Thanks for clarifying! I have vanguard, whoops

Babysitting is great. If you can, get to know your neighbors — a lot of them likely have kids. There are apps that connect families to babysitters too but I haven’t used one in a while. If it’s a date night you can come over after the kids are already in bed and get paid to watch tv until midnight!

Oh also, you don’t have to put $6000 at a time into the Roth IRA! I think the minimum is $500? I recently put in $2000 because I can’t afford the full amount.

Hello! Here’s a few things to think about —

1. what are your goals?
2. how much income a month could you feasibly invest and still cover necessities AND still have an emergency fund? It’s important not to risk your personal stability for the sake of investment. I’d spend some time with your monthly budget and decide how much money you’d be ok with not having access to.

Here’s my (amateur) advice:

First of all, day trading is scammy and basically state-sanctioned gambling. The idea that you can suddenly make a ton of money by being a genius investor or whatever is a myth. Mutual funds, which contain a diverse mix of stocks, outperform hand-picked stock portfolios almost all the time (except at the highest level where investors can MAKE hand picked stocks successful because of the disgusting amount of money they’re playing with.) people who brag about making tons on GameStop or whatever either got lucky or are lying.

However, investing when young is a very, very good idea, and with inflation you’re basically losing money if you don’t do it. But this isn’t a way to increase your income—it’s a way to save for retirement / other big purchases and take advantage of interest.

I’m far from an expert, but first I’d recommend purchasing a Roth IRA. You can put in up to $6000 a year and it’s smart to max that out each year. If you have any money after that iMd put it in a mutual fund. For both IRAs and mutual funds, you can set up an account with a company like Vanguard or Fidelity and they’ll transfer the money from your bank and invest it for you.

After you’ve done that and paid off any high interest consumer debt (car/ credit card debt… I think personal finance assholes like Dave ramsey think all debt should be gone before investing but I’m pretty sure w/inflation & interest the conventional wisdom is now that it’s good to invest while still in debt ie with student loans). AFTER all that, maybe play around with buying specific stocks on an app. But treat it like gambling, because it is.

I recommend the blog Her First 100k (its politics are bad and girlbossy but it’s financial advice is sound in this capitalist hellscape). For the record, I’m a broke grad student, my salary is just above the poverty line, and I am only able to invest because my parents serve as my emergency fund for health/car emergencies. It may be that none of this advice is realistic right now, which sucks and isn’t your fault.

Cowboy caviar (canned corn, beans, tomato, cilantro) + tortilla chips to scoop

Roasted tofu, rice, kimchi & soy sauce. It tastes good to me cold and the kimchi goes a long way in adding flavor

Pasta salad with chopped bell peppers, red onion, chickpeas & beans with olive oil & red vinegar

Chickpea salad sandwich on a roll

Idk what your job / transportation situation is but you could become a rich person with an infant’s babysitter (the backup when their nanny is busy) and then hang out in their tub while the baby naps (source: I’ve done a lot of babysitting)

Wow, yes to all of this!

Ugh yeah, I think she’s not nearly as bad as Glen Greenwald. I’m also a big fan of her death penalty writing!

Cool! Yeah, thanks for sharing. When I was a fan ~4yrs ago I didn’t think much of her being pro-life because I didn’t think abortion was seriously under threat (naive, I know) but these days it’s pretty damn bad, like you said

that hurt my feelings and also made me want to tell you about what organizing I do, but I think that’s silly. I thought it would be interesting to hear opinions from other people who are leftist and Christian about a public leftist Christian, abs so far it has been interesting.

Interesting! Totally agree that the gospels should challenge nationalism especially on these holidays. I haven’t been to mass in a while but one Fourth of July weekend I heard this Jesuit give a homily in northern Michigan where he said that we should call the Blue Angels the Blue Devils because they rain death and destruction. It was soooo cool! Wish more masses were like that.

Would you feel comfortable shaving your legs/ armpits? You could buy a men’s razor and wear clothes that cover those parts if it feels weird to show your friends.

You could try wearing men’s clothes in a more feminine way—for example, taking a button up and tying it in a bow in front to make it a crop top.

If you sew, there are free patterns online for turning men’s button downs into skirts.

I echo all the advice about makeup tutorials. You could also get more into skin care and other “spa like” — having a beauty / pamper night by yourself with bubble bath, candles, and a facial always makes me feel cozy and feminine