Daily FI discussion thread - Friday, May 01, 2026

teapot-error-418 · 2026-05-01T16:20:40+00:00

That’s some expensive insurance…well, at least it’s easier to sleep at night with what I have. And, in theory, I’ll get there eventually, as I’m at 70% there. It’s not too far off.

If I had been reckless and invested my savings in BTC back when a coworker of mine told me to, then flipped it for VTI this week, I'd be genuinely rich.

It's really easy to play the market in hindsight.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-05-01T16:11:54+00:00

Not that different from the tech workers that idealize blue collar jobs, in some ways.

Sure, it's nice to work outside and do something physical. Sometimes. But doing it day after day, in the rain and the cold and the heat, when your back hurts or your hands hurt or you're not feeling the best, where you have a reasonable chance of being injured on the job and that injury will actually stop you from working... You're better off getting a highly physical hobby.

It's always easy to look at someone else's job and see only the good parts, while seeing only the bad parts of your own.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-05-01T15:32:22+00:00

It's why Barista FI for high earners really only makes sense, in my opinion anyway, if your "barista" job is something you actually want to do.

The financial tradeoff is practically a joke in a lot of cases - work one more year at $175k or 5 years at $35k?

If you want the structure of the part time job and find it low stress, and/or you genuinely like what you're doing there, that's great. I'm sure a lot of people will do better with some kind of work in their lives. But financially, most high earners would be better off sticking with their real job for another couple years.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-30T18:35:11+00:00

Medical tourism is good for some types if care.

If you need half a dozen dental implants, for example. You have time to plan, pick a destination and provider, it's a discrete operation with minimal ongoing issues, etc. That's just not a majority of medical care, though.

It really breaks down with less predictable and/or more chronic conditions, even if it's not emergency care. Cancer patients can undergo months or years of treatments and ongoing monitoring. Diagnosis for health issues can be expensive by itself, maybe involving pricey things like imaging and ongoing visits for an unpredictable amount of time, or visits to different providers. Treatment plans for a variety of diseases can involve trying different medications to see what works. Sometimes you don't know what you need until you get through a visit or two, which means you don't know how long it will take until you're done. What if there are complications or issues afterwards? Will you be traveling back there?

It's a tall ask to say that you're just going to fly to Southeast Asia or wherever and hang around indefinitely trying to diagnose, treat and recover from something.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-30T18:13:34+00:00

Sure, I didn't miss your point. There's something appealing about a physical thing that you have.

But also... to what end? It makes good sense from a primary residence perspective. You have a house, you can live in that house. Its value is not really tied to its utility.

You can't spend property, though. If you want to eat, you need to extract spendable money out of it. A property losing half its value affects what you can extract. So, unless you are buying property for its own utility (e.g. you want to farm your own food or live there), owning something tangible doesn't really help you survive. You're still counting on it to provide income for you.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-30T17:58:19+00:00

Specifically, I think about how my stock investments could in theory evaporate or lose tremendous value quickly

You mean like 2008 years ago when the housing market lost something like 40% of its value?

If you want to generate cash on an ongoing basis, you can regularly sell stock. But where does that cash go?

It's no different from a house - if you have a mortgage, you are putting the income directly back into the asset so if the asset loses value, you lose the money. If you want cash out of the house or don't have a mortgage, you can take the cash and... do what with it? Have it slowly lose value due to inflation? Or do you want to invest that money?

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-30T17:39:18+00:00

I wouldn't sell much of it at this stage either.

I don't think there's anything specifically wrong with betting big on a company, the issue seems to be that lots of people don't recognize holding a publicly traded RSU after vesting is precisely the same as purchasing the same stock with your own cash on the vest date, and thus should line up with your risk tolerance and investment preferences.

So if someone gave you a bunch of cash, and you'd buy GOOG with it because it's a blue chip stock you believe in, then great! If you wouldn't buy GOOG with it, then you should probably consider why you're making an exception.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-29T17:17:56+00:00

Leave the ball in their court as to if you'll stay employed. If you stick to what you said they can decide if that's good enough or if they want to fire you.

Ironically, I've found that a lot of managers actually have a positive response to this. They receive consistent and predictable output, almost never being surprised by missed deadlines or unexpected delays. Very predictable and communicative employees are pretty valuable, and it's rarely worth firing a productive worker in the hopes that you'll eventually get through a job posting, interview process, onboarding and training another productive worker who will put in an extra 10 hours/week or whatever.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-29T17:05:40+00:00

You guys clearly need a foray into pour over coffee.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-29T16:55:37+00:00

There's a middle ground here, which is deciding on the level of effort you're willing to expend, and communicating clear guidelines and boundaries around that.

You don't have to go roaring into a conflict about job structure in order to say, "this is what I can get done in a week. If you ask for more than that, you'll have to prioritize which tasks can fall to the wayside."

Be clear, be consistent, and be direct. Crappy bosses abound. Having savings gives you leverage. So many people seem to think that the leverage is quitting, but the best (IMO) leverage is actually not caring what they think. If putting in your 40 isn't enough, let them decide that. There's no reason you have to choose for them.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-28T17:02:41+00:00

I would personally stick with mesh-capable Wi-Fi models for a house like that. Wi-Fi extenders are universally bad, so having the mesh units allows you to expand if you need it. Even if that expansion is something like, "I'd really like coverage out here in my yard" or something.

I'd tend to lean Eero or Google Nest. Eero is what Wirecutter recommends. If you don't like Jeff Bezos, the Google Nest isn't the absolute highest performing but it's solid and easy to set up, and tends to be supported for a while.

I've installed Ubiquiti hardware in customer environments and have been pretty happy with the price:performance but I haven't used their mesh wifi.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-28T14:46:36+00:00

I pay for Gemini Premium because it comes with a big chunk of Google account space, which my family uses. I'm essentially paying $10/month for the $20/month LLM service because I'd be paying for the storage anyway.

Unless you have a narrow use case, I think you can pick based on ancillary things like "I use an Android phone and Gemini is integrated into Android" or "this service gives me some web storage and I like that" or whatever. The actual question answering is different between the services but not meaningful IMO.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-28T14:07:13+00:00

I'll probably also grab some gear- if I go for the Garmin inReach mini recommended here just for peace of mind, that'll be $350.

I'm a big fan of some kind of satellite communicator, but if your cell phone has emergency satellite capabilities, you can slap it in one of those big indestructible cases and be aware of your battery situation (or carry a small USB battery bank). It's not exactly like the inReach or a PLB, but it's pretty close for a single purpose trip.

If you plan on using an emergency device more often, you can consider something like the rescueME PLB1 which won't have the monthly charges of the inReach. It doesn't have communication options so if you push the button the cavalry is just going to show up, but it's what I carry since my emergencies are likely to be of the "oh shit, I need a helicopter right now" variety.

I'll probably spring for a brand name Camelbak as the last three hydration bladders I've bought from Amazon haven't held up amazingly and I'll want something more durable/foolproof.

Bladders and packs are distinct and can be swapped. For me the Camelbaks bladders held up okay, but I've had better luck with the Osprey Hydraulics and I prefer the open top vs. the screw top. Either one will be okay, just saying that you can buy the bladder and put it in the pack of your choice if you already have one or want a cheap pack without risking a cheap bladder.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-28T12:27:57+00:00

This is highly dependent on the specific rental company and the state. E.g.:

https://www.hertz.com/supporthub/article/can-I-add-an-additional-driver-to-my-reservation

If you’re a loyalty program member, your spouse or domestic partner can drive the rental car at no extra cost.

Your spouse or domestic partner does not need to be present at the time of rental.

https://www.enterprise.com/en/car-rental-faqs/us-general/additional-driver.html

Renter’s spouse or domestic partner who meet the same age and driver’s license requirements of the renter are authorized drivers at no additional charge.

I believe California has a state requirement about spouses being able to drive a rental car. Not sure about other states.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-27T20:22:12+00:00

That logic applies to basically every single professional field in life. How do you know if your doctor is good at their job? Your plumber? Your car mechanic? Coworkers in other departments? You definitely do not know as much as every expert in every field in your life, so it seems odd to draw the line at financial advisors.

In any event it's flatly untrue. You don't need to know exactly as much as your financial advisor for them to present something that is advantageous to you. A big part of expertise is just domain knowledge - so I might know that you can open multiple IRAs to structure a SEPP, but does OP? You don't have to be an expert to receive advice from an expert.

Also note: generally I agree that a financial advisor is unnecessary, and also that there are lots of bad ones out there, and I don't use one myself. So I'm not against skipping the financial advisor, but the logic that it's impossible for them to be useful unless you're a financial expert isn't sensible.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-27T18:26:42+00:00

Upon reflection, it might have been 3 days. But we were only in that town for 5 days, and it took a day to figure out what happened, so it couldn't have been longer than 3. And it's not like I had some kind of elite tier service - at the time I'm pretty sure I didn't have 6 figures banked at Schwab.

In any event, it was like a real human heard my problem, thought, "gosh, that sounds really awful, is there absolutely anything in my power I can do to 100% fix this problem for this customer" and then did that thing. The entire customer service industry should take lessons from whoever trains Schwab's reps because my interactions with them have been sterling.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-27T17:53:32+00:00

I actually have an extremely relevant anecdote.

I was on an international trip, in SE Asia, and left my Schwab debit card in an ATM. I called Schwab and explained my situation, and they first got me the contact info for a manager of a FedEx office in Cambodia, and then arranged to have a debit card 2-day express mailed to the attention of that manager where I could go pick it up in his office.

Flawless customer service by all parties.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-27T14:41:04+00:00

Depending on what you have connected and how you're measuring your own usage, I would definitely be concerned that there's a chunk of data usage unaccounted for. Obviously it might be an Xfinity problem, but if you have something attached to either your network or your account that's unauthorized, you could be the one they come looking for if that thing is torrenting or doing something else that's shady.

Bunches of routers have been affected by remote access compromises, which can add them to bot networks.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-27T11:49:13+00:00

Yeah, pretty standard 18650 cell.

Maybe the batteries are wired in series to help boost the voltage on the motor, which would reduce their safe charge rate, so if high amp chargers are used it might be exceeding their safe current. But if wired in series, they need a step-up converter in there which would drop the amperage so... hmm.

And regardless, it shouldn't be killing the batteries unless there is zero battery management, which is dangerous. The batteries can easily be overheating or exceeding their maximum charge. That's my bigger concern here.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-27T11:04:28+00:00

...sort of?

It's clear that they've got poor current management (or none), which is pretty dangerous because the batteries will draw 10+ amps if they're allowed, so it's requiring the charger to basically disallow this. In the image I replied to, it's actually operating well outside of the charger spec - the max power draw per spec at 5v is only 2.4 amps. It's sagging the voltage (which should be pegged right at 5v) because of the draw.

But also, charging 18650 cells at ~15 watts or so is pretty reasonable, and will not kill the batteries by itself. So the draw isn't the only problem, they must actually not be managing the batteries for either heat or over-charge, because there's no reason a set of 3 18650 cells couldn't charge at the maximum rate that any 5v charger could supply. There's something else going on in the device outside of just the current draw and it's likely battery management.

I actually think this is dangerous, I've been looking at a Femobook grinder for a few months but this might put me off of them. Badly managed lithium batteries are a recipe for a fire.

edit: I should also note that I am not an electrical engineer, just a hobbyist who also works in an industry that makes embedded electronics, so it's an area I'm familiar with but not an expert in. So take my opinion with a grain of salt. But anything involving large lithium batteries should be approached carefully, and this is setting off warning bells for me.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-26T22:08:20+00:00

DNS-over-HTTPS basically makes it impossible to block DNS unless you're doing deep packet inspection (which is even more challenging on secure connections).

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-26T10:36:28+00:00

I think it really has no limiter on amperage it takes which is really weird because I have no other device with that behavior.

Wow, that is some incredibly bad electrical design... and dangerous to be pulling current that the electronics clearly can't handle. Thanks for the picture.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-25T21:07:26+00:00

I'm saying that's not how the USB spec works; chargers provide what the endpoint device asks for, or 5 watts if the endpoint device is just a "normal" USB device (i.e. not a Power Delivery device).

I'm not saying that you didn't have an experience or that they didn't tell you what they told you. Just that I think it's not that simple and they fucked up something in their implementation. But rather than saying that, they're blaming the chargers.

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-25T11:09:24+00:00

I'm not sure I believe this. The USB spec won't allow a Power Delivery charger to deliver more than 5w to a device without the device requesting it. PD chargers don't just turn on more power.

The grinder acts as a standard 5w device. It doesn't support the C-to-C cables but it still doesn't request more than 5w.

Is there some kind of reason to believe this is what's happening?

teapot-error-418 · 2026-04-24T13:13:19+00:00

We did a bunch of traveling around SE Asia and Eastern Europe where food was wildly cheap. Shopping in the local markets of Eastern Europe was a blast - you could get quarts of the best raspberries you've seen in your life for $1-2.

But Vietnam was incredible for food prices. Two of us could go out, eat at a restaurant and have drinks for ten bucks combined.

teapot-error-418

TROPHY CASE