OmegaGiven's Life Advice

Finances

DO THESE THINGS FIRST BEFORE ANY OTHER INVESTMENT ACCOUNTS. BY THE WAY THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE JUST THINGS I LEARNED UP TO THIS STAGE IN LIFE AND THINGS ARE BOUND TO CHANGE.

1. Get out of Bad Debpt (credit card or high interest loans) then get an Emergency fund.
   1. Emergency Fund: 3-6 months of “cash”/savings that can pay for all costs of living during that period. If possible, up to a year may be good as well.
   2. How to Store a Emergency Fund?
      1. CD Accounts: A High Yield Account 2-4.5% APR that shouldn’t be touched unless an emergency. If withdrawn you forfeit the profit gained from it which is why its actually good as a emergency fund storage. Theoretically you should not need to pull from it but if you do you dont lose much as you only lost the few months it is before it would have matured. Most CDs APR max at 3-12 months so its actually good to have 2-3 rolling so you can maximize the benefit of the account and the state that if you need to use it you dont lose much of that gain.
      2. High Yield Savings. These arnt as high as you think Maybe 2% APR which isnt much in the grand scheme but its better than nothing.
      3. Cash Investment Accounts: Investment accounts sometimes offer % APR on uninvested cash. I only would ever suggest this if you know you can pull your money out at a moments noticed aka an emergency Fund. make sure these are Federally insured and you can pull money. Moomoo does this at 4% or so as of 2025.
2. Max out Any matching 401k you have with your Employer: This instantly doubles that money you put in AKA the MATCHING, which is invested for you on whatever market plan they have so this is best to make instant money for your RETIREMENT. Its still wise to see what investment method they do for you on that account. Do not let them invest in alternate investments as of 2025. Make sure to keep track of this somehow so you can easily find it for when you retire as you are entitled to all this even when you leave a company.
3. Roth IRA: This is a investing account where you can put after taxed money in then it wont be taxed AFTER retirement. Basically if you are taxed now then it doubles then doubles again by retirement that is better than not being taxed now but taxed on all the gains and you can invest it the same as any other account you would open elsewhere. Do this through a trusted bank and you are set.
4. After 1, 2 and 3, you are free to invest the way you want but from here lets go over a couple tricks:
   1. Credit card turning. Credit cards often have free bonuses of a couple hundred dollars for opening accounts with them and starting to use their cards. this is at no cost to you unless they have a annual fee. it does take your credit score down a little as you will have some very new cards and your credit score wants to see credit cards open for long periods of time but it fixes itself over time as long as you’re smart with your money. I often do this 1-2 times a year, doing it too much really does hit your credit a bit more that you would want. you can credit card turn annual cost cards since most have free the first year so you just have to cancel those which hits your credit score so only do this if you have a house and don’t need your credit score anymore basically or its not a big hit.
   2. Checking/Saving account turning. Just like credit cards banks and credit unions will offer deals to open an account with them and you get a couple hundred. They may have terms like having 5k at all times or to have direct deposits of up to X per month else you dont get the deal or have to pay a fee so basically once you get that much money you can use that money to rotate through accounts every 6 months to a year.
   3. Investment account turning. Lots of investment companies / Apps offer benefits for depositing money into accounts with them. You can take advantage of this to get up to 1-2 hundred from each in cash or stocks. See my referral link section for my referral bonuses. Be Wary of these though as sometimes they may crash out and your money is locked up until the Fed bail them out.
5. So why have I not mentioned other investing accounts like robinhood and such? Cause those are last. If you have all the previous mentioned finances covered then yes you can invest further and put money in other investment accounts but there isnt much reason to invest on those accounts until you max out the better options first.

My Affiliate links to get benefits of accounts of the things above and we help each other out as well:

Chase credit cards:

https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18A/PNP2MUKOCD https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18A/CEJBEBWURM

Discover Credit Card:

Webull investment account:

https://a.webull.com/2A94ShnZA6e6LBgYp4

Robinhood investment account:

https://join.robinhood.com/nathanj907

Moomoo investment account:

https://j.moomoo.com/04Z4OK

proton vpn

https://pr.tn/ref/WH7XHRQJ

US Health care:

Took me 2 jobs, lots of reading, and a older brother to finally understand what to get and how health care works and get it to work for me so nothing is unexpected EXCEPT the hospitals charging you for the stupidest of things or absurd amounts.

This info is for if you don’t qualify for Medicare/Medicaid aka you are high income.

often companies that offer you health care plans or if you go private will offer you a spectrum of options but ill break it down into 2 sections:

1. Pay costs yourself up to Big X amount then insurance steps in once that deductible is reached and pay for things (comes with possible use of HSA health savings account, will explain later)
2. pay small copays and a smaller X deductible then health insurance steps in to cover X % of the costs.

So what does this mean?

for 1, you basically are willing to bite the bullet of 6-10k costs if a big bill comes up but after that insurance pays for the rest.

for number 2 it means you can go to the doctor at little cost to you and if you do hit your low deductible of only 2-4k then insurance will help you pay for the cost but often you will still have to cover a percentage.

So my surface level recommendation is:

if you go to doctors frequently but costs don’t exceed that of the Big X plans then number 2 is best for you.

If you rarely go to the doctors then number 1 is best. those plans often cost less so less comes out of pay checks so you save there and most often it allows you to start a HSA. so what is an HSA?

HSA Health Savings Account:

• You can put up to X amount in it.
• Money put in is not taxed.
• You can use money from your HSA to pay for medical bills, or file for refunds when you pay bills and want to pull the money out.

What makes this amazing is if you rarely go to the doctors you may pay 200 for a doctors visit but thats maybe the difference of 1 or 2 months of the cost difference in the plans so its nothing to you then you can save money in your HSA not taxed and if something big happens like cancer you can use your HSA money to pay up to the deductible then the insurance pays for the rest.

So lets put this in perspective of worst case scenario, you get hospitalized for caner or some horrible accident. on plan 1 you have to pay 6-10k out of pocket which suck but that money can come from your HSA account which you’ve been saving just for this and then insurance will step in and pay for basically the rest of the bills. meaning in a 50k medical bill means you only pay 6-10k they pay 40-44k

in plan 2 you are in the hospital you pay 2-4k out of pocket (no HSA) then you pay say 20% or more of the final bill and insurance covers the rest even at the conservative end of 20% you still pay 8k on top of your out of pocket basically. but often you pay for 30% of the bill maybe more. and if the bill is higher like 100k for some reason then you are even more screwed compared to the other plan.

So yes I recommend plan 1 in most cases. you have to check the insurance offerings though as it can vary.

Subtopic: ARGUE WITH HOSPITALS, When you get a bill keep it in a folder. get them always in paper. dont be afraid to request medical records. it is free else they are scamming you. get itemized bills always. if you see something wrong you can argue it. it may take a long time to argue but it is possible. It took lots of mental stress and phone calls but my wife and I corrected 1k on a bill before cause it wasn’t logged in our medical records so we proved they charged us for a service we didnt get in our records. we also when waiting for insurance to do its thing we able to forgive 500-1k just by being nice and asking if they have discounts for paying in full and paying early, THEN KEEP THOSE RECEIPTS. If you pay in full then later they give you a similar or another bill you can argue to get that forgiven as you already paid in full so you are not liable for any further bills. this can be a sign of fraud in your medical records which is why it is good to request your medical records after big medical emergencies or ER visits so you can use that as leverage. If you are petty enough and can find a lawyer if you see instances of fraud or computer errors or human input errors which is the real culprit it is possible to sue but of course not fun and they know that too which is why you can fight to get forgiven bills and such cause if you present the records and the itemized bill dont line up then they know they have to or ask for someone higher up and then who else to call and get emails in writing.

Do you want to be awesome and make sure you set yourself up for success?

• look at your coverage and mark all hospitals in you maps and contacts that your insurance is in network for so when an emergency happens you can look plot and go.

Emergency happens thats NOT life threatening? Ask a close friend or coworker if they can take you to the hospital on your phone. dont have them call an ambulance. those rides are not covered by insurance unless you got a awesome insurance plan.

If you dont do this for your coworker then you shouldnt expect someone to do this for you. be friendly to youre coworkers. you all are in this together. maybe even mention it in passing if the opportunity arises.

Technology:

The purpose of this section is to make you aware of the privacy you sacrifice on the internet and what you can do about it. its up to you to decide how much of your privacy you want to sacrifice for the benefit of convenience.

Open Source

Lets talk about open source and what it means and why its good to know this concept before we dive into anything. Open source meaning is that anyone can look at the source code. This means that anyone can audit and check if the source code does anything malicious. Now we all know you probably wont go and scrape source code to see if its malicious but since that ability is there then it means someone can be the town cryer if they see something fishy disincentivizing malicious behavior on open source code projects or companies. So this is the main reason we trust Linux and other opens source solutions over Big tech solutions cause we dont know what they do behind the curtain or if there is a malicious actor in a big company.

Browser:

All the big companies technically if they want, can see all your actions so using edge, chrome, safari you sell all right to them just by using those things. I use BRAVE browser. its built on chromium so all chrome things work on it and it has built in ad block and things like that which makes it super convenient. there is other browsers but this is the one im experienced with.

VPN:

Put all the advertising aside, the reasons I recommend a VPN is:

1. When traveling VPNs will tunnel your traffic through whatever internet inlet/connection you are in like at a air port your traffic is encrypted and tunneled through the local wifi to the VPN server then to your destination. this makes it so the points at where your internet use is much harder to track and blocked less meaning on public internet access points it will often increase the speed of your internet traffic as its not blocked by the various ISP checkers in that way or router website blockers.
2. VPNs will allow secure P2P connections if you pay for that service. this is good for if you don’t trust centralized servers to see you coming in and using their servers if you want to find Peer2Peer apps and services to communicate and such. Allows you to securely torrent those Arch Linux Versions…
3. Access region locked data. This is a feature but often VPNs are identified and blocked so its not a good selling point even though its the main advertising point. I never actually had good luck with this.

The bad: when using big tech sites, they can tell you’re using a VPN basically they see lots of traffic from the Same IP they can tell its a VPN they may throw up some blocks or just inconvenience you. I see this when accessing google docs and such as it sits loading forever or just seems a little slower than when I turn it off.

Operating System:

I am a firm believer that there is no true best operating system. They all have their perks, Windows is easy to use if your used to it and naturally just works for gaming and engineering software’s. Mac is very good at creator tools and they also “just work” 99% of the time and the modern Macbooks have amazing battery life so those are good use cases for which you should use BUT just like the internet those providers can or possibly will see all your data and usage. there is no confirmation they don’t even though they say they don’t. News has proven this time and time again.

So if you want to decouple your life from those tech giants what do you do?

LINUX

there are different versions of linux you can try but lets start with the first things you should be aware of:

Gaming doesn’t “just work”. It CAN work and sometimes very simply but it isn’t as easy as windows.

Most Engineering apps are not native to linux unless you use and master Virtual machines and virtualize windows just for that purpose. There is options like freecad but just is another tool to master.

There actually is plenty of good creator tools for video editing: Davinci Resolve, and photo editing: GIMP so no issues there unless you really just cant do without adobe.

Big problem i found in linux is the video compositor. if you didn’t know; operating systems are built with a front end and a back end. the front end in this example is the video compositor (in combination of the desktop environment). if you use multiple monitors and game on one monitor and have different resolutions, no matter how powerful or weak your gpu is, video compositors some times have a hard time rendering everything you do on linux. This is a software bottleneck not a hardware. To accommodate for this I would recommend max 2 monitors or less with linux or have uniformity of all your monitors like getting 3 or more of the same monitor. This will reduce graphical glitches, screen taring in games and the like.

With that another thing to understand is Desktop environments. this is the foundational software built into a linux distribution that renders your visuals in a pretty way. You will see things like Gnome, Plasma and a few others. this is more of a preference thing so just take a look but most linux distros can support multiple so you can choose.

NOW what version of linux should you use? here is my experience:

Ubuntu: most commonly used Linux Version, lots of tools and lots of tinkering and lots of forums and guides to follow. What Ive found though is it gets messy since its so common there is so many ways to do things so you find yourself just making a jumbled mess of softwares and plugins and getting them all to work with each other just becomes a mess but it is plausible and you can do it. (If you do so much tinkering then maybe go all the way and try arch linux)

Mint: Built on Ubuntu this is a good transition to a Windows look alike right off the bat using its own cinnamon desktop environment but you can change it of course if you want. I found it works well but had more video compositor issues with the desktop environment with gaming which is why it drove me away but Im hardcore gaming so its still good just doesn’t fit my bill quite right. Ive seen some youtubers have lots of success with this.

Arch Linux: You are given a terminal then you build your own system looks and more. so this is the Ultimate tinkers home. it has the most potential I think, but I was a little too overwhelming to dive into currently. Though I do wish to end up here one day.

Bazzite aka Fedora: This like how mint is just a different ubuntu, is a distro built on a version of linux called Fedora. I personally use the Plasma KDE desktop environment on it and it is the perfect blend FOR ME to feel like windows but have all the features I want like multiple timezones and widgets on the task bar and desktop. It has lots of ways you can change the theme and it really did work out of the box for me. That describes the desktop environment of plasma though. The real power of Bazzite is that when you go to download the image of the operating system you give it what kind of system you have and they give you a prepackaged distro that is meant for that system so when you install it to a drive it will work basically out of the box. I was able to game on my favorite games no tinkering cause it came with working nvidia driver installed on it and worked with my AMD CPU just fine. it works I have minimal issues and normally can solve it and like all other versions of linux its not being watched by Big tech.

CatchyOS, Built on Arch linux. I just switched to this from Bazzite and so far havnt noticed much difference. had to install my software a bit different as they are different versions of linux but it for the most part works with all of the things I use. It has has some weird crashes on occasion but nothing critical so far. I chose to use the plasma desktop env again as I liked it and it is one of the better ones for a ultrawide screen. The main reason I switched off bazzite was that bazzite is immutable meaning they put a lot of blocks on you to not change the root system or install softwares in a certain way and I am compiling c++ and trying some more hardcore coding and need those tools at my disposal so I made the jump to this to try it out.

Password Managers

I only recommend password managers if you aren’t a genius and have a solid method of passwords/patterns in your brain. also id recommend password managers if you save passwords across many browsers and devices and such such. So why are they good? If you use a good password manager it requires 2 factor or more to lock your passwords behind that security so someone cant just hop on your computer and just steal your browsers saved passwords right out from under you. It keeps them all in one place which can be a security flaw if you are hacked but if you arnt using one and get hacked they probably can still grab your stuff anyways so may as well make it easier for your life at least to get them in one place. also it bypasses key loggers if thats a worry (even googles keyboard is a key logger on your phone, didn’t know they did that huh.. well yea they do log your typing).

If you are like me and have a trusted significant other that you need to share your life with and if you die. If you give them access to your password manager they can get into all your accounts and see what accounts you have so they can recover whatever finances data and other stuff they need in your unfortunate demise.

Oh and if you get a new device its as simple as downloading and logging into that password manager on that new device with 2 factor… no need to sync multiple browsers and such. thats for if you use a centralized password manager which yes then you are putting your trust in a company or it has its own sync method on most password managers.

For this I use Proton Pass (which I also use proton for VPN)

EMAIL

If you are using Google or Outlook or whatever big tech email thats free… its free for a reason. they can see and sell any and all data that passes through it. your receipts to see your spending habits. your notifications of your social media. Your bank account companies and account numbers on those emails… essentially WHEN not if someone ever hacks google or the like and gets your info. you are screwed. This is something I still am guilty of but there are ways. you can buy a domain and host it or you can work through other companies that just work as a middle man and dont sell your data or monitor you so there is options. When I do make the big switch I am probably going to switch to Proton mail just to consolidate everything for myself.

Hardware

I dont like being biased as its whatever suits your needs. I only have this now as you basically need to pick an operating system and that will restrict your options. but lets talk about the 2 use cases when it comes to Computer setup:

Homebody and Traveler.

If you are one that travels 2+ big vacations or family visits in a year. maybe goes camping. goes to in person classes or goes in office where you have to have a computer for home and in office work I classify you as the TRAVELER

If you have kids and or have a place where you come back to every day from whatever responsibilities and spend your time in the house but then dedicate your leisure time to gaming or sitting down and tinkering on a computer and dont get out much to use that tech out and about then you are a HOMEBODY

TRAVELER = Laptop or powerful Mobile device

HOMEBODY = Desktop or stationary workstation. If you really want that mobility get a tablet and do steamlink.

for TRAVELER you have it easy. Pick a operating system you want then find a suitable laptop or mobile device that suits your means and accommodates your use case. The end…. Side note. if you want to tinker with linux and virtualization get a laptop that can

1. Have 2 different Storage devices for SSDs, Partition 1 in half so you have windows on the one half and linux on the other, the 2nd storage devices is for all your main storage so if you ever have to wipe your operating system you dont lose anything.
2. Have a integrated graphics card as well as a mobile graphics card, Why? Cause virtualization. you can dedicate the mobile one to a virtual machine and have the integrated for the main operating system allowing you to do some cool stuff.

For HOMEBODY it can be easy but if you are a tinkerer like me then you may need to think long term of what your goals are as your going to do a self build. so lets dive into it.

If you just want a decent power computer to play modern games then yea just get any 1-2k gaming desktop and you are set plug up to a TV or nice monitor of your choice with whatever peripherals you like and you are set to go.

If you want to Tinker. run your own server, build out a crazy system or have the flexibility of that option then lets start with size:

GET THE BIGGEST CASE or SERVER RACK YOU CAN FIND IN YOUR MEANS. make sure it can fit a ATX-E motherboard aka the extended mother boards which are some of the biggest next to thread ripper mother boards.

yes if you got space go big. if you are going to tinker it gives you the room and flexibility to expand. I still struggle to find the biggest affordable case I can for what im doing so this is more of a go look than it is a recommendation. I still cant find a decent affordable computer case that can fit 2 GPUs and 6+ drives.

If you are not going crazy big server stuff (then get a threadripper, go do some research) then you probably can stick to traditional Computer consumer hardware. Id recommend getting a motherboard that has 2 PCI slots that are far enough apart that you can fit a hunk of a GPU and another something whether it be another GPU or something else just for that tinkering option. These motherboards will often have 2 or more slots to put SSDs on them so get yourself a 2 TB drive or more (as of writting this) that should be plenty for your means. I got a 4TB as my base drive just cause i can afford it and dont want space constraints and also have another 2TB SSD on the side and another 1TB SSD then a bunch of disk drives as well for long term storage.

Long term storage

This is more of my observation or opinion but HDD are still very good to have. if a HDD breaks its still very possible to recover your data. if a SSD breaks its less likely just how they are built. so thats why I still use HDD for important documents or long term storage of videos and the like.

GPU:

Get whatever works for you

CPU

Get whatever works for you just make sure it matches what your motherboard supports

CPU Cooler:

I recommend a closed loop water cooler. they basically just strap onto your cpu and the big cooler rack of it goes on the top or some available side of the Case so its just easy and much more quite than a fan CPU cooler. though the closed loop cooler still uses fans….

Ram:

Get whatever works for you. Id recommend if you can afford it just get 2 sticks of 32gigs of ram. solid amount for never needing to worry about ram as of writing this.

Power Supply:

Get a Segate (I think its that one) power supply with the most Watts you can. 1000+ Watts the better. Why that Company? Cause they offer very long term warranties cause they are that good. they just don’t die and if they do they will replace it as long as you follow basic surge protector safety. There may be a few others that are good but thats just what I recommend. why 1000W or more? Cause expandability. a normal computer may only need 400-600W but if you get a Beefy GPU then that may need 400-600W by itself so just leaves room for upgrading GPU or having multiple GPUs and it actually helps reduce Heat. since those bigger ones are meant for more and if you dont use all of it. it will require less fan and less heat generated meaning quieter setup.

Setup your Computer Systems the Omega Way:

Now up to this point you read about a lot of tools I use and why. lets talk about modularity of data for your tinker setup so you can do anything and everything without commitments holding you down to a software or accidents and issues come in to interrupt you.

1. Store all persistent Data on a separate Drive or Partition. I use the term persistent for any data that you dont ever want deleted. This being documents videos photos and game saves. things that you want to last forever. Why? Cause what happens when your computer operating system breaks? if this data is stored on a different drive or partition then it wont effect your data. you just reinstall the operating system. install your softwares and map your partition and drives back and you are set to go in under an hour. (aside from game download time…)
2. Stop using Bookmarks, Use shortcut software. This topic is only for tinkers. I developed a service that you include and run from your persistent data. what this service does is you can type go/<remembered shortcut word for url/website I want to go to> you can actually change go to be anything but its self explanatory so I just use go. so this looks like I type go/you in ANY browser and it goes to youtube. No bookmarks needed. I can download any browser and my system takes that shortcut in a url tab and acceses my service and redirects me. this way I can use multiple browsers for different users logged in and still have the bookmarks or shortcuts to all the accounts I need. This is actually a common tool used in big companies and you can set it up on your own computer. I have a video on how to you can watch.
3. Keep the install files or instructions of everything you need to reproduce your setup in a running dock or folder. this is so you can easily just go to that doc or folder and run them all with a command and get your computer back to where it was.
4. Use password manager so on a new system you can get back to accessing all your secure info without having the previous browser to sync with and such.

With these 4 rules of setting up your system you can onboard a new system to your liking in under an hour. I developed this methodology cause I switched between 5 operating systems in few months and I hated having to move data. I hated having to resync browsers for bookmarks and passwords. I hated having to remember all the softwares I use and which to install. by following this methodology when and if my system goes down to a power surge or something I can get back up and running in under an hour no hassle and no worrying about being tied to big companies like windows cause its uniform on any operating system granted your softwares you run can also work on other operating systems.

Phone:

Yes like operating systems I am a firm believer that whatever works for you is probably best. but lets talk about a few things. all activity on your phones is most likely being monitored and tracked so if you are doing anything sensitive that you dont want big brother or big tech to see then its best to not use your phone to do it but remember its just the cost of convenience. I dont care so no judgement here.

Use last gen phones. this is just me trying to save a buck for me and you. there are so many phones traded in for the latest and greatest that these phone carriers sell the last gen phones in bulk to resellers. if you can find one of those resellers you can get a 1 year old last gen phone thats refurbished practically new for basically half the cost of when it was new. thats a great deal. THE ONLY CASE I say you shouldn’t do this is if you really want or need a new technology on a phone that isnt on last gen phones but lets be honest you probably dont need it. example is lidar on new iphones as of writing this.

If you like to tinker dont get apple. you just cant tinker on apple. but samsung has a really cool desktop interface called samsung dex so thats cool…

YOU DONT NEED THE LATEST CAMERAS ON PHONES. Cameras on phone have gotten so good that the past few generations dont have much difference. if you think this because you want to be an influencer or something then you arnt going to be a good influencer. What makes a influencer is the quality of content not imperceivable picture quality. in the end most people watch content on a little screen so they wont see the small stuff.

Dont get sold on apple because of face time… facebook messenger video and whatsapp is really not that bad. Over the 2 years of having face time I only noticed it was good quality a few times most the other times it was about the same quality as any other video calling service as most the others have caught up.

All SMS messengers suck including apply and android so just choose your poison.

Peripherals

Keyboard

This is a very preference oriented device. but the main things I would suggest 100% are:

• Do not buy a keyboard because of the software features. Software becomes out of date and if they dont update it then the software could break. also software is per operating system.
• Wired is GREAT! the only time you really need wireless is cause you are always on the go and take your keyboard with you. if you have tons of wires to manage then you arnt doing wire management, get usb docs and such to help clean up your wires on your desk. ziptie cords to be proper lengths.
• Programmable keyboards are a fad, yes they are helpful but refer back to the dont get sold on software features. If it has programmable features make sure it has good open source code to its firmware and or how the programability works. Make sure its all onboard aka its saved to the device so it works across any device it plugs into. keyboard software goes out of date in a few years.

2nd Hand Market

STOP ALWAYS BUYING NEW! Like seriously you can save so much money buying second hand. and for you tree lovers it technically is recycling so its that one less device that was bought deincentivizing big companies to keep producing surplus.

A Big thing to learn in life is MATERIAL SCIENCE. what is something made out of? what are its properties and how long does it last? if you can learn about all the materials in the world then you can see what something is truly worth and how long it can last.

Things I think you can 99% buy Used:

• PC Cases. You basically can get these for free most the time.
• Refurbished phones. cheaper and they normally dont have issues.
• computer fans. you get them for cheap if they have a bad bearing then just throw them out and keep the good ones that arnt as noisy.
• CLOTHS. do you know how much surplus of cloths are out there literally enough to cloth every human 100x over. running shoes or foot support is the only thing you should need to buy new but even at thrift stores you can find basically unused running shoes that still have supports. you can get some fabric softeners or scent things and it basically makes them feel brand new. Dawn dish soap is amazing to get stains out.
• UPS (uninterrupted power supplies): If you can get it for close to nothing get it then replace the batteries in it if they are bad. often these work just fine. sometimes they have bad surge protection capacitors so this is why you get them for cheap so you can mix and match parts if you find the same model but they almost all use the same batteries so you can mix and match these. on your main system it may be good to get a “new” one just to make sure you have a good power surge on it thats good and not blown out.
• Tables
• Dressers
• Shelves
• Mesh back AND bottom office chairs. Cushioned ones are just disgusting as who knows how many farts they contain.
• TVs, only for your whatever TVs that you may put in a guest room or something. maybe have 1 really good New TV in your house but wait for holiday sales and dont get the holiday models as those are actually deep sales models that are just not as good or last as long.
• Baby Products. so many 1 time parents get these expensive products use for one or 2 babies for only 1 or 2 months of their lives and with some cleaning are like new and can get at 50% the price or even less. This includes carseats. yes carseats have a “expiration date” but why they have that is because its made out of plastics. what happens to plastic when exposed to UV rays from the sun? It deteariates and breaks down which is why it has that expiration date. but in reality most people dont leave their newborn carseats in cars. as for toddler carseats that is where you have to gauge its use and check the expiration date.
• ALL Workshop/Garage Tools: there may be a few sensitive tools that Im not aware of but most the time tools that go in your garage dont just die. they last so they dont need to be new and the average person doesnt need new. this includes batteries. get batteries in bulk used and throw them out if dead or if you want to tinker you can actually repair batteries for your tools. heavy use drills and such can ware out so sometimes those can be new but there is plenty of second hand ones you can get at half off that last more than half a new tools lifetime so you are good to just buy used.

Things Im iffy on buying Used:

• GPU: history of a GPU can mean a lot of different things for its performance. If its just for one off setup that you dont care but can work then sure but if you want premium GPU processing how a GPU is treated can mean if itll crash your computer
• Motherboards: never know if there is that one thing on the board is broken and ends in a Blue screen at the weirdest time. Better to get the full computer cause it means the mother board is messed with less
• Power Supplies: could have a bad capacitor from surge and wont know until your first blue screen.
• RAM: ram is built of thousands of memory caches. and how those caches are interacted with is very niche. so it could all look fine until you use the one program that uses a specific cache and it ends up blue screening. If you are to buy used just expect this to be your main paint point if its proved working on boot at least.
• SSD: same reason for RAM
• HDD: Kinda same reason as RAM and SSD but on a disk rather than memory chances. you actually are safer than you think just make sure you have backups.
• Cords. you will be surprised how many times a device doesn’t work because of a cord having a short. Just buy bulk and test and throw out the rest.
• Monitors. Just dont pay anything more than close to nothing unless you trust seller and the history or life of the monitor. The monitor can function almost perfectly for a hour or two at a time but the capacitors in it could be bad and over long periods just short out and break if its been through power surges
• Mattresses: Yes you can get for free just buy those $50 or less things that basically seal the mattress in a case then you use as is with that case sealing the old baddies. just dont have sharp objects around it…

Things to Buy New but the smart way

• Couches. Dont spend more than 2-3k on a couch ever! the quality of a couch is arbitrary and not real and is complete branding only. you can get a giant family sized couch from Costco that is just as good and can last longer than one from pottery barn thats 4x the price. I say this from experience. we bough a pottery barn couch and it felt nice but months later when I looked at it I realized it was just as good as something a quarter the price meaning i wasted thousands on a “amazing” couch when it did its function the same and was just as comfortable as the cheaper ones.

Subscriptions

Stop Paying for tons of subscriptions. My life style advice that is not hindering to any average person may have you pay for 4 subscriptions at a time no more.

1. Video streaming service
2. Music
3. game service (for console players else buy games)
4. VPN/Password manager/Email: Price to get out of Free Big tech (I use proton for all this 10$ a month)

Now I personally dont pay for Game service cause I buy games but you should only ever pay for 1 of each of these categories. if you want to watch a show on netflix but youre paying for disney + then cancel your disney and get netflix. there is plenty of content on each platform to fuel you for one month at a time so paying for all of it is just a waste of money. schedule your lifestyle out. any big show has release dates so plan to have that service for that month.

Food

STOP EATING OUT or that much.

This is just a pet peeve. but lets save you some money.

Buy yourself a Crock pot or Insta cooker. $100 or less

get yourself a nice roast every week with a bag of potatos, carrots, onions, etc and rice. this cost may be $100 or so. stick em in the pot with some broth and pressure cook. that will feed you for days. do that again and again eating good and your food bill each month will be $400 max.

now yes you need diversity but Im just trying to highlight how easy it is to eat at home for cheap and eat well. thats eating a roast every week which is some good stuff. This scales pretty well with a family so my wife and I with one baby eat for about $500 a month in a big city.

Buying a House

The big topic…. Do you rent or do you buy a house? This is a factor of what is the cost of the mortgage in comparison to renting at the same price.

The Ifs:

1. If mortgage and rent = Same then yes buying a house is a good option.
2. If mortgage is more than renting BUT your principle (aka money that actually is paid for the house not interest to bank) is higher than that the difference then yes house can be a good option.
3. If you achieve number 2 but then pay more in maintance of your house than that difference then buying the house is a BAD option.
4. If you want house and its in an area that you have your current job AND can get a new job in the same area so that you can keep the house in case you lose the original job then yes its ok to buy a house.
5. If you dont want to maintain your house yourself and you dont make enough money to maintain the house then like number 3 then dont buy the house.
6. if you buy a old build, can you live in it for a year without renovations and be fine then thats a good house.
7. If you are ok with commuting and enjoy audio books to turn commute time into mental productive time and such then house can be good option. (specifically for new builds)
8. if you dont have a support network in that location then its probably not good to buy a house there. rent first or find communities in that area before buying. prevents case where you go there then dont have the social awareness to feel lonely and sad.
9. If you buy this house and then dont like it can you sell it and accept the loss/gain if any?

What to look for when buying a house:

1. Skeleton of the house.
   1. Is the foundation solid and settled. you may not be able to tell this in a new build so plan to have 10k of foundation work if you are in a shifting soil area. Check doors if they shut all the way or if frames are straight
   2. is the roof solid not soft (Current water damage): 5-10k repairs
   3. is there insulation in attic and outer walls: difference of 50-100$ a month in AC/Heating
   4. are outlets grounded and breakers up to date: 3-15k for electrician to update breaker box. minor changes can be a few hundred on your own. open a outlet and see what gauge of wire they are using.
   5. HVAC system good? just consider these a simple couple thousand dollar fixes.
   6. water heater good? less than thousand dollar fix.
   7. windows good or bad?
2. How does weather effect the property?
   1. logically see if the house is near or at the lowest point where water runs. if it is then expect flooding until you fix that.
   2. what directions are the roof facing, for if you want to upgrade solar.
   3. any trees hovering over the house that could threaten it? each tree is at least 1k to remove if not more.
3. What are your neighbors like? Go knock on their door and say hi and ask about history of the house and area if they know. great way to be first friends or to tell if you like your neighbors or if they are hostile to having a new neighbor.
4. What does the area look like at all times of day. morning afternoon night. go drive by and see what happens is there passerby’s what is the frequency and such.
5. HOA?
6. Property tax?
7. cost of a uber to airport or time to get to airport
8. how much is flights of airport in that area.

Remodeling or improving you house:

• Handle Termites: spray wood framing 2ft high with Bora-care it will get absorbed into the wood so if termites ever come and try to eat the wood framing of your house they will die rapidly. https://youtu.be/LIvPla-07fo
• plumbing and electical conduit pipes with threads: thread the white plumbing tape clockwise 3 times around thread then coat in the blue cement stuff. This will keep it strong and sealed.
• Electrical conduit. use lots of lube and always plan your electrical conduit to have wider than you need as you may want more wires to go through there as you technically in most code in areas need 50% or more open space in a conduit.
• make sure you have cut control lines in any contrete pour. this could be every 8ft depending on size of concrete pour. its not a matter of if the concrete will crack but where it will crack and if you have a control joint cut it will crack there then you can fill that crack with different flexable products for in case you need water tight.
• When doing stairs or any finish trim. remember to always do base first that would be your floor. then riser so the riser is over floor then on top of riser is the next surface. building ground up. this will elminate bad looking surfaces and cover any imperfections in stairs cabnetry and more.
• when doing railing you will want to always have 1 rail post loose when installing railing as to fit railing to posts it will need to be loose to help you actually install the way you want. alse you will want to get doulbe sided bolt scrows at the angle you are installing the rails so it screws both in with a circular cut that you can fit the special wratchet over top of to tighten them.
• snap flooring. it should never be glued and you will want to have 1/8in of spacing at least between walls (this will be covered by trim) if you dont then as houses shift and move it may but upp against the flooring of snap flooring and crumple it causing spikelike surfaces in your floornig. also when you first install you should really make sure it staps buy the extra 30$ of tools to be able to rubber hammer get it to snap together and stay together. remmeber these snap flooring once installed together acts like a single plate that can shift around everywhere on whatever surfarce it is put on. before deciding to do snap flooring make sure you have plans for thresholds as you want to know how you transition from one room to another with the flooring.
• drywall, do yourself a favor and dont texture your drywall too crazily even for ceiling. flat textures will show imperfection in straightness of the wall spiky overtextured will be a pain in matching and also not fun to rest up aginst for peaple that lean or brush against the wall. so do a quick brush texture with joint compound then a quick sand to limit the spiky behavior is what id recommend. less work and better for future proofing.