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Cake day: February 1st, 2024

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  • The amount of money you save (and invest) isn’t accurately depicted with this though. Living expenses don’t necessarily grow with take home, if you keep lifestyle creep to a minimum.

    So what this means is that if you make $100k and save $10k/year, if you start making $200k you can save the same $10k/year, plus the entire additional $100k after taxes (let’s just say that’s $50k+). So you doubled your salary but your savings went up 6x+.








  • Olive oil is delicious, and I’ve always loved acidic foods — so long as there’s yummy dressing on the salad, sign me up.

    Just get in the habit of making simple dressing, e.g., EVOO, red or balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt & pepper. (Mustard helps with emulsification.) Yes oil is caloric, but afaik this is much healthier than drowning your salad in ranch or Thousand Island or whatever.

    Olive oil can make you feel full, too, so even though you’re eating fat, it can be a net win.

    A Mediterranean diet is delicious, vegetarian/vegan compatible and, I think, fairly healthy. But mostly it’s the delicious that counts.





  • Pick your favorite tech company, pick a small team with a “nerdy” engineering mandate, and I’m confident you’ll find the academic, geeky science and engineering types you’re talking about.

    They probably aren’t very vocal though, because 1) there’s a huge PR/marketing budget which is responsible for being the face of the company, and 2) well…these are nerdy STEM folks who probably like their job because they get very well compensated to be nerdy STEM types, and not because they’re fanboys/girls.




  • Our experience is that basically the only really expensive thing is childcare. Are you eligible for subsidized, or free, care (or have trustworthy and willing relatives)?

    As for gear, babies don’t need much. But for what they do need, reach out to friends, neighbors, and family! We’re fortunate that we could have afforded everything new, but we really only bought a few things because friends and randos alike gave us so much free kid stuff (we bought a nice stroller, a baby basket, and an IKEA crib — basically everything else was a hand-me-down). Join local “buy nothing” groups, or parent groups (sadly they’re usually WhatsApp, but whatever). Most people hate throwing away stuff, and would rather it go to a good home.

    Look at programs for subsidized/free necessities like diapers. There are lots of resources out there, especially in cities.

    As everyone else said, no one feels ready. We certainly didn’t!