[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[ISBPathfinder]

I also don't love my workplace but recognize that I have a lot of benefits in my work time and working from home capability. I started an extreme investing adventure last year and have a 6 year total timeline goal for it at the end of which I will be essentially set to retire at 65 regardless of what I do until then. I don't know if I can commit to the entire 6 years as its sort of like..... me investing 50-60% of my paycheck for that span of time but I am over a year in with some great success already.

It makes it a lot more doable when looking at a somewhat short span of time overall. I had originally made it a 2 year objective that slowly turned into a 4 year objective that then crept to a 6 year objective lol. We will see how it goes as a whole. It does help that the stock market has already made gains of like 17% in half a year for US stocks. I put a decent chunk of change down on Tesla between October and January this last year also and that money has more than doubled to date.

Lots of my investing journey has sort of come from me realizing I don't love what I do but also that adjusting jobs when I am close to 40 and have one that is paying me more than I need is a bit silly. So instead I am just pushing hard on investing and hoping that a few years of being sort of so so about my job can get me to a place where I don't really need it anymore. I might look into the idea of a barista-fire kind of setup where I continue working for a few years but in a lower capacity after achieving my financial goals in life.

[Dunadain]

*me just trying to figure out how me and my wife are supposed to max out our Roth IRAs every year.*

[ISBPathfinder]

@Dunadain yea, its a weird thing to complain about money when I am stacking money away as rapidly as I am. Really its because my wife's job provides housing and utilities covered so while we don't pay for rent / mortgage we also won't own anything until close to retirement as things are going now. It means that I have to invest harder to offset for the fact that I won't own a house so it really just frontloads my retirement planning money and at a later point in time I will either pay for a house outright with that money or shift off the gas on my retirement investing and lean entirely on housing later. Lots of people pay something like 30% of their income just on mortgage and I don't have that but more than that I don't even pay for gas / electric / water / internet either. Those things add up quite a bit in costs and instead I am trying to live lean while investing that money.

So far the hardest part has been that my situation is strange enough from the norm that a lot of financial planning is thrown off from the generic person and I have to customize my plans a little more.

[Dunadain]

@Dunadain yea, its a weird thing to complain about money when I am stacking money away as rapidly as I am. Really its because my wife's job provides housing and utilities covered so while we don't pay for rent / mortgage we also won't own anything until close to retirement as things are going now. It means that I have to invest harder to offset for the fact that I won't own a house so it really just frontloads my retirement planning money and at a later point in time I will either pay for a house outright with that money or shift off the gas on my retirement investing and lean entirely on housing later. Lots of people pay something like 30% of their income just on mortgage and I don't have that but more than that I don't even pay for gas / electric / water / internet either. Those things add up quite a bit in costs and instead I am trying to live lean while investing that money.

So far the hardest part has been that my situation is strange enough from the norm that a lot of financial planning is thrown off from the generic person and I have to customize my plans a little more.

Rereading my post it might have sounded like I was trying to "one up" your financial situation. That wasn't my intention, so sorry if it came across that way.

Truthfully, I'm quite fortunate, my wife and I both squirrelled away a lot of money before we got married, and we were able to find a house for 70k in a market where most houses are going for 90k (it's quite a fixer upper, and we've already spent close to 15k in water treatment and repairs, so we didn't save a lot up front, but our mortgage payments are quite cheap). So, if worse came to worse, we could probably live off of ~$700 a month, and we also finally attained our emergency fund target, so we'll be fine for some time even if some financial disaster strikes us.

It's just disheartening to see how far we've come and realize we've got a lot further to go XD. Especially because my daughter was born last month and now I'm trying to figure out how to make sure she can afford a good education.

[ISBPathfinder]

Rereading my post it might have sounded like I was trying to "one up" your financial situation. That wasn't my intention, so sorry if it came across that way.

Truthfully, I'm quite fortunate, my wife and I both squirrelled away a lot of money before we got married, and we were able to find a house for 70k in a market where most houses are going for 90k (it's quite a fixer upper, and we've already spent close to 15k in water treatment and repairs, so we didn't save a lot up front, but our mortgage payments are quite cheap). So, if worse came to worse, we could probably live off of ~$700 a month, and we also finally attained our emergency fund target, so we'll be fine for some time even if some financial disaster strikes us.

It's just disheartening to see how far we've come and realize we've got a lot further to go XD. Especially because my daughter was born last month and now I'm trying to figure out how to make sure she can afford a good education.

All good I didn't take it as flexing by any means. I just know where you are coming from. I bought a house for $175k three months before meeting my now wife and then I realized it was wayyyyyy too much house payment for just me so I got roomates. As soon as we got married (I had owned the house two years) I lost my roomates as we moved to another city. I then had to pay housing payments on an empty house for two years before selling it for a $15k loss. I spent the first 3 years of my marriage paying off a mistake of a purchase (too much house into a slow at the time market). Right after selling the house we also had our daughter on the way and so I dug a little deeper into debt. It took me the first five years of our marriage to get out of debt and start establishing financial space to have an emergency fund. I really only went into this much detail to outline that while I am doing great right now, it came with years of digging myself out before I got the option to do what I am now.

This all said I am also very lucky in my setup. My daughter has relatively affordable daycare. I have a buddy of mine making a little less than I do and he has two kids in daycare paying more than twice what I do per kid. He has essentially an extra mortgage every month that is daycare.

Being a parent is super fun so best of luck to you. The first few years can be super tiring especially if your kiddo doesn't want to sleep but man its rewarding.

[pokken]

It's just disheartening to see how far we've come and realize we've got a lot further to go XD. Especially because my daughter was born last month and now I'm trying to figure out how to make sure she can afford a good education.

I honestly wouldn't sweat that. The odds of college being free in 18 years are very high. Really nothing special about anything beyond a state school.

IMHO You're better off worrying about your own retirement and making sure elder care isn't a burden, and let the kiddos figure out school on their own - if they even want to go.

Chances are good you'll live to be 100 if you're in good health today, so make sure that is 100% cared for before you go putting money in a 529. I say this as someone with a modest 529 plan that I got mostly for family to contribute to since they want to give gifts, but I won't be adding to it in all likelihood - it should hit the IRA rollover cap by the time she's ready to go to school and that's what she gets. I'll take out loans or fund it if she needs it at the time.

[ISBPathfinder]

Yea I have been trying to figure out how much to prioritize 529s as well. It just seems like the future of college education is more questionable today than it ever has before. I also only plan to have one child so if I need to I can kind of focus on her when we get to that time as I won't be overloaded with multiple colleges back to back or anything. It just seems safer to under commit to it right now than to over commit on a college fund. I actually feel sort of bad for those who really like teaching as I wouldn't be surprised if that industry gets overhauled in the not so distant future.

[Dunharrow]

I was stressing about providing for my kids. I recently got a new job with about 40% salary increase, and I never felt so light.
Sucks, but money does so much.

[pokken]

those who really like teaching as I wouldn't be surprised if that industry gets overhauled in the not so distant future.

yeah I feel like the odds of most general instruction being replaced by LLMs at this point to be pretty high

(something predicted-ish by Ready Player One I wanna say?)

[duducrash]

we were able to find a house for 70k in a market where most houses are going for 90k

Man, housing/Real estate is such a crazy thing. Me and my fiance are overjoyed that we got a place for 250k. That was with a government program that allows us to buy cheaper and with super long installments. And it isnt ready yet, its building. We are super blessed because post covid market is crazy here. Before we were negotiating a apartment for 120k with 35 down payment, arround february 2020. The same apartment was sold for 220k (all at once) on july and now its up to 300+. It's funny to talk about this at a mtg forum, because as life goes on I get more and more money and yet feel worse and worse about dropping big money on mtg cards or other hobbies (Thats why I actually began trying to make the hobby pay for itself even a little). It does feel weird/frustrating that each day we are working more and more, and have less possibilities to enjoy ourselves. Either on personal hobbies or having a good time together. Life is crazy at the current time and system.


Now re-reading what I wrote it appears that I'm struggling, I'm not. Thankfull me and my fiance are employed. Not at the best places, but far from the worse too. Its just that we are playing a game that is really hard to win imho

[ISBPathfinder]

those who really like teaching as I wouldn't be surprised if that industry gets overhauled in the not so distant future.

yeah I feel like the odds of most general instruction being replaced by LLMs at this point to be pretty high

(something predicted-ish by Ready Player One I wanna say?)

The current system of education is just so inefficient. I could see it being harder to reform the younger ages but I feel like you could really overhaul college for sure and probably high school too to be more of online lecture videos. If you did that you could take literally some of the best instructors and record their lessons and then have people who really just have to field questions which in the long run could be replaced with AI. The main question when it comes to schooling is how much to value socialization, sports, and clubs.

[TheGildedGoose]

@ AI replacing teachers: I guess I lived to see man-made horrors beyond my comprehension again.

[Dunadain]

And here I am, in a master's program hoping to be a college professor myself one day.

[TheGildedGoose]

And here I am, in a master's program hoping to be a college professor myself one day.

Good on you. I hope you can reach those kids.

I don't mean to be disrespectful but the idea that AI and video taped lectures can replace an educated, talented teacher is just laughable, right? Sure, the expectation that a teacher will actually inspire or cultivate critical thinking in students may be a stretch these days but Christ, a robot will never inspire anyone, nor will a video lecture be able to answer your critical questions. And if we ever do get to the point where these things can be replaced we will probably be so far into a late capitalist %$#% hole that it's irrelevant because of rising temperatures and ocean levels.

[Dunadain]

I don't know what the future holds, is be lying if I said the threat of AI talking over my job didn't concern me at least a little. Ultimately though, there isn't much I can do about it, and it's not like AI doesn't pose a threat to other occupations as well.

I agree that meta context is important, the professors that inspired me wouldn't have been inspiring if they had been robots who didn't share my life experiences, but would everyone feel that way? I'm not gonna lie, plenty of my professors could have been replaced by a robot and I wouldn't have cared.

[TheGildedGoose]

I don't know what the future holds, is be lying if I said the threat of AI talking over my job didn't concern me at least a little. Ultimately though, there isn't much I can do about it, and it's not like AI doesn't pose a threat to other occupations as well.

I agree that meta context is important, the professors that inspired me wouldn't have been inspiring if they had been robots who didn't share my life experiences, but would everyone feel that way? I'm not gonna lie, plenty of my professors could have been replaced by a robot and I wouldn't have cared.

The answer is "invest in education generally, pay teachers more, reduce class sizes, and find better metrics to judge teachers by," not "economically displace 1-2% of the workforce and ruin an entire generation."

[TheAmericanSpirit]

And here I am, in a master's program hoping to be a college professor myself one day.

Good on you. I hope you can reach those kids.

I don't mean to be disrespectful but the idea that AI and video taped lectures can replace an educated, talented teacher is just laughable, right? Sure, the expectation that a teacher will actually inspire or cultivate critical thinking in students may be a stretch these days but Christ, a robot will never inspire anyone, nor will a video lecture be able to answer your critical questions. And if we ever do get to the point where these things can be replaced we will probably be so far into a late capitalist %$#% hole that it's irrelevant because of rising temperatures and ocean levels.

Eh, I'm inclined to disagree. From grades K-12, I had about 6 teachers actually worth a damn out of the dozens that I had to slog through. In college, there were only 4 professors whose work I respected. The rest were either miserable, out of touch, inflexible, unimaginative, mean, or actively stupid.

In contrast, youtube videos have taught me all sorts of %$#%. I learned to fix my car, disassemble and clean my pistol, use a soldering iron, play decent chess, file my taxes, and a host of cool historical facts just by clicking on videos. And if the video is crap, I just find one that isn't. I wish I could have opted out of all the mediocre, uninspired instructors in the same way. As for asking questions, researching FAQs does wonders for knocking the simple %$#% down to size. If you have a question, odds are someone has already asked it.

So yeah, bring on the AI education. It cannot possibly be worse than the worst of the existing educational infrastructure imo. The job just doesn't pay enough to attract real talent so what most kids end up with is a glorified babysitter. Sad but true IME.

[TheGildedGoose]

Eh, I'm inclined to disagree. From grades K-12, I had about 6 teachers actually worth a damn out of the dozens that I had to slog through. In college, there were only 4 professors whose work I respected. The rest were either miserable, out of touch, inflexible, unimaginative, mean, or actively stupid.

In contrast, youtube videos have taught me all sorts of %$#%. I learned to fix my car, disassemble and clean my pistol, use a soldering iron, play decent chess, file my taxes, and a host of cool historical facts just by clicking on videos. And if the video is crap, I just find one that isn't. I wish I could have opted out of all the mediocre, uninspired instructors in the same way. As for asking questions, researching FAQs does wonders for knocking the simple %$#% down to size. If you have a question, odds are someone has already asked it.

So yeah, bring on the AI education. It cannot possibly be worse than the worst of the existing educational infrastructure imo. The job just doesn't pay enough to attract real talent so what most kids end up with is a glorified babysitter. Sad but true IME.

See my above post, but:

I'm not denying there aren't major systemic problems in the United States education system (and, I'm sure, many across the globe), but considering all of the %$#%$#% that teachers have to deal with on multiple fronts, it's understandable that they're miserable, out of touch, inflexible, or mean (unimaginative and actively stupid are unforgivable crimes as a teacher). Make some changes and this becomes less common as you attract better candidates and lessen burn out.

YouTube videos can give you skills and facts, but they can't give you interaction, and while I acknowledge that AI is in its infancy, it's still AI. It doesn't think, it doesn't analyze, it regurgitates information based on an algorithm. Obviously videos have a place in the classroom, but they're no replacement for a curated education.

Would you get in a driverless car? Would you eat at a restaurant with robot servers? Why would we put our future generations in the same boat?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

See my above post, but:

I'm not denying there aren't major systemic problems in the United States education system (and, I'm sure, many across the globe), but considering all of the %$#%$#% that teachers have to deal with on multiple fronts, it's understandable that they're miserable, out of touch, inflexible, or mean (unimaginative and actively stupid are unforgivable crimes as a teacher). Make some changes and this becomes less common as you attract better candidates and lessen burn out.

YouTube videos can give you skills and facts, but they can't give you interaction, and while I acknowledge that AI is in its infancy, it's still AI. It doesn't think, it doesn't analyze, it regurgitates information based on an algorithm. Obviously videos have a place in the classroom, but they're no replacement for a curated education.

Would you get in a driverless car? Would you eat at a restaurant with robot servers? Why would we put our future generations in the same boat?

Don't be such a luddite. There's a lot of things that robots just do better than people and we don't even blink at their application in those faculties these days. Driverless cars can't get drunk and kill people after their night out for example, but people can.

Also, imo there is no excuse for being a crappy teacher, whatever the circumstances. These are children they're dealing with, they don't deserve the blowback off the teacher's personal economic peril or sad midlife crisis. If you don't like the job, find another before you %$#% up some kid's childhood with your bad attitude. I agree that the low pay is criminal, but to me it makes more sense to develop a new method with cheaper technology than continue to put all our chips on the ye olde Socratic method which just ain't putting up the numbers anymore. If it wasn't broken, we wouldn't need to fix it. But it is, so it's time for some change.

[ISBPathfinder]

And here I am, in a master's program hoping to be a college professor myself one day.

Good on you. I hope you can reach those kids.

I don't mean to be disrespectful but the idea that AI and video taped lectures can replace an educated, talented teacher is just laughable, right? Sure, the expectation that a teacher will actually inspire or cultivate critical thinking in students may be a stretch these days but Christ, a robot will never inspire anyone, nor will a video lecture be able to answer your critical questions. And if we ever do get to the point where these things can be replaced we will probably be so far into a late capitalist %$#% hole that it's irrelevant because of rising temperatures and ocean levels.

We are a capitalistic society. I am not saying that some things won't be lost in doing this but if you look at the cost of staffing and physical buildings you can probably look at something like a 40% cost moving directly to digital from physical right now and that isn't taking into account expanding class sizes or anything. There are actually a lot of purely internet based curriculum already even among the K12 in some areas. Look at some of the super rural school setups these days. Lots of them can't afford to staff and keep going schools anymore because of how small their classes are. In a lot of cases these are already shifting to digital learning.

AI should be able to answer questions and grade assignments in a lot of cases. I am not exactly looking at right now today's AI but talking broadly in the future. I get the value of face to face interaction but the cost savings is really high to do away with on premise learning.

There are a lot of careers that also value certification training over 4 year degrees too. I have a degree in computer network security and work as a computer programmer. Its not that uncommon to actually prefer experience and certifications over college in my degree.

My argument isn't against education but so much as to point out that like 60% of what you learn in a batchlor's is generic and or unrelated information. There is also a lot of overhead in a lot of college experiences that isn't really necessary due to all of the buildings they maintain. In a lot of cases I would say that like 20% of my professors seemed driven and really good and the rest were just ok. What if instead you had driven and really good teachers for every class because they were pre recorded and the best people in industry giving their best presentations on the material? I am just saying there is a lot to be said about pre recorded video when you look at it from that perspective. The cost to distribute that material is also probably much cheaper.

[ISBPathfinder]

For what little it matters, I am also of the impression that most all "desk jobs" are also likely for disruption from AI, myself included. We aren't there yet and I have no idea to what level to expect from AI nor how fast of disruption it will have but most things that involve working behind a computer all day is something that AI is likely going to be something that could simplify and condense down the needs of.

I am not talking about what we have right now when I say AI but the end objective of AI. I have no clue if or when we can achieve that nor how long its roll out into commercial use it will take but I feel like it will be a fast move.

[toctheyounger]

Man, housing/Real estate is such a crazy thing. Me and my fiance are overjoyed that we got a place for 250k. That was with a government program that allows us to buy cheaper and with super long installments. And it isnt ready yet, its building. We are super blessed because post covid market is crazy here. Before we were negotiating a apartment for 120k with 35 down payment, arround february 2020. The same apartment was sold for 220k (all at once) on july and now its up to 300+. It's funny to talk about this at a mtg forum, because as life goes on I get more and more money and yet feel worse and worse about dropping big money on mtg cards or other hobbies (Thats why I actually began trying to make the hobby pay for itself even a little). It does feel weird/frustrating that each day we are working more and more, and have less possibilities to enjoy ourselves. Either on personal hobbies or having a good time together. Life is crazy at the current time and system.


Now re-reading what I wrote it appears that I'm struggling, I'm not. Thankfull me and my fiance are employed. Not at the best places, but far from the worse too. Its just that we are playing a game that is really hard to win imho

Housing is incredibly cutthroat here. Most areas in Auckland the median price to buy is around 1mil NZD. And you're not the only person looking, most properties you're having to outbid developers and landlords trying to expand their portfolios; it's incredibly ruthless and disheartening. My wife and I were very lucky to have had her brother in law offer us a private sale of his house as it wasn't working for his family anymore. We got it for 450k about 2 years before the pandemic, and honestly, I don't know how we'd afford it if we'd bought on the open market. We're literally anticipating a wave of mortgagee sales in the next year or two, things are really in a 'rich get richer' pattern here at the moment. It's pretty awful.

I can totally relate to spare time too; I spend far more time talking about mtg than playing it now, parenthood is a real grind. It's super fun and very rewarding, but by god does it test the limits of a 24 hour cycle, as well as the limits of sleep, and most of all, patience. There is nothing more rewarding, but I also can't wait for the day my kid settles into early nights and independent sleep.

[5colorsrainbow]

Replacing teachers with AI or robots is dumb af. There is a ton of issues with the education system we have now but none of it will be fixed with replacing teachers with AI and will actively ruin future learning. As the goose says, pay teachers better.

[pokken]

Screw the modern education system completely. The whole complex is a trash fire factory designed to produce factory workers.

Let's pay everyone a living wage and then we won't need public school to act as a glorified babysitter.

As a product of the public school system a decent teacher is the exception rather than the rule and even if they were paid fairly you'd need to fix class sizes too which means quintupling the cost.

Public school is where kids go to learn how to physically and emotionally abuse each other while being insufficiency supervised. It has more in common with a prison than anything to do with learning.

I'm all for public education but the current form is irretrievably garbage from the corrupt school boards force feeding young earth creationism to the textbook industry sucking the life out of us

Paying teachers more is like one one millionth of the problem.

[Lifeless]

It's not just public school. All primary education is comically inapplicable to real life. Even with good dedicated teachers the curriculum is a joke. Like you said its about generating a labor force not providing any useful information.