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What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

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Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#181

Post by ubercore »

kjackson2012 wrote: post #157
bluetidepro wrote: post #8

OP, did you honestly not know how expensive it was, as well as a few of these other points in the article? I would be shocked if that's the case. Most of the items in the post are pretty well-known things about the San Fran area. More or less, the title is a bit of link bait, and I doubt most of you don't already know these things about San Fran (or the bay area, for that matter).

No. I've been living here for 15 years and the rent increase in the last 1.5 years has shocked everyone. I thought it the worst was during the dotcom bubble and my rent went from 1900 to 2300/month for a 2ba/2ba, but I've seen some rents go up $1000/month in the last year, and 2br/2ba in SOMA is $4k/month. It's on a pace that we've never seen before.

Does rent control help at all?

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#182

Post by prodigal_erik »

scott_s wrote: post #89
encoderer wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, so true. In my group of east-coast friends and family: Under 50ish: it's San Fran Over: Frisco Locally? Bay Area. The City. Etc.

I think everyone who lives near a major city calls that city "The City" in everyday conversation. I live near NYC, and I do it in reference to Manhattan. (Less so the other parts of NYC, such as Queens and the Bronx.)

I've only heard it happens around SF and NYC. Certainly nobody in Redmond was calling Seattle "the city" when I was there.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#183

Post by noname123 »

bherms wrote: post #153
noname123 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, in your opinion, what should be the net worth target for people making regular tech income in their 30's, 40's and 50's if they want to eek out comfortable living in retirement, inflation-adjusted?

Not my opinion, but I once read somewhere that you should aim for a savings (+investments) of 1x salary by 30, 5x by 40, 10+x by 50.

Seems to me the most difficult is saving 5x between 30-40, especially at that age when a lot of folks get married, have kids and purchase property. How do you save up to 5x - which for a household income of $100,000/yr is half a million dollar; do you really get a lot of tax breaks on mortgages, kids and filing jointly?

Also, at the current rate of US inflation; by the time I retire which is in about 40 years, $30K/year purchasing power will become $110K/year. Social security will not exist when I retire and a net worth of 1 million dollar, drawing down on principal will last me less than 10 years.

For folks in your mid to early 40's, how are you guys planning for your retirement?

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#184

Post by philwelch »

sswezey wrote: post #169
michaelhoffman wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, I just don't think these points are true for the other cities you mention. As a Seattle inhabitant, the descriptions of San Francisco-specific weather, rent, cost of living, costumes, events, transients, canine-friendliness, fog, commuting, and other things just do not apply here. Of the first few things mentioned, only the strong neighborhood identity is something we share.

Actually, a lot of it is pretty similar, especially if coming from the east coast. * Weather - replace fog with overcast/drizzle. * Rent & Cost of living - Seattle is not cheap by any means, and rent and house prices are really steep until you get quite far from the city. * Canine-friendliness - Definitely a west coast thing, there are tons of dogs in Seattle, dog parks, and companies that allow dogs at work. * Commu…

If you live in the Seattle suburbs you're going to have a bad time, but it's not bad living within walking distance of most workplaces, the rent is lower than SF and the city isn't allergic to development, and salaries are almost as high, so you're considerably ahead overall.

Also our public transit is awful.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#185

Post by wilfra »

softbuilder wrote: post #76
run4yourlives wrote: post #72

This seems more of a "West Coast vs. East Coast" article than it is a "San Fran" article. For the most part, the author is highlighting the differences that anybody living on the East Coast will experience in moving to one of the western coastal cities, save perhaps LA, which as everyone already knows is its own little planet. Most of these "hints" hold true for San Diego, San Fran, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. T…

You lost credibility with me by repeated use of the vulgar "San Fran". It's THE CITY. :)

Actually, it's 'frisco'

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#186

Post by samstave »

jes5199 wrote: post #149

Here's one that I don't see discussed much: The tech meetup culture isn't that great. In other cities with moderately sized tech communities (Seattle, Portland, Austin...) the user group communities are a strong social force - it's how people collaborate, and how they share skill and technology news. In SF, people are too busy working late at their well-funded post-startup jobs to go hang out and talk about code as a…

There used to be very regular meetups - like SFBeta, SVASE meetups, etc. These were actually lively before YC got huge - I believe that this is in part YCs fault in that people are really focued on getting into YC, as opposed to the meetup networking that people went after.

It would be great if YC threw a monthly meetup at 111 Minna.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#187

Post by majormajor »

bostonpete wrote: post #151
smhinsey wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a really big deal when you shut down a freeway, even if it is for maintenance that'll improve it. Not many cities make national news with road closures like LA has done with the 405. The cost of this maintenance goes way beyond time & materials.

Major highways in metro areas are regularly resurfaced and repaired. It doesn't take a long-term shutdown of the road. They just shut down one or two lanes late at night, repave or repair a section of the road, and then do the same for the other lanes a different night.

It wasn't a long term shutdown, it was a weekend shutdown to blow up a bridge: http://www.metro.net/projects/i-405/mulholland-dr-bridge-dem...

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#188

Post by juan_juarez »

run4yourlives wrote: post #72

This seems more of a "West Coast vs. East Coast" article than it is a "San Fran" article. For the most part, the author is highlighting the differences that anybody living on the East Coast will experience in moving to one of the western coastal cities, save perhaps LA, which as everyone already knows is its own little planet. Most of these "hints" hold true for San Diego, San Fran, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. T…

Came in to say that much of it's true about Portland. The weather's better. Rent and the cost of living is cheaper, but finding a place close-in to downtown is still highly competitive (ie - you have to be ready to put down a deposit as soon as you find a place you like; there is no real opportunity to look at other places and come back). PBR is losing some of its cachet - you just as often see Hamm's or Old German as PBR anymore. I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever live near a city can agree that the 'burbs are always further out than a real-estate agent says they are.

...and unlike Oakland, all the shit people say about Gresham is true.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#189

Post by aantix »

paulgb wrote: post #115
zippy wrote: post #38

"Meanwhile, here, no matter what you’re doing, those you meet will almost always be in finance or startups." Well, except for the taxi drivers, the restaurant workers, the police, the teachers, the students, the grocers, the bike messengers, the lawyers, the house cleaners, the fire fighters, the ...

I know it's just one anecdote, but a Subway employee in SOMA once asked me if I knew anyone that would hire him as a DBA. The feeling in SF is that the tech world is inescapable, which some people seem to like.

I moved to SF two years ago. Since then I've had a discussion with the cashier at Taco Bell about the differences in the way browsers render on different mobile OS's. Had a discussion with a banker that learned Ruby to help with some of his reporting...

Tech is everywhere here.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#190

Post by juan_juarez »

bluekite2000 wrote: post #133
sakopov wrote: post #98

In my opinion the high cost of living kills everything else on that list. I'd much rather have a comfortable living, travel the world and be optimistic that i will have no problems buying a nice house for me and my spouse/family if i need to/should i want to. I don't really see this possible based on what i hear from a couple of friends living and working there. Both consumed by their tech jobs, some cool things to d…

The same goes w/ NYC. I have been here for a while now and have met so many young girls following Sex in the City dream, which invariably turned out badly.

Many people fail to realize that show was not intended to be educational.
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