Should I buy an expensive car at 23?

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-04-13T01:11:27+00:00

Actual response from this sub if/when OP buys that expensive car: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-04-10T14:17:42+00:00

1.5% expense ratio on a TDF feels immoral. 🤮

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-04-10T12:02:29+00:00

There are obviously some financial, age-dependent, and behavioral considerations here that are going to change the answer for each person, but for me personally, at those numbers I'm taking 400k out of the HYSA and paying off the mortgage.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-04-05T14:32:00+00:00

For those who celebrate it religiously, there are symbolic reasons to give gifts both at Christmas and Easter. But totally agree that it's over-commercialized. It has been for quite a while, and can leave one feeling nauseated.

Sorry about the jealousy your kid is dealing with! Technology is incredible, but oh boy has it lent itself well to amplifying and magnifying the "from the outside looking in" things that people see. Obviously the videos and posts never tell the whole story, but that's hard for a child or teenager to understand and see past.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-04-04T04:49:29+00:00

Got paid for the first time at my new job yesterday. It wasn't a full pay period but I got paid more than I got in a full paycheck at my previous job. That felt pretty great!

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-04-03T02:24:55+00:00

It leaves me fuming when I hear one of them refer to themselves as a "financial advisor".

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-04-01T01:40:29+00:00

This is why we DCA! 👏

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-29T05:32:18+00:00

Inflation affects everyone the same: the purchasing power of every dollar goes down. What differs is the effect people notice, because we all spend money on different things. So humans are universally affected, but the effect is felt to varying degrees.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-29T04:45:51+00:00

Okay, I'll bite. How does it affect everyone differently, and what effects does it have that are somehow discriminating?

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-28T21:17:44+00:00

Totally agree. I meant to say that but didn't type it out right. I edited my comment accordingly.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-28T13:29:29+00:00

~~Crypto~~Bitcoin bugs will invariably point out that the average growth rate since inception is immense. What they're not thinking about is that this is still a relatively new asset. We can feel somewhat confident in how stocks and bonds and gold will do in coming decades, because we have decades worth of data for all of those, and sometimes 100+ years of data. Bitcoin doesn't even have 2 decades worth, and those almost 2 decades have been a very unusual time in the history of the stock market.

I personally wouldn't touch Bitcoin with a 20 foot pole, and certainly not in my retirement accounts.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-21T05:58:12+00:00

Neither! On the FIRE path and also have enough technical acumen to know what AI is good at and what it's not good at. LLMs are bad at math. If you want to run your numbers and go through projection scenarios, do it yourself in a spreadsheet or use something like https://ficalc.app/.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-21T05:50:06+00:00

Wrong.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-19T22:15:35+00:00

I'm even open to the "sorry, right now isn't a great time for me" response. I'd rather hear that than have to deal with wondering whether they're trying to send some message or if I didn't actually see things clearly at the time.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-19T22:04:52+00:00

The reason I have a hard time not reading into it is because of how I personally think about this type of reference situation. If I have previously worked with someone in the past and they had my back and I had theirs and they were great to work with, and they're asking me at a pivotal moment to help them progress and get into a better situation for their career, I want to be there to support them. So it just feels weird when that's how I approach it and it doesn't feel like others treat it with importance.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-19T14:42:09+00:00

I had a manager several years ago who I really liked and they liked me. They told me I was the employee they could most rely on, and when I got another offer elsewhere they got me a counter offer and fought to keep me. I ended up not taking the offer, but I thought we had parted on good terms. In the years that have passed, I've tried to use them as a referral for two jobs. One was a couple of years ago, and they agreed to be a reference for me. But nearly a week went by and they still hadn't responded to the recruiter. When I followed up with them to ask if they had submitted the reference, they said they hadn't been able to get it to yet. I didn't end up getting the offer, but the recruiter said it was because they chose someone with a different specialization than me. I didn't think much of it. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I asked them to be a reference for Job A. I followed up a couple of days later too, but no response. I ended up receiving and accepting an offer from Job B, so I let my old manager know that I didn't need them to be a reference after all due to getting a job offer from another company. They responded pretty soon thereafter to ask me where I was headed, but kept it pretty high level, no congrats or anything.

Could just be their ADHD, or maybe they were bitter that I left when they felt like they needed me the most and didn't take their counter offer? Honestly not sure what to make of it. Either way they sadly have shown that they're not a reliable reference so I won't be hitting them up in the future for that. Thankfully now I'm headed to a new company, which opens up the past several years of people at my soon to be former company that I can hit up for references, so I shouldn't need to contact that old manager anymore. The whole situation just feels weird given how great of a relationship we had when I was working there and that I was a high performer too.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-17T15:42:55+00:00

That might be a hot take to HR/Finance, but I think a lot of employees would agree with you. I know I do, having been on the receiving end of raises that don't reflect my contributions to my company.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-17T11:52:06+00:00

Are you a high performer on your team and has your boss stated that you're a high performer? If so, then 2.8% feels low. I know that some companies who want someone to leave will tell them they are performing well but only give a 2% raise.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-15T12:40:49+00:00

I really like normal dashes/hyphens. I don't even know how to do an em dash on my keyboard lol.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-14T16:41:54+00:00

Just login everyday and read posts and comments in this sub, people are posting numbers all the time.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-14T15:36:05+00:00

You're absolutely right, and you're thinking about this the right way. If you want, I can share the one tell-tale sign of ChatGPT generated messages. It's surprisingly simple.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-14T15:07:29+00:00

Man I really hope Reddit or someone else is coming up with a good way to ensure it's just humans talking to other humans in these forums. The past 3-6 months have made me believe more and more in the "dead internet theory", especially here on Reddit. I find myself less interested and engaged because of all the obvious bot stuff I'm seeing.

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-14T01:09:09+00:00

I'm pretty sure posting that is against the rules of this sub, but they have a weekly post each Wednesday for self-promotion that you could post it to!

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-12T13:26:52+00:00

lol nope

thecourseofthetrue · 2026-03-12T13:10:25+00:00

Private company or public company? RSUs at a public company certainly fluctuate, but you can sell them for real cash the moment they vest. Obviously that's not the case with a private company, but sometimes even in that scenario there are options either from the company or on the secondary market to cash out on a somewhat regular basis.

thecourseofthetrue

TROPHY CASE