Red Fox is another. I think an escape room is a really good fit here. Maybe a museum?

Paint it yourself, unless you literally can't due to disability/injury.

Because nobody would ever think people who identify as conservative/republican would care, didn't seem like that needed to be explicitly stated. My point was more "even among dems, most people think this way, in MA and across the US". Thought it was implied.

100? I mean you're doing some bizarre mental gymnastics if you identify more closely with the Republican party than the dems and simultaneously pretend to care about those in need.

I wasn't trying to shit on Democrats specifically, I mean it's not like anyone who identifies as conservative in the US actually gives a shit about any homeless or impoverished people either. Just saying it shouldn't be surprising.

This is like 75% of Democrats in the US and easily a majority of folks in Mass. It shouldn't be surprising tbh.

In my opinion the only way you accept a counter offer is if there is an agreed upon severance package that is essentially unconditional presented to you in writing as part of the counter. If you stay right now, they see you as a flight risk. If you stay but they need to pay you 3, 4, 6 months pay in a lump sum to lay you off or fire you, they know that you have stability due to that, so shouldn't be a flight risk, and you know that even if they lay you off, you're good financially.

IMO without a pre-agreed upon severance deal in writing, that does not have an expiration, I wouldn't accept a counter offer. If they are willing to offer me that, I go to teh new company and present them with an offer of X% above net compensation that my current employer is now offering me to stay plus a pre-agreed upon severance deal there too. If they balk, I stay at my current spot.

Having that safety blanket would be incredible and I think it's the only way to make staying worthwhile. I would be too stressed out thinking I'm perceived as a flight risk otherwise.

It's 100% a good idea. Everything that everyone "needs" should be public, as in access to needs should not be driven by market pricing. It's the most obvious place to land at if you care about people other than yourself to any degree.

Food, Medicine, Housing, Clean Water, Internet access, safe and efficient transit, Energy, it's all 100% necessary to live a comfortable life today. All of our policy should be designed around guaranteeing access to all needs for everyone. Instead we have hellscape capitalism where like 10k families have 50% of the wealth and 160 million Americans are a month away from destitution.

You should 110% have an IRA, either Traditional or Roth, that you invest in on your own and outside of your employment based investments (401k or HSA etc).

An IRA will have similarly valued tax advantages (the same in the case of a tIRA) to a 401k while almost universally having lower fees than a 401k.

The best allocation is to max a 401k up to the match from your employer, max an HSA if you have one, and then fully fund your flavor of IRA. Only then does it makes sense to max your 401k, and this is due to fees (mostly).

Also the expected value of money allocated to a 401k or IRA is always going to be higher than money invested through most other avenues simply due to the diversification available and the tax advantages. It's as close to a guaranteed "good" future return as you can get outside of social security.

I mean it's not 100% your dad's fault. We have a whole generation+ still around who bought their first home in the 50's or 60's and earned dramatically more than the cost of living (basically as long as they were employed at all) from the late 40's to the late 70's, and even through the 90's things were shaped very differently than they have been the past 20-25 years. I think most of us have heard something similar from someone at one point.