u/dankappledrank

Hey everyone, looking to get some opinions on the how best to navigate buying a car for my wife and I in the next month or two.

She’s pregnant (2nd trimester), so we were looking to buy used to something more spacious and safer (current car is a 2019 Honda Fit) that could fit our child in a car seat, our dog, and occasionally some family, or friends.

The Fit has served us well for 7 years (my wife financed it new for $18,000 in 2019), but it can feel pretty cramped with just our dog in it currently.

With how insane the price of everything is nowadays and how unstable the job market can be, would it make most sense to buy a minivan used?

I'm leaning towards used but the make and model I've been eyeing sits at about $25,000 used with milage <100,000 (Toyota Sienna 2019).

I was laid off in April of this year but luckily was able to bounce back rather quickly and started a new job in June. What makes me wary about financing a car is the potential for me to get laid off again since I work in tech. On the other hand, it would avoid many of the issues that used cars can come with (unexpected maintenance, poor maintenance by prev owners)

My wife is also planning on leaving her job after maternity leave and taking a few months off for a well deserved career break since she's been stuck in a job she hates for a good long while. Might want to go back to school or training for a different career since she's pretty much reached the limit of what she's willing to deal with in her current role/industry.

Would love to hear some opinions on this.

Location: US -- Los Angeles

Current cash on hand to buy a car: $25,000

Emergency fund: $8,000 - planning to push more into this every month once the car situation has been figured out

Combined income: $320,000, but will be down to just my income ($185,000) some time in the middle of next year though

Current monthly expenses

Rent: $2,300

Groceries: $500

Utilities: $150-200

Subscriptions (Netflix, pet insurance, renter's insurance, Amazon prime, etc.): $350

Gas: $60-80, we both currently work remote

Auto insurance: $150, expected to be at around ~$300 with another car added

No other expenses other than what's listed, we both have 0 debt.

Most of my coworkers use it on a gym membership or fitness adjacent membership (class pass) but I do all my working out at home or just by running so gonna pass on that

Some other relevant pieces of info:

• Wife and I both work time demanding office jobs remotely
• Wife is pregnant
• Both in our early 30s
• Live in an apartment in the city
• Benefit can be used on something new every month but I personally would like a “set it and forget it” kind of situation that gets billed monthly
• “Personal wellness” has a pretty broad definition as I have coworkers who use it on streaming services and coworkers who use it to buy plants for their garden

Anyone have any suggestions on things that could potentially improve our quality of life/save us time elsewhere?

I was thinking of maybe using it on one of those meal kit services like HelloFresh so I could prepare my wife more healthy home cooked meals instead of just eating out but would love to hear from anyone who has experience with these subscriptions on if they’re worth it.

Also would love to hear from other people on any other ideas they might have!

Looking for some advice on final round interviews for 2 companies I have upcoming.

These are both healthcare startups for a React Native role.

For one company, they're having me do a 1 hour "Teach Me" presentation on site.

https://pastebin.com/Z6V93RnF

Anyone have any suggestions on what sort of signals they might be looking for in this part of the interview?

I was thinking of doing a presentation on the "History of Cross Platform Frameworks" since I do find that topic interesting. I could get into the technical nuances that separate each, while voicing my own opinion on what I think is the current winner in today's landscape as well as which has potential in the future.

The other topic I could do would be a big technical project from a past company as the "safe" option, but I was thinking that could honest bore my audience?

For the other company, I have a System Design round I need to participate in, here's the rubric: https://pastebin.com/e1cPTLeu

Anyone aware of any System Design questions that center around healthcare questions? Would system design problems about banking be the closest equivalent? Healthcare tech system design prompts aren't exactly abundant 😅

I figure in a healthcare setting, I'm probably going to want to prioritize compliance, consistency, and security in my overall approach.

Main part that has me unsure is if I should be sprinkling in tidbits about the Mobile experience in or if I should take it at face value and just approach this as a general System Design problem.

If anyone has any perspective to share it would be much appreciated!

Looking for some advice on final round interviews for 2 companies I have upcoming.

These are both healthcare startups for a React Native role.

For one company, they're having me do a 1 hour "Teach Me" presentation on site.

https://pastebin.com/Z6V93RnF

Anyone have any suggestions on what sort of signals they might be looking for in this part of the interview?

I was thinking of doing a presentation on the "History of Cross Platform Frameworks" since I do find that topic interesting. I could get into the technical nuances that separate each, while voicing my own opinion on what I think is the current winner in today's landscape as well as which has potential in the future.

The other topic I could do would be a big technical project from a past company as the "safe" option, but I was thinking that could honest bore my audience?

For the other company, I have a System Design round I need to participate in, here's the rubric: https://pastebin.com/e1cPTLeu

Anyone aware of any System Design questions that center around healthcare questions? Would system design problems about banking be the closest equivalent? Healthcare tech system design prompts aren't exactly abundant 😅

I figure in a healthcare setting, I'm probably going to want to prioritize compliance, consistency, and security in my overall approach.

Main part that has me unsure is if I should be sprinkling in tidbits about the Mobile experience in or if I should take it at face value and just approach this as a general System Design problem.

If anyone has any perspective to share it would be much appreciated!

Hey everyone, I know GERD symptoms differ for everyone and we all have different triggers

Thought I'd share what worked for me.

For reference, I was dealing with severe GERD issues (Stage 3) when I would eat too late or eat too fatty - I would be up by myself at 2 AM with involuntary vomiting and severe dry cough as well.

I first got recommended Omeprazole and that helped ease some of my symptoms initially while on it for a few months.

But the same trigger foods (anything with Tomato sauce, Garlic, Butter, Fried food, Alcohol, pretty much anything on the Do Not Eat list) consumed too late would always cause an episode for me.

My doctor recommended I lose weight and switch my diet as the first step in my therapy. Apparently too much abdominal fat can cause pressure on your stomach and push your stomach contents upwards.

During my severe GERD episodes, I was 185 lbs standing at 5'11" tall, so not Obese but definitely not a skinny guy, just on the cusp of being normal weight/overweight. Funny enough I was the type of guy to exercise 4-5x a week so I had a bit of muscle on me mixed in with my fat cause I ate pretty much whatever I wanted after a good workout.

Here's what I did to stop my GERD:

• Incorporating more healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, and less GERD trigger foods in my diet and I actually lost 10 lbs just from dieting

• No longer eating past 8 PM.

• Smaller portion sizes.

I stopped exercising during the 2 months it took me to lose 10 lbs and lost all the weight from eating much healthier since a lot of the weight lifting exercises I did apparently could worsen my GERD.

Now I don't get any GERD symptoms if I eat badly once in a while or later than usual, I just try to avoid GERD trigger foods if I can help it during the week normally. I've also been off Omeprazole for the past month. I also was still drinking black coffee during this entire time which would've been impossible to give up for work and all.

TLDR: Weight loss/dieting/portion control appears to be a pretty good first step in helping with GERD, try it if you are a bit overweight based on BMI like me cause Abdominal fat can cause pressure on your stomach and push your stomach contents upwards