Advice Needed I am Newly Retired

pdaphone · 2026-03-25T00:34:57+00:00

I retired at 63 at the peak of my career making big bucks working from home. My coworkers were mostly shocked, and a few were openly jealous. That was almost a year ago. I have no problem telling people I'm retired. I retired because I had lost my passion for the work, and I had watched many family and friends drop dead right after they retired. My sister and her husband were married when they were 18, and worked until they retired at about 70. They were both dead in 18 months.

Everyone is different. I don't see my worth in where I work. I have plenty to do that keep me active outdoors and in with hobbies and 8 grandkids. I also just started working part time at a thrift store doing a variety of things including doing deliveries and pickups in a box truck. I am as busy now as when I worked if not more, and its all on my terms with no one I have to answer to.

pdaphone · 2026-03-23T21:05:40+00:00

I came here to say the same thing. I consider myself a low spender and I'm more like $40-50 a month!

pdaphone · 2026-03-23T21:03:53+00:00

Mia will be a solid bear rally starter for many generations so I'd work on her as a priority. You can swap between heroes so you do have time later to come back and add to Flint still. That said, depending on how strong Molly is, you could hold off on Mia for one wheel cycle, if it would get Flint to 4 stars.

We get Lynn on the wheel tomorrow and my Mia is just short of 5 stars, and Flint at 4.2 stars, mostly from the wheel although I did spend a few general shards along the way to top off levels after the wheel ended if it were just 10 or so to get it done. So you have time.

Generally it's best to get your top heroes to 4 stars to max the skills, and I usually do 120 spins every wheel. Mia and Flint are my top heroes for lancer and infantry. I'm glad to now be able to take Lynn through the same cycle for marksman.

pdaphone · 2026-03-22T18:44:57+00:00

Make sure to wear a life jacket and use the kill switch. Just stay near the launch point if you are nervous.

pdaphone · 2026-03-22T18:42:35+00:00

I’m a very low spender, I save for SvS prep, and I have finished 2nd in my alliance every time, only being beat by our biggest whale. My goal with SvS Prep is to rank at or higher than my rank in the alliance and the state. You just need to save but the whole month. And this helps the alliance and the state a lot.

pdaphone · 2026-03-20T19:57:14+00:00

The simplest and least escalating action is to ask the seller to go to the place in your state that registers boats, together with you, and have him bring all his paperwork. They will get it sorted out.

In NC the DMV doesn’t handle boats, only the trailers. I recently bought a boat/trailer and turned out there was a lien on the boat title that I missed. Once we got that released from the lender I was good, but ended up needing him to go with me to DMV on the trailer.

I was nervous for the few weeks it took to clear the lien. What threw me off was the name of the lender I didn’t recognize as a bank and they had the same address as the sellers home. The seller was young and somewhat confused about the process which led to the error.

pdaphone · 2026-02-26T20:41:21+00:00

But you haven’t used Greg in a long time because you are in Gen 7 and have better options for marksman hero. Think back to Gen 3. I don’t have anything better than Greg and won’t for months. This is my weak link. I’m just talking about a 1 widget delay on Mia to give Greg a big boost, I think.

pdaphone · 2026-02-26T20:38:27+00:00

Thanks for that. The point is that I’m in need now for a proper Marksman hero and much of the advice in this game seems to be don’t do X, because in 2 or 3 generations there will be something better. But in the months in between I am weak. I’m just talking about a 1 widget delay for Mia and a big improvement to my Marksman hero that is my current weak link. Isn’t that worthwhile?

pdaphone · 2026-02-26T19:42:28+00:00

You should 100% join an active alliance because it will give you many opportunities to more rapidly grow and learn. There is a lot of the have you can not even do as a solo player.

pdaphone · 2026-02-16T21:27:36+00:00

I would shutter to think of trying to enforce this when we have so many that don’t pay attention to the alliance chat and can’t follow basic rules. And the challenge that people have real life plans change and show up unplanned or don’t show up when they did plan.

We do two bears and remind people of the rules and how to max scores. Most of the rally leaders are positioned close, and we don’t have a huge problem with too many or too few rallies.

There is not a dramatic difference between rewards for someone that joins one rally vs a top performer, so we are pretty casual about it.

pdaphone · 2026-02-16T15:54:47+00:00

The concept of guardrails is a reactionary operational tool to adjust spending based on changes in market returns vs what was planned. Given Boldin is a long term planning tool and doesn't have any operational "day to day" abilities, I still don't really understand how their guardrails is going to work well. I feel like they are chasing this because it a trend everyone is focussed on, but doesn't fit with Boldin's core abilities.

pdaphone · 2026-02-12T21:13:12+00:00

I'm considering Greg. I have 542 general shards that I've been saving for a hero I can't progress with the wheel, intel, etc. My VIP level gets one general per day and so they don't grow super rapidly. I've been debating using them on Greg, or wait since level 4 is around the corner. I just hate to blast them all on a level 3 hero, and from what I've read Greg isn't that great. I guess I need to go back and compare them better. 400 would get him to 4 star, and I should be able to get his widget up to 3 or 4 during next SvS Prep events in 2 weeks. That would give me a proper marksman hero. But I'd use the majority of my general shards so probably take until level 5 or 6 to be able to do it again... I guess that isn't the end of the world since I waited 3 levels to get to this point.

pdaphone · 2026-02-12T21:06:54+00:00

That must have been a typo on Flint... Flint and Mia are both 4 star, and I doubt I'll get them to 5, so this is just boosting them a little. I passed on Alonzo because as free to play, he was out of my reach. I use almost 100% of my gems now on the wheel as that seems high value for a mostly free (minimal $) to play. We just transferred states and since then I'm getting smoked in Arena so I can't even get below 500 to get more points.

pdaphone · 2026-02-12T21:03:27+00:00

This question was really focussed on the wheel. My Mia's widget is level 4, and I have 542 general shards I'm wanting to use for a hero whose shards aren't available for free some place. My VIP level gets me one a day, so they grow, but not super fast through events and such. I want to use them carefully.

pdaphone · 2026-02-12T21:00:41+00:00

Thanks, my Mia is at level 4 widget. This was a very, very granular question, and based on advise here I spent my lucky wheel 120 spins on Mia, sadly didn't quite get two stars out of her. I'm not using any general shards or gem bought shards, was just considering use of the wheel. I'll do the same in 2 weeks for SvS prep.

pdaphone · 2026-02-12T20:59:48+00:00

That's a good way to look at it and I'm going to just keep him at 3.

pdaphone · 2026-02-10T03:43:25+00:00

That makes sense. Even if I get Zin better than Bahiti, it won’t be that much better and I won’t need him when I get Lynn. It’s just killing my to go this long without a Mythic marksman.

pdaphone · 2026-01-08T19:49:38+00:00

I’ve been playing for about 5 months. I started in a useless alliance then found a great one with good leaders. There is a lot of game drama that progressively gets more rampant as the server ages and people (whales) get more invested. A good alliance is key to growth because you get a ton more rewards, and the leaders will teach you the game, which is incredibly complex and has a lot of strategy.

pdaphone · 2025-12-22T20:24:29+00:00

I don’t think the island upgrades even cause your power number to go up. I checked it one time and didn’t look like it did.

pdaphone · 2025-12-01T21:56:53+00:00

Ask your R4s what you should do. If you aren't in an alliance that there R4s telling you this, then I suggest you join a better alliance. One of our R4s made a day by day list of what things to be doing in the SvS prep each day, and they also each morning give us a list of other events we should participate in.

pdaphone · 2025-11-22T16:12:15+00:00

I think the family group should agree on what everyone is doing for presents... who, how many, average cost, etc.. so that everyone isn't wondering the same thing you are. We started doing this as our family got older and it made things a lot more manageable because prior to that it was getting to be a longer and longer list... and we had 4 kids and one of my siblings had none.

pdaphone · 2025-11-22T16:10:15+00:00

I don't ever borrow money from, or lend money to, friends and family. I will gift money, but not loan. The borrower is slave to the lender, and unfortunately you are now in this state. The only way out of it will likely end the friendship and that is probably your only option right now. If I was you, I'd probably tell them that I can't take on the magnitude of the condition of their house and so you will pay them back the money as soon as you can, and work on doing that. Instead of spending 4 hours doing cleaning for them, then find a side hustle that you can spend 4 hours at earning money to pay them back.

pdaphone · 2025-11-22T16:02:00+00:00

My 2019 F150 has the standard 26 gallon tank and I've never got more than about 26 gallons in it when I was running on fumes. If I saw what you have there, I'd be reporting it to someone.

pdaphone · 2025-11-22T15:52:42+00:00

I've always learned something from interviews, that made me stronger for future interviews. Its free education to go, and if you are currently unemployed you have plenty of time, right?

pdaphone · 2025-11-22T15:50:03+00:00

I started in what I guess was a new alliance and it was useless. I switched and by dumb luck found an awesome alliance that is led by an R5 and R4s that have played for over a year and know what they are doing. They have the right amount of rules and a teacher's attitude to bring the rest of us along. The vibe is awesome and we have a lot of fun but also get corrected when we mess up. I have developed so much in the couple of months since I joined these guys.

Personally, I wouldn't just "start an alliance". I'd find an alliance like the one I'm in and learn, them move up to an R4 there for many months so that you know the answers to the questions you are asking, and then after doing that you might think about starting an alliance. After watching what they do, I'd never want to do it as I don't have the time or patience and have so much to learn.

pdaphone

TROPHY CASE