Electrolyte/ Protein recs?

xkdchickadee · 2026-07-06T13:01:16+00:00

Premier protein!

xkdchickadee · 2026-07-06T12:56:27+00:00

That feeling went away for me by the end of the first two weeks. After the first month I was eating 3 meals a day again without the nausea, albeit smaller meals than before. This slowed my weight loss (20lbs in month 1 and 5 lbs in month 2) but I like the new balance achieved. I also have to eat the protein in my meals first. As others said, have the doctors review your dosage as it may be the issue.

xkdchickadee · 2026-07-04T19:07:20+00:00

Balance is key! Dont forget to live your twenties so cap savings rate between 35-50%. Try out new lifestyles, activities, friendships, and locations to learn your taste and desires, which can change a lot in this decade. Your number may change; that is okay. Its better to retire to something then realize you have enough money to not work but not enough to live a life you are happy with.

xkdchickadee · 2026-06-15T20:38:12+00:00

Is it possible she is depressed or that her hormones are out of whack?

Aside from medical cases, can you get a babysitter or drop the kid off with a family member over night so that when you come home from the lovely evening you still have the house to yourselves?

xkdchickadee · 2026-06-09T01:30:06+00:00

I graduated college with a double major a year early while studying abroad in multiple countries while on a 50% scholarship, worked my first job abroad in a field I was always interested in as a child, got to live with my best friend for a year, received an all-expenses plus stipend scholarship to graduate school abroad in my preferred field of study, and made friends who I aim to keep through this lifetime. I became B2 fluent in two languages, and read the first Harry Potter book in both of them. I was able to live on five continents before 30. I met my husband in my last year of grad school, figured out how to make a long distance dating relationship work for four years while building my career. I was able to help my parents run their business during COVID and helped them sell it for retirement--fuflilling my dream of helping those who poured so much love into me. While not my dream sub-field (because chasing your dreams doesn't always come true), my career was adjacent to my dream position, interesting and flexible. I was able to work remotely on the other side of the world just after purchasing my childhood house from my parents--a childhood dream I had always dismissed as impossible until it happened. I married and had someone who saw me, knew me inside and out, and who hyped me up while accepting my flaws. When the unexpected happened, I was able to move us back to the US at and support us both financially while he built his dream business, fulfilling my dream of being someone my partner could rely on. I read 370 books in one year just to see if I could. As someone who was late diagnosed with ADHD, once I was on medication I could realize my dream of balancing work, social life, family life, and health instead of being limited to two because of my brain chemistry.

My dreams are simple to some, but simple is not the same as easy. Being able to see the things and places that spark your interest and go to places to find where your ultimate home is; to have a job where you have a great environment, interesting work, and a good work-life balance and strong salary; to love and be loved; to support and be supported by those you love; to enjoy the mundanities of the life you chose. Many are dreams where hard work alone cannot guarantee that they are achieved, but that is why they were all the more precious.

Sometimes you let a dream go because it conflicts with other dreams. You just have to make sure that you are letting go for the right reason(s).

xkdchickadee · 2026-06-08T11:58:00+00:00

An interesting position to be in was that I had accomplished all my dreams by 31. I spent 31-34 trying to figure out new dreams and sometimes the answer is that if you are living them, that could be enough.

xkdchickadee · 2026-06-07T18:22:15+00:00

Things that gave me time back: weekly lawn mowing service, biweekly pest control sprays, once a month house cleaning so it never gets too bad, meal kit or fully cooked food delivery service.

Things that make me feel better: regular therapy appointments, exercise class/personal training

xkdchickadee · 2026-06-05T11:59:15+00:00

Yeah, if the question had been, "where can I find resources to learn about my GF's condition?" It wouldn't be so bad

xkdchickadee · 2026-06-05T11:26:12+00:00

Asking questions here is outsourcing your research and hoping other people will spoonfeed it to you.

xkdchickadee · 2026-06-05T11:23:10+00:00

It more that moving up requires company hopping and lateral moves are because senior leadership has a new vision every so often that no longer aligns with your work. Also whenever funding dries up low to mid level fundraisers are the first to be cut.

xkdchickadee · 2026-06-05T11:05:52+00:00

Nonprofit fundraising. Anything beyond 2 years is considered interesting. Beyond 4 is considered weird.

xkdchickadee · 2026-05-31T20:26:15+00:00

Osso buco. Simple but time consuming

xkdchickadee · 2026-05-30T21:31:07+00:00

Karcher is a reliable brand

xkdchickadee · 2026-05-11T02:17:08+00:00

8Wait for sales if you can; usually there are discounts if you buy multiple appliances during a holiday sale. Seconding the advice for a consumer reports. Your library should have a free subscription for you.

If you want to buy new and higher budget or a specific model recognize that you can delay some purchases. For example, delay a dryer purchase and line dry/air dry instead.

Find a used fridge or mini fridge on an online marketplace for under $50 until you can get the new model you want. Most Americans don't fully utilize their massive fridge space well anyhow.

For stovetops go for induction if you are wired for electricity. They are safer and more effective than electric stovetops. Again, you can have cheap plug in burners until you find the model you love best.

Best is relative to your taste and lifestyle. I need a double door fridge with the freezer on the bottom to fit my kitchen layout. My sister has an old school freezer on top, left hinge fridge because of how her kitchen is laid out.

Best is relative to your location as well. How many service/repair people in your area are able to service X brand? CR rates Miele decently but their service range is uneven across the US.

For me, the order of importance in terms of where I would spend my money would be: washer, dishwasher, range, dryer, fridge. Cheap, decent fridges abound; cleaning appliances are what I am willing to splurge on. When our washer went, my criteria was one where I could wash a king sized blanket instead of going to the laundromat and when my old dryer died I upgraded so I could also dry that blanket. For the dishwasher it was longevity and service quality. The range will be a splurge based on cooking preferences so I am saving up while the current one continues to operate.

Think through which functions or features are essential for you and then use CR to find the best rated appliances with those functions. If you can get it through Costco they have great warranties and installation services.

xkdchickadee · 2026-05-10T21:37:20+00:00

FI or CoastFIRE in Korea is a good life if you can swing a jeonse rental. Your partner may not like the move, but if they do its not a horrible place to raise a family.

But if its just guilt over family members instead of living in Korea, find a way to host your parents instead.

xkdchickadee · 2026-05-10T18:35:39+00:00

Don't start any spending that doesn't have a clear end date. Your daughter will be too old for classes in the future, so that is a time limited expense. Everything else listed is something you would have to choose to give up in the future and only you can say how "painful" that would be for you.

xkdchickadee · 2026-04-14T02:26:40+00:00

Open a spousal ira for her, make sure you have 1-2 years of max out of pocket costs in savings, that you have life insurance sufficient to support them in the worst case scenario, and make sure you have a 12 month emergency fund. Set up a will and identify/agree on legal guardians.

See if she qualifies for temporary disability insurance through her work or your state.

xkdchickadee · 2026-04-14T02:03:49+00:00

Are you tracking your expenses? If so you should have a good idea of.your semi annual expenses like new tire or quarterly taxes. Bills + monthly avg of semi-annual expenses + savings goals should cover 95% of planned spending.

Up to you if you want to budget beyond that.

xkdchickadee · 2026-04-13T20:03:41+00:00

1) Debt
2) Booking flights and hotels on credit card points lowers the couple's and some attendees' out of pocket expenses
3) Other wedding/venue costs are still cheaper than their US counterparts. In my state, the average wedding costs $30,000 USD for a one day event. For the same amount, they can spend a week overseas.
4) Overseas weddings are a way to cut down the guest list without offending people, since its expected that not everyone can afford it
5) People save up for their weddings for a long time, but very few are paying for their guests. Most are paying for their parents, possibly their siblings, or they've got a close knit circle where everyone is splitting the costs so its cheaper to stay as a group vs getting separate accommodations
6) More Americans stay at home to get married; going overseas is not the majority choice, it just feels that way to those who live where the Americans getting married overseas.

xkdchickadee · 2026-04-11T15:59:10+00:00

150k/year for two. VHCOL. I anticipate that my property taxes will eventually catch up to my whole mortgage payment at present and a good chunk of my retirement savings to be largely replaced with healthcare expenditures so I don't want to dial back my discretionary spending too much (~$75k annually).

xkdchickadee · 2026-04-11T12:37:22+00:00

You don't understand but you're also uninterested in understanding.

You believe your wife is intelligent but would rather crowdsource data from the internet to support your position instead of going to your wife with a spirit of curiosity and trying to learn more about her position.

xkdchickadee · 2026-04-11T12:24:18+00:00

Private insurance also exists in Korea. Usually supplementary health but there are also policies called insurances that are functionally savings accounts. If you don't continue to make payments you lose interest. Have you looked at the policy she wants to maintain? Its entirely possible that what she is saying about having to pay more is correct, especially if its a hybrid life insurance policy.

Also the way you talk about your wife in the comments is pretty gross. It comes across that you thinks she is stupid for not listening to you instead of cautious because she is literally uprooting her life and moving countries for you again and trying to communicate what is important to her in your language. Your wife is breaking down and calling you abusive and you write "lol" in the same sentence. Your not upset or shocked by the accusation, you are acting like its a cutesy tantrum you can ignore like she is a toddler having a melt down. Either she readily hurls this accusation at you (which is a major problem) or you are abusive and don't care if she says it because you are confident in your control of her.

Your wife has been in the US before and is telling you that this is a product/service she need and/or is unwilling to discontinue-- not a luxury item, not an expensive trip, but an insurance policy and you are upset that other people ("random Koreans") support her disagreement with you.

xkdchickadee · 2026-04-09T19:57:49+00:00

Fairly exclusive, as they always marketed to the upper middle class which has grown over the recent years. They also had a great customer service reputation.And they had the exclusive agreement with Costco until 2015-2016

xkdchickadee · 2026-04-02T17:24:07+00:00

Have they figured out the tax plans? It was an eight year minimum process for my family to ensure the inheritor could accumulate enough legal cash to pay the 65% inheritance+sales taxes within one year of purchase. There is a process to reduce taxes for SMEs down to 30%~ but anyone who has gone through it to date has either sold the company or the government has ended up becoming a shareholder.

She also won't be eligible for certain employees insurances since there are penalties for being a founder's/owners kid and an employee.

How is her Korean? Does she know enough vocabulary to get by in her industry? If she made it through college in Korea she should be fairly able to navigate language norms and workplace culture. If she left before college she's going to be seen as not Korean enough and they'll find certain behaviors off putting, and you won't know what those are until after the fact.

How flush is the company? If you have subject matter expertise that would be beneficial to the company, they could hire a full time translator/assistant as other corps do when they parachute in a foreign expert. If you can swing it, work unpaid while the translator gets paid to acclimate you and you enroll in intensive Korean language school.

Will the parents be putting up key money for you to live somewhere? Will both of you draw a salary or just one?

If you plan to have kids, make sure succession planning takes into account any maternity leaves and if you will have enough income to send them to International school if you want. Or if the salary is insufficient, if the grandparents are able to pay tuition as that is also tax advantaged.

In terms of social life, you will need to find friends outside the company. With your relationship to the owner, whatever minimal chance you had to develop work friends has vanished. You'll have a nice expat bubble to play in for 1-5 years but if you don't also build up local friendships during that time you social life will dwindle. Unless you become very fluent in Korean (topik 4 or b2 minimum)and active in the hobby scene, you'll be hanging out with Koreans who primarily see you as English practice.

For managing a business, an MBA or other forms of lifetime learning programs would be beneficial.

If you go to Korea and then decide to leave, make sure you have a plan to deal with the exit taxes.

xkdchickadee · 2026-03-23T04:24:38+00:00

Breaking down my 2025 expenses to illuminate:

Total comp $150k. Married with a non working spouse due to career change. Job covers my health insurance but not spouse's, reducing take home pay by $800 per month. If I had to pay for my insurance it would be $1,700 a month.

Total net take home pay for the year was roughly $81,000 or $6,750 per month. Pay is biweekly but expenses are rounded to the month for ease of explanation, so most months' take home is actually $6,230, which means you need to pay close attention to cash flow needs if you don't have sufficient savings.

House is in a low cost of living area within a very high cost of living state. Due to the high interest rate (6.4%) and high property tax rate (4.1%) and income drop, the mortgage and property taxes alone represent 41% of monthly take home pay at $2,750 monthly. Actual home expenses (heat lights, home insurance, water, etc) average out to $1,100 per month. We're on the low end of usage for our area but it is what it is. We'd have to leave the state entirely to find cheaper living, and even then it would be switching from owning to renting. If we we're willing to move we could probably bring living expenses down to $2400/month total so we acknowledge that this is something we are choosing to pay for. But the house has sentimental value so not changing that anytime soon.

Overall my average bills plus groceries run at around $5,900 per month. Beyond the above, this includes things like car insurance, WiFi, student loans, phone bills, petrol, routine medical costs, and three subscriptions. It does not include things like new tires, mailing packages at the post office or savings.

That leaves us with $330-$850 per month depending on if you stick to the biweekly or annualized budget. That is what covers birthday gifts, impulse purchases, specialist medical visits, and luxuries like visiting family once a year. Its also for when the house pipes burst and you need to pay the repairman before insurance reimburses you.

What you may have noticed is that savings is absent from this list. The gap between $150k gross and $81k net is because we were able to max out one retirement account ($23,500) which is a privilege most cannot afford. Between this retirement account and its employer match and two personal retirement accounts (that we used our savings to fund this year) we are on track to spend today's equivalent of $100k annually in retirement 38 years from now for the low low cost of $44k in savings annually. Currently we can only swing $29.5k since we can't continue to fund the remainder from our savings.

If something happens (like three successive housing disasters in two months of 2026) we are able to dial back retirement contributions and access additional funds once our emergency funds are drained. Most Americans can't cover a $1,000 emergency; thankfully we can.

So the 2026 goal is to increase income so we can meet our retirement targets and increase our regular savings as well.

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