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Having the money showed in today's dollars by default was tripping me up for a bit. The 401k provider my employer uses shows "future dollars" by default, so you

Having the money showed in today's dollars by default was tripping me up for a bit. The 401k provider my employer uses shows "future dollars" by default, so you have to mentally recognize that the buying power of 10M "35 years from now dollars" is not what $10M would do for you today. Not helping my "11 months till 30" anxiety/depression. I don't know why it's messing with me so much. The internet loves to make is seem like your 20s are where it's all at but I spent it building a career rather than partying or dating... Leaving the "young adult" phase and just entering "adult". Also mega pissed that I started doing better in 2019 (international travel, lots of time spent with friends) and then the pandemic came and turned the world on its head and trapped me at home for the last bit of my 20s.

sailfast 5y ago
The internet is wrong. Nothing happens when you cross the barrier. Do what makes you fulfilled and live without regrets. Nothing worse than wasting the limited time we have worrying about things we cannot change. (talking to myself now haha)
- Teknoman117 5y ago
  I would absolutely love to tell my brain to stop thinking about "should haves" because there is literally nothing you can do about it. But here I am :) I "should have" never allowed myself to become obese in college. I "should have" lost the weight in my early 20s. I "should have" focused on fitness during the pandemic. But that's the past. Yesterday would have been a better choice but tomorrow is a worse choice than today ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Got in a funk a few months ago and decided to make some changes. 5 months later I'm down 30 pounds. Fell off the bandwagon after Christmas but I'm pulling myself back onto it. Transferring offices to be near my friends, many of whom are fitness and health nuts who have all told me they're going to drag me kicking and screaming into the wonderful world of actually taking care of myself. Who knows, maybe I'll actually feel better in my 30s than my 20s as a result. Not that I feel bad now. Even though I'm a 6'4 blob I can still go out and take a 6 mile hike without any pain or trouble.
  - scubakid 5y ago
    Could be me justifying my own tendency to ruminate haha, but occasionally "should haves" can be productive if you learn something that improves your mental model of the world. Either way, glad to hear you're prioritizing your health! The hard work pays dividends :)
  - fartcannon 5y ago
    At thirty, you will feel like nothing has changed (and be disappointed about that). At 32 you will feel strangely young again. At 36, you will feel 40, and at 40 you'll be thinking about retirement.
  - sailfast 5y ago
    Good luck in your journey. Sounds like you know yourself well - which is a great start. I believe in you.
scubakid 5y ago
Anything you think I should do to make that today's dollars vs actual dollars distinction more clear? Oh, and paragraph 2 hit me hard. The countdown to 30 is... happening.
- Teknoman117 5y ago
  I honestly like the default as today's dollars, but I honestly only noticed the distinction by poking around. Maybe putting the option in the first few setup cards? Overall, awesome tool though! Made me a bit sad to realize that even with a tech salary, most bay area houses are out of reach of a single income family unless you're an L5 at Google or a similarly paying company.
  - scubakid 5y ago
    I'm always hesitant to add more steps to the onboarding process, but you might be right that todays/actual currency is worth it to call out as early as possible. It's definitely a source of confusion for some, despite my efforts to put the selector in a discoverable place. And yikes, happy to be east coast for now =)
SmellTheGlove 5y ago
I just turned 40. When I turned 30 I thought my 20s were pretty amazing and I was sad to leave that behind. But 10 years later I can tell you 30s are definitely your prime years. You’ve got some shit figured out and maybe you’re a real adult, you have a few more dollars than you did before, you probably have a better understanding of what you want in life. 30s are about going and doing that. By not mortgaging your future in your 20s, you’ll have a lot more options in your 30s and 40s.
- scubakid 5y ago
  what if that's when kids enter into the equation? ◑.◑
  - SmellTheGlove 5y ago
    If you want kids, sure. I have one, she was born when I was 30 and it’s been great.
  - jokethrowaway 5y ago
    Kids are not that life wrecking experience society makes you think it is, unless you can't afford to have kids. Sure, you'll change your priorities and you'll have a few years of extra stress while the kids are small.
    - scubakid 5y ago
      I guess it's those few years of increased stress that make the time sound less "prime" haha. As an adult I've always needed good sleep to function well, and can't help but worry my kid would be as much of a wretch as I apparently was as an infant :D
mym1990 5y ago
Your prime years are whatever you make them, it’s borderline depressing when people think their best years are behind them when they possibly have 6-7 more decades to live.
- themacguffinman 5y ago
  That's a bit of a stretch. Stats suggest it's more like 5 decades for a reasonably healthy American 30yo white male today. Then consider that in your final decade or so, your options are extremely limited because of severe mental and physical decline. 1 in 9 adults will spend one or two of their final decades in a long goodbye due to Alzheimer's alone. But the decline starts earlier, mental speed is high until age 60. This will affect your job and career prospects, and even if it doesn't for you, employers (esp. in tech) think it will and discriminate based on age anyway (roughly ~45yo based on some articles I've read). If you're a blue collar worker, a career of hard physical labor starts to hit a wall. If you're a woman, fertility starts declining (and childbirth health risks dramatically increase) fairly early (~30) and dating desirability follows rapidly. Those are just the terminal issues, psychologically your life path more or less calcifies as you age. There's no age cutoff but, for example, it's said that the longer you stay in corporate work, the more likely you'll stay there and the less likely you'll succeed at entrepreneurship. I'd speculate there's maybe one or two more major life pivots in a 30yo. Most of these factors don't exactly make life unbearable, but after a fairly "young" age (around 30 I suspect) a lot of doors start closing and it only accelerates from there. Depending on what "prime" or "best" means to you in terms of life goals, realistically you have much less than 6-7 decades to exploit them. I generally disagree with this attitude of oh don't worry you have plenty of time, life is much shorter than you think. Nevertheless, once your doors are shut, there's little use in ruminating over the missed opportunity.
  - scubakid 5y ago
    This condensed several of my own musings into one well-reasoned comment. Do you think there's anything ProjectionLab could/should try to do with the concept of health-span?

sailfast 5y ago

The internet is wrong. Nothing happens when you cross the barrier. Do what makes you fulfilled and live without regrets. Nothing worse than wasting the limited time we have worrying about things we cannot change. (talking to myself now haha)

Teknoman117 5y ago
I would absolutely love to tell my brain to stop thinking about "should haves" because there is literally nothing you can do about it. But here I am :) I "should have" never allowed myself to become obese in college. I "should have" lost the weight in my early 20s. I "should have" focused on fitness during the pandemic. But that's the past. Yesterday would have been a better choice but tomorrow is a worse choice than today ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Got in a funk a few months ago and decided to make some changes. 5 months later I'm down 30 pounds. Fell off the bandwagon after Christmas but I'm pulling myself back onto it. Transferring offices to be near my friends, many of whom are fitness and health nuts who have all told me they're going to drag me kicking and screaming into the wonderful world of actually taking care of myself. Who knows, maybe I'll actually feel better in my 30s than my 20s as a result. Not that I feel bad now. Even though I'm a 6'4 blob I can still go out and take a 6 mile hike without any pain or trouble.
- scubakid 5y ago
  Could be me justifying my own tendency to ruminate haha, but occasionally "should haves" can be productive if you learn something that improves your mental model of the world. Either way, glad to hear you're prioritizing your health! The hard work pays dividends :)
- fartcannon 5y ago
  At thirty, you will feel like nothing has changed (and be disappointed about that). At 32 you will feel strangely young again. At 36, you will feel 40, and at 40 you'll be thinking about retirement.
- sailfast 5y ago
  Good luck in your journey. Sounds like you know yourself well - which is a great start. I believe in you.

scubakid 5y ago

Anything you think I should do to make that today's dollars vs actual dollars distinction more clear? Oh, and paragraph 2 hit me hard. The countdown to 30 is... happening.

Teknoman117 5y ago
I honestly like the default as today's dollars, but I honestly only noticed the distinction by poking around. Maybe putting the option in the first few setup cards? Overall, awesome tool though! Made me a bit sad to realize that even with a tech salary, most bay area houses are out of reach of a single income family unless you're an L5 at Google or a similarly paying company.
- scubakid 5y ago
  I'm always hesitant to add more steps to the onboarding process, but you might be right that todays/actual currency is worth it to call out as early as possible. It's definitely a source of confusion for some, despite my efforts to put the selector in a discoverable place. And yikes, happy to be east coast for now =)

SmellTheGlove 5y ago

I just turned 40. When I turned 30 I thought my 20s were pretty amazing and I was sad to leave that behind. But 10 years later I can tell you 30s are definitely your prime years. You’ve got some shit figured out and maybe you’re a real adult, you have a few more dollars than you did before, you probably have a better understanding of what you want in life. 30s are about going and doing that. By not mortgaging your future in your 20s, you’ll have a lot more options in your 30s and 40s.

scubakid 5y ago
what if that's when kids enter into the equation? ◑.◑
- SmellTheGlove 5y ago
  If you want kids, sure. I have one, she was born when I was 30 and it’s been great.
- jokethrowaway 5y ago
  Kids are not that life wrecking experience society makes you think it is, unless you can't afford to have kids. Sure, you'll change your priorities and you'll have a few years of extra stress while the kids are small.
  - scubakid 5y ago
    I guess it's those few years of increased stress that make the time sound less "prime" haha. As an adult I've always needed good sleep to function well, and can't help but worry my kid would be as much of a wretch as I apparently was as an infant :D

mym1990 5y ago

Your prime years are whatever you make them, it’s borderline depressing when people think their best years are behind them when they possibly have 6-7 more decades to live.

themacguffinman 5y ago
That's a bit of a stretch. Stats suggest it's more like 5 decades for a reasonably healthy American 30yo white male today. Then consider that in your final decade or so, your options are extremely limited because of severe mental and physical decline. 1 in 9 adults will spend one or two of their final decades in a long goodbye due to Alzheimer's alone. But the decline starts earlier, mental speed is high until age 60. This will affect your job and career prospects, and even if it doesn't for you, employers (esp. in tech) think it will and discriminate based on age anyway (roughly ~45yo based on some articles I've read). If you're a blue collar worker, a career of hard physical labor starts to hit a wall. If you're a woman, fertility starts declining (and childbirth health risks dramatically increase) fairly early (~30) and dating desirability follows rapidly. Those are just the terminal issues, psychologically your life path more or less calcifies as you age. There's no age cutoff but, for example, it's said that the longer you stay in corporate work, the more likely you'll stay there and the less likely you'll succeed at entrepreneurship. I'd speculate there's maybe one or two more major life pivots in a 30yo. Most of these factors don't exactly make life unbearable, but after a fairly "young" age (around 30 I suspect) a lot of doors start closing and it only accelerates from there. Depending on what "prime" or "best" means to you in terms of life goals, realistically you have much less than 6-7 decades to exploit them. I generally disagree with this attitude of oh don't worry you have plenty of time, life is much shorter than you think. Nevertheless, once your doors are shut, there's little use in ruminating over the missed opportunity.
- scubakid 5y ago
  This condensed several of my own musings into one well-reasoned comment. Do you think there's anything ProjectionLab could/should try to do with the concept of health-span?