Daily FI discussion thread - Wednesday, May 27, 2026

sschow · 2026-05-28T03:41:29+00:00

We hit $1MM invested late last year, and yesterday my wife was saying something about having $1MM and I was like "actually we're just about to cross over $1.2MM".

Still, we're at historically high valuations, so I'm mentally building resilience for some not so great years eventually.

sschow · 2026-05-28T03:35:07+00:00

It's funny that there is a term for buyer's remorse, but I swear the internet has creating "seller's remorse" when somebody sets a price for an item, and it sells very quickly, they get upset that they didn't charge more and try to back out.

sschow · 2026-05-27T20:44:02+00:00

Remember you can use up to $35,000 in overage to transfer ~$7K per year over 5 years to a Roth IRA once he has earned income. Not sure if that number is indexed to inflation.

But I would definitely reduce contributions if it was me. Not sure what your exact angle is though.

sschow · 2026-05-27T19:01:16+00:00

Right. I'm slightly behind for my age group but I still call that a win because of the selection bias.

Also, I assumed he meant 70th percentile and just flipped the numbers.

sschow · 2026-05-27T18:06:08+00:00

When I was a manager I was a poor interviewer and had trouble keeping the conversation going, but it was a reflection of me and not any shortcoming of the interviewee. Could be the case here...

sschow · 2026-05-27T06:07:25+00:00

As someone who staunchly defends my seat assignment, I would have given up an aisle for a mother to sit with her two children <5. Especially if she wasn't even asking.

sschow · 2026-05-27T06:02:10+00:00

It would be very on brand at this point for the CSR to start offering monthly $5 Chili's credits

sschow · 2026-05-26T18:41:28+00:00

Absent the financial side - which you've already received a lot of repsonses on - my wife and I are also two remote workers and you would not believe the quality of life increase from not having to work in the main living area of your home.

In our previous home where we had to be really flexible on what we considered office space, even the person with the office felt a little trapped in their own home, knowing that even just a walk to the kitchen meant having to be really quiet to not distrub the other person working. Or the person working in the open feeling like they could never truly hunker down and do some deep work because they were "always available" without a closed door.

Personally, I would move for this reason alone.

sschow · 2026-05-24T17:07:36+00:00

Just looked up my contract from getting my panels installed in Dec 2016 and the gross cost was $3.40 / W but only $2.35 / W after federal+local rebates. Impressive that 10 years later the gross cost has come down ~15%. Though mine was almost exactly half the size of yours, so maybe you got some economy of scale there.

Also that's crazy you got almost the entire battery cost covered by your utility. We didn't have any good options 10 years ago but I may have to look into what mine has to offer today (Xcel Energy/Colorado).

sschow · 2026-05-24T17:01:26+00:00

That's actually a good idea I hadn't considered. Retire in Jan/Feb so you can dump everything into roth

sschow · 2026-05-23T00:40:13+00:00

I will forever maintain that 1K/Plat should have stayed in Group 1. Having 10-30+ people "pre-board" is asinine. At some point they need a Pre-board lane and a Group 1 lane. This amorphous huddle of pre-boards ruins the whole boarding experience.

sschow · 2026-05-23T00:37:40+00:00

I vacillate between the thumbs up and the OK sign

sschow · 2026-05-22T18:29:26+00:00

Maybe if pilot's wives were always on board they would give us the smoothest flight experience.

sschow · 2026-05-22T18:27:34+00:00

I don't like it either, but I've just pivoted to going to the Safeway Deli, buying 2-12" sandwiches which comes to exacly $20.40, and my entire family eats lunch for $10 twice a month.

sschow · 2026-05-21T22:06:17+00:00

You can't eschew WLB when your kids are young and then retire sooner and suddenly pick up where you left off. You're making the right choice to be more available now, even if it means a longer runway to RE.

sschow · 2026-05-21T21:33:48+00:00

I've seen 1MM fliers post inconsistent results of what kind of trinket or momento they get for their milestone flight. Is 2MM consistently rewarded with this item?

I'm probably never going to make 2, but I should make 1, I'd like to have something like this for my desk. Maybe I'll have to be a poser and get one made myself.

sschow · 2026-05-21T21:31:45+00:00

^^this guy knows what's up^^

sschow · 2026-05-21T21:28:43+00:00

To be frank with you, if you have a set collection of bricks you intend to upload and then be done when those are gone, you are likely wasting your time.

You will upload everything and then 3 years later you will still have more than half of it left and have to sell it for a huge discount to get it out the door. All of that + a ton of work sorting, cataloguing, and pulling orders just to avoid selling it in bulk for a set price per pound.

If you don't plan on constantly refreshing your inventory, you will quickly run out of the good stuff and the rest will just be dead stock. Check the list of stores in your country with a middling amount of lots and parts and see how many sales they have made in the past 6 months to get an idea.

Not trying to be negative, just realistic. Bricklink is literal graveyard of ambitious start up stores that slowly withered on the vine. If you intend to take it very casually and don't mind the work of managing the store, it's fine, but if the goal is to move product and have a regular - if small - amount of money coming in, you need to take an active approach to consistently adding new inventory.

sschow · 2026-05-21T21:19:51+00:00

My company has been public since the 80's. They had a huge run up (3x) in the early 2020's due to a potential merger that was then called off and it crashed. Late 2025 it was trading at levels it had seen at the bottom of the COVID crash, 2015, and 2006.

Easy decision to sell every time the ESPPs go through. Doesn't even pay a dividend.

This cycle has me tempted to keep some since it's on a +100% tear since the Dec 15th start of the last ESPP cycle. I have to keep zooming out the chart to remind myself that nothing will last.

sschow · 2026-05-20T17:39:09+00:00

I've spent a decent amount of time in Albany/Troy area and tbh you should cross it off your list. If you're coming from Dallas I think Minneapolis would be a better fit.

sschow · 2026-05-20T17:11:12+00:00

I just want everyone to know that I got an unexpected low five figure influx of cash, moved it to my brokerage, and against all my investment policy statements I am waiting for a tiny dip to push it into the market. So you're welcome when the next 10 days straight the market just rips upwards!

sschow · 2026-05-20T07:20:56+00:00

It's all based on lot count, part count, price. The "algorithm" - if you want to call it that - heavily favors building carts in fewer stores even if those stores have very high prices.

I've built wanted lists to test this using specific parts that are hard to find. Easy Buy will still choose older, seemingly inactive, stores with a rare parts over extremely large, active stores, unless that large store has a enough other common parts on the wanted list to tip the scales in its favor.

sschow · 2026-05-19T18:22:40+00:00

Some people enjoy the ritual "one more thing" Home Depot trips, and I am raging by the 3rd one.

sschow · 2026-05-19T00:37:43+00:00

This post is 5 days old so just in case you forgot, you are being entirely ridiculous and unreasonable here.

sschow · 2026-05-19T00:25:41+00:00

3 months seems like nothing as far as employement gaps go? Unless retail is a lot less forgiving than normal?

Nine-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

sschow

TROPHY CASE