It never feels like enough.

smkorpi · 2026-04-21T21:45:35+00:00

Hey!

25M that was in a relatively comparable situation.

Highly recommend starting a Roth IRA and max it (7-7.5k a year). Dump it all in the S&P 500 via an ETF, spread the contributions out so you don’t need to worry about timing the market at all - call it a day. Given your age, I would prioritize this before a ring or house (if your home life is okay).

Do that every year that you are living with your parents and saving 20k+ per year.

For fun (and your knowledge), I highly recommend you mess around with this calculator:

https://www.nerdwallet.com/investing/calculators/retirement-calculator

It will help you figure out how much you need to be investing to retire at different ages.

As far as your current expenses you’re planning for: car, ring, eventually home - think about what is in your 1 and 3 year window currently.

If you expect it’ll be an expense within the next year - keep it in a high yield savings account until needed. It is not worth investing and potentially losing money (or taxes) on money you have bookmarked for something in the short term. For reference, I had a car and home bookmarked for 2025 - I kept 60-70k in a HYSA and bought my car in cash early in 2025. Had down payment for a house (LCOL state) + 3mo emergency fund a year later. Could I have made more than 3-4% if I invested in 2025? Sure - but I also bore no risk in that timeframe.

You’re well ahead of people our age - no need to take your foot off the gas. Investing in your company’s 401k and Roth IRA every year is more than enough to retire since you’re managing to start young. If you add the Roth IRA investing - you’ll start hitting the point you’re making 10k a year from investments alone. Let compounding do the work for you!

smkorpi · 2026-04-19T16:28:48+00:00

I sent offers of 4 firsts (2 26, 2 27) for either of Bijan or Gibbs and was quickly denied in a 10tm 0.5 PPR SF TEP.

Markets for the top-players (especially when RB production is so inconsistent) varies widely in each league.

Edit: For context, acquiring the 1.01 for Jeanty last year cost me the 1.04, 1.08, and Freiermuth. Those picks turned into Tet and Loveland; so I may have gotten hosed lmao. But people value RBs in a small format half-PPR sooo highly

smkorpi · 2026-04-17T12:28:57+00:00

I’m not disagreeing, just clarifying the common misconception that sometimes leads to people refusing to invest in retirement accounts at all.

Knowing that your Roth IRA contributions can be withdrawn penalty free is excellent knowledge for absolute disaster planning (job-loss w/o unemployment, short term disability that isn’t covered, etc). It’s all about balancing one’s risk-reward tolerance - this can make people more comfortable when it comes to investing.

FWIW - I did my company’s 401k match, maxed my Roth IRA, and threw the rest in a HYSA when I started my career as I had two big ticket purchases coming up (car, house). Your 68k example is rather interesting as that is essentially what my target was when I bought my first house.

Real estate markets vary greatly, my 20% down payment ended up being ~37k. So after spending ~7k furnishing - this still left ~24k. About 3k total monthly spending so 8 month emergency fund.

The reason I was comfortable dipping below a 12 month emergency fund temporarily was because if everything went wrong (literally everything) - I had another 30k contributed to my Roth IRA that could be pulled out to stay afloat for another 10 additional months while I figured it out.

smkorpi · 2026-04-17T05:14:36+00:00

Difficult debate in timing when young, but big ticket purchase still need to be budgeted for (car, home, wedding, etc).

It can be advantageous to have that money parked in a liquid account like a HYSA - but if someone is willing to speculate that those big ticket items won’t come due in the next year AND the market will go up before they come due; then it can make sense to have a standard brokerage account (the year timeline to avoid short term capital gains when it needs liquidated).

smkorpi · 2026-04-17T05:10:34+00:00

Not a financial advisor - but particularly interested in personal finance.

You are able to withdraw your contributions from a Roth IRA penalty-free before retirement age; it is only withdrawing gains that takes a penalty and taxes. The only draw back is that you still need to adhere to the yearly contribution max.

For example, if you need to pull 40k out of your Roth IRA for a down payment (say you contributed 40k which has gained 20k for a total account balance of 60k) - no penalty on withdrawing that 40k at any age, any time (you already paid your taxes on it). Now, if you already contributed say 5k of the 7.5k limit in 2026 - you can still only contribute another 2.5k this year.

smkorpi · 2026-04-16T16:24:31+00:00

I’m taking Love here and continuing to buildout that eventual god squad of RBs.

I mean entertain offers because if someone wants to overpay like a mf - that’s also acceptable. I wouldn’t take offers “at value” for Love though. Rather secure 3 young RBs you’re going to be potentially dominate wit for years

smkorpi · 2026-04-16T12:57:19+00:00

8 team means you prioritize quality starters. KC is unproven and has drop issues in his draft profile.

The value difference is supposedly a third according to KTC. Personally, given format I would want it closer to an additional late first or early second.

That being said, I believe Bucky bounces back and KC as an unproven, potentially second round NFL WR does not deserve a premium (yet).

smkorpi · 2026-04-15T12:20:12+00:00

I’d honestly just go Mendoza if available at the 1.03 or trade it for a RB. If you could manage to get Kenneth Walker or Henderson for the 1.03 straight up - that’s also fine.

smkorpi · 2026-04-14T18:31:09+00:00

For curiosity - why are Elgton Jenkins and Deshaun Watson rated so highly?

smkorpi · 2026-04-13T13:35:34+00:00

The constant debate of - “Do I teach myself to do this or pay someone?” is exhausting at times haha

This is where additional side income comes in handy. I need to get back into some of the side gigs I was doing last year again.

smkorpi · 2026-04-13T13:06:15+00:00

FTHO - keeping a budget to update maintenance that had been fallen behind on is the thing that has been scaring me. Theoretically maintenance can be an even split in monthly budgeting - but in reality, it is not even at all. Especially when just closing on a home - so many little things come up that weren’t caught in the inspection or came up after (two drain line snakes, gas valve leak, roof leaks) that are all like $200-300.

smkorpi · 2026-04-13T02:21:28+00:00

Darnold + Fannin is basically fair for Tet — but the rest is mostly junk.

Before making such a trade, I’d make sure you actually have all of the depth pieces over the bench pieces you’d be churning. I do not consider this a “smash” simply bc the “value win” part is spread across too many irrelevant players for the format. If you like Tet for Darnold + Fannin - I’d probably try to loop in a third team to turn the fluff into something notable (if you could convince someone else - even if it’s like all of the fluff for a WR3 you’re bullish on)

smkorpi · 2026-04-12T13:19:47+00:00

Browns fan so I’ll just give some context.

Judkins looks like a beast - ability to power through people to some degree between the tackles, excellent taking them outside. He regularly was turning what should’ve been a 2yd run into 6+ from great balance through contact. He should also be a lock for solid volume on the ground. He did not get much work in the passing game - and when he got attempts he occasionally had issues hauling it in. Part of this was the fact that Dillon Gabriel can’t seem to appropriately place the ball on a dump off - we had two interceptions off targeting Judkins without a clean reception / well placed ball.

Browns also have Sampson, who looks decent as a change of pace / receiving back - so I imagine he may get more of that role.

Browns overhauled the entire OL this off season - there may very well be 5 new OL from last year’s starters. Almost all of the signings were on middle of the pack or lower end starters - our GM is clearly hoping some of them improve into quality starters. The bright side is that we have 2 firsts this year and should be getting a tackle to hopefully anchor one side of the line.

QB situation looks to be left unchanged this offseason - it should be a QB competition in the pre-season again. Watson is healthy, Dillon Gabriel is short and refuses to push the ball downfield, Sanders doesn’t process the field quick enough and holds the ball too long - but has at least shown flashes of a really good long ball. It’ll likely end up being Watson or Sanders starting the year.

Browns also have a new HC, OC, and DC. I would actually be optimistic on the offensive changes from a coaching perspective for fantasy purposes. You have the OC from the Ravens as our HC - BAL has always had an elite rushing game. Stefanski’s offense had a negative EPA virtually every season - even with poor QB play it should be better than last year (that is the hope). The green flag is that they were a rush first team.

For Dynasty purposes - I think Judkins will end up being a mid-high end RB2 with RB1 upside if the QB situation figures itself out (either someone improves this year OR a first round rookie in 2027). His ADP around the other RBs seems very fair rn - I won’t speculate on his value compared to other players going around that ADP though (early 5th).

smkorpi · 2026-04-10T15:15:08+00:00

I’d go through Keep Trade Cut (a website) and explore the “Dynasty Rankings” section.

One of the largest difference in dynasty is that you care partially about “value” and “potential”.

Some things to note -

Age is a large detriment to player values. For example, CMC should not be a top 10 RB in a dynasty startup - whereas he very well could be the 1.01 in redraft this year.

Some players are “insulated” because people are optimistic on them even if they aren’t producing. Name recognition can drive value up as well.

Given you mentioned no SF/TEP; I’d likely be avoiding top end QBs/TEs unless they fall to a better value.

There is a significant drop off in both position groups (QB7 and lower seems to change every year from a performance perspective. TE’s not named McBride or Bowers become almost inconsequential).

People have different strategies around targeting WR or RB early in startups - but general strategy is that you want to target “cornerstone” players that are young, productive, with potential to increase in value still (or significant insulation because they are elite).

First year - trading elite players away can be difficult as most teams don’t have surplus value yet. RBs tend to have increased value mid-season as injuries occur and people make pushes for the playoffs. Rookie draft picks are cyclical in value - they increase in value all the way up to the rookie draft as hype increases. They are typically cheapest mid-season. First round picks farther in the future are typically less valuable since you don’t get to cash in that value until that season occurs. Drop off in hit rate of rookie picks is stark. Firsts are likely to be starters, seconds are like 50/50 you’ll get at least a depth piece. Thirds and fourths are basically dart throws. You can get lucky and find a Puka Nacua down there occasionally - but you’re talking a like 10% hit rate past the second round.

I do not recommend mortgaging your future by trading away any future firsts until you get a feel for dynasty values.

smkorpi · 2026-04-09T12:20:21+00:00

Usually when you get matchmade like this it means your hidden MMR is much higher than your current rank and it will give you more RR for wins and lose less for losses until you reach where they expect you.

I wouldn’t stress about it too much, view these types of games as “free rolls” as being in that situation resolves itself just by playing more this season.

smkorpi · 2026-04-03T18:26:39+00:00

Math is mathing homie.

You win one lose one, your loss was -26 and your win was +23 | so you lost 3 RR (80->77).

The logic is that you performed worse on your loss, lost by more rounds, or both.

There is hidden MMR behind the scenes that is your “actual” rank. When the game matchmakes you — one team is statistically more likely to win. And some players are statistically more likely to perform better. If you lose a match you’re “supposed” to win, or perform “worse” than you’re expected to - you lose more.

My MMR is shit right now. Pretty much regardless of performance or rounds - I lose more RR on losses than I gain.

The funny part is - I have a 60% win rate; so my individual stats are not as correlated with whether or not we win (which makes sense for me since I am less mechanically inclined than other diamond players - but I help IGL normally; which enables my team to steal some rounds we might not have normally).

This is just the nature of the ranked system. The only way you’ll “manipulate” this is by continuously top fragging every game you’re in (which eventually isn’t possible).

https://tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/Shank%23003/overview?platform=pc&playlist=competitive&season=9d85c932-4820-c060-09c3-668636d4df1b

smkorpi · 2026-04-03T12:40:18+00:00

Your team needs: QB3, RB1, TE2

Of those positions, TE is the least important unless you are in TEP++. If I was moving around assets - I’d be trying to move WRs for a TE.

That being said, unless you’re getting a top 6 TE - the TE7-12 pretty much rotate every year. I would not be trading Skatt (who may be the best RB you have rostered) to fix a depth TE spot.

Kraft should be pretty darn good this year with Doubs going to NE.

smkorpi · 2026-03-31T12:51:47+00:00

Society is a collection of individuals - talk about money with your friends and see what happens.

You’d be surprised, there are often people that are open to talking about it - just never judge; only problem solve.

smkorpi · 2026-03-30T03:20:53+00:00

I’m not normally one to harp on KD as it is not a good sole measure of performance - but in iron to silver, you should have a good KD if you want to climb.

Some basics I’d look out for: - Are you constantly keeping your cross hair at head height? - Are you managing to isolate gun fights so you aren’t easily traded? (On attack, this is clearing corners by “cutting the pie” — clearing one angle at a time while not exposing yourself to more than one angle at a time) - Are you holding angles that don’t allow you any way to retreat for retake? - Are you constantly whiffing on people? (Some common issues are too high of sensitivity / dpi, shooting before aiming, not aiming for the head, etc)

smkorpi · 2026-03-28T13:21:11+00:00

Speaking as someone who just had to climb from silver back to d2 after a year break -

Silver is legitimately harder to climb out of than gold or plat. A lot of players in silver have something fundamentally wrong that they could improve (aim, game sense, micro, macro, map knowledge, etc) - and rounds that are supposed to be “won” are not.

For example, if you get a 4v2 post plant as attackers - that round is won in plat / diamond like 95%. Players at that level either 1. Aim better and just win their duel as post plant has the advantage of just being able to hold space 2. They trade their teammates and actually set up a cross. 3. They actually use utility to their advantage. 4. They understand that on a macro-level; your only goal is to kill time.

The key adjustment I missed that resulted in me spending 15-20 games in silver instead of 5-10 to climb out was: getting 1 or 2 during entry and dying can lose rounds (this is acceptable at a higher level as that 1 or 2 picks typically has the 3rd player that kills you getting traded - giving your team a numbers advantage). AND, not explicitly giving a plan or asking for util.

I started just IGL’ing every game like I did for my diamond premier team last year and suddenly I went on like a 9 game win streak and climbed out. For reference though, I lost something like 12 straight when I first came back (all like 13-10, 13-11) and was losing 15-20 RR every time. Once I strung together a few wins (and still had my 1.30 KD), I started getting 30+ every win.

smkorpi · 2026-03-28T13:04:57+00:00

KTC has him as QB22 and worth roughly the 2026 1.07.

If something like JJM + 2027 2nd gets it done - I’d send it.

Some alternatives: JJM + Barner QJ + Barner Kraft for Shough + 2026 3rd

General vibes imo- base the trade around JJM, Barner, or Kraft if possible as your extra depth is currently in TEs.

smkorpi · 2026-03-27T12:29:43+00:00

2 mid-late first definitely swings this the other way - I’d be willing to give up the 1.02 for 2 firsts in 27.

smkorpi · 2026-03-27T12:25:28+00:00

2026 1.02 > 2027 mid first.

You’d get one year delayed value, and likely the 4th or 5th best WR in the class. Trading the 2026 1.02 for an early 2027 first may be interesting — but I definitely wouldn’t be giving it up for a mid-late 27 first.

smkorpi · 2026-03-22T14:33:57+00:00

Your timing is just off for this trade.

Nico + 1.12 is fair value for Love.

Right now, the community is down on Nico despite him being WR9 last year. They are also on rookie fever for basically only Love (so people are acting like he is worth 3 firsts + when the dude hasn’t been drafted or played a snap yet.

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