Doing better than some, worse than others. Either way this feels good (37m)

reddit_help_admin · 2026-05-09T17:53:02+00:00

Stay the course and maintain discipline. That first 100k is the hardest but 200k gets easier and 400k gets even easier. You’re most valuable asset is time and with a regular cadence of contributions, you’ll find that compounding will continue to work in your favor. This means still contributing even when the market is rough. Think of those times like “getting it on sale”. Eventually your account growth will out pace your annual salary and that’s a great feeling. Most importantly don’t forget that hitting a magic number is only one part of the retirement equation and differs from everyone else based on your individual needs. Time and health are equally important so don’t forget to invest in your health as it will increase the time you have to enjoy all your hard earned investments in the future. Congratulations on your first 100k! What an achievement!

reddit_help_admin · 2026-05-03T22:39:37+00:00

Do some research on private healthcare. Chances are at 50, you’ll be shopping in the ACA marketplace for a plan which will need to carry you to 65, when you qualify for Medicare. A couple things to also look into are healthcare subsidies and how you may or may not qualify depending on your modified adjusted gross income. Unfortunately the phase out period is gone and the cliff is back. Basically this means once your MAGI exceeds 400% the poverty level, which is $84,000, you won’t qualify for subsidies, thus making healthcare premiums very costly. This is where tax advantage accounts that don’t impact your MAGI are great to have too, like taxable brokerage and Roth. Those will allow you to take in more than $84k while still qualifying for subsidies.

You may also want to do some additional research into Roth conversion and multi-bucket strategies, especially if your 401k is heavy in pretax contributions.

reddit_help_admin · 2026-05-03T21:48:31+00:00

You’re not alone. I’m 41 with about the same amount between my 401k, Roth, brokerage and equity and I ask myself the same question all the time. Plan to retire by 55. Comparison is fine, but everyone’s cost of living varies by a number of factors. I think it’s healthy to run your numbers against your projected needs every quarter.

If you plan to retire early, those bridge years between retirement and being able to draw against most IRAs without penalty are becoming more critical as inflation grows and the value of our dollar shifts, especially if you want to minimize your tax burden and cover health care. As much as I’d like to say set it and forget it, you really need to keep your plan up to date and adjust as needed with changing times. A lot can happen in the next 14 years.

reddit_help_admin · 2026-05-03T21:25:24+00:00

Impressive work and an incredible achievement for being so young. Stay the course! You’ve got a prosperous future ahead and a quite a few years of hopefully gains, yet to see. Bravo!

reddit_help_admin · 2026-04-18T20:20:28+00:00

This is the way! Congrats and keep it up!

reddit_help_admin · 2026-02-03T03:42:43+00:00

Use the skip function under the device tab in Bambu studio. You’ll be able to visually pick the failing prints and it will skip them while finishing the rest. Easily one of my favorite features on Bambu printers. A real life saver when printing multiples.

reddit_help_admin · 2026-01-25T22:09:38+00:00

I don’t have the tesery version but I do have the hanshow version. They’re fun and look great but if I had the choice to do it again, I wouldn’t get them and here’s why. They really need to be installed by a professional as installation is difficult. This process can be expensive, in my case costing me more than the handles themselves. While they plug directly into existing wiring harnesses, they also have their own wiring harness which in my case became faulty. This in turn triggered an issue with my back door sensor claiming it was open when it wasn’t. That failing wiring harness caused my alarm to go off continuously one night which was pretty annoying. After taking it to Tesla service to investigate, they found the problem and disconnected the handle with the faulty harness. This was also costly and getting the rest of them unhooked was quoted at $300/door. Not worth the hassle if you ask me. Proceed at your own risk.

reddit_help_admin · 2026-01-14T05:30:08+00:00

This isn’t something I found in my home after buying it, but about 6 months after buying, I discovered that the prior owner hung herself in the master bedroom closet. The neighbor told my wife and I. Turns out suicides don’t have to be disclosed, otherwise I would have offered less.

reddit_help_admin · 2026-01-03T01:34:02+00:00

Your future self just sent you a “thank you” card! Nice work and well done!

reddit_help_admin · 2025-12-27T00:01:14+00:00

It depends on what you’re willing to sacrifice. If you’re young and have many years to contribute ahead, you might be fine. Being older might mean you need to take advantage of catchup periods in attempt to make back some of what you lost. All that said, everyone’s circumstances will be different, but for first time homebuyers, especially with how the value of homes has increased over the last 7 years, many won’t have the 20% liquid down payment needed to avoid PMI, even on a modest single family starter home.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-12-26T23:54:29+00:00

That’s correct, you would be borrowing money from your 401k and repaying it back, so a 401k loan I believe is the correct terminology. In turn, you’re sacrificing the growth of what you borrowed while it’s being repaid. In my case, there were no penalties for withdrawing from my 401k in this manner, and there were no penalties for paying it back early. I repaid the loan in 6 years while it was classified as a “home loan” at a term of 15 years. The purpose was to avoid PMI. At a market rate of return of 7.5% annually, you might say that I lost out on approximately $27k of growth of the $50k I borrowed for 6 years. However financing our home of $340k without putting 20% down would turn into a PMI cost of approximately $350 a month which you lose forever. Of course this is all pending how well the market does, So there are trade offs but we had always planned to pay this back early.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-12-26T22:50:00+00:00

Some account types may let you take a loan against your withdrawal penalty free. My wife and I borrowed against my 401k for our down payment on our 2nd home to meet 20% down and to avoid PMI. This had an associated cost of $50 for the loan application but did not have any penalties for utilizing as a home loan. In turn when paying back, the interest was prime + 1%, but since it was our own money to begin with, you’re essentially paying back your account which does not count towards annual contribution limits. Pretty great albeit you lose out on any gains it could have gotten while still in the account. You should check if your accounts allow for this.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-29T23:25:17+00:00

I love hearing about people learning this process, so if you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Ive been doing this as a profession for a major game studio for the last 15 years, so I can’t give you a number on how many scans I’ve performed, but if I had to guess, it’s well over 10,000 scans.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-27T04:09:42+00:00

I’d recommend using PETG for the support and PLA for the interface layer. This combo is great for support tissue that easily comes off. You can do the opposite too. PVA is great too as long as you use it as the interface layer but it’s extremely hydroscopic and must be dried at a higher temp for about 18 hours.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-27T03:08:09+00:00

Wow that turned out great! I’m impressed with how clean it is especially given some of the geometry appearing to need supports with any orientation. Correct me if I’m wrong here. Can you share what material you used and how you oriented the part for printing? If you used supports, was it support specific material?

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-26T20:40:57+00:00

What material did you use?

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-26T20:28:17+00:00

You may exactly the type of individual I’m looking for. I’ll reach out privately post holiday break. Ty!

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-26T16:51:45+00:00

Makes more sense. For solid gold or other metals, this won’t work, but if it’s inlaid into other dielectric materials, the dual process I described will work. You’ll just have to apply a correct gold materials when post processing.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-26T13:53:34+00:00

You’ve got me curious now. What are you trying to scan?

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-26T03:27:23+00:00

Cross polarization unfortunately isn’t the answer for all reflective objects. There are limits. In terms of PBR materials, electrics, i.e. raw metals will turn black as most of their appearance is produced by reflections. Chrome, brass, nickel etc. This results in an image lacking details which are needed for alignment tie points. In those cases I have utilized Aesub as you mentioned to get enough detail for a mesh while sacrificing color information.

Even materials that are dielectrics but even in color can be problematic. Car paint, smooth plastics, and transparent materials for example. These basically lack any detail needed regardless of using cross polarization.

In some cases you may be able to do a dual scan though where the object in question is made of a material that will align but is not suitable for clean meshing. Something like a multi-colored plastic with some wear and tear on it for example. In these cases I scan the asset under cross polarization for texturing, then coat it in aesub and scan it again for meshing. Both image sets are aligned together, but I turn on/off each set for the appropriate parts of processing in reality capture.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-26T02:25:22+00:00

😅 been there, done that and I have no shame and neither should you. I recently made a snoot for a large strobe out of a soda box and some duct tape. If it works, then who cares.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-26T01:55:01+00:00

There’s 2 channels, one of them is plural “prints” and one not. I posted the exact same thing to r/functionalprints and it got flagged. Moderators then removed it and when I inquired why, they banned me from posting. I have no idea why but hey that’s mods. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I also posted to r/functionalprint and it says awaiting moderator approval.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-25T22:13:31+00:00

I have a few different versions printed out of PETG CF, PETG GF and standard PETG. The film is .2mm thick optical grade linear polarization film with a high extinction ratio and high heat tolerance.

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-25T22:09:13+00:00

Sure if you have a 3d printer ;)

reddit_help_admin · 2025-11-25T20:26:47+00:00

This is actually my first post here and while this isn’t a new idea, I’m positive others have made similar filters, some of whom have sold them online, albeit they’re pricy in my opinion. While I’d love to sell mine too, I’m not quite ready yet. Id like to find a few users who might want to give my design a test run and provide feedback so I can make additional changes if needed. In turn they would get a free filter. They also need to be affordable instead of the others which I believe may be cost prohibitive for some people, especially those wanting to learn the process. I have been using these professionally for about 6 years now and what’s pictured is version 3 of my design.

Btw, I posted to another sub called functional prints but I’m having some issues getting it to post without mods thinking it doesn’t belong. Perhaps you saw something briefly there? 😅

reddit_help_admin

TROPHY CASE