Ask HN: Most life changing things that you bought?

Apple Watch Series 5 - I am exercising more than ever.

Intelligent Investor - I read this book around 15 years back and I am at a better place financially, partly due to it.

Road Bike - Bought one around 5 years ago. Best way for me to exercise and feel-the-wind-in-my-face. Finally, wife agreed to get one as well. Now we are riding together. Best feeling.

A Home - It's a double edged sword. Spending tons of time working on lawn and garden. Great way to connect to the roots. On the flip side, it's easy to get sucked into projects and not have time to pursue side projects.

Lasik eye surgery. It cost about $4k per eye USD due to how bad my eyes were. I went to a super reputable place and now have perfect vision. I can barely remember what it was like before.

Even better, I paid for them using money I made from my first indie game release. Was a huge emotional win for me.

A cheap aluminium road bike (since replaced with a full carbon Felt).

At the time (10 years ago) I was 240lbs (been working stupid hours for nearly 2 years and pizza was easier on the way home) and the doc had just found I had stage 2 hypertension which he wanted to medicate, I asked him to give me a couple of months and if no improvement I'd take his advice, stopped in Halford's (bike chain in the UK) and bought their cheapest road bike for 400 quid, I resolved to go out every other day and fix my diet which I did gradually increasing distance/pace, at the end of the two months I was down over 10lbs and blood pressure was heading the right way and I'd got addicted to cycling, I signed up for a 200km overnight charity ride at the end of the summer (this was late spring time) and set about training for it properly working up to 80 then 100 then 120 mile rides until I was confident I could do it.

By the charity ride came around I was 190lbs and decided to treat myself to a nicer bike (I was too fat for the nice bike at the start, I mean literally too fat, it had a 100kg max weight limit recommended...).

In terms of return on investment that 400 quid bike was the based deal I ever made.

A house. I do basically all the maintenance on it, and it's been a great learning experience and opportunity for growth. The largest single project being the kitchen remodel, down to the drywall and subfloor.