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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

#401

Post by david_b »

kyrra wrote: post #261
_pius wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I considered moving to SF but chose Austin instead. I refuse to live in a state with such a dysfunctional government ... You do realize you live in Texas, right?

Have you been to Austin? Or Dallas? (I'd personally stay away from Houston and San Antonio). It sounds like you're passing judgement without really experiencing the area. Texas is a fairly reasonable state when it comes to most of their laws. There has been some controversy around the human-origin that will be taught in schools, but this issue isn't isolated to just Texas. And beyond that, if you really dislike the p…

Don't forget the Anti-Dildo laws:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_obscenity_statute http://daxlegal.com/dildos-sexually-obscene-toys-illegal-in-...

This is so fantastically nutty I could hardly believe it (when I first read about a woman that had been arrested in Texas for smuggling Dildos).

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

#402

Post by russell »

bherms wrote: post #259
darkandbrooding wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in the South West. I don't miss hundred-plus degree summers, burning my hands on steering wheels and the backs of my legs on car seats. I don't miss the asphalt being tacky because of the heat, or the sandy, sticky, salt-encrusted feeling after spending a day running errands, alternating between air conditioned interiors and sun-baked exteriors. I certainly understand why other people might not enjoy the pe…

I guess that's personal preference. Growing up in Indiana, we hit 100+ in the height of summer (and humid as hell) and subzero in the winter... While I don't _enjoy_ those extremes, it does really lend to a sense of time passing and makes the really nice days throughout spring and fall that much more enjoyable. I miss waking up on Xmas to a foot of snow, despite not enjoying snow, and having to huddle around a fire t…

In California, if you want a change in the weather, you drive to it. I grew up in Maine where there were two seasons, winter and August. Oldtimers claimed there was a third, mud season. I dont miss it at all.

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

#403

Post by mtalantikite »

ghc wrote: post #393
mtalantikite wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's because most people don't really consider the metropolitan area to have anything to do with the city itself. For New York, parts of Jersey and Connecticut count as the metropolitan area, but you'd never say New York and mean New Haven. With that in mind, Boston is 600k or so people, which is tiny in city terms.

That has nothing to do with the actual size of Boston. That's a political artifact more than anything else, as neighborhoods around Boston didn't want to get annexed around the turn of the century. Boston's continuous urban population, which includes Cambridge, Brookline, etc. is over 4 million. Having lived in Atlanta, Boston is a much bigger city despite Atlanta having a population of 4 million within it's proper c…

4 million? That seems like a lot. As a New Yorker formally from Boston, I tend to think of the city as the places that the subway can get you. Coming from wikipedia:

Boston: 625,087 Cambridge: 105,162 Brookline: 58,732 Somerville: 75,754 Newton: 85,146 Chelsea: 35,177 Revere: 51,755

Which is 1,036,813. Any others I'm missing?

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

#404

Post by dpeck »

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.

That's nice, but honestly I'd be surprised if many were able to do that at all without a lot of generational wealth backing it up.

Assuming you went to college and got out in 4 years thats only 8 years to put back 1x salary. Given that a lot of those first few years is invested into "setting up shop" getting things like furniture, a reliable vehicle, maybe buying a house, getting married, sometimes having kids, I don't think thats in the cards for many people.

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

#405

Post by philwelch »

nostromo wrote: post #333
davmar wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha. Why do you think so? Lets get a beer and I'll show you why it isn't totally awful. Some gems for sure.

(He's joking, it's wonderful. This is the decades-old Seattle joke, "It's so miserable here, please stay away.")

(Don't tell them that! They'll keep moving here and then it'll be as expensive as NY and SF!)

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

#406

Post by fokov »

georgeorwell wrote: post #384
JoshTriplett wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try http://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement for a fairly straightforward, income-independent answer to that question. Tell it your annual income and expenses, and it'll tell you when you can retire. Adjust the numbers and your retirement date changes. (The defaults for "return on investment" and "withdrawal rate" work pretty well.)

Just don't put in zero for annual savings or the savings rate, because what I'm guessing is a divide by zero somewhere can hang your browser.

Divide by zero should just cause an exception. My guess is it causes an infinite loop.

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

#407

Post by muzz »

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…

Cost of living is higher, but salaries in tech are much, much higher.

In a ranking of (avg wage - avg housing cost), San Francisco came out as 4th best, and this is amongst ALL occupations not just tech:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2011/12/us-cities-w...

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

#408

Post by aliston »

usaar333 wrote: post #337
aliston wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^This. I've lived in both SF and Austin. Austin is a bad ass city. In terms of quality of life, as a young and single male, it is a complete and total no brainer that Austin is better than SF. Better nightlife, more attractive women, cheaper cost of living, less bums, more sunlight, better weather (if you prefer hot to cold), better urban/outdoor balance... BUT, in terms of the startup scene, SF is in another league.…

> better weather (if you prefer hot to cold) You are the first person I've ever heard claim this. :) I found Austin's humid 90 degree summers rather unpleasant.

Heh... "90 degree summers" is mild. More like 105. Summer is brutal, though I actually haven't found it all that humid. That said, we were throwing pool parties in November while my friends in SF were walking around in coats.

Sept-Nov is nice in SF, but otherwise it was too cold and windy for me. I lived in soma, though -- if I were to do it again, I think I'd live in the Haight, mission, pac heights or the marina and I'd probably have a different experience. The variance between neighborhoods in terms of climate and culture seems to be greater in SF than I've found in Austin.

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

#409

Post by dolphins »

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…

I liked it for that reason. Given, I'm also moving from Boston to SF this year, so it's particularly applicable to me.

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

#410

Post by philwelch »

dpeck wrote: post #404
bherms wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's nice, but honestly I'd be surprised if many were able to do that at all without a lot of generational wealth backing it up. Assuming you went to college and got out in 4 years thats only 8 years to put back 1x salary. Given that a lot of those first few years is invested into "setting up shop" getting things like furniture, a reliable vehicle, maybe buying a house, getting married, sometimes having kids, I don…

You can't make a savings rate of 12.5% without "a lot of generational wealth backing it up"?
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