u/MrLumpSumDookieClump

Hey, Hi, Hello Finance family. My last post i spoked about saving for my first car and realizing that saving is addicting, and now I kept saving past my goal and currently work a higher paying job.

I went from working two jobs, first one is full-time for $12/hour and second is part-time $14/hour. Few Months ago I end up losing that part-time job, they closed the store down and lucky was offered (by the grace of GOD) a Full-Time $15 an Hour Job contracting for the city, 40 hours.

I Kept my first full-time job (the $12 an hour job) and work weekends only ,that's about $180-250 every two weeks along with Tips I make an extra $60 sometime $100 and on the week days.

altogether, with Full time hours my paycheck could look like $1,000. But in a full month all together roughly 2500 a month, after my expense......rent -650....phone bill -40, gym bill -35.... internet -45, food -450 ish, leaves me left over with $1,280 to save a month. multiply that by the next 4 months I could possibly have +$5,000 along with my 3X Emergency fund. Totaling +$8,000, VERY CLOSE to $10,000 by the end of 2026.

quick testimony... I'm blessed and thankful, all through God, two years ago I was broke on my a*s, went through deep mental health adversity, gave into God. overcame P addiction and drug use and now i can breath life, any thoughts? moving forward thank you!

Anytime I express my thoughts, ideas, or generally what’s on my mind.
I always get the “I wasn’t trying to get deep” or “you always think so deep” from older siblings, mom & friends. and truly it’s part of my personality but, I feel so emotionally incarcerated & repulsed by that.

because, I’ve experienced years of emotional numbness use to have trouble with “speech/ communication” as a kid, so I stayed quiet, but now learned to be more vocal and opinionated speak truth and knowledge, getting to the “facts” looking over the surface.

If I feel comfortable around whom and when I speak or verbalize my thoughts and emotions to others I get shut down for “ being too deep.” that continues to spiral me internally to stay quiet then when I don’t speak people always ask “are you okay?” and so I never verbalize anything that I think of or observed because overall family friends treat my personality, as if what I’m expressing has no intrinsic value..

I want to connect with others and my emotions more, and expressing my emotions Raw to others leads me to question my environment, reality, and those around me. Sometimes I feel such shame for telling the Real, but yet misunderstood.

Anyone, Anything?

I can’t seem to have enough hair conditioner to have a consistent hair routine and I always end up with shampoo bottles and conditioner is always too thick and leaves me buying more, but I never seem to build a routine because every time I look up I’m out of conditioner and there are days where I’m working so much that I don’t have time to go to the store to get more conditioner.

Is there any conditioner that is thinner for thicker hair because I want to improve my nappy hair but Shea moisture and other brands only do good for my hair unless it’s TreSummé , but that doesn’t do anything for my hair, but it does last longer because the bottle is bigger.
Any thoughts?

I doubt that this post would gain any attention, but sincerely I’m attempt to confront my childhood school diagnosis, and I’m now an adult soon to be successful but a few months ago I kept getting this metal thing where I know exactly what i need to do for my daily routine to be productive and I can’t ever seem to piece it all together, at once. I’m constantly in one emotion or activity for a long period of time and sometimes get burned out then switch to the next thing, and never focus on have the brain power to stay consistent or follow through more than one thing at a time.

I had seen this paper showing I have “executive function” on an old School ISP “extra help” paper, and my mother hadn’t truly kept up or really inform me on what’s the “psychology” behind my learning disability, she’s getting old she doesn’t know but now I’m starting to question my ability to pice my life together without feeling like it’s impossible to do the things I always desire I could just never piece it all together in one day.

I been Testing out different routines, but there’s day where I’ll wake up with the intention of getting things done but literally nothing gets done and it’s kinda dishearteningly intriguing to go hours to do one thing that takes 30 mins and sometimes doing that one thing takes 4 hours, u sometime question how other are about to do so in short time spans.

I relate to a lot of the adhd/ADD videos and I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, so if anyone can give me an idea ..I’m in distress thinking about this cause I’ve always do things slower than most people, and sometimes it’s just my brain yapping at me and others, for idk what for…

I went initially +400 Plus Days.
The start of this year the spirit of the Jezebel Caught me off guard.
I was so locked in and felt like an Alpha to my old beta —- A Better Version of character.

I told myself to self reflect on my relapse and I was able to recognize 2 Triggers!

1. making decisions while fatigued; anytime after a long day of work, when and if I decide to stay awake pass my intended sleep routine,
   it positions me to wrestle with temptation,
   clear red flag.

I know if I don’t go to sleep at X time.
In the future, the chance to relapse
increases drastically.

TAKEAWAY
I found in my own psychology.. ANYTIME I’m TIRED ASF and stay up late ..I relapse.
I don’t know why,
but now I know more better, you know?

2. revenge sleep procrastination— when I don’t give myself time to enjoy life. As I say this with deep distress… I somehow create traps to “balance” the work-life ratio, with PMO or PMO adjacent stuff, dating apps, instagram, following girls, thinking “texting one or two females isn’t going to affect Me”, being involved with shared lustful conversations with other men.
   Even watching videos on how to pull women throws me back in the pit.

TAKEAWAY
I found in my own psychology that when you don’t allow yourself to experience novelty outside of pmo you will seek it through PMO/PMO Adjacent stuff —- your body seeks the adrenaline dopamine rush, so I start taking more riskier action & goals instead.

I called this the “No Curiosity Outlet”.
By nature we’re curious, and seek novelty or spontaneity, when you make bolder moves and seek new adventures it alleviate the temptation to relapse.

I notice when cut out all digital seeking outlet i. e YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, my phone in general and don’t have an outlet to explore or seek novelty, in things I consciously know of or like to do, I.e. solo travel, going to new places, try that new idea, etc. anything new! I’m prone to relapse, energy is sitting, not channeled.

But that diverts your energy to not watch P***, looking at chicks on social media..” just to see”
Y’all know what I mean.
Because that risk will be the highlight of the day,
I never achieved something big and new then relapsed in the same day, only when my hands are idol and anything mentioned above.

I theorize because that risk you took will override your dopamine neural plasticity and satisfy that same emotions placed in pmo.

Behind that was true my emotions to break the wake up, work, sleep, repeat cycle. Do you see where I’m going? It’s sleep procrastination bonded with decisions fatigue and our thrill seeking nature.

I actually lapsed today but now I know “more” why I did so again, and keeping a self reflect Journal of all my relapse actually just helped me today, which is 6 months from my initial 400+.

TLDR

I know if I get in bed with my phone, relapsed.
If I’m over worked and never had time to do anything for myself, relapsed.
If I try to “text” or interact with women digitally, relapsed.
If I don’t stay in the gym and breach my productivity routine, relapse.
Not channeling unused energy, instant relapse.
Etc, etc etc.

Recognize your falls helps compound your comebacks.

I'm Located down in Texas and look forward to working as a AV Technician, Live Events and Conferences but unfortunately I fear not actually getting a AV Job and reading through the sub everyone recently states going straight for the Job and be sure that my resume and interview is top notch. I posted this for some reassurance for my decision to leave and go back home, to my sweet love of california. I'm 24 and I've been a music producer for some time, getting a cert would help me but i really really really want an AV Job badly. my nerves get back typing this cause i've been through hell the last few years of my life and getting this job would be a badge of honor and fu to life's adversity it's given me. thanks! anything would help and cheers!

anyone know how to get to hobby airport? ground shuttle doesn’t offer service to Hobby airport I’m taking a trip to california in 5 weeks. Southwest has some really cheap flight but unfortunately they don’t have shuttle service from what I’m seeing.

I have $130 digital signal processor for recording vocals I no longer record any artist. how can I possibly use my DSP in terms of music production/ mixing and mastering

Hey!  Finance Family I quickly wanted to come by, After a year and a half and saving funds —-for my first car. For someone that’s in their 20s,

but now that I’ve saved the amount I needed it has me thinking… “I can achieve more” 

I happen to start investing a year and a half ago with only $20 into a Fidelity investment account. 

The big twist right now today is if I should 

A) continue to invest into my high yield savings account, stocks, ETFs, etc. use additional-extra funds to supplement my music career/lifestyle and travel annually.

or 

B) use these funds for what I’ve been wanting for a long time over years, which is buying my first car. 

but with the financial habits that I developed with saving, budgeting, planning, and internalizing how many hours I worked daily. 

I came to the “I can do more” phase. 

I truly dont have bad spending habits, my problem was an income issue I finally achieved, either way I’m not a spender… as long as I can have time to make music and eat/cook good food and have fun budget-friendly occasionally.

99.9% of the time I won’t overspend, yk?

Now that I saved more than thousands, someone who was broke and went through mental health crisis two years ago, losing everything—- Why I post this cause I truly feel and deserve the need of rewarding myself for going through such a hard time and working back up and allow myself to enjoy my fruits of labor and appreciation life. 

…

I would like ya’ll perspective. This would include making a tough financial decision. I know some things I can’t live without but a car right now would be wonders. I’m in my 20s I have bad social fomo but I think it’s reasonable to atleast have fun and enjoy my 20s, 30s are gonna come regardless.

soo

I’m currently thinking of capping off that 3.5k into my “don’t touch” high yield savings account,  and split my contributing $400/monthly savings into my “travel & business allowance

half into traveling, small business start ups, breath life finally and truly rebalance my mental health by escaping the “isolation epidemic” from being stuck in the house all day, etc.

The rest compounding the 3.5K that allows me to get the best of both worlds. 

or buy a car with little money to my name.  

So all together..

Doing the math if continue to stay frugal for the next 4 years I could possibly be looking at 15-28k ROI, with 3.8% APY. No car yet but Travel annually. Rent a car “if needed. If!

Or buy a car have little to -3k to my name and add-on $200 monthly insurance to my expenses but have more freedom to make extra streams of income and explore the world on ground, Get an official job.

So..

my 3 biggest downsides is accessibly to more outside hobbies that includes a vehicle and commuting to the gym and getting groceries consistently. 

My biggest 3 upsides is, having financial freedom as little to a year, financial cushion and room to live life for a bit. not completely satisfied but enough to not be working 24/7, stressing, and allowing room to work on my passions aka “music & business“.  securely build my credit.

I’ve been working a lot these last few years after my crisis, I know ”working“ won’t stop so tell me it’s a bad idea! Please.

I haven’t bough myself clothes or a pitch of anything for working card just to save for this car. but again it has me reevaluate my goals.

I can afford to travel every 6 months, it’s truly getting the most out of my finances and being attempting to be less hard on myself as usual. thanks!