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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

#491

Post by nhebb »

starpilot wrote: post #420
jseliger wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I just moved here from Tucson, and there's virtually no way I'd be here if not for the fact that I'm living with a medical resident in an apartment subsidized by her hospital. Given a choice among SF, NYC, and Seattle, and I'd choose Seattle: It has much of what makes the first two desirable, but at 60% of the cost. BTW, to the extent that you want to make cities like SF and NYC more affordable, favor the rem…

Everyone forgets Chicago. In the US, it's the most important financial center outside of Manhattan and is the third place city in number of Michelin starred restaurants (fewer than SF; Seattle has none). Boeing moved their corporate HQ there from Seattle because of its financial prominence. It has a world class university in U. Chicago and excellent bus/rail transit across the metro area. But the Chicago area is seri…

> Boeing moved their corporate HQ there from Seattle because of its financial prominence.

I don't think the financial prominence had much influence on the decision. They needed a location that was centrally located to minimize travel:

http://hbr.org/2001/10/inside-boeings-big-move/ar/1

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

#492

Post by fourstar »

tomhschmidt wrote: post #178
fourstar wrote: post #104

> Pro Tip: Oakland gets a bad rap, but there’s tons of great concerts and other events there worth checking out. Or, you know, the multitude of world-class restaurants and great bars such as: Chez Panisse, Gather, Boot & Shoe, Cafe Van Kleef, Claremont, Heart & Dagger, etc.

? Chez Panisse and Gather are in Berkeley.

I'm from Berkeley. Had to sneak those in there for anyone actually interested in venturing out to the east bay ;)

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

#493

Post by joonix »

dr_ wrote: post #360
jseliger wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I just moved here from Tucson, and there's virtually no way I'd be here if not for the fact that I'm living with a medical resident in an apartment subsidized by her hospital. Given a choice among SF, NYC, and Seattle, and I'd choose Seattle: It has much of what makes the first two desirable, but at 60% of the cost. BTW, to the extent that you want to make cities like SF and NYC more affordable, favor the rem…

NYC is a big place and its not all the same. One could, for example, live in Brooklyn, pay a more reasonable rent and be surrounded by interesting people all with access to great food and bars. I suppose you could stretch that a bit further to Queens as well. Manhattan itself is quickly changing into a business district. You go there to work, grab dinner or hit the theater, then leave.

What parts of Brooklyn? Isn't it hard to get to work in midtown if you live in Brooklyn? The "nice" parts of Brooklyn always seem just as expensive as Manhattan when I check.

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

#494

Post by sakopov »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #306
jseliger wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I just moved here from Tucson, and there's virtually no way I'd be here if not for the fact that I'm living with a medical resident in an apartment subsidized by her hospital. Given a choice among SF, NYC, and Seattle, and I'd choose Seattle: It has much of what makes the first two desirable, but at 60% of the cost. BTW, to the extent that you want to make cities like SF and NYC more affordable, favor the rem…

Having moved from SF to Seattle, I just want to say that Seattle is terrible, and you should warn everybody you know to stay away. ;)

I've been contemplating moving to Seattle. After experiencing both SF (for a short while) and Seattle, i think Seattle offers similar quality of living for far less. So i really hope it's as terrible as you describe it :)

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

#495

Post by joonix »

philwelch wrote: post #159
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…

Be sure you're counting both sides of that. If you can get work in a lucrative field, higher cost of living is offset by higher income, and you actually get ahead on aggregate since some expenses are the same nationwide.

But you will pay higher income taxes even though your buying power is the same as someone earning much less in Alabama.

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

#496

Post by joonix »

beatpanda wrote: post #322
Roybatty wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that there are people outside of your little world that aren't leftists/socialists/fascists, right?

You do realize that, objectively, Martin Luther King was more instrumental in the Civil Rights movement than Lyndon Johnson was, right? Oh, wait, you might not, because the Texas Board of Education took it upon themselves to re-write history. Low taxes are cool and all, but I don't see how anyone could live in peace with that public school system.

Let's face it: American governmental bodies are dysfunctional at almost every level. Most people live in California, Texas, Florida, and New York. All are poorly managed. And then there's the federal government sitting on top.

The key to thriving in the US is to have a high net worth so you can feel independent of this dysfunctional government. And then ignore all the stressful noise in the crisis-obsessed news cycle.

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

#497

Post by nostrademons »

greghinch wrote: post #447
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.)

Whenever I see one of these retirement calculators I don't understand how people save enough to actually retire. Are most people really socking away 25%+ of their gross income every year?? I certainly enjoy motorcycles and exotic travel far too much for that to ever become a reality (not to mention pay rent in the Bay Area and try to maintain an organic/local-sourced diet which costs about double a typical grocery st…

Yes, a bunch of people are really socking away 25%+ of their gross income. I've consistently saved about 80% of my take-home pay since graduating from college. I have one friend who just paid off her $130K in law school loans, 4 years after graduation. I have another friend who managed to save $20K over 2-3 years on a grad student stipend (i.e. he was getting paid about $28K/year and saving 40% of it).

It helps if you don't enjoy motorcycles and exotic travel. I do something social about 5 days a week, but that "something social" is usually something like going over to a friend's house to play Starcraft or XBox, or hiking in a state park, or going rock climbing, or worst-case, dinner & a movie. You don't need all that much money for any of these.

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

#498

Post by tsotha »

afterburner wrote: post #478
tsotha wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2011? Try to keep up.

Meh, original comment about shitty services holds http://www.texasobserver.org/how-the-budget-got-cut/

I don't see anything in that article that isn't sensible. There's no reason government expenditures have to keep going up in good times and bad.

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

#499

Post by nostrademons »

mattw wrote: post #477
jessedhillon wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It make no sense for most people to pay off their house aggressively. Refinance periodically if you want to lower your payments, but blowing a lump sum on your mortgage principal over a compressed time period is almost always more expensive in opportunity costs. Quick question: I put $100k in your pocket right now. Would your life be more improved if your mortgage principal was reduced by $100k, or if you went and di…

If you completely ignore risk then what you say is true (especially with interest rates so ridiculously low). However, if we're talking about improving lives, I personally find value in eliminating debt (including the mortgage) as quickly as possible because such obligations represent risk. I could apply all these extra mortgage payments to other things (rental property, stock market, etc.), but then I stand a varyin…

I actually think of it the opposite way: if you put money into paying down debt, you know exactly what the return on that capital will be. It's the interest rate on the debt (in pre-tax dollars for mortgages, after-tax for almost every other form of debt). Money is fungible; any money that's not locked up in debt-service is freed up for other purposes, like investing in other assets.

I tend to advise people I know to pay down debt first these days, because they're usually paying around 6-7% interest, and where else can you get a 6-7% risk free investment? T-bills are at about 3%, inflation-adjusted T-bills are often less, CDs are under half a percent, and savings accounts are basically nothing. You can potentially get more than that in the stock market, but that comes with additional risk, so for a lot of more conservative folks it doesn't make sense to carry a debt and simultaneously invest in the market.

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

#500

Post by msellout »

joonix wrote: post #493
dr_ wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NYC is a big place and its not all the same. One could, for example, live in Brooklyn, pay a more reasonable rent and be surrounded by interesting people all with access to great food and bars. I suppose you could stretch that a bit further to Queens as well. Manhattan itself is quickly changing into a business district. You go there to work, grab dinner or hit the theater, then leave.

What parts of Brooklyn? Isn't it hard to get to work in midtown if you live in Brooklyn? The "nice" parts of Brooklyn always seem just as expensive as Manhattan when I check.

Try Bushwick. It's on the L train. And some parts of Jersey are a faster commute to midtown Manhattan than north Manhattan is.
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