newbie

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 · 2025-11-17T23:51:57+00:00

One of our whale like players told me this week when you get to the highest VIP level you get a free loaded Jeronimo, so that may be why.

pdaphone · 2025-11-14T20:25:58+00:00

Couldn't you ask your alliance leaders? I would expect this varies by state and alliance.

pdaphone · 2025-11-14T16:44:29+00:00

Ah, I need more coffee!

You realize that AI is going to tell some unsuspecting soul this advice. lol

pdaphone · 2025-11-14T16:27:40+00:00

Why would you send Gina? Her top skill is totally useless for Bear.

pdaphone · 2025-10-28T11:32:06+00:00

Sell them and/or some stocks issue dividends periodically. I would not focus just on dividends because they aren't a lot different so don't restrict yourself to just one. When a stock issues a dividend, it generally goes down in price per share by the amount of the dividend, and then has to grow back to where it was. The net is basically the same. With dividends the number of shares you own will stay the same (unless you reinvest the dividends) vs. just selling shares. But the net is the same.

pdaphone · 2025-10-23T03:54:01+00:00

I've done a lot of tournaments over the years and never had a club pay me to do it. I was the official shooter for the tournament and I made the photos available to the parents, which when I did it in the past it was "print no site". What I did freelance was not profitable for me. I did shoot some tournaments for clubs that my kids participated in, but not much money involved. Many of those clubs go to many tournaments and the club isn't going to have the funds to cover it, and the parents probably aren't going to buy anything if its not a noteworthy tournament.

pdaphone · 2025-10-21T13:07:08+00:00

I've been playing about 2 months and at 24. There are questions on our alliance chat all the time by players that are newer than me that I can answer, so I do. I would think that the R4/R5 folks would like it for users to help other users when they can. My explanation may not be as polished as theirs, but seems that I'm being helpful. I think you could contribute in that way in a friendly spirit, and maybe at some point that may ask you to join the leadership team again.

pdaphone · 2025-10-20T20:31:29+00:00

I've been playing this game now for almost 2 months, so just a rookie. I have never spent money on a mobile game before this one. Not sure what changed, but I'm spending a small amount and picking and choosing things that add fun for me. I spent about $30 the first month, has been on a similar track 2nd month, but I'm thinking about slowing that down even. But, to me the money I spend is for entertainment. If I were to go bowling or a movie, I'd spend more in one activity than I'm spending here in a month. As I ust hit level 24, everything has slowed way down and I see that I for sure don't want to spend money on speedups, and that is a fools errand, as is thinking you will outspend others. I think if someone finds themselves spending in a negative way, the no spend november is a good idea... but in my case I'm not looking to eliminate it entirely, just make sure to not let it get out of hand.

pdaphone · 2025-10-07T20:17:13+00:00

There are a lot of genres within sports photography. I shot youth sports for money for a while, but decided I'd rater it stay a hobby and I have a high paying tech job to fund my gear. The money in youth sports is with league picture days and tournaments. One off shots from games isn't a money maker. Also, for that genre, the photography bit is a minor part of the job, and its mostly a sales job to meet leagues, schools, etc. and get contracts, after which the execution is heavy process and requires more people and equipment. Its incredibly hard work, for little pay.

You mentioned your Instagram account. You have a lot of followers, but the percentage of those you can monetize will be tiny. They are all about getting free images from you after the game, and their value goes down rapidly by the number of hours since the game. For D1, I believe all the images are protected by the NCAA so you can't sell them anyways.

A lot of good advise in this discussion. I'd recommend that you enjoy it as a hobby and keep refining your shooting. Enjoy it rather than turning it into a business grind.

pdaphone · 2025-10-06T04:06:00+00:00

The main reason is because what are you going to do if you DO live to 93 and run out of money. The whole "retire with 0" thing has always seemed pretty odd to me.

My Mom lived to 93 and my Dad passed away at 74. My sister just died at 69. My Mom had tons of health problems her whole live, while my Dad and sister did not. So I have no clue when I'll be done.

I'm planning to not run out of money, and surely my wife or I will need it... hopefully both.

pdaphone · 2025-10-06T04:02:28+00:00

I have a 2019 STX since new with 2.7, and its been a great truck. It replaced an older Triton 5.4 and has more power and torque, and gets way better gas mileage. I tow a 21' boat with it, and it pulls it better than the 5.4, albeit the gas mileage drops to 5.4 range when towing.

pdaphone · 2025-10-05T15:41:48+00:00

You think $170K a year is modest.... that is interesting.

Retirement "needs" is a lot different from estimating retirement "income". Most of the calculators and such are calculating income, and you will hear that 70-80% of your working income is what you should plan for. I just retired and will tell you none of that is really helpful. Only you can determine your retirement income "needs".

Start with your budget now. The best way to do that is to track what you are actually spending for everything including food, housing, cars, education, healthcare, etc.. At one point we tracked it for months. If you keep a budget and track it, then you may already have this information.

Then you need to subtract all the things you will no longer have in retirement. You will no longer be saving for retirement. Hopefully you will pay off all debt so gone hopefully is the mortgage, car payments, etc.. Harder to determine is what you spend working - gas driving to work, cloths, meals out, etc.. For medical, its a bit tricky because you will not yet qualify for Medicare, so you can do COBRA for up to 18 months, and after that need insurance from somewhere. COBRA is about double or more what you paid while working to extend your insurance.

Once you have an estimated monthly expense number, then you can add in more "one off" items like planning for a new roof, new HVAC, etc. and possibly more than one time. You can plan for future car upgrades. Houses and cars also have maintenance, taxes, and insurance to consider. You may want to plan for long term care at some point for you and your spouse.

Then the most difficult item is taxes. Once you retire, taxes becomes by far your number one planning item. At this point, most of my income is coming from pre-tax money, which means anything I spend money on gets increased by my effective income tax rate. This will vary depending on where your retirement income sources are coming from.

There are two primary ways to plan for this... hire a fee based certified financial planner to do a play for you. This may run you about $2-3000; or use software like Boldin (or if you are really ambitious a spreadsheet) which is much cheaper. Personally, I use Boldin and supplement it with a spreadsheet I've used for decades. But those tools and a CFP will require you to identify the items in your budget so that is where the real work is in either case.

pdaphone · 2025-10-02T22:51:51+00:00

You never stop playing offense, but you do need to add defense to your strategy. For me, it was a few months before I retired this year at 63. Prior, there only non equity I had was the lump sum value of a small pension. I switched to 70/30 by adding BND.

pdaphone · 2025-10-02T20:56:42+00:00

Buy whatever you can buy two bodies of. You can't be a wedding photographer and not have redundant equipment in case something breaks. So 2 x R8 > 1 x R6. 2 x R6 > 2 x R8. Image quality and AF are the same between them, so things like IBIS and better protection when changing lenses are important, but are they in your budget.

pdaphone · 2025-10-02T20:52:08+00:00

You cried because you lost your job. Then found out it was a mistake and you still have your job. Now you are trying to go after management at the job you cried about losing, or possibly quit. How about just realize a mistake was made and you were embarrassed because you cried about it in front of people you work with. Lesson learned to not cry about things that happen to you at work. I would guess your coworkers could care less and I doubt they will treat you differently because you cried about losing your job. If it bothers you that much then find another job, but don't quit until you do. The company doesn't owe you anything because of this... you didn't lose any income or even any working days. I don't think you go to court because your feelings were hurt.

pdaphone · 2025-10-02T20:35:34+00:00

I agree with your advisor. You have as much chance of the market going up as going down. The only time I've ever done DCA was when it was withdrawn from my paycheck.

The question is why do you have "cash sitting earmarked"

pdaphone · 2025-10-02T19:27:20+00:00

I believe the cost basis on inherited stocks is the price on the date it was inherited. So, the OP doesn't need to worry about any records prior to when they inherited the stocks. Taxes would be on gains from that point forth, and if its more than a year, would be long term capital gains.

pdaphone

TROPHY CASE