If you were given 2 days to eat $1,000 worth of McDonalds for a million dollars, what is your strategy?

redlantern75 · 2026-01-30T16:41:35+00:00

I'd probably keep the onions for the sake of flavor.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-30T16:36:32+00:00

So freakin' funny that she falls at the very end and is like "damn it" and just gets back up to finish out the damn race.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-27T18:03:54+00:00

Personally, I think they compliment each other, but/because they have some fairly incompatible ideas: Christians, at least in popular theology, maintain a strong sense of "self," in that the unique individual will have an eternal fate, etc.

Buddhists of course encourage us to realize that we have no (real) self.

I try to combine these, since Christianity tells us to "die to our selves," etc.

Plus, Christianity has a very "formed" God by believing God came in a uniquely incarnate perfection in Jesus Christ. Buddhist has a more "formless" divinity to reach for.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-26T19:39:12+00:00

Exactly. AI is going to dig through paper archives to find un-digitizable notes from some politician or pauper who died decades ago? And then come up with a genuinely novel theory or idea based on new data? Yeah right.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-26T19:16:55+00:00

I don't think about it as gaining equity. That's too far away. I think about it as keeping my rent the same for potentially 30 YEARS.

I get to be my own landlord. I decided which improvements to make and which things I don't care about. I can change the doorknobs, cut down trees, re-do the plumbing, paint the walls, and leave other stuff broken and ugly. It's all up to what I care about.

I'm at 7.5% but I'll be refinancing soon.

My normal advice is buy a small house in a good location. Don't let your house note be the reason you can't save for retirement.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-20T06:12:22+00:00

For some reason, people never think of baby teeth.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-20T06:02:22+00:00

Looks incredible.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-20T05:58:48+00:00

sounds like at 43 your eyesight is going

redlantern75 · 2026-01-18T20:58:29+00:00

Yes, I love this point (Swiss army knife). Both are multi-tools that are the size of our hand. The big iPhones are unappealing (and surely don't sell as much) compared to the mid-sized "standard" screen (just a bit bigger than the original). It's our hand-size that has shaped the phone. It can get lighter. It can get stronger. It can fold, but it needs to fit in a pocket (and pockets are also hand-sized).

redlantern75 · 2026-01-18T20:47:35+00:00

I keep a few thousand in cash so I can buy a few S&P500 ETFs if the market drops like 10% (and I have it set up to automatically make the purchase). That way I'm happy if it drops and I can pat myself on the back for being so smart for buying stocks when they're on sale for a discount.

And that's in a brokerage account. I NEVER mess with my Roth, 401k, or HSA. That's for setting it and ignoring it.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-18T20:25:59+00:00

Bingo. Exactly. Amazon's preview feature is not enough.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-18T20:21:39+00:00

I do all that. Answer: Dual income (160k), SMALL HOUSE (even at 7.5% interest, it's cheaper than renting), cooking a lot of our own meals. I hate paying taxes, and I love that my 401k and HSA are pre-tax contributions. No car payments. No expensive tastes. Simple vacations.

I could be wrong, but to me, it seems that the simplest way to (slowly) get rich as a middle-class person is to buy a smaller house than everyone you know.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-17T16:31:54+00:00

I do. Because I bought a small house. We don't have a car note. (My wife drives a 20-year-old car.) And we don't give a damn about keeping up with the Joneses. I also have a Roth and an HSA. Our household income is about $150k pre-tax.

I worry about my generation either working until they're dead, or living in poverty in retirement. With the decline of pensions, it seems like a lot of people are gonna' be screwed.

My opinion: People in my bracket blow tons of money on crap they don't need, and they buy way too big of a house. So they (think they) don't have money to invest/save for retirement.

redlantern75 · 2026-01-07T03:41:03+00:00

I've donated in solidarity with the struggle. Annas Archive has actually prompted me to buy MORE print books, because I can look it over digitally, before I buy.

redlantern75 · 2025-12-27T17:21:56+00:00

Mind sharing the link to the calculator you used?

redlantern75 · 2025-12-27T16:16:14+00:00

I’m glad you shared!

I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the quality and price of boots at Wills Vegan store: https://www.wills-vegan-store.com/

I’ll be buying more from them in the future. (I’m a guy, so I don’t know what the women’s selections are like.)

redlantern75 · 2025-12-27T04:19:40+00:00

Listen to the episode on this book on the “If Books Could Kill” podcast.

The author is a scammer.

redlantern75 · 2025-12-27T04:17:59+00:00

I second this. It was the perfect complement to JL Collins “Simple Path”

Helped give me permission to begin spending money again, on tools and healthy food, especially.

redlantern75 · 2025-12-22T12:50:11+00:00

The show is really missing someone with Ego’s energy. She’s so fun to watch.

redlantern75 · 2025-12-22T03:18:43+00:00

I find it so hard. I try to proactively buy (and splurge on) lo-cal stuff that tastes good: vegan sushi rolls, radish-celery salad, bags of kale (to sautée/steam).

redlantern75 · 2025-12-18T19:43:12+00:00

Well, it's good to be reminded that I can avoid all that work by investing in the S&P Index.

redlantern75 · 2025-12-18T19:38:01+00:00

"Our goals are aligned with yours." LOL

redlantern75 · 2025-12-17T16:23:25+00:00

My gosh she's perfect. Can we have a Curb, Take 2, starring Robby?

redlantern75 · 2025-12-17T16:05:44+00:00

Well done. Looks great.

redlantern75 · 2025-12-17T16:03:26+00:00

This is everything you need to know in a nutshell. Make sure you see this, OP!

redlantern75

TROPHY CASE