Low Income Savings Challenge

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My husband has been struggling for about a year as he was promised a promotion & it went to someone else. He thinks his boss passed it on someone else on personal agenda but I have a feeling that my husband's personality could be a great red flag for them. I have to find out how to break it to him nicely as his mood is pretty low atm. And I am not good at giving constructive criticism. He just hates his job pretty bad atm & will change jobs when we move to another suburb. I dont want him to repeat the same mistakes at his new job. I am not saying, he's completely in the wrong. The company he works for is very dodgy & always prioritizing their profits so their young Nepo baby CEO can use to for his race car hobbies. To start off.. my husband is very good at his job as a project manager. He can finish his jobs with ease while his Co workers are struggling. This actually made him egotistic & ruthless when dealing with anyone who he deems incompetent- even to his bosses. He is individualistic person who wont ask for help or help others. He thinks everyone needs to learn for themselves. It makes him a poor team player. He absolutely despise working for others. He has shown very little interest in the growth of the company & he challenges the authority of his new managers etc. I am not saying sucking up to your boss is the right way, but bosses dont give promotions to employees who despise them. He gets cranky easily. I know my husband. When he's focusing on something & get interrupted, his tone is very different from his regular relaxed attitude. It makes you feel like you have to do your best not get on his wrong side or not to interrupt his work. It would be absolutely tiring if you have a co-workers that makes you feel like working on egg shells. To summerise his pros: More than competent at his job. Rarely makes mistakes so the company saves money (mistakes on each project can cost them $100k or more), he knows his shit so the major client of their company likes him. His projects bring in majority of the income for the company. He delivers His Con: Terrible team player, loves to challenge authority and hates his bosses, egotistical, masochist. His company keeps disappointing him with failed promises of promotion while he knows he deserve it as he is doing a great job. And his growing resentment make the situation worse. Its a loop that keeps on growing. Now they just let him do whatever he wants because they are afraid to loose him but I know they will let him go if they can replace him. I want him to reflect on his behaviors so he doesnt carry those to a new job that makes him happy. submitted by /u/Quiet_Maximum_4087 to r/careerguidance [link] [comments]

35M, SINK, in Canada. Been mostly focused on career and investing for the last 10+ years and now I think I'm getting pretty close to at least barista/coast FIRE territory, especially if I decide to get a mortgage eventually instead of renting forever. Current portfolio is about CA$1.63M: RRSP: ~CA$1.01M TFSA: ~CA$87K Nonregistered investments: ~CA$244K Corp investments: ~CA$292K Emergency savings: ~CA$20K cash (not included in total) *Had some emergency spending last year that came out of the TFSA, otherwise it would have been a bit higher. Otherwise 40K a year to RRSP and TFSA and whatever squirreled away in nonregistered. Most of it is just sitting in VEQT, VGRO, and HXS. Lifestyle is pretty normal overall. No expensive hobbies other than some road trips and some international travels, no luxury cars, no huge spending habits. I still work a regular job and also have some side income going through a corporation. But at this point, my job is high stress, at 400K a year would you switch to a lower stress job at a 50% pay cut? (This lower stress would be a previous role that I've had, have domain knowledge over and is actually low stress. The company is asking me to come back.) I'm not really aiming for a flashy FIRE lifestyle. More like: Freedom to stop working if I want Ability to take lower stress work Maybe consulting or part time work later Not worrying about money anymore Would be nice to get 100k a year spending money. Stretching to 120k. If markets behave reasonably and I keep investing, I’m hoping the portfolio can grow to somewhere around CA$3M by my 45s, so I can start to think about retirement. At this point I feel like the challenge is less about accumulating more and more about figuring out what kind of life I actually want after financial independence. Curious from others here: When did you feel financially “safe” enough? Did your mindset change when your investment makes more yearly than your full time job? For those that retired early how did you deal with still having a mortgage? Should I just work aggressively for a few years and pay it off before retirement? submitted by /u/xComponent to r/fican [link] [comments]

TLDR: Despite Cygames giving away lots of pulls, they're just barely enough for survival thanks to Umamusume's highly predatory game design that drains dedicated players' time and wallets through a hyper-competitive, PvP-focused endgame. For a game where the appeal comes from the characters, you have to pull them in order to experience their stories. However, in order to have a smooth career experience, or have a chance in PvP, the game requires multiple MLB support cards acquired through archaic JP gacha system with severe lack of universal Support card LB resource, and accelerating powercreep that will eventually make old units obsolete in PvP. Then, Torena-san must spend lots of hours going through a brutal, RNG-heavy grind just to get "1 bottle of Uma glue" every 30 minutes. Rather than improving the RNG for free, Cygames monetizes player frustration by selling QoL subscriptions which, combined, cost much more than an MMO subscription, while offering less content than an average MMO. While casual fans can enjoy the game partially as a free, high-quality visual novel, the deep parasocial relationship fostered by cute horse girls & excellent storywriting, combined with Cygames' freebies, further reinforces tribalism, with many players using "fun" as an argument to silence criticisms from dedicated players who got burned out by a time-consuming, expensive, and highly P2W endgame loop. (Disclaimer: English isn't my first language, and my knowledge of the JP servers comes from internet search rather than firsthand experience.) (EDIT: Here are the reactions from r/UmaMusume ) 450+ hours spent making Uma Glue. Perhaps I'm addicted to horse girls. Quick Introduction Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a gacha game where real-life elite Japanese thoroughbreds are anthropomorphized into funny horse girls. The game is renowned for its excellent character design, storywriting & filled with attention to details. The franchise also has top-tier anime, manga, and music production, rivaling Japanese giants like Idolm@ster & Love Live; while breathing new life into horse racing. On top of that, Cygames reinvests back into horse racing through sponsorships & donations. The game won the "Best Mobile Game" award at The Game Awards 2025. The gameplay loop involves training a character in Career mode while reading the stories of that character, from slice of life to all sorts of drama & rivalries inspired by their real-life counterparts' legacy, resembling a Tamagotchi-style raising sim. After that, you use the result of a career run (Veteran Umamusume) to do other content. (Career mode tutorial) We all know that Cygames has the reputation of giving away lots of freebies & randomly throwing pulls out of nowhere (Glory to Cygames!!!). However, game development is a business, and oftentimes such generosity is merely an illusion. If the developers shower you with pulls, there's a high chance they're gonna design the game in a way to drain your savings. Umamusume is no exception. Despite Cygames being "generous" with pulls, the game is still considered unforgiving by many Torena-san. This is the result of multiple intertwined design choices: A highly competitive, PvP-focused endgame Dupe-reliant support cards with a severe lack of universal limit-break currency A bloated gacha pool and typical powercreep A tedious, RNG-heavy gameplay loop "alleviated" by expensive microtransactions and QoL subscriptions (in JP). 1: The PvP Endgame The excitement of winning your first career races will eventually fade away, and once you've read all available stories, the Endgame is there to provide long-term engagement. Besides typical story events there are some gameplay events, but they don't add much in terms of gameplay: Golshi Week, 37.6 pulls login rewards & a more difficult Career mode with 1.2M gold rewards Fuji Kiseki's Show Time, more difficult career mode with random rewards Trainer Aptitude Test, career mode with side objectives Racing Carnival, harder Legend Races & a bunch of repetitive menu clicks Naturally, like many sports games, PvP is the main repeatable content. Watching hyper-optimized umas battle for position, meet skill conditions, and backliners executing late-race overtakes (ft. The Unsinkable Gold Ship) can be an adrenaline-pumping experience. Competition is one hell of a drug. However, as we all know, Gacha + PvP has always been a disastrous combo, especially when premium currency is on the line. Wisdom shared by The Mun Many modern KR/CN gacha games either front-load their rewards on lower ranks & have high-rank rewards mostly just flexing rights (title, small premium currency bonus) so that casuals don't feel bad when losing, or no PvP at all. Here are some examples: Blue Archive director Kim Yong Ha shared at a conference that the importance of PVP elements in BA has been intentionally set low to avoid ruining the players' love for the characters. His development philosophies are also reflected in how premium currency (Pyroxene) rewards are distributed: Pyroxenes in Total Assault (Leaderboard Raid) are frontloaded, with Gold -> Platinum rank netting you only 200 pyroxene (1.67 pulls). Grand Assault gives you a 10-pull ticket regardless of ranks. Unless you're in a club with rank requirements, reaching Platinum is mostly for sense of pride & accomplishment. Joint Firing Drill (Roster check) & Final Restriction Release (Tower Raid) has no pyroxene rewards. Tactical Challenge (PvP) splits the playerbase into brackets. You can reach Top 500 (takes 10 battles every 6 months) & never touch it again, treating it as daily free 20 pyroxenes (0.16 pulls). Many clubs don't have Tactical Challenge rank requirements. PvP is arse anyways. During story events, all 12 event stages can be 3★'d using 3★ students, while difficult challenge stages give only 2 pulls total. He also stated that this is not limited to Blue Archive, other games are also moving in the direction of reducing PVP and even reducing the importance of cooperative play. Genshin Impact is another pioneer example with how the game being intentionally designed towards casual players: There's no combat PvP Domain Co-op is mostly just for fun or to help new players. Most events are very casual-friendly, with all primogems rewards being front-loaded into the easiest objectives. You can 9★ Spiral Abyss floor 12 if you follow the guides on KeqingMains & have good artifacts. Imaginarium Theatre is a roster check that allows you to borrow trial characters & characters from your friends. Stygian Onslaught has rewards front-loaded into the lower difficulties. Umamusume, on the other hand, incentivizes tryharding and spending by giving more premium currency toward high ranks. Below are the PvP modes & their rewards. To summarize: an average player can get about 30 pulls every month from PvP & Clubs, assuming you have good game knowledge & put effort grinding, which is a considerable amount for F2Ps & low spenders. Cygames really wants you to grind PvP. 1.1: Team Trials Game8 Tutorial You form 5 teams of 3 veteran umamusume to run against other players. Your umas accumulate scores by activating skills, placing higher & winning multiple races in a row. Your high score of the week decides whether you get promoted, keep your rank, or demoted at weekly reset. AFAIK the strategy is to activate as many skills as possible. Carats are awarded weekly depending on your Team Trials Class. There's a daily challenge that requires you to play 1 game of Team Trials, and is a pre-requisite for full daily completion rewards. Story events require you to play 40 times. Steam Achievement requires 500. Rewards (x1.5 for Global's accelerated schedule) Class Carats 1 0 2 25 3 50 4 75 5 150 6 250 1.2: Champions' Meeting GameTora Tutorial Monthly competitive 3v3v3 PvP with limited entries per day. Whoever finishes 1st wins. Track layout & conditions are announced weeks prior, so that torena-san can research & prepare specialized umamusume for the event. This is where Umamusume's gameplay truly shines, which involves studying a specific track's layout, understanding how skills interact with the track & with each other, choosing the right Support Cards for the right skills, grinding parent umas that pass down the correct traits,... You can spend hours researching & building your own playstyle. There are 2 brackets: Open League: will be A+ max in Global. There are min-maxxers who use calculators & race simulators to engineer their uma while remaining under the rating cap. (example run by LinhSaky) Graded League: no restrictions, filled with high-rollers & meta slaves Qualifiers (You earn rewards based on the amount of wins in an entry & qualify to group A by winning 3/5 races in a single entry.) Round 0 Wins 1 Win 2 Wins 3 Wins 4 Wins 5 Wins Open Round 1 5 10 15 20 25 30 Open Round 2 Group B 10 15 20 30 40 50 Open Round 2 Group A 15 20 30 40 50 100 Graded Round 1 10 15 20 30 40 50 Graded Round 2 Group B 15 20 30 40 50 100 Graded Round 2 Group A 20 30 40 50 75 150 As you can see, 5/5 wins gives you more carats. The Finals (1 race, may the RNG god bless you) Finals 3rd Place 2nd Place 1st Place Open Group B 500 600 700 Open Group A 700 850 1000 Graded Group B 700 900 1200 Graded Group A 1200 1800 2500 1.3: League Of Heroes (JP) GameWith JP Tutorial Welcome to Torena-san's Rift. What a name choice. Competitive 3v3 (+6 AI) Ranked PvP with limited entries per day similar to Champions' Meeting. Fixed track layout, but weather & track conditions rotate every 5 races. You gain score & rank up depending on placements of your 3 uma. Top 96 players are qualified for an "extra stage". Placement Score 1st 100 pt 2nd 60 pt 3rd 40 pt 4th 30 pt 5th 20 pt 6th - 12th 10 pt Rank up Rewards Rank Total Score Carats Bronze 2 1,000 30 Bronze 3 2,000 30 Bronze 4 3,000 30 Silver 1 4,000 50 Silver 2 5,500 50 Silver 3 7,000 100 Silver 4 8,500 100 Gold 1 10,000 150 Gold 2 12,500 150 Gold 3 15,000 300 Gold 4 17,500 300 Platinum 1 20,000 500 Platinum 2 23,000 500 Platinum 3 26,000 500 Platinum 4 30,000 500 Platinum 4+ Every 2000 points 100 Score Leaderboard Rewards Top Carats 1 5000 2 4000 3 3000 96 1500 300 1200 1000 900 10000 750 30000 500 1.4: Club Leaderboards Game8 Tutorial If you're a dedicated player you may as well join a club, trade dirt shoes & earn some rewards. Every month clubs gets awarded depending on the total amount of "fans" all 30 members earned during that month. Many clubs have specific daily/weekly fan quota required in order to stay in the club, for top clubs it can be 5-7 runs per day. You gain Fans by racing in Career or playing Team Trials. You can just prepare PvP umamusume & earn fans naturally, or do specialized runs aimed to maximize fans earned. Rewards (x1.5 for Global's accelerated schedule) Top Carats & Club Points 10 3000 30 2400 100 2100 500 1800 1000 1500 3000 1200 5000 900 7000 600 10000 300 10001+ 150 2: The Gacha Some basic information about the gacha: 3% for 3-stars/SSRs, with 0.5-0.75% for featured units All units remain in gacha pools 1 pull = 150 carats. There are daily discounted pulls which costs 50 paid carats. No pity. Spark at 200 pulls with no carryover. You can reach spark without getting a single copy of featured unit. Example tweet of Torena-san reaching spark 2 times without having pulled a single featured unit A full spark (200 pulls) in this game costs ~$420 without any purchase bonuses. New banners drop every 2 weeks. Most units only get one rerun; some never get reran at all. 2.1: Umamusume (Pretty Derby) Gacha Once pulled, all characters are immediately playable in Career without needing to upgrade, allowing you to instantly have fun & umapyoi the girls. Most of their power comes from support cards. However, as good as their storywriting is, you cannot experience their career stories without pulling them first. LARPing is a common lifestyle. The banners are also filled with alternate costumes. In JP, more than 50% of the 3★ units are just alts. Each alt only has a new unique skill, a new potential skill set, and 3 new story events related to the costume. Same career & stories as original versions. Pulling an alt costume has minimal value unless you haven't pulled any version of that character, you really like the costume/character, or the alt is strong in PvP. (data from GameTora, change server to Japan) Duplicates grant Star Pieces for the pulled Uma, and Goddess Statues for universal star piece exchange. However, almost all Umamusume are perfectly viable at 3★. Additionally, if you're an Open League min-maxxer, NEVER star up your umamusume beyond 3★. Starring up adds +1 unique skill level (+170 rating), almost equal to a green skill (+174) for negligible bonuses, which cannot be undone. Many min-maxxers avoid upgrading unique skills by avoiding starring up & intentionally failing scenario requirements to ensure their uma remains under the Open League rating cap. At some point after the 3rd anniversary, there will be semi-limited umamusume during anni/half-anni. They can't be acquired from selectors, or selectable in step-up gacha, and have reduced rate of being spooked. Here are all semi-limited umas currently in JP: Jungle Pocket Gentildonna Orfevre Still in Love Cinderella Gray Oguri Cap (Alt) Stay Gold Almond Eye All umamusume are limited by their aptitudes, potential/evolution skill sets, and unique skill conditions. Some will excel on specific tracks while being weak/okay in others. Some are meta for a long time. What about powercreep? While any Uma can theoretically win PvP with a decent support deck & good parents (Example tweet), new Uma/alts in JP are built to be stronger & sometimes even more specialized towards specific tracks/playstyles with better potential skill sets, very specific skill conditions & better activation consistency, especially the semi-limited ones. Here's an example of difference between year 1 & latest JP uma: Christmas Oguri Cap (Year 1 & Year 2 medium/long meta) Unique skill: +Max Speed, Acceleration & HP in 2nd half of the raceafter activating 3 recovery skills, requiring proper skill activation timing. Her potential skill set includes Triple 7s (+HP at 777m left), which can be used to time her unique. "First-hand Christmas Miracle" evolution skill (Long): +Max Speed & HP at final corner while being near the inner fence. Cinderella Gray Oguri Cap (4.5 anniversary, strong in Mile + Arima Kinen) Unique skill: +Max Speed while in between top 20% & 70%, stronger in in Mile races and on the Arima Kinen course with at least 146738 fans (reference to 1990 Arima Kinen) "Undying Flame" evolution skill (Mile, Long): +Max Speed at a random point in Mid-race while being in top 50%. Then, +Max Speed at 200m remaining if you've done at least 1 dueling at final straight. "Let Your Name Shake Heaven and Earth" evolution skill (Pace Chaser・Long・2500 m・Nakayama Racecourse, a.k.a Arima Kinen): +Acceleration at Late race, stronger if she were within 10 lengths from the lead around the end of the Mid race. Basically historic horse racing moments being weaponized to make money. Almond Eye (5th Anniversary, absolute menace in Medium tracks) Unique skill: +Current Speed when in top 50%, stronger in Medium race, instant speed boost without needing to accelerate. Then, +Acceleration in Zenkai Spurt (late-rate acceleration if speed stat is at least 2000) "The Next Phase" evolution skill (Pace Chaser): +Max Speed If you're in top 50% at a random point during the second half of mid-race, stronger if your Speed stat is at least 1200. "Assured Victory" Evolution skill (Pace Chaser): +Max Speed at a random point during the second half of mid-race, then +Acceleration at last spurt Ironically, while the cute horse girls are the franchise's main selling point, in order to have a smooth career experience, complete difficult event challenges, or be competitive in PvP, you need good support cards. 2.2: Support card gacha Unlike character banners where pulling the first copy of an uma is worthy for celebration, for support cards, it is just the beginning. Most support cards require 3LB or MLB to be viable, as crucial stats like Training Effectiveness and Specialty Priority are locked behind dupes. A support deck has 6 cards. You must borrow 1 from other players. There are currently 200+ SSRs in JP, many of which are fillers & niches. Getting "spooked" by an off-banner SSR grants zero benefits unless it miraculously happens to be a card you want. This is why "SSR Guaranteed" tickets and banners are often considered scams by players. (data from GameTora, change server to Japan) You can use Uncap Crystals to limit break any card, requiring 20 Shards to exchange 1 Crystal. However, you still need to pull for duplicates because: You cannot exchange Cleats, the currency acquired from destroying unused duplicates, for shards. Events and battle passes only hand out enough Shards for roughly 4 crystals per year (JP), making those crystals extremely rare & valuable Additionally, there are scenario support cards, designed to be very strong in a specific scenario only. With Cygames releasing new scenarios every 4 months instead of 6, F2Ps/Low Spenders are expected to borrow them instead of pulling. There are free support cards, and here are how to acquire & limit break them: Main story support cards: First copy granted by finishing a story chapter Join a club, trade dirt shoes to get club points, then grind fans to get your club into higher ranks to get more club points, which can be used to exchange for support card duplicates. You get more fans for winning career races -> pull & upgrade support cards for better chance winning Event support cards: Play career mode, level up the event "battle pass" & roll the Prize Derby roulette. Progress depend on your career results + event bonuses from unlocked umamusume & support cards -> pull & upgrade support cards for faster event progression. Your support card collection gains a buff to your Team Trials score, depending on their levels (up to 50%): Card Level Bonus (Per Card) 20 +0.01% 25-35 +0.02% 40 +0.03% 50 +0.05% (Note: In JP, this system was updated to be based purely on the rarity of MLB cards: R cards give +0.03%, while MLB SR and SSR cards give +0.05%.) SR cards are viable for endgame & PvP at the moment in Global, but in the future full MLB SSR decks will become the norm when veterans manage to build a decent support collection. Eventually Support cards will get powercrept with new ones having better stats, skill point bonuses, granting 2 gold skills instead of 1, with many skills having better activation conditions. Even the old "Human Rights" ones like SSR Speed Kitasan Black will eventually fall out of the PvP meta. In the future, cards released during anni/half-anni are usually "Human Rights" tier, pressuring competitive players to pull & MLB them. Your SRs & free welfare SSRs will eventually be obsolete for PvP. You cannot escape the support gacha. 2.3: Free pull events There are daily free pull events during special events like Anniversary, about 100-120 pulls per event. However: Unused free pulls are lost at daily reset. Some events have a system that stores unused free pulls, but only if you didn't login from before the start of the event, essentially functioning as a returning player mechanic. Some events only give 1 pull per day instead of 10 pulls. At that point, why not just give players 150 Carats so they can actually save them? Some events split the free pulls between between 2 different banners with different spark progression. You can't select which banner to use those pulls, which means guaranteeing wasted pulls unless you get incredibly lucky or continue pulling until spark/MLB. 3: The RNG Horse racing is chaotic & unpredictable. A superstar horse with multiple victories may randomly lose for whatever reasons at any time (ft. Gold Ship's 12 billion yen incident & Mejiro McQueen topping with 14 billion yen). Cygames tries to recreate this chaos by making the RNG in this game incredibly punishing: Random mood downs & negative conditions. Some uma have negative conditions baked into their career [e.g. Super Creek's "Under the Weather" (+5% failure chance), Meisho Doto's "Not Ready" (random -5 energy after racing)] Resting may grant less energy, with a Night Owl condition (random energy loss) Your training stat gain is influenced by whether Support cards appear in a training category or not. Sometimes they may not appear in crucial turns like Summer training, then appear when your Uma's energy is low, forcing you to gamble. Failing 1 or 2 important turns can brick your PvP training run. Infirmary does not guarantee removing negative conditions. Support card events' appearance is not guaranteed. Some events require you to gamble for desired skills. Some characters like Gold Ship may randomly restrict your training options. Praying for "Fast Learner" buff (-10% skill points cost) in JP, where average uma has roughly 20-30 skills thanks to scenario stat inflation. Inheriting sparks from parent uma is RNG. Start reaction time is RNG. Skill activation chance is determined by your Uma's Wit stat "If you're blocked, you're blocked." Not placing 1st in a career race costs more energy + grant less skill points, and placing 6th or below in may inflict a purple self-debuff skill. While this unpredictability helps with immersion in casual story runs, it can destroy your PvP Ace training. Imagine 30 minutes wasted because of missing important skills, failed important training turns, or not reaching stat thresholds. Example of support cards appearing when The Mun's energy is low. Luckily this is a casual story run & not PvP Ace training. And there's the infamous Trackblazer/MANT scenario. An average run takes 1 hour, where you're expected to win more than 30 races to collect epithet bonuses, watch a bunch of loading screens & UI animations, while praying for the item shop to drop something good. Deck building is restrictive, requiring stacking Race Bonus to more then 50%, making inheriting skills from parent uma important. Cygames made no adjustments to Trackblazer's global release, so Global players have to suffer through it for 4 months. (Game8 Tutorial) Example of a Trackblazer/MANT run's Race Agenda To make matters worse, just 1 month before Trackblazer was sunset by Grand Live, Cygames dropped The Throne's Assemblage Group card, a very good scenario card for Trackblazer, in hope of draining players' Carat savings before the next scenario. Reddit post for reference What about parent/legacy farming? Think a good parent umamusume as god roll artifacts in Genshin. A Kitasan Black level stud in real-life is rare (she got dried just like BA's Sensei), so Cygames also tries to mimic this with multiple layers of RNG: Blue spark: 20% chance for 1 of the 5 stats, then 5% to get 3★ at 600 stats or 10% at 1200. They direcly give you stats at the start of career & during inspiration events. Having 8★ or 9★ stamina sparks can save you a stamina card slot, and in some Medium distance races can substitute a recovery skill. Red spark: Randomly chosen between your character’s A-rank aptitudes. Track aptitudes affect Acceleration, Distance affects Speed, Strategy affects Wit stat These Can be used to increase an Uma's aptitude, especially ones with B or below, up to A at career start, up to S during inspiration events (and the main way to make Haru Urara win Arima Kinen) White spark: 20% for white skills learned, 25% for ◎ white, 40% for gold, increases by 2.5% (white) to 5% (gold) when grandparents have it. Those sparks grant skill hints and are used for inheriting important skills like Groundwork, strategy/distance corners, Nimble Navigator,... Not to mention that you may have to redo the same thing for different uma, or when a new scenario drops with higher stat limit, forcing everyone to move on to the next scenario while soft-sunsetting your existing trained roster. The result is an MMO-level grind where even with the best support deck, majority of your time will be spent making "Uma glue" while praying your next run will be something decent, but instead of being showered with glue, the game proudly awards you "1 bottle of Uma glue" every 30-minute run, and your veteran umamusume gets soft-sunset every scenario release. (Note: The "Uma glue" joke is a dark community reference to the historical fate of unsuccessful or injured racehorses, as raising them is incredibly expensive and only a fraction ever win a debut race. Here's a Reddit post about why retirement farms need fundraising.) You can borrow parent umamusume by following other Torena-san, but strong parents are highly sought after that they can reach followers cap very quickly. 4: The paid packs Game development is a business, and developers need food on their table. With how competitive PvP is, it can be tempting to swipe your credit card. 4.1 Currency subscriptions Standard light spender goodies in gacha Daily carats pack (980 yen, $6,99) Good old monthly pack. Instant 500 "Paid" carats + 1500 carats drip-fed over 30 days. Unclaimed carats are sent to mail box when expired (JP) X2 career rewards (excluding fans & bonds) (JP) +3 Daily race tickets Cygames doesn't adjust the pack to accommodate global schedule acceleration Premium monthly battle pass (JP) (800 yen, ~$5) Instant 300 "Paid" carats, unlocks premium track of the battle pass. You can get legacy support card tickets, which can be used to exchange featured Year 1 & 2 SSR support cards that have been powercrept (including SSR Speed Kitasan Black) Notable rewards: 1300 free carats 25 legacy support tickets (10 to exchange 1 copy) 4 Uma pull tickets 4 Support pull tickets 1 Crystal shard (20 to exchange 1 Uncap Crystal) 4.2 QoL subscriptions Instead of fixing the stupid RNG I mentioned in section 3 for every torena-san, Cygames decided to monetize QoL features. Having all three of these subscriptions saves you hundreds of hours of parent farming. These are features that would be free baseline QoL updates in almost any other modern video game. Spark reroll subscription (JP) (500 yen, ~$3) Lets you reroll the sparks 3 times for "free" instead of spending 30 Energy -> 30 carats -> 30 carats, basically 4 parent runs in 1. You can select your preferred results. Blue/Pink spark selector subscription (JP) (980 yen, ~$7) Selects which blue/pink spark type you want to get for your Umamusume at the end of their career run for "free" instead of 100 carats. No more praying for RNG to drop your preferred spark category. The stars of those sparks are still RNG Uma Plan (JP) (1980 yen, ~$12) "Sweep" the career mode & instantly get 5 parent-only umamusume daily, 10 with the spark reroll pass. Yes, they're monetizing a basic feature of a gacha game. During Inspiration/Inheritance (Classic/Senior Early April turns) events you can choose 1 of 2 spark rolls, alleviating inspiration RNG. +5 Parent borrows per day Permanent +100 follow slots (probably to lure players into subscribing) There were mixed reactions regarding the Uma Plan subscription. Torena-san defending the new Uma Plan, arguing that paying for QoL advantages is normal Torena-san explaining why Uma Plan is worth it, that paying for time-saving QoLs allows them to play other games Torena-san being against it, arguing that QoL subscriptions shorten the game's life span Torena-san bragging about spending $110 for annual Uma Plan Reddit's reactions 4.3: Selectors/Guaranteed Banners Selector tickets (Uma/SSR) Can be exchanged for 1 copy of an 3★/SSR unit. Because of the bloated banners, these have very high value. The first ones cost $21, standard selector prices. Includes 1500 paid carats. The second ones cost $70, equal to a modern AAA game. Includes 5000 paid carats. The fact that Global players actively map out months of pull plans around these tickets proves how demanding PvP is. Guaranteed 3-star/SSR banners Costs 1,500 Paid Carats ($20). Because there is no duplicate protection against a bloated pool, this is widely considered a scam. Step-up gacha (JP) Available during anni/half-anni Costs 5000 paid carats total. You can buy a $70 selector ticket & dump the bonus carats on this. Select 10 units for rate-up, then do 5 steps of 10-pulls: 1 (500 paid carats): Guaranteed 2★/SR 2 (700): Guaranteed 2★/SR 3 (1000): Guaranteed 3★/SSR 4 (1300): Guaranteed 3★/SSR 5 (1500): Guaranteed Selector 3★/SSR Overall, If you're a dedicated PvP player, you're expected to buy all 5 subscriptions (total $30+ monthly), plus selector tickets & step up gacha. EX: What if I'm F2P & ignore PvP? If you step away from PvP, you will save a massive amount of money and sanity. In fact, a considerable portion of the playerbase treats Umamusume purely as a casual game. Support card requirements are low for story enjoyers. Rental decks will come in 4th anniversary. URA Finale is the fastest scenario for story runs with no extra gimmicks (yet). You can ignore farming parent uma Until Autoplay comes to global, you can do a botched run to complete dailies: Pick any uma with a fan objective as second career objective Win debut race Spam recreation until the 2nd objective deadline and lose career Or slot 4 speed cards, turn your brain off & Bakushin Bakushin Bakushinshin. There are players who focus on self-made achievements like grind 1 billion fans for their oshi, collect epithets, or pulling off the legendary feat of making Haru Urara win the Arima Kinen career race. It's not everyone's cup of tea, though. [Note: Haru Urara is a Dirt umamusume specialized in Sprint & Mile distances. Her final career objective requires participation in the Arima Kinen, where her Turf & Long aptitude is G (-90% Speed & Acceleration), which is basically a guaranteed loss, and then you'll watch this cheerful girl break down & cry for the first time. Many Torena-san consider winning the Arima Kinen with Haru Urara a legendary feat, because it requires not just parents with at least a total of 7★ Turf & 7★ Long sparks, but also luck in inheritance (she has low affinity with every single character), and luck in the race itself (You can't retry the race)] In the long term, not caring about PvP means you won't have much motivation to deep dive into the game's mechanics. The game essentially transforms into a high-quality visual novel with raising-sim elements where you mostly log in just to do dailies, and maybe eventually become a Cygames seasonal player. However, keep in mind that you still need to pull the characters in order to experience their career stories, and PvP accounts for a considerable amount of repeatable carat income. 5. When "Fun" becomes an excuse to silence criticism If you combine all the information, it's obvious that the game's trying to suck players into the PvP grind, then milk dedicated players & whales as hard as possible. But wait. It gets worse. Umamusume, like many idol and gacha franchises, is fundamentally built on fostering relationships with their characters. You read their backstories, help them through personal struggles, watch them cry when they lose, all while doing your best being the guiding light towards their success. Eventually you've followed the franchise for so long that it becomes part of your life. You can't image a day without getting pampered by Super Creek, squishing The Mun, or hearing Mejiro Ardan's alluring ASMR voice. Then, the "Glory to Cygames" meme erupts when the devs continue to hand out free pulls, or do something good to IRL horse racing, further reinforcing Tribalism. When players express their frustrations about the game (e.g. This tweet), it creates cognitive dissonance for the fans who are still having fun, acting as if criticizing the bad parts of the game is the equivalent of attempting to take their beloved horse girls away. The result is that oftentimes there'll be responses like "Umamusume isn't just PvP", "Try playing more casually", "You're expecting too high", "Just quit if you're not having fun". Yes, you can have fun with Umamusume in various ways. It's still a great franchise, after all. However, "fun" should never be used as a shield to deflect valid criticism. Game companies are not your friend. Blindly defending the game means you're implicitly allowing them to exploit you even futher for their shareholders' demands. You can love Umamusume, but the game & the real-life horses will never love you back. The accelerating powercreep, the QoL subscriptions (especially Uma Plan), and the barebones $45 spinoff with just 4 minigames called Party Dash, should be the warning shots for everyone. If Cygames can accelerate milking the game without major backlash, they'll do it. I recently watched a video ranking predatory gacha game monetization tactics. The #1 worst tactic wasn't FOMO or the Gacha system itself. It was Tribalism: passively training the community to defend the multi-million dollar corporation on its behalf. This phenomenon isn't unique to gacha games. The Destiny 2 community suffered from a similar divide, where casual players routinely shrugged off the complaints of hardcore veterans because they were having fun in different ways (reddit complaint for example). What used to be the king of looter shooters has gone downhill since The Final Shape expansion, from 250K+ players peak during expansion releases & average 50K~80K players daily to less than 10K players daily (Steam charts), due to Bungle's greed & incompetence. Here's a Video made by Aztecross, a veteran Destiny content creator, roasting D2's microtransactions. Closing Words Gacha games are predatory by nature, but many players usually tolerate it to a certain extent when the game is good. It seems like Cygames is testing how far they can cross that line without making players too angry. There's no VIP system at the moment, but considering that Cygames isn't shy about being P2W & is ramping up the monetization, who knows? The franchise is still a faithful adaptation of Japanese horse racing with great characters, stories, attention to details, anime, manga & music. so as a F2P you can still get some enjoyment out of it. Let the tryhards, whales beat each other & fund the game. Go buy some merch instead. Your Super Creek shrine will still be there long after the game went EoS. On the opposite site, the game is constantly trying to lure you into grinding PvP with lucarative rewards back-loaded into high achievements. Falling into PvP rabbit hole means you will have to deal with a tedious & repetitive grind with multiple layers of RNG, where the winners are those who not just whale the hardest, grind the hardest for those god roll umas & parents, but also blessed by RNG. On top of that, Cygames will not stop milking you through powercreep, PvP meta shifting, expensive packs & multiple subscriptions in typical JP gacha fashion. Generosity is an illusion. The freebies are just enough for survival. Thank you for coming to my UMA Talk. submitted by /u/xXinsertCoDGMtagXx to r/gachagaming [link] [comments]

The bill(2) has been passed in the House and is currently stalled in the Senate, but could be reconsidered closer to the November election. The House version calls for immediate enactment of the bill if passed, which would create chaos in the November elections(3). Trump is determined to get it passed (https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5848981-senate-save-america-act-limbo/). Here's what the SAVE America Act would require immediately(3) if passed (feel free to copy and share text): 1) Photo ID at Polls: The act establishes a nationwide requirement for a valid photo ID when voting in person in federal elections. 83% of U.S. adults support requiring voters to show a Photo ID to vote. This requirement would add a burden for citizens who don't drive and who would need to order an approved ID, but it's the other provisions of this bill that would disenfranchise the most U.S. citizens. 2) Documentary Proof of Citizenship: The bill requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering or re-registering to vote in federal elections. Accepted documents would include a U.S. passport, a photo ID that both complies with the REAL ID Act and indicates citizenship (see (1) below), or a "government certified" birth certificate (see (5)(A) below) combined with a valid photo ID. People whose name doesn't match their documents would need to provide additional, state-approved(4) documents such as a certified marriage certificate. Citizens who don't have these documents would need to spend money reordering them which is why critics are saying this bill creates a poll tax(5). Several bipartisan studies have found that non-citizen voting is already rare and illegal so this new requirement is unnecessary (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/noncitizen-voting-vanishingly-rare). 3) Restriction of Registration Methods: The act would effectively eliminate most online and mail-in voter registration methods, requiring people to present these documents in person to an election official. This would overwhelm election officials who have been able to streamline registration processes through mail-in registration. It would also create a burden for rural voters who live far from election offices, as well as individuals with limited transportation, disabilities, or older voters who may be unable to register or re-register in person. And it would eliminate current get-out-the-vote efforts that help register citizens using mail-in voter registration forms. 4).Voter Roll Maintenance: States would be required to establish programs to identify and remove non-citizens from their existing voter registration rolls on a quarterly basis, most likely using information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration. This is one of the most concerning aspects of this bill. It not only effectively requires all states to provide voter rolls to the federal government - which many states, including Republican-led states, have been fighting in court - but voting rights groups have already sued Texas to prevent the removal of voters from the state’s voter roll based on the use of the unreliable DHS federal database to verify citizenship (https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/27/texas-save-database-voter-rolls-removal-dps-secretary-of-state/). 5) Penalties and Liability: It gives INDIVIDUALS THE RIGHT TO SUE ELECTION OFFICIALS - to claim they registered individuals to vote without proper proof of citizenship. It also establishes criminal penalties for such actions. This creates opportunities to politicize voter registration and legally intimidate election officials. Here is related text as of January 30th for HR 7296, SAVE America Act(2) Documentary proof of United States citizenship: As used in this Act, the term documentary proof of United States citizenship means, with respect to an applicant for voter registration, any of the following: (1) A form of identification issued consistent with the requirements of the REAL ID Act of 2005 that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States. {EDITOR'S NOTE: this only works with Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (EDL): Issued only to U.S. citizens in five states (NY, WA, VT, MI, MN) and, unlike standard REAL IDs, specifically indicate citizenship.} (2) A valid United States passport. (3) The applicant's official United States military identification card, together with a United States military record of service showing that the applicant's place of birth was in the United States. (4) A valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States. (5) A valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government other than an identification described in paragraphs (1) through (4), but only if presented together with one or more of the following: (A) A CERTIFIED birth certificate issued by a State, a unit of local government in a State, or a Tribal government which— (i) was issued by the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government in which the applicant was born; (ii) was filed with the office responsible for keeping vital records in the State; (iii) includes the full name, date of birth, and place of birth of the applicant; (iv) lists the full names of one or both of the parents of the applicant; (v) has the signature of an individual who is authorized to sign birth certificates on behalf of the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government in which the applicant was born; (vi) includes the date that the certificate was filed with the office responsible for keeping vital records in the State; and (vii) has the seal of the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government that issued the birth certificate. (B) An extract from a United States hospital Record of Birth created at the time of the applicant's birth which indicates that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States (C) A final adoption decree showing the applicant’s name and that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States. (D) A Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a citizen of the United States or a certification of the applicant’s Report of Birth of a United States citizen issued by the Secretary of State. (E) A Naturalization Certificate or Certificate of Citizenship issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security or any other document or method of proof of United States citizenship issued by the Federal government pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act. (F) An American Indian Card issued by the Department of Homeland Security with the classification ‘KIC’. (2)House version (already passed): https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/hr7296/text Here is the Senate version (not passed): https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/3752/text If both pass, differences would need to be reconciled before passage of the final bill in both chambers. (3)"If either the current iteration of the bill, or the pie-in-the-sky version Trump is now reaching for, were to become law, it would be a massive disruption for this year’s midterm elections. (Under an earlier draft of the “SAVE America Act” some of the provisions would have not taken effect until next year, but a last-minute change to the bill in the House makes those requirements take effect immediately upon enactment)." (https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/politics/whats-in-the-save-america-act) (4)What If Your Name No Longer Matches These Documents? If a voter has experienced a name change they would not be able to use their birth certificate as their only proof of citizenship as this document does not get updated if someone changes their name through marriage or divorce. They also could not use any of the other listed documents (e.g. passport) as their sole proof of citizenship if their name on the document does not match their current legal name.” The bill requires states to set up a process to accommodate this. “Voters will either be able to provide ‘additional documentation as necessary to establish that the name on the documentation is a previous name of the applicant’ or ‘an affidavit signed by the applicant attesting that the name on the documentation is a previous name of the applicant,'” Cherry said. “The bill text does not lay out exactly what this process will be or what additional documentation would be accepted. It also leaves open the possibility for inconsistent rules between states.” {EDITOR'S NOTE: not all marriage certificates would meet the criteria so you would need to validate that yours does for your state and order valid documents if not}. https://www.factcheck.org/2026/03/qa-on-the-save-america-act/ (5)Text of the 24th Amendment of the US Constitution regarding voting-related taxes: Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. 🗳 QUICK ACTION: Please send the message below to your GOP Senators calling on them to vote no on the SAVE America Act Find your Senator: https://www.270towin.com/elected-officials/ Note: If you are in the reddit app and the copy feature isn't working, you can copy the letter from the comments section. Subject: Please Vote NO on the SAVE America Act Dear Senator {Last Name}, I am writing to respectfully urge you to vote NO on the SAVE America Act. This legislation risks disenfranchising millions of eligible U.S. citizens by creating unnecessary and burdensome documentation and in-person registration requirements for voter registration. Many Americans do not have ready access to documents such as passports, and obtaining or replacing citizenship records can be costly, time-consuming, or logistically difficult—especially for low-income individuals, rural residents, seniors, and others with limited access to government offices. In addition, millions of Americans—particularly married women and others who have changed their names--would have added challenges providing the necessary paperwork to match required documents. As you know, extensive research and audits of U.S. elections have consistently found that voter fraud—especially noncitizen voting—is extremely rare under the current system. Existing safeguards already require voters to attest to their citizenship under penalty of law, and election officials have processes in place to verify eligibility. Given this evidence, imposing new federal documentation mandates risks creating a solution to a problem that does not meaningfully exist—while introducing real harm by making it harder for eligible citizens to participate in elections and overwhelming election officials with in-person registration requirements. The right to vote is fundamental. Any changes to election law should expand access, not restrict it. I urge you to oppose the SAVE America Act and support policies that protect both election integrity and the ability of every eligible American to vote. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, {Your Name} submitted by /u/Firm_Relative_7283 to r/INFPIdeas [link] [comments]

Here's what the SAVE America Act would require immediately(3) if passed (feel free to copy and share text): 1) Photo ID at Polls: The act establishes a nationwide requirement for a valid photo ID when voting in person in federal elections. 83% of U.S. adults support requiring voters to show a Photo ID to vote. This requirement would add a burden for citizens who don't drive and who would need to order an approved ID, but it's the other provisions of this bill that would disenfranchise the most U.S. citizens. 2) Documentary Proof of Citizenship: The bill requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering or re-registering to vote in federal elections. Accepted documents would include a U.S. passport, a photo ID that both complies with the REAL ID Act and indicates citizenship (see (1) below), or a "government certified" birth certificate (see (5)(A) below) combined with a valid photo ID. People whose name doesn't match their documents would need to provide additional, state-approved(4) documents such as a certified marriage certificate. Citizens who don't have these documents would need to spend money reordering them which is why critics are saying this bill creates a poll tax(5). Several bipartisan studies have found that non-citizen voting is already rare and illegal so this new requirement is unnecessary (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/noncitizen-voting-vanishingly-rare). 3) Restriction of Registration Methods: The act would effectively eliminate most online and mail-in voter registration methods, requiring people to present these documents in person to an election official. This would overwhelm election officials who have been able to streamline registration processes through mail-in registration. It would also create a burden for rural voters who live far from election offices, as well as individuals with limited transportation, disabilities, or older voters who may be unable to register or re-register in person. And it would eliminate current get-out-the-vote efforts that help register citizens using mail-in voter registration forms. 4) Voter Roll Maintenance: States would be required to establish programs to identify and remove non-citizens from their existing voter registration rolls on a quarterly basis, most likely using information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration. This is one of the most concerning aspects of this bill. It not only effectively requires all states to provide voter rolls to the federal government - which many states, including Republican-led states, have been fighting in court - but voting rights groups have already sued Texas to prevent the removal of voters from the state’s voter roll based on the use of the unreliable DHS federal database to verify citizenship (https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/27/texas-save-database-voter-rolls-removal-dps-secretary-of-state/). 5) Penalties and Liability: It gives INDIVIDUALS THE RIGHT TO SUE ELECTION OFFICIALS - to claim they registered individuals to vote without proper proof of citizenship. It also establishes criminal penalties for such actions. This creates opportunities to politicize voter registration and legally intimidate election officials. Here is related text as of January 30th for HR 7296, SAVE America Act(2) Documentary proof of United States citizenship: As used in this Act, the term documentary proof of United States citizenship means, with respect to an applicant for voter registration, any of the following: (1) A form of identification issued consistent with the requirements of the REAL ID Act of 2005 that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States. {EDITOR'S NOTE: this only works with Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (EDL): Issued only to U.S. citizens in five states (NY, WA, VT, MI, MN) and, unlike standard REAL IDs, specifically indicate citizenship.} (2) A valid United States passport. (3) The applicant's official United States military identification card, together with a United States military record of service showing that the applicant's place of birth was in the United States. (4) A valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States. (5) A valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government other than an identification described in paragraphs (1) through (4), but only if presented together with one or more of the following: (A) A CERTIFIED birth certificate issued by a State, a unit of local government in a State, or a Tribal government which— (i) was issued by the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government in which the applicant was born; (ii) was filed with the office responsible for keeping vital records in the State; (iii) includes the full name, date of birth, and place of birth of the applicant; (iv) lists the full names of one or both of the parents of the applicant; (v) has the signature of an individual who is authorized to sign birth certificates on behalf of the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government in which the applicant was born; (vi) includes the date that the certificate was filed with the office responsible for keeping vital records in the State; and (vii) has the seal of the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government that issued the birth certificate. (B) An extract from a United States hospital Record of Birth created at the time of the applicant's birth which indicates that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States (C) A final adoption decree showing the applicant’s name and that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States. (D) A Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a citizen of the United States or a certification of the applicant’s Report of Birth of a United States citizen issued by the Secretary of State. (E) A Naturalization Certificate or Certificate of Citizenship issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security or any other document or method of proof of United States citizenship issued by the Federal government pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act. (F) An American Indian Card issued by the Department of Homeland Security with the classification ‘KIC’. (2)https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/hr7296/text (3)"If either the current iteration of the bill, or the pie-in-the-sky version Trump is now reaching for, were to become law, it would be a massive disruption for this year’s midterm elections. (Under an earlier draft of the “SAVE America Act” some of the provisions would have not taken effect until next year, but a last-minute change to the bill in the House makes those requirements take effect immediately upon enactment)." (https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/politics/whats-in-the-save-america-act) (4)What If Your Name No Longer Matches These Documents? If a voter has experienced a name change they would not be able to use their birth certificate as their only proof of citizenship as this document does not get updated if someone changes their name through marriage or divorce. They also could not use any of the other listed documents (e.g. passport) as their sole proof of citizenship if their name on the document does not match their current legal name.” The bill requires states to set up a process to accommodate this. “Voters will either be able to provide ‘additional documentation as necessary to establish that the name on the documentation is a previous name of the applicant’ or ‘an affidavit signed by the applicant attesting that the name on the documentation is a previous name of the applicant,'” Cherry said. “The bill text does not lay out exactly what this process will be or what additional documentation would be accepted. It also leaves open the possibility for inconsistent rules between states.” {EDITOR'S NOTE: not all marriage certificates would meet the criteria so you would need to validate that yours does for your state and order valid documents if not}. https://www.factcheck.org/2026/03/qa-on-the-save-america-act/ (5)Text of the 24th Amendment of the US Constitution regarding voting-related taxes: Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. QUICK ACTION: Please send the message below to your GOP Senators calling on them to vote no on the SAVE America Act Find your Senator: https://www.270towin.com/elected-officials/ Note: If you are in the reddit app and the copy feature isn't working, you can copy the letter from the comments section. Subject: Please Vote NO on the SAVE America Act Dear Senator {Last Name}, I am writing to respectfully urge you to vote NO on the SAVE America Act. This legislation risks disenfranchising millions of eligible U.S. citizens by creating unnecessary and burdensome documentation and in-person registration requirements for voter registration. Many Americans do not have ready access to documents such as passports, and obtaining or replacing citizenship records can be costly, time-consuming, or logistically difficult—especially for low-income individuals, rural residents, seniors, and others with limited access to government offices. In addition, millions of Americans—particularly married women and others who have changed their names--would have added challenges providing the necessary paperwork to match required documents. As you know, extensive research and audits of U.S. elections have consistently found that voter fraud—especially noncitizen voting—is extremely rare under the current system. Existing safeguards already require voters to attest to their citizenship under penalty of law, and election officials have processes in place to verify eligibility. Given this evidence, imposing new federal documentation mandates risks creating a solution to a problem that does not meaningfully exist—while introducing real harm by making it harder for eligible citizens to participate in elections and overwhelming election officials with in-person registration requirements. The right to vote is fundamental. Any changes to election law should expand access, not restrict it. I urge you to oppose the SAVE America Act and support policies that protect both election integrity and the ability of every eligible American to vote. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, {Your Name} submitted by /u/Firm_Relative_7283 to r/INFPIdeas [link] [comments]

I'm making a second separate final post about my Tribunal case (the first one, about when income becomes capital, here. The original Tribunal post here). This is the other, more controversial part of my outcome. Tl;dr: The Tribunal, having been asked to do so, determined that the Help to Save bonuses ought not be treated as capital for Universal Credit means assessment (ie. Should be subject to disregard). In the absence of any specific reference to primary or secondary legislation referencing the Bonuses expressly, the Tribunal weighed up the merits of the arguments for and against inclusion, and was persuaded by the common sense approach adopted by [Appellant] namely, that there would be no financial incentive for savers to commit to the Help to Save Scheme in circumstances where acquisition of the bonus amounts would result in commensurate disentitlement from benefits. It took an unbelievable 33 months, but now we finally have it. But unfortunately I can't really recommend going down this route, my case is not legally binding, and if you decide to do that, your outcome is uncertain. Now the longer version, for those interested in legal minutiae and processes: HMRC guidance says: The Help-to-Save bonus does not count as income for means testing purposes but the bonus and any savings accumulated in the Help-to-Save account will count as capital for the purpose of Universal Credit means-testing. And DWP guidance says: Help to Save accounts All money available to the claimant in these accounts (including the Government bonus) is treated as capital and taken fully into account. I've only learned about these websites later on, after submitting my appeal. I might have not bothered if I knew them - but luckily, it all ended just fine for me, after all. My Tribunal's decision says: I agree with [Appellant] that bonuses received through the Help to Save Scheme should not be taken into account when valuing her capital. Because DWP then requested Statement of Reasons, it was further explained there: The Help to Save scheme is a statutory incentive programme intended to encourage sustained savings by low-income claimants over a four-year period. The bundle contained hyperlinks to Government websites (including https://www.gov.uk/get-help-savings-low-income/how-it-will-affect-your-benefits) addressing the purpose and effect of the scheme, including the role of the government bonus. The website reads: "Your Help to Save bonuses will not affect your Universal Credit payments". The Tribunal considered the hyperlinks, which explained the statutory purpose of the Help to Save Scheme as a financial incentive for low-income claimants to build resilience through saving. The bonus is explicitly characterised as an incentive payment intended to enhance, not diminish, the financial position of those who commit to saving for four years. The Tribunal accepted [Appellant's] submission that treating the bonus as capital in the Universal Credit assessment would negate the intended benefit of the scheme. [Appellant] demonstrated that inclusion of the bonuses would result in tariff income deductions by Universal Credit over a relatively short period which would remove much or all of the value of the bonuses. This concern was borne out by the figures in the respondent's calculations.1 The Tribunal found that such an outcome would leave a claimant no better off for having participated in the Scheme and worse off when compared with commercial alternatives (high street bank accounts, for example). The Tribunal was mindful of the duty to apply the law and to interpret the UC capital rules in a way which would not be undermining the expressed purpose of the HMRC backed scheme. [Appellant] drew comparison with the Costs of Living Payments as a point of reference, the Tribunal found this persuasive in terms of the understanding the workings and efficacy of employing disregard to achieve Government's stated objectives.2 As against this, the DWP response refers to an HMRC internal manual, named as "HSTM06000 Help-to-Save account: interaction with tax and other benefits. The manual states that the bonus will count as capital for means testing for UC. The DWP were asked to ally this to any primary or secondary legislation or regular (per para 7(a) of the Decision 05/04/225 at J2) and this was not identified. The Tribunal weighed up all of the information in the round to reach a decision Taking an holistic overview, and applying (what I have termed) common sense, taking into account the expressed purpose of the scheme, the Tribunal departed from the HMRC internal manual. The manual is, at best internal guidance, which does not appear to have been given effect in any binding legal authority The Tribunal preferred to honour the expressed objective of the Scheme to reward savers for choosing the Government-backed programme in preference to commercial banking options. For that reason, the Tribunal found that the Help to Save bonuses could not properly have been intended to be included as capital for the purposes of Universal Credit entitlement. 1 The calculations Tribunal refers to was included in my appeal submission. It went like this: Please note that Government incentives to participate in the Help to Save program, paid out as maximum of £1200 (£600 after two years of saving and another £600 after four years of saving), if treated as capital for UC purposes, and subjected to UC capital related deductions, would have to be depleted within 4.5 years: £4.35 deduction for every £250: 5 x £4.35 = £21.75 monthly, £261 yearly. Meticulous saving is encouraged and promoted by the Government's Help to Save program, available only for people on state benefits, which involves keeping people’s money for 4 years in an interest free account. It is only rewarded by bonuses. After 4 years of financial sacrifices to save, having them completely depleted by UC deductions within not much longer time of 4.5 years, can’t surely be the Government's idea for the program. The Government keeps and presumably invests people’s money while not paying any interest, bonuses are the only way it was designed for people to be better off for participating. 2 The webpage about Cost of living payments, which I mentioned in my appeal, as having exactly the same wording as HtS webpage: Please note that the wording is exactly the same as on the Cost of Living Payments (which are fully disregarded as claimant’s capital indefinitely, this was also confirmed by the Mandatory Reconsideration decision from 10/06/2024.) Government website states “These payments are not taxable and will not affect the benefits or tax credits you get.” https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment [Note that the page changes since, and it no longer shows that wording]. When a month DWP had to apply to the Upper Tribunal just passed, I received a message from DWP: The specialist team has decided not to apply for permission to appeal After reviewing the Tribunal’s written Statement of Reasons, we carefully considered whether to challenge the decision at the Upper Tribunal. In doing so, we identified an issue with how the Tribunal approached part of the legal test concerning the Help to Save bonus. This meant there was a potential error in law that we examined closely. However, we also considered the wider circumstances of your case and the impact that an appeal would be likely to have. We concluded that an appeal would not be appropriate. This was because the issue arose from very specific facts and was unlikely to affect other cases. Taking account of the limited impact of an appeal, together with the time and cost involved, we decided that pursuing further action would have been disproportionate. For these reasons, we decided not to appeal. The Tribunal’s decision is therefore final and will now be put into effect. submitted by /u/Old_galadriell to r/BenefitsAdviceUK [link] [comments]

https://preview.redd.it/87o7tw7yndug1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=695932299c2ed1c78c2d4d13bd7a67cb61f3ba24 Battlefield 6 Game Update 1.2.3.0 arrives on April 14, with new content and improvements, including the Operation Augur limited-time mode, the LTV, the Ripper 14”, and a new Battle Pass Bonus Path. At 09:00 UTC, players will be able to download Update 1.2.3.0 as it goes live across all platforms. At 12:00 UTC, all content included in this update goes live, including new limited-time content, vehicles, weapons, and Battle Pass updates. Alongside the new content, Update 1.2.3.0 also delivers a wide range of gameplay, progression, UI, audio, and Portal improvements to further polish the overall Battlefield 6 experience. NEW CONTENT Time to fight for survival. This update expands the fight with new rewards to earn, a new frontline support vehicle to deploy, and Operation Augur, a new limited-time mode fought across Contaminated and Hagental Base. Battle Pass Bonus Path Gear up for the harsh conditions ahead with a new Battle Pass Bonus Path packed with rewards built for the fight. Unlock equipment and cosmetics designed to help you endure the hostile environment and stay combat-ready as the battle for control intensifies. New Limited-Time Mode Operation Augur: The battle for Hagental Base has begun. In Operation Augur, NATO launches a desperate push to reclaim its satellite defence network from Pax Armata in a large-scale battle fought across two connected maps. The fight begins in Contaminated, where attacking forces can use VL-7 smoke to disrupt defenders and create openings across the frontline. From there, the battle descends into Hagental Base, where the fighting shifts into a tense close-quarters clash through tight interior spaces where teamwork, timing, and tactical play become critical to claim victory over Hagental Base. Operation Augur is all-out warfare across two phases of combat, where strong squad play will make the difference between holding the line and breaking through. New Vehicle The LTV: The NATO variant of the Traverser Mark 2 arrives on the frontline. Built to keep squads in the fight, the LTV supports your team with spawn functionality and health and ammo resupply stations. With four seats available, it gives your squad the space and support needed to stay together, push objectives, and hold ground under pressure. https://preview.redd.it/m0ivzozpkdug1.jpg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8467bab036989ce5363aa22b178a017df948126d New Weapon The Ripper 14”: Sharpen your attack with the Ripper 14”, a deadly new blade built for aggressive close-quarters combat. Fast, direct, and unforgiving, it is made for players who want to finish the fight up close. Obtainable through Hunter/Prey Battlepass Progression. New Training Path in REDSEC Battle Royale The Hazmat Breacher is a new Training Path for the Assault Class in Battle Royale designed to empower its users into becoming the ultimate entry fragger. Leveraging a modified Breaching Dart Launcher firing a concentrated form of VL-7 Smoke, players are able to weaken and dislodge dug-in foes, while protecting themselves from negative effects thanks to their Protective Mask. Leveling up this Training Path throughout a BR match will provide improvements to both the Protective Mask and to basic soldier survivability. Major Updates for 1.2.3.0 New Content Arrives: Operation Augur arrives alongside the LTV, the Ripper 14”, and a new Battle Pass Bonus Path that expands the rewards available during the fight for survival. Progression Feels More Rewarding: Weapon XP and Vehicle XP are now earned through active use alongside kills and assists, XP rates have been increased slightly across Multiplayer, and Battle Royale and Gauntlet progression now place more weight on time spent in a match, with Battle Royale also awarding higher scores for kills and damage assists. Battle Royale and Gauntlet Improvements: Loot flow has been updated, Strike Packages and Armour Plate availability have been rebalanced, and a wider pass on challenge tracking, objective progression, and End of Round presentation helps both modes play and reward more consistently. Combat Feedback and Gameplay Clarity: Incoming hit audio is now clearer, rapid damage is easier to read, projectile and tracer behaviour is more consistent, and network warning indicators now provide better visibility during live combat. Weapons and Gadgets Receive a Broad Polish Pass: Defibrillators and the AJ-03 COAG Med Pen have been updated, while attachments, animations, unlock presentation, and challenge tracking have all seen further improvements. UI, HUD and Front-End Improvements: Menus, challenges, loadouts, End of Round screens, localisation, Store presentation, and Battle Pass readability have all been updated to improve clarity and consistency across the experience. Portal, AI, Audio and Settings Enhancements: Bot support has been expanded across Multiplayer and Operations, Portal tools and web app behaviour have been improved, audio has received further polish, and new controller tuning support has been added through the Deadzones Draw Tool. CHANGELOG PLAYER: Corrected the in-game wording for the Career Total statistic tied to distance travelled as a passenger. Corrected the matchmaking stance for the SOR-300 so the weapon is now held correctly. Improved the display of completed assignments at End of Round. Improved the display of Dog Tag unlock criteria after completing or exiting a match. Improved the Profile statistics page so it no longer shows a persistent loading square. Lasers and flashlights now enter a short cooldown after repeated rapid toggles to prevent input spamming. Ping voice-over callouts now have a slight 0.15 second delay to improve timing and readability. Soldier acceleration curves have been slightly adjusted to better support 30Hz experiences, improving responsiveness in the opening moments of movement. Soldiers no longer continue sliding across the ground after exiting a vehicle that is moving uphill. Soldiers now align more reliably with stairs and uneven terrain while prone. Soldiers’ heads are now less likely to clip through nearby geometry while using ladders. Third-person melee animations now exit correctly when performing a quick melee while holding another weapon. Updated the Sprint Slide tooltip so its trigger criteria now match the intended behaviour. Networking & Hit Registration Improvements Added a new “Bad” Time Nudge network warning icon. Added value readouts to network warning icons when visible, including Packet Loss Up, Packet Loss Down, Time Nudge, High Latency, Latency Variation, and Server Tick Rate. Grenades are now correctly dropped if a player is killed while preparing a throw. Hit damage feedback audio now plays more promptly when taking incoming fire. Incoming hit audio has been fine-tuned so quick consecutive hits are clearer, especially during engagements against high rate of fire weapons. Network bandwidth usage has been optimised so more weapon data can be sent in a single update. Projectiles will no longer occasionally spawn at the wrong height during stance transitions under poor network conditions, which could previously lead to shots not registering. Trade-kill distance has been reduced to 30m from 50m to reduce cases where damage could be rejected during mid-range engagements. Visual bullet tracers now line up more reliably with the damage you receive. VEHICLES: Added the LTV, a new NATO variant of the Traverser Mark 2 APC. Camera transitions now snap back to the soldier instantly when redeploying or dying when remote controlling a vehicle. Fixed an issue where land vehicles moving at crawl speed could still trigger mines when travelling across bumpy terrain. Improved the Legion CWZ Automated AA to help prevent enemy jets from being stolen or spawn-killed. Improved the MBT decal customisation flow so the camera point of view now returns to the selected decal position after leaving Inspect View. Restored the “Relentless Trample” vehicle decal so it now appears in-game. RHIB Completed a broader polish pass focused on improving RHIB handling and overall usability. Improved audio presentation while turning and when impacting waves and the water surface. Improved handling to make the RHIB feel more nimble and easier to point. Reduced abrupt force changes when coming out of ignition and shortened ignition time. Updated the RHIB’s speed and RPM gauges so they now function correctly. Updated boat hull simulation to improve how the RHIB interacts with the water surface. Scout Helicopter Adjusted Heavy Rotary Cannon overheat mechanic to compensate for reduced rate of fire. Extended Scout Helicopter light rocket ammo regeneration time from 21 to 27 seconds. Extended Scout Helicopter smart rocket ammo regeneration time from 16 to 20 seconds. Grenade Launcher Muzzle Velocity Increased. Grenade Launcher now has infinite reserve ammo. Heavy Rotary Cannon falloff range shortened to 45m. Heavy Rotary Cannon rate of fire from 1000 to 800 RPM. Reduced lethal range of Attack Helicopter Heavy Rocket explosion from 2m to 1m Reduced lethal range of Upgraded Attack Helicopter Heavy Rocket explosion from 2.8m to 2m. Reduced the inner explosive radius of all scout helicopter rockets from 1m to 0m. Reduced the radius of Attack Helicopter Heavy Rocket explosion from 7m to 5.5m Seismic Detector Radius increased from 16 to 36 meters. GADGETS: Added a missing recoil animation on the HTI-MK2 Added a more urgent low battery sound to the NVIS-500 Night Vision Goggles to better indicate battery shortage. Added infinite ammo to Mobile Anti Aircraft primaries in multiplayer. Controller haptic feedback now triggers more reliably while using the Gas Mask and Night Vision Goggles. Expanded the Assault Ladder interaction logic so ladders can now destroy additional small placeable gadgets and props. Fixed an issue on the NVIS-500 Night Vision Goggles where the battery depletion sound would not play while aiming down sights. Improved the audibility of the XFGM-6D Drone self destruct sound effects. Reduced the initial speed, acceleration and maximum speed of the RPG Reduced turning response of AT4 and TOW Missiles Reworked the MBT Guided Shell to make it faster but much less maneuverable. Updated vehicle-hit scoring so RPG critical hits and regular hits no longer award the same score. AJ-03 COAG Med Pen Added third-person healing support while prone on your back. (you can now use the shot while on your back). Lowered the intensity of the on-screen effect and visual presentation. Retimed the gameplay effect to better match the updated animation and audio. Shortened the injection animation. Updated the pen visual effects to better match the new animation. Protective Mask Added a low battery warning visual to better indicate battery shortage. Corrected an issue where the mask could fade off the player’s face instead of playing its take-off animation when durability ran out while holding a melee weapon. Defibrillators Dev Note: This update brings a meaningful balance pass to the Defibrillator, aimed at improving game flow and overall combat pacing while keeping revives impactful and rewarding. After reviewing its behavior over the past few months, we found it was too easy to revive multiple teammates in quick succession with minimal risk. Our goal is to preserve those clutch moments where you can get your squad back on their feet quickly, while encouraging more deliberate use. To support this, the Defibrillator now uses a charge system (similar to earlier Battlefield titles), starting with 3 charges that allow for a few rapid revives before needing to recharge. Revive health scales with charge time: 50% instantly, up to 100% when fully charged, with smooth steps in between. A new UI indicator shows your charge progress to help you time revives effectively. In addition, the health given with the charge duration can also be dealt as damage against enemies. This means that you can once again kill a player in one zap, if you’ve charged the defibrillator fully. PSA from your teammate that has been waiting to be revived for the past 10 seconds: Please fully charge your defibrillator! Here are all of the details around what changes with the Defibrillator this update: Added a progress crosshair UI while charging. Damage now scales from 50 to 100 based on charge level, in 10-point increments. Fixed cases where downed soldiers could not be revived when pressed into corners or when lying on stairs. Full charge time has been increased to 1 second from 0.65 seconds. Fully charged shocks now deal 100 damage again, up from 60. Now use 3 charges that regenerate over time, with 1 charge restored every 4 seconds. Now requires a 0.35 second charge before a revive can be performed. Revives now restore between 50 and 100 health based on charge level, in 10-point increments. The rate of fire is slightly reduced. Updated deploy timing so charging can begin faster after selecting the gadget. WEAPONS: Added the Ripper 14” Machete melee weapon as a part of the Hunter/Prey Battle Pass Progression. Corrected an issue on the CZ3A1 where throwing grenades while it was equipped could introduce a delay before the grenade was thrown. Corrected an issue on the DB-12 where certain attachments did not animate correctly during pump-action and reloads. Corrected an issue where aiming sideways when using melee weapons could cause missing yaw rotation while a melee weapon was equipped. Corrected an issue where the Violet Laser was not providing its intended benefit when attached to the NVO-228E Assault Rifle. Fixed camera recoil being lower than intended on the TH-RDS 1.00x optic attachment. Hollow Point and Synthetic Tip ammunition now cost less on most weapons. Range Finder now plays sound cues when a range check starts and when it completes. The DRS-TH optic now appears correctly on the B36A4 and SVDM. Tweaked and retuned DB-12 animation tags to smooth transitions into and out of aiming down sights. Tweaked and retuned M87A1 animation values to smooth transitions into and out of reloads while aiming down sights. PROGRESSION: Dev note: One recurring point of feedback has been that Weapon Mastery progression can feel too dependent on kills and assists. Players who spend a match repairing vehicles or supporting their squad are still contributing in meaningful ways, but that contribution has not always been reflected clearly in progression. To address that, we’ve added a time-based component to Weapon Mastery progression. Players will now continue earning progress through active use, even when they are not regularly securing kills or assists. XP earned from kills and assists is unchanged, making this an increase to the overall earn rate rather than a reduction or replacement of existing rewards. Added a new progression system that awards Weapon XP and Vehicle XP for use, alongside kills and assists. Adjusted XP earn rates across Multiplayer modes by roughly 5% to 10% to bring them closer in line with one another. Corrected an issue where weekly free-to-play challenges and missions tagged with “All Modes” now unlock and track properly for eligible players. Corrected the tracking for challenges so that damage by stationary aim-guided missiles now counts toward explosive damage criteria where intended. Corrected the End of Round unlock flow so the CZ Skorpion VZ.61 now appears correctly after completing the challenge “Deal damage with Secondary Weapons. Counts double in Nightfall modes.”. Corrected the Onboarding challenge “Capture Objectives in a Vehicle” so it now progresses as intended. Corrected the Week 6 challenge “Deal damage with Grenade Launchers or Grenades” so it now properly tracks damage dealt with underbarrel Grenade Launchers on Assault Rifles. Corrected the Week 10 challenge “Kill enemies with Sniper Rifles. Headshot Kills count double.” so 75m Sniper headshots no longer count twice, and the challenge text now reflects the intended criteria. Corrected the Week 11 Bonus Weekly Challenge so kills made with underbarrel Grenade Launchers on Assault Rifles now award the intended double progression. Corrected the BF Pro Season 2 Challenge 5 reward criteria so the correct unlock requirements are shown in Loadouts. Corrected Challenge “Capture or defend sectors in sector based modes.” so its first criteria now progresses correctly. Corrected Challenge “Deal Damage as a Squad in Multiplayer.” so Multiplayer damage no longer advances the free-to-play requirement incorrectly. Corrected Challenge “Kill enemies from a distance of 25 meters or less in Multiplayer.” so the missing "OR" condition now displays correctly. Corrected Challenge “Get Kills and Assists in Multiplayer.” so the reward and REDSEC capitalisation now appear correctly. Corrected Challenge “Capture an enemy flag without leaving the vehicle in Conquest, Breakthrough or Escalation.” so its criteria no longer refers to Squad progress in a Solo mode. Corrected daily mission “Get kills and assists with Shotguns. Kills and Assists in Battle Royale counts triple.” so its in-game criteria now matches the design reference. Corrected End of Round challenge notifications so daily missions now appear correctly after completion. Corrected challenge reward presentation so the BF Pro Season 2 reward for Challenge 2 now appears correctly across the Challenge page, Reward screen, and challenge notifications. Corrected challenge tracking so "Deal damage to enemy vehicles while on foot." now shows its completion notification after dealing damage to enemy vehicles while on foot. Corrected Marina Exploration Challenge 1 so it is no longer incorrectly locked. Corrected OR challenge presentation so empty criteria entries no longer show a default "-". Corrected OR challenge presentation so configured tags now display correctly on criteria. Corrected Season 2 Hardware progression so challenges no longer appear completed before any progress is made. Corrected Season 2 Hardware rewards so the fifth item now appears correctly in the Season 2 Hardware tab. Corrected the Season 1 Catch-Up Hardware quest so grenade kills and assists now track correctly. Improved Season 2 challenge accuracy across Week 1, Week 6, Week 11, “Complete matches in any mode”, “Earn score, counts double in Battle Royale”, the weekly challenge “Earn score, counts double in Battle Royale”, and “Deal damage with Explosives or Incendiaries.” so the in-game presentation now matches the intended design. Improved Red Bull challenge setup so “In Gauntlet: RB Supermoto, Capture Red Checkpoints as a squad.” uses the correct tag, “Earn Score while driving land vehicles, counts for double if gained in Gauntlet: RB Supermoto” now tracks and doubles correctly, that “Get total airtime in seconds using the ATV, Motorcycle or Light Infantry Vehicle.” now supports all intended Light Transport vehicles, and the F-97 Kestrel now uses its player-facing name instead of a dev-facing one. Improved Weekly Missions “Kill enemies and Revive teammates” so the bonus reward now displays correctly after completion. Improved the “Rapid Fire 1” challenge notification in free-to-play modes so it now shows the full challenge presentation instead of only the weapon name. Updated Assault 1 assignments so the incorrect "OR" category no longer appears. Updated Multiplayer challenge licensing so MP-only OR challenges now display as locked for free-to-play users. Updated the Week 11 challenge “Kills and Assists with Grenades” so kills and assists with Incendiary Grenades now track correctly. UI & HUD: Automatic AA and stationary weapons now display their pickup provider icons more consistently. Corrected Battle Pass pre-purchase inputs so Battle Pass and BF Pro no longer share identical prompts. Corrected BF Pro pricing so pre-purchase now uses the intended payment method instead of BFC. Corrected bundle purchase flow so the Buy Bundle prompt now clears correctly after purchase. Corrected Character Customisation so Character Skins now display correctly. Corrected End of Round presentation so squads now appear with their equipped customisations instead of default skins. Corrected placeholder and unlock-criteria text across several rewards, including Ramming Speed Player Card, Grey Eagle Player Card, the Heat Wave Dog Tag, and the Man and Beast Dog Tag. Corrected Player Card presentation so the default icon no longer appears at End of Round after it has been changed. Corrected store navigation so pressing Escape on the Confirm/Cancel screen no longer sends players back to the Store main screen. Corrected Task Force Vector art presentation so Jensen, Kit, and the Tier 11 character skin now use the correct icon art. Corrected the "Check your comms" prompt in boot flow so it no longer shows duplicate button functionality. Corrected the barrel icon presentation for the Skorpion VZ.61 Corrected the Battle Pass pre-purchase screen so missing prices now display correctly. Corrected the Battle Pass transition from Season 1 to Season 2 so the full Season 2 reward set now displays correctly. Corrected the BF Pro Bonus Path flow so tier advancement now works properly when BF Pro is purchased in the same session. Corrected the BF Pro purchase flow so the celebration screen now plays correctly after purchase. Corrected the BF Pro Season 2 Battle Pass pre-purchase flow so players can now purchase the BF Pro version correctly. Corrected the CZ3A1 Iron Sights icon alignment in the soldier inventory. Corrected the “Death Stalkers” Battle Pass reward flow so missing tiers now appear after purchasing BF Pro. Corrected the display of store-unlocked melee weapons so they no longer appear locked in Loadouts. Corrected the End of Round colour presentation so menu elements now align correctly with the intended art direction. Corrected the Escalation matchmaking footer at End of Round so it now displays Escalation instead of Conquest. Corrected the Featured row so "^Test Tile" no longer appears. Corrected the first-party offer ownership display so owned items now show the correct "Owned" status after purchase. Corrected the menu Home tile telemetry event format. Corrected the Skorpion VZ.61 muzzle attachment placement in the Collection screen. Corrected the Squad Icon Revive Opacity description in HUD settings. Corrected the Store preview flow so cancelling a first-party purchase from a bundle preview now returns the player correctly.f Corrected tutorial alignment when rapidly switching between Loadout and other UM tabs. Corrected weapon icon visibility in the kill feed. Dynamic vehicle prompts no longer remain visible when they should be hidden. Friendly icon colour linking now displays correctly while inside vehicles. Helicopter passive vehicle labels now display correctly. Improved Character Bios and Strix Raiders full-bio naming so squad names and layout now present correctly. Improved charm and cosmetic icon visibility for affected items including Winged Blade, Twilight Threshold, and other impacted rewards. Improved Dog Tag presentation so unintended descriptions no longer appear on affected items. Improved gadget reward icon presentation in the Season 2 Battle Pass so affected rewards now use the correct side profile view. Improved the Battle Pass main screen so pre-purchased items now show a day countdown correctly. Improved the BF Pro Bonus Path presentation so its rewards now appear correctly in the Battle Pass. Improved the bundle ownership flow for Gadget Skins so unlock criteria now update correctly after purchase. Improved the Defibrillator skin icons so the “Corruption” visual no longer appears across them. Improved the EA Connect menu so its elements now display correctly. Improved the first-boot flow so it no longer reappears on later title launches. Improved the first-time boot flow so the User Agreement is no longer shown twice. Improved the free trial mode presentation so the timer displays correctly and tiles no longer appear locked. Improved the keyboard and controller navigation flow for Bulletins. Improved the reflection setup when previewing Battle Pass skins in Path View. Improved the Social screen on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 with Keyboard and Mouse so the mouse pointer now displays correctly. Improved the Store naming and tagging for several offers, including Apex Predator, Clover Shot, Strix Raiders, Toxin Patrol, War Weaver, Waking Death, and The Night Stalkers. Improved the SU-230 LPVO unlock flow so it no longer appears as "Currently Unavailable" after completing its unlock challenge. Improved the VOIP consent flow. Network warning icons have been sharpened for improved readability. Ping preview icons now display correctly even when the ping prompt is disabled in Options. Player names now show correctly when looking at players, and the ping prompt has been moved higher on screen. Removed the blinking “REVIVE ME” prompt in multiplayer. Restored missing weapon and player-card visuals at End of Round, including player cards, non-local player weapons, and affected challenge tabs. Restored the Black Widow Legendary Gadget Skin icon art. Restored the Character Customisation menu to Loadout. Restored the HTI-MK2 Factory Skin icon art. Restored the IGLA Factory Skin icon art, and restored it to the customisation menu. Single-seat active vehicles no longer appear as spawnable options on the deploy screen. Updated Arabic UI presentation across Bonus Path, Character Bios, Challenges, and Loadout gadget descriptions to reduce overlap, cut-off issues, and line-height conflicts. Updated End of Round squad presentation so similar uniform patches no longer appear across all squad members. Updated the “Midnight Sun” description so it now refers to the correct launcher instead of a shotgun. Updated the 18.5KS-K Ambition Weapon Package so it no longer appears twice in the customisation menu. Updated the CZ3A1 16.2" Extended Barrel presentation in the weapon inventory HUD so it now matches the weapon mesh. Updated the CZ3A1 weapon description so it no longer shows placeholder text. Updated the Psy Gas tooltip in the tutorial so it no longer is described as harmful. Updated the Skorpion VZ.61 weapon description so it no longer shows placeholder text. Updated the” Steel Punch” Epic Weapon Package so its icon art now matches correctly. Updated weapon stickers purchased through the Store so they now refresh correctly in Loadouts. SETTINGS: Added a Deadzones Draw Tool to the Controller Tuning, providing an in-game overlay that visualises the selected controller deadzones to help with tuning. Corrected Campaign settings access so the Game Settings page no longer appears blank when opened through the Campaign tile. Corrected Campaign settings visibility so Multiplayer Front End menus no longer show Campaign-only settings. Corrected Ground Vehicle control naming so the in-game option now matches the intended wording. Corrected graphics presentation so the VRAM meter now appears and behaves correctly in the affected builds. Corrected Input values so the Infantry Mouse slider now shows the intended value after being changed on a fresh account. Corrected Mount Breakout option text so it now reflects the intended behaviour. Corrected System setup wording so the in-game option now matches the intended description. Corrected the Keyboard and Mouse Pilot subsection so it now matches the intended design reference. Corrected the Vibration Settings reset flow so the Reset key now works correctly and the Vibration Settings Preset no longer switches to Custom unexpectedly. Corrected the save flow for settings changed during Campaign missions so they now persist after returning to the menu. Improved the Credits menu so it now appears correctly in Extras during gameplay. Improved the Options menu flow so Back and Escape now return correctly instead of triggering the Quit Game prompt. Improved Single Player settings so Infantry Aim Assist Zoom Snap no longer appears there, and Stick Forward Sprint is now available where intended. Updated motion blur settings so Weapon Motion Blur and World Motion Blur now behave consistently with their menu presentation. PORTAL: Added the Portal Gadget to Battlefield 6 and REDSEC custom experiences. The Portal Gadget is a versatile, equippable tool built for creators designing custom Portal experiences. It gives you the power to trigger tailored gameplay logic at precise moments and locations, putting far more control in your hands and transforming how players interact with your world. Corrected Combat Area setup so Exclusion Zones, Surrounding Combat Areas, and Team assignment now work correctly. Corrected Gas Mask inventory behaviour so it no longer appears when all Gadgets are restricted. Corrected M-COM setup so affected M-COMs in Portal experiences no longer use the wrong explode settings. Corrected vehicle spawner behaviour so the intended vehicles now spawn correctly. Corrected vehicle event behaviour so events now fire correctly for every seat. Corrected Portal bot behaviour so bots now attack and defend capture points correctly. Improved password-protected server joins so players can now join friends’ protected Portal servers correctly. Improved Portal mode availability, with Shell Shocked mode now available again. Updated mod.SetCapturePointOwner() so the function now works correctly. Added Subsurface to SDK Added Complex 3 to SDK Portal Gadget example in SDK VL7 gym in SDK Changes to modsim Make UI calls non fatal when widget passed is undefined Adding a test for capture point logic Add support for capture point lost Improved support for rotation in modsim Remove support for old camera in modsim Fix level name being stripped in Export label Added new events to mod index Updated README html to use generated offline documentation Remove unused “theater” property from level_info.json Add RingOfFire validation in godot and gdconverter Add FixedCamera example Fixed missing Minimap for Portal Sandbox Map Builder & Web App Corrected GraniteDuo and Escalation Verified modes so placeholder titles and descriptions no longer appear in the Web App. Corrected language selection so UK English, Australian English, and Chinese now display correctly in the Web App drop-down. Corrected Hagental Base setup so "Include Default Spatial Data" is now available, preventing missing HQs. Corrected Primary Weapon restriction behaviour so players no longer become unable to move after deploying. Corrected profanity filtering so non-prohibited words are no longer censored. Corrected the Experience Image button flow so it now works properly after resetting or refreshing an experience. Corrected the Gauntlet Web Builder so the Mission tab is no longer accessible where it should not be. Corrected the MapsItem block in Web App 1.2.1.0 so missing maps now appear correctly. Corrected the Mission Order tab for Verified Gauntlet so it now functions correctly. Corrected the Psy Gas Strike entry in Restrictions so it no longer uses placeholder icon and name. Improved experience creation so importing spatial data no longer prevents experiences from being created. Improved hosting stability for experiences using multiple Granite POIs with specific spatial data. Spatial Editor & Content Corrected OfficeBuilding_02_B so it now uses the proper mesh in the Spatial Editor. Corrected the Fixed Camera asset so it now matches the in-game camera orientation. Stability & Scripting Corrected the Community Concat function so it now behaves as intended. Corrected overload mismatch errors so Emplacement Spawner functions now show the provided parameter list correctly. Improved stability around transform tracker registration. Improved stability around area-check validation. Verified Experiences & Gauntlet Corrected SS26 restrictions so it no longer appears twice in the Restrictions tab. Corrected the Verified Experience start flow so rounds can no longer begin without meeting the intended pre-round player requirement. Corrected the Verified Gauntlet scoreboard so squads joining after the local squad now appear correctly during the match. Improved hosting compatibility so Verified Experiences created on previous patches no longer return an unknown error. AUDIO: Added new hurt voice reactions when taking damage from the Repair Tool. Corrected the Audio Options Voice Chat subsection so it now matches the intended settings design. Corrected the Multiplayer Audio options so "Soldier and Campaign voice lines Volume" no longer appears there. Fixed missing zoom audio while aiming the bomb camera on the F-61V. Improved button audio so selecting Skins or Decals now plays the intended sound. Improved Firing Range target audio so death screams no longer play when targets are "killed". Improved sound obstruction on vehicles. Improved support for spatial audio on PS5. Minigun audio on the Little Bird has been polished to blend better in the mix, especially from the chase camera perspective, and new interior firing audio has been added. Tall grass surfaces now play the correct audio more consistently where appropriate. Tweaked Walla sounds for improved ambience. Reduced repetition on generic impact sounds for the Repair Tool. AI: Extended bot vehicle support across all Multiplayer experiences, maps, and modes. Improved bot behaviour so they can now navigate spaces that require crouched or prone movement. Improved bot steering while navigating corners and hills. Improved bot target prioritisation so they no longer focus on danger pings for too long. Improved air combat behaviour so bots in aircraft engage more often. Improved navigation across Contaminated with multiple pathing updates. Improved navigation near HQ on MP Firestorm so bots no longer become stuck in the cliffs. Updated bot vehicle behaviour so bots can now use the Armoured Transport vehicle. REDSEC PLAYER: Added the new Training Path: Hazmat Breacher for the Assault Class in Battle Royale. Corrected the RGM Second Chance tutorial flow so it now triggers after meeting the intended criteria. Improved the round-end transition in Gauntlet so players no longer become stuck on a black screen after dying out of bounds at the end of the previous round. STRIKE PACKAGES: Added Armour Plates to the Ammo Drop Strike Package. Added a new high-value Strike Package called Armor Drop, which awards a large amount of Armour Plates. Adjusted high-value Strike Package spawn chances to account for the new Armor Drop. Increased the amount of ammo awarded by the Ammo Drop Strike Package. GADGETS: Battle Royale Corrected C4 inventory behaviour so charges are now removed properly even when detonated without using the clacker. Gauntlet Corrected C4 inventory behaviour so it is no longer removed unexpectedly. Corrected initial spawn beacons so they now sit properly on the ground. MAP: Corrected Intel Cache spawning so locations now randomise correctly. Corrected MBT-LAW placement inside the Weapons Cache container. Corrected Shotgun and Grenade loot spawns in the Police Van and Cargo Van so they no longer clip through geometry or float. Corrected the Javelin loot interaction in the Box Truck so it can now be looted consistently from the rear. Improved loot distribution in areas such as Seal and Solar Array. Improved the opening speed of Armory Crates and Airdrop Containers. Improved safe placement at the Lighthouse by moving the affected safe off a destructible surface. Improved access to MRAPV loot by clearing gadgets placed in front of the doors when they open. Updated MRAPV and Safe spawns so they now include 2 Armour Plates instead of 1. Updated REDSEC mode destruction values so plaster, concrete, and other heavy objects now take 2 Sledgehammer hits instead of 4 or more. This change does not affect Multiplayer modes. UI & HUD: Rank-gated loot items, vehicles, and mission objects now display correctly in the ping feed. Battle Royale Added icons to bunker entrances and exits. Corrected Loot Card weapon zoom information so it now displays as intended. Updated local killfeed colours so free-to-play squadmates display correctly. Gauntlet Updated the in-game Gauntlet presentation to better match the Battlefield Labs reference. AUDIO: Improved Spot Ping audio with a more recognisable sound and slightly increased Squad Ping volume. Updated the Commorose audio flow so the menu arrival sound no longer plays when opening it in Battle Royale. PROGRESSION: Reworked XP progression in Battle Royale and Gauntlet to better reward time invested, resulting in a significant increase for the average player with only a slight reduction for the top 1%. Battle Royale Corrected the Class Challenge for completing matches as a class so it now updates correctly without requiring a Battle Royale win. Corrected Weekly Challenge “Deal damage with gadgets, counts double in Battle Royale.” so gadget damage now awards the intended double-value progress. Corrected Weekly Challenge “Spot enemies and earn Spot Assists with Recon gadgets. Counts triple in Battle Royale.” so Battle Royale modes now award the intended triple progression. Corrected Weekly Challenge “Spot enemies and earn Spot Assists with Recon gadgets. Counts triple in Battle Royale.” so spotting with Recon gadgets now awards the intended triple-value progress. Improved End of Round Stats Cinematic weighting so players’ standout performances are highlighted more accurately. Increased the score awarded from kills and damage assists in Battle Royale by 50%. Gauntlet Corrected Weekly Challenge “Capture and Neutralize objectives in Multiplayer or Complete objectives in Gauntlet.” so objective completion now tracks correctly in supported Gauntlet modes. Corrected the Gauntlet Special Forces Operator Challenge 4 progression flow so it now advances after reaching the intended unlock criteria. Updated Weekly Mission “Complete matches in any mode.” so it now appears and tracks correctly in Multiplayer instead of only Gauntlet. This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. submitted by /u/battlefield to r/Battlefield [link] [comments]

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/books-clouds89 Originally posted to r/AITAH AITA for not inviting my in-laws to my son’s 5th birthday after a big family fallout? Thanks to u/queenlegolas for suggesting this BoRU Trigger Warnings: manipulation, financial exploitation, bullying Editor's note: adding prior posts for more context to understand the family fallout. Body texts were saved before they were removed AITA for being frustrated that my SIL’s financial situation is stopping us from buying a home?: August 16, 2025 My husband (doctor) and I (part time healthcare) live in a 2-bed flat owned by his dad. We’ve been paying the mortgage as rent. When times were tight - maternity leave, husband's pay cut, my FIL covered us. The mortgage is now paid off, so we gratefully live here rent free. But it’s not sustainable, we have three kids (10f, 4m, 2m) who share a bedroom. We never bought our own place because in 2017, my husband was emotionally pressured into going on his sister’s (dentist) mortgage to buy a 5-bed house. This was before he met me. He doesn’t pay towards it and has no equity; his income was used to boost her borrowing. At the time, it was presented as 'the family home' where his parents would retire. His father provided the deposit. My husband was promised that he would not be disadvantaged and get help to buy a house later. In 2018, they did a big reno. Last year she became pregnant with twins (5 kids). They started another big reno - going from 2 reception, 5 bed and 3 bath to 4 reception rooms, 6/7 beds and 5 baths and an extra kitchenette. Everything has been extended, remodeled and refitted again in 7 years. About £200k from FIL has gone into this. The current plan, devised with a mortgage advisor, is we sell our flat (FILs), get a deposit for a house and move into a rental. They use £100k from the sale to remortgage to get my husband off. But there’s a catch: She has credit card/shopping debts to pay She needs to get rid of her car finance (two brand new EVs). She has to increase her salary and complete tax returns. Until she does those things, her borrowing power isn’t high enough. As her debts/liabilities and declared earnings currently stand - she would only be able to remortgage for 21k. She needs 18x this. She spends excessively and goes on expensive holidays - she’s already talking about an island getaway for her 40th birthday. In the meantime, we could be stuck in a rental and sitting on £100k waiting. I want us to hold off on selling until she’s actually ticked the boxes, otherwise we bear all the risk. One idea was to use equity from the flat sale, on top of 100k to boost her borrowing, to help her pay down her debts and liabilities. This seems insane after spending 200k on unnecessary renovations, but it might be our only way out. I know it’s her personal finances, but her decisions directly affect our future. I’m being told not to have feelings about it as it's 'not our money'. But am I the AH for being frustrated, when my 3 kids are sharing one room and our future depends on her paying her debts Relevant info: My husband has never paid her mortgage. She pays it, her husband is unemployed. My husband has no equity in her house. We have small savings of our own (20k), but we need a big deposit to stay in this area. We pay our own bills, childcare, and living costs. We drive 11 year old cars and holiday once a year. Our debts are low and we try to save. All the £200k+ has been spent on SIL's house. FIL works abroad. AITAH has no consensus bot, OOP received the majority of NTAs Editor's note: OOP made lots of comments, I am listing significant questions and responses as they provide more details Relevant Comments Commenter 1: NTA, but you need to invest the frustration and anger into figuring out a way to change this for your family. OOP: I work part time since having kids, even if I went full time - with UK house prices as they are I'd struggle to buy a house to accommodate all of us on just my salary. OOP and her husband need to figure things out and extricate herself from SIL’s housing situation / mortgage OOP: I didn't know about it until after we married. I definitely agree that this should have been resolved before we had 2 more kids, and it's my own fault for not pushing the matter. We were always assured with vague promises that it would be next year, or the next but the goalposts always shifted. Commenter 3: How does the dentist sister have more money than the doctor husband? Like how can she afford 5 kids and you two barely have savings? OOP: Self-employed, lots of private work and bankrolled by father. OOP clarifies on her children and the timeline when she met her husband OOP: My husband was has a daughter from a previous relationship. We met in 2018, and married in 2019. OOP and her husband on living rent free and not having more savings outside the house value OOP: He took a pay cut twice to do two fellowships (2.5 years total). Our childcare bill has been insane, especially when both boys were in private daycare together. I earn a lot less than him but going part time after having kids hasn't helped. Doctors in the UK earn decent money, but also get taxed quite heavily. They're also always going on strike to get pay restoration, their pay is lower than it was in 2008. I do agree we can save more, we live modestly and within our means and our kids all have savings accounts. I've been doing a 'managing your finances' course and I'm trying to get him to do a household budget with clearer goals so we can figure out where we can improve.   UPDATE: AITA for being frustrated that my SIL’s financial situation is stopping us from buying a home?: **August 20, 2025 (four days later from the previous post) Thank you to everyone who commented on my original post. My husband (DH) and his dad met with the mortgage advisor as mentioned in my first post. It was clear how dire the prospects were for SIL to afford the mortgage on her own. The loan was too big, and she had lots of debts and liabilities. The plan was, FIL would sell the flat we live in (which he owns) and use the funds to pay down SIL's house loan and her credit card and shopping debts, so she can refinance on her own. My husband would also get help with a large down payment for a house. FIL always assured DH he would not be disadvantaged by the other mortgage and would get significant help to buy. DH went to visit them yesterday, and found them ripping out the floor of the kitchen, the new one costing thousands of pounds. This kitchen was extended, remodeled and fitted in 2019 and cost upwards of 20k. He wasn't happy, I guess it became immediately clear to him that they're not capable or interested in making good financial decisions. Everyone also forgot that my MIL and co-owns the flat we live in. My husband doesn't want to take any money from the sale of the flat for a deposit , as it will disadvantage his mother who is retired. So the flat has been listed to sell, the proceeds will go to MIL and FIL only. FIL will use his share, 100-150k, to bail out my SIL. My husband’s name can finally come off the mortgage of her 1.1million house (she still needs to lose the new cars). It was a little upsetting for my husband yesterday, but he's at peace with it. After all, it was never his money, and his dad can do what he wants with it. He won’t get a deposit, and that's ok. We are worse off than if we had never been involved — house prices have gone up, we need a bigger deposit now, and he has wasted years waiting around on promises of help. The help never came. He was used as collateral so they could keep a house and cling to a lifestyle they can’t afford. But it does also feel like a weight has been lifted and he is going to be free. Not strung along for years in a toxic cycle of obligation and disappointment. We're currently looking for a long term rental nearby, somewhere with 3 bedrooms and a garden for our kids. We're also planning on meeting a financial advisor to come up with an achievable plan to save hard for our own house, and for our children’s future on our own. If buying a house isn’t meant to happen for us, then so be it. We're walking away with peace of mind, a clean slate, and the ability to make decisions for ourselves without interference or reliance on others. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Your sister-in-law is gonna end up in bankruptcy. And you're going to have to sue her as a creditor in order to get your money. Commenter 2: I think OP’s husband is also going to have to declare bankruptcy. He’s on the mortgage. If she defaults and declares bankruptcy the bank will come for money from him. OOP: They're (editor's note: FIL & MIL) selling all their assets to keep her afloat. They own two properties abroad which they're also considering selling. Commenter 3: I'm confused why is your husband who is a doctor and you who also work only have 20K in saving? Commenter 4: They don’t pay all that well for doctors in the UK. GPs average 70-120,000 pounds OOP: He was a junior/resident doctor until earlier this year. They earn like 40 to 70k a year. We paid rent, had two young kids in private day care, and I dropped my hours after motherhood which all impacted our ability to save more. He earns more now that he’s a consultant/attending, so we will be able to save a lot more. Commenter 5: Your husband helped her lie to the bank and game the loan process so she could borrow more than she could afford to pay back. Then he’s surprised that she lied to and gamed him too? YTA OOP: In the UK, if you’re on a joint mortgage you’re jointly liable, even if you’re not the one living in the property. Fraud is when you deliberately misrepresent things - like employment, debts or income. There was no fraud here, only family pressure and lessons learned the hard way.   Editor's note: below is the original title post Original Post: November 9, 2025 (over 1.5 months later from the previous post) My son is turning 5 this week, and I planned a small celebration at home. I took Tuesday off work to bake him a cake and have my parents over in the evening. We mostly keep birthdays low-key apart from a big party for his 1st bday. My husband (36m) and I (36f) have three kids: my stepdaughter (10F) and two boys (4M and 2M). The problem is regarding my in laws. I went low/no contact with them after a major fallout in August. I actually posted about it on here in August, but deleted the posts out of fear my in laws would find them. Context - my husband has been on his sister’s mortgage since 2017 at the request of his dad. We’ve been living in his dad’s flat since 2019, with all three kids sharing one bedroom. In August we met with a mortgage advisor who told us we’d easily be able to buy a house together if husband came off sister’s mortgage. However, she wouldn’t be able to refinance on her own due to debts and her declared income. This was all whist they undertook a second big renovation (first one in 2018), costing FIL probably around 200k. Husband asked them to get their finances and priorities under control so he could get off her mortgage and buy his own house, and it blew up. And I became the villain who was making him say these things. I actually went over to apologise for any misunderstanding, and instead got verbally abused and humiliated by his sister while his dad and mum sat there watching. She attacked my job, my character, my relationship with my own family amongst other things. Bearing in mind, I've always thought I had a good relationship with them all and genuinely considered myself a part of their family. This all came out of the blue. My husband defended me and argued back. I mostly sat there quietly crying, holding my sleeping toddler. When we left with things unresolved, I was shaken so badly I vomited from stress in the street outside. Two weeks later, his mum and sister came round to apologise. Whatever they said was to him, not to me. I refused to see them because I genuinely felt unsafe and anxious around them and stayed with my sons in their bedroom. Now for the birthday. When I mentioned my plan to bake a cake and invite my parents, my husband’s mood changed. Later, when I asked if he could help buy a few things (the gifts, balloons etc.) he accused me of intentionally excluding his family. I reminded him that we've just had my parents over the last few times and offered that his family could do something for him the next day at their house. He said that wasn’t acceptable, that I was perpetuating the situation, and that it’s 'palpable' and 'awkward' that I’m not there for family things at their house. Then he told me he wouldn’t contribute a penny towards the birthday or endorse it unless I invited his family, or at least his nieces, which feels more awkward than not inviting any of them. He even said, 'It’s better if he doesn’t have a birthday at all. He’s five, he won’t even remember'. We went back and forth on it and I ended up crying, he was irate and went for a walk. I've felt shaky and nauseous since. He later kissed me on the head and said, 'I support you 100%, but we need a solution because it can’t go on like this'. He’s framing me as the issue when all I’m doing is protecting my peace and avoiding people who bullied me. He thinks I need to move on somehow. So AITAH for not inviting my in-laws and choosing to celebrate my son’s 5th birthday with only my parents? Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Sadly, you have a bigger issue than your in-laws, and that's your husband. You need to ask him to contribute to his own son's birthday. Red flag #1. He became irate and said he would rather not have a birthday for his son. Red flag # 2. He came back and kissed you on the forehead like a child and placed blame on you. Red flag #3. When his family came over to apologize, he didn't make them apologize to you right then and there. ATOMIC BOMB RED FLAG #4. OOP: In response to red flag no. 3 It was quite late when they came over. The energy was off and I was really uncomfortable. I had to put the boys to bed and then heard raised voices and was too anxious to go back inside. My husband came to get me so they could apologise to my face but in that moment I couldn't do it and said it was OK as long as they were all alright now. Apology or not, I'm still supremely uncomfortable at the thought of being around them. A lot was said to me which I haven't been able to stop thinking about. I replay the abuse over and over in my head. OOP explains more about her husband being on the deed OOP: He's on the deed, but hasn't put a penny into it in any way. They just needed his borrowing power to get a big loan. + He has never paid the mortgage, they just used his borrowing power to get a huge loan. He's a high earner, and at the time he was single. He doesn't live in the house or make repayments. They've just used his name/income to get a big mortgage from the bank. I guess you're right, I should have found the courage to face them when they came to apologise. I'm a very non-confrontational person and at that time I was filled with fear and anxiety. Commenter 2: Your husband doesn't support you 100%, or he would have started steps to get off his sister's mortgage last summer. He's the AH for letting this go on. At the very least, he needs to advise his family when it comes time to renew the mortgage. He will not be cosigning. If that means she has to sell, oh well. His sister has time to prepare and get herself ready with that kind of heads up It's ridiculous that he is cofinancing (even on paper) his sisters homeownership over his own. He has three kids to house himself. That should be his first priority, not his sister. Yiu, as the wife are due more consideration than a sibling or his parents ! OOP: They've assured him they'll get him off in April 2026, but after how they all reacted this summer when he asked them and confronted their spending/priorities - I'm not hopeful. OOP on her MIL and SIL apologizing to her OOP: They did come to apologise a few weeks after the fall out after FIL scolded everyone. I went to put my sons to sleep and then heard raised voices and couldn't find the courage to face them. I told my husband if they were alright with each other, then I didn’t require a personal apology. I'm a very non confrontational person and at that time I was filled with fear and anxiety, and I still feel really uncomfortable at the thought of being around them. They said awful things to me and about me. Commenter 4: Don’t allow this man to make this a you issue. My father’s family was the same way to my mom. My father knew that she was not going to be insulted in her own home anymore after years and years of abuse. Your husband needs to realize he can’t have it both ways. He can either defend his wife and the family he’s building, or he can be okay with his family being the way they are. He can’t have both. I’d let him know in no uncertain terms that you won’t be a party to people who chose to abuse you. If he wants to be with them, then leave. It’s truly that simple. OOP: I watched my mum suffer at the hands of my dad's family for years too. I cut them all of the minute we buried my grandfather and never saw any of them ever again. It left me so bitter and angry, I don't want the same for my kids. OOP on the relationship with her SIL and if there had been past issues OOP: It wasn’t one single incident though. That fallout in August was unexpected. My SIL has made years’ worth of digs and comments about my appearance, how I parent, my job, my choice to work part-time, even where we live (not like we can buy). She’s made me cry a few times over various things, but she always excuses her behaviour as 'I'm just direct'. I would describe her as a classic mean girl. I’ve never said anything back. For the last 6 years, I’ve always shown up for her and her kids, helped with birthdays, supported her when her cat died, when her husband fell ill, done activities with her kids and planned family occasions. I’ve genuinely tried to have a good relationship with them all. So it was very unexpected when they turned on me during the mortgage situation. I suspect it was from a place of panic/feeling threatened and not wanting to be questioned for their financial decision making. They didn't want to blame the brother/son so who's an easy target? The daughter in law! I didnt feel physically unsafe, but emotionally I did and I had a very physical stress response when i vomited outside their house. I was physically unwell for weeks afterwards. I think that's reason enough to not want to be around someone. Editor’s note: adding a tangential post regarding the family fallout AITAH for being upset about my husband booking expensive flights and worrying about financial pressure from his family?: February 2, 2026 (three months later) My husband and I are married with three children. We don’t split finances 50/50, but we agreed that this year’s priority would be paying off our debts, saving for a house, and getting out of financial entanglements with his family. This week, my husband booked flights costing around £1.6k to travel with two of our children to see his parents. This came shortly after he used several thousand pounds from our house deposit fund to clear personal debts due to high interest. And after we agreed to no trips abroad whilst we save to buy a house this year. I’m currently on a very tight budget and actively saving towards long-term security for myself and our children. His father has been unwell and hospitalised twice in the last month, which I understand is stressful. Although his father finalised his will last year, he has now asked my husband to come out to help him 'settle his affairs.' While I respect the seriousness of this, the timing is worrying due to prior financial dynamics in his family. My husband is financially tied to his sister through her mortgage. In 2017, she needed his borrowing power to buy a large and expensive house. Every two years since, at the request of their father, my husband has had to refinance with her because she cannot afford the mortgage on her own. Her own husband does not work. Her current mortgage deal ends on 31st March, after which she will move onto a standard variable rate that is hundreds more per month and likely unaffordable. Two plans are currently being discussed within the family: taking on additional debt from abroad to clear her personal debts including shopping, car, and credit cards, or selling an investment property owned by FIL to inject capital into her home to make the mortgage affordable. Last August, my husband formally asked to be released from his sister’s mortgage so that we could buy a home together. This request blew up. I was blamed and bullied by his sister and mother, and the issue was framed as me being unreasonable and disrespectful. I haven’t spoken to or seen them in six months as a result. Since then, my husband has remained on her mortgage while she has undertaken a £200k+ renovation to her £1m property, funded by their father, and bought another new car and had twin babies. Meanwhile, our three children are sharing one bedroom while we wait on promises of a future deposit and his eventual release from her mortgage. Because of this history, I’m very worried that while my husband is abroad, during a time of illness, emotional vulnerability, and an impending mortgage crisis that he will be pressured to recommit financially or prolong his involvement to support his sister. Her house is framed by the family as 'mum and dad’s house' and justified by claims that she will 'look after them' yet her parents spend around 95% of their time living abroad, and she has not travelled either time her father has been hospitalised. When I tried to raise these concerns, I was accused of being “ungrateful” and of criticising my husband’s ability to provide, something I have never done. My concern is not about day-to-day provision, but about being able to buy a home together and him finally getting off her mortgage. We ended up arguing and I was accused of gaslighting and told that if I wasn’t happy, I should leave. I feel my concerns are being dismissed as emotional, while he says he needs to 'get his priorities right' meaning being there for his father. So AITA for feeling anxious and upset about these decisions and wanting firm boundaries about him not refinancing his sister's house? Relevant Comments Commenter: Although I totally get your frustrations, it sounds like he is very close with his family, and I couldn’t imagine being asked to not visit my dying parent which could be the last time he sees him. Also, you might not get along with the parents for obvious reasons, but should that really stop your children from being able to say goodbye to their grandfather? I know I’m leaving out a lot of the information about his family finances, and I’m playing devils advocate, but stripping away all the money, could you imagine not being able to say goodbye to your parents before they die? As for the finances, you both are definitely not on the same page and it seems like he will always put his family first, either that or his parents have manipulated their children. Has he said that he cannot afford a house with you because of his family obligations? How far back has this put you on your timeline for buying a house together? OOP: His dad has a long term health condition and is undergoing treatment. He's home and well now, just been a bit up and down in recent months. I completely understand what you’re saying, and to be clear my issue isn’t with him visiting his dad or the children seeing their grandfather. Of course I would never want to stand in the way of that, especially when someone is ill. What worries me is the timing and the history around it. His sister’s mortgage deal ends very soon, and in the past such family visits have coincided with pressure on him to stay financially tied to her situation. This has already been going on for nearly seven years. During that time we’ve had two more children, postponed buying a home and making long-term plans for our own children because the understanding was always that she would eventually refinance in her own name. That hasn’t happened. Instead, there have been two very large renovation projects on her house, large spending debts have been accumulated while we’re still waiting for my husband to be released from the mortgage. There’s also a difficult dynamic in the family where my husband is treated as the one who has to be responsible and step in, while his sisters choices and bullying and entitled behaviour are protected or enabled. The sister's house is often justified as being for the parents’ future care, yet when his father was hospitalised recently, she didn’t travel to see him either time. And there has been no conversation about them relocating back to our city and living with their daughter. That makes it hard not to feel that the burden of responsibility falls unevenly. So my anxiety isn’t really about a trip to see an ill parent. It’s about the pattern that tends to surround these situations and the fear that we will be set back again, just as we’re trying to stabilise our own finances and provide security for our children. Commenter 2: You need to start a secret flight fund for emergencies. Don’t tell your husband, put a little away every month that is just yours if anything happens and you need to make so quick decisions. OOP: Already doing this.   Update: April 3, 2026 (two months later) AITAH for how I feel about my in-laws after what they did? UPDATE Quick recap: this situation originally kicked off in August 2025. I made two posts about it at the time but deleted them because I was worried his family might find them. A lot of people asked for updates, so here we are. In 2017 my husband co-signed his sister’s mortgage to help her buy a house when she couldn’t do it alone. In 2025, she started a second six-figure renovation, and when my husband pushed back and asked them to prioritise getting his name off the mortgage so we can buy our own house, everything blew up. They turned on us, targeted me specifically, and since then he’s sort of been pushed out and ostracised. On March 5th, my husband received an unexpected email from his sister’s solicitors asking him to sign documents to transfer the house entirely into her name. No conversation was had before this. Just a formal letter like he’s some third party. He was referred to as ‘Mr.’ throughout, he's a Dr. While she, a dentist, was ‘Dr’. I don’t think he picked up on this, but it really bothered me and seemed calculated. The way the whole thing was handled was cold and lacked respect or appreciation. This is after he helped her secure that house in 2017 in the first place by co-signing the mortgage, taking on risk for her as she couldn’t do it alone. It was at the request of his father as it was to be 'the family home'. In the weeks before this, she suddenly qualified for a mortgage, because their dad took out a loan from abroad to wipe her shopping and credit card debts. She refinanced the house into her name and her husband’s. Her unemployed husband (for 10 years plus now) is listed on her company books as an ‘employee’ earning a salary. I raised concerns about capital gains tax, and it turned out they didn't even know about it. I pushed him to get legal and tax advice, but he didn’t want to spend the money and trusted their promises that if anything came up, they would cover the cost. He signed a declaration denying any beneficial interest. The deadline to remove him from the mortgage was March 31st. On March 30th, I mentioned it and realised he didn’t even know if it was happening. His response was ‘they don’t tell me anything’ and 'what do you think they're going to do? Throw me a party?'. I said yes, and I think he should get a medal and a trophy. Since the fallout last August, his dad has apologised and admitted this has disadvantaged him. There have been repeated promises since we married in 2019, that he would be helped in return for doing this. Particularly with a deposit for our own home. In the last few months the plan was to sell one of my mother-in-law’s rental properties abroad. She had agreed multiple times to this. Buyers were found but on the day of the viewing, she refused to let them in and got very upset. I was never comfortable with this plan, which seems borne out of desperation and making emotional decisions to try and right the wrongs, and now neither is my husband out of respect for his mum. The ‘we’ll make sure you’re not disadvantaged’ line has now disappeared after 9 long years. And not once has his sister ever expressed gratitude or said thank you. When he raised this last year in an argument she said nothing because she’s too proud and arrogant. No acknowledgment that took on risk and held his own life back so she could build hers. We've had 3 kids sharing one room since 2023. She’s also now trying to rewrite the narrative, saying it was always the plan to refinance with her husband but blamed the original mortgage advisor for not telling her how. She is also acting as though he was going to receive equal help to her from the sale of the property abroad - but its not her fault a civil war broke out, and the property is now worth much less. As for the relationships, we don’t really have one. She hasn’t seen our youngest son in 6 or 7 months. She saw our eldest son at Christmas and made him so uncomfortable he asked to leave early and was picked up by my husband. I've not seen her or her family since last August/September. Husbands youngest brother and wife also seem to have picked a 'side' and we don't see them either. They enrolled their daughter in the same private daycare our son attends and didn't mention it. I was asked about it by the staff there, as the cousins share a surname. We haven't attended any shared gatherings for birthdays or religious events/occasions, which was the norm. I think my husband has realised it’s hard to maintain relationships where there’s no respect, no gratitude, and no honesty. Despite my feelings I've tried to stay neutral and encourage him to keep ties, he's chosen not to. Watching someone I love be used, dismissed, and then erased from the story like he was never important is hard. I feel so much resentment towards them all. It genuinely feels like we’ve been pushed out because he stood up for himself and his own family. At this point, I think he's also done expecting any help from them. I never wanted it and also never expected it would come. We’re saving hard, he’s picking up extra shifts to build our deposit. Our relationship is good. It's like he picked 'us' and although I should feel happy about this, I feel desperately sad for him. He is an honest and just man, and deserved better. He says he knows none of them would have done the same for him, and that's enough for him. I basically hate them, and if I never see them again it'll be too soon. So AITAH for feeling like they’ve taken advantage of him/us and not wanting any kind of relationship with them going forward? Additional Information from OOP: OOP: Thank you to everyone who offered kind, thoughtful and helpful words. It’s appreciated. Posting on reddit about this has been quite cathartic. I'm also lucky to have supportive family of my own who have helped me navigate all the drama from the last year. There have also been comments that present themselves as concern or support, often using the language of therapy, wellbeing and child protection, but delivered in a way that is quite harsh and mostly unhelpful. I don't think genuine concern and projecting worst case assumptions onto strangers and their children can go hand in hand! It's also quite unkind. We are moving forward with our lives. We’ve navigated a difficult period involving husband's family, but we’ve come through it now. My focus is stability, boundaries and building towards the future. Our children are happy, thriving and well adjusted, and we have a warm, stable home. Like any couple or adults navigating life and relationships and families, we're obviously going to encounter challenges throughout our lives. The agenda was never further conflict or scorched earth outcomes. The aim was always for my husband to extricate himself from a disadvantageous arrangement he entered before we were together, and to do so as amicably and cleanly as possible. It wasn't exactly amicable and it hasn't been exactly clean, but that's on them. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Hopefully sister will be taking the parents in when they are older and in need of care! Stay NO/low contact with all of them and find friends who are like family instead. OOP: Thank you, yes I'm very strict about boundaries as a result. Especially for the sake of my kids. I grew up with a really toxic paternal side of the family and will not make the same mistakes my parents did. Blood is not thicker than water as far as I'm concerned. Commenter 2: NTA However you should be very worried that your husband prioritised his family over his own and to your significant financial peril. This is not about them, it's about your relationship and financial trust in that. He needs to forget the fallout from his parents and sister and focus on why he allowed this, doubled down on his naive decisions and jepordised or delayed his own families progress and wellbeing. OOP: He comes from a very collectivist culture and there is a clear golden child dynamic in his family. It feels like he’s more on the outside of it now though, and we've had many discussions about why and how it all happened, and he has repeatedly acknowledged all the repercussions of all the dumb decisions he made (he would argue he was emotionally bullied into) Commenter 3: How did being a co-signer on SIL’s mortgage stop you saving for the last 9 years? OOP: We did save. The issue wasn’t saving, it was mortgage affordability because he was still tied to hers. That limited what we could borrow, so we couldn’t proceed even when we were ready to buy in 2021 and 2023. House prices have also risen significantly faster than we could bridge the gap, so the target kept moving. Commenter 4: So did he finally admit he was an ass when it came to your son’s birthday and pitched in to help? It’s absolute shit he wanted to call of the birthday because your son “won’t remember it” just because you didn’t want his abusive family present. I understand he probably said it out of anger, but any parent that tries to leverage their own child to get their way immediately loses my respect. OOP: Yes. We had an argument after the party was relocated to my mums which he missed, but he was present for his actual birthday and the cake cutting at home a few days prior. We spoke about it afterwards and worked it out. I don’t think it was about him trying to leverage our son, it came out of a very overwhelmed reaction in the middle of a lot of pressure from his family being around at the time. That doesn’t excuse it of course. I don’t think it will happen again and going forward I’ll keep my kids birthdays at my mums to avoid this situation all together.   DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7 THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP submitted by /u/Choice_Evidence1983 to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

There's been a lot of articles posted etc - but here's the official word from the ED https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-next-steps-borrowers-enrolled-unlawful-save-plan In summary, you'll start getting notices from your servicers as soon as the next few days telling you that this is happening. Come July 1 you'll get a notice giving you 90 days to switch. If you don't, they put you on the standard plan. The ten year standard if you haven't' consolidated - the consolidated standard plan if you have - which is longer than ten years. I want to address a couple of themes i've been seeing in these threads. My comments here are probably going to get me downvoted to oblivion. That's ok - I'm not here for the karma - I'm here to make sure folks understand their loans and make the best decisions for their long term financial well being. Because that's my goal - sometimes I have to say thing folks don't want to hear. For those saying they aren't going to switch until forced - you might be harming yourself here. You're certainly not punishing anyone that you're trying to make a point to. Here's who, IMO, should be switching ASAP and here's whose probably ok to drag their feet a bit: Who should switch ASAP: -If you're pursuing forgiveness under any of the IDR plans - the 20/25 year forgiveness you should switch now. You're just losing months and time towards forgiveness by waiting. And hypothetically, your income is going to go up over time, and therefore so will your payments. On a related note - if your 2024 tax return has a lower AGI than your 2025 will, and you haven't filed taxes yet - you definitely want to do it now. -those pursuing PSLF. Yes - you can use buy back for SAVE months. But remember - buy backs are taking over a year and more importantly, buy backs are a lump sum payment due right away. So the longer you are on this forbearance - the more months you will have to pay in a lump sum when the time comes. And that might be difficult. *Here is the calculation for buy back https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service/public-service-loan-forgiveness-buyback * Who can probably hang out for a while: -Those borrowers who due to other debt that will be paid off soon and want to funnel the student loan payment money to get rid of that other debt. -those who are aggressively paying off their loans. This is an opportunity to have all of your money go to targeted loans - such as the ones with the highest interest rates - rather than having to satisfy the minimum due on each loan which you will have to do once in active repayment. The timing of all of this: -it actually makes sense to me. They appear to be doing almost a soft launch - warning people now that it's coming. But waiting until the new RAP plan is available in July for those that will want to use that plan to actually start the timer. This way folks won't need to switch twice if the RAP turns out to be a better plan for them. Now for those saying they refuse to switch - listen - I get it. Your angry. I don't blame you - i am too. Your feelings are very valid and i'm not telling you not to feel them. But here's the hard truth of the matter. SAVE was gone regardless - the courts had made it pretty clear when the case started under the prior administration that they were leaning towards the plaintiffs and were going to rule against the plan. It was going to happen regardless of who won the last election. And failing to switch out of principal is not going to hurt them - it's going to hurt you if you end up with a standard payment amount you can't afford. I'm not saying not to resist - but resist productively by voting. And writing your members of Congress to paint a picture of how your new payment amount is affecting you, your family and the broader economy. For those saying the ED can't change the terms - they didn't. The court ruled the plan was illegal. The ED would be breaking the law if they continued it. Payment plans have never been challenged before. And there was no reason for it to occur to anyone that this one might be. But yet a bunch of republican AG's did and here we are. In the meantime, people made the best decisions they could with the information they had at the time. What plan should i pick? If you are pursuing PSLF or income driven plan forgiveness you need to be on an income driven plan. Scenarios for likely lowest plan: -No loans ever prior to July 1, 2014 - new IBR -No loans ever prior to October 1, 2007 but does have loans prior to july 2014 - paye - but note you'll have to get off that come 2028 -loans prior to October 2007 - old IBR -balance low compared to your income - check out ICR - that could be the lowest for you in that scenario -RAP - for some rap will be lower. RAP tends to be similar to old IBR for many incomes. But if you have dependents especially, it could be lower. TISLA will have a calculator including the rap in the next week or two. I'll post it when it's available. submitted by /u/Betsy514 to r/StudentLoans [link] [comments]

Note - this is written by hand, compiled bit by bit over a few months, not AI before people try and make those token comments. It's also f-ing long, but it's better than having to make ten million scattered comments on other threads addressing all these issues individually over & over again. I also work in a space that intersects real estate data, investing and finance, and deal with these types of numbers daily. ____ First, it's helpful to just start off with just the raw ABS data on Australian immigration figures & countries so that people can see the raw numbers we're debating. These are the NOM (Net Overseas Migration) figures to Australia from the ABS from 2015-2025 to give an idea of the recent trend while also including pre-Covid years for comparison: 2015 - 184,030 2016 - 206,230 2017 - 263,350 2018 - 238,220 2019 - 241,340 2020 - 192,700 2021 - (-84,940) 2022 - 170,920 2023 - 528,000 2024 - 446,000 2025 - 306,000 Our current 'reduced' level of 306,000 (https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/overseas-migration/latest-release) as reported at the end of 2025 is still ~25%+ higher than pre-Covid, and over 40% higher than the ~10-year average. Objective fact: our population in the country, regardless of visa status, increased by nearly ~1.3 million people living here in just three years, just from immigration, not counting natural births which would make it even higher. For comparison, that's slightly less than the entire population of Adelaide, or nearly 4 x the population of Canberra. By Country: Net overseas migration for 2023-24 by country, countries with the most permanent migrants to Australia (excluding those with a humanitarian profile) are: India People’s Republic of China Philippines Nepal United Kingdom Pakistan Vietnam Sri Lanka South Africa Iran https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-statistics/statistics/country-profiles/profiles The breakdown of the intake from the 'top' handful countries by volume for the past year looks like this, which is a factor due to the heavily white-collar-focused intake from these main source countries: https://preview.redd.it/oqorp22qbyjg1.png?width=1964&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b16ccc3447af9cc68980ca87e16ff79000dda0e _____ Now, let's get to debunking the individual major 'myths' repeated on this topic that attempt to underplay the effects immigration has on Australian house prices. Myth 1: "Immigration only affects house prices a tiny bit, but it's not one of the main causes so not even worth talking about" False. Even studies that have attempted to prove that immigration doesn't affect house prices much have STILL estimated it to be the reason for well over 20% of price rises. E.g: this study from 2020 (conducted pre-Covid, when things weren't even as bad as they are now) which the Grattan Institute consistently cite in their various justifications for this & is used as one of the most frequent justifiers in all sources on the topic: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105681902301151X "We find that an immigrant inflow of 1% of a postcode's population raises housing prices by around 0.9% per year. As a result, Australian housing prices would have been around 1.1% lower per annum had there been no immigration." Based on the average Australian annual house price rise of 3.8% per year (for the years prior to Covid which the study is based on) across Australia from 2010-2019, versus a 1.1% attribution to immigration = immigration accounts for approximately ~29% of the annual price growth. That's almost one-third of the price rises, attributed to a single cause... in a study conducted when immigration numbers were much lower than they have been over the past few years. The only other single factor that is estimated to have even close to such an effect on house prices is zoning restrictions (not negative gearing, not AirBnB, not the CGT discount, not interest rates). And even that (higher-density zoning changes) is based on the assumption people will simply shift their lifestyles to live in small, inner-city apartments from larger living spaces if zoning is changed, which Aussies have consistently shown they are reluctant to do. Myth 2: "Migrants are the ones who are building the houses in the first place" Recent migrants work in construction at much lower rates than the local population, thus making the situation worse, as we bring in far more people who require houses built for them than who actually build themselves: https://theconversation.com/australia-is-welcoming-more-migrants-but-they-lack-the-skills-to-build-more-houses-222126 "Migrants who arrived in the last five years account for only ~2.8% of the construction workforce, despite representing ~4.4% of all workers overall - indicating relatively low participation in construction trades among recent migrants." - Grattan Institute This is further exacerbated by the shift of our immigration intake towards source markets from which tradespeople are under-represented; as The Conversation indicates, the primary source immigration markets for skilled tradespeople are the Philippines and New Zealand; as these become disproportionately a lower part of the intake, they drag down the percentage of tradies with them. Even in recent years as the government has supposedly tried to 'increase' this, as a share of purely permanent skilled visas we still have roughly ~13% going to construction occupations, where mathematically in order to make up actual ground on home building that number needs to be closer to 30%+. Our top 10 'skilled visa' job roles consistently contain jobs such as Cook/Chef, Cafe Manager, Marketing Specialist, Accountant, as well as a couple of (vital) medical roles such as Nurse. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/temp-res-skilled-report-30-jun-2024.pdf Regardless of what you personally think about the relative 'necessity' of each of these roles to Australian society, the fact of the matter is they all require additional housing and soak up existing supply. Myth 3: "International students live in special student accommodation & don't take up 'normal' housing" Again, categorically false; even the Labor government has directly stated this. "The Education Department’s analysis shows about half of the 696,162 student visa holders in Australia were living in the private rental market in 2024, while another 135,000 students will enter private rentals next year under conservative estimates." https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/minister-concedes-immigration-too-high-as-students-compete-for-city-rentals-20240920-p5kc3i.html Australia also currently faces a serious under-supply of student accommodation, a.k.a "PBSA" (Purpose Built Student Accommodation): "The Student Accommodation Council estimates that 84,000 new PBSA beds are needed by 2026, but only 7,700 are currently in the pipeline, leading to a range of challenges for students, universities, and local communities." https://tbhconsultancy.com/from_crisis_to_opportunity_unlocking_australias_student_housing_future/ CBRE (property developer) even estimates that only 6% of students in Sydney & Melbourne can access PBSA near their uni's: https://www.cbre.com.au/insights/reports/student-accommodation-2025-pacific Myth 4: "It's property investors driving up prices, which has nothing to do with immigration" Simply put: people almost universally do not invest in houses without the guarantee of A) someone needing a place to rent (which subsidises the investor loan), and B) the expected guarantee of capital gains upon selling, due to there always being someone desperate enough to buy for a high price as a result of a growing population. No amount of tax settings, whether it be negative gearing or the CGT discount, can make residential property attractive enough if neither of these are true. Tax settings simply amplify the benefits of demand; they don't create it from scratch... people needing a place to live do. Banks also assess risk in granting investor loans based on estimated rental yields and vacancy rates; if those are low, they will simply not give out as many loans to investors. Banks and lenders look at an investor's serviceability (their ability to pay back the loan) based on two income streams: the investor's salary and the projected rental income of the property. Our current record-low rental vacancy rates guarantees a pool of desperate renters willing to pay overs, which property investors look at and know they can exploit to charge high rents, adding enough rental yield $ to justify the math of the property loan. If vacancies were high, rents would be falling, then investor demand would fall sharply. Myth 5: "House prices went up during Covid, therefore immigration does not drive house prices" The "COVID argument" is a classic example of ceteris paribus ('all other things being equal') being ignored. All other things were not equal during COVID - while the "migration engine" was turned off, all major other "engines" were turned to maximum. This is what's known in rhetoric as the "Single-Cause Fallacy". This is a logical error that attempts to justify that because multiple other things happened, it therefore means something else therefore can't be true. In reality, the COVID-19 period didn't prove that migration "doesn't matter"; it simply proved that other factors were temporarily much stronger, enough to override it. Interest rates were lowered to record-low levels; construction material costs surged; the government handed out enormous amounts of stimulus money; mass amounts of people were given Work From Home rights & wanted bigger places to live; people weren't spending on anything else so pumped all their money into housing. This was a one-off anomaly; if immigration had somehow ALSO been as high as it is now during that time, it would have created a 'double-squeeze', putting even more pressure on prices. Myth 6: "Migrants mainly rent, not buy, so they don't affect house prices" Even if it's true that many migrants rent first (which it mostly is), they still increase demand in the housing system. As mentioned before, tight rental markets raise rents, which increases yield $ on housing. This also results in houses being kept as rental properties, removing the house from the 'buyer pool' and removing an additional property that a potential First Home Buyer or other person looking for a home could otherwise purchase to live in. International Students are also able to buy properties while living here, not just rent, which has been happening at an increasingly frequent rate as they look to escape being gouged on rent themselves: https://www.sbs.com.au/language/chinese/en/article/international-students-tackle-australias-housing-crisis/n8yoysj3p Myth 7: "But international buyers comprise only a tiny percent of the house purchases each year" This is misinformation that comes from people thinking data on International Investors is the same thing as immigration. The 'tiny percent' figure of 'foreign buyers' is people from overseas approved by FIRB to buy properties here to use as investments; it's often used as a way to park foreign money as Aussie property is seen as a 'safe haven' for many wealthy people from overseas. Labor recently instituted a (temporary) ban on this practice for 2 years; in 2022-23, the last financial year for which data is available, there were 5,360 foreign home purchases, which is where the "less than one per cent of all sales" line people spout on this issue comes from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-16/labor-matches-coalition-ban-on-foreign-housing-investment/104941620 These are the people who 'buy apartments and leave them empty' that people cite as a boogeyman and act like are reflective of the entire property investment market. This has nothing to do with immigration, and is (was?) only a much smaller driver of demand, albeit still a small factor. Myth 8: "It's a supply issue, not a demand issue" Perhaps one of the most brain-dead 'arguments' on this issue that is repeated over & over again... politicians in particular seem to LOVE this line. There is simply no such thing as 'only' a supply issue or 'only' a demand issue. It's a 'false dilemma' that ignores that supply & demand are two ends of the same spectrum, with the only difference at any one time being how easy one or the other are to address. It also suggests you must choose between blaming supply or demand, but in reality, price is the intersection of both. High migration acts as a "multiplier" on bad supply policy. If supply is already restricted by zoning (as groups like Grattan argue), and we also lack the labour force to build enough supply at the rates required to keep up with population growth, then adding more people creates an even more extreme price spike than it would in a flexible market with higher vacancy rates. And due to our aforementioned lack of tradespeople (due to migrants being under-represented in construction), supply is currently far harder to address than demand. Myth 9: "Migrants are poorer and can't afford expensive homes/migrants only live in apartments" This attempts to lump all migrants into a single group, ignoring the fact there are multiple categories of visa (students, temp skilled, permanent skilled, working holiday, parent, etc. etc.) that all have different financial situations & levels of wealth. People on Reddit who rabidly defend high immigration often make the smug 'Schrodinger's migrant' comment, implying a sarcastic (and naive) assumption that a migrant can only affect one part of the market. In reality, the high volume of migration puts pressure on both ends of the spectrum simultaneously through different mechanisms. International students and low-skill workers compete directly for low-cost rentals. This drives up the "floor" of the market & when the cheapest rentals disappear or spike in price, it forces everyone above them to pay more, creating a ripple effect that pushes up the median. Australia's migration intake is also heavily skewed toward Skilled Visas. Many of these arrivals are also high-income earners who arrive with significant savings, often in currencies strong compared to the $AUD, or with pooled funds sourced from family members given to them specifically to buy property after arriving here. This cohort don't just "rent a room", they compete for mid-to-high-tier housing either immediately or within a few years. Myth 10: "You are just blaming immigrants" False, and a favoured technique of those trying to turn the discussion into an emotional one, and/or try and get discussions on this topic locked or removed. Blaming immigration (policy) is not the same as 'blaming immigrants'. Immigrants themselves do not set the policy, and attacking the way the government handles intake composition, infrastructure spend, housing supply etc. are not related to the individual people coming here themselves. By attempting to shut down discussion on immigration policy, you are attempting to imply that people are unable to criticise the government, which is a core aspect of non-democratic, totalitarian & fascistic societies. ___ Summary: If you actually read this whole thing, credit to you. Is immigration the "only" cause of the housing crisis? Of course not - the title of this post is a primary driver, not the only driver, and that's not what's being stated anywhere within this post. However, it's a factor that (on Reddit especially) is constantly told to not talk about at all and/or is not relevant, which is also obviously untrue. Even if we accept the absolute best-case scenario that immigration contributes 'only' ~30% of price rises, that would make it by definition one of the 'top 3' factors, and one that doesn't require multi-year solutions to address. I look forward to the rebuttals/half-truths from the property investors, business owners, international students who use Reddit etc. who will all no doubt brigade this thread and try to use the "R" word in order to continue to justify this broken system continuing. submitted by /u/NoLeafClover777 to r/aussie [link] [comments]

Why make this post? The latest Inkwell Note shows that Inkwell is actively ignoring certain huge issues in GMS or choosing to kick the can down the road hoping the community forgets (Universal CS). The majority of the announcements in this note were things the community was already aware of or recaps of recent events. In past Inkwell Notes, Inkwell showed a great understanding of the happenings in the game and community as well as giving future solutions to issues the community is facing. Even with lots of feedback through several avenues (Discord, Reddit, YouTube videos), the majority of these recent issues were not even touched on in the latest Inkwell Note and it felt like it was used primarily as a promotional spot to generate more hype for Classic World. Casual Player Perspective The majority of this post reflects criticism from a casual player’s viewpoint, intended to represent issues commonly experienced by the broader player base. Why take this point of view? Whales and giga-grinders in Maplestory will always overcome any wall that is presented to them through sheer will of grinding (or also money in the case of Interactive). Whatever benefits the casual players will nearly always benefit the End Game players just as much, but the inverse is often not the case. This post focuses on increasing quality of life for all players as much as possible. Credits Over the last few months, there has been a lot of discourse within the community regarding issues unique to GMS and I have been trying my best to keep track of them. With the help of Maplestory subreddit posters, Discord community discourse, my own play experiences and content creators I have curated a list of issues that hopefully people in the Nexon America team (Inkwell, Calahan, etc.) can take a look at. A huge thank you to all of you in the subreddit and other communities who take the time to voice your criticisms in a meaningful manner. I strongly believe that voicing our opinions as a collective is the best way to work with Nexon to create a better GMS. I also would like to shoutout two content creators who have been making some great videos regarding these topics. They had some great viewpoints and suggestions that I took much inspiration from. Please check them out after reading this post. Duky: Youtube page. Twitch page. Duky shared with me a great document that had a comprehensive list of issues gathered by multiple passionate players. All the issues listed in that doc won't be in this post due to length concerns, so I chose as much of the big hitting topics as I could. Video: Nexon NEEDS to Fix These Issues with Maplestory MORE Issues With MapleStory That Nexon NEEDS To Fix The Newest MapleStory Inkwell Note Was A DISASTER Ereklo Game: Youtube page. Twitch page. The twins are some of the biggest Maplestory hypers in the community. They make great guides/entertainment for the community and their content oozes with the passion for the game. If even they have criticisms of the recent happenings in Maplestory, you know something can be fixed. Everything Maplestory NEEDS to Change About the NEW Pity Systems... The Maplestory Heroic Damage Issue NEEDS To Be Fixed... Maplestory Just Released a BRAND-NEW Inkwell Note... Here Are My Thoughts.... With the introduction out of the way, here we go. RNG Trust At An All-Time Low There has long been speculation within the community that Nexon uses dynamic RNG in Maplestory to adjust rates over time. Since Nexon has never released numbers for things like boss drop rate, these discussions were mainly speculative, based largely on observed trends and the fact that Nexon holds a patent on Dynamic RNG. However, in recent weeks, there have been two Maple Memos confirming that RNG rates were altered, with Nexon stating that these rates were unintentionally nerfed. First was the Arcane/Absolab Armor/Weapon Boxes, followed by Star Speck Boxes being nerfed. While these nerfs may not have been intentional, their confirmation has significantly impacted player trust. This is even further discouraging when in 2021 Nexon was caught rigging their cube rates and flame rates for years and spent the next several years trying to earn back player trust. It was also discovered a week ago in the new Maple Idle (mobile Maplestory) that a certain line that players paid money to roll was technically impossible to roll! When rate changes are discovered only after prolonged community concern, without prior transparency, it only reinforces the perception that RNG systems are rigged against the player. For casual players especially, this uncertainty makes progression feel discouraging. The meme that the community likes to repeat is that “if it benefits the players, it will be immediately fixed in minutes. If it doesn’t benefit the players, bugs or fixes take forever.” It is frustrating to have game breaking bugs stay in the game for days/weeks. Universal Cash Shop Universal Cash Shop (UCS) is widely regarded as one of the most player friendly changes ever introduced to Maplestory. Korea Maplestory and every other region (MSea, CMS, TMS, JMS) have implemented this system. GMS now remains the only exception. With the latest Inkwell note, it is also now obvious that Inkwell and team GMS are avoiding talking about this issue and pretending it doesn’t exist. Many players believe the decision not to bring UCS to GMS comes from Heroic servers being non-trade and the general population of GMS being smaller. The prevailing assumption is that allowing Cash Shop items to be freely shared would reduce spending since players would only need to purchase items once. Even if this concern is valid, this is a flawed and short sighted strategy by Nexon. Nexon America has failed to recognize that when players are treated well, many will respond by engaging and spending more willingly. The majority of GMS players were already well aware of UCS having been implemented not just in Korea, but other regions like Maple Sea thereafter. The GMS community was waiting with bated breath for UCS to be ported. The disappointment across the GMS community when UCS wasn’t implemented was palpable. As a result, many casual players have chosen to stop spending entirely, due to the frustration with having to repeatedly repurchase the same Cash Shop items across multiple characters. Rather than encouraging spending, this approach creates irritation and discourages long term investment. The current GMS Cash Shop strategy built around class division, FOMO (fear of missing out) tactics, and reliance on whales to spend large amounts of money reflects an outdated and despised monetization model. Even KMS, the most heavily monetized region, has somewhat recognized this and loosened the restrictions by adding UCS. Additionally, the current GMS approach of having Cash Shop transfer events only twice per year is extremely outdated. In KMS, for almost two years leading up to the introduction of UCS, a Cash Shop transfer event was held on the first weekend after every patch. This effectively meant Cash Shop transfers on a monthly basis. By contrast, Nexon America’s reliance on infrequent transfers only reinforces a strategy of “creating a problem and then selling the solution,” which feels deceptive to players and ultimately breeds consumer resentment rather than goodwill. Implementing UCS in GMS is not only one of the biggest community wants, it is a necessary step toward rebuilding trust, improving player satisfaction, and encouraging spending. GMS Server API Several years ago, KMS introduced a public API that allows for live player data tracking. The MapleStory community widely uses websites such as Maplescouter.com, which leverage this API to help players track their progress, compare relative strength for bossing, and plan their progression more effectively. This tool has become a major quality of life resource in regions where it is available. Players in the Western community have been requesting access to this feature for years. More recently, MapleSea implemented this API as well, yet GMS has still not received access to this functionality. Inkwell, you previously asked the community for time to assemble a team capable of developing features tailored specifically to the Western audience. Nearly two years have passed since that request. At this point, it would be reasonable to either see progress on initiatives like this or, at the very least, receive clear communication on whether such a feature is being actively worked on. Arthur’s Equipment Rental Arthur’s Equipment Rental system is one of the best unique pieces of original GMS content introduced in a long time. It allows players to temporarily gain the power needed to overcome specific progression walls particularly when they are slightly short on damage for certain bosses. This system is especially valuable for casual and newer players who are still building their gear. The rental equipment helps bridge the multi-week gap where players are farming Gollux accessories but lack the Combat Power to progress. For many, this temporary boost makes otherwise inaccessible content feel achievable. However, the current rental time of 24 hours is seen as too short by the community. Most casual players can dedicate one or two hours per day to MapleStory before real life responsibilities take priority. As a result, much of the rental period often goes unused. Increasing the rental duration would allow casual players to better take advantage of the system across multiple play sessions. The most commonly suggested improvement from the community is extending the rental period to 3 days. This allows casual players to take advantage of the rental gear to use it over the weekend starting from Friday. Too Much Event Importance On RNG One of the biggest things that stops player progression, especially casual players right now, is how much importance is placed on saving up for events that only come around a few times a year. The events in this game are so good that it is seen as mandatory to save up all your farming and mesos. This creates a gameplay loop where players spend months saving up for an event to go “all or nothing” in order to make progress. As is the case with RNG, there are times where you win and lose. However, for a casual player to spend months saving up for something just to not make any progress will often make the player quit. This is especially true with the new Starforce system that was introduced recently. The New Starforce In the new Starforce system, it is statistically viewed as throwing away your money since the boom rate is so much worse compared to the old system. On a Shining Starforce event (-30% boom reduction and 30% meso discount), the boom rate goes from around 4 booms expected to 22 star an item down to around 2. That is nearly 2 times the difference when you Starforce off event! This has caused a meta where players are actively discouraged to Starforce anything and hold off progression until a Shining Starforce comes around. The problem with this is that the Shining Starforce event only comes around every 2-3 months. In the latest Inkwell note, Inkwell acknowledged this issue and said there is a plan to implement a fix to bring Shining Starforce more often… IN JUNE. This is a disingenuous “fix” since this just follows the KMS timeline. The frustrating part of this is that the new Starforce is acknowledged as a “burden” by Inkwell but refuses to copy and paste the fix that already exists in KMS! This change to Sunny Sunday is something he can fix TODAY, but chose not to. Miracle Time Miracle time is an event that increases the chance to upgrade a potential tier on an item with cubes and it only comes around twice a year. In the past, Miracle Time caused a large amount of lag and server instability. To fix this issue, what the Nexon team decided to do is limit what kinds of items can be boosted with Miracle Time over the span of a month. One weekend is only Accessories, another weekend is only Gloves and so on. This did solve the lag issue, but this method is short sighted and poor for player experience in a few big ways. Why did Miracle Time cause lag in the first place? The event only came around 2 times a year for only a day or two each time. This created huge amounts of FOMO and the habit to save up and use everything all at once. The entire server spamming cubes and items they have been saving for months will obviously cause issues. The solution is not to split up the items, but have it be more often throughout the year. A monthly or every other month cadence to the event would do wonders to lessen the FOMO created and reduce the burden on the server. No one uses Miracle Time in the way it is intended. Telling a new player that they can tier up their Cape today, but have to wait 5 weeks to tier up their Shoes is nonsense. Players do not wait months or weeks to tier up an event at a slightly more efficient rate. Playing around events that are 6 months apart is terrible. Missing out on a Miracle Time event due to IRL happenings then having to wait 6 months for the next one feels terrible. It promotes a “you snooze, you lose” mentality to casual players when they should be encouraged to come back and interact with upgrade systems (arguably the most fun part of the game) more often. The Miracle Times need to come around way more than twice a year and have it be applied to all items during the event. Cube Sales Much like the Miracle Time event, Cube Sales suffer from the same problem of being too infrequent and creating the same FOMO and “all in” mentality. But, I would argue even more so since cubing for potential lines is a much more important part of the gameplay compared to just tiering up. Cube Sales should occur more often than twice a year. Familiars / Expedition The most recent refresh of the familiar system is a welcome change. The most sought after line rates (boss/att/drop) were somewhat improved, and the new Familiar Expedition system encourages players to keep leveling up familiars for both damage potentials and expedition potentials simultaneously. With that being said, there are some easy fixes to maximize the fun of interacting with the familiar system. The RNG behind tiering up familiars is still a big pain point. Players would rather have the cost increased for a guaranteed tier up, rather than being burdened with a dozen tier up attempts just to hit pity. When players are farming hundreds of familiars over hundreds of hours, hitting a streak of poor RNG is demoralizing. Why are the familiar combine and tier up animations so long? They are around 5 seconds each time and lock you out before you can do anything else. Just remove the animations entirely or significantly reduce the delay. Familiar sounds need their own UI option to adjust familiar sounds. They are currently tied to Monster SFX and when players want to hear boss sound effects it gets drowned out by Familiars constantly attacking. The rewards in the Expedition can be better tailored to each server. Heroic: Add more fragment rewards and things like Blue Cards. Interactive: You can add Chains of Resentment as a chase item like a Pitched Accessory box. The Familiar Expedition rewards have a unique ID so they cannot stack with other existing items (a WAP from Expedition won't stack with a normal WAP). Please work on fixing this since it fills up the bags when they can be easily stacked. Heroic finally got a way to increase familiar expansion slots as well, but with NX. Consider putting these expansion slots in the reward shop as well in both servers. It doesn't have to be unlimited, even a few free 2 play familiar expansion every month will go a long way. Mysterious Star Speck Boxes (Heroic) This is more of a Heroic issue since Star Speck Boxes are tradable on the Auction House. Star Speck Boxes are a great addition (on paper) to the game for players to make up for the fact that Pitched items are historically gated by RNG from bosses. It is the "farming" way to obtain Pitched Boss Pity from the three new systems added recently. However, the limitation of 10 boxes a day to get a single replacement of a Pitched Boss item keeps the system from reaching its full potential. On average, it takes 700 boxes for 1 Pitched Star Core (1 Star Core + 50 Shining Star Specks). This is 70 days of capping boxes. This ends up being around 5 Pitched Star Cores a year. On average, it takes 3-4 booms to get a single item to 22 stars. That means a full year of farming Star Speck Boxes may help with a single item get to 22 if you cap boxes every day. The timeline of 1 Pitched Star Core every few months is too slow in the grand scheme of things when future content from KMS will have higher star counts (23+ stars) as a part of the balance. For each star after 22, the boom count essentially doubles! 50 expected booms for an item to reach 25 stars. A limit of 10 boxes a day also hurts both casual players AND end game players. A casual player won't be able to farm 10 boxes everyday to make progress. However, on the days that this player can farm longer durations, they are hurt by this system only limiting them to the 10 boxes for the day. End game players gain an advantage over casuals just through the raw amount of hours farmed. More hours farmed means more Meso, Sol Erda fragments, honor, levels, and progress in general EXCEPT for being gated by RNG due to Pitched Items not dropping from bosses. Let Heroic farmers earn their advantage through hard work in the Star Speck Boxes system just like any other system. You can even have the Box drop rate lower after the initial 10, think of it as a soft cap. Pitched Whisper Crystals Thank you to bamba for making a video on the math. Pitched Whisper Crystals are the "Weekly Bossing" method to obtaining Dawn Boss, Pitched Boss (Total Control excluded), Mitra's Emblem, and Genesis Badge through the new Pitched Pity systems added. On paper, it is a great passive way to earn Pitched Boss Items through bossing weekly and obtaining Whisper Crystals. However, only 9 Whisper Crystals are given a week. That means it takes 16.25 weeks (4 months) for a single Pitched Boss item. For an average of 22 stars (3 booms), that is 48.75 weeks (over 11 months). Genesis Badge is also obtainable in this system and fortunately only requires 1 purchase. However, 390 Whisper Crystals is 43 weeks of saving up (over 10 months). When calculating anything above 22 stars, the amount of time required starts going into the years, not months. The system is simply too slow for any meaningful progress for players past early/mid game. Boss Trace Restoration The Boss Trace Restoration system is the "Boss Challenge" method to obtaining trace restores for Eternals, Brilliant Boss Items, and Pitched Boss items using Trace Points obtained through solo Boss Challenge missions. Unlike the other two systems, there is essentially no restriction on what items you can restore as long as you have enough points. However, there are still issues with this system. When the system first came out, certain boss missions were extremely difficult (get stringed 20 times in Verus Hilla). Thankfully the most egregious of these missions were made much easier. When one character started Trace Missions, the entire weekly lockout was now tied to that character. Thankfully, they made it so that you can complete these missions also in practice mode so you can do them on your main and not sacrifice party bossing. For example: You can get the "Normal difficulty" boss trace mission complete for Darknell with other difficulty modifiers in practice mode, then clear Darknell in Hard difficulty for the actual clear. Just like the other two systems, the amount of weeks/months to save up enough points for a single restore makes this system too slow. If an end game and established character did all the possible missions, it would equal 133 points a week. That would mean... Eternal Equipment (2312 points)= 17.38 weeks. A 22 Star Eternal takes on average 1 year with this system. Brilliant Boss Accessories (2500 points)= 18.79 weeks Pitched Boss Accessories (1680 points): 12.63 weeks The biggest negative with this system is that the point cap is 2500. So, no matter what item you choose to restore, you will only have one replacement to use an entire event. On top of that, if you cap points and do not use them, any additional bosses killed will waste points. That means points may get wasted if the player cannot time restores with Starforcing events. The point cap needs to be increased or the points required for a restore needs to be dramatically reduced. Sol Erda Fragments (Heroic) Duky made a great video on this topic that I will condense here. In Interactive, players can farm and purchase Sol Erda Fragments to level up their 6th job progress. In Interactive, players are Sol Erda energy gated. Although it can get a little bit expensive sometimes, players can ultimately supplement their Sol Erda fragment needs through trade and it is also a great source of additional income for players to make meso. The market works as intended. In Heroic though, the opposite is true and players are Fragment gated due to lack of trade. However, even with updated events and more sources of free Sol Erda fragments, the methods to acquire Sol Erda fragments have not meaningfully increased in the two years 6th job has been out. In Heroic, the vast majority of fragments still come from raw hours of farming. In the first 6th job patch, players needed 20,184 Fragments to max 6th job. In the latest 6th job patch, players now need 43,876 Fragments to max 6th job. More than double! If an already established player (with max drop rate) farmed for 6 hours a day on top of doing Angler Company and the Weekly Sol Erda quest (excluding events), this is how long it would take to max 6th job. 20,184 Fragments: 144 days. 43,876 Fragments: 312 days. Keep in mind that this is only for a single character. The game also incentivizes you to create multiple Legion Champs on top of this (even though you don't have to max your 6th job all the way on Legion Champs). The game is telling new players that in order for them to maximize their character's potential, they will have to spend over 10 months training 6 hours a day! Due to recent events and quality of life changes players are able to quickly reach 285 faster than ever before, BUT their 6th job progress doesn't come close to what's required to actually do bossing content at level 285. There need to be more ways for players to earn Fragments in the game. Here are some suggestions. Grandis Dailies should add some Fragments for completion. Bosses that drop Sol Erda Energy should also drop some fragments. Familiar Expedition should drop MORE fragments. It already gives out some, but it is extremely small amounts. Sol Erda Fragments need to be tradable within the account. This way a finished main character can continue to grind for further levels while also supplementing some progress on a Legion Champion mule. In a game where multiple huge progression systems like Legion Champ incentivize players to play multiple characters, untradable fragments goes directly against this design philosophy. Chains of Resentment (Interactive) Chains of Resentment were introduced to the game as a way to alleviate the lack of Frenzy Totem in the game. Sometimes Frenzy Totem service sellers (legal as long as it is with meso) are not online or service is not reliable. This was a great idea on paper, but Chains of Resentment in practice are treated like a rare item rather than an aid as it was originally intended. Chains of Resentments are only available during the Ride or Die event or Philosopher Book sales. Ride or Die This event only comes around twice a year. The CoR totem coupons can only be gotten through the 50 RNG boxes per week. They are so rare, that many people will go the entire event (300-350 boxes) without a single one. The Event CoR totems last 30 days when redeemed. The CoR coupons all expire when the event ends. That means that 30 days after Ride or Die ends, players have to wait another 4 months until the next Ride or Die event and pray to get lucky again. Philosopher Books Philosopher Books also only come around twice a year and each book costs 2600 NX ($2.6 USD). The CoR coupon from Philo Books is tradable in Auction House and lasts for 90 days once redeemed. However, the coupon is only a 0.5% drop rate. That is one in every 200 boxes! This essentially means that although players can technically get CoR in between Ride or Die events, they are essentially priced out since CoR are around 60b in the Auction House (which is around 170,000 NX ($170 USD)). Chains of Resentment coupons (the free version) need to be available more often in more events throughout the year. You can also add the 90 day version of the totem to the recently added Cash Shop item Divine Wishing Bell. This way, both the paid and free versions are more accessible (and Nexon makes more money...). Cube Prices (Interactive) Cube Prices in general are not only too expensive, they are outrageously expensive. $12 for 11 Glowing Cubes. $22 for 11 Bright Cubes. $24 for 11 Bonus Glowing Cubes. Bonus Bright Cubes only go on sale around once a year (3-4 total sales in the past 5 years). They cost $3.5 EACH. I'm sure most players know, but it can sometimes take HUNDREDS of cubes to get a proper 3 line. This applies for both main potential and bonus potential. You can do the math in your head and see that the cost skyrockets quickly. It is easily possible for an item to get into the hundreds of dollars (thousands if you want perfect lines) just from cubing alone. ONE ITEM. In certain cases like 3L ATT BPOT, the average is 13,000 CUBES (and you have to do that for Weapon, Secondary, AND Emblem!) In KMS, they introduced the Magic Wand system because KMS got in trouble with the Korea FTC (Fair Trade Commission). The Magic Wand system got rid of cubes and introduced a way to reroll potentials with meso instead. This needs to be brought over to GMS or cubes need to get significantly cheaper. In KMS, they introduced more avenues for players to pay for progression (VIP Sauna, Genesis Passes, etc) to make up for the lost revenue when they got rid of cubes. However, GMS Interactive KEPT cubes and also brought all the pay for progression content. The amount of people slowly leaving Interactive to either quit the game or go to Heroic show that the monetization model for Interactive needs to get much more consumer friendly quickly. This created an environment in GMS where it is SO expensive for the average player to make progress that when things like Violet Cubes and Unicubes come around players are desperate to buy those instead. If the majority of the players refuse to interact with cubes outside of Violet Cubes and Unicubes, that is a reflection on poor pricing and players being sick of FOMO strategies. Ride or Die A lot of feedback has been given to the Maplestory team regarding Ride or Die across the three times this event has been ongoing. However, the "improvements" that have happened from event to event leave a lot to be desired. No way for players who participate in Ride or Die in Challengers World to bring their Legion Piece reward over to their home world. Knowing that players are fiending for the return of pottable badges, they brought in a temporary pottable badge which only angered the playerbase. Nexon then just removed the item entirely from the prize pool this time around essentially just ignoring the problem entirely. Trying to maximize the points in this event just turns into... Buff up -> Go in and origin burst/ascent -> Leave and wait 6 minutes -> Repeat. It is not a satisfying gameplay loop and actively discourages interacting with Ride or Die bosses the more points you want. For new players that are attempting this content, the modifiers essentially make any meaningful progress impossible due to attacks being spammed constantly left and right. Bronze coins are useless and only serve to fill up our bags. If the ONLY use for bronze coins is to convert them to silver coins, then just give the silver coins instead. The new Libae's Ring system was a great addition. However, the Grindstone coupon being tied behind the boxes made it so that many players never even had a chance to level up the ring. They had to pray for a Grindstone coupon to drop in a box, then pray the low RNG chance of upgrading the ring passed. This is RNG upon RNG and poor design. Grindstone coupons should have also been sold in the Event shop. The other chase item Chains of Resentment in Interactive should also be sold in the event shop, even if it is only one. The popular Mapae Nodes should also have their supply refreshed weekly. Cross World Bossing It's been about a year or more since KMS players have had the ability to do cross world bossing. Last year, GMS Interactive had a server merge and consolidated the four Interactive servers into two. During that process, the Auction House was also unified so that both Scania and Bera players can cross world Auction House. The successful unification of the Auction House shows that GMS already supports cross world systems at scale. Several events throughout MapleStory's history have also had Cross World functions. The soccer mini-game during the Olympic Themed event had both Interactive and Heroic players playing together Cross World. Both Heroic and Interactive servers can greatly benefit from Cross World Bossing. In particular, Heroic servers would see immediate improvements. Hyperion has a much smaller population compared to Kronos, which limits party based bossing opportunities, especially in the end game. Allowing Hyperion players to boss with players from Kronos would meaningfully improve progression access, reduce the feeling of server isolation, and make Hyperion a more attractive server overall rather than one that feels underpopulated. A more attractive Hyperion server can also help out with Kronos being overpopulated. How You Can Contribute Please understand that even though this post is long and I often sound like a doomer... I write all this due to my passion for the game and the community. I truly believe that this game is great and can be made even better with our contributions. Who does Nexon make the game for anyway? Us! The players! We have a right to voice our opinions in how we want the game direction to go because this relationship between us (consumer) and Nexon (producer) is a two way street. If you agree with the concerns outlined above and want to see meaningful improvements to MapleStory, there are several constructive ways you can help amplify this message. Help spread awareness. Share this post with others who care about the game! This includes the community as a whole and also Nexon directly. While they may not actively engage on every social media platform, they have stated that they do pay attention to communities such as Reddit and YouTube. For example: Inkwell and Calahan both have told Duky that they watch his videos. So, spread the word! Consider upvoting this in the Official MapleStory Discord and keep on spreading awareness where possible! The #1 way to get Nexon to pay attention is through their pockets. If you believe in the message, consider spending less or refraining from purchases altogether. The #2 way to get Nexon to pay attention is with population numbers. With ELTEPT event over and nothing huge being on the horizon for the next few months, if you are feeling burnt out feel free to explore other games or take some time off from the game to recharge your batteries. Let Nexon know that your time should be earned, not assumed. Even if you do still want to play, consider reducing the time spent since playtime metrics are also something Nexon considers important. Continue to provide feedback through official channels like Discord, in-game tickets, and the forum. But, please remember to be respectful. Please support content creators who also speak on these topics! While Interactive and Heroic servers each face their own unique challenges, we are ultimately one community and should approach these issues together. Thank you for your time reading this lengthy post. Happy Mapling! submitted by /u/Bacun to r/Maplestory [link] [comments]

December 10th, 2023 was my last career work day as an engineer. I retired at 45 with about $6.5M in NW. I started with a negative networth in around 1996 and slowly built it up over time. I wrote a detailed post in this subreddit about it HERE and shared my annual spending here. Although NW might be in the Chubby to FAT range, I feel the community that resonates best with me is LEAN. This is probably due to coming from a blue collar background. Portfolio analysis 2024 vs 2025. At the end of 2024 networth was up just over $1M ending at around ~$7,100,000. This year (2025) it is now ~$7,605,000, roughly up by $500K. During a few days in October this year, networth peaked at around ~$7.8M. I have actively not been looking into increasing investments or chasing income but focusing on guiding the kids around building good financial habits such as investing. Currently I'm mainly in VTSAX, VTI, my previous company stock and some real estate. The break down between the three categories is approximately: 35% Vanguard Index Funds, 30% previous company stock and 35% real estate. I carry no bonds and no debt but keep a good reserve of a few years spending in cash not included in the figures above. Although not financially optimal, my reserves, help me to ignore market volatility, worry less and sleep better at night. Year to date the real estate portfolio is down almost 4% from last year while paper assets are up an impressive 14,5%. This year international did really well but I largely missed out on that. Networth Progression Its been a rough ride but the effects of compounding and capital appreciation are undeniable. During this time we have experienced the Dot com bubble, Y2K, major wars, market corrections & gut wrenching crashes, the great recession, & the global pandemic to name a few. Regardless of it all... The market continued to steadfastly march forward and grow. Expenses for 2025: Although not yet finalized as there are still a few weeks left in the year and some tax loss harvesting to be had... I’m aiming to keep MAGI around $70K. This year I already harvested some losses and managed to have some qualified deductible expenses as well through an LLC. I hope to write an update post on spending early next year once spending is finalized. Reflections: I’m grateful because I did not experience the sense of loss from leaving the job as many people seem to in my situation. Many years of mental prep with regards to removing my sense of self worth from my corporate title seem to have paid off and I'm settling in well into my new role. My routine with regards to hiking, spending quality time with the kids & wife, cooking, reading, baking, traveling, exercising, contemplation & meditation and learning a whole lot of new skills has been excellent. Stocks but no bonds: This year I've seen some days where networth declined and increased by $200K or above in rapid succession but I kept calm and stayed the course. Although much of my portfolio is in index funds and real estate, I still need to reduce my single stock exposure which was the happy result of some RSUs while working over a few decades. This is a project in progress balancing Spending, Risk & MAGI for Taxes while optimizing brain glow. Retirement blues: Even when retired, there are days when you just feel down for seemingly no reason at all. So happiness and joy are intrinsically driven, retired or not. I always have to count my blessings and remind myself to be grateful. Happiness does not happen by default it comes by intentional design and continuously working on a positive mindset. Keeping busy: In recent months, I've been able to do lots of volunteering restoring houses in low income neighborhoods as an example. Naturally, I came across a few tough situations where I questioned my sanity about doing this without compensation but for the most part, everyone I've interacted with have been excellent human beings. Inherently people are good and I get a lot of time to really focus on the positive side and the goodness of life and giving back. Travel: Even with some international trips, somewhat higher cost of living and all the leisure time, personal annual expenses are trending towards $70-75K for this year. Choosing a lower cost to medium cost location has also been a great tool against the scourge of inflation. Your costs could easily double just based on where you reside. This year travel destinations included, Africa, South America and Europe. I spent about 2 months traveling. The longest trip we took was during the summer period when the kids were not in school. Looking forward I'm not big on new year's resolutions or trying to be too productive, so I hope to do with next year what I pretty much did this year. Perhaps I may spend more time with my mom, who is now over 70 but still quite healthy and active. With all the volunteering I have been doing, one of the major realizations is that as much as I'd like, I cant save everyone but as long as I've done the very best I can, that’s okay. This year reminded me, some of the things we worry about and fear happening actually never transpire. We waste so much time stressed or afraid instead of taking the leap of faith. To successfully reach FI and RE it takes a lot of unconventional approaches to life and I have found myself reflecting on some of the sacrifices along the way. Moving across the country first for better career prospects, taking on tough projects where failure seemed to constantly knock at the door; Later moving to another state for better cost of living and finally moving again getting back closer to family; these were big changes and a challenge for me and the family, yet we persisted. I do not believe FIRE would have been possible had I not made these sacrifices, yet I don’t look at them as deprivation but rather a natural part of our journey to get to here. Strangely, the further away I was the closer I got to some of the most important people in my life; I had to be more intentional about spending time with them and making room. Attracting Lady Luck Luck is definitely a factor. I'm eternally grateful to all the people who helped me along the way. There were so many that mentored me often without knowing they were doing so. There were so many examples of what good looks like which I could learn from and emulate. Also there were many experiences I noticed in RE couples for the things I would like to avoid. My parents also blazed the trail and gave me just enough information through frugality, simplicity and delayed gratification that by the time I needed to apply these lessons, they were almost second nature. Luck is a factor but luck does prefer the prepared mind and a prepared mind is fertile ground for cultivating your fortune. Frugality, Experiences and Joy I think living below your means and truly knowing what is important to you is key. Most people spend so much resources they don't need to just to impress people, they don't care about. I'm learning it really doesn't take a lot to make most of us happy. Speaking with a lot of my RE friends, it seems about $2M is more than most people will ever need and if you are particularly creative, $1M or even less than that, is still a good nest egg for FIRE in many places. I have read Die with Zero and I didn’t resonate with the main theme of the book. Instead of trying to Die with Zero its a much better approach to seek the pursuit of Joy, whatever that means to you. I’m seeing a trend where people are beginning to replace consumerism with experiences, in essence missing the point of FIRE altogether. For me its about being free and having choices and less about fancy holidays that create “memory dividends” or expensive “experiences”. Great experiences don’t have to cost an arm and a leg. This year I taught my youngest son how to drive. The experience really tested both our trust and patience in each other and was one of the most memorable and wonderful things we did. Happy to report, he passed his driving test on his first try. The market, volatility and incredible returns I think there is a bubble in the stock market and SORR remains a medium risk for me but through mindful spending and keeping my skills current, I can always create new revenue streams if needed to supplement the portfolio should it be necessary. With some volunteer positions, they have insisted on providing me with a stipend, even though I did not seek it. The stipends were small but I could certainly work more and increase income if required. Socializing: I have also sought out and met quite a few early retired folks IRL and online, who have been retired for many years and I'm learning so much from them and it re-assures me to know what I'm doing has been done countless times before. The surprisingly for me, the biggest lessons are no longer about finances but rather mindset and getting one's head in the right space. One of my favorite sayings: “I’m retired, in the notion that I was tired yesterday and today I’m tired again...” This quote is funny but for me its a reminder never to take myself too seriously and also, even in retirement you are never fully free, there are still taxes to be paid, bills to be settled and promises to be kept. So, I try to face life with at least a sense of acceptance, enthusiasm and a perspective of joy, no matter what comes my way. Well, that’s it for now. As you can see, like everyone else here, I’m still trying to figure it all out and by no means am I an expert. I hope this perspective is helpful to someone. I will keep writing these updates as long as they are useful. Life is short but I’m happy to answer any friendly questions. submitted by /u/jayybonelie to r/Fire [link] [comments]

Hi, (It's a long post the TLDR is, be careful about using your card's security to make a claim it may financially blacklist you, and Japan is kind of racist! ) I've been in Japan for over 15 years, starting in rural areas and now in Tokyo. I've built a life here, paid my taxes, and always tried to integrate. What I've experienced recently isn't just "cultural differences" or "xenophobia" – it's something far more systemic and, frankly, racist. My Cautionary Tale: The Card Catastrophe I found an unauthorized charge of 2,000 yen on my bank statements, so I had my bank refund me the fraudulent charges and reissue a new card. A week later, the new card arrived, and that's when the headache began. Nearly half of my online payments, especially those on foreign websites, were rejected. The bank's response? Essentially, "this card is now Japan-only and for in-store use." My internationally functional debit card was crippled for no clear reason. (yes they refuse to elaborate or provide any further information much to my frustration) So, I decided to apply for a credit card through PayPay. It was approved, card arrived! And the credit limit was an insulting ¥30,000. They know my income and how long I've had a Yahoo account. There's zero chance a Japanese person with my financial profile would get such a low limit. It's practically useless. "Okay," I thought, "I'll just get a debit Visa card with Japan Post Bank. Majority of my savings are there, and I've been with them for over 15 years." Simple, right? Denied for a DEBIT CARD (using my own money!). Not only was I denied, but the denial letter explicitly stated they didn't have to tell me why. I have 90% of my savings with them, and for 15 years, I didn't even realize getting denied a debit card was even a possibility, I guess they are afraid of me using my OWN money. To be fair, this never mattered until my UFJ card became useless. So here I am: 15 years in Japan, a good salary, I speak Japanese, never broken a law, always paid my taxes. And I don't even have a fully functional debit card. This is more than just a minor inconvenience, hell some stores and restaurants are cashless now! This is impeding my everyday life. Beyond My Story: Systemic Racism in Japan I know some will say, "This is Japan, deal with it." But Japan has been loudly marketing its "diversity" and "internationalization," even hosting the World Expo, companies spouting diversity and inclusion left and right as pillars of their core philosophies. Yet, what I see and experience is often the opposite. This isn't about cultural misunderstandings anymore; it's about institutional racism that impacts fundamental aspects of our lives as foreign residents here. Let’s focus on a few areas where foreign residents consistently face systemic discrimination: 1. Housing Foreign residents regularly face housing discrimination when looking for an apartment, often blatant and in your face. From doing some research it seems Approximately 40% of foreign residents in Japan have reported experiencing rejection when applying for rental housing due to their nationality alone**.** I have faced it, and I'm sure most of you have too. This isn't just anecdotal; it's a documented reality that restricts our access to probably 75% of available properties. 2. Banking Discrimination My recent experience is a prime example. Banks here often treat foreign residents as inherent high risks. From what research I did, I cannot find any data supporting the idea that foreign residents, proportionality, are more prone to committing financial crimes than Japanese citizens. The scrutiny I faced during a recent attempt at an account opening, the interrogations about "why" I want an account, "where I live," "how long I've been here," "what I'll use it for," and “we need to talk to the person in charge to determine..”—it feels less like opening an account and more like a criminal investigation. I don't feel like a valued customer; I feel like a suspect. This perception of risk, despite clear financial stability and long residency, is racism. 3. Political Exclusion Japan faces critical issues I’m sure you are aware of: declining birth rates, rising housing costs, stagnant wages, and inflation to name a few. As someone who has lived here for 15 years, I believe I have valuable insights and ideas that could contribute to solutions. Yet, as foreign residents, we cannot run for political office. And even if we could, would a non-Japanese face be electable, regardless of the message or proposed policies ? Probably not (most definitely not). At the same time, Japan feels politically and economically adrift, with no clear direction for its future economically and politically. And excluding a growing segment of its tax-paying population from the political discourse is a serious oversight. I’m aware that in many countries you cannot take part in elections or run for office unless you're a citizen but there is one distinct difference for Japan compared to the others, it is nearly impossible to naturalize and become a Japanese citizen, as many of you know. As we are about 4% of the populace, it’s not unreasonable to expect SOME representation in politics as we call this place home, and pay taxes like everyone else. 4. Basic Infrastructure & Recognition Japan boasts about being "international," but often simple things expose the lack of genuine inclusion. For example, the issue of middle names: many systems don't accommodate them. No updated character limits, no extra fields. It's not a technical challenge that is impossible to conquer; it's simply a lack of care. It would cost next to nothing to adapt these systems, but they choose not to, even though adapting these systems would probably save companies time and resources spent dealing with how to handle every foreigner with a middle name on a case by case basis. We pay taxes, we work in vital sectors—look at the convenience stores and construction crews, increasingly staffed by non-Japanese residents. We contribute, but we do not get the same quality of life or respect as Japanese citizens. We Matter and It's Time for Change. The number of foreign residents in Japan has nearly doubled in the last ten years alone. As of December 2024, there are over 3.76 million foreign residents, making up approximately 3.04% of the total population, and this figure is steadily increasing. So, when does our presence "matter" enough? When we hit 5%? 7%? 10%? Before major companies offer basic English or Chinese phone support? Before real estate agents and landlords stop openly discriminating against us? (because we are all filthy motherless heathens) Companies are driven by profit, and there's an easy 4-5% market share increase they could capture by genuinely servicing foreign residents more proactively. But for many, we're simply convenient when needed, not an integral part of their long-term vision. This isn't about minor grievances. It's about fundamental rights. I firmly believe that Japan is racist. The banks are racist, the post office is racist, many companies are racist, and some people are indeed racist. While I'm not facing the same level of discrimination as some marginalized groups globally, that doesn't excuse what we experience here. Japan is reactive, almost to a fault, and now is the time we need Japan to be more proactive and actually include foreign residents in Japan’s long term visions for the future. Times have clearly changed, and Japan is quickly fading behind( if not silently dying, the countryside is fading into literal non-existence, but I digress!) and on its way to becoming a tourist driven economy which at the same time doesn’t know how to service and manage tourists. I can almost feel the growing resentment in Japanese citizenry, the ever increasingly packed trains, the increased housing costs of living, the increased population density in metropolitan areas, the hotter summers, seeing places and activities you would like to do raise their prices to accommodate to tourist while our local wages stagnant or even lower in many cases, and seeing the lack of taking any action will lead to more and more growing resentment until the point that something breaks. This is why far right political parties are gaining more popularity with younger Japanese people. You better believe, foreign residents will be the scapegoats for all of Japan’s social woes moving forward. This experience has pushed me to want to do more. I’m sure some of you have faced similar issues with banking, housing, or other aspects of life here that point to systemic discrimination. Are there any organizations, advocacy groups, or initiatives actively working on foreign resident rights in Japan that I can join or support? I want to see the quality of life for all of us improve. So I don't want to engage in an anecdote battle or blame gaming(many of my points are FACTS) I know many of you will be quick to disagree with my points and for any need for civil rights actions in Japan. but, the facts are clear: Record-high tourism and foreign residency Record-high housing costs stagnating wages increasing costs across the board and inflation the rise of right-wing Japanese parties, it is not a potential future, but a current reality that resentment and blame are increasingly being placed on foreigners, accurately or not. Expect more reactionary measures from companies and the government , because Japan will almost always air on the side of caution over any potential or perceived risks (because making a mistake is near unforgivable in the workplace) - angst and dissatisfaction are being misdirected towards an easy target. Just yesterday, while riding my bike home I had to ride along right wing truck blasting speeches about how foreigners are ruining a perfect Japan, it couldn't be more ironic as I was thinking of this post. While not near the same extremes as the United States, you can start to see similar patterns emerge. The narrative in the news and public broadcasts, which loudly proclaims that foreigners are causing more crime, are more dangerous, and cannot follow Japanese laws. This narrative persists and is amplified, despite there being zero data to support any of these claims. I believe it's critical we acknowledge these realities and discuss how we can work towards a more inclusive and equitable society for everyone in Japan. What are your thoughts on these observations? Note: I will not engage with any with personal attacks directed towards me. Now I’m trying to my best to support the Japanese economy: Www.gachagoodies.com submitted by /u/casperkasper to r/Tokyo [link] [comments]

I am NOT the Original Poster. That is HLayton. He posted in r/AmItheAsshole Do NOT comment on Original Posts. Latest update is 7 days old. Trigger Warnings: death; financial abuse; Mood Spoiler: sad and sobering but slightly bittersweet Original Post: June 2, 2021 I (26M) have 2 sisters (18&23) from the same mum and dad (50s). When I was 16 my parents went through a messy divorce which resulted in my sisters staying with my mum, and I stayed with my dad. My dad is disabled and has been unable to work due to a long list of medical issues since I was 16. He has kidney failure and is currently on dialysis while waiting for a transplant. This has meant that I have been looking after him in a variety of caretaker ways for a decade now. Throughout this time his contact with my 2 sisters has been minimal. He has in the past allowed my eldest sister to claim benefits that she was not entitled to by claiming to be a carer for my father amonst others. She has at no point in her life provided care for my dad. This caused many fights between my dad and I as I felt he was allowing her to commit fraud just so he could feel like he was helping her. I was recently contacted by his doctor who told me that my dad was no longer on the transplant list to receive the kidney transplant he needs. Apparently his health is now so poor that they don't know for sure if he'll survive general anaesthetic for the op. I was told that a major factor for this was his poor diet which was excaerbating his existing health issues. Hearing this my wife and I decided to move back in with my dad to try and get him onto a healthier diet to hopefully prepare his body for the transplant he needs. After we moved in I was going through his most recent letters when I discovered a letter informing him that my youngest sister had applied for a grant for young carers as a result of caring for him. My dad is lucky to see my sister once a month, let alone the 16 hours a week this grant requires. I confronted him and he said he was just trying to help her out in any way he could. This again led to a massive fight as currently me and my wife are the only family members supporting him. My sisters do nothing for him. They are both adults and yet neither has lifted a single finger once to help him. And yet, here he is again essentially committing fraud to help them out. We can't help but feel taken for granted and simply unappreciated. We do everything we possibly can for him, sacrifice our time, energy and money to ensure he has a more comfortable life, but time and again he chooses to focus his energy on helping my sisters cheat their way to funds & benefits they don't deserve. He's never once asked them to help him, so the burden of responsibility for his care rests entirely on our shoulders, despite the fact that of the 3 siblings I am the only one not currently receiving any benefit related to his care! We are now at the point where we are considering pulling all our support (financial and physical) and leaving his care entirely to the two women who are actually benefiting from "providing" it. WIBTA for withdrawing support from my father? Some of OOP's Comments: Commenter: Does allowing your sisters to claim carers allowance impact on the amount of support you and your wife are able to claim? And have you ever asked your sisters to help with his care? If so, how did they respond? OOP: We are comfortable financially and are no longer students so are no longer eligible for any financial support. I have never received any benefits for his care though due to being in full-time education at the time. The rules around this may have changed now. I have repeatedly asked my sisters to help my dad, with specific reference to the benefits they receive as a result of his disability. The response every time has been a "Fuck off, this is between me and dad. I don't give a fuck what you think" (paraphrased but not far off). On reporting the fraud: OOP: I don't think I'd ever be able to report them as there would be a high chance he'd have his benefits revoked. In the UK getting disability benefit is not easy (months of physical assessment, appeals, and then re-assessment). That would just be cruel to him imo. However, we provide so much more to him on top of that with a decent chunk of my monthly income going to his utilities to ensure he can live in a warm home with some luxuries (internet, netflix etc.). It's just hard seeing my sisters raking in monthly in benefits a sum roughly equivalent to what we spend every month on him. Can't help but feel like it's been taken from our pocket and going straight into their's, even if that isn't directly what's happening. Commenter: INFO: Have you applied for support and been denied because of them? Or has he refused to do whatever he needs to do for you to apply for support? OOP: Apologies, max char limit on the post. I have only received a grant for low income support for uni as he was the only parent I had supporting me, nothing else. My eldest sister has also received this (by putting him down as her sole parent despite living with my well off mother) as well as a car that he receives for his care. I was expecting to receive this car (significantly cheaper rental and insurance compared to normal) and then use it for us while I lived with him, but he instead decided to give it to my sister when she passed her test first, and then refused to take it back and give it to me. This car is supposed to be exclusively for his care and nothing else. In the 4 years she has had it she has never used it for him once, although she does pay the rental for it. The support my youngest sis is requesting will not impact me, but will be another instance of him willing to bend over backwards and break the law to help them, despite nothing in return. To commenters telling him to leave his dad: OOP: He's severely depressed and his mental state is such that I doubt that he'd be able to make the changes to his lifestyle required to effectively save his life. He is still my father and I do see keeping him alive as my responsibility, so it's not as simple or as easy as you may suggest. It is worth pointing out that if his mental state were to improve he would be able to cook and clean for himself (to a basic degree), but as it is right now that's out of his abilities. To another commenter: Yeah when you get told by his doctor that unless he starts doing X he will die soon, it places a lot of stress on you to resolve that as I do love him. Finding "appropriate" boundaries is what I've been struggling with as with the previous set-up we had his health was being impacted. What's the ideal distribution between his needs and my needs? How much can I step away without feeling guilt when he does eventually die? That's part of the reason I posted here - to understand if prioritising my needs and removing my existing support would be an Asshole-y thing to do to him. FWIW I only read his mail as I had to find his disability assessment docs to apply for a new disabled parking permit as the application is online and he's not tech savvy enough to do it himself. Just stumbled across it in the process. OOP's relationship with his sisters: I will say that my attitude towards them getting benefits they don't deserve & aren't entitled to is definitely impacted by our upbringing. Post-divorce I lived with my dad whose sole income was benefits. We lived in poverty but made do as best we could. My mother, however, is fairly successful in her career and lives a very comfortable life with enough on her own income (let alone combined with her husband) to give my sisters everything could want and more. She has contributed nothing to me financially since the age of 16, and was even claiming childcare from my dad for my sisters, despite us being in poverty. So with that in mind, to see them try to feign poverty and pretend to be poor despite being comfortably upper middle class just sickens me. And my father enables that behaviour, and what has it got him? One daughter who won't even call him on his birthday, and another who calls him twice a month and that's it. I want him to actually stand up to them and go "If you're willing to claim money off the back of my illness, then you can come and help me with it" as otherwise the entirety of that caregiving burden falls on me and my wife. And quite frankly, we're sick of it being that way. One more example from OOP: No he's not mean, but it feels like the airline saying "Put on your own mask before helping others". It takes a massive mental toll on both myself and my wife and at this point feel like it's unappreciated. He'll go out of his way to help my sisters, but won't do what's necessary to help us help him. A minor, slightly off topic, example is the fact that he spends more money on my sisters at Birthdays/Christmas than my wife, despite my wife having done more for him in the few years she's known him than my sisters have done in their entire lives combined. After a certain point you can't help but think "If he doesn't appreciate what we do, why should we continue to do it?" OOP is voted NTA Update Post: June 1, 2025 (4 years later) I remembered this post as my dad's birthday recently passed and thought I might as well give an update, even though no one asked. In January 2023, my father passed away from complete kidney failure. It wasn’t a surprise to me; his health had been in decline, and a transplant wasn’t going to happen. The rest of the family, though, were shocked. The last time he spoke to anyone, I showed him the 7-week scan of my now 2-year-old son, his first and only grandchild. We’d rushed to get the earliest scan we could, knowing he didn’t have much time. My son looked like a seahorse tadpole. He cried when I showed him, and we had a short talk about fatherhood before exhaustion took over. He fell asleep and never woke up. I asked him not to tell anyone since we were still early and didn’t want to jinx it. He said, “I’ll take it to the grave,” and passed away three days later. He kept his word. I think seeing the scan and having that moment made him die happy. As for my sisters, they never changed. I let it go. I knew I couldn’t change my dad and he was on borrowed time. For his birthday that year, we rented a canal boat since he’d always wanted one. He crashed it almost immediately. They gave him less and less consideration, ignoring him completely on what turned out to be his last birthday. No visit, no call, not even a text. He was devastated and reduced contact with them, though he never stopped helping them financially. When they found out he was dying, they rushed to his side and stayed until he passed. But like before, it was too little, too late. He was already unconscious. They hadn’t shown urgency when he was first admitted, only showing up when I told them he had chosen to end life support. I’d been told the day he was admitted, over two weeks earlier, that he might not survive. I believed it. I’d seen him in these situations before, and this time felt different. The rest of the family still thought he would recover and didn’t treat him as a priority. Eventually, my dad asked me if he was dying. Everyone else had been giving him false hope, mostly for themselves, so I had to tell him, “Yes, you’re going to die soon.” That was not an easy conversation. He passed surrounded by family who barely gave him their time when he was alive. My sisters definitely regret how they treated him, but it’s too late. We were civil at the funeral but haven’t spoken since. I scattered my share of his ashes at the end of the canal he never got to see. My sisters turned theirs into jewelry. I miss him every day, especially as his grandson looks so much like him. It’s a shame things never got resolved with his daughters while he was alive, but I think he died a happy man, and that’s enough for me. Editor's note: OOP commented on this post answering a few questions! OOP's mom: It's a long, long story. These posts were just about an issue with my dad. I went No Contact with my mum when I was 20 and she is the source of numerous therapy sessions (as well as many JustNoMIL posts by my wife!). Let's just say narcissists aren't conducive to good mental health. Clarifying some of the benefits: Character limits mean some details can't be fleshed out. I could go through and give you his full financial history, but there's no point in that. To address two points though: the car was paid for by his mobility payment, and was "repaid" by a monthly payment from my sister to him (splitting hairs about the "renting" terminology is really pedantic); the carers payment was a grant for university students so needed confirmation from the parent being cared for. You're just going to have to take my word for the rest of it. Custody situation: I deliberately kept some details vague and am going to keep them that way (I'm only comfortable sharing so much). It's a long complicated story, but I chose to live with him and that choice was never challenged by my mum. Courts only got involved for my sisters custody visitations. submitted by /u/LucyAriaRose to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/TheZeroG591 to r/RhodeIsland [link] [comments]

1. Introduction You open your favourite social media site. You see the same discussions come up again. Power creep. Player rewards. The monthly gacha revenue PvP leaderboards. But it feels like something is missing. These issues all feel related. But how? And why can two games made by the same developer still feel so different despite having so many similarities? That’s what I want to talk about today: How do gacha companies think about revenue? Why does your core game design matter for monetization? How does your game vision / content design / value delivery change based on your monetization goals? I will use Genshin and HSR for my examples, but the lessons and concepts are applicable to lots of other live services and gacha games more broadly as well. You may find this easier to read on my companion blog due to Reddit post limits and restrictions (such as the inability to post cute art in-line with text!). 2. How does revenue even work for gacha companies? At its core, gacha companies make money by making you roll the gacha. Their revenue can therefore be modelled as: Revenue = Player Desire to Consume (e.g. gacha / Resin refresh / BP / etc.) - Free Income So there’s only two ways for gacha companies to make more money from its players. Either: Make you want to consume more; or Limit your free income It also happens that both of these levers are fully in control of the game studio. Therefore, all players exist in a fully planned and controlled economy the game studio owns. 2a. “Generosity” is calibrated to drive a specific baseline revenue All free income effectively subsidises the spending of your players. So how do you determine what the optimal subsidisation level is? When you have a large enough player base, you can divide up your players into specific groups and study their spending behaviour. Modelling the player base at an aggregate level works because even though individual players make very personal decisions for their spending (e.g. meta value / character personality / character “personality” / etc.), in large enough groups the behaviour is predictable and normalised. Because free income directly offsets player spend, free income should not scale linearly with purchasable content. Instead, you should measure the elasticity of demand for your key player demographics i.e. the change in purchasing behaviour to changes in factors such as price or income The more inelastic your player behaviour, the less free income should scale with purchasable content You can then scenario model different levels of free income subsidisation and determine the revenue maximising level of subsidy For a basic demonstration of subsidisation effects, let’s compare how Mihoyo monetizes Genshin vs HSR. We can create several simple personas to represent different demographics of players: Super-Whale Seto: Screw the rules, Seto has money. They instantly C6 every character on release. Meta Morgan: Morgan is a Tactician and their parent Robin taught them to have lots of tactical options. As a dolphin they pull for half of the Limited characters that release every region and get C2 / E2 on all of them. F2P Florian: Florian spends all their money buying Vitamins, Mints, and Stellar Terra Shards. So they don’t have any money left to spend on gacha games. So what do we find if we do the maths? Super-Whale Seto Genshin HSR Average Spend Per Patch (USD) 1,350 2,500 Average Chars Pulled Per Patch 7.6 14.0 % Char Ownership 100% 100% Meta Morgan Genshin HSR Average Spend Per Patch (USD) 160 350 Average Chars Pulled Per Patch 1.6 3.0 % Char Ownership 50% 50% F2P Florian Genshin HSR Average Spend Per Patch (USD) 0 0 Average Chars Pulled Per Patch 0.8 1.1 % Char Ownership 71% 57% So what conclusions can we draw from this analysis? Mihoyo isn’t stupid. The extra free rolls in HSR are undermined by the faster character release schedule; The free income barely subsidises the faster character release schedule. This implies that Mihoyo has determined that most dolphin / whale players have highly inelastic spending behaviour; F2P players in HSR get to pull for more characters overall which can be more satisfying; BUT if an F2P player likes more than 60% of the characters Mihoyo makes, then Genshin lets them own a greater proportion of the total character pool; So in the end it doesn't even matter the F2P generosity in HSR pulls is funded by squeezing the dolphins and whales harder by making them spend approx 2x or more what they spend in Genshin “Generosity” therefore is a meaningless word. When a gacha game developer gives you free income, the most important question is: “What is their plan to make back their money?” 2b. Why don’t all games just squeeze their whales by releasing more characters? Remember, there are two ways for gacha companies to make more money from its players: Make you want to consume more; or Limit your free income So how do gacha companies make you want to consume more? Games are a series of interconnected systems. You cannot just make changes to one system without cascading effects to every other system in your game. For example, your character release pace has significant implications for: Game combat and combat mechanics design; The speed of power creep and the impact of power creep; Player account development and farming mechanics; etc. So… let’s talk about all of this then. How does a gacha game’s core game design need to be built around its income structure? 3. Game Design meets Monetization There is always tension between design and monetization. However, a cohesive game should ideally have its game design and monetization features work together as much as possible. If the two aspects fight with each other too much, then it ruins the player experience. An example of the homo-economicus brain thinking too hard about price sensitivity and not enough about how games actually work is John Riccitiello, former CEO of Electronic Arts and Unity: When you are six hours into playing Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your clip, and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you're really not very price sensitive at that point in time. John Riccitiello is an example of someone who doesn’t actually understand how game design works. His career started in Consumer Packaged Good (CPG) such as Chlorox, Pepsi, and Häagen-Dazs. This is the consequence of not understanding game design and how it must support your monetization goals: A nightmare of a game that fundamentally does not respect its players. And in turn, you create bad games that flop. 3a. Let’s talk about how design works in RPG games then Design is a massive open topic and varies massively depending on what you’re talking about. For the sake of brevity, I’m just going to focus on role-playing games (both action RPG such as Genshin or turn-based RPG such as HSR). A large focus in role-playing games is combat. Satisfying combat is about the balance between the combat encounters versus the player and the “power” the player has. Very broadly speaking, in most games the “power” a player has is determined by what their account owns. This is a combination of: Power = Player Skill (e.g. game knowledge, reflexes, etc.) + Characters (e.g. base numbers, element / path, etc.) + Gear (e.g. Artifacts / Relics, weapons, etc.) Other games in these genres will follow similar structure although the exact terminology and systems may vary (e.g. Craft Essences such as Kaleidoscope in FGO are an example of Gear, MMORPGs such as FFXIV have Classes instead of Characters, etc.) Monetization will directly influence how the 3 components of player skill, character kit, and gear are designed and balanced. The key goal in monetization is for your game’s systems to create continuous and regular impulses to spend. A healthy long-term monetization system should therefore have repeatable design levers that can be used to reliably generate demand without compromising the core gameplay experience. 3b. How does power work for Genshin vs HSR? Let’s consider the difference between Genshin and HSR and what this means for the power equation. Factor Genshin HSR Player Skill: Game balance Even the most whale player still needs to learn how to actually press buttons, play a rotation, etc. Skilled players can also take advantage of mechanics such as i-frames. You can just turn on auto-battle if you’re strong enough. Zero thinking or player skill required. This means a player can literally have zero skill and Mihoyo can still design content for them. Player Skill vs Char Kit Players can use skill to overcome character kit limitations (e.g. manually grouping enemies to AoE them down) No amount of player skill can make a single target attack do AoE damage Characters: Ease of building Talent Books can only be farmed with Resin or bought with Genesis Crystals Trace materials can be bought with non-paid currency Characters: Ease of building 46 Boss Materials for full uncap with 2.55 average drops per run and 40 Resin per run requires 720 Resin on average or 96 hours of Resin. 65 Boss Materials for full uncap with 5 drops per run and 30 Trailblaze Power (TP) per Run requires 390 TP or 39 hours of TP. Characters: Power Creep Slow level of power creep. Many 4-Star chars are meta-defining and have been for years. Faster power creep. No reason to use a 4-Star if a 5-Star char equivalent exists. Gear: Artifacts / Relics Set Bonuses Very powerful with clear BIS choices and Resin efficient Domains to farm (e.g. Momiji for EOSF / Shim, Denouement for MH / GT) Many 4pc set bonuses are bad and 2pc / 2pc or Rainbow is very viable. There is no clear Momiji level of Resin efficient Domain Gear: Artifacts / Relics Difficult to min / max The increased number of things your substats can roll into makes it harder to obtain min / max pieces I can go on and on (e.g. Strongbox vs Synthesizing). But hopefully you can already start to see the pattern and main conclusion: HSR has a stronger emphasis on the balance of power for Characters. Devaluing everything else in the power equation means forcing you to roll for more characters to reliably access power. This makes perfect sense. We saw that HSR has a much stronger focus on squeezing its players through faster character release schedules as part of its core monetisation focus. To make this monetization approach work, the game design of HSR itself must be skewed around characters as well. Players need to be pressured to pull for characters frequently enough, and the game needs to make it as easy to “onboard” characters onto an account: A game that wants you to constantly pull new characters has to be a game that makes levelling and building characters easy; The game has to make it more difficult for you to brute force content by having good gear (that you didn’t gacha for at least) compared to an equivalent game; The game has to design content that requires owning a wider variety of characters So we understand that game developers can tweak the balance of power to influence spending. But players (mostly) don’t accumulate power for the sake of power. Players need content that’s worth accumulating power for. So we need to look at the other flip side of design in RPGs: Encounters and combat. 3c. The live services content pipeline must follow your monetization approach Traditional RPGs and live services gacha RPGs have a significant difference that fundamentally alters how content can be designed. In traditional RPGs, the variation in power between players will be very narrow because developers have full control of a player’s power. This means that enemy encounter design and difficulty can be highly customised and fine tuned based on the tools the developer knows the player has. For example, in Fire Emblem the developer can choose when players get access to higher tier weapons or class promotion items. If the developer knows what the maximum damage a player can do, then they know how to balance fight difficulty. However, this is not possible in gacha games because at any moment, the player can just pull out a credit card. The wide spread in power between players means that traditional encounter design techniques do not work. Instead, combat design needs to use design approaches that: Rely on restricting / punishing players; and Lean into the variance and encourage spending to brute force content Create methods that are repeatable and reusable. So how is the approach different for Genshin vs HSR? 3ci. HSR focuses on restrictive gameplay by dividing characters by kit features HSR is a game that emphasises characters within the power equation. So combat design likewise creates a reward / punish approach to matching the right character for the right job. For those unfamiliar with HSR, all characters are classified by their ‘Path’. Very loosely speaking, you can think of them as RPG classes. For example: Path Feature Nihility Debuffers including DoT-based characters Preservation Defensive characters / “Tanks” and Shields Hunt Single-target DPS characters Erudition AoE-focused DPS characters HSR further subdivides this by also having multiple ways to structure and classify attacks such as Follow-Up Attacks (FUA), damage scaling with shields, etc. The turn-based combat system also allows for other mechanics around manipulating the turn order. This means that HSR is built from the ground up to have a massive number of levers that Mihoyo can manipulate to design combat encounters. This structure lets Mihoyo create puzzle-style gameplay that uses combat as the vehicle for delivering the puzzle. The characters you own and the tools available in their kits form the solutions to the “combat puzzles”. As a result, HSR combat can be structured to punish or reward players based on the characters they own and can use. 3ci-1. Simulated Universe A great example is the Simulated Universe (SU) game mode. SU is a rogue-like game mode based around Path themes. For example, playing the Elation path in SU buffs your FUAs. This means the game mode is explicitly restrictive. Afterall, if you don’t own a character that can create shields, then what is the point of playing the Preservation Path SU mode which completely revolves around shields? The new Divergent Universe mode is also noteworthy: The Destruction Path has been heavily modified to promote gameplay around the Break mechanic rather than raw damage, which earlier iterations of SU focused on; Break related Blessings and Equations have also been pushed very heavily and are so overtuned that Break is one of the best strategies in this game mode; and At higher difficulty levels (Protocol 6), enemies have a damage reduction modifier when not in the Break / weakened state. HSR also released the character Firefly (a highly anticipated Break-specific Destruction character) in the same patch Divergent Universe was released. What a coincidence! 3ci-2. Events The stages within combat events are often focused explicitly on specific features of combat to create the puzzle structure that explicitly encourages or discourages certain playstyles. The logical extension of this is The Legend of Galactic Baseballer event. This is a fun rogue-like game mode event that is explicitly built around constructing scenarios that use character kit tools as problem solving answers. The Galactic Baseballer event then rewards you for using the right character kit tools with massive numbers, game breaking effects such as turn manipulation, and the accompanying big number dopamine hits. 3ci-3. Pure Fiction / Memory of Chaos / Apocalyptic Shadow These game modes are “end game” modes similar to the Spiral Abyss in Genshin. The Pure Fiction game mode is explicitly an AoE-focused wave-based game mode. Because grouping does not exist, then players either own characters who have AoE damage or they don’t own characters with AoE. Before Pure Fiction, the main end-game mode was Memory of Chaos (MoC). What happened to MOC design before and after Pure Fiction’s release in Patch 1.6? Patch Total # Enemies % Elite or Boss 1.0 38 32% 1.1 38 32% 1.2 36 33% 1.3 20 60% 1.4 18 67% 1.5-1 21 57% 1.5-2 20 60% 1.6-1 14 86% 1.6-2 15 100% 2.0-1 17 82% 2.0-2 17 88% 2.1 15 100% 2.2 18 83% As soon as the AoE game mode launched, Mihoyo got rid of most of the trash mobs in the hardest MoC floors. Instead, they dramatically raised the difficulty with harder enemies and a greater focus on single target damage. Afterall, players shouldn’t be rewarded twice for owning AoE characters… right? Likewise, Pure Fiction has also been a game mode that has rotated between a fixed set of 3 buffs rewarding Ultimates (Patches 1.6 and 2.1); DoT damage (Patches 1.6 and 2.2); and FUA damage (Patches 2.0, 2.1, and 2.3). It is very clear at this point that Mihoyo explicitly expects players to build teams around these themes and pull for the required supporting characters in the gacha. 3cii. Genshin has fewer levers for restrictive gameplay so its design looks different HSR was built from the ground up to have multiple combat systems that could explicitly reward or punish players. Genshin was not. Geshin also has a larger focus on other components in the power equation which contributes to variance between players (e.g. player skill, Artifact quality). This in turn lets players brute force content. For example, do you know someone who basically plays the exact same teams every single Abyss (and completely ignores the Spiral Abyss blessing)? Since Genshin cannot rely on the same explicit levers as HSR, it requires a different approach to game design to pressure spending. 3cii-1. Combat: Shield Breaking This is one of the classic approaches to Abyss combat design. Elemental shields (generally) cannot be brute forced. This means that players must make sacrifices in team building to handle them. A classic example is the 3.7 Spiral Abyss which had a combination of Hydro and Cryo Heralds. This is an encounter design that is explicitly hostile to Hydro characters and more specifically Nilou Bloom (which was a very strong and popular team). As I wrote in my 3.7 Spiral Abyss Guide, Elemental Shield challenges such as these are designed as a “sink” for key characters. In this case, the 3.7 Spiral Abyss Left Half was designed as a Bennett and (to a lesser extent) Nahida “sink”. Structuring Abyss layouts to create team building challenges therefore punishes players who lack a deep enough character roster. 3cii-2. Combat: Enemy wave structures Teams in Genshin have specific rotation structures and damage profiles. Encounters can be designed to punish or reward these team structures. For example, Ayaka Freeze is a team which has: Initial set-up period to cast buffs and pile them onto Ayaka; Frontloaded spike in damage concentrated in her Burst; and Period of downtime before the second rotation can begin. This team therefore is good at greeting a pile of AoE mobs and then asking the question: “Will it Blend?” But it can also be easily punished. During Patch 3.x, Mihoyo wanted to promote its latest new teams and that meant punishing older popular teams from the 2.x era. Take Patch 3.4 Abyss Floor Floor 1-1 has 4 for example: If all 4 Ruin Machines spawned at the same time, it'd be a pretty easy clear for Ayaya Freeze; But when they spawn separately, the threshold to brute force this is so much higher. As a front loaded Burst team, if you overkill the first wave then your CDs are down for the next Wave forcing you to run down the clock. You can see similar patterns in other Abyss encounter designs: Most enemies are no longer Venti-able precisely so you cannot solve all your problems with one character; The Wenut is a boss that has explicit on / off dps phases and extremely predictable attacks to punish setup based teams and reward teams with flexible rotation structures e.g. C0 Ganyu can solo the Wenut because a constant stream of CAs line up very well against a boss that has low HP and is extremely predictable Adjusting combat encounter design is another method similar to shield breaking that can indirectly pressure player rosters. 3cii-3. Combat: Imaginarium Theater Genshin has also evolved to the point where the variance in even accounts without vertical investment is huge due to factors such as Artifact quality, player skill and game knowledge (do you know how to use i-frames?), etc. Genshin also can’t create highly restrictive rules such as “the AoE mode” and “the non-AoE mode” in a game where players can just group enemies or manipulate the AI. Genshin also has a problem where eventually it just cannot convince players to roll for characters with overlapping roles. For example, HSR can convince you Black Swan vs Blade are Wind DPS characters that are both worth owning because they have different Paths and uses (Nihility DoT vs Destruction Crit Scaling). But why should someone in Genshin own Hutao vs Yoimiya vs Arlecchino vs Lyney when their team structures are so similar? Do you really need a 4th Pyro on-field DPS character when you can’t own more than one Kazuha / Chevreuse / etc.? At this point, there are only heavy handed options available to create restrictive gameplay. And so we arrive at the magic world of the Imaginarium Theater, which: Forcibly locks accounts to specific elements; and Restricting the number of times a character can be used per run This form of ham-fisted restrictions is the natural conclusion if you create a game where: The game systems were not built from the ground up to allow for multiple ways to differentiate between characters that perform the same role; The power equation is sufficiently skewed to the point where players can brute force combat with highly invested characters; and The game developers do not want to aggressively power creep characters and instead want characters to retain value over time. It is telling that one of the few things Wuthering Waves did not copy 1-for-1 from Genshin was the Spiral Abyss. Instead, their Tower of Adversity game mode has the same Vigor system that Imaginarium Theater and Triumphant Frenzy Event use. 3cii-4. Character Kits: The “Bait Constellations” Mihoyo needs to create additional avenues of impulse spending to drain free income from players and encourage impulse spending. This is especially true for long-term highly invested players who have developed accounts and large character rosters. These players don’t experience the same pressures to pull for new characters that a new player with an underdeveloped account does, so may pull on the gacha less; and These players can stockpile their free income. So when they do finally pull, they can fully subsidize their gacha with free income only. The approach Genshin has taken with modern character design is to push for early “bait Constellations”. For developed accounts looking for a taste of vertical investment, bait Constellations helps drain savings and trigger impulse spending. How successful has this been? Consider Neuvillette. His C1 Constellation is generally highly regarded within the community. So how did the community respond? Neuvillette overall ownership rate: 65.5% Neuvillette C1 rate: 43.3% Neuvillette overall C1 ownership: 28.4% So about 1 in every 3.5 players in the entire game owns C1 Neuvillette specifically. This ignores all the players who own C2 and up. To put this into context, there are 8 characters in the game who have an overall ownership rate less than this. There are 36 Limited characters in the game as of Patch 4.6. So, in a way, Neuvillette’s C1 Constellation by itself is more popular than 22% of the entire Genshin character roster. That’s a lot of money at stake here. So it’s not surprising that Mihoyo has applied these lessons to HSR and aggressively adopted bait E1 / E2 Constellations designs. 3d. Horniness is also a form of monetization The exception is if the motivating factor for pulling characters is horniness. Horniness is evergreen. If the motivation for spending isn’t gameplay but horniness, then you can get away with a lot. (e.g. NIKKE, Azur Lane, etc.) However, this also requires you to have a clear design vision about building a game focused on eroticism. As such, this can only be adopted by game studios whose vision is to build a niche game and not a mass-market mainstream game. 3di. But what if I do want to make a mainstream game? What can I do? The idea behind horniness as a driver for spending is that it is ultimately about appealing to niche individual tastes. So we can apply the same ideas here for Genshin. One of the problems Mihoyo needs to solve is that it is running a portfolio business now. Its products Genshin, HSR, and ZZZ are all competing with each other and your monthly entertainment budget. This means Mihoyo needs to deconflict the marquee character releases across its games. For example, you know that Acheron is releasing in March 2024 and will be your blockbuster release that absorbs all the marketing hype; You need Genshin to not detract from HSR’s success and overshadow Acheron’s release; But you also don’t want to sacrifice Genshin’s revenue for free. Your goal here is to try and segment your customers as much as possible: Allow your blockbuster release in one game to capture the majority of spending from the broad audience; Extract marginal revenue with niche designs in your second game that won’t compete for broad attention but drive impulse spending; What does this look like in practice? Well, consider Chiori. Chiori released in the same month as Acheron, a highly anticipated HSR character. Character Player Ownership Rate % Owners with C6 % Players owning C6 Top 10 C6’ed Chars Yelan 81.3% 12.1% 9.8% Furina 83.7% 10.9% 9.2% Chiori 18.4% 9.7% 1.8% Neuvillette 65.5% 8.5% 5.6% Wanderer 43.9% 8.4% 3.7% Arlecchino 50.4% 7.9% 4.0% Yae Miko 55.5% 7.9% 4.4% Ayaka 69.4% 7.3% 5.1% Eula 34% 7.2% 2.5% Itto 21.9% 6.9% 1.5% Other chars (for reference) Navia 36.5% 4.2% 1.5% Ayato 32.4% 4.7% 1.5% Alhaitham 32.2% 3.0% 1.0% Chiori is a character that is in the bottom 5 for overall ownership. However, Chiori’s fanbase is incredibly intense and is top 3 for C6 Rate and 2x the median C6 Rate for 5-Star characters; Chiori has a comparable number of people who went all-out to C6 her compared to other generically popular character such as Navia, Ayato, and Alhaitham. Expect this trend to continue with future character releases and designs as Mihoyo experiments with ways to deconflict its character release schedules across multiple games (e.g. the split player reactions with Emilie). 4. Enshittification: When monetization goes wrong Enshittification may be a new word for you. So let’s first define what it is. Because I am lazy, I am going to steal borrow the Wikipedia definition: Enshittification is the pattern of decreasing quality observed in online services and products such as Amazon, Facebook, Google Search, Twitter, Bandcamp, Reddit, Uber, and Unity. How does this occur? The creator of the word enshittification, Cory Doctorow, offered an explanation: Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market", where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, taking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them. This is a pretty good observation by a non-business person about how basic Marketing 101 principles work. To explain how enshittification (decreasing quality) affects live service games, I think it is helpful to: First cover the formal Marketing theory about how enshittification occurs; Secondly, I will propose an alternative reason about why products and services get worse over time; Then I will explain how Mihoyo avoids enshittification; and Why enshittification can help explain why Mihoyo seems so resistant to releasing skins in Genshin and HSR Due to Reddit post limits, Sections 4a and 4b have been removed and can be read on my blog. 4c. How does Mihoyo avoid enshittification? Avoiding enshittification requires having a very clear design vision and strong company leadership that lets you say “No” to things. Because commonly used metrics cannot properly measure and monitor consumer surplus, you need to: Create principles about what your product will and will not do; And then avoid temptation to deviate from those principles; Even if they would make you lots of money or some customers say they want it. You can see this reflected in Mihoyo’s behaviour as a company. For example: They are cautious to adopt radical changes to the product just because their customers ask for it and say No to a lot of things; They try to minimize potential for player regret when making system-level changes; They adamantly refuse to add complexity to the transaction and monetization systems within the game; They try to understand whether players are satisfied by just directly asking the players through frequent in-game surveys rather than trying to guess based on wishy-washy alternative metrics. 4d. What does this have to do with skins? Mihoyo seems incredibly resistant to using skins as a source of monetization in their most recent games Genshin and HSR. What might drive this? Until they release an official statement, we can at least think about the design factors that would influence this decision. Design Factor Impact Consumer spending behaviours Does player spending on skins actually result in net new revenue? Or do players have a fixed entertainment budget a month and spending on skins substitutes spending on new gacha banners? If players want to show how much they love a character, do they buy the skin or just C6 them? Resource allocation Skins require labour hours to produce. Mihoyo is already a world leader for speed of the content releases and their design ambition. How much more can they take on? And even if they had spare labour capacity, would they rather make a few more skins or just make Natlan more epic? What's actually more important to them? Character access: Skin target market Genshin's primary monetization is through restricting access to characters. This isn't compatible with a skins based approach. Restricting character access deliberately shrinks your skin audience. How many people are really going to buy a Ganyu skin if they don't own Ganyu? Character access: Free Income Games with a heavier focus on skin monetization either have complete access to all characters (e.g. DotA), make it possible to grind out enough currency to unlock characters (e.g. LoL, Valorant), or have extremely generous free income (e.g. Azur Lane, GBF) precisely to solve the target market problem. Social play Skins are more common in games with cooperative / social play because the skins provide social utility. e.g. players in Fortnite who don’t use cosmetics get called “Default” as an insult, etc. However, Genshin's primary focus is a single player experience. Skins therefore do not have the same social value to players. Client modification You can mod your game files locally to just reskin entire characters or replace them with new models such as Chiori Ori (KR Duck pun). In a single player game with no social element, why pay for what you can just mod? (See also: Bethesda Horse Armour) These factors imply that Mihoyo has a very clear design vision about what they want their product to be: The core product is the open world and combat, and the vast majority of development resources go towards this; Mihoyo has a single primary monetization vehicle (Characters and Weapons / Light Cones) and this is sufficient for extracting money without requiring multiple channels to upsell players; It’s willing to say no to making more money if it means maintaining quality of everything else it produces (e.g. not splitting development resources) So this is how we end up where we are here today in Genshin. A low volume pipeline of skins that are only ever released when paired with events, and with nearly half of them given away for free anyway. And Mihoyo is absolutely okay if you don't agree with this approach. This is a consequence of having a very clear design vision and strong company leadership that says “No” to things. 4e. The skins monetization trap Skins and cosmetics also contain an insidious trap when it comes to monetization. The traditional thinking behind skins and cosmetics is that they are an easy to develop form of monetization that can exist outside of the core gameplay loop. This is only true up to a limit. Remember from Section 3 that game developers need to create reasons for people to pull for characters through game design. And in Section 3di I mentioned how players will eventually reach character saturation and no longer need to pull for as many characters on their account. In many ways, the same is true for cosmetics. You might buy a skin for your favourite character or weapon. Maybe a second skin. But the fifth? Tenth? Twentieth? Remember the original revenue equation: Revenue = Player Desire to Consume - Free Income Characters are at least tied to gameplay. Therefore gameplay content can influence character sales. Pure cosmetics on the other hand cannot use this lever without becoming “pay to win”. The levers for manipulating the player’s desire to consume are more limited. Skins also need to be distinct to draw spending and create the desire to consume. This in turn places pressure on your design vision. You start with benign changes, maybe breaking the colour palette for a character. But eventually you need to explore more options and start breaking things such as the character silhouette and readability. You introduce fancy effects like new animations or particles. These new features also set sticky consumer expectations. Players will expect your new features such as particle effects, higher quality meshes and textures, etc. as the new standard of quality. This means that your cosmetics over time can only ever be monotonically increasing in quality. This in turn also drives up the cost of cosmetic development and erodes profits. Eventually, as a developer you run out of options to get people to buy cosmetics. At this point, the customer base starts to segment: Collectors and whales: Much higher satiety limits (e.g. the player that buys every Lux skin no matter what) and willing to pay higher price points as well; Lower spenders: Players who are more sensitive to “value” and become satiated over time. A company therefore needs to both cultivate a population of collectors as well as offer them products to collect. And this is how you end up with League of Legends announcing a 430 USD commemorative in-game skin. This also means that your product is now pivoting toward catering to an explicitly smaller and narrower audience. And this has consequences for your priorities when it comes to what you choose to prioritize in product and feature development. This is the trap when it comes to cosmetic monetization: Player satiation shrinks your customer base the same way that character releases can as well. And without the core gameplay loop offering levers to drive demand, satiety is much harder to break. 5. Conclusion So what are the key lessons we have learned during this journey together? Section 2. How does revenue even work for gacha companies? Revenue for gacha games is determined by Revenue = Player Desire to Consume (e.g. gacha / Resin refresh / BP / etc.) - Free Income Free income acts as a subsidy for players and should be calibrated based on expected player elasticity of demand; Section 3. Game Design meets Monetization RPG gacha games cannot rely on traditional design tools because the variation in power between players in a gacha game is too wide; Game design must rely on imposing restrictions and these restrictions should synergize with the monetization approach of the game; For character driven games, the rate of acceptable character releases is governed by how well your game supports excuses to pull for characters; Horniness is a unique factor to encourage player spending but can only be utilised by niche games; Section 4. Enshittification: When monetization goes wrong Enshittification occurs when companies try to claim too much value and don’t leave enough value for players; Enshittification can occur when companies track the wrong metrics and erode consumer surplus by not properly understanding what they are doing; Even well meaning monetization systems that players themselves ask for can lead to enshittification due to erosion of value; I hope you enjoyed reading this essay as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have questions, please feel free to post in this Reddit thread. I will read all comments even if I might not respond to everything. Have a great morning / afternoon / evening wherever you are, and be good to each other. submitted by /u/TLMoonBear to r/gachagaming [link] [comments]

I am STILL NOT the Original Poster. That is u/Miserable-Mousse-637. They posted in r/amiwrong. Original BORU post here. Paragraph breaks added for readability. New updates marked with ****\* Thanks to u/Choice_Evidence1983 for letting me know about this! Trigger Warning: infidelity Mood Spoiler: happy ending for OOP Original Post: September 18, 2023 I’m retiring in about 3 ½ months (January, 2024), and my husband and I disagree on how the division of labor should be once that happens. Since meeting my now husband, I have been very vocal about my plans to retire when I turn 40. I’ve planned my life around this goal, lived below my means ever since college, and gave up things to meet this goal. We got married in our early 30s, so it’s only been 7 years since then. He also saves for retirement (I finally got him to up his amount to 20%), but won’t be able to retire until at least 62. He’s instead chosen to spend his money on things that make him happy, and I fully support and encourage him in that –everyone has different goals in life. We are both child-free by choice so that isn’t a factor here. I’ve said in the past that I’m not going to be doing all of the cooking, cleaning, and finances once I retire because I don’t want to replace one job with another. I currently do all of the cooking, most of the finances, and probably 25% of the cleaning. I think that it’s fair as my husband usually works more hours than I do and I’m a picky eater so it just works out the best. He recently made a casual comment about how he’s going to start working more overtime once I retire because he’ll have less household stuff to do. I asked him what he meant by that since my retirement doesn’t really change anything for him, and that I preferred he didn’t work more overtime so that we could spend time together. He said that most husbands with stay-at-home wives don’t clean the house. I didn’t know what to say because I thought we had already discussed this, so I tried my best to change the subject, but we had an argument about it yesterday at dinner and he’s now giving me the silent treatment. I slept in the guest room last night as he locked our bedroom door and wouldn’t let me in. I just don’t know how to get through to him. Even though I’ll no longer be working, I won’t be a stay-at-home wife (by my own definition). To me, a stay-at-home partner is the “manager” of the home and doesn’t bring in much, if any, income. Their job is to take care of the home. I’m not trading one job for another, I’m retiring. I’m still bringing in income, I’ve just planned my life so I no longer have to work 9-5 to do so. I have multiple hobbies that I have been super excited about devoting more time to. I love rock-hounding, crocheting, and hiking. I’m an unpublished writer and have always dreamed of becoming published. I have a lifestyle blog and a pretty active Pinterest following; I’m not super consistent and they’re not big enough to monetize so I count them as hobbies not “side jobs.” I also have a very long travel bucket list. I’ve already started looking into non-profits in my area I could volunteer for. I know I still have limited hours in a day, but even if I only volunteer 1 day a week, I still feel like I could be helping our local community. I know we’ve had conversations about this and he’s always been supportive, even of me leaving for a few weeks every so often to solo travel, he’s always been excited for me. I’m totally confused about this change and I’m freaking out. I thought I communicated my expectations, but he’s saying that he doesn’t ever remember talking about it and that he’s not okay with me retiring if I’m “just going to be lazy.” I don’t see it that way, am I wrong? Relevant Comments: How are you currently splitting expenses? "We split expenses proportionally based on income. I pay 70% of expenses and that will continue once I retire." More about husband: "To be fair to my husband, this post is about an argument we’re having. I didn’t put in my post all the great things about him and all the other things we agree on. I struggle with depression and anxiety and he’s the only partner I’ve had that has helped my mental health rather than hurt it. He’s usually very understanding, kind, and reassuring. The things that make me good at money management make me bad at enjoying life. I’m very serious and can be a realist (despite my fantasy worldbuilding lol), but he’s an outgoing, fun guy who has taught me to live in the moment and relax. The reason I thought to post here is because this argument is not normal for us and his attitude and behavior caught me off guard. He does pull his weight, all the jobs he does are the ones I’m literally physically unable to do or ones that I hate and he doesn’t mind. So I very much enjoy our arrangement." Locking you out was not ok: "I will definitely address what happened last night. Locking me out is one of main things about what happened that concerned me enough to ask for outside opinions. But from reading the comments, I think I may have been too quick to shut him down instead of coming up with a compromise or figuring out why he was changing his mind on the topic." When is the last time you brought this (retiring early) up with him? "I went on a weekend backpacking trip about 5 months ago, and when I got back I made a comment about how I can’t wait to be able to hike more often. We ended talking about my travel plans for the next few years. Because I do all the cooking, that was brought up as well, he wanted me to make all of his meals ahead of time before I leave, but we ended up agreeing that I would stock the fridge and he would either cook for himself or get takeout. If he retired, he wouldn’t do more work either, I know this because it was hard enough getting him to agree to do the chores he does now. Because I do all the cooking (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), most of the finances, grocery shopping, and kitchen cleanups, vacuuming/mopping, general picking up around the house, dusting, I also manage any repairs. We live in my dream house, but because it’s old it needs a lot of care. My husband wanted a newer home so I agreed to take on all of that. I also manage the carriage house that we rent out. If I did any more of the chores I wouldn’t have time for anything else. He does landscaping, cleans bathrooms, takes care of his turtles, cleans windows and blinds, and takes care of his laundry and the communal laundry (towels, sheets, etc). I think it’s fair as we both do most of the chores over the weekend (obviously except daily chores) and we both have free time." It feels like you two are living separate lives at this point, at least as far as finances go: "Well, other than joint expenses, we keep our finances separate. When we first started dating he had about 100k in debt, I helped him get a plan in place to pay it off and payed about 20k of it myself. I own multiple rental properties that I bought in my 20s that aren’t marital assets. Most of the stuff I gave up was in my 20s before we met because I made less money. I never went out and lived on 35k/yr even though I was making 70k pretax. Now I make enough to save half my income but still have around 100k left for expenses. I pay 70% of the bills, but I’ve given up trying to get my husband to think more seriously about retirement. I love him and we agree on everything except finances. It’s never really been a problem until now." Why DON'T you want him to work overtime when it would allow for him to save more? "If he wants to focus more on retirement, I would be more inclined to do more of the housework and have him work overtime. But I would want him to agree to putting that money into retirement instead of spending it like he has in the past. Even with this arrangement, I still wouldn’t want to do everything." What does he spend it on? "He spends a lot on expensive legos, action figures, and limited addition comics (I knew what I was getting myself into, we met at a convention). I pay 70% of our expenses. That includes date nights, our house, and our cars. I have hobbies as well, I crochet but buy cheap yarn (I don’t sell anything so it doesn’t matter to me), I love geology but I find new rocks instead of buying expensive specimens, etc." Update Post: September 25, 2023 So he came home very late that night after ignoring his phone. We didn’t end up talking about it and I slept in the guest room again. He works from home Tuesday and Thursday, so the next day he was home when I got off of work. I spent the day gathering my thoughts and preparing to have a calm discussion. I tried to remain calm, but he was so defensive and accusatory that I was getting very frustrated. We weren’t very productive and we ended our talk with him denying that I pay 70% of the expenses even though we planned this out and budget together based on it. I told him I’d go through our expenses to prove it. And being the person that I am, I did so the next day. This is where the problem starts. When I was going through our expenses, I found a charge on my husband’s credit card from 2 weeks ago that I did not recognize. It was not an insignificant amount so I originally looked into it just to see if it was a household or personal expense to use in my calculations. It turned out to be a bill paid to a law office. For very obvious reasons I wanted to know more information on why he was being billed by a law office. I looked up the office and it was a divorce attorney specializing in property division. I logged into his email (I have proof that he has given me permission to access his email at any time to go over expenses and expenses-related issues) and found his conversations with said lawyer. He was trying to find a way to overturn our prenup so he gets half instead of what is agreed upon in our prenup and wanted to try and get alimony as well. I had no idea he wasn’t happy until we started arguing on Saturday. That morning, he woke me up with breakfast in bed, a total surprise since it wasn’t a special day and he almost never cooks. 2 weeks ago, we had a Star Wars movie marathon and ran around the house in a lightsaber battle. Last month, he communicated that he felt like we weren’t spending as much time together as we normally do, so I planned more date nights. He’s gotten me flowers at least once a week for months now. I just didn’t understand why he wanted to divorce, without even trying to express what he was feeling to me first. When I went all the way back to the very first emails (late July), a woman we’ll call “Ashley” was brought up. I tried to think of a way to confirm my suspicions without him suspecting that I know what he’s been up to. On Saturdays, we sometimes get takeout, so I purposely left my phone upstairs and asked him if I could use his to order the food, and I was taking too long to “figure out what I wanted” so he went downstairs to finish what he was doing, giving me more time. It was hard to wait that long without letting on what I knew, but from Thursday to Saturday I began to get a plan in place. I spoke with a divorce attorney and scheduled my consultation, and made sure I had any legal and financial documents I may need. On Saturday when I went through his phone, I found instagram messages between him and “Ashley”. By going through the messages and looking at her account, I figured out a lot about her. Ashley seems to be a nice girl he met on Tinder back in May. She is 27 and married to her high school sweetheart who can’t bring in enough income for her to be a stay-at-home-wife. Considering my husband works in tech (and by looking at the messages, lied about how much he makes), he is obviously the better option. He’s lied to her about wanting to have kids and has told her that it’s the reason he is unhappy in our marriage. I don’t know what he’s thinking she’s going to do when she finds out he had a vasectomy. Ashley is apparently willing to be a “proper woman” and do “wifely duties” (these are her words not my husbands). From cross checking dates, when he’s supposed to be hanging out with friends or at a work thing, he’s actually with her. She has a weird work schedule so she sometimes COMES OVER TO OUR HOUSE on the days he works from home and I’m in the office. She is convinced that after they both go through their respective divorces, that they’ll live in the house together, get married, and have kids. He has just gone along with everything she says. He’s told her that I’m lazy and hardly make any money, and that I wanted to quit my job and not do any work which is why he’s “finally” gotten the courage to leave me. He said that he’s taking extra care in the divorce because he “doesn’t want to leave me with nothing.” He also told her I changed my mind about having kids and that I’m denying him his masculine desire to continue his lineage. Now you may be thinking. Are you stupid? How did you not know? The answer is, I had no idea and I must be dumb as he played me for a fool. I’m trying to put some humor in this for my own sake, but I’m sobbing as I write this. I just got back from my new attorney’s office with a lot of forms to fill out and I’m so overwhelmed and still feel confused for some reason. Like this must just be a really bad dream. I reached out to Ashley’s husband so they’re probably heading towards divorce as well. He seems like a nice enough guy, also totally blindsided by the affair. I told my husband I was divorcing him last night and told him he could either sleep in one of the guest rooms or get a hotel room. He chose the latter. So, that’s my update. Our prenup has a 99% chance of holding up in court, but we also have an infidelity clause that I’m hoping to prove so I can keep 100% of the house. I was willing to put my dream house in the infidelity clause because I knew I would never cheat, he was fine with it at the time as well, but is now blowing up my phone about it. If I can’t prove his affair (which is unlikely considering the evidence I have), I would have to pay him about 25% of our equity in the house. Which is enough for a downpayment on another house, so he wants me to not bring his affair into our divorce. Which is weird to me since he had no qualms with bringing the affair into our marriage. Relevant Comments: Did he text you asking you not to bring up the affair in the divorce? Because that's evidence "Yeah… I never said he was the smartest. In the texts he’s saying to not bring up Ashley (doesn’t mention an affair), and that she shouldn’t be involved in our divorce, that we should keep things to ourselves, etc. But I sent myself screenshots of the messages from his phone that prove infidelity." About his "lineage" line: "The funny thing is that he just made it up! He got a vasectomy before we even met and is even more staunchly no kids than I am." About Ashley: "I’m pretty sure she’ll find out the lies from her husband since I told him everything. I’m now hoping her husband will get a big promotion suddenly or something where he’s “finally” making “enough money”, but now they’re divorced and she is stuck with my husband or left finding someone else." Has he been watching Andrew Tate at all? "I don’t think so, I think he’s been trying to emulate a very masculine, well-off, traditional man in how he presents himself to Ashley. From the outside I could see him doing a good job at that. He’s a lego/Star Wars/Marvel nerd who also happens to be tall and still has all his hair. He’s always been confident in himself and what he likes, and everything he’s said that sounds ridiculous like that I know to be false, and I highly doubt he believes it himself." I wonder how long he's been doing this: "I know that they met on Tinder in May, but I don’t know if he’s ever done anything like this before. Since it’s very likely I’ll be able to prove infidelity in court, I don’t necessarily need to know if he’s had other affairs, but I hope he’ll tell me the truth if I ask. Maybe he will if I ask him after the divorce is settled so it wouldn’t hurt him at all." Ask her husband to send you evidence too: "Yes! I’ve sent him all the screenshots I sent myself from my husband’s phone. Ashley also isn’t staying with him, and he’s trying to get her to tell him the name of the hotel she’s staying at to see if it might be the one my husband’s at. Neither one of us share locations with them so that’s probably why it took so long to find out about the affair." How OOP saved money/if she comes from wealth: I started saving in high school, so yes, I lived at home during that time. I lived on campus my first 2 years of college and rented with friends the last 2. I paid for my education with my scholarships, savings, and income. I will admit I had an eating disorder during that time so my grocery bill was very low; I do not recommend that. I was still on my parents’ insurance as well so I didn’t have to pay for my medical expenses. I also had help in regards to my high school education; I graduated from one of the best districts in my state and had a lot of school resources available to me. During college, I worked over 40 hours a week, went to school full time, and during the summer when I took a lesser course load I got paid internships. The commenter above says they’re 25, and when I was 25 I only had 1 property, not 3, so I’m not sure where you pulled that from. I agree that the current economic system doesn’t work and is not equitable, but I’m just one person trying to make things work just like anyone else. I’ve never tried to hide anything or lie. I had help in regards to my circumstances, but my siblings had the same and we all ended up at different parts of the socioeconomic spectrum and I find it strange that you can’t seem to wrap your head around the fact that I did indeed work hard to be where I am now. Mini update in comments: September 28, 2023 (3 days later) "I guess a mini update to what I replied to you about earlier, but it turns out Ashley is staying at the same hotel as my husband. Go figure lol" *****Update Post 3: March 20, 2024 (almost 5 months from last post, 6 months from OG post)****\* Hi everyone! A lot of people have asked for an update, and I’m officially divorced so here it is. I’m doing well, and have been focusing on myself a lot. I plan to start dating eventually, but I don’t feel quite ready yet. Hopefully everything stays fine and dandy, and this is the last you’ll have to hear from me. I didn’t want this to be too long, so I figured you guys could just ask me anything else you want to know! Link to prior post: https://www.reddit.com/r/amiwrong/comments/16ruuq9/update_am_i_wrong_for_not_agreeing_to_become_a/ Fake names to make things easier: My ex: Derek Ex’s Affair Partner: Ashley Affair Parnter’s ex: Jake Going back to the earliest piece of drama (Most of what I’m recounting is from the perspective of Jake as I was not directly involved in this story. I blocked Derek and communicated through my lawyer. Nothing crazy happened when he had to come to the house), in October, Derek had a meeting with his lawyer. We’re guessing his lawyer had some bad news for him or maybe finally told him that he was screwed. Whatever it was, it caused him to have a mental breakdown where he basically confessed everything to Ashley and told her that he was “going to lose everything”. It took her another day to show up at Jake’s house apologizing and wanting to make things work. He didn’t take her up on that and at this point they are also divorced. She claimed that Derek manipulated her, but they are now back together so I guess she hasn’t had enough yet. I don’t know if she knows about the vasectomy as I haven’t had contact with her, Jake hasn’t told her, and she didn’t say anything about that to Jake when she ran back to him. She could know, but I don’t know one way or another. That’s her problem now. And by “that”, I mean the whole man. Derek cried in court multiple times and screamed at his lawyer once. He genuinely didn’t look okay, and I do hope he figures things out for himself. Our prenup held up and nothing was deemed “unconscionable”. I came out with the house, my car, and all of my separate property. I had to pay him a small lump sum alimony payment. Stupid things he tried to argue he should get at least half of because they weren’t in our prenup: My rock collection (aka my baby). He knew this would hurt me the most. He didn’t get any of it. My fine china sets. They were painted by my great-grandmother and given to me by my grandma. I don’t know why he thought the judge would side with him. My car. I literally paid for both of our cars, and he tried to get half the value of mine and keep his. Make it make sense! Multiple vintage furniture pieces that I flipped myself and he had no interest in until now. He got a few of them, plus a bunch of other stuff so a furniture run is in order. Some other fun details: I had a divorce/retirement party at MY house after everything was finalized. All mutual friends stopped being friends with him after I told them what happened. He still has other friends, and they don't seem to care about the situation so who knows what he told them. His mom and I are still friends; she came to the party. I’m relieved that the divorce process has come to an end, and I can now look forward to a fresh start. I want to express my gratitude for the support and understanding you’ve all shown me during this challenging time. If anyone has any further questions, I’d be happy to answer them! Relevant Comments: The next chapter: Thank you! I’m currently planning a solo trip and I’m going to Machu Picchu with my dad in October! We kept putting it off, but we finally nailed down plans! He just wanted to drag things out for you, the dick: Thank you! And yes, things could have been over faster but he kept contesting things 😒 Security: Yes! I have a security system in place. I switched some things up recently so he doesn’t know where all the cameras are. Finally got one of those ring video doorbells. On dating: Thank you! I totally don’t want to rush into dating. I’m still getting myself together lol. I’m hoping it will come naturally; I have enough hobbies where I feel like I should have no trouble meeting new people! I’m excited to see where life takes me! A few of the top comment exchanges: Commenter: As a rockhound, I'm just livid that he would try to go for your rocks and the china painted by your great-grandmother. Reading that his mom came to your divorce celebration party lifted my spirits again, though. OOP: I think my ancestors were rolling in their graves. Same with some of my jewelry. Like I either bought it myself, it was gifted to me, or I inherited it. He seemed shocked he couldn’t get any of it besides my engagement ring and wedding band. I didn’t want it anymore so I just let him have it to shut him up. Commenter: "His mom and I are still friends; she came to the party." This sentence has everything. Victory, a semicolon, and a douche getting what he deserves. 10/10 would schadenfreude again. OOP: I love semicolons; I’ve been trying to use them more often. submitted by /u/LucyAriaRose to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

After my last couple comments on r/sidehustle brought in a lot of questions, I decided to make this post to share some of the ways I found success earning side income. Me: I test side hustles to determine if they're any good, then post the results. My ultimate goal is to save up enough money just from side hustles to buy a fixer-upper house. I have about $21,000ish in the slush fund now, and could buy a house with that. However, I am looking for a liiittle better than that $21k can get me. You can learn more from my Freeloader Challenge series. This link is the most recent episode: https://youtu.be/RwLvxdhunQg Couple caveats: Please do NOT message me for more information. My inbox is filled with 20 people asking the same questions after the last comment. Post your questions here and I will try to help. You can also find an expanded guide on my own profile page. Focus on a job first. Side hustles are SIDE income for beer money, hobbies, and to make ends meet while you work on improving your career. If you do not have a career at all, side income won't change much for you. The methods ------------------------------ Shit tier (not worth doing): - Dropshipping AliExpress - AI art print-on-demand - selling wooden pallets - flipping used mattresses, any goofy YouTuber side hustle BS like that Almost all the people making money off these are the YouTubers making videos about them and the people selling courses on them. If you yourself make money doing any of these, the amount will be negligible. There are very few people making money actually doing these things, and they have extensive experience and a network behind them. If you're here, you do not. ------------------------------ Low tier (maybe worth doing in the beginning): - Online questionnaires: You CAN make money on these, but it is rarely worth the effort unless you have $0 and have no other source of money. This will only be used to seed other methods. If you absolutely must do this, use Attapoll. They pay you $0.01 if you get rejected by the questionnaire which happens frequently on almost every survey site. I made about $30 in a month before I gave up. Not recommended for anyone serious. - Silly crypto games: Most of these are complete trash, but I have cashed out about $50 from apps like CoinApp in which you get paid XYO token for driving. If you typically drive long distances and have a second phone, this might be worth it. Otherwise, skip it completely. I made about $50 over a month doing this. - Dumpster Diving for metal: Check and see if there is a metal recycling plant near you. Most suburbs and cities have something. Ask about prices on metal. Copper will fetch you about $3/lb, and aluminum about $0.50/lb. Brass is up there too. Communication wire (like CAT cables) are among the best. Don't bother with steel. The secret is to go to constructions sites where their dumpsters are out in the open and therefore are considered trash (not behind a fence, closed, or anything like that). Jump in and take metal out, then bring it to the recycling center. Check your state laws first and make sure that it is legal to dumpster dive. I am not familiar with any states where it is NOT legal, but check. I've made a few hundred off of about 10 dives like this. Average dive at a construction site yields $30. ------------------------------ Mid Tier (worth doing): - Focus Groups: This is the best low barrier to entry option for most people. I don't think I've gone a single month since 2022 in which I haven't made at least $100 for an hour doing a focus group. Companies want feedback on a product or service for their target market. You give them this feedback and they pay you. It's simple, and you get to influence a product that you might use in the future. I prefer the website User Interviews. Make a profile there with your hobbies and career skills, and you'll get connected with focus groups that are more likely to need you. In addition to User Interviews, try Hivemind. I have made a few thousand, probably $3,000ish, over 2 years. - Get-paid-to sites: These are the lowest barrier to entry options that are worth your time. These are websites where you get paid to play a game or use an app. It's the apps way of getting users without running marketing campaigns- they just pay you outright to use the app. You've already heard of Swagbucks. I prefer Freecash myself. The games may only pay you $20 for 10 hours of gameplay, so they're only worth it if you like mobile games. The real money is made from downloading and using banking or finance apps where it is common to get paid $100+ for a few minutes of work. I have made about $5,000 over 3 years. - Flipping free items: I use a Discord server where you get free items from Amazon merchants. Sometimes they require a review, sometimes they refund you on delivery. You get to keep the item and get refunded. They're usually not high quality items, but you can get as many phone cases and chargers as you want for no review. Higher end items will require a review to get refunded. If you are okay with inventorying, you can flip these at 100% profit. I only made about $30 flipping, but I got tons of free stuff to free up income for other things. - Broker churning: Most brokers will give you money to invest with them as a new account. Webull is a very good one. Deposit $0.01 and they'll give you $60 of shares. You can hold them or sell them. Then, do the Schwab Starter Kit promo. Deposit $50 and they'll give you $101. Just those 2 brokers and you're up $150. There are others, but the next best is Fidelity's Starter Kit which is deposit $100 get $100 of shares. That promo is suspended but may come back. Moomoo is a distant 4th pick, which usually gives about $70 on a $1,000 deposit. There are a few others. I made about $1,000 off these, but $500 was from an expanded Moomoo bonus that is no longer active. This could still easily net you $500. ------------------------------ Top Tier (do it): - Bank Churning: Tons of banks are willing to give you a bonus for direct depositing to them. You can do this every time you get a paycheck and never run out of banks and credit unions. PNC was an easy one- deposit $5,000 over 90 days and get $400. Use Doctor of Credit and you'll find a huge number of options with lower DD requirements. Change your DD bank often. Either make your Human Resources girl with a bachelor's degree in psychology earn her paycheck by changing your payroll for you, or deposit your other side hustle income to Chase Business bank accounts and pay yourself from those. I made about $800 so far this year doing this. - Credit card churning: Similar to the banks, credit cards offer bonuses. "Spend $5,000 and get $500 back" is a common one. Change credit cards often to take advantage of this. You can also profit off this by "spending" money on things that get refunded like the Amazon items above, or some other means that will wash the money for you. I made about $1,100 doing this so far this year. - Selling blood plasma: Every college town has a place where you can sell plasma. I sold mine for 3 years. This is actually a HEALTHY activity that puts money in your pocket. I used to make $20-$30 per plasma visit in 2013. Now, it's more like $60-$80/donation. If you are in good health, this is an obvious move. You can do it twice per week and make $400+ in a month. Look for a Biolife, Biomat, or CSL plasma center. I did this for years and made thousands, but can't do it anymore because I live far from plasma centers. Counter-gambling: There are about 22 social casinos in the US. You've heard of ones like Stake. They're horrible institutions that use loopholes to make themselves "sweepstakes" instead of casinos so that they can skirt casino regulations. To be a sweepstakes, you have to be "no purchase necessary" to enter. To effect this, the “social casinos" just give you money each day to log in, adding up to about $14 total. All you have to do is log in, take the money, and log out. Don't ever actually gamble. Some of the names are Pulsz, Stake, Chumba, Luckyland, and Modo. There are more and you'll have ads for them quickly. The cons are that you have to play through the free money before you can withdraw. Achieve this by playing baccarat, blackjack, or roulette. You'll lose some of the free money, but walk out with more than 90% on most occasions. Gamble the absolute minimum required and make your withdrawal after. Most sites do gift card withdrawals around $20 and cash at $50 or $100. Stake has no playthrough requirement and you can withdraw the ~$50 minimum without playing at all. Do NOT attempt this strategy if you have had a prior gambling addiction. I don't know exactly how much I made doing this in the past 2 years, but it's over $10,000 easily. ------------------------------ Those are the top methods I've used and expect to continue doing. I'm aiming to invest it all in crackhouse refurbishment by the end of the year. submitted by /u/Kamikaze_Cash to r/sidehustle [link] [comments]

People aged 65 and older are the fastest-growing group of people who are homeless and their ranks will peak by 2030. This daunting forecast comes amid escalating rents nationally, stubborn inflation and a potential recession that compounds woes for baby boomers who have minimal savings for retirement. It also comes as traditional workplace pensions are increasingly rare and workers must rely on the savings they have accumulated through their working lives. About 27% of people who are 59 or older have no retirement savings, according to a survey from Credit Karma. According to a 2019 study by University of Pennsylvania and others that analyzed the populations of homeless shelters in New York City, Los Angeles and Boston that predicted by 2030, the number of people 65 and older who are unhoused will nearly triple compared with 2017. ​ University of Pennsylvania professor Dennis Culhane says this significant growth, especially in those 65 and over, will continue nationwide through 2030. “Beyond 2030 the numbers should wane, as the second half of the baby boomers reaches their life expectancy. How far it will wane will depend on whether the forces underlying homelessness get worse or not. But all other factors equal, the generation behind them is substantially smaller and that should be reflected in reduced elderly homelessness,” said Culhane, the Dana and Andrew Stone Professor of Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. There’s not an exact figure on the number of unhoused older adults in the U.S. because of the way the government currently tracks information for all adults ages 25 and older; it doesn’t break down adults into subcategories. In 2022, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said about 582,000 Americans experienced homelessness, an increase of about 2,000 people from 2020. That represents about 18 unhoused people per 10,000 people in the U.S. The problem is even worse for minorities. The homelessness figures jump to 52 per 10,000 for Blacks, 45 for Native Americans and 109 for Pacific islanders, according to the 2022 State of Homelessness report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Patti Prunhuber, director of housing advocacy at Justice in Aging, a legal advocacy group focused on senior poverty, pointed to escalating rents, depleted savings, loss of a spouse or partner, or an unexpected medical costs, or a loss of a job because of injury as factors contributing to older homelessness. According to new research from the New School, between 2013 and 2020, the share of low-income older households who had to pay rent exceeding 30% of their income increased from 18.2% to 23.7%. “It takes just one crisis to push someone who is rent-burdened onto the streets,” Prunhuber said. Many of the older homeless adults are newly unhoused. Margot Kushel, the director of the University of California San Francisco Center for Vulnerable Populations, said nearly half of single adults 50 and over experiencing homelessness had never been unhoused before age 50. “First being homeless after 50 looks very different than lifelong homelessness. It’s hard in your 50s and 60s getting back into the workforce anyway, but add in that these are low-wage, physically demanding jobs often that these people had and they can’t physically do them anymore,” Kushel said. Kushel said that those who are first homeless after 50 tend to stay unhoused and they tend to die faster than those who have experienced homelessness throughout their lives. “The gap between what people make and what they need is insurmountable. Add in racism and poverty making people age prematurely." "This is what happens when you don’t give people pensions and when service jobs pay so little. It’s really a catastrophe,” Kushel said. Meanwhile, living on the street is hard for anyone, but especially older adults who may suffer from a lack of medication, access to bathrooms, suffer from attacks and violence and may lack necessary help with activities of daily living such as dressing, feeding themselves and bathing, Prunhuber said. “Many older adults who are experiencing homelessness have an acceleration of geriatric conditions. They age much more quickly and have exacerbated health conditions. Their chronological age may be 55 or 60, but they have the health of a person 15 or 20 years older,” Prunhuber said. “Their health degrades so quickly when living on the street.” Homeless seniors often use costly acute healthcare services and die prematurely. A Journal of the American Medical Association study found that unhoused people over 50 years died at a rate 3.5 times greater than their housed counterparts. Addressing homelessness among older adults will require increasing the supply of affordable housing, targeted prevention efforts, and expanding permanent supportive housing, adapted to older adult needs, Prunhuber said. Still, getting enough affordable housing built and available takes time. And even then, getting rehoused after being on the street is challenging, Prunhuber said. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there are only 36 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households nationally. “Affordable housing is great and needed, but we also need deeply affordable housing. A lot of affordable housing is still out of reach for people who may be living on less than $1,000 a month,” Kushel said. The focus needs to be on preventive measures, Prunhuber said. “Increasing the supply of affordable housing is important, but we can’t build our way out of this problem. We need to focus on preventing older adult homelessness,” Prunhuber said.” Prunhuber said. The homelessness service groups are maxed out in their ability to help and those homeless after 50 may not have the substance use or mental health problems of other adults who may get services faster because of their other issues, Kushel said. “These are our older neighbors and caregivers and preschool teachers and landscapers who have exhausted their ability to work and they are at risk. It’s important we not distance ourselves from the people who contributed to and built our communities and now they need help to stay in that community,” Prunhuber said. “We’re all aging.” https://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-baby-boomers-are-becoming-homeless-it-takes-just-one-crisis-to-push-someone-onto-the-streets-bb98bf23 submitted by /u/sillycloudz to r/antiwork [link] [comments]

Fun Fact To Cover Spoilers: The first Final Fantasy was released in December of 1987 and has since had 15 main game instalments (though there has been many more side games released). There has also been various adaptations across various pieces of media such as mangas, animes, and films. CW: Gambling Mood Warning: Positive Ending This is a repost, it was posted on here more than a year ago by u/asakurosol . OOP's account is now deleted. This was originally posted in r/FFBraveExvius so it was written with the expectation that everyone would understand certain terms. Here is a brief explanation! Whale- Someone who spends a lot of money on mobile games Banner/Event-Where, for a limited time, you can get special characters by using the in game currency (In this case "Lapis") to pull for the character (like a slot machine). - Whale of a Tale (December 13th, 2017) Caution - Wall of text incoming.....don't say I didn't warn you.... I started playing FFBE shortly after launch in July of 2016. It was a fresh take on an old classic, my favorite series of all time, Final Fantasy. When I was 11, in 1988, living in New Jersey, I went to the Nintendo CES in New York City. Nintendo had demo booths for all the upcoming games, and the original Final Fantasy was one of them. It was the coolest game I had ever seen. I got it when it was released and it remained my favorite series of games for years. FFII and FFIII on SNES, I bought a Playstation so I could get FFVII, I got a PS3, but all I wanted to play was FFXII (I personally like Vaan). Along came married life, kids, jobs, responsibilities, and I could no longer spend time on a console. I didn't have time to sit and play and grid out levels and complete the extra quests like defecting Ruby Weapon. Then FFBE was released. A short format game that I could play for 5 or 10 minutes and put it away. It didn't require a console or a TV, just a few minutes to play a couple of dungeon runs or a quick exploration, then I could put it away for later. It was perfect. Expedition into the Abyss. The first banner I spent money on. I had been playing the game for 6 weeks or so and I had not found the r/FFBreveExvius subreddit or the Exvius Wiki, I went into the exploration blind and got wiped out. I leveled my team, I maxed my stats and I just could not win. I got to Ansel finally and beat him, but I was so low on energy. I used lapis refills just to limp past him. Then I got to the exit with the 3 bosses that kicked my but with their 10,000V attack. I was frustrated beyond belief, I had spent all my resources to pass this exploration, and I couldn't leave it like this. I broke my F2P resolve and put down $20. That should be enough to get me out of this dungeon and replace some of the lapis I sepnt so I could at least do the dailies again. I was adamant that I would not spend again. The first Mog King event I recall was Festival of the Autum Moon, baking Mog Cakes. I spent hours, day after day, grinding the Coast for recipe ingredients. I kept my 2 ovens going, then I increased my capacity to 4 and I stayed true to my resolve, I did not spend any more money. I made it through, I got the Stellar Shield, I got the Lunar Pestle and the Rabbit's Foot. I acomplished my goals without macros, without more resources. My family though kept asking me, what am I tapping on my phone all the time? Why am I always looking at my screen? I put the phone away and tried to limit myself, only a little while in the morning before I got everyone up for school, I would play for a little while at lunchtime when I wasn't around anyone. I would play on the toilet since I had nothing better to do while I poop. I would play after putting the kids to sleep. I was not taking anything from anyone. I was just playing a game. I made it to November. The Crystal Tower. The release of Luneth and Refia. The best DPS and the best Healer available at the time. I had saved my lapis, I could do a 10+1 pull, I had maybe 20 or so tickets saved. I used all my resources and was trolled by a rainbow Edge. I was enraged, insenced, insistent that I get Luneth. I put in my card number into my digital wallet and upped myself $99 of Lapis. Then I pulled and pulled and pulled, and I got nothing. So I put in another $99 and pulled and pulled and I got Luneth! I could advance and defeat all new content and share the best DPS possible to all my friends. It was only $200. I can spare that. I haven't bought a video game in 6 years. I deserve it, I earned it. I didn't pull for the Brave Frontier cross over event. I saved my resources. I was depressed by all the Elza's I saw my friends sharing, but I was not lucky enough to pull her. I conceded that it was ok, and I could get her again in the future. I still beat the Trial of the Creator and got Maxwell. I had to work hard, but I got the Power of Creation TMR. That made my Luneth a king again. Then came the Big Bridge. Gilgamesh. The BEST TMR you could get. I still have a 10+1 pull left after my Luneth. I had saved the tickets from the Mog King. I pulled for Greg and failed again. It was only $200 to get Luneth. How bad would that be for the best accessory in the game? I can make my Chizuru or my Cecil so strong. I put in my money again, $99....no Greg, $99....no Greg, $99....no Greg.... I took a break for a little bit. My family had plans for the day. I was angry now. How could I have spent $300 and not gotten what I wanted. When nobody was looking, around everyone, I did it again. $99....no Greg, $99...no Greg, $99...no Greg, $99..... Finally. I had Gilgamesh. I had maxed out all of my unit inventory. I had to spend time to fuse units, I got my first Excalibur that day as well as some other great TMRs. But I finally had the Genji Golve and I could now make Chizuru strong enough to share with others. She could DPS at 350 attack and more! I could beat all the content with ease using her and Luneth. Yeah, I spent $700, but I would stop now. I had enough. I didn't want to be caught spending money I shouldn't on a video game. It was enough. Lightning strikes, and I didn't spend anything. I was in control. I didn't need anything new. I was still in the game and doing great. So many events passed and I was still killing everything in sight with my team. I cleared all of the events and new story content. It was fun, I was not an addict, I spent time with my family, I didn't take their time away. I was on top. Noctis, Prince of all Trades came along. I got greedy. I pulled again...another $300. I got off easy there. I was again in the lead. I was on top. I had the best attacker, best support, best all around at everything. I didn't need anything else. The Mana Mystery Event came. I was excited! Randi, the Secret of Mana! The Secret of Mana was, hands down, one of the best games to ever come out for the SNES. Open world, exciting characters, fantastic story and fighting. The Nostalgia was incredible for this event. I had to have Randy. I had paid down most of the bill from getting Gilgamesh. I could afford it to have a piece of my childhood back, no matter what the cost. It cost me about $400. I was back to square 1 with paying my bill back. I had spent nearly $1700 on this game now, I couldn't spend any more. It was getting out of control. I unlinked the credit card and got back to my senses. I could keep playing my game. I put my maxed out Randi as my friend unit. I was determined to get the most out of him, no matter what. It was my hard earned money, I should not spend it frivilously. I made it almost 4 months. It was my birthday. The Brave Frontier banner was back. The Scyth weilding Queen Elza was back. It was my birthday and I wanted Elza. This was the first double 5* banner I ever tried to pull on. This was the first banner I pulled on after the guaranteed 5* base for Rainbows was announced. It was my birthday and I had to have Elza. I have to get what I want on my birthday. I charged $1500 that day to get her. I was sick of my actions. I de-linked my card again. I now had a balance of nearly $4000, including other non FFBE related purchases. I had to find a way to stop. I transferred the balance to a new, zero interest card. My family was going on vacation and I needed to be clear to help with expenses. I had some cash saved, I was paying down my debt slowly, I had a plan, I was still in control. While on vacation, the Veritas Banner was announced. The most anticipated unit since Orlandeau. I had an Orlandeau from tickets, it would be awesome to get a chaining partner for Orlandeau. Veritas of the Dark is the coolest, with the black armor, Dark Damage heals him, and Dark Retribution attack. Something in me snapped, and I was back to I had to have him. It was another double Rainbow banner, maybe I would be lucky this time. $1000, no Veritas of the Dark. I had 4 Veritas of the Flame. I was angry. How could I have spent so much and not gotten the unit I wanted! Why would Final Fantasy, Gumi, Square Enix, not give it to me? How could I spend so much and not get what I want! Another $1000. I got 2 more Veritas of the Flame, another Orlandeau, a second Freviya, Olive, Emperor, but no Dark Veritas! How! Why! Now I am stubborn. I am not putting this much money out there to not get what I want. $99...no Dark Veritas, $99...no Dark Veritas, $99...a second Emperor, I almost threw my phone against the wall. $99....Finally, Veritas of the Dark. $2500, 9 Veritas of the Flame, half a dozen other 5* base, and I finally got the Veritas of the Dark. Wait....WTF did I just do?!?! Did I just really spend $2500 to get a little animated piece of code? What is my wife going to think? What will my kids say? I tell them I don't have much money to spare, I dutifully split my paycheck 3 ways, household expenses, savings and my spending money. I can do what I want with my spending money. I just won't get anything for myself for a year or so, pay this back to my card a couple hundred at a time. Fuck it. I have what I want. I put in another $1000 just to keep me going with energy refils and I can play whenever and however I want. Neir came, I pulled with the lapis I had left and got A2 and 2B. Luck is on my side now. Onion Knight, I got on 3 10+1 pulls. I am on top of the world. Gumi must have had some mercy on my account. I have all the units I need, sure there are some I want, but I can get by without Rem and Wilhelm. But who is this awesome new healer! Ayaka, dual white magic, reraise, the things I was missing for Agaion, the Robot Trial! With her, I could be at the top again. I could beat all the trials, all the new story content. It would all be a breeze. I had to get her. I moved all my debt to the balance transfer card. I have a clear card to work with. I can get it and make it go away and I can continue on as normal, just pay down the card and not spend on myself. Next came Nyx. The Hero of Kingsgalive. I know most people thought it was aweful, but I even like Spirits Within, so hate all you want...I wanted to have Nyx. Another $400. I skipped halloween, but decided I had to have Loren for her TMR. It was a good as the Genji Golve, even better. It would make my team unstoppable for the 10 man trials. Another $500. Honestly I don't know what I spent here, I lost count. The Tower of Zot! We can have Rubicant! Barbariccia would be cool, but Rubicant is one of my favorite enimies of all time. $99...no Rubicant, $99...no Rubicant. WTF!?! This is a 4* base! What is happening!? F&k it, AGAIN. $500, just to be sure. Get Rubicant, keep pulling for Barbariccia, don't need her, I already have 2 Trance Terra's, but why the F*%k not. Its good for the Raid Bonus. All right! Rainbow Rate is up! EX rewards are 1.5X! Cloud is coming in December! This is the best time to put some $$ in so I am guananteed to get Cloud. Cloud is Awesome! Cloud is iconic! Cloud is the heart of Final Fantasy! I have my zero interest card at $11K, but I am paying it. I have a way of making it look like I am paying off an old debt to cover if my wife asks where the money went. I went all in. $3000 in lapis. That will last me a good long time, then I can pay off my debt and play and just let it all go away. On December 7th, 2017, my wife asked if she could use my credit card to buy food and send it to a family member celebrating a huge accomplishment. Offhand, she asked if she could see the balance. She saw something in my response trying to dismiss it and wouldn't let it go. I asked her to go upstairs so we could talk in private. I confessed to having a balance of $5600 on my card due to Final Fantasy. A couple days later, I told her the rest of the story. I am currently $15,800 in debt. My wife no longer trusts me. My kids, who ask me why I am playing Final Fantasy all the time, will never understand how I selfishly spent money I should have been using for their activities. Their birthdays, their festivals, their clothes, their school events, their weekends, their movies. I have never spent more than $1000 on my wife at one time. I spent $16,000 on digital garbage in about a year. If she decides that she will not divorce me, I owe her more that I could ever repay. I am not playing anymore. I will not get Cloud. I will leave 500K lapis in an account that will stay idle. The "friends" I have will drop me as my days since last played increases. I will not get to beat Marlboro. I will not see how Chapter 2 plays out. I will not have any 7* units. FFBE is over. I became a gambling addict over a game where there is no return, no reward, for spending my money. I Flushed $16,000 down the toilet over a game. TL;DR - Don't whale irresponsibly, the consequences WILL outweigh the investment. TL;DR #2 - Some people are on this planet to be an example to others, don't be that Guy. Edit - Thank you all for your support and ideas. I have a lot of feedback on how I can improve the situation, I will update in some time after getting a few actions completed first. I really appreciate each and every comment, I have read them all, and I plan to continue to read them to reinforce my resolve to keep my promise to my wife and to my family to remain open and honest. Please be patient and OP will update. Whale of a Tale-1 year later (December 7th, 2018) Well....Its been a year. A year of repentance, a year of ups and downs and everything in between. One year today marks the day my wife uncovered my FFBE gambling habit. If anyone is unfamiliar with the story, sort by Top (all time). In the past year I have made a lot of progress. I have substantially paid down my debts, made amends with my family and worked hard to move forward. I cannot say I have been a perfect husband or father, but I would like to think I have improved in many areas. My life is changed beyond measure because of my inability to control myself playing this game. The biggest blessing I have in my life is my wife. She looks out for me, for our family, and everyone she knows so that people are happy, do not go overboard and keep on a right path. "Too much of anything is never a good thing" she tells me often. It can apply to food, exercise, work and gaming. I have changed my habits and work hard to include her and my children in everything, instead of trying to escape from them. To people who wondered, I am 41, a hardware development engineer building servers and father of 3. I help get kids up and ready for school, help them with their homework and make sure bedtime and brushing teeth are enforced. At my worst, I was pulling for Veritas of the Dark on a trip to the Aquarium with the kids and cousins, spending ~$2500 that day and ignoring my family as they joyfully wandered around looking at fish, octopus and seals. Playing raids on nature hikes with the Cub Scouts. Now, I would like to believe I am more attentive, more present, in their lives and their mother's life. My worst guilt is that I still want to play a game that nearly ruined my life. I just wanted to say to everyone, thank you for your support. Thank you for your kind words, and even many of you who said outright how stupid I was. Thank you for the chance to be a part of Final Fantasy. May all your summons break into Rainbows. Whale of a Tale - Epilogue (December 7th, 2020) 3 years ago, I posted a story of how I fell. I fell in the eyes of my family, the ones I swore to protect, opening them up to a mountain of risk and debt. Today, I have paid off my debt fully and I hope that I can leave this chapter of my life, my lies, my hidden obsession, my half truths, fully in the past. Over the past 3 years I have seen a lot of changes. Since the pandemic began, it has been hard to watch as my children spend more and more time playing Roblox and less time playing outdoors, less time studying, physically active and spending time as a family. I realized that I set the precedent of this behavior. I do try to be a more engaged father and husband, it is a daily challenge to keep everyone happy, healthy and well fed. As to the state of the game, I have followed what is going on at a distance. When I stopped playing, at the release of OG Cloud, a top tier DD was in the 1500 ATK range. When I started, Chizuru was a beast with a 300 ATK. Now, I see NV Remake Cloud at 5000+ ATK. Power creep is real and basically every dollar that I spent ($16000 and then some) has little to no value at this point in the META. It has been a long period of reflection. There have been fights where all I can do is hang my head in shame as I accept the guilt of spending selfishly on a game when I could have redone the floors in my home and replaced the kitchen counters, the two of these desires of my wife have been postponed due to my lack of self control. These are my priorities now, doing things for my home, saving for my children's future, and I hope doing more to show my wife that she is the most important connection in my life. She forgave me, she supported my recovery and she kept me on the right path. She deserves all the credit for keeping our family together. Do I miss playing? I do. I said it in the 1 year update and I will say it again. I hate that I still have a desire to play a game that nearly ruined my life. Do I regret my decision? I regret hiding what I was doing from my family and I strive to be more open and honest about what I want and what I am doing. I don't want to ramble, so I will end here. I did it. I paid my debts. I hope that no one else falls into the same trap and spends beyond their means, or hides what they are doing from their loved ones. Good luck everyone! -nothing Reminder that I am not the OOP. Also brigading is not allowed on this sub. submitted by /u/boru_posts to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

Amid all the mod drama, dates hype and other distractions, I guess no one has noticed that one of GameStop's most interesting new job postings is for a "Director of SEC and Financial Reporting," which could indicate that GameStop is about to get a lot more serious about SEC engagement and shareholder protection by devoting an entire full-time $100-150k position to the responsibility. The new hire will be responsible for monitoring SEC developments to identify and document the potential impact of new pronouncements or other authoritative guidance and manage the implementation of the related disclosure requirements. Most intriguingly, the position will oversee "the equity process including tasks related to stock-based compensation, equity rollforward, shares outstanding, calculation of basic/diluted EPS, including an evaluation of the dilutive impact of equity-based awards with performance conditions." The inclusion of "shares outstanding" in the job description is probably routine but might also be interpreted to imply an upcoming effort to reign in or otherwise grapple with the problem of naked shorts, FTDs, etc. In addition, calculation of basic/diluted EPS (Earnings Per Share) is directly related to potential issuance of shareholder dividends and/or a merger, as discussed below. The Balance explains...What are Basic and Diluted Earnings per Share? 🚀 "When you dive into the income statement (also known as the company's "profit and loss statement"), you have to do it on two levels. First, look at the entire business: How profitable is the company as a whole? Second, examine the profits per share: Publicly traded companies are cut up into individual pieces or "shares." Each of those shares represents part of the overall ownership pie. How much of the after-tax income is each piece of the company entitled to receive? 🚀 Basic earnings per share is a company's net income, minus cumulative preferred dividends, divided by the number of common outstanding shares. Diluted earnings per share represent the company's net income minus preferred dividends, divided by the total of the weighted average number of shares and other dilutive securities. 🚀 To an investor who is looking for dividends, the second figure is what counts. A company might create more profit each year but give little of that profit to the shareholders per share. That is not good for a shareholder who invests for dividends, but it might be good for someone who looks for rising share values. 🚀 Profits get lost on their way to shareholders (diluted) for many reasons. For instance, a merger may result in new shares being issued; employees may have stock options with vesting periods that are ending; there may be securities such as warrants or convertible preferred stock issued that dilute a stock." This other blog further explains "earnings per share (EPS) is a measure of a company’s profitability and, by extension, a key indicator of its overall financial performance. In its most fundamental form (basic EPS), it indicates how much profit is assigned to each share of its common stock, which is valuable information for the firm’s investors. 🚀 A high EPS generally indicates that the company has the money either to pay out via dividends or reinvest in the business itself, whereas low EPS implies the opposite. Accordingly, how a company’s reported EPS squares with capital market expectations can cause significant fluctuations in its stock price. 🚀 In addition to basic EPS, there is also diluted EPS. This measure accounts for any convertible securities — such as employee stock options, convertible debt, convertible preferred shares, and warrants — that could be exercised, thereby diluting the EPS figure. Note that diluted EPS is by definition a theoretical figure, since it assumes something that hasn’t happened yet. Basic vs. diluted EPS, explained 🚀 The formula for basic EPS is relatively straightforward. An accountant will subtract the company’s dividends for preferred stock from its net income, then divide that number by the weighted average of the common shares outstanding over the applicable accounting period. In calculating this weighted average, accountants must factor in any stock splits, stock dividends, share repurchases (also known as stock buybacks), and shares issued. 🚀 The basic EPS figure is in theory a great indicator of a company’s financial health and stock price. Indeed, high EPS implies that it is a worthwhile investment. However, there are some distinct limitations to EPS: The existence of stock buybacks — which have surged since the 1980s — means that a company can reduce its total number of shares outstanding without actually increasing its net income, leading to a deceptively high EPS. Mergers and acquisitions can distort EPS. EPS does not provide any direct indication of a company’s debt position or financial leverage, two figures that any informed investor will want to know about. Plus, debt might be issued for buybacks. Any adjustments in a company’s accounting policy — note that generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are not law — can result in changes in EPS. EPS does not reveal how much capital was needed to generate the figure in question. In other words, two companies could have identical EPS numbers but radically different amounts of capital used, meaning that one made much better use of its resources. 🚀 Now let’s turn to diluted EPS. The formula is dividends for preferred stock subtracted from net income, divided by the sum of the weighted average of shares outstanding and the impact of all dilutive securities, including convertible shares, warrants, and stock options. As a result, diluted EPS is lower than EPS. 🚀 Diluted EPS can be complicated to calculate. For starters, an accountant would need to determine what it would cost to exercise the company’s issued options, based on the strike (exercise) price of the shares in question multiplied by the total number of options. 🚀 That figure would then be divided by the current market price of the stock, which would yield the number of shares that could be purchased with the value of the exercised options. Finally, subtracting that figure from the sum of the outstanding shares would provide the number of excess shares necessary for meeting the company’s obligations." 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 TL;DR: GameStop is hiring a new Director of SEC and Financial Reporting who will broadly deal with and oversee many aspects of $GME stock of concern to shareholders. This is a high-level position with a salary up to $150k. It's super bullish for shareholders because it means that a Certified Public Accountant with deep experience will be working full-time on SEC issues and the equity process. Edit 1: Many commenters are expressing that this is a "normal" job position at many public corporations. This is definitely true. You can search the web and find a bunch of similar job descriptions at other companies. The relevant question is why GME needs to hire a Director of SEC and Financial Reporting, at this point in time, and how long and why the position has been vacant. This is pure speculation on my part but I have a hunch that GME hasn't had a dedicated individual in this position for a while, and the role of SEC reporting has been carried out recently by a team led by Chief Accounting Officer Diana Jajeh. Her bio on GameStop's website states, "Under her leadership, Diana and her team continue to enhance the organization’s global capabilities and service offerings in the areas of governance and compliance, accounting advisory, SEC reporting, tax planning strategies, treasury operations and capital planning and process improvements and system implementation." The last record I could find of someone filling a Director of Financial Reporting position at GameStop is an individual who was in this position for 3 years and 9 months until April 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. Given the financial challenges GameStop was going through in 2020, the position may have been vacant for over a year as a money-saving measure, with its responsibilities assumed by others in the organization. The old job title was Director of Financial Reporting; the new title is Director of SEC and Financial Reporting. The new position is one of the first high-level jobs that GME advertised after raising $1.1 billion from the mid-June 2021 share offering. It wasn't my intention to imply that this sort of position is unique to GameStop, but I do think it's great news (and bullish) that this position is a priority now and will soon be filled. It's going to give GameStop extra firepower dealing with SEC and equity issues at a very pivotal juncture in the company's transformation with shareholders eagerly awaiting progress. Edit 2: I think it's super freaking awesome that this post resulted in MORE THAN QUADRUPLING (so far) the number of applicants for this position via LinkedIn! When I first posted, only 2 people had applied for the job via LinkedIn. Now with all of the attention from SuperStonk and other subs, in less than 24 hours the number of applicants via LinkedIn has gone up to 9! This means there is a real chance that an ape could be hired as GameStop's next Director of SEC and Financial Reporting. How cool would that be? Good luck to all of the ape-plicants, I hope one of you gets it! 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 submitted by /u/Green8Dreamer to r/Superstonk [link] [comments]

Now I realize this is going to stroke some of you the wrong way. The more you hate this message, the more this message is adressed towards you. Keep reading if you dare risk some cognitive dissonance but hopefully add some wrinkles and increase your chances of lasting wealth. ​ Looks at all these bananas. This monkey has no problems right? NO WRONG! Some basic truths - Money does not solve your problems Yes, it's true I'm afraid. Money does not solve your problems."But Damsell, my problems are mainly that I cannot afford x, y and z... how can money not solve that.."I know dear ape, money will definitely solve THOSE problems. I'm just saying that new problems will replace your current problems. You will face new psychological pressure, fears, highs and lows. It will be difficult to maintain current relationships and even harder to acquire new ones. You can feel uncomfortably different from your friends and you're afraid to tell them how you feel about your new status. Being wealthy can make for more guilt than pleasure. Instead of feeling powerful and decisive, you can feel paralyzed and unable to decide how to spend your money. You can't stand the envy of friends and acquaintances -- you can find yourself becoming more isolated. You feel like you don't quite deserve the money and you can't believe it's really yours. You suffer from "ticker shock" and become obsessed with watching the stock market. You're afraid that you'll lose your money and your good fortune will simply vanish overnight. You can become paranoid and think everyone interacting with you is doing so because of your money, causing you to have trust issues. I'd say many apes already have this, let's see how long it takes before I am called a shill in the comments. You can become demotivated and depressed. Why do anything? You have no reason to get out of bed. You can lie here for weeks and nothing would go wrong for you. Rent will still be paid etc. You will likely feel like spending your money is the only thing that gives you pleasure. Purchases that make you absolutely sallivate now are going to grow old on you QUICK. Seriously.. that car you've been dreaming of the last 20 years? It's just another car emotionally satisfaction-wise after a few months. And guess what your impulse is going to be? Spend some more! This is a vicious cycle that will drain your money quick. Monkey with bad habits ​ - Money does not make you a better person "Once I'll have money I clean up my act, I'll stop drinking too much, I'll stop smoking, I'll start a business, I'll clean my house, I'll do the lawn, I'll fold away this laundry, I'll do this, I'll do that." Give me a break. No you wont. There is nothing stopping you now from doing most of those things and you're doing nothing now. Hell most of you are doing little more than smoking weed, laying back and watching the ticker all day. That's not going to change if you suddenly have a lot of money, it's going to get worse. Having money is going to kill all your motivation if you have a personality that has low motivation to begin with. Quit smoking? "Pff what is a few dollars a day on a pack of smokes. I have millions!" Stop drinking too much? "It's ok if I have a hangover tomorrow, I have nowhere to go and I can pay for it. It's a very nice bottle of Scotch so it's a waste not to drink it" Starting a business? "Meeh I'm not going to absolutely work my ass off. I have it made already. Why would I put in 80 hours a week to launch a business". You're going to end up making this a money pit. You start with the right intentions, but you don't have the motivation or the pressure to follow through and it's going to end up costing you money. - All your current shortcomings and faults will be amplified If you have a tendency for procrastination, you'll become a master procrastinator once you're rich. If you have a tendency to drink too much, you'll go full blown alchoholic once you're rich. If you have a smoking addiction, you'll smoke more once you're rich If you're lazy, you'll become more lazy after you're rich. If you smoke too much weed, you'll never stop smoking once you're rich. If you have a drug addiction, you'll not stop using untill you win the premature room temperature challenge or run out of money. If you have a sex addiction, guess what! You can pay for sex non-stop now and let me tell you there are expensive sexual partners out there. If you have trouble having genuine relationships, you'll have more trouble finding and maintaining those once you're rich. If you have anxiety, you'll have waaaaay more of that once you're rich. You have about a million more reasons to worry about once you're rich. If you have a tendency to be arrogant, show off and/or overcompensate for a small genital situation you'll do that MORE after you are rich. You have poor self control? Guess what, that too, gets worse with money. In short, despite this already crippling list, the only thing that is going to save you is IRON CLAD PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT. You're going to have to be your own parent. It's time to become an adult and do it fast. Straighten up. Another bad monkey with bad habits Some harsh truths So the previous parts were already pretty harsh. And those were the nice ones. Can you imagine?This, my friends, is where I'm not going to make friends. I don't care. I'll take the rage downvotes, as long as one ape actually understands what I'm saying here. ​ - Stopping with work at an age below 40 is not going to make you happy It won't. You may enjoy taking half a year off. Maybe you even should do that, especially if you've been unhappily employed for a few years already. But tell yourself this isn't going to last. You're not even going to be able to and you'll know why if you keep reading. - Having a large sum of money does NOT increase your earning potential Any which way you put it, even a large sum of money is an limited supply unless you have income.Divide your money by your monthly expenditure and you can predict how much time you have before you're back to zero. If you currently have a low income, that's because you do not have any marketable skills, qualities or knowledge recognized by employers or the market. If you have a minimum wage income job now, having a big pile of cash isn't going to change how employers view your value. This is not mean, this is not angry capitalism, it's simply that you need skills, knowledge and experience that make you valuable to qualify for a well-paid job. If you have failed to gain OR market those skills untill now, this will remain the same after you're rich. (Unless you're going to grow personally big time) If you have none of those currently, you will still have none of those after you become a millionaire.That means your pile of cash is going to run out quicker than people who do have money-earning capabilities and skills. Your ONLY chance at long term financial wealth post-squeeze is to be careful with your money. There is a ONE TIME influx of cash and you have to make it last. Despite the cash, you will still need to be frugal. Read on in the "How to manage a large sum of money sustainably" chapter. - If you've never had money before, you are inexperienced and likely to make BAD decisions with money. You've earned this money if you held during all the uncertainty, don't get me wrong. What we're doing is a massive accomplishment of pure will, self-control and dedication. Big ups to you apes. You have the right to feel proud about this. It would be unfair to compare this with a lottery pay-out, HOWEVER. The point I'm making with this comparison is that people who've not had money before and who suddenly come into large sums of money make bad decisions and end up losing it all and sometimes more in short periods of time. How bad? A staggering 70% of lottery winners end up broke WITHIN 5 YEARS. A further 30% declare bankruptcy. Why? They make toxic investments, they are surrounded by people who want their money, they spend like crazy thinking big numbers are endless, they quickly change their lifestyle, they do not have an income to sustain their lifestyle. In short, they do not know how to handle money. The same goes for athletes. 78% of NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress during retirement. Within 5 years of retirement 60% of NFL players are broke. These people have decades of making millions a year and they still manage to blow it! "Ha but they are dumb! Not me, that's not going to happen to me Damsel."No I'm very sorry. Statistics say you ARE dumb. Not as a person, but just dumb with money.I'm not making an assesment of value saying that, I'm just saying on the front of handling money you are most likely dumb. - Most of you think you're going to increase your lifestyle a hundred fold after the MOASS. You're not and if you do you're going to lose it ALL quick. Yup. I just threw a spanner in your clockwork. You may be millionaires, but you wont be living like one. Sorry. You can very likely forget about mansions, Lamborghini's, boats and $50k watches like I've seen most of you fantasizing about. The amount of money in your account is not going to determine what your life looks like. It's the income that you have that determines what your life looks like. Luckily, you can make money make money for you, so you are likely going to have a big passive income boost but you'll likely still income from employment OR you're going to keep living normally. If you buy a big house, guess what, that comes with big taxes! And guess what, you have to pay those every year, not just once. This is going to drain you financially faster than you can say "Chapter 7 bankruptcy". And that house isn't going to keep it's value unless you maintain it immaculately. Guess what? That costs money too! Are you going to do all that yardwork? No? Do you know what gardeners cost? That fancy car/boat you're fantasizing about? Have you ever heard of depreciation? As soon as you drive it off the lot, expect 30% of the purchase value to dissapear. On 300k Lambo that's 100k INSTANTLY gone. Congrats, you've lost more in 30 minutes that you've ever made in a single year untill now. Do you know what the maintenance on these things costs?! Dealers charge hundreds of dollars per hour in labor and don't get me started on the parts. Oh and guess what, the maintenance scheduel is different than your current Camry. They require service every year, or every 15.000 miles. Some of those services likely need to engine to come out so that's a $8k service right here. Tires are more expensive, and it's a sportscar so you're going to drive it sportily. That means you're going to be spending your current minimum wage on tires alone every few months. And the fun part is, if you don't do all these expensive maintenance things you'll depreciate the car even faster! Yay! Long story short, BUYING expensive things isn't the hard part. The hard part is paying for the maintenance, upkeep, taxes and other operational expenditures. This will drain your lump of money quicker and because you're a simple ape you have no income to compensate for that. So you don't get to do it. I'll explain more in the "how to manage a large sum of money sustainably" header. Sad monkey looking at his pp MOASS happened, what now? Ok there is a few easy steps here. Step one: SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. Yes you read that right. Shut your fucking mouth. Don't tell anyone.No boasting on social media, no flapping wads of cash on Instagram, no tiktoks with a rolex around your limp wiener (or whatever you kids do nowadays online). Don't tell your friends, don't tell your family, don't tell ANYONE. If you absolutely want to share, do so with one or two people that know how to shut the fuck up and DONT give them any numbers. You can say it's a lot of money, but you don't tell them if it's 80k or 80 million. Seriously. Get this through your ape skull. Shut the fuck up. **Step two: DONT. SPEND. A. FUCKING. PENNY. SERIOUSLY.**We're now going to get you accustomed to the new situation in your life.Before you get all giddy. Keep that wallet closed. It's yours, but it's not yours to spend yet.No wild shopping sprees. Seriously. Step three: Gather a team to help you manage your financial reality The first person you tell is a financial advisor.Tell him that you need a lawyer, a fiduciary financial advisor, and a tax expert.Assemble this team. Talk to multiple people, don't just hire the first jackass that knows you have big money and who's going to sweet talk you into doing business with him. You need to feel comfortable around all of these people, personally and professionally.They're going to be your guardians against yourself, and you need to be able to hear from that your stupid is showing. Step four: TAXES BITCH Pay taxes. This is likely the first thing that your new expert team will help you with.With big money comes big taxes. It could be 50% or more of what you made. Seriously. Step five: PLAN how to spend your money. I don't care if you think you only have to plan money if you have little of it. That's bullshit.If you have a lot of money you will need to plan MORE. Create a "Wealth longevity" plan with your team.How much can you spend per month, what steps are you going to take to make money with your money, what are realistic returns, what can you spend on a house, what on transportation and what on charity, friends and family IF any. Step six: FOLLOW the plan. See this is where you get to show you're an adult. Yes there's a few million in the bank but you're not going to impulse buy this perfect example of the classic car you've always wanted because you already spent this months budget on a new gaming PC, mortgage and(or whatever). You do not get to cheat. "Oh ill just spend the extra little bit now, and next month I wont spend anything". Yeah right, give me a break bitch. If you didn't have the self-control this month you won't the next either. YOU DO NOT EXCEED YOUR BUDGET. How to handle large sums of money sustainably. See I'm not a financial advisor right so don't take my advice but I did transition from very poor to 'very well off' about 8 years back. Most of the things I'm talking about are things that I personally experienced and I too, needed extensive personal growth to make my new situation work. I made some of the mistakes listed here. It's not about ragging on you, it's about making you a better ape. So what should you realistically expect after MOASS? What will your life look like? 1% of your total money AFTER taxes can be splurged.Yup. Seriously. Only 1%. For every hypothetical million you can splurge $10k.That's a one time "lets celebrate" allotment. Not a recurring per month, not a recurring yearly thing. You can celebrate with a few purchases, but you're going to need your money bad. Read on to know why. You do not have any ways of income, other than interest of your money. Live off it.If you have 1 million dollars and you invest it WISELY with your new team that you assembled you can realistically accumulate 5% of growth per year. That means that you DO NOT GET TO TOUCH ANY OF YOUR MONEY. That's 50k of years in gains. If you spend all of the 50k you'll get poorer every year because of inflation. The inflation will likely be around 2%, so you can only take out three fifths of your yearly gains to live off. That's only $30k in passive income per million dollars of money invested. Unless you're planning to live like the most frugal millionare ever, you'll likely need to work to supplement your income. Your income determines what you can live like.With only $30k per year in passive income per million you're looking at a very simple lifestyle. If you can add $30k per year in income from work now you have 60k to live off. That's comfortable, but still nowhere near Lamborghini income. Forget about it. Any extreme purchases will drain your money quick and you'll will end every year negative. ​ TL;DR No, fuck you. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Stop looking for the easy way, you need to develop yourself personally. Force yourself to actually read this. Be an adult for fuck sake. Closing words So in short apes. I love you and I want to see you succeed with money.What I'm suggesting here is maybe more boring than you were hoping for, but it's simple reality.There is no escaping it. Having a lot of money is not a guarantee that you get to spend a lot of money.Your income matters, not what's in the bank. Frankly, I don't care if you hate me after reading this. **I'm not your momma.**I'm going to tell you things you need to hear, instead of what you want to hear. If you really want to learn how to improve yourself, and grow personally I recommend reading this article. When it first got published, and thats many moons ago, I was a teenager with no goals in life, angry at the fact that I was likely never going to succeed and blaming it on everyone except for myself. This article, after some digesting, made it 'click' for me. https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person Be awesome! If you follow my advice your will be this happy monkey in a few years. submitted by /u/Damsellindistress to r/Superstonk [link] [comments]