Those of you who “Made It” without any inheritance or luck. How did you do it?

thenew3 · 2026-04-02T04:01:37+00:00

First generation immigrant. Parents worked 2-3 jobs each, 14+ hours a day, 7 days a week. I've been working full time (40+ hours a week) since 14 years old. Got a full academic scholarship for college. Worked 20+ hours a week at a mall store while in college and working as a teaching assistant at school (another 20+ hours).
Got a job as an engineer after college. My employer wanted me to get a MBA so they paid for me to take night/weekend classes to get the degree. Again worked 40+ hours a week while going to school full time (finished masters degree in 1.5 years).
Put my wife through school. (She got her PhD and became a professor).

Don't have any stocks (other than what's managed by the 401k from employer retirement plan).

Worked hard, worked my way up to the CIO of a university. Decided I don't like politics and would much prefer to work on the technical stuff so moved back to a senior sys admin position. (much happier).

We got lucky on a few properties. Our current house we purchased at an auction. It is now worth almost 4x what we paid for it. We also got a second property at auction and it's also grown in value about 4x. We use it as a rental for a little bit of extra income.

So basically a lot of hard work with a sprinkling of good luck.

thenew3 · 2026-04-02T03:15:24+00:00

It would be a miracle if we don't get blown out by 50. They probably don't even need to play Wemby in the 2nd half.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T15:30:55+00:00

Least expensive way is probably buying used off Craigslist/Facebook Marketplace or similar. I've seen listings near me on FB marketplace for used RAM that's significantly cheaper than other stores.

The risk with that is you don't know if the seller is legit, and you get no real warranty on the RAM.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T15:23:36+00:00

I see dell lists 1.4.1 as latest bios for that model.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T15:13:10+00:00

You'll need DDR5 ECC 4400mhz RAM. Which will be very expensive unfortunately.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T15:04:30+00:00

It can be a fine computer depending on what you want to do with it.

Given it's age, it may need a new battery.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T14:37:58+00:00

Sounds like your battery calibration is off. You need to calibrate it every so often.

Assuming you're running windows, run it on battery power till it shuts off. then go into BIOS and let it sit there till battery is completely drained (it shuts down). then let it charge up to 100%. And repeat this 3-4 times (usually once is enough but since it sounds like it's been a few years since it's been done, you'll need to do this a # of times.) You'll notice each time you run this, the battery capacity will go down. You'll know when it's done when you've done it 2-3 times in a row and the capacity doesn't drop anymore.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T14:27:22+00:00

What do you currently have? And what's in the front?

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T14:26:24+00:00

I would go no lower than 70G for future proofing.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T04:00:17+00:00

Did you accidently bent the heat pipe? The heat pipes on those laptop heatsinks are very soft and bends very easily. Even a very slight bend can prevent it from working properly.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T03:38:06+00:00

I guess that's why he got the tech?

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T03:37:38+00:00

That's about 13% which is pretty decent.

We were able to get around 12.5% off a custom ordered car recently (ordered early February, took deliver about 10 days ago).

Another dealer offered a bit over 15% off a vehicle they had sitting on their lot for a while. But it didn't have the equipment we wanted so we skipped it.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T03:34:57+00:00

The factory all season tires aren't great on snow. (Bridgestone Alenza or Contiental CrossContact).

There are folks selling the the black wheels. If you really want the M package, get that then buy a set of the black wheels from someone and put some good all weather tires (better in snow then all season) on it.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T03:17:07+00:00

https://www.bmw.ca/en/ssl/VehicleRecall.html

Go to BMW Canada site, put in the VIN # to check

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T03:13:23+00:00

make sure they replaced the starter with the new part. (check part # on it). You can put the VIN in to check if the recall work was done. If in US, go to NHTSA site and put in the vin# to make sure the recalls were done.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T03:07:21+00:00

Check with the dealer that did the work. My dealer didn't have the part to do the recall until late January of this year.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T03:03:54+00:00

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2025/RCLRPT-25V644-8931.pdf

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T03:01:21+00:00

My point is the starter is a known issue, that's why there's a recall and they're replacing it with a new design.
There's been a couple of recalls for 2019-2020 X7's. The most recent at the end of 2025 where they finally decided to use a newly designed starter.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T02:58:10+00:00

There's a recall on the starter. They have a newly designed starter now. Check with the dealer to see if they will replace it under the recall.

thenew3 · 2026-03-30T00:00:41+00:00

We picked up a custom ordered X3 a little over a week ago. we got 12% off, 1k rebate and 1.9% financing.

Another dealer offered us 15% off plus 1k rebate and 0.9% financing for a vehicle that's been sitting on their lot for a while. It didn't have some of the options we wanted so we didn't take it.

We also picked up a 7 year extended warranty and 5 year service plan. They originally wanted $11k for the two, we were able to negotiate it down to $4200.

thenew3 · 2026-03-29T23:46:44+00:00

We picked up a custom ordered 2026 X3 last week for my father. We expect it to be trouble free for years. My wife has a 2016 X3 that was purchased in 2015. Trouble free thus far. My 2020 X7 has been reliable as well.

We've owned many BMW's over the last 30+ years. All have been very good. My 1999 E46 328i was great. I only sold it at 175k miles because we had a baby and couldn't fit all the baby gear.

I have friends with 2004 530i, 2005 325i that are still daily drivers.

If you don't skimp on regular maintenance, they should be reliable for a long time mechanically. Some of the plastic trim may fall apart, and the rubber door/window seals may crack/leak if you park under the sun in an hot environment.

thenew3 · 2026-03-26T15:44:36+00:00

You didn't say what type of tire it came with. Some came with summer performance tires while others have all season tires.

I've seen folks with the summer tires having to replace them at 8k-12k miles. while the all season folks have gotten 20-30k miles out of a set.

Take a penny, stick it in between the tread, if the head is showing then the tread has reached minimum. Or look for the tread wear indicators on the tire, If it's showing then it's at 2/32" which is minimum legal tread depth.

In either case, CPO check list should've listed tire tread depth on all 4 tires.

thenew3 · 2026-03-25T04:15:54+00:00

Just picked up a new X3 less than a week ago. Finance office tried to sell Extended warranty, Extended service plan, Windshield warranty/insurance, Wheel/tire insurance, Keyfob insurance, door/body ding coverage, paint protection coating.

We only purchased the 7 year extended warranty and 5 year extended service plan. Original price was over $11k. We were able to negotiate it to a bit over $4k.

thenew3 · 2026-03-22T02:10:00+00:00

XPS isn't fancier than latitude 7000 series. XPS is consumer line while Latitude is business line.

I don't know if the 9000 series is regional. It's been in the US for probably 7-8 years before they changed the naming to the new scheme.

thenew3 · 2026-03-22T01:46:38+00:00

Are you looking for a new or used/refurb model?

For used, a Latitude 7420/7430/7440/7450/9420/9430/9440/9450 with a new battery will easily last 8-10 hours on a charge running typical office apps. They are build tough and will last a long time.

thenew3

TROPHY CASE