u/Frostgrid_2

I know 100k is kind of a meme milestone on here and people post about hitting 500k or their FIRE number and this probably seems small. But I want to post it anyway because for where I came from it genuinely feels insane.

Grew up in a household where money was always just gone by the second week of the month. No savings, no 401k, no conversation about investing ever. My parents are in their late 50s and have basically nothing put aside. I didn't open a brokerage account until I was 26 because I genuinely thought investing was something rich people did, not people like me. Started reading this sub around that time and slowly figured out that index funds exist and that I could just put money in automatically and not think about it too much.

Three years later I have 100k split between my 401k and a Roth IRA, plus a small taxable account I started last year. I make around 68k a year at a pretty unglamorous job, I rent, I don't have a car paymnet. Just kept the expenses low and put away whatever I could each month. No windfall, no crypto, no side hustle that actually worked. The compound interest graph is starting to curve up in a way that makes me emotional honestly. First in my family. Feels like a big deal even if the numbers aren't impressive by this sub's standards.

I know this sounds mean and I want to be clear I do have empathy for people going through things. But there is a specific subset of people who have decided that "how are you" is an open invitation to give a complete rundown of everything wrong with their body, their sleep, their joints, their digestion, and their upcoming appointments.

I work with one of these people. Every single morning. I say "hey how's it going" while walking past and I am now trapped for four to seven minutes hearing about her knee, the new medication she's trying, how she slept, whether the medication is affecting her sleep, and sometimes a brief tangent about what her doctor said at the last visit.

I have tried walking faster. She speeds up. I have tried giving a short answer to redirect the conversation. She acknowledges it and continues. I have tried not making eye contact while asking. She steps into my line of sight. The thing that gets me is that she never asks how I am. It's not a conversation, it's a briefing. I am a passive recipient of health information I did not request and cannot use.

I genuinely like this person outside of this specific dynamic. She's helpful, she's kind, she remembers people's birthdays. But every morning I round the corner to our office and think "please be on the phone, please be in a meeting, please be looking the other way."

I have started taking a slightly longer route to my desk that adds about 45 seconds to my morning walk. It is absolutely worth it two or three days a week.