I’ve been putting off home lab work b/c repairs to the house have been priority.

I’ve got first world problems solving $30k in home exterior repair/upgrades that has 10 year warranty for insurance. I am happy that I have a new roof, gutters, siding, and garage doors but my deductible is big and insurance only paid a depreciated amount for repairs.

I don’t know how others have so many posesions when they cost so much $$$.

I know that most are just “keeping up with the Jones” while I am trying to build a “fortress of solutude” savings. I’ve not done the best this past year by going out too much.

It sure didn’t feel like it at the time but I’ve been going out too often for my cash flow. I don’t want to say “no” to a delicous prepared meal. I’ve done it too often though and I cannot assume that my mental math is correct.

House repairs done and in process of being paid off by next week.

This month I bought Firewalla Gold with their AP7 to have a ZTA internet gateway and remote connectivity security. I also plan to pass Nvidia certified associate for AI infrastructure and operations. Install fresh battery into old XPS17.

Next month buy a NAS with WiFi7 connectivity and plan to install proxmox. This should allow me get a small home lab going with GNS3 and other Linux based programs I want to set up and fiddle with.

By August I should have a functional lab to show off.

By end of year have a clustered virual lab environment with compute, shared storage, and secured networking.