Rhett Robinson

Do minimums on every debt. Build $300 cash fast, then push any extra to the highest interest while still sending $20 each check to the emergency stash. Use a separate account with automatic transfers on payday and turn off overdraft so fees do not nuke progress.

Forget fancy formulas and pick a bare bones monthly number, not your average income. I had three different emergency accounts once and still bought a tire on my credit card, so now I keep it stupid simple. Aim for four months of that since your income swings, but climb in rungs. Automate a small sweep from every payment, like 10 to 15 percent, and throw any leftover from good months at the next rung. Keep it in one boring high yield savings account with a hard floor you never dip below. Fewer buckets, fewer excuses, less mental clutter.

What you are seeing is classic apartment RF soup plus a Windows quirk. The moment Zoom turns your headset mic on, Windows switches from the high quality music profile to the hands free profile, which uses a narrowband codec. That mode is far more sensitive to interference and to power saving. AAC vs SBC will not matter during a call because the mic forces that profile change, so the dropouts persist even after codec tweaks. The fixes that move the needle are boring but effective. Use a dedicated USB Bluetooth 5.1 or 5.3 dongle and disable the laptop's built‑in Bluetooth so Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth are no longer sharing the same tiny combo radio. Put the dongle on a short USB extension so it sits a foot away from the laptop and any USB 3 ports, which cuts 2.4 GHz noise dramatically. In Windows Device Manager open the Bluetooth adapter properties and uncheck allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. In Power Options disable USB selective suspend and keep the plan on Balanced or High performance. For Zoom stability, pick your laptop mic for input and your headphones Stereo for output so the headphones stay in the music profile the whole time. If you prefer to use the headset mic, keep Zoom noise suppression on low and turn off automatic volume, which reduces renegotiations mid‑call. If you decide a backup headset is worth it, the Soundcore Anker Life Q20 has been solid on Windows for calls and music, and its very long battery life helps avoid the power saving dropouts that trigger renegotiations during meetings.