u/smolbeenv2

been freelancing on fiverr for about 2 years now, making decent side income but the tax situation is driving me crazy. I didnt realize how much I'd owe at the end of the year until it hit me last april and I'm still recovering lol.

The whole self-employment tax thing feels like such a ripoff compared to W-2 jobs. we pay both halves of medicare/social security and the deductions are confusing as hell. I've been trying to figure out if forming an LLC would even help with this or if I'm just stuck paying through the nose.

any other fiverr freelancers here who made the jump to LLC? did it actually help with taxes or just add more paperwork and headaches? I'm so tired of tax season already and we're not even close lol

I swear you literally can't drive up the DNT right now without getting bombarded by massive ads for med spas and weight loss injections every half mile

Its like the whole uptown to frisco corridor is just one giant competition of who can look the most artificially perfect. living around here is honestly exhausting if you have any history of food or body image issues. When my sister was struggling we ended up finding eating disorder solutions specifically because she just needed to get the hell out of the dallas plastic bubble to actually heal in peace away from all that pressure

Im just so over the toxic wellness culture that’s taken over the metroplex lately. You can't even run into central market in sweatpants on a sunday without feeling like everyone is secretly judging you. kinda ready to just move out to the country tbh. anyone else feeling completely burned out by the aesthetic obsession here?

My work laptop is on it's last legs, the thing is from 2018, fans sound like a jet engine 😂 now and it struggles with basic excel + chrome tabs. Been putting off upgrading but with some deadlines coming up i need something reliable that doesnt cost an arm and a leg. Was talking to a buddy last week about it and he said he scored a solid deal on one from mobileciti during their recent sale, saved a fair bit compared to the big retailers. Looking for something around the $900-1400 mark with good battery and decent screen. Anyone got recs for local stores here in Geelong where i can actually go in person and test them out? or current promos with big % off that are worth jumping on? preferably with proper AUS warranty. Thinking office works or jb but open to better options.

Finally made the switch from FIFO to a local gig. Best decision ever for my sanity, but now I'm on my own for sourcing gear.

Back in the mining game, everything was provided through the company's supply chain, you just ordered what you needed and it showed up. Now I'm trying to find a decent supplier for boots, high-vis, gloves, and the rest, and I'm genuinely overwhelmed.

I don't want to just default to the big chain stores if there's a local mob who actually gives a shit about quality. Especially for stuff like safety glasses and respirators, I've had cheap ones fog up or break at the worst possible moment.

I'd rather pay a bit more upfront than end up with gear that falls apart in the heat. What do you guys use?

had a job last week where i needed a specific router bit. spent 45 minutes looking for it. turns out i loaned it to a mate 6 months ago and totally forgot.

this happens way too often. i lose track of what i have, where it is, and who borrowed it.

ive been thinking about getting a proper tracking system. nothing fancy. just something that tells me what i own and where it lives.

but honestly i dont know if i trust myself to actually update it.

anyone here actually use a system. or do you just have a good memory and im the problem.

My net worth is creeping up and I’m realizing my name is way too visible on public records. I want to lock down my asset protection and privacy before it catches up to me. Just wanted to run my current plan by you guys to see if I'm missing any big pitfalls or if this is standard practice at this level.

setup I'm looking at

Wyoming LLC (the master holding company). Completely anonymous registry. Planning to use registered agent here just to keep my home address and actual name 100% off public search tools.

Texas LLC (advisory). Owned by the Wyoming parent. I do some tech consulting on the side pulling in $8k-$10k a month, and I want to ring-fence that liability.

Texas LLC (real estate). Holds my short-term rental. Had a scare last year with a shady contractor who threatened a lawsuit because he looked up my day job and thought I'd just settle to make him go away (which I did, hated it). Never want a tenant or contractor linking a property to my name again.

Texas LLC (angel/syndicates). Holds my LP stakes and venture checks (around 12 active right now).

I’ll open separate accounts for each to keep bookkeeping clean. Since they're all single-member pass-throughs flowing up to the Wyoming parent, taxes should still just hit my personal return, so it shouldn't kill my CPA. Wyoming has no state income tax, though Texas has its own franchise tax paperwork to maintain.

One thing I'm back and forth on... since the consulting and angel stuff is basically done in my real name anyway, is it stupid to split them into two entities? Should I just combine them to save on the extra administrative overhead? Am I totally over-engineering this, or is it the right move to stop being a walking target for nuisance lawsuits?

(Note: Already have a $5M umbrella policy, this is mostly for the privacy side of things).

Hey guys, i've been digging through some boxes from when i moved last year to Australia and found a bunch of old family photos and a couple art prints i totally forgot about. One is this cool vintage map of newcastle from the 80s and another is a photo of my grandparents from their trip to Europe back in the day. They're just sitting in a drawer getting all bent up which is kinda sad tbh. I plan to buy a few frames and put those photos innit soon, might check out Fantastic Framing, their stuff looks pretty solid. Also open to any tips on what styles look good for older photos vs modern prints. Don't want it to look too fancy but also not cheap plastic crap 😂

Got a 10kW system with a 13.5kWh battery put in last week by RenewCo Solar. Installation went fine but now I'm trying to wrap my head around how it all actually works day to day.

Specifically, what's the deal with depth of discharge? The installer said to keep it above 20% but didn't really explain why. Does draining it lower actually damage the cells over time, or is that just a conservative setting they program in?

Also curious about how the system decides when to pull from the grid vs the battery. Right now the battery kicks in around 6pm when the panels stop producing, which makes sense, but I noticed it still pulled grid power at 8pm even with 60% charge left. Is that a settings thing or normal behavior for hybrid inverters?

I bought an older house and now I have corroded pipes throughout most of the place. Got a slow leak under the kitchen sink that turned into a bigger conversation with a local plumber from Top Flow Plumbing Services about full pipe replacement.

I did some research before that conversation to get a better sense of how these jobs typically get scoped out, which helped me ask better questions going in.

The plumber mentioned galvanized steel throughout, which apparently is pretty common in older homes. He's recommending a full repipe with copper or PEX.

For the people who actually do this work: is PEX worth it over copper in an older home, or does it depend more on the existing setup?

Tried the mobile trailer thing last spring, six weeks, twice a week parked outside the gym for diabetes screenings. Wasn't my idea but I went along with it. Turnout ended up being way higher than I expected, like we normally get 30 kids at our annual clinic day and this time we had 120 show up across the first few visits. Still not sure if that's just because it was new and different.

The unit itself was fully kitted out, exam area, curtain, the works. Teachers said it felt less intimidating than coming to the nurse's office and I think that actually explains a lot of the turnout difference. We looked at a few manufacturers before going with crafts Men and setup each visit was fast, maybe 20 minutes tops.

Making this a permanent program is apparently the plan now. I'm not against it but I wish someone had told me earlier that coordinating the schedule with the vendor is basically a part time job. Spring semester we had 4 rescheduled visits out of 12 and each one was a whole email chain. Does this get easier or is that just how it is?

planning a family trip to mykonos in august with my husband two kids aged 5 and 8 and my sister's family of four we want space for everyone to relax and play without feeling cramped. the kids love water so a private pool and easy beach access are musts for us.

i looked at mykonos villas for rent like villa greene villa briana and villa aria which have big pools and gardens perfect for kids to run around safely. the layouts seem great for two families sharing meals and downtime.

what are good kid friendly beaches or activities near these areas and how do you handle travel with little ones on the island? any tips for choosing the right villa for multi family groups with young children?

Hey everyone, we are currently remodeling our space and changing the concept over to a high-volume sports bar and burger joint. Since we're expecting a much faster pace, we desperately need to upgrade our outdated POS system.

For those running fast-casual or busy bar setups, what platform are you using and why do you love (or hate) it?

We need a system that is incredibly intuitive for floor staff to learn quickly, completely stable during peak Friday night rushes, and plays nice with third-party delivery setups. What should we look into, and what should we avoid at all costs? Appreciate any insights!

Everyone writes about the romantic side. "I am working from a cafe in Lisbon." Cool!

What they do not discuss: having your bank freeze your account when you try to use it abroad, foreign transaction fees piling up, and certain apps being unavailable due to your billing address not matching your current location.

The thing that worked best for me was not using any innovative fintech card. It was simply purchasing regional gift cards before relocating to a new place. AirBnB, Uber, and major grocery store chains, many of them, allow for purchasing gift cards that do not depend on the region. I use some specialized platforms (ACEB.com) to buy them because you can pay for purchases using cryptocurrency, and the platform offers gift cards for many regions. Not claiming that it is a universal solution, but the "your card was declined while making a purchase in a foreign country at 11 pm" problem never happened to me once after I began using this method, compared to multiple times before.

Have been traveling such routes for about 14 months already. Can provide details on particular countries and card types upon request.

I’m in a bit of a time-sensitive situation and could use some outside perspective.

I’m currently near Portland, Oregon, and I’m planning to move up to Seattle fairly soon for work. The idea was that selling my house would be the easiest part of the move and it’s not overpriced, it’s in decent shape, nothing fancy but definitely livable. I honestly thought it would move fairly quickly in this market.

A few buyers have looked at my place, but there’s been a lot of hesitation. Like some think it’s priced too low and something is wrong, others just nitpick small things and walk away. At this point, I feel like I’m missing something obvious

Talked about it with family and I’m also plan to visit a financial advisor, just to make sure I’m not doing anything I’ll regret. I also saw Northwest real estate solutions, and it looks like they can buy it quickly for cash but I guess the price is gonna be slightly lower

Part of me likes the simplicity of that, just closing the chapter and moving on, but I’m also worried I’d be leaving money on the table, especially since I already priced it pretty low to begin with

Has anyone dealt with something similar in the Portland area? Curious whether you’d wait it out or just go for the fast cash option when you’re already trying not to overthink things

A couple of months ago my wife and I bought a house that was still under construction in one of those new suburban communities that seem to pop up overnight. We were genuinely excited about it. Really liked that quiet area, good schools nearby, little parks planned around the neighborhood. You know like the whole “raise a family in the suburbs” dream. And I’m more a fimily oriented guy, so I like this kinda stuff

The process took forever though. Between construction delays, supply issues, and us wanting a few custom changes inside the house, we had to wait a long time for it to finally be finished. At the time it felt worth it because we thought we were building our future together

During all that waiting, things between us became really bad…

We’re in the middle of a divorce

It wasn’t even one huge fight or cheating or some dramatic movie situation…

One day she basically told me she didn’t love me anymore and couldn’t picture living under the same roof together. We already live separately now, and every conversation feels awkward and painful. The weirdest part is that the house is finally almost ready, and neither of us even wants to live there anymore

So now we’re stuck trying to figure out what to do with a house that was supposed to be our forever home. It just feels depressing as hell. Like walking through a museum of plans that never happened

Part of me thinks thebest possible option is just to sell it, split the money, and move on with our lives. I recently looked into quick sale options, and the whole idea of selling it for cash and cutting ties completely is starting to sound more appealing than dragging this whole thing out for another year

Has anyone else here had to deal with selling a house during a divorce before even getting the chance to really live in it?

Starting soon and curious about the less obvious stuff.

Not the official info, but the little things that make life easier or less stressful.

Anything you figured out later and wish you knew earlier?

My anxiety isn’t always loud or obvious. Sometimes it’s just this constant feeling in my chest, like something is wrong even when everything is fine. I overthink small things, replay conversations, and convince myself I messed up somehow.

It’s exhausting because even when I want to relax, my mind won’t let me. It feels like I’m always on edge, waiting for something bad to happen.