Nice. Well, it’s abandonware and I have a copy. Will have to get around to checking it out. Does it need any proton or WINE tweaks to get running?

If you’re interested, WRC 7 and 10 play surprisingly well on the Deck. 7 has excellent controller support out of the box, and 10 has very good control but needs some tweaking in the settings for better control.

All the games I mentioned except for RBR have run well on the deck and handle fine on a controller. Might want to check if any are on sale, since Steam has the Racing Fest on right now. I also can’t recommend New Star GP enough, it’s arcade F1 style racing, and really fun.

How is that one compared to other rally games? I have a copy but haven’t gone through the trouble to figure out the install. With regards to comparisons, I currently have:

• WRC 4, 7, 10, Generations
• Sebastian Loeb Rally Evo
• V-Rally 4
• Old School Rally
• Rush Rally Origins and RR3
• Dirt Rally and DR 2.0
• RSF Richard Burns Rally (haven’t tested this on the deck)

I’ve really enjoyed WRC 7 and 10 on the Deck. 4 is decent but kind of arcade, very easy. Sebastian Loeb Rally should be sim, but the physics are a bit wonky. And V-Rally 4 is sort of simcade, leaning arcade, but rather fun.

Most of these, orther than WRC 4 can be a bit hard on the battery, so something that looks and plays well without being a battery hog would be nice.

I’m in the middle of Ikenfell (nearing the end I think). Dabbling a bit with Aim for the Ace!(Ace o Nerae!) for the SNES. Holy crap, the graphics on this one are mind blowing for a SNES game, an actual 3D camera that follows the ball.

Also in the middle of Armored Core 3 (PS2) but sidelined it for now, can only play so many games at once and I’m stuck on a mission that annoys the hell out of me (the one where you unlock the Karasawa).

Outside of the Steam Deck, wife and I have been enjoying Across the Obelisk and WH40k: Rogue Trader.

Can confirm, fucking off from society helps.

Wife and I moved from city life to a rural area with more deer than people back in 2021. In terms of well being, the peace and nature are incredible. I never want to live in a city again.

Couldn’t completely piss off to the woods since we still need groceries, doctor, mechanic, etc., but it’s been rural enough and nobody bothers us. Now I only go into town every 5 or 6 weeks for necessities and get out as quickly as I can. I’ve become something of a hermit, but happier for it.

Is this provided via T-Mobile or did he rip off T-Mobile’s logo font?

Probably the more likely scenario. If you don’t want to get off your ass, a tracker won’t change that.

I hate that. I had my home built to spec a few years ago. The exterior siding is cedar shake stained a chocolatey brown with forest green trim, and the interior is white walls but with natural wood trim, pale golden laminate wood flooring, and two tone hickory wood cabinets, and the interior doors are all just natural wood unpainted.

I’ve leaned into the wood aesthetic with my DIY standing desk and custom pine desktop stained a dark red oak color, among various other earth tone color hints, and splashes of brighter decoration here and there.

Was going for “cozy cabin/cottage” and I think we nailed it. It’s very rustic.

I really hate the modern trends of white, black, steel, and glass.

I do. I donate $5 or $10 every few months and I add the $1 donation to Wikimedia with my PayPal transactions.

I also donate to NPR periodically, PBS and my local food bank monthly.

Ace Combat has entered the chat.

Yep. I struggled for years doing desktop and helpdesk work for fairly low pay. When I finally caught a break and started making “decent” money (aka, around $65k) I was happy initially, but costs kept rising, and at the time I got upset because I realized I could buy toys and amenities, but still couldn’t afford stuff that mattered, like a house or saving for retirement. Financial stability was still an illusion.

Now I earn double that, and I’m careful with money, and it’s still going to take a large amount of care and planning to make retirement possible and pay off the house. Shit’s not easy, and I particularly sympathize with people starting out today, it seems like entering any field but particularly IT now is harder than it’s ever been.

And that’s without the fuckhead in chief constantly sowing economic chaos like he’s speed running American collapse any %. It’s probably only going to get harder from here.

I probably have that or a bit more if you account the house appreciation and my savings, but I’m not selling or moving, and with costs that’s nowhere close to what I’d need to retire.

Assuming my current living standard and estimating costs cautiously at 70k annual without accounting for inflation, I’d need around 2.4 million to retire today, and that’s assuming I only live into my 70s. No way that’s happening without a powerball ticket, but thankfully I’ve got more than a few years left in me before retirement age.

This. I make around $125k, and can acknowledge I’m an outlier. Admittedly, I work in the tech field and know plenty of folks probably making more. But it’s not “rich” money, it’s like…. 1990 middle class money, maybe.

I had a house built in 2021, 1050 sq/ft for a bit over $200k, and even that was only feasible because:

1. It’s in rural bumfuck
2. I can work remotely, so the move was possible.
3. It’s a small house, just me and my wife.
4. I keep costs low and still live like I make 60-70k.

If I still had to be tied to the city due to my career, I’m not sure I’d be able to afford it. The cheapest shithole of a place would cost more than twice what I paid for my house, and rent was the same and more. It’s utterly insane. Even moving to a more rural/ex-urban area, buying an old run down house that needed major work would have cost about the same as having my new home built and owning the land under it; it’s crazy.

I had to wait 11 months for the build to finish but it was worth it, got me out of this insane rat race. I don’t want to care about money, but that’s just life in a capitalist system.

If you haven’t already, check out Upgrade, by Blake Crouch. Good book, similar premise.

When did you exit your positions and when do you plan to reenter?

I never had positions to exit. Was on the struggle bus financially for a long time and even had to declare bankruptcy back in 2013.

I started making more money and finally being able to really save and invest in late 2020/early 2021 but with Covid and everything being all crazy I wasn’t sure of the market as I’ve had no prior investing experience and didn’t even have a 401k. So I started aggressively paying down remaining debts and saving instead.

Currently my only debt is my mortgage, which I should be able to fully pay off (well ahead of amortization) in the next five years or so, and I’m currently living well below my means to save for retirement. Currently I have probably 18 months to two years of expenses in the HYSA.

I was planning to begin investing and putting funds in 401k or a Roth IRA this year, but Trump happened and I’m as lost as ever. I prefer the safe bet of the saving yield right now to potentially losing a ton of money, seeing as the markets are just falling everyday from what I can see.

250k is not a very big nest egg for retirement.

No, but you can have multiple accounts and each is insured up to the FDIC limit.

At this point I think I have more like 18 months to 2 years in my HYSA right now. I aggressively paid down my debts and as of January this year my mortgage is the only one left, but I didn’t start having enough to seriously invest until the last few years (maybe 2020 or 2021) and I’ve been aggressively saving since while I figure out where to put the money longer term.

On the bright side, I’m making so much more than I spend that it’s likely I’ll have my 30 year mortgage (27 years remaining) paid off inside of 5 years while still being able to continue saving, and paying the mortgage off will accelerate my retirement options.

I have to admit, I don’t know that it’s the best option, but all my funds are currently in a HYSA.

Not as high return as the market under normal circumstances, but it’s liquid, and it’s been relatively safe at between 3.5% and 4.25% the last several years, and the times we live in are anything but normal.

That’s great. So… what exactly was accomplished?