u/Character_Aspect1054

I don’t know if it’s just me being a tightwad or something else but I am struggling with spending money on anything fun to do or buying things for myself. I am debt free and I budget my money. I currently make about $120k a year and my monthly fun money budget is $500. I maybe spend at most like $80-$100 in a month. I really struggle with wanting to spend money on anything for myself. Does anyone else struggle with this? If so, what advice do you have to overcome this?

Hey Everyone,

So back in March, I decided to work with a SmartVestor Pro in my area because I thought it would be a good idea to do and they would get better returns for me in my retirement accounts and brokerage account.

My experience with them so far has not really been that great. While they are a really great person and are very communicative with me about the investments that they have put my money in, I am finding out that the investment options that they offer are not really performing as well as they have sold me on. They told me that the investments that they have, have consistently beat the market for over 20 years that they have been investing in them.

Now granted, it has only been like 3-4 months that I have been working with them, I have done my own research and have looked at historical data on these investments and even made spreadsheets with different formula's to calculate what my money would be worth compared to the S&P 500 if I invested it on any given day. I have found that on a given day over the last 15-20 years, they have always underperformed the market by a LOT. An example of this would be like if I dumped $10,000 into any one of their investments 10 years ago instead of the market, nearly all of their investment options would only be worth about 50-60% of what it would have been if I had just put it into an investment like VOO, FXAIX, SPY, etc.

Recently, I have looked at other "SmartVestor Pros", and have even talked to a few of them and asked what type of investment options they had, and they were more or less the same as my current SmartVestor Pro. I have decided that I will manage my own investing (and no, I don't invest in Crypto or Bitcoin or whatever other nonsense is out there). I am thinking about just doing VOO for my retirement and my brokerage accounts. It is an S&P 500 Index ETF and pretty much covers most of the market. I don't need to over complicate my investing. Just invest and check back in at retirement.

I personally would not recommend a smartvestor pro. They are just over glorified financial advisors that will park your money into some mutual funds that don't have the best returns and collect their 1% fee every year.

Welp…it happened. I began to work at Amazon in October of last year and at first I really thought it was a lot better than where I previously worked. I really thought that I would try to grow my career here and move up. I was trying to learn everything that I could in my department and get cross trained into other departments and try to be a top performer or one of the top performers. I am genuinely someone that has really good work ethic unlike other people. But lately over the past month or so, I have really noticed that all that hard work and trying to be the best at everything and learn everything just has turned into me getting taken advantage of by management. Over the past month, I have been getting assigned into roles where I get absolutely fucked over and expected to get it to where it is caught up and looks good. Today I got put on tote running in singles by myself with the headcount being so high (it was like 45 people in mix and I was the only tote runner) that there was no way I was going to keep up and just got absolutely shafted all day long. I asked for help twice and was told they didn’t have the labor hours for another tote runner. I genuinely reached a point where I literally just said fuck it and stopped trying to burn myself out trying to keep up with it. I put my headphones on and started listening to the Ramsey Show on YouTube and later, I used my flex PTO and went home early and it was someone else’s problem. I left it such a disaster in my area that I will probably get an ear full about it tomorrow but I just genuinely don’t care anymore.

So last year before started working at Amazon, I was diagnosed with Osteoarthritis in my ankles, knees, and lower back. My primary care physician actually retired a month later. Then when I got hired at Amazon, I was a white badge and didn’t have any health insurance. I got my blue badge back in May and got health insurance along with it. I have an appointment with a new primary care physician coming up in a couple of weeks and am going to look into getting a medical accommodation so I can sit in a chair all day and just pack, listen to music and/or YouTube or watch movies all day and just say fuck everyone else. That’s how far I have fallen…

Just for context I am an L1 that works in pack singles at my site. I am currently back half days but with my schedule being Thursday through Sunday. Many of my coworkers on both front half and back half as well as myself cannot stand the front half AM.

A few examples why are they will staff lazy people on tote running or water spider or problem solve during first or second period and then staff someone who is a good worker on one of those roles during third period to clean up whatever shit show the dead beat that was there before them left behind when they could of just staffed someone good there for the whole day.

Another example would be they will either staff people who have medical accommodations into roles they really shouldn’t be doing or labor share them to another department that they are supposed to be accommodated out of. Yesterday they staffed a woman who is in her early 60’s with pretty severe arthritis on water spider and she asked to be taken off of it and was told that they didn’t have anybody else to do it even though I am trained in nearly everything in singles and a 28 year old able bodied guy who got labor shared to pick (the AM knows I absolutely hate being at an Arsaw station) and am not only perfectly capable of doing water spider but one of the best one’s at it.

Another reason that everyone despises this AM is because she will go and chit chat with other AM’s in other departments and disappear for sometimes hours at a time.

This AM will also randomly staff you somewhere to start out and then move you 5 minutes later. Then will proceed to move you several times throughout the period all the while your rate suffers because you keep getting moved around. There was a day last week (and it was not the first time) that I got moved 5 times in an hour and half. 3 of those times were to stations that weren’t working and my rates were terrible. After the fifth time of being moved, I had enough and flexed my flex PTO and went home. Then the following day I get asked why my rates were bad, and I said why. Ever since then, she labor shares me to pick and leaves me there. She has done this same thing to several other people. Many people who come in on front half don’t even try to hit rate because they just keep getting moved around all day. Now we understand if they need to add an extra person or two to the smalls or smartpac line or send a few people to pick or whatever every once in a while throughout the day but when it’s several times in one period or not even that, then that’s when it gets excessive and people start getting irritated.

This particular AM actually started out as an L1, which is what I am right now. I could go on and on about the many reasons why she is not well liked. There have been a few people that have been there since the building opened have said to me that the red vest went her head and it really shows. There have been a few AM’s that have told me that her department was one of the worst performing in the building also.

I also found out today that she is leaving Amazon for another job. There is a group of about 12-15 of us that are actually getting together outside of work the weekend after the 4th to celebrate the fact that this manager is no longer going to be there.

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here has used EasyVest on their FAIRWINDS credit union account and if so, would you recommend it? Or should I maybe open a brokerage account with Schwab? I already have a Roth IRA with Schwab so I am wondering if EasyVest is good to use or if I should just open a brokerage account with Schwab.

Question for any area managers in here. What do you do or how do you react when you see associates from another department transferring out of that department to either your department or another department because they can’t stand their area manager in their home path?

Just for context, I currently work in pack singles at my site and am back half days. However, my schedule is Thursday through Sunday. There are many people within the department who do not like the area manager on front half days for a plethora of reasons. I too have grown to not like them and do everything I can to not be in pack singles on Sunday’s. I will sign up to tote run in pick on Sunday’s and avoid being in singles. My manager and pa on back half are awesome and I almost always have really good days on Thursday through Saturday. As a top performer and recently got my learning ambassadors vest, they pretty much let me choose what role I want to be in since I excel at everything in singles. They also give me help if I really need it (most of the time I am good on my own but every so often the headcount is just a little high for me to keep up with if I’m tote running or water spider). But when it comes to Sunday however, I dread being in singles.

Since peak season, there have been at least five people that I know of that have transferred out of singles because they couldn’t stand the area manager on front half. There have been several people that have quit. There is one guy there that is Thursday through Sunday like me and he either swaps his Sunday shift to a different day or he doesn’t come in at all and uses his upt or PTO or posts his shift for cover.

I should also mention that this particular manager has one of the worst performing departments in the whole building.

For any area manager’s that have seen a situation like this at their site, have you ever seen a situation where someone higher up than you guys steps in and tells that area manager to kick rocks and they are fired?

Hi everyone,

So, I just got my blue badge this past Sunday (05-10-26). I also became a learning ambassador a few weeks before getting my blue badge. I am looking to grow my career here at Amazon and become an area manager or maybe one day an operations manager as I have some experience in management. I am wondering if there are any area managers in here that started off as an L1 and what kind of path did they take to become an area manager and/or operations manager?