331–340 of 428 posts
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Assuming a 60k deposit (so 340k mortage), you could get a 2 year fixed mortgage at 1.53% so your repayments will be £1,178.31. £70k post-tax is around £48k so £4k/month so the mortgage will take around 30% of your take-home pay which is a fairly standard ratio.
I don't think someone on £70k, paying rent, would be able to build up that kind of deposit.
I hear this sort of thing a lot and I have trouble reconciling it with my experiences. I live in SF and my total expenses (rent, food, entertainment, etc.) were ~$15,000 in 2016. I don't feel like I live a life of great deprivation. I get that the article is talking about a family of four, but even if we assume there are no economies of scale, my costs would work out to $60,000 for a family of four. I also get that I…
You're indicating that you rent for less than $1250/mo. A studio is out of the question at that rate; even a room in a shared apartment would be unlikely. People I know paying that little money for housing are an entire BART line away from the city (Richmond, Pittsburg, etc), have several roommates or a working spouse, and need cars. What do you pay for housing, what kind of housing is it, and is a lease like yours a…
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Saving up a 10%, £40k, deposit while renting here is quite tough though, even on 70k. And most devs don't earn that much
Well lets reverse out the numbers. The median cost of a room in a flatshare in Zone 1/2 is just under £700 month, that's £8.4k/year. Let's assume other costs of living to be £10k/year that gives us a total of £18.4k/year. Let's say you want to save £40k over 4 years, so 10k/year, that would require a take-home salary of £28.4k/year which implies a pre-tax salary of 37k. 37k should be comfortably achievable for a soft…
And you still have to add the expenses on top. Food, transport, council taxes, utilities.
I hear this sort of thing a lot and I have trouble reconciling it with my experiences. I live in SF and my total expenses (rent, food, entertainment, etc.) were ~$15,000 in 2016. I don't feel like I live a life of great deprivation. I get that the article is talking about a family of four, but even if we assume there are no economies of scale, my costs would work out to $60,000 for a family of four. I also get that I…
You're indicating that you rent for less than $1250/mo. A studio is out of the question at that rate; even a room in a shared apartment would be unlikely. People I know paying that little money for housing are an entire BART line away from the city (Richmond, Pittsburg, etc), have several roommates or a working spouse, and need cars. What do you pay for housing, what kind of housing is it, and is a lease like yours a…
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Did the exact same thing 10 years ago. Couldn't take living in California any more. We moved to Colorado. * My health, both physical and mental has increased tremendously. * Our house is far cheaper in mortgage than our apartment was. * Schools are far better than anything in California we could afford * Crime is almost non-existent. Most people don't lock car or house doors. * It is rare I drive more than 8 miles on…
Can I ask you about one thing, though? Both my kids are in SFUSD schools, and San Francisco actually has a large number of 10/10 rated schools. This is based on test scores, of course, so it doesn't tell the whole story. For instance, take a look at this: http://www.greatschools.org/california/san-francisco/schools... Do you think that your elementary school in Colorado are vastly better than the top three we see her…
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Broadcast TV is still free. Movies always cost a fair amount of money. An internet connection with youtube is $30 which is WAY more variety than "back then".
Mmm. Yeah, I get loads of value from Univision and Home Shopping Channels like HSN, QVC and the others. Can't forget Qubo and Me.tv. Good times, for sure.
Also, I'm suspecting you're not a Spanish speaker, so I guess it's okay to discount a channel that over 10% of the US has utility for.
Cable TV is a relatively recent invention, has quickly declining subscription rates, and has always been billed as premium.
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Saying that a £70,000 salary makes you rich sounds like sensible politics to me. In the UK the median pre-tax income is £22,400 with £72,000 putting you in the 95th percentile [1]; £70,000 is in the middle of the pay scale for a salaried GP/family doctor [2]; and MPs receive a base salary of £74,000 [3] (plus a bunch of extra income through a variety of opaque means) I think you would look pretty out of touch, from t…
While I agree with your point, that 22400 number talks about household income not median income of an individual.
"Houseold" accounts for children, single income families, and ignore benefits and unemployment. Last but not least, it's scaled for the UK, not London.
If you are a male in your 20-40, living in London, being the source of income for your household. 70k couldn't be further from rich.
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With all due respect, I don't really buy that narrative. People often mistake critical thinking skills with close-mindedness. Just because someone uses thought and reason to reject an idea doesn't mean they are close-minded. Not all ideas deserve acceptance. I'm as open-minded as it gets, but if you tell me that vaccines cause autism then you will go down several notches in my book. (Ironically, there are many anti-v…
That sort of "critical thinking" arrogance is what keeps people from sharing their different opinions and perspectives from your pompous ass.
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Did the exact same thing 10 years ago. Couldn't take living in California any more. We moved to Colorado. * My health, both physical and mental has increased tremendously. * Our house is far cheaper in mortgage than our apartment was. * Schools are far better than anything in California we could afford * Crime is almost non-existent. Most people don't lock car or house doors. * It is rare I drive more than 8 miles on…
Can I ask you about one thing, though? Both my kids are in SFUSD schools, and San Francisco actually has a large number of 10/10 rated schools. This is based on test scores, of course, so it doesn't tell the whole story. For instance, take a look at this: http://www.greatschools.org/california/san-francisco/schools... Do you think that your elementary school in Colorado are vastly better than the top three we see her…
If their problem with California was lack of good schools anyplace they could afford to live in the state, why on Earth would you point to one of the most expensive places in the state and say it has some good schools? To address it, you need to point to someplace affordable in California that has good schools.
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Vermont has an amazing community of remote engineers, reasonable housing prices, and some of the best public schools in the country. Come and enjoy the outdoors, food, and amazing beer with us.
Where in Vermont do you recommend? I just went remote in the past year and I plan on roadtripping to VT soon for a week.
Huntington/Richmond is a little off the path, but still close if you want more space.