u/SnakeySnek7

I’m an adult that played for 8 years or so through the end of high school, then didn’t play for 8 years. I was never particularly advanced because I was an extremely lazy and unmotivated kid and was only playing violin because my parents wanted me to. I believe I finished Suzuki book 6. I was doing private lessons once a week for a few years and my local youth symphony. I recently started taking lessons again about 6 months ago.

Coming back to this as an adult, I usually can find time to practice about 3-4x a week about an hour at a time, but I do have 3 jobs and other responsibilities so it can be difficult to find time to practice some weeks.

I guess my question is this:

How much better do you ACTUALLY sound between lessons?

For example, I’m going back through Suzuki book 5 right now and from when I first start going through a piece in one private lesson, to the next week, it really doesn’t sound that much better 😭 Like yeah when I first look at a piece with my teacher it’s not good lol (my sight reading, like everything else, could use some work). Then after a week of practicing I can technically “play” the notes, but not up to speed, and my musicality and sound is so bad now. I don’t remember much from when I was younger so I’m not sure how to compare to where I used to be at. How long should it be taking me to sound decent at a piece from Book 5?

I don’t mean travel sprays that are in a generic glass tube. And I also don’t mean dinky 5mL splash bottles. I hate splash bottles. I want them to look like the full size bottle, shrunken down to fit 15 mL (or even 10 mLs), with a sprayer.

I own about 10 full bottles right now (mostly 30-50 mLs) and wear them much more frequently than my travel sprays or self/decanted sprays (have about 50~) because I don’t forget about them. When I can see a bottle on my shelf, I just know what perfume it is based on the bottle and my brain goes “oh that looks like a nice one to wear today, let me pick that”. Travel sprays usually look pretty similar to one another.

As someone who tends to have a honeymoon phase with a new perfume I fall in love with, 15mLs is the golden amount for me. I have enough so I can wear it for like a month straight and then still have a good amount left to wear on occasion once that phase is over. I go through perfume pretty slowly, so I avoid buying anything other than travel sprays or decants when possible. 30mLs is too much, but 10 mL’s is a bit too small. I would literally pay extra for 15mL smaller bottles with a sprayer that actually look like the full size.

Idk what I’m trying to get with posting this but mostly just sharing my thoughts. I’m sure there are some perfume collectors out there that wish more companies did this.

Anyone have any experience with laser tattoo removal places in Milwaukee? I have a full sleeve with a lot of negative space that I want to remove. It’s mostly black but a little bit of red and orange.

I’ve looked at a few including Removery, Milwaukee Laser and Body Aesthetics, and Laserfied, but curious if anyone has experience with one or more of these.

Sorry if I sound dumb lol.

I turned 26 on July 5th and am still on my parents health plan through the end of the month.

Should I be applying now, or closer to/after my benefits actually expire? My company uses workday for benefits, and I guess I’m required to upload some kind of document or letter stating my termination of benefits as proof of a qualifying life event? Should I be expecting something in the mail soon?

This will be my first time applying for benefits so I’m a bit lost here….we only have two choices for plans and no HSA so I suppose that narrows things down a bit.

I’m almost 26 years old (in 2 weeks) and have about $100k invested in a MCOL Wisconsin city.

Approximate breakdown:

Roth accounts: ~$53.5k
Traditional retirement accounts: ~$8.4k
Taxable brokerage: ~$39k
Emergency fund: ~$5k cash

Most of my investments are in low-cost index funds (primarily FXAIX and FZILX). One older employer account is still in a target date fund.

Current salary is about $76k/year working as an application analyst in healthcare IT, expect my salary to increase over the next 2-4 years, not unrealistic to get to 100k+ by hopping jobs in a couple years. I have another side job and make anywhere from $100-500 biweekly. Currently living at home trying to save more money since I somehow managed to spend basically all my money from ages 19-23 lol…monthly expenses are about $500-600 ish. I have some hobbies that I pay for monthly, phone bill is about $500/year, car insurance $1000 per year. Generally pretty good about not spending money on “things” and more on experiences.

My dream goal is to retire completely around age 45, but I’m questioning whether that goal is realistic without either earning substantially more money or living much more frugally than I want to. I don’t need a luxury lifestyle, I want for very little actually, but I do eventually want:

~A modest house of my own
~Money for occasional renovations and maintenance
~A reasonably nice vehicle. Doesn’t need to be a 200k Mercedes, but I was thinking maybe 50k in today’s dollars. Obviously this would be the first thing I scratch off my list of wants. Currently driving a 2015 Honda Civic which averages about $900/year in repair and maintenance costs. Not sure if that is good or bad.
~Small amount of travel, hobbies, and general flexibility in my budget. Not really that interested in big vacations to Hawaii or another country. Just want to hang out at home and garden or whatever.

If retiring completely at 45 isn’t realistic, I’d still be very happy if I could reduce work to 2–3 days per week and have investments cover the rest.

Based on my age, net worth, and income, does full retirement around 45 seem realistic?

If not, does semi-retirement seem more achievable?

How much did having even a small amount of earned income reduce the portfolio size you needed?

Would you prioritize taxable brokerage contributions more heavily if the goal is financial independence before traditional retirement age?

Is there anything you’d change about my current allocation between Roth, Traditional, and taxable accounts? I did ALL Roth contributions back when I was making 55k and under because I anticipated my income increasing. I believe now at 76k main job I’m doing 23% traditional, 14% Roth, and whatever take home I have left over is usually around 2k per month into my brokerage. So I’m building up my traditional 401k right now rather than going crazy on Roth.

Also because it probably does matter, I am a single person and definitely not looking to get married or move in with someone else anytime soon, I really want my own place. I plan on staying at home for another year or two just to get a nice cushion since my career is just starting, so my aim is to have 200k net worth by the time I move out and get an apartment. I don’t want to jump straight into buying a house YET because I feel like there’s are too many places to explore before choosing 1 place.

Edit: Adding that I don’t have a spending problem anymore. That stopped a couple years ago. I still spend money on things I enjoy but within reason. Like it’s $120/month for my violin lessons. But I enjoy it and feel like it’s money well spent. I don’t buy clothes, shoes, makeup or food delivery anymore unless it’s absolutely needed.

I’m almost 26 years old (in 2 weeks) and have about $100k invested in a MCOL Wisconsin city.

Approximate breakdown:

Roth accounts: ~$53.5k
Traditional retirement accounts: ~$8.4k
Taxable brokerage: ~$39k
Emergency fund: ~$5k cash

Most of my investments are in low-cost index funds (primarily FXAIX and FZILX). One older employer account is still in a target date fund.

Current salary is about $76k/year working as an application analyst in healthcare IT. Have another side job and make anywhere from $100-500 biweekly. Currently living at home trying to save more money since I somehow managed to spend basically all my money from ages 19-23 lol…monthly expenses are about $500-600 ish. I have some hobbies that I pay for monthly, phone bill is about $500/year, car insurance $1000 per year. Generally pretty good about not spending money on “things” and more on experiences.

Total savings per year is about 55-60k ish maybe a little more next year because I had a lower paying job through April this year. I think after the second job I make around 85k a year. Yes I max out my 401k and Roth IRA. My current employer does not have HSA, but whenever I leave and get a new job and they have that option I’ll max that out as well. Whatever is left over goes into brokerage.

My dream goal is to retire completely around age 45, but I’m questioning whether that goal is realistic without either earning substantially more money or living much more frugally than I want to. I don’t need a luxury lifestyle, but I do eventually want:

~A modest house of my own
~Money for occasional renovations and maintenance
~A reasonably nice vehicle. Doesn’t need to be a 200k Mercedes, but I was thinking maybe 50k in today’s dollars. Obviously this would be the first thing I scratch off my list of wants. Currently driving a 2015 Honda Civic which averages about $900/year in repair and maintenance costs. Not sure if that is good or bad.
~Small amount of travel, hobbies, and general flexibility in my budget. Not really that interested in big vacations to Hawaii or another country.

If retiring completely at 45 isn’t realistic, I’d still be very happy if I could reduce work to 2–3 days per week and have investments cover the rest.

Based on my age, net worth, and income, does full retirement around 45 seem realistic?

If not, does semi-retirement seem more achievable?

How much did having even a small amount of earned income reduce the portfolio size you needed?

Would you prioritize taxable brokerage contributions more heavily if the goal is financial independence before traditional retirement age?

Is there anything you’d change about my current allocation between Roth, Traditional, and taxable accounts? I did ALL Roth contributions back when I was making 55k and under because I anticipated my income increasing. I believe now at 76k main job I’m doing 23% traditional, 14% Roth, and whatever take home I have left over is usually around 2k per month into my brokerage. So I’m building up my traditional 401k right now rather than going crazy on Roth.

Also because it probably does matter, I am a single person and definitely not looking to get married or move in with someone else anytime soon, I really want my own place. I plan on staying at home for another year or two just to get a nice cushion since my career is just starting, so my aim is to have 200k net worth by the time I move out and get an apartment. I don’t want to jump straight into buying a house YET because I feel like there are too many places to explore before choosing 1 place.

I've been in a Willow Ambulatory analyst role for a couple of months now, and I'm struggling a bit with figuring out whether I'm learning the "right" way.

I've never worked remotely before, and the onboarding process feels very different from anything I've done in the past. I came from a pharmacy and IT support background, so I'm used to learning by working directly with people, asking questions, and seeing things happen in real time.

Right now, a lot of my time is spent reviewing tickets, picking up smaller break/fix issues, going through old service requests, and building my own knowledge base from previous tickets and solutions. I'm also going to Epic training and certification next month. My trainer is helpful when we meet, but it feels like I don't get a ton of one-on-one time. We probably only meet for an hour twice a week. A lot of times I'm just trying to figure things out from old tickets, documentation, and whatever work comes my way. I don’t have much in projects right now (I have 1 assigned to me but it has sort of stalled a bit so I’m awaiting a meeting I have schedule later this week to gather more info) so I’m just working break-fix tickets and figuring out where everything lives.

I guess my question is: how did you learn when you were a new Epic analyst, especially if you were remote?
Did you spend most of your time reviewing old tickets and learning patterns? Did you shadow people? Schedule recurring meetings with senior analysts? Just start taking tickets and learn as you went? I try to schedule more time with my trainer, but it honestly seems like he is a bit disorganized or he just doesn’t like me, because whenever I ask for more 1-on-1 time he says he will schedule something and then never does. I’m worried that my boss is wondering what the hell I’ve been doing when I don’t have too much in the form of tickets or projects, especially when I don’t get much time to shadow.

At the moment, I am able to figure some tickets out and document them, then confirm with either my trainer or another pharmacist that my findings and my hypothesis were correct, but I’m not sure if I’m where I should be or if I’m lagging behind. Can anyone provide a timeline of what it was like when you were training? When did you start independently solving most break fix tickets? Projects? Etc.

Edit: Also just thought I’d add since I’m already asking a question here - Does anyone else’s hospital use like a mouse/screen tracking software? At my old org where I worked more traditional IT we had this Time Doctor thing that tracked your mouse movements, took screen captures like every 30 seconds, and reported back the types of websites you opened and for how long (ex. YouTube = entertainment, Outlook = Email), “idle time” where you had no mouse movement, etc. At my current org they have us enter hours spent on projects, tickets, research, etc. on a time tracking sheet and then submit it everyday. I can’t SEE any weird trackers here but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. I’m not doing anything off task but not gonna lie sometimes I do just be refreshing the page for 5 minutes straight and kinda paranoid someone is watching me…

Do you still need to average a certain number of hours each week to get holiday pay? I only work part time since I’m in school but will be working Memorial Day. I only work about 12-18 hours per week. Will I still get double pay?

Just got an offer for $76k for an Epic Willow Ambulatory Analyst I position with a hospital near me. I am located in the Midwest in a MCOL city. Is this decent entry level pay? I have 1 year of IT experience and 8 years of pharmacy tech experience, mostly outpatient using non-Epic software, but a few years of inpatient where I worked with Epic as an end user. Unfortunately inpatient pharmacy experience does not seem to be very valuable for Willow ambulatory.

Can anyone tell me if this is a decent offer, or what I should be expecting for pay rate as a new analyst?

Sorry this is going to be long. This is not even half of the shit he does/ has done, just the stuff I can remember.

For reference, smallish company of about 200 users. IT Department about 10 people, I am the only helpdesk. I typically do a combo of phishing simulation/training, onboarding/offboarding, access/identity management, troubleshooting app issues, network issues, equipment and desktop issues, and ticket triage. Also physical infrastructure lol. Essentially a bit of everything. I have an associates degree in IT and have only worked in healthcare as a nursing assistant for 5 years. Other than that, I came into this job with no certs and no IT experience. I have been in this role for almost 6 months now.

Below is the running list of things my shitty boss (who I’ll refer to as SB) has done/does that annoys me at my current job. Not sure if I’m being a baby or if I’m genuinely justified in hating this place. I’m aware that sometimes you just have to put your head down and do the grunt work when you’re new, but this feels less like grunt work and more like I’m being talked down to and insulted constantly:

• We are currently re-doing our Ethernet wiring for our main building. I asked for a drill to hang these metal brackets in the wall because using a manual screwdriver was taking much longer and hurting my hands, and SB responded: “Why, are you lazy?” Loudly in front of other people (HR specifically…). Idk is it crazy to ask for equipment that exists at the site already?? And the wiring is LITERALLY HIS JOB. I was supposed to be HELPING HIM. The nerve to call me “lazy” while I’m doing HIS. JOB??

• He had me doing the wiring and physical installation work completely alone (keep in mind I am a 95 lb 22 year old female ok I am NOT particularly muscular or fit lol). I was berated into putting ladders on top of desks and even standing on cabinets/bookshelves during installs, BY MYSELF, which felt very unsafe and I was afraid I wouldnt go home with my jaw in tact. And since I was doing this alone with no help it was taking a bit longer than it would with two people (for obvious reasons) and execs were complaining that it was “taking too long”. I had NO help. And then my boss would say multiple times a day “I just want to get this done” but would sit downstairs and watch Ice Age INSTEAD OF HELPING. like hello?! If you REALLY wanted this done you’d be holding a punch down tool instead of this fuck ass conversation!!

• When I was finally finished with the wiring project (I was elated at this point as I’m kind of a weakling and not really cut out for physical work). He said he was “going to pull some extra wires out” and in doing so he cut 3 camera cables and then the next morning told me I was going to be the one re-running the cable (I was mega pissed about this). No accountability. Just “I cut 3 of the camera wires. YOU’RE going to re-run those.” (he emphasized the you’re so I knew I was going to be doing that by myself…again). In other words he fucks shit up and I am forced to clean his mess.

•The day after cutting the 3 camera cables he also cut the fiber cable to one of our switches right before he left for the day, so a whole floor did not have internet the next morning. Of course this is the floor that the execs work on. I was running around trying to get everyone connected to the wi-fi while trying to figure out what went wrong and when I said that two switches were down SB said “you’re not troubleshooting. Did you even look at logs?” and I asked where to find the logs bc I tried looking and researching and still could not find them and went “well figure it out. It can’t be that hard” (that seems to be his schtick lmao). Then turns out he couldn’t find them either. Then he has this light bulb moment after looking at the switch and he goes “I cut the fiber cable. You’re going to re-run this next week”. 💀 LIKE DUDE. IVE BEEN RUNNING SROUND TRYING TO APPEASE THE EXECS THAT ALREADY HATE IT. EVERYONE IN THIS COMPANY HATES IT. AND I THINK I HAVE AN IDEA OF WHY.

• We were on a teams call about our security system and our system admin was demoing a configuration change that SB asked him to do while on the call, and while he was actively doing it, my boss suddenly said to me “This is your job, why aren’t you doing it? He’s doing your job.” And I was a bit taken aback because he had not asked me to do this before and the first time it was brought up was IN THE CALL WITH OUR SYS ADMIN, WHO HE ASKED TO MAKE THE CHANGE.

• After drilling holes and making a mess during an install project, he said:
“We need to clean this up. No wait, YOU need to clean this up,” and had me clean up debris he created. Which in itself I feel like is fine but it’s the way he said it - like he was above cleaning up the mess he made.

• He constantly sends me up and down 3 flights stairs to grab tools, cords, monitors, adapters, etc., even when he could have gotten them himself. Essentially, if he doesn’t feel like walking down the stairs, he says, “SnakeySnek, go get this screwdriver from downstairs”. And then he will send me up and down the stairs 4-5-6 times IN A ROW to go “fetch” things that he “forgot” to tell me to get the last time I went downstairs.

• One time after sending me downstairs multiple times in a row, I asked why he couldn’t grab it himself, and he responded: “Because I told you to.” 💀 I don’t mind going and grabbing things if you’re busy, but if you’re literally at your desk watching Madagascar while I’m working on one of my projects, you shouldn’t be sending me to go be your personal errand girl/maid.

• He would tell me to do something a specific way, then later question why I did it that way even though I followed his exact instructions. Then either make me completely re-do the project or say something like “I didn’t want it done it that way do it this way” in a teams meeting with the entire IT department. It feels disrespectful of my time and like he makes me out to be the one who is constantly in the wrong even though I FOLLOWED HIS DIRECTIONS EXACTLY HOW HE ASKED.

• He would get frustrated or question me about tasks without first checking whether I had already completed them. For instance he asked me to switch out some cables on one of our switches. I usually start work an hour before everyone else gets there so I did it in the morning before everyone else came in to prevent any disruptions. He came in at his normal time and went “I asked you to switch out the cables. Or did you forget?” And I was like “….I did….but ok….” (I didn’t say that but I was thinking it. I just replied that I did).

• Asking for help was a lose-lose situation. When I asked for help, he would first just say shit like “figure it out”, “you didnt troubleshoot” “you didn’t do research” “come onnnnn” “it can’t be that hard” and he would say this loudly in front of anyone who was there smh. The reason I’m asking for help is because I ALREADY DID ALL OF THOSE THINGS AND CANNOT FIGURE IT OUT. THEN if he DID help he often just repeated troubleshooting steps I had already explained that I tried instead of actually helping move the issue forward. This has turned problems where I was asking for a simple permission to work on something into 3-4x 30 minute teams calls where he rambles and runs himself in circles with the whole IT department on the call. Something that theoretically has a simple solution (that I already figured out, just needed simple clarification for one or two things) turns into a bunch of rigmarole where he completely overengineers solutions and wastes IT and end users time.

• During our one-on-ones, he would make me organize random hardware/supplies that he dumped in a box while he sat there and organized sticky notes of how he wanted to prioritize his own tasks instead of actually mentoring or supporting me

• He criticized me for crooked asset tag stickers while on a meeting with everyone in IT saying “it just shows you don’t care” WHEN I LITERALLY DIDNT STICKER ANY OF THE HARDWARE. I HADNT EVEN BEEN HIRED YET WHEN EVERYTHING WAS STICKERED.

• He holds his direct reports to different standards than he applies to himself. Ex: Salaried team members can only take 30 minute lunches because it’s “in the handbook” (it’s not by the way) while he literally leaves for 1-1.5 hours at a time multiple times a day for dumb shit like meeting his plumber, meeting his wife for lunch, letting his dog out, etc. Another ex: expects the team to be on top of tickets (which me mostly are) while he gets assigned tickets and they will sit without an update for 3 weeks if not months.

• He asked me about a ticket one morning and I replied that I was waiting on vendor response, as documented in the ticket and he said “Instead of sitting there doing nothing, go do X” and I admittedly got snarky here I was like “I’m not *sitting here doing nothing* I’m working on x project, which you assigned me. So no I’m not sitting here doing nothing.” No apology of course lmao.

• He speaks verrrrry differently to executives/senior leadership than he does to direct reports which means he does know to some degree that he is a JERK

Sorry this is so long but am I crazy or not??