Take magnesium to combat the slow and steady buildup of muscle tension that’s ruining your mental health.
Get a financial advisor. Unless finances is your job, hobby, or desire, just use someone else for this. I use Edward Jones but I would imagine there are lots of good options. They can help you figure out how much you need to save for retirement and give you realistic goals and expectations. You might be better off than you think, or it might not be hard to get to where you need to be when you have someone who can help you figure this stuff out. At the very least, looking to Roth IRAs
For every service you sign up to … phone company, subscription, gas company, water service, electricity, whatever …
… always ask if you can get a discount or a better price.
Don’t be embarrassed to ask. No one cares. We just build a culture around the hope that no one will ever ask for a better price and negotiate. The rep your talking to doesn’t care about you and doesn’t care about the company … they might be having a bad day and won’t care about helping you … or they might be having a good day and they know an inside method or option to save you something … or they might be facing losing their job so they figure out a way to save you a ton of money.
I got a banking service a few weeks ago and they gave me a price for a subscription … I knew it was a sham but it was a service I needed … I asked for a discount from the Filipino rep who spoke bag English … she went off for five minutes and came back with a 60% discount.
Sometimes these businesses set their prices high and just hope that no one will ask for a different price … because most people never ask.
I’ve been calling SiriusXM satellite radio every 6 months for their discount. Here’s their regular prices:
If you speak to the rep ask them about the 6 months car+app deal for $30, after taxes and fees it’s like $34 for 6 months. They put you on full price auto pay at the end of 6 months but set a reminder to cancel, wait a few days, then call and ask for the 6 month deal again. It’s worked the last 6 years.
I have a theory that every company/service/corporation has dozens of loopholes like this everywhere that people could take advantage of. But no one ever does because most people are too honest and proud to ever ask for a discount or to take advantage of an opportunity like this. Most people are too nice and gullible.
Corporations bet on people being too nice all the time.
People are too embarrassed or self conscious to go after a deal or even to ask for one … when in reality corporations are complete greedy whores and will sell your grandmother if it meant they could save a penny.
No one should ever feel embarrassed or shy to ask for a discount or go after saving themselves a few dollars. Corporations do it all the time and they never shy away from skimming off a few pennies from you if they can.
BTW - beautiful work on getting that regular discount for yourself
Exactly all of this! The worst that can happen is they say no.
Exactly … I have wealthy friends and non-wealthy friends who are dirt poor … you know what the difference is between the two groups?
The wealthy people are the stingiest people you’ll ever meet and they’ll fight to save a dollar or two, even though you know they have tons of money in the bank.
The poor people will spend $100 on something they could buy for $20 and never think twice about the money they lost, even though they have nothing saved in their bank.
Never leave without an appointment. When doing routine things like the dentist or yearly car inspection make the next appointment on your way out. If booking your next dentist visit 6 months out you get your choice of any time you like. Just stick it in your calendar and move on.
The only time that voice doesn’t work is if the people you’re making an appointment with only schedule out a certain time in advance and you need to go out longer. The cardiologist office I go to only ever lets you schedule 6 months in advance and I gotta go yearly, so I don’t have that luxury.
Try to think of something for which you are grateful every day. I have a reminder on all my devices for this daily and I think of three things.
Do you have any gratitudes that are in heavy rotation? My husband and me moving back to my beloved Pacific Northwest are two of my favs.
Except for special cases, you don’t actually have to do a task fully. You can pick at it as you go.
For example, i almost never do all the dishes at once. I just do 1-2 when i pass by the kitchen and i have a minute or two to spare. Without even realizing it or barely feel the energy or the time used, the task is either done or it is much smaller and more manageable.
This can apply to most adulting tasks by my experience.
I found this out when i had cancer and taking care of the kids. No time for making extra time for tasks; so combining was a necessity. waking up, bring the laundry basket down the hall to the kitchen, make breakfast for kids, when going to the garage to take the kids to school bring basket on the way to laundry room. Getting home toss laundry in. when heading out to pick kids up switch them to the dryer. come back bring basket off dried stuff back in to room. Other stuff like fold towels while sitting on toilet.
If you can optimise those by doing small task while waiting, e.g. when the microwave/oven is running, while you’re watching TV etc. then you can effectively do chores without losing time as well
This is a good one!
If you can’t find the motivation to start doing a lengthy task (like cleaning the house, gardening, or working on a project), force yourself to do it only for 30 minutes. It’s not an unreasonably long time. By the end, you’ll either have gained enough momentum to keep going and finish it, or if not, you’ve still made 30 minutes of progress.
I’ve heard this called the ‘dirty 30’. It works. Whatever needs cleaning up or tidying, 30 minutes is just short enough to not feel like you’re using all your free time on chores, but long enough to make a real dent. Especially if your partner either helps with the same task or does a different one. Setting a timer can help and you start to almost frantically see how much you can get done. I like that competitive element even against myself.
I like how you’re accepting longer tasks as well. What I’ve read typically is like “if a long task is dumb, get into the grind spirit by working a tiny task first and using that momentum”.
Your suggestion is to just ‘dip your toe into’ the longer task as a taste test. I like that. And I have so many longer tasks to do.
Organizing tasks in pomodoros (which is really close to your method), is a great way to do things.
If you have to deal frequently with toilets with flush sensors at your office (or really any public restroom), you’ve probably been grossed out by them flushing (and spraying water at you) before you’re ready.
As an adult, I learned that handle-adjacent sensors can be dealt with by hanging TP over them, and won’t flush until you remove it as you’re leaving the stall. Wall sensors (like one infamous office toilet I deal with) can be handled with a post it note placed over the sensor; I keep some at the office just for this purpose. In an emergency, sometimes spit-dabbing a piece of TP can stick it to the wall over the sensor, but this isn’t as reliable.
Just get into these habits when you use sensor toilets, and you’ll never have to worry about disgusting flush spray from prematurely flushing public toilets ever again.
Genius! Thanks
Mise en place really helps my adhd brain with cooking. Prepping while managing the stovetop stresses me out unless it’s during a long simmer.
Get a vpn and torrent to your hearts content. The subscription services are too fractured. I’ve got Jellyfin, audiobookshelf, and mealie self hosted
If you want a rower go with the concept2. It’s the gold standard for indoor rower and they hold their value. I prefer going moderate effort long distance because then that time can be doubled up as audiobook/tv time
Edit: Besides exercise, which would ideally be a mix of cardio and strength work, make stretching a part of your routine. At least a few times a week. I mainly target the hamstrings and hip flexors
I mainly target the hamstrings and hip flexors
Hip mobility is a bigger issue as you leave East Asia and go to America. It’s like on a scale from America to Asia, check your flexibility – and you want ‘Asia’-class flexibility. America is not only fat, but also we can’t bend to actually save our lives.
You can say no: to volunteer work, to events you don’t want to go to, to doing favors to people. The power of no is amazing
Avoid subscription services. You may pay more short term, but you won’t have to remember to cancel anything
Use a virtual credit card when signing up for subscription services. Set the recurring amount at just enough to cover the trial amount, and then once the subscription fee goes up it’ll notify you if you wish to continue paying for it. You can increase the limit if you want to keep the service, or just let the card decline until the service is cancelled. Most credit cards have virtual cards as an option, but I also use app.paywithextend.com
THANK you! Wish I had known this app two weeks ago. Neither of my banks have virtual credit cards. The one CSR even said “That’s a great idea! I’ll pass that along.” 🙄
Be careful with the declining part. I believe some companies, notably gym memberships, have ways to make your life difficult if your payment doesn’t go through
Build up a routine of scheduled exercise. It’s amazing when you get deep into a job how little time you have, and it’s easy to put exercise to the wayside. Make it part of your schedule when it’s flexible, and then hold it when it becomes difficult. Exercise has massive outside benefits to overall health mood etc
Yes! I got a stationary bike and set it up with a view of the TV. Now instead of just sitting on the couch watching TV I at least get exercise doing it.
cook for yourself at least once a week. Not only is it a good skill to keep polished, you get great control over what you’re actually eating. Keeps you grounded to society, the cost of primary prices, and you can compare kitchen costs versus restaurant cost easily. It keeps you involved in society.
A helpful “rule” I set for myself to encourage myself to cook more was to allow myself to indulge if it was a proper, homecooked meal. Stuff like splurging on fancied ingredients (I’m fond of salmon), or having an extra cheesy lasagne. It was a useful carrot to dangle in front of myself, and a useful stepping stone to better habits. I also would sometimes cook for friends, like informal dinner parties (I always found it easier to cook for 4 than for 1)
On the cost side of things, even my fancier meals were still cheaper than takeout. Plus it’s easier to eat healthier if you’re already cooking for yourself often (and I even broke that down into smaller chunks too — I first focussed on adding more veg and general nutrition, then I reduced the proportion of healthy stuff)
Nice to hear it not framed around health only, for once. From most advice it is seemingly impossible to live a healthy life if you dont cook yourself six days a week. Which seems ridicilous. Particularly for one who doesnt enjoy cooking (even though I do know how to cook decent meals).
Wish there was restaurants around here that was more like mess halls, priced at a level everyone could afford to eat at every day, made from healthy local ingredients, shared tables, no attempt at “mood” or theme, no waiters, you get whats served today and no alternatives except for those with particual dietary needs. I ate at the local poor-house once and it was almost what I would have wanted if they just got rid of the preacher and added a payment terminal. I heard those kinda eateries were common back around the early 1900. Why we at some point decided that everyone should mostly cook their own meals, or buy over-salted pre-made meals, and that restaurants should either be a luxury and involve a lot of waiting for a table and a waiter and the meal and the oversized bill and the waiter again to pay, or be fastfood so unbalanced that nobody should really eat it daily.
If you like Indian, there are places that serve Thali lunch or sign up for thali delivery. it is a prescribed meal with some flexible choices but basically slap down $10 and you get a metal tray with 3 curries, soup, rice and bread. Everyone has the same tray, like you see in prison shows
From most advice it is seemingly impossible to live a healthy life if you dont cook yourself six days a week
For health reasons I am on a diet that has minimal carbohydrates, almost zero. And no seed oils.
For my health journey, it is impossible to eat at a restaurant healthily. even if I order straight meat, many restaurants will cook it in seed oil, so I can never be sure. I.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8w8LKwOeO0
My only option is basically a salad. Which is fine, but not sustainable.
If I may ask, why can’t you have seed oils?
inflamation
That sucks.
But it IS solvable, if a restaurant’s goal wasnt purely to earn the most money possible, I would think. Maybe not on-demand but if they knew you’d be eating daily (subscribtion?) then having a slower no-contaminant part of a kitchen making dietary-different meals would be a nice addition.
Exactly what I needed to read today. Thank you 👍
It not too late to learn a new skill or pick up a new hobby. If you hear of something that sounds fun, dive in!
Use the vibrator around the thighs and top of the pelvis. Tease it
Similar; caress all around the boob, getting close to the nipple on occasion but not actually touching it. Tease it.
A recent one I found: If you get a pain in your back that returns whenever you walk… Take a trip to the wildest wilderness you can reach without needing to walk there, then start walking on uneven terrain. It is a huge difference on the muscles the body need. And just a forest path with a few roots isnt enough. Get off the path. Take the harder route. And be careful to not hurt yourself, of course.
Is that just to work out your core muscles? Because these easier ways to work them out.
Yeah, basically that’s what they’re suggesting. Work on strengthening your stabilization muscles.
Im no physician, I dont know.
My chiropractor made a small suggestion that a walk in the forest could help, and I discarded it because I was already “walking in the forest” a lot. Except I kept to the well-trodden paths. And I walked on asphalt to get to the forest. And it didnt really help. And the exercises he told me to do at home didnt really do much.
Probably was from getting away from the chiropractor, ngl
Don’t let a couple kooks spook you.
If you’re rough on your body, they can be an absolute godsend.
I’m at the point where I can’t always get my skeleton to go back to where it ought to be, and a good chiro can find exactly which bones aren’t.
Last one I went to was during a bicycle tour. The campsite wasn’t ideal, and I awoke not being able to look left. Like at all. Turn to the right, ow that hurts, try to turn left, head stops straight forward, sharp spike of pain and no further movement.
Well whatever. Break camp, mount up, ride a couple miles. Now I’m warm and loose, right? Do some stretches. Go through as much of the routine as I can, get some pops and creaks, but still can’t turn my fucking head. Slightly better.
Pedaling like this is a fucking bastard, because it’s not just my neck, I’m all fucked up, but the road lies ahead and we go.
Get into town some hours later, have some lunch, a couple beers, still can’t move for shit, see a sign for a chiro. Guy does walk-ins, thank god. Gets what we’re doing, says ‘well, I’m never gonna see you again, so I’ll do the best I can in one go’
I think that motherfucker popped every goddamn vertebrae in the whole spine, and some of em twice.
Felt like a new man. Finally felt those beers. Rest of the tour went fine
American chiros are weird.
My current guy is all about not wanting to see me, and wishes for my continued success in doing so. When I do drop by, and I’m active, it’s a checkup and a “keep doing that and now fuck off for 3 months” as part of long-term care for a life-altering slip-n-fall 30 years ago.
In fact, I’ve had like 6 chiros in my time, as we tend to move about a lot, and while their diagnostic gear changes from place to place, the hallmark of a good chiro is “do these exercises, stay mobile, and come back if you feel you need to; but I’ll be happy if we only talk once a season”.
When you first need a chiro, see two. Drop the one that seems to be too mercenary or woo-woo-crystals-magic.
Or see a physiotherapist instead.
Toilet roll under if you have a cat or pet who likes to rip off bits of them.
Toilet roll over for everything else.
My cats: TOILET ROLL UNDER CANNOT STOP ME
Or just install a door on your bathroom and hang the toilet roll over.
Save & invest 50% of your paycheck for 10 years, and you could technically retire (as long as your cost base does not go up).
Save & invest 50% of your paycheck
So, we eat cake, then? Tell us again how to isolate that 50% when so many people are food-insecure at 0% saved.
Doesn’t have to be 50%, that’s merely an example to illustrate the power of compounding & resisting lifestyle creep. If you take anything away, it’s to try to save & invest what you can, as young as you can, and to resist the urge to “keep up with the Joneses”. That will put you in a much healthier financial position. I don’t know your situation, and you don’t know mine.
You can, if you can. I think most people can’t do that though.
The better lesson would be to teach compound interest. Somebody that invests $2k every year for 10 years and then stops will have more money than somebody who starts in year 11 and does so for the rest of their life.
That’s sort of the point I was trying to make with an example, but it appears it fell flat. Compound interest and resisting lifestyle inflation, can really help people in the long-run.
Why don’t you save All the money you’ve earned?
If I didn’t eat, I’d have money to burn!
50%??💀
i like these threads; it shows how disconnected from reality some of us are.
It’s easy, just stop paying rent and eating.
as long as your cost base does not go up
Inflation and greedflation would like a word.
Inflation
That’s what the investing is for isn’t it?
So if the investment is for inflation, what are you going to survive from?
Historically, investing in a broad-market index fund has seen 8-12% annual returns. Average inflation in the US has been around 2-3%. Subtract another 3-4% for taxes, and you’re still making at least 3%.
Anyways, the point is more about the fact how powerful saving & compounding is. Save early in life, and try to not inflate your lifestyle too much, and then you can technically reach financial independence.
If you can set aside 50 % of your money, you are already independent.
No, independent would mean you could cease that source of income and maintain your lifestyle. If you save 50% of your first paycheck and then quit I doubt that would be the case.
Being able to set that much aside would definitely make one wealthy (or live a very austere lifestyle) and fast track them toward independence, but it’s not an automatic qualifier.
I was able to do that for a few years bit I was living with my parents and paying them a pittance for rent. Certainly not independent. All my expenses shot up when I left but I was able to pay a lot of my loans off before that.
You call 3% significant gains? I mean it’s better than nothing, but i don’t think it’s going to be worth breaking one’s neck over
I’m not sure anyone called it significant gains?
Anyways, 50% is really just an example to show what can be possible through saving & investing. Saving any amount of money, at a regular rate, can quickly become more than you think, when compounding is in play.
Past performance is no guarantee of future gains
Agreed, no investment can be guaranteed. However, average return of s&p 500 over 100 years has been 10%. Average return of an example index-fund, VTI, since inception in 2001 has been around 8%.
I’m of the opinion that the stock market is overvalued right now, mainly pumped up by tech stocks which are overvalued due to AI hype. I can’t help but think eventually all the baby boomers are going to want to cash out and enjoy their invested money while they’re still alive.
But on another note, do you expect the stock market to perpetually trend up? I suppose inflation helps keep stock prices up because the dollar is worth less than before.
Check yo privilege
