371–380 of 380 posts
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Wow, in my area you can almost buy a (albeit - modest) home outright on a years mid+ level tech salary.
Where do you live and what kind of salary are you talking about?
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24K is a magic number. You qualify for an enhanced silver ACA policy with very low premiums, deductibles and copays. I do own a home and rental property, and pay property taxes annually. I did my first year at a 24K annual income with a slight assist from after-tax savings after being employed for 30+ years. Being 55 in San Diego, and getting an electronics engineering position ain't happening right now.
Do you have a "family of 4"?
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Sounds like Vancouver, or maybe Victoria. I wish they would tax the everliving fuck out of vacant storefronts. Whatever price the owner intends to rent for, they have to pay that amount to the city every single month the place is vacant, with strict enforcement and publishing the rent prices so that they can't jack it up once someone moves in. And let the tax money go to homeless shelters for all the people who are o…
That's a good idea. My proposal is a "mega-landlord tax," which has a progressive property tax levied on all properties owned for rent after the first 5-10.
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This is similar to my situation. Renting a crappy 2BR apartment was $1700/month thanks to the tight rental market. Mortgage and taxes on a townhouse in a nicer part of town? $1200/month. And theoretically after 30 years I would have an asset I could sell, unlike the renters. Renting just didn't make sense unless you're highly itinerant and don't stick around any one area for more than a year or two.
What if you had rented and invested that 500/month (and the maintenance costs you had to pay along the way) in index funds?
Also, it seems a bit odd to hedge against downturns in the housing market by investing in the stock market. The latter is far more volatile.
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I park it wherever, but mostly try to stick to cities where it's legal to sleep in your van. While I have parked in San Francisco, Redwood City, and San Jose, right now I'm crashing in and around Palo Alto, CA. I shower every morning at my local 24 hour super sport gym. I'm a sucker for hygiene. I don't really worry about my van being broken into because I think I tend to stay in low crime neighborhoods. I'm also not…
I think you should write a book, but don't go through the vanity press ripoff. Publish it yourself. I have known people who live out of a van/truck camper until cops realize what's going on. They will harass you to no end. The tickets are expensive. The days of " Just move on." are over. That said, in most counties, there is nowhere to park a vechicle overnight. We need to desiginate areas, in commercial areas, where…
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Where do you live and what kind of salary are you talking about?
Atlanta area. Average Ruby web dev salary for region and experience level. You can buy a McMansion (if that's your thing) for less than the price of a closet in the worst parts of the Bay Area. Poke around on zillow.com.
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people who say this are talking about markets where the spread between renting and the finance cost of a similar bought property are huge. San Francisco, New York, LA... Let's say you're a couple years out of school and you work at Snapchat. Somehow you have a lot of money saved up and you can buy a little house near your office in Venice. A small house in Venice runs about $2m. So let's say you borrow 1.8m to pay fo…
Renting is cheaper than buying? That really doesn't make sense, and I don't think that's the case in most markets. In California, it might because of the funny way they do property taxes there, where new buyers get stuck with huge property tax bills but long-time owners are grandfathered at far lower rates, so the landlords are likely people who've owned the house for ages. Other states just aren't like this.
Vastly. Fancy parts of LA. SF. All of New York. Pretty much anywhere in the train-serviced urban/suburban Northeast.
It might not "make sense" but it is true. I'm also sure it's not the case in most markets in the USA, but in the large metropolitan markets, it is true, and that's the point people are making when they say "you know, it might make more sense to invest your investment money in a different asset class and rent rather than pay the ownership premium here in Santa Monica/Pacific Heights/Williamsburg"
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Your last statement really hit a note with me. I've been spending my life chasing money and recently realized that I was just filling a hole. I have found someone that is willing to go adventuring with me. Screw the boring office worker life, it's time to start living. Good luck and have an incredible life!
Life is short, I encourage you to live it to the fullest! (and it sounds like you are on your way!)
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It's simple the same way exercise is simple: knowing what to do is easy, having willpower to do it is hard. Being financially independent can be done on a median wage, full stop. https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ "Is that all too fluffy and philosophical? OK, fine. Here’s how to cut your life costs in half. Start by getting rid of your Debt Emergency if you have one. Live…
I'd like to share my experience here in hopes that it inspires others. I'm 37 years old, single, never married, no children. A programmer recently turned sales guy. Through my 20s, I experienced an ever escalating salary as I moved up through the programming ranks. By the age of 29, I had accumulated about 25k of credit card debt and still have 35k of student loan debt yet to be repaid. At that time I was making arou…