Seen it too. Those clones are a total gamble. The heater cartridge usually fails first, makes the temp swing wild. You'll ruin more boards than you fix trying to save a few bucks.

Nice, but careful with the phrasing. That's not really a work and travel balance, that's just a good afternoon off. True balance means not letting work dictate your location at all.

Oh man, I saw a video about that reverse budget thing. It's where you figure out how much you NEED to make first, then build your job or side hustle to hit that number, right? Totally flips the normal way of thinking on its head. It sounds like a way better plan than just taking whatever pay you're offered and trying to cut back on everything. Makes you focus on the income side of the equation first.

Ugh, that's the most expensive coin flip ever.

Yeah, the word "active" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. I once saw a firm count a client they emailed twice a year as "active" in a sales pitch. It makes any number you hear pretty meaningless without the real context of the work.