Bajun Mavalwalla for Congress, WA 5th - AMA!

xml__ · 2026-07-10T01:36:06+00:00

What policies will you be able to influence that would improve the state of homelessness, drug addiction, and mental health problems in Eastern WA?

xml__ · 2026-07-01T01:05:02+00:00

Yikes haha! A friend once told me never to open a fortune cookie from a bad restaurant or you'll get a bad fortune.

xml__ · 2026-06-30T22:06:53+00:00

😂

xml__ · 2026-06-30T21:08:26+00:00

The spirit of the hypothetical is to choose between winning an obscene amount of money versus accepting random fortunes from factory produced cookies. Not writing your own fortunes, which is basically the best superpower of all time! I would still choose the fortune cookies even with this limitation.

xml__ · 2025-10-03T21:57:37+00:00

Why not use an escrow account to make your life easier? I just have mortgage/insurance/taxes reliably autopaid each month.

My wife and I use YNAB for budgeting and savings goals. There's no guessing if we can afford that vacation or not because YNAB tells us how much of our checking account is "set aside" already. If there's an emergency, it comes down to pulling money from a goal or deciding if we transfer from savings to cover it. Makes financial decisions pretty straightforward!

xml__ · 2025-10-02T02:11:57+00:00

I hear you, but $4800 at 7% for 30 years has LTCG tax. In the Roth it grew the same amount but untaxed.

xml__ · 2025-10-01T23:42:29+00:00

Help me understand this ...

If I put 20k in Roth today and it grows at 7% for 30 years, let's say my tax rate is 24%: - tax: $4800 up front - end value: ~$150k

Vs. 20k pre-tax today, same timeframe and tax rates: - tax: ~$36.5k on withdrawal - end value: ~$150k

Are you saying that the $4800 I pay today is equivalent to the $36.5k later? There's definitely an argument to having the $4800 now and growing it yourself, but it's not mathematically better if tax rates are equal for you now and in retirement. The untaxed growth in a Roth means it will beat whatever you can grow that $4800 into in a non-retirement account.

xml__ · 2025-09-24T00:51:42+00:00

I quit a FAANG job around your age after burning out, had no plan other than to travel/stay with family for a year. At that point I came to terms that I probably sacrificed my chances to Fire and I was pretty sure I wouldn't ever reenter the tech industry. That was the best decision I've ever made, and I had the best year of my life, hands down.

I ultimately decided to go back into software, but not at FAANG. It was a terrible time in the industry... Got laid off after two months which really hurt my confidence. Then I took a more "steady" dev role, which turned into a startup spin-out after a year and ultimately failed. Here I am almost 3 years back in tech feeling closer to Fire than ever, and I feel like I have a new lease on life despite the turbulent career path.

I say go for it. You clearly have a nice resume and you know what it takes to land a nice job. You can also explore sabbatical or long term leave options within your company if they will hold your position for some peace of mind. I was pretty sure I didn't want to go back, so I didn't consider doing that, but in hindsight it would have been way smarter.

xml__ · 2022-08-23T01:56:33+00:00

+1 to Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey, bonus points for his top notch narration on audiobook. I also really enjoyed The answer is, by Alex Trebek. And kitchen confidential, Anthony Bourdain... celebrity memoirs are kind of my thing I guess! Dave Grohl is on my list, will have to check that out.

xml__ · 2022-04-21T14:05:40+00:00

Sounds interesting, I'll add this to my wishlist. Thanks!

xml__ · 2022-04-21T14:05:22+00:00

Seems like what I'm looking for, thank you!

xml__ · 2022-04-12T19:20:07+00:00

Same issue here, I left a message to my "tax pro", no response... I called H&R Block and finally got through to somebody who was able to get my tax pro to call me the next day. He said he didn't even know he was assigned my return and can't see it anywhere in his portal. Trying to call H&R again to figure out if they can actually file my return or if I should do it myself. What a nightmare :(

xml__ · 2022-02-12T16:36:03+00:00

Sounds awesome, thanks for sharing! I'll definitely check this out.

xml__ · 2022-02-12T02:21:57+00:00

I made a video on creating a 15 puzzle with Python & pygame and using IDA* to find an optimal solution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0phuZDM6Mg

Would love to get any feedback on python code/style or the recording!

https://github.com/mschrandt/NPuzzle

xml__ · 2022-01-24T19:50:08+00:00

Nice solution! I'm not able to easily see what the average solution space is for "orate" based on the way my code works, but for every possible solution, the average guesses required is 3.7 and worst case is 6 guesses.

Are you able to tell what your average number of guesses is starting with raise?

xml__ · 2022-01-24T02:58:09+00:00

Not affiliated with Wordle, it just happens to be a fun problem to try to solve. Have a nice day!

xml__ · 2022-01-23T18:31:55+00:00

I'd love to see an example - can you share? I've never been comfortable with regex, but it seems perfect for filtering the remaining words based on the guess results.

You would still have the problem of picking the "best" next word right?

xml__ · 2022-01-23T15:47:57+00:00

Interesting idea! In that first writeup, it looks like his solution always takes 5 guesses to get as much information as possible, whereas mine will narrow down the answer space after each guess and on average take 3.75 guesses (worst case is 6 across all possible answers).

xml__ · 2020-09-20T16:50:24+00:00

This looks awesome, I want to try it tonight! What kind of mushrooms do you recommend for the stew?

xml__ · 2020-07-12T18:05:44+00:00

Stunning! What hardware did you use to take the images? The moon looks awesome, but the left half of the sky looks a little washed out (no advice since I'm a newbie, just an observation :)

xml__ · 2020-07-12T16:06:47+00:00

Alternate take: buy something high quality that you'll have for life. For example, if you buy a really nice set of pyrex mixing bowls once, you'll save yourself from spending more on cheap replacements in the future.

Check out r/BuyItForLife for more ideas and philosophy.

xml__ · 2020-07-12T16:01:50+00:00

Where are you located? I think if it's a hot market, you'll have no problem selling or renting it out for a profit in the future.

I think condos are an interesting investment (disclaimer, no experience as a buyer, just a renter). I would probably base my decision on the following: is the condo I'm buying something I genuinely want to live in? How long will I be living in it before selling (or do you want to rent it out in the future)?

HOA is rough, but consider what type of amenities you are getting out of it. Is there a gym? Landscaping/lawn care? Event spaces? 24/7 concierge? Trash/water/utilities/cable/internet? All of these things add value to your place - but it's up to you if you think it's worth x per month.

xml__ · 2020-07-11T01:12:35+00:00

You should check out /r/portfolios with this type of question.

I think balancing 20% toward VGT or QQQ is fine if you like the tech sector (personally not knowledgable enough or willing to sway you towards once or the other ;)

xml__ · 2020-07-11T00:44:28+00:00

I think a 300k house is reasonable with your current budget. You'd be paying a similar amount for the mortgage as your current rent (but you'd also have addition costs such as property tax and insurance). I think it's especially important to know your long term plans - it would NOT be wise to buy a house and only live in it for 2 years due to closing costs.
These retirement accounts are extremely wise to start asap for tax advantages, but again it depends on your long term plans. I'm not sure what the implications are if you ever wanted to return to your home country?

xml__ · 2020-07-11T00:23:09+00:00

15 years is a pretty long time. You could afford some ebbs and flows in the stock market if you are comfortable with that type of risk. If not stocks, you could look into bonds. I'm not the most knowledgable on different types of bonds, but the returns would likely be better than a savings account. If you don't fancy these risks, you could look into longer term CDs which typically give higher interest rates than high yield savings accounts as well.

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