Lol I saw this one in the wild.

Absolutely absurd.

I'll bet my left ass cheek this millionaire is paying over the market average for rent. I'll be generous in her "thriftyness" and call it 2k.

So 24,000 a year. Ober 7 years, 168k

Almost bought a place an hour out of Seattle, probably tacoma. Homegirl isnt living in dupont. According to this website.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ATNHPIUS45104Q

Avg home price in tacoma 2024: 450k 2017: 250k

Let's be super generous, say she dropped an extra 150k in maintenence/tax/costs etc Still up a cool 100k

They telling me her diversified investments of 250k made 268k in profit?

Yeah ok.

What are ethical ways people could/should invest their money into instead?

I'm not going to ever be a landlord, but I want to retire at the point.

Maybe you can enlighten me on more ethical ways to invest my money because at this point I think not putting money into a 401k is a terrible financial decision.

Tax deferred compounding interest is too good of a deal for the average person to pass up. Over 30 years you'll be looking at anywhere from 100-150% return on investment.

$50 a paycheck for 30 years with 5% avg return turns your $39k total contributions into $100k in retirement savings. $100 turns $78k in total contributions into $200k savings.

For many people who find saving difficult, me included, being able to set it and forget it, plus the understanding it needs to be for retirement to get the full return, has allowed me to save money I would have spent/wasted otherwise.

Due to the compounding factor, the sooner a person starts the better the return, so to discourage young people to not put money into a 401k is IMO actively harmful.

IMO It's like telling someone they shouldn't have health insurance. Yeah it's bullshit that society forces us to participate in a fucked up system but not having it puts future you at a terrible risk.

It's cause he's only drinks socially.

Soy milk

What the hell are you even talking about? What are the bands that you like that used to tour and only play festivals now?

Covid fucked everything up.

If I throw something at your head and it hits you in the face, was it because you did something irrational?

No. Maybe the throw was too hard. Maybe you weren't paying attention. Maybe you can't see, or maybe your arms don't work the way other people's do. Maybe you felt something coming and didn't know what to do and panicked. Maybe you like getting hit in the face. Maybe I threw it really softly, and you were paying attention, but you've never practiced or tried to block/dodge a moving object and it hits you on the nose.

None of those situations are irrational. The only thing irrational that could occur is thinking it happened because of something that couldn't be explained, or by maybe trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I'd say whether I've done it part of a group or just randomly when I had extra food and offered it to someone theyve accepted way more than not.

I've been asked if I could buy some chips multiple times. I've bought and ate meals with people.

Maybe it's different in the places I've lived.

Eh having said all that, I've also talked with some people who were able to get food okay but needed money for other basic necessities. You can find food in a dumpster but not a shower or a safe place to sleep.

Some people also need to be mobile and it's a lot easier to haul cash than food.

No thank you for writing it all out.

There's lots of info out there ofc, but the two places I get most of my info now are the stronger by science guys and Jeff Nippard. I really like their approaches. Strength training and technique mostly but general understanding of theory and approach. Big and strong. Mobility and calisthenics I like the saturno movement group. They have an impressive mix of strength, mobility and skill.

So when I say you should or it is, I'm not saying I'm correct or it's facts but it's what I've learned taking info from people who work really hard in understanding their craft and work hard on sharing it. Of course it's also what I've been able to "confirm" in my own experiences. Ymmv though.

Don't think of beginner, intermediate or advanced as how strong you are, or how much you've done it in the past. This is how I understand it.

Beginners: make quick and consistent progress

Intermediate: once you reach a plateau on your progress you're approaching intermediate. Here you have to readjust. Maybe you'll spend 2-4 weeks at a weight before you can progress.

Advanced: I've never reached this level so I'm not familiar with it from my own experience but my understanding its takes a lot of very targeted work and honing in on technique to raise their weight by even 5lbs/ 1 rep.

So unless you've ever been at the Advanced stage if you take too long off you're going to start back at Beginner. It's not a bad thing it just means you will be able to make progress quickly.

The stronger you already are, and the more experience you have, the higher your baseline, and the shorter your Beginner period usually is.

For me after an injury from doing something stupid outside the gym, lol, I start with a beginner routine. Each time I'm at the stage for less and less before I get back up to my working weight. Like last time it took me about 3 months, to get to a weight that took me 8 months before the injury.

Beginner routines to me are defined by their simplicity and their focus on progressive overload. If you're at a place where you can do daily or weekly increases to weight or volume than you're a beginner. It doesn't mean your weak, it means you can improve faster than someone who's been consistently at it for months/years.

So don't think of it as a bad thing, its not.

You also need to pick a routine and stick with it. You're motivated right now so its easy to do whatever, but having to think about what you're going to do each time will not only take more discipline and energy, but it'll be just way less effective because you're doing random stuff. Not to mention you give yourself space to make compromises and excuses in the moment.

It's just really chaotic. Good job in going, it's better than paralysis analysis, but if you want to succeed from a results standpoint, any sort of beginner routine will be better than what you're doing now. If you want to succeed from a still doing in a few months standpoint you need a build in a routine around the gym that removes as much ambiguity and choice as possible. One day, "maybe I'll just go tomorrow" will eventually turn into "eh I'm not really feeling it this week" and the next thing you know you haven't gone in weeks.

This is something ive experienced and had to work through, this is something most people go through. The people who don't, have very good routines and/or have been going consistently for so long they can't imagine actually not going to the gym.

Try to think about why you stopped going the last time. If it was an injury or something then think about why you didn't start again when healed.

I'd be happy to help you brainstorm and choose a routine for in the gym and around it if you'd like. We can address your goals and what it might/would take to reach them.

I of course encourage you to do your own research. I'd point you to the people I mentioned above, but there's lots of good stuff out there.

You're always welcome to come back and ask me whatever questions you have. You don't need to censure yourself with me, if I don't want to read something or answer something I won't.

Edit: the Jim thing was funny. If you do want to go more in depth I don't mind doing it here, but if you'd rather do it somewhere else just dm me.

Well I wrote a bunch of stuff to try and answer your questions, which I'm still happy to post as a followup, but I think I'll start with this instead.

Before I tell you what I think of those things, can you tell me more about what your current routine or plan is and if you have any specific or general goals?

I honestly have no idea from what you shared so far.

Generally advice for muscle imbalance is either do isolation work if it's a specific muscle group, and/ or splits if it's one side or another. Like work in a dumbell press with your bench.

You could also deload a bit and work up. If you're straining to lift something now, you risk having worse form and raise your injury risk. You might put a undue pressure on your ligaments/tendons. Also like I said if it sucks to do, you're going to have another reason not to do it. It's a good idea for now to focus as much on form and technique as possible. Build good habits while it's easy.

Look up cues people use for the exercises and focus on one of those each rep. Like one of my favorite ones for squats is you should drive your knees outward as you rise.

Also just make sure to rest long enough between sets. Short rest is used for interval traing, cardio, endurance work, if your goals are power, strength or hypertrophy than short rest is counter productive.

One of my favorite and simplest forearm isolation is finding a bar and just hanging from it. It's not just your forearms but that'll be the target.

Don't do it to failure. Your body isnt ready for that. You should be consistently going for at least a month or two before you think about doing anything like that. Personally I'm not big on it in general but there's lots of people who are way stronger, smarter and more experienced than me who swear by it.

You could also just work through it lol, your forearms will catch up soon.

One more thing is you're not in high-school anymore. Besides just overall bouncyness and springyness the difference between your body now and then is your ability to recover. Working in a proper warm up and recovery practice will be important to keep yourself healthy and minimize injuries.

For working out pointers I always reccomend keeping it real easy and simple at first.

Don't overthink it but also have a specific plan lol.

Start really easy, and gradually add stuff. Start so easy and clear that it'd be harder to convince yourself not to do it.

Baby steps. Find a beginner routine, lifting or running or whatever exercise sounds like something you want. You can always change it later.

The first week, couple weeks, month two months whatever, the only thing you should be concerned with isn't your results or the intensity, or whatever, but your consistency. Consistently do it, and make it a little harder every time. The workouts themselves shouldn't start becoming challenging until you're at a point where instead of thinking about your workouts as something you need to decide to do, but it's something that you do.

Do you do anything now thats just a part of your routine? Anything at a schedule time? Do you have an alarm in the morning or a set bed time at night? Or do you follow a sports team or some other media program that has scheduled events?

I'll use a waking up example:

It's never "ah geez Im not really feeling it, im just gonna pass on today." Well sometimes you might think that, lol. But you're going to do it eventually. Perhaps you did something you shouldn't have and it sucks and you're in bad form. You did it late so you might not have time to do everything you planned to do, but it's just part of what your day is.

But there's a positive side to it as well. Maybe you have really good sleep hygiene. You have you're coffee maker set to start at 650, alarm at 7. Youre prepared, its so peaceful at this time, you werent always a morning person, but you are now.

Make it feel like that. You don't have to work out, you don't want to work out. You are someone who works out.

Hopefully that's a good metaphor idk good luck!

Part of my job deals with other organizations. Businesses/gov orgs/etc. I've learned that most, if not all organizations, including my own, have "rules", but tevery org alsp has at least one person who has the power to make an exception.

Depending on the org, and/or the "rule" it could be lots of people. A lot of times they'll say you can't do this, not because you can't, but because they've decided they don't want that to be a common/advertised workflow.

So sometimes it just takes communicating with a sympathetic person. They can either help you out or transfer you to someone who can.

It doesn't always work, but it's probably your best bet. If you ask someone and they say no, try a different person. If you're really motivated try a different point of contact. Like instead of chat, email or call, or instead of reaching out to tech support try a related department. If you're consistently getting stonewalled by the gatekeeper, try asking about something else, anything else, where you might get transfered to a supervisor. Then ask to supervisor to help you.

Could be a lot of work for nothing though!

Alternatively, this might be a stupid idea, but see if your old number is currently in service? Maybe you could work out a deal with a phone company or something I'm not sure how all that works. Or maybe you could text your old number and see if someone responds lol. Some people are surprisingly helpful and nice.

If you haven't played it on PC slay the spire is my goat. I couldn't tell you another game I've 100%'d. I think ive put in like 200 hours.

Someone mentioned desert golfing here a few years back. I still play it now. It's so minimal. No settings. No music. Just get the ball in the hole. You can play it for 30 seconds or 30 minutes.

Everyone does it differently bit I'm a bit more selective about games I play on my phone. I've done some roms/emulators but I'd rather just play those on my computer. I only like games that I can go into or drop at a moments notice.

Ya and I could have won eotm the last two months, should have even. Butt fucking Josh is bffs with the damn manager. Awards are rigged, dont try, don't meet your heros.

This sounds like a really stupid concept when applied to California, which produces the most food in the US.

Sounds like a really stupid concept in general.

You're just going to siege a city while ignoring the other cities nearby?

Cities aren't isolated.

I have some examples below but my advice comes from a more generalized approach on habits/decision making. What's the point of doing a 30 day super diet if you're miserable the whole time and afterwards you either quickly/gradually fall back into the actions that got you there in the first place.

Make choices and plans when you feel strong/motivated, then set yourself up as best as possible to limit your power/desires to make good decisions when you're less strong/motivated.

Recognize your habits and how you might have "failed" in previous attempts.

Dont buy foods you know youll overeat. Try to only grocery shop when you feel strong/empowered/full.

Try to plan your meal choices ahead of time, and have a backup plan or 2 that might be worse than plan A but better than winging it. Ex: you have to go to work, and there's a fast food spot near that you eat at way too much.

Plan A: bring lunch daily Plan B: have some frozen stuff you can microwave if you forget/don't prepare a lunch Plan C: have a protein bar or some highcalorie snack that'll hold you over Plan D: know of a couple healthier options for takeout, and commit to them before you get hungry.

If you keep failing a plan A, figure out why. You keep running out of time in the morning? Meal prep. You hate the lunch you bring to work? Make something else that might not be as healthy, but it's better still than plans B-D.

It's ok if you mess up. It's okay if you make compromises, but try to make the compromises when you feel strong not in the moment.

You don't need to be perfect to lose weight, you just need to consistently eat less/healthier over time.

Also unless its a nutritious shake/smoothie, dont drink calories. Lmao that's a big one. For a lot of people just getting that number down is enough to make a significant different.

If you have any particularly bad/ingrained habits it's okay to ween yourself off them. You don't need to go from 10 cokes a day to zero, go to 5 first. Or instead of coke, maybe you can switch to coke zero for a month or two first, then switch to flavored water for a couple months then plainwater. Or whatever.

👍 thanks good to know

I loved those books. I kept wanting one of the bad creatures to be a hero, i thought there was at least one that did it? Or maybe I just wanted it to happen so much and the author did a switcheroo on me. That said the badgers got me hyped af

Ugh my hair sorta looks like this. It's messier on the top but I do like the sides pretty short, I think it works well with my head shape. I keep my beard shorter too. Hopefully it's different enough to not scare off cool people and not attract chuds.