Duct tape has saved more cosplay than hot glue ever will, I keep a roll in my glove box now. The real pattern is that cheap builds always fail at the worst possible time, so planning for a public breakdown is half the battle.

I did the same thing back in 2021, put about 600 a month into a total market fund instead of paying down my 30 year faster. Two years in the market dropped and I panicked and stopped buying for a while, which was the actual mistake. The folks who came out fine were the ones who just kept putting money in every month and didn't watch the balance. Six months is way too short to judge it, so give it a couple years before you decide your uncle was wrong.

Had the same thing happen with an old Technics turntable I got for free. The speed was all over the place so I figured the motor was shot, but a guy at a repair shop told me it was just the belt slipping. $10 belt and some cleaning on the pulley and it spins dead steady now. Turns out a lot of this old stuff just sat unused for years and dried up, it's rarely actually broken.