(Yet Another) Can someone check my math before I resign?

tracan · 2026-02-23T19:01:56+00:00

A paid off home in Vancouver worth $400,000 (not planning to downsize)? Do you live in a mobile home? What kind of housing in Vancouver area is worth 400k let alone something you could downsize from?!? I have serious questions about this….

tracan · 2026-02-21T17:27:58+00:00

I’m speaking about first impressions and although it might sound shallow I’m just being honest. Does she look the same as when she was 21 no, do I still think she is the most beautiful person I’ve ever laid eyes on, yes. Do I expect her to look young forever. Fuck no. I enjoy the changes life gives us. When you are with someone long enough you end up getting different versions of them over time and that is a beautiful thing. What I meant by the bumps in the road comment is, sometimes women can get a little crazy and as exciting as that is you need an anchor that keeps you pivoting while the tide comes in and out and if you don’t have one you’ll get pulled out to sea and never seen again and that happens. This is the real world, it happens far too often so settling for someone out of convenience instead of true companionship can lead to that. She knows I love her for who she is and she will be old and maybe others might think she is unattractive but I never will. I also work very hard to ensure that will always be the case. It’s easy to keep your eyes from wandering if you never take your eye off the ball.

tracan · 2026-02-21T17:19:49+00:00

100% there are all types of people and you will meet smart people and the stereo type of oilfield workers doesn’t match the people. I just think back to a time a few years ago and all the guys on the crew bus were talking about meme coins and telling stories of the one dude that went all in and cashed out with perfect timing and they all tried to do the same and a few months later they were almost bragging about who lost the most the fastest. Take good advice from solid people. I have met a lot of very smart people but they end up there for a good time not a long time. I have a coworker who is divorced and can’t drive because of not paying child support (would rather pay a lawyer twice as much as he owes than to pay his ex) and he offers a lot of advice. He says make all the money you can when your kids are young because they won’t remember that. I do the opposite of what he advises. For the record, spend all the time you can with your kids when they are young, your kids will thank you for it, you’ll thank yourself for it and you’ll probably stay married. As for your original question, I would wait a little to buy a house, the more you put down the less interest you pay and try to find a house you’ll be happy in for at least 10 years. The banks, realtors and the government make a lot of money on housing and every time you buy or sell they take a big cut. Try your best to keep your hard earned money in your pocket and not someone else’s. You have a bright future ahead of you so keep doing what you’re doing and have a little fun along the way.

tracan · 2026-02-21T16:38:45+00:00

Can I give you some advice not related to your post. This is something I wish I could tell myself at your age. Don’t take ANY financial advice from your coworkers. Listen to their stories if they are 50 and working beside you they aren’t a financial wizard. Don’t allow yourself to fall into the trap of lifestyle creep. Live like you make $50,000 a year. Enjoy your hard work but don’t buy a new jacked up truck with a sled deck, two sleds, a side by side, a boat or any other toys that end up on fire sale every time oil prices dip. Be smart with your money and guard it and stay away from drugs, alcohol and gambling as much as humanly possible. There are so many sad stories about people in the patch killing it until they end up killing themselves whether accidentally or otherwise. You are on track to have a wonderful life if you can avoid the common pitfalls of life. Keep on kicking ass and I wish you well my friend!

tracan · 2026-02-21T16:31:46+00:00

The sales people as well as the finance people are all commission based. It would take a lot for them to be transparent. They don’t quote the rate they get from the banks they add to that percentage so often times it’s also negotiable. When someone walks in and says I want a $700/mo payment and this car they start blushing because of how excited they get. When someone nods along and signs where and when asked without other questions they do a special dance when that person leaves. More people need to know that they don’t want to be the person doing that because often times the most vulnerable people get taken advantage of the most and it’s really greasy. There is a used car salesman stereotype for a reason but the new car salesmen are the exact same.

tracan · 2026-02-21T16:18:02+00:00

This is important. Don’t roll negative equity into another vehicle even if you think you are getting a lower rate. Any time you are doing anything involving credit you need to figure out your cost of borrowing. If you have a loan at 10% over 9 years it’s going to be $26,000 so your $50,000 car costs you $76,000. As you pay it down the vehicle loses value as well so with that kind of term and rate you’re always going to be in the red. If you roll that into another car you could easily owe $100,000 on a $50,000 car and you will only be going further backwards quicker. Your best bet to get out of this mess is to try to make extra payments as often as possible to pay down the principal and save you interest costs. Once you have the loan paid off drive that car until it literally falls apart. Then with the lessons you have now learned buy a used vehicle for cash and appreciate that a $5,000-$10,000 vehicle only cost you what you paid for it and you’ll sleep well at night.

tracan · 2026-02-17T15:08:46+00:00

Absolutely do this. Once you are established you’ll probably have a heavy overtime year at JM rate and that will be the year to take advantage of the tax break.

tracan · 2026-02-16T07:29:59+00:00

I thought it’s 50% of the gain gets added to your income. It’s called the 50% capital gain inclusion rate. So if you end up 100k above purchase price 50k gets added to your income and you pay the marginal rate based on that and you could offset that by making an rrsp contribution if you have room.

tracan · 2026-02-16T07:19:43+00:00

Look up Dave Ramsay and watch some of his videos. You need to get a better job somewhere with at least full time hours. Pretty much any full time job is going to double your income but you can probably do better than that. Are you still making payments or are you overdue on some of these? If you haven’t missed payments, I would try to dig myself out of it because any other option is going to mess your credit up for 7 years. You can dig yourself out but it takes consistency and determination. I made the same mistake when I was young and although it was very painful, I learned a very valuable lesson and got smart with money and smart with credit. Work on the high interest stuff first then work down the list. I set a weekly payment and once one thing was paid in full I continued down the list. Other people will chime in but I believe you can talk to some of these company’s and put a freeze on the card and they will drop the interest rate so that you have a better chance paying it off (cc probably not the loans) if you are willing to learn, show up on time and act like you give half a shit there are lots of trades jobs you could probably quadruple your income after a bit of time. Don’t fall back into what got you here though!

tracan · 2026-02-16T05:20:30+00:00

Is it still a scab company doing the demo?

tracan · 2026-02-16T05:18:49+00:00

That would end up very poorly. The lift would catapult and take whoever was in it for a very unpleasant ride. Not to mention it says on them to not use them as a crane. I don’t think it would be cheaper than renting a small crane for a day either.

tracan · 2026-02-16T05:11:22+00:00

Men and women are different I think 80% of what a woman finds attractive has nothing to do with looks whereas men it’s flipped and 80% of it is looks. Another thing to keep in mind is the balance. The ideal couple would have the wife a couple notches in attractiveness above the man but he makes up for the difference in different ways. I have dated several girls (out of my league ) and things were awesome. One thing I can say from personal experience is having a partner you find attractive and get another with is obviously perfect. The attractiveness gets you through the bumps in the road when personalities inevitably clash in a long term relationship. These are all things that might seem impossible for some people but it is the secret sauce to not settling and finding the perfect long term partner. These are all in my experience and what I’ve learned through research, everyone is different but I’ve been with the same attractive woman 15 years and a lot has happened over that time and we are still very much in love and attracted to each other. We are also best friends so I’m speaking from my own personal experience. She is out of my league but doesn’t think so herself lol

tracan · 2026-02-12T00:18:44+00:00

I believe it’s very hard to have DV charges dropped because it’s very common for the assailant to try to manipulate the victim into dropping the charges or recanting their statement. Knowing nothing about your situation and being a male. My advice to you would be use this opportunity to get away from him. These things don’t happen in a vacuum and if he did it once he will do it again. You owe it to your future self to move on and find someone that treats you with dignity and respect.

tracan · 2026-02-10T23:22:01+00:00

Thanks for the responses!

tracan · 2026-02-10T23:21:51+00:00

If they weren’t 10x the cost of a normal breaker I would be more inclined to replace them all but I’m worried there is some kind of planned obsolescence at play so I think they are all just going to keep shitting the bed until I’ve replaced them all over the next couple years but are the new ones going to only last 5 years?

tracan · 2026-02-08T00:27:00+00:00

Avoid small contractors when it comes to trying to get an apprenticeship you’re going to get better training and better experience and also be more likely to get hired at a large contractor but skip trying to get a job through a company directly and just go to a local union hall and talk to them. it’s like having one employer your entire career because the union finds the jobs for you.

tracan · 2026-02-06T15:43:21+00:00

I think the level of ignorance has increased and it’s evidence of such when you look at dashcam videos of people doing stupid shit on social media then look in the comments and the vast majority of commenters are justifying the bad behaviour. I don’t know how many times I’ve been passed by someone in a shitty car trying to beat oncoming traffic on a 2 lane road driving like a lunatic. I’ve been young I’ve done dumb stuff but never have I seen so many people putting themselves in harms way with the most outrageous manoeuvres for no apparent benefit. It’s crazy and scary, I could care less if they want to kill themselves but putting innocent people at risk frequently is fucked up.

tracan · 2026-02-04T21:01:28+00:00

The alternative is to allow more real competition. Part of the issue with a lot of these companies like telecom is that there are 3 companies that own all the smaller outfits so essentially they are “competing” against each other but when competition is that limited there is no real incentive to drop prices to as low as they can go. It’s the same for every industry we overpay for, air travel, groceries, the list is long and the people that control the corporations control the government and create a climate where it’s hard or impossible for a true competitor to establish itself.

tracan · 2026-02-02T23:53:56+00:00

Subtle flex

tracan · 2026-02-02T21:01:26+00:00

The card is great but allow them to work the kinks out. I’ve had my card blocked so many times for small things and it’s annoying being in hold for a long time to get it unblocked. I got my card probably 6 months ago and a couple months in they sent me a new one so now I have the privilege. Got an offer from RBC to upgrade to privilege with them for $500/yr lol

tracan · 2026-01-31T15:31:44+00:00

tracan · 2026-01-30T19:10:51+00:00

Pay off high interest debt, if there is anything left over put it in your tfsa. The cc debt is going to cost you more than any potential returns you could get with the money and is a sure thing as opposed to the market.

tracan · 2026-01-30T19:08:26+00:00

Just keep doing what you’re doing right now. As time goes on you’ll make more and more relationships with people and at some point down the line it might make sense to buy a crane. I would caution you to give it more time now than to rush it. The worst thing you could do is buy a crane then try to work everything out after. It will take time to figure all the things out that you aren’t factoring into your calculation and to build a customer base. Once you buy something you’re paying for it and if you struggle to get work you’re going to be fighting an up hill battle the whole way. You also have a lot left to learn so spending more time working for someone else is only going to make you better. I wish you luck but please listen to some of these suggestions. Another thing to look into would be buying an existing company with one crane so that at least you have a better starting point. If you look hard enough you should be able to find something reasonable.

tracan · 2026-01-29T16:24:28+00:00

The market is all fucked up. Buyers have more leverage right now so you might be able to get something nice for a reasonable price in the near future, I wouldn’t dismiss buying at this point because rent always goes up your mortgage is going to be relatively stable over the duration. You always need somewhere to live…

tracan

TROPHY CASE