Frugal "win" of the day:

I over stretched my hamstring last week and sitting all day hurts. I was able to scrounge a perfectly sized box to transform my normal desk into a standing desk. Now I'm just hoping I can reduce the pain enough to survive the major tournament I'm travelling for next week.

Good for you. Every little bit helps!

Canada! Specifically Ontario and Quebec

Next week I'm going on vacation. The senioritis at work is real! I have no desire to do anything productive this week (besides obsessively checking the weather forecast for my destination)

Today's my wedding anniversary (sort of, thanks to COVID causing us to have multiple anniversary dates).

It's amazing how much marrying the right person can accelerate your timelines. My spouse was in the "work til I die" camp when we first met. However, they were always very frugal. Now we both dream of FIRE and have a pretty significant net worth.

Most likely. I would guess 4-5 years if no major changes in lifestyle. Longer, and harder to guesstimate, if we decide to have kids.

My most recent meaningless milestone:

With a 4% withdrawal rate, my current investment balance supports a monthly equivalent to my takehome pay of one paycheck. So I'm basically getting 12 additional paychecks a year from my investment balance.

I decided to sign up for a giant national competition for my hobby sport today. Between entrance fees, flights, and hotel it was a very spendy day.

Build the life you want and then save for it...right?

Also, the last time I tried to do this event I came down with COVID the week before and lost out on a bunch of non-refundable deposits. I'm really hoping that doesn't happen again this time.

I used to work in the news and fires were one of my favorite things to be sent to film. It's so powerful and destructive, yet so incredibly beautiful.

Had my first foray into bread making this weekend. It turned out surprisingly well considering the fact that I'm a terrible cook/baker. It was way easier than I expected (granted I did use a stand mixer). Is it worth replacing my normal bread consumption with homemade? Not sure on the cost side of things (I maybe save $1 on the equivalent amount of bread), quality does seem improved though from the standard loaves of white bread I buy from costco.

I absolutely love it. Granted I have a ton of hair, so I end up taking fairly long showers. I would quite often run out of hot water when we had a tank. It probably does encourage wasting water, since it takes longer to heat up and then you don't have a sudden influx of cold water to speed you up at the end of the shower.

For all those considering buying vs renting into retirement:

Owning a house is freaking expensive. Last year we spent ~15k on a new HVAC system. I figured this year would be cheaper, since we didn't have any major repairs that high on our priorities. Until this weekend when my spouse realized the pipes to their shower were leaking. Considering the general state of the shower, we're leaning towards ripping it all out and just getting a new one.

Then my spouse fell for a door to door sales person and we ended up getting a quote for new attic insulation. They want >20k for everything or ~13k for their most basic install. While we do need to upgrade our insulation, best case scenario is a payoff in over 16 years, likely way longer as well.

The insurance also rejected our claim for roof damage saying there were just some shingles needing to be replaced which costs less than our deductible. So if we want a new roof, that cost is on us as well.

We've lived in our house for 4 years now, and I think our cheapest year we only spent ~5k on repairs (new tankless water heater install after our old water heater died).

Lol just asked it how much I should have saved now if I want to retire at 40. I don't think you should take AI's advice when it comes to retirement...

Here's a rough estimate to get you started: if you plan to retire at 40 and spend $30,000 per year, you'll need to save around $180,000 by then. This is simply your annual spending multiplied by the number of years until retirement. However, this is a simplified calculation and doesn't take into account factors like inflation, investment returns, or your desired retirement lifestyle. To get a more accurate idea of how much you need to save, you can use a retirement calculator or consult with a financial advisor.

Decided to play around with AI and asked it to create some outlines for a couple of story ideas I've had bouncing around in my head for years. Damn, they were pretty good. I may have to use this as inspiration to actually write these stories instead of waiting until I reach FIRE.

Side note: I tried asking it to do my job, and was decidedly not great. Granted I had to give it generalized instructions, but still. Fairly safe to say that AI can not replicate the domain knowledge of a human in my role just yet.

Been having some knee issues so I'm trying the knees over toes exercises to try to avoid having to go to PT for it. Last year I spent $1200 getting my other knee checked out only to be told it would get better on its own in 1-3 more weeks. Figured I'd try to save some cash and diy it to try and regain my mobility faster.

I'm very skeptical of this guy since everything about him comes off as bro-science/steal your money through over hyping it, but also there doesn't seem like anything wrong with the exercises themselves from my athletic layman's perspective. I found a free copy of the program so figured if it is just a scam I'm not out anything.

Yet to be seen. We either nailed the timeline or there is a massive problem with the code. The person who could confirm was on PTO.

Holy cow. I just had an unexpected call with my manager and they told me I was getting a 10% raise starting in April. While it's been quite some time since I've seen a raise, this definitely makes up for some of it. Combined with my bonus, it looks like I'll break the 6 figure mark for income this year!

Now I just have to go update some spreadsheets!

Could be, but they would still be required to pass tests to prove their hormones are in the appropriate range, just like cis women have to do when tested for doping with testosterone.

If there's any real debate to be had, it's along the lines of male hormones and penises. Should either be present in a place which essentially only exists for the purpose of keeping those things out?

They are. Every sporting governing body I'm aware of requires trans women to be on hormone therapy for a minimum of 2 years before they can compete in the women's category. This is completely in line with the medical community's research into how long it takes before the benefits of being biologically male are counteracted by the hormone replacement.

The debate has been had in the medical community and has been resolved. Now random people who never gave a fuck about women's sports before think they should have input when they have no qualifications, just because they have prejudices.

I'm so glad WFH has stuck with my company thus far, especially after weeks like this one where we were buried in snow. As of this week, I've officially spent 50% of my tenure in my role as WFH. That seems crazy to me, that I've been at this company so long and that COVID lockdowns started 4 years ago.