You know the guy I was talking about that had an STX prepped Tacoma? Well he and his wife run an AC business in GA and they did my last AC when we sold our rental house up there back in 2019, so I trust them.
I went through the high low readings with them, they immediately said if it's a carrier, it's the coils, and at 12 years old, not worth replacing, because it's a $4k job. If the compressor goes in a year, you might as well have just replaced it.
And they said avoid the 2 stage Lenox system. They're super unreliable. They said get the cheap Goodman, all the AC company's use the exact same components. The difference is all down to install and how much warranty you want.
So I feel better about it. I'll just suck it up and shell out the $10k, plus the roof. There goes my modding and vacation funds for the year, but hey being an adult home owner is fun.
A couple years we got a Goodman system installed. But then I finished 3rd in our class to my wife who finished 2nd (both of us behind an STS NA Miata), so you might live to regret the Goodman
I also like the idea of being in control when doing something (I don't cut corners).
With most of my life ahead of me, I'm trying to pick up on things from others older than me. So I got a question. Separate bank accounts between me and future Mrs.Aspro forever?
So you're gonna live in a round house?
Really though, me and Mrs. Nine have separate bank accounts, but use a spreadsheet (because I'm a nerd) to balance out our costs so that everything gets split 50/50. I wind up transferring money to her biweekly since more of the bills are in her name, but we're still paying equal shares, and the spreadsheets have record of me paying her to make everything square. You can do one bank account or two, but honestly I find two makes it easier because we
communicate, which is gonna be the key to any good relationship. We talk about bigger purchases, I usually ask her before I buy something big for the car, and we talk before committing to bigger house projects. BUT, there's no 'oh well I put x into the joint account and you need to put y in to match', my money is still mine BUT we're pretty transparent.
Oh, and it's not romantic, but get a prenup, while things are good. It's easy insurance that you both hope will never be used, but it makes it easy in the event someone wants to split up.
Money is the #1 thing that couples fight about. If you remember that, it makes it easy to recognize when you and Mrs. Aspro are about to get into it about something dumb. Your partner is supposed to be a teammate, and the hope is that you both support each other's weaknesses with your own strengths.
also RE: education, I dropped out of college roughly three weeks in. I thought I wanted to teach Highschool English. Got my foot in the door by a stroke of luck doing laptop/tablet repairs, and then from there IT jobs. Networking helped, but also being able to grow within my hobbies and build skills to make a career viable. Current job as a glorified printer mechanic (computers too) interview was a lot of me talking about my homelab and automotive hobbies, where I built and improved my skills fixing things AND troubleshooting/understanding processes.