Random Questions

I would try it, but I don’t think I have experience with that scent specifically.

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My brother and his wife asked to do a personal finance night with us this weekend, especially going over using things like Mint, how we manage our finances, our investing philosophy, etc. two parts to the question here:

Is there a good very short intro resource on YNAB, in case they find it appealing? It never worked for my brain in spite of really, really trying.

What short and accessible investing primers do you like? I’m thinking the J Collin’s stock series but idk if anyone has anything more modern and potentially short video based. I would like it to cover retirement account types and at least touch on FI, although doesn’t have to go into FIRE at all.

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I think the TL/DR on YNAB for someone new is that it’s a fancy envelope method. So think about if you got paid in cash every week…as soon as your boss handed you a stack of cash you would immediately split it up into a bunch of envelopes: $150 for groceries that week, $35 for a movie date (with popcorn lol), $30 to save up for a vacation, $30 to save in case your car needs a repair soon, etc. Some envelopes get totally spent and refilled every week when you get paid again. Some envelopes get thicker and thicker so they have enough in them when you need (i.e. buying a plane ticket for vacation)

YNAB just takes that and adapts it to the fact that life is more complicated. Sometimes we get paid monthly, sometimes every two weeks. We actually spend on credit cards and debit cards and bank transfers and Venmo. But at it’s heart it’s just a virtual envelope to stash your cash in.

My go to is still JLCollins for investing too…

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The biggest thing is my brother has adhd and a TBI history, so I want a list of resources he can refer back to when he knows he’s forgotten something we’ve gone over. His brain works in a very patchy way- he’ll know he learned X thing but have a complete void where that information should have logged, while other things remain crystal clear. So I figured a resource list I could email as a support to the in person discussion could let him fill the voids as needed.

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I really like this doc!

https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf

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How-to videos for YNAB! Got Five Minutes? - YNAB

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Maybe this is a weird question and maybe people just keep these items dispersed throughout their household somewhere, but I am wondering how other people store functional midsize devices/appliances in their home?

I have a small shop vac, a robot vacuum, an air filter/purifier, an indoor bug zapper, an evaporative cooler, a space heater, and a paper shredder.
Most of these are a little bit too big just to be popped in a cabinet when they aren’t in use and I use each on a predetermined schedule, some daily, some weekly, some seasonally.
The seasonal items as in the space heater in the evaporative cooler are both too large to bring up and down from the attic, even once a year (it is a ladder access attic, and I live alone).

What are y’all doing with these things? Do you have a cute quilted little appliance covers for them and they are just part of your interior? Do you have a huge wardrobe type cabinet where you keep all of them?
Do most people just save up and buy the most attractive/least eyesore version of these items and then just have them out in their homes (all of mine besides, the vacuum in the bug zapper, are rough lookin hand me downs)?
^ since I go in and out of peoples homes for one of my jobs, I think this is the actual answer, but I thought I’d ask to see if anyone had any other ideas.

Just curious, as I feel like my house is a bit of a utility storage shed at this point :joy:

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Garage. The paper shredder lives in our bedroom next to the printer in our current set up, though. I can’t see it from my side of the bed, so I don’t care.

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Shop vac is in the basement, paper shredder lives under a desk, robot vac is just kind of out next to an outlet (although my parents managed to put theirs under a window seat so you can’t trip over it but it still has free access to get in and out), and everything else goes in a closet or in the knee-wall storage in our semi finished attics.

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I have a glorious thing called a garage :sweat_smile: it was much harder pre garage, a lot of stuff lived in the trunk of our car and our weird front hall closet. And there was a lot we just didn’t have.

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Our robot vacuum isn’t self docking so it used to live on a low shelf but now it lives under some furniture that has space underneath. Ours currently needs repair so it didn’t get put all the way back last time.

Air purifier, I don’t have one but I’d pay more for a pretty one. When we had a shredder it always stayed out next to a desk like any other trash can.

We also have a garage and a large hall closet, so that helps when we do want stuff away.

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Oh and air purifiers- massive eyesore to me but necessary here/for us. I just try to tuck them in corners where they’re less obvious and it is what it is.

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Shop vac and shredder on shelves in the basement (have an unfinished area that has wire storage shelves, and while the shop-vac is regular sized, my shredder just sits on a trash can so it’s a little smaller), robot vacs under side tables that have space (non self-docking/charging versions, though), one space heater in the fireplace and the other under my desk with the UPS, and no air purifier as of now. Not sure if any of those are helpful.

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Thanks y’all! It seems like the two big things I’m missing is a basement, any common closet, or a garage. :upside_down_face:

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I leave stuff out and hate it. Or I shove it in my spare bedroom and shut the door so I can pretend my house is spotless and clutter free

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Same. I keep buying cheap trunks/footlockers to hide big items in when not in use… but like… you can only have so many of those in your house without looking really weird.

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It’s worth mentioning we turned an entire wall of our office into a giant row of Pax closets with shelves :sweat_smile: storage woes are real

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Oh I can’t find a picture but in the first Young House Love house in the master bedroom they made one wall be just storage and then put off white curtains in front of it like a wall. Just as a variation in the “wall of storage” idea.

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The one thing I saw that might save some space without large amounts of money is if you switch your shredder for one that just clamps on a trash can rather than having its own bin.

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That’s a point too- I don’t have a shredder. What I actually need to shred is a pretty small list, and I just accumulate them in a paper bag in a cupboard until I take it into an office max once every couple years. Few bucks and I don’t have to store anything beyond the paper as it accumulates.

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