u/EngineerTheFunk

Over the past 20-30 years Paris went from a beautiful and romantic city to a fucking dump.

I lived in China for well over a year and never saw behavior like this. If you go to any college town in the country in the USA you will see something like this all over the city on the rowdy bar streets during the weekend. There is no comparison when discussing which country has better behavior in public at nighttime in busy districts.

Not perfectly normal at all. The average age of marriage for women was in their 20s in the 1700s in Europe. A 12 year old might get married off if she was royalty or something similar but for the peasantry - not normal at all. Gross then, gross now.

Try to fix it first via open communication. If that doesn't work, leave her if you can without bankrupting yourself or losing your kids. If you can't leave have an affair or just tell her straight up you are going to open the relationship if she refuses to engage.

Life is short. Refuse to accept a bad deal due to someone else's shortcomings.

Started my own company and no longer have any bosses. I now work only with people I like to work with. The difference has been incredible.

Great counterpoint, boombaclot... Then again, I’m debating someone who named themselves after a menstrual pad, so I probably shouldn’t have expected much in the way of substantive discourse on the economics and ethics of homeownership.

Yup. I own mainly duplexes. I've held a few single family homes as well but usually just to buy them, live in them, make renovations myself, and then eventually sell. I've never sold a building to a company. Only to familys who approached me and explained their situation and why they wanted the home. For what it's worth, I also don't like giant companies buying up single families BUT there needs to be some single families that are rented out in every city. Without rental properties things don't work correctly.

I know. I have this conversation every week. The children on this site haven't quite grown up yet. The adults on this site spend a little to much time scrolling and not enough time looking at how they can get their finances in order to also own a home. I wasn't given these properties. I fought for them and spend a lot of time and resources maintaining them.

Unlike 95% of Reddit, I’ve actually tried being a real landlord while holding simultaneously successfully starting two businesses in addition to my real estate ventures. I employ several people and house several dozen tenants. So I’m not exactly commenting from the sidelines here.

I get it. A lot of people have shitty jobs, struggle to pay rent, and feel like homeownership is increasingly out of reach. But that doesn’t automatically make landlords the problem. If you are in the States, I'd advise you look into an FHA loan. You can get into a home with like 3% down. If you can't save up a few thousand dollars you certainly have no business being a homeowner. What are you going to do when you need a new roof or your heater takes a shit in winter?

As for my own rentals, I operate in a competitive market where vacant units cost me money. I consistently price my properties below market because keeping good tenants long term is worth more to me than squeezing every last dollar out of the rent. I maintain the properties, treat people fairly, and work with tenants who have poor credit and struggle to get approved elsewhere. I give people a chance to get back on their feet, and many have stayed with me for years. I also allow pets which most large rental companies around me do not.

My tenants benefit from having a well-maintained home at a reasonable price, and I benefit from having reliable, long-term tenants. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.

The Reddit narrative that landlords are universally parasites and tenants are always victims is just as stupid as pretending every landlord is a saint. There are good landlords and bad landlords, just as there are good tenants and bad tenants. Housing is expensive, but blaming every landlord for the broader economic forces driving housing costs isn't going to solve anything.

You guys need to grow up.

This is such a braindead take. Redditors are financially illiterate and somehow manage to be some of the biggest crybabies on the internet.

Have you guys ever gone to college? Where did you live if you didn't live in a dorm?

Ever have a girlfriend/boyfriend move in with you, only to realize a few months later that living alone would be better? How do you handle that transition if you own your home?

Ever move to a new city for a job and want to get a feel for the area before committing to buying a house?

Ever get a job in a city where you can't afford to buy, or need to save up a down payment before becoming a homeowner?

Ever go through a divorce, lose a job, or experience some other major life change that makes flexibility more valuable than homeownership?

Rental properties serve a legitimate and necessary function in the housing market. They provide flexibility, mobility, and a place to live for people who aren't in a position to buy or simply don't want to. Not everyone has the financial resources, stability, or desire to own a home, and that's perfectly reasonable.

And here's the part Reddit seems incapable of understanding: renting isn't inherently a financial mistake, and owning isn't inherently a smart financial decision. Homeownership comes with property taxes, maintenance, repairs, insurance, transaction costs, and the opportunity cost of tying up a huge amount of capital in one asset. Renting can make perfect financial sense, depending on the local market, how long you plan to stay, and what you do with the money you don't sink into a down payment.

Yes, landlords provide housing in exchange for rent, and some are terrible at it. That doesn't change the fact that rental housing meets a real demand. If every landlord disappeared tomorrow, the people who rent wouldn't magically become homeowners overnight. They'd still need somewhere to live, except now they'd have fewer options.

Criticize exploitative landlords, predatory practices, or policies that artificially restrict housing supply. Those are legitimate arguments. But acting like rental housing itself is some societal evil is economically illiterate nonsense.

Renting is a housing arrangement, not a character flaw. And for millions of Americans, it's the most practical option available.

Eh, I’ll pass on this suggestion. I’m firmly in that tax bracket already, and I pay plenty in taxes to help support everyone else.

I have no problem with taxing the absolute shit out of the ultra-wealthy. But I was born broke and grew up in a terrible neighborhood plagued by gangs, drugs, and crime. I managed to climb out of that hole by being a hard worker with aspirations beyond my circumstances. I hustled, made sacrifices, and built a better life for myself. Frankly, I’m not particularly interested in watching my tax dollars subsidize people who make no effort to do the same while continuing to sit on car hoods and sell dope on the street all day.

Just my humble opinion, but I believe people who are capable of working should be expected to contribute to society rather than expect everything to be handed to them. Healthcare and education are exceptions. Those should be accessible to everyone. And the money we already spend as a nation could go a long way toward funding those things if we got our priorities straight.

Taking more money out of my paycheck isn’t going to magically fix poverty, and it certainly isn’t going to solve our foreign policy problems. We can fund healthcare and education without endlessly raising taxes on people who worked hard to get where they are.

As for raising taxes in France? Be my guest. I’d never move there. The French are insufferable.

CrossFit x 2 per week, strength/physique training x 3 per week - M-F. I run a 5k every Saturday going for time. 10k+ steps everyday. Sunday I chill except my walk.

No doubt. White people didn’t invent slavery. We were the first ones to make it illegal however.

Mauritania didn’t outlaw it until 1981. Niger not until 2003. Give me a break with this shit. USA has been slave free for generations.

Bro, there are tons of BIG dudes in the gyms I’ve been to. I’m not talking super strong or jacked. I’m talking genuinely heavyset guys. You’ll absolutely be a lil bitch when you first start (no offense), but you’ll build muscle pretty quickly, just like any other newbie.

The difference is that you’ll probably get strong AF pretty fast and end up lifting circles around dudes like me who spend years trying to stay lean. I’m 6’2” and weigh maybe 180 on a good day. I’m tiny. My squat, bench, and deadlift numbers are laughable compared to what some bigger guys can move, even though I LOOK pretty muscular thanks to staying lean and having definition.

You’ve got a lot of potential to become seriously strong. You might be an overweight guy for a while, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build muscle and make huge progress along the way. And if you eventually get lean? You’ll probably have some incredible calves. Guys who’ve carried extra weight for years often develop great calves because they’ve basically been doing weighted calf raises every time they walk.

Start small. Walk 10k steps a day. Clean up your diet. Cut out soda and start reducing the sugary junk. Get into the gym and lift whatever you can, then keep showing up consistently. You don’t need to transform your entire life overnight.

You’ll be amazed at how much you can change in a year if you stick with it. And the benefits go way beyond how you look or your dating life. Your confidence, energy, health, and general quality of life can all improve dramatically.

Just get started, mate. You don't have to be in shape to go to the gym. Getting in shape is the reason you go.

Start at the gym and the health food section of your grocery store. I'd recommend classes versus just going and fucking off at a regular gym - think Crossfit, Hyrox, F45, or other functional fitness with a group setting. Tons of girls there - some so fit you can bounce a quarter off their ass, others who probably have a body shape more similar to yours. It's win-win. You get in shape and will be surrounded by women. Very easy to talk to them - "hey, can you please spot me?", "do you mind if I borrow that 5lb plate?", "am I doing this right?". Plenty of romances get started in those places.

We are really content but also DINKs. I’m not sure I’d be doing it the same with kids. I hadn’t noticed this was a leanfire sub actually. Me and the wife landed in Australia a few weeks ago and it’s been pushing new subs my direction. We are more standard fire or even fatfire with our thinking and habits.

The leanfire crew is a bit too hardcore for us. I like to eat out occasionally, travel, have some fun along the way, etc. There’s plenty of paths to early retirement. I personally didn’t want to squeeze all the life out of my 20s and 30s. To each their own though.

Good luck! Hope to see you killing time at the beach near us one day soon.

Well, to your points above, during our heavy savings phase, I skipped a close friend's wedding in Bali (I'm American, so that's a pretty major financial commitment), skipped tons of concerts, and have been car-free for the past three years.

BUT, I'm 43, my wife is in her mid-30s, and we're on track to essentially retire in less than two years by scaling back to 10 hours or less per week at the business we started.

Over the past four years, we've also traveled to 25+ countries as so-called digital nomads. We've taken at least 6–7 weeks off every year, which, by American standards, is incredible. We've also gotten really into fitness and are in the best shape of our lives.

Would Bali have been nice? Absolutely. Do I miss concerts and going out to bars? Sure. Is having a car pretty rad? You bet.

But those trade-offs helped put us in the position we're in today. And it's not like we've spent the last several years sitting at home miserable, waiting for retirement to start. We've built a life we genuinely enjoy now, while making choices that will give us significantly more freedom in the near future.

I think it was Dave Ramsey who said something along the lines of, "Live like nobody else now so you can live like nobody else later."

That's basically where we are. We've spent several years saving aggressively and being intentional about our spending, and we're approaching the other side of that equation. The goal was never to deprive ourselves of life. It was to build a life we love while buying back our time.

So much stupidity. I guess I get it from a 17 year old. I was also stupid at that age and WAY too into the girl I was seeing then. This is an important life lesson. Don't be Captain Save a Hoe.

Haha, I get what you mean, mate. I think FIRE gets misunderstood as cutting every possible expense and sacrificing your quality of life today to enjoy life later. The way I’ve always understood it is almost the opposite: cut the expenses that don’t meaningfully contribute to your happiness, build a life you genuinely love and could happily live indefinitely, and then save and invest aggressively to make that life sustainable without needing to work forever.

It’s not about putting a cap on life fulfillment. It’s about being intentional with your money and figuring out what actually makes you happy, rather than spending out of habit or social expectations.

I agree that investing in yourself and building a business can be fantastic ways to accelerate financial independence, especially if you have a valuable skill or craft. But I don’t think FIRE and entrepreneurship are mutually exclusive, either. Ultimately, the goal is to buy back your time and have the freedom to spend it however you want. The whole point is to build a life you don’t need to retire from, while having the financial freedom to walk away from work whenever you choose.

It isn’t random. These are rioters. Those are riot police. There’s one secret to not getting beat by the riot police… don’t riot.

I sincerely doubt it. Only ~20% of Australia can trace their roots back to convicts. Many more people came here looking for gold or immigrated for other various reasons

Looked like the tramped chick got to lick it first. Sucks to suck.

Easy way to not get run over by horses is not fuck with police but hey, you do you.

100%. I used to imagine retirement there. No longer. They really let themselves go to absolute shit.

They deserved to get their asses kicked. What a couple of idiots.