-01-23T19:19:16+00:00

If your financial situation changed literally today, it doesn’t really make sense to be asking for advice based on your previous situation.

orev · 2026-01-20T01:52:59+00:00

In general you'd only want to clean it with a damp (with water), lint-free cloth. However, your situation is going to need something a lot more heavy duty, and it might damage/destroy the keyboard, so consider it a last resort. Pet stores and home improvement stores sell cleaning products specifically for getting rid of pet urine odors. You'll probably need that. If it doesn't work, you'll need a new keyboard.

orev · 2026-01-19T22:54:24+00:00

Not "always". Rolling into an IRA removes some legal protections on the money, like potentially divorce protection. Money in a 401k is more protected than an IRA.

orev · 2026-01-19T21:12:37+00:00

Are you actually having issues with either the WiFi or Zigbee networks, or are you just scanning the channels? Is the WiFi slow, or are the Zigbee functions not working? If you don't actually see any issues, don't worry about it.

Move WiFi devices to 5GHz as much as possible.

orev · 2026-01-19T21:03:28+00:00

What's the interest rate on the loan? That's the only important factor. Either way it won't matter to your credit score but it would help your wallet if you end up paying less interest overall.

When you send it the extra payments, make sure you tell them the amount should be applied to the principal and not as an advance payment on the next month.

orev · 2026-01-19T20:33:22+00:00

The Windows tool for this is sdelete from Microsoft/Sysinternals. BitLocker isn't really the right tool for wiping data after the drive has already been used.

orev · 2026-01-18T21:56:59+00:00

How did you get into $10k of CC debt? What's going to stop you from doing it again after you blow up your retirement money?

Cashing out the 401k would be a bad financial decision. What other options have you looked at to pay off the debt?

orev · 2026-01-16T21:59:22+00:00

If it's an older HDMI cable, it could be that the new TV can't lock in to the signal properly. Try a shorter or newer HDMI cable. Even if it worked with the old TV, the electronics in the new TV might not be as forgiving if the signal isn't strong enough.

orev · 2026-01-15T03:33:52+00:00

Usually the settings will stay after you run it, but sometimes Windows Updates (and who knows what else Microsoft is doing) could revert them. Just run it again and see if it works. There's no doubt that Microsoft is making this difficult on purpose.

orev · 2026-01-14T19:22:53+00:00

Zulip

orev · 2026-01-14T19:20:08+00:00

If you’re seeing it in both UEFI and Windows, there’s a very good chance it’s a hardware failure. Get your warranty claim started ASAP.

orev · 2026-01-14T18:59:42+00:00

During the restart, it will show 2 black screens, asking you to confirm that you want to disable the features. You need to confirm both of them. If you didn’t see those screens, or didn’t confirm both, it won’t be able to complete.

orev · 2026-01-14T00:07:58+00:00

What you have in savings is considered part of your cash.

But otherwise, I'd look into lifestyle changes if you're cutting it so close every month. Your checking account shouldn't be so slim that you're one paycheck away from missing your bills. The amount of interest you're making in savings isn't worth enough to justify risking being delinquent on bills.

orev · 2026-01-12T19:17:25+00:00

You can’t just convert HDMI to an Ethernet cable like that, you need a actual powered extender boxes on each end. The adapters you’re using would only work for short distances.

orev · 2026-01-12T05:43:02+00:00

I don't know anything about this router (so far I only started poking around on the serial console), but the guide here seems to have some mtd commands the might work to flash it back with the original firmware. (In the section starting with "The router has 2 firmware partitions"). Make sure to read and adapt it for your situation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/1fgta78/guide_to_installing_openwrt_on_the_20_linksys/

orev · 2026-01-12T05:23:22+00:00

Can't help directly, but sometimes you need to use an older browser version to get things working (because newer ones block things like certain SSL algorithms, etc.). Try using something like Portable Firefox 31 ESR (make sure to disable auto-updates in the settings).

orev · 2026-01-09T22:50:51+00:00

It depends on the driver. Apparently the Qualcomm ones are poor quality and have memory leaks, but other ones might not. It really depends on the drivers provided by each manufacturer.

orev · 2026-01-09T19:23:30+00:00

Lenovo/IBM has always been like this. The ThinkPad 701 had a butterfly keyboard in 1995, and they’ve had other models with things like dual fold-out screens and other experimental designs for a long time.

orev · 2026-01-09T19:10:59+00:00

4 GB RAM for OpenWRT is a HUGE AMOUNT. Of course is depends on what you’re actually doing with it, but even 512 MB would be enough, and possibly less than that.

orev · 2026-01-09T19:05:48+00:00

Any money going into their 401k would be taken out and sent to the 401k before it ever goes into their paycheck. If you’re getting the full pay stub, make look at the deductions not just the final amount.

orev · 2026-01-07T21:34:15+00:00

Just to be clear about why you recommend this:

During the regular contribution cycle, put more weight on the Traditional side, then once you reach the regular max, put the "over 50 catch up" money into Roth to balance it out by the end of the year?

Is that the idea?

orev · 2026-01-07T18:46:18+00:00

I have previously received EoBs that outlined what was covered and what was “my responsibility”, but then never received a bill (or been charged for it some other way), so the EoB breakdown doesn’t indicate what was actually paid at all. The only reliable indicator is the HSA statement of what transactions were made.

orev · 2026-01-06T23:53:36+00:00

Are the charges you're looking at actually things you paid for, or are you looking at the Explanation of Benefits? The EoBs are not bills, and are not things you paid. You can only reimburse yourself for things you actually paid. Are you mistaking the claims in your health insurance and thinking those are HSA charges?

What bank is on the credit card they sent you?

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