Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I read the comments on the diary page and they’re so much gentler than here. What a bunch of harpies.

I don’t like the term “harpies”, but I was struck by the negativity here vs the comments as well. The article was well-written, and I enjoyed reading details about what life looks for a family of 3 choosing the DC lifestyle they did compared to my DC area lifestyle with a higher HHI but in the suburbs and with 3 kids. I would love to read more of these DC-focused diaries.

Maybe I'm missing some comments but the ones I saw are from younger people saying things like "I hope to have a life like this when I'm your age!" and I think before you get married or have kids reading about someone with a very achievable HHI but a very leisurely life probably sounds nice and potentially an option for your future. But for those of us who live in DC and have kids and pay our own bills what jumps out is how very scaffolded her life is. She and her husband don't save money for anything at all beyond retirement. She didn't save for a downpayment on her house, or her condo, or her car. She doesn't have savings for college. She's kind of skating along spending everything that's not a pre-tax deduction and sure: that's nice work if you can get it, but seeing her cheerfully respond to a 30 year old commenter looking forward to having that lifestyle herself in a decade feels almost meanspirited. This is not a lifestyle you can "achieve," only one you can receive. And if you haven't had it handed to you at 30 it's not coming at 39.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I read the comments on the diary page and they’re so much gentler than here. What a bunch of harpies.

I don’t like the term “harpies”, but I was struck by the negativity here vs the comments as well. The article was well-written, and I enjoyed reading details about what life looks for a family of 3 choosing the DC lifestyle they did compared to my DC area lifestyle with a higher HHI but in the suburbs and with 3 kids. I would love to read more of these DC-focused diaries.

I agree. I’ve been reading money diaries since the I think close to the beginning (2014?) off and on and I enjoy getting a view into someone else’s life. And so much has changed about my own life in that time! To your point about Dc, it would be cool if money diaries allowed you to filter somehow by region or income or parental status or whatever, since it’s interesting to compare.

Anonymous wrote:

I love the flex of throwing in the diary that she went to the Inn at Little Washington the weekend before. Well played.

I think you need to read more carefully - she said she went to Little Washington (a town), not the Inn at Little Washington.

Have you even been to Washington? There is literally nothing there, except the Inn and bed and breakfasts in case you can't afford to stay at the Inn.

Anonymous wrote:Her health plan is to eat all the time and then be on Wegovy.

Her money plan is to slack off and then wait for her parents to die.

Tbh sounds like a fun, if a bit empty, life.

I love the flex of throwing in the diary that she went to the Inn at Little Washington the weekend before. Well played.

I think you need to read more carefully - she said she went to Little Washington (a town), not the Inn at Little Washington.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I read the comments on the diary page and they’re so much gentler than here. What a bunch of harpies.

I don’t like the term “harpies”, but I was struck by the negativity here vs the comments as well. The article was well-written, and I enjoyed reading details about what life looks for a family of 3 choosing the DC lifestyle they did compared to my DC area lifestyle with a higher HHI but in the suburbs and with 3 kids. I would love to read more of these DC-focused diaries.

Wow, I read the comments on the diary page and they’re so much gentler than here. What a bunch of harpies.

Anonymous wrote:those condo fees are wild, also what is public policy sounds like a bs job that will go away in the future or be paid so low that ai doesn't touch it

A lot of people in DC are employed in jobs like this and they aren't going anywhere.

Her health plan is to eat all the time and then be on Wegovy.

Her money plan is to slack off and then wait for her parents to die.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was stunned at the lack of work focus. On Friday, she essentially didn’t work. Most other days she had a few late morning meetings, answered a few emails, etc., but mostly did random stuff about the house. I kept thinking that she was practically retired.

This is why they're making everyone go to the office

Oh, my child, people who don't want to work can slack off at home or in an office.

+1. There are plenty of low to mid level $100k jobs where there isn’t a ton of hard work to do, or at least not all of the time. Maybe you have an occasional crunch time. Every company DH and I have ever worked for has had a ton of barely working folks in the $100-150k range. HR, Marketing, Facilities, certain internal IT folks, etc. These are cushy jobs that pay reasonably well but do also sort of have a cap to how far you will go.

Let me know where I can get one of these jobs, especially if it’s remote. A few years ago, I retired in my early 50s, but I would go back to work for $100k+/year to work 2hrs/day in my PJs writing a few emails and sitting through a couple of boring meetings.

Anonymous wrote:I love the flex of throwing in the diary that she went to the Inn at Little Washington the weekend before. Well played.

Seriously. That's an $800 date night, easy.

I love the flex of throwing in the diary that she went to the Inn at Little Washington the weekend before. Well played.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was stunned at the lack of work focus. On Friday, she essentially didn’t work. Most other days she had a few late morning meetings, answered a few emails, etc., but mostly did random stuff about the house. I kept thinking that she was practically retired.

This is why they're making everyone go to the office

Oh, my child, people who don't want to work can slack off at home or in an office.

+1. There are plenty of low to mid level $100k jobs where there isn’t a ton of hard work to do, or at least not all of the time. Maybe you have an occasional crunch time. Every company DH and I have ever worked for has had a ton of barely working folks in the $100-150k range. HR, Marketing, Facilities, certain internal IT folks, etc. These are cushy jobs that pay reasonably well but do also sort of have a cap to how far you will go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was stunned at the lack of work focus. On Friday, she essentially didn’t work. Most other days she had a few late morning meetings, answered a few emails, etc., but mostly did random stuff about the house. I kept thinking that she was practically retired.

This is why they're making everyone go to the office

Yeah, reading this makes me want to force everyone to come back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was stunned at the lack of work focus. On Friday, she essentially didn’t work. Most other days she had a few late morning meetings, answered a few emails, etc., but mostly did random stuff about the house. I kept thinking that she was practically retired.

This is why they're making everyone go to the office

I don’t know, I mean she’s not exactly impossible to identify here if you know her and says it’s her slow season so there seems to be something about her job that is more flexible/not really 40/hr a week that isn’t really explained here. Otherwise I doubt she’d be so upfront about the lack of work during the workday.