Last updated: December 1, 2024

I am a recovering penny-pincher. Below is a running list of items that made my life meaningfully better, so much so that I’m angry for not spending the money much sooner.

The List

Portable Car Jump Starter

A must for every car. These things are essentially a power bank that you plug alligator clips into. Attach the clips to the battery terminals and you’re good to go. They’re small enough to fit in your glovebox and hold enough charge to handle several jumps in a row, meaning you can limp along on a dead battery for a few days if you have to.

No more waiting bulky and heavy jump cables, no more waiting for someone to happen upon you in a remote area, no more stranger danger, no more days ruined because you had to limp to an auto shop for a new battery. A great example about how clear developments in a sector (lithium ion batteries) driven by changes in another sector (portable electronics) can be applied to age-old problems (jump-starting a car).

Dangerous Things Magic Ring

The Dangerous Things Magic Ring allows you to put an RFID keycard or fob onto the ring. Putting my house key1 on it was a meaningful quality-of-life boost: you can open the door when your hands are full or when you have bulky winter gloves on, you don’t have to take your keys with you when you run or ride your bike, and I don’t lock myself out of the house anymore.2

You’ll need a device like a Proxmark or a Flipper Zero to actually clone the key but you can drop by the local hacker meetup/con and someone will be happy to help you out.

Camber sweatshirts

These are the best sweatshirts, period. It’s not exactly a secret, but these hoodies live up to the hype. They’re warm enough to wear by themselves and thick enough to keep out the Chicago winds. They’re made in America. They’re affordable. A no-brainer purchase.

Actually completing that no-brainer purchase is a bit tricky: the sizing is extremely weird, they don’t sell direct-to-consumer, and they’re popular enough that popular colorways can be hard to come by. If you’re getting a hoodie, note that the hood is a bit smaller than what you’re expecting.

“Duffel Packs” (Patagonia Black Hole, REI Big Haul, etc)

I travel often, usually for months at a time. I always struggled to balance portability and packability. I loved the portability of backpacking packs but its tall, narrow shape is meant for optimal load bearing over many hours of wear, not for short schleps from hotel to hotel. The dream was a higher-quality version of a US Army duffel bag: backpack straps for portability, but a boxy shape with a zipper along the length to enable maximum packability.

As it turns out, not only do these bags exist, but they seem to have recently become extremely popular: I see them everywhere now. From what I can tell, Patagonia seems to have invented the form factor with their Black Hole line but most major outdoor brands have their own version. I ended up with an REI Big Haul for a couple of reasons: REI offered a larger size and I needed the extra space and REI’s version was approximately 50% cheaper3. I found this comparison video to be helpful when making my decision but be aware that Patagonia released an [updated version of the Black Hole[(https://www.gq.com/story/new-patagonia-black-hole-bag-upgrade-2023)] since the video was recorded.

I am extremely pleased by this form factor and with REI’s version in particular. I took REI’s 120L Big Haul with me on a 2.5 month trip across Europe where I had to packing everything from wedding attire to hiking gear and it handled everything I threw at it and more. A few notes from the field:

  • REI’s strap design is superior to Patagonia’s. As noted in the video above, the REI bag has a dedicated sleeve for the backpack straps so you can easily tuck them away when checking a back at the airport and quickly re-attach them when picking your bag up from baggage claim. Since I used my bag exclusively as a backpack, I also appreciated the ability to completely detach the top carrying handles. The Patagonia version lacks both of these features. The REI bag also has carrying handles on the sides of the long axis so you can easily grab it from any angle.

  • The 120L bag is huge—especially when it’s on your back—so the maximum size I would go with is 100L.

  • The compression straps are an underrated feature. These bags can swallow up a lot of stuff, and the compression straps make it much easier to zip the bag closed when it’s at capacity.

All in all, the versatility and durability of these bags can’t be beat. I highly recommend having one on hand. I loved mine so much, I got another bag in a carry-on compatible size.

Amazon Kindle (Paperwhite)

These devices were perfected with the latest update in October 2024. They are small enough to fit them in a jacket pocket or a purse, they’re tough enough to toss them into a bag, they’re cheap enough to abuse without feeling guilty, and they have the battery life to be ready to go at a moment’s notice even after a month or two of neglect.

The base model now includes a backlight4 so you can read on a dark airplane or in bed with the lights off. I upgraded to the Kindle Paperwhite which allows for adjusting the screen’s warmth for bedtime reading. The Paperwhite is also waterproof so I’ll bring it with me into the pool/sauna/hot tub. They’re worth it at list price but they go on sale often enough (Prime Day, Black Friday, etc.) that you can grab one at a meaningful discount.

Ironically, what really makes the Kindle a must-have is a completely unaffiliated product: Libby. Libby allows you to check out ebooks from your local library through your phone and send them directly to your Kindle. It sounds simple, but being able to get a free book on a whim through a simple UX has done wonders for my reading habit.

Safety razor

A closer shave for drastically less money. It appears that people go pretty deep when it comes to safety razors, debating the best handles, most economical blades, and favorite soaps. I must admit that as of now, I simply shave with normal shaving cream and just buy the blades Target stocks. Even then, it is still a markedly better experience than cartridge razors. Just remember to have a few disposable razors on hand when you fly as you can’t take these on a plane

Ember Mug

It’s a coffee mug with a built-in heating element that keeps your coffee/tea at precisely the temperature you set. I have my gripes with the product. It requires a standalone app just to set the temperature, the reliability isn’t great5, and it’s expensive. All that being said, given you can get them at Costco for $80 (about 50% off), it’s an affordable and worthwhile luxury for desk workers. My personal “road to Damascus moment” was when I stepped into an design review that went long, and then just kept going, and going, and going…I’m losing steam, the CO2 levels in the conference room are putting everyone to sleep, and I absentmindedly take a sip of coffee just to feel something again, and it’s still hot! Talk about a second wind. Simple pleasures, simply priceless.

Daily contacts

True, they’re more comfortable than monthly contacts, and that should be reason enough. But I was pleasantly surprised by some of the second-order benefits of switching to dailies. No more worrying about finding carry-on sized solution bottles or trying in vain to maintain some sense of hygiene on a week-long backpacking trip. And unlike other upgrades on this list, it’s tax-efficient!6

  1. Yeah, I know, don’t @ me. It was the property manager’s decision, not mine. ↩

  2. It happens more than I’d like to admit. ↩

  3. REI was having a sale that saved me approximately ~30% off retail ↩

  4. Technically, a frontlight. ↩

  5. My mom’s mug broke a few months outside the 1 year warranty and all they offered was a $20 coupon. ↩

  6. Americans can use their (LP)FSA! ↩