[an]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Maybe I’m biased, but if you can at all afford it, you should pay for the most prestigeous school your kids get accepted to. It’s a good investment in terms of social mobility. Maybe not for a job or financial success but for marriage or acceptance by the potential in-laws.[/quote]I wouldn’t want my kids to get married into the type of family anyways.

[an]

[quote=flu][quote=AN]My kids will be going to a public school. No way is a BS education worth $250k+. @ $380k+, I rather they go to CSU/UC for $100k and save the other $280k to down for a house or start a biz. After your first job, no one really ask where you went to school anyways. I rather pick a person who went to SDSU and have a few apps written for various platforms or written/maintain their own website than an Ivy Leaguer who have done nothing but school.[/quote]

The problem is whether they can get into a UC school.[/quote]If you’re in the top 5% of your school, you’re guaranteed to get into one UC. Mine was UCI.

[an]

My kids will be going to a public school. No way is a BS education worth $250k+. @ $380k+, I rather they go to CSU/UC for $100k and save the other $280k to down for a house or start a biz. After your first job, no one really ask where you went to school anyways. I rather pick a person who went to SDSU and have a few apps written for various platforms or written/maintain their own website than an Ivy Leaguer who have done nothing but school.

[an]

Oh, I fully understand. You wouldn’t walk 8 miles to commute unless you enjoy doing so. I don’t because I hate it. You don’t have to live in NYC to live close to work. I live 3 miles from my last job. Several of my ex-coworkers would bike through the canyons to work. Do you walk to work when it’s 0 degrees outside? In SD, you can walk 365/year. Which is why I say, if you’re obese in SD, you’ll be obese anywhere. People like you would be walking here too, but the weather here would allow you to do so more often.

[an]

I wouldn’t walk 8+ miles to commute to work in SD’s beautiful weather. There’s no way in hell I would walk 8 miles commute anywhere else. I would rather Uber my way to work and chalk it up as just and added cost to the total cost of living in that area.

[an]

[quote=spdrun]… until they notice that you have to drive a car just to scratch your bee-hind and see your health insurance bill.

Then: “it’s a nice place to visit, s’long.”

I’d probably be morbidly obese if I lived (and I use that term loosely) in a place where I had to drive everywhere.[/quote]
What are you talking about. With San Diego weather, you could bike everywhere, surf, go for long walks on the beach, hike the many trails we have, etc. If you’re obese in SD, then you’ll be obese anywhere.

[an]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Europe is a good place to use your rewards points for hotels[/quote]Especially if you like to stay in nice places that are centrally located.

[an]

I’m definitely will be planning a trip to Europe due to the strong $. Hopefully prediction is correct and the $ continue to strengthen. It make my Euro trip that much more affordable.

[an]

[quote=livinincali]The big problem for the opponents is that they can probably collect the signatures but I don’t think they want it ending up on the San Diego City ballot. There’s a bunch of voters in Mira Mesa, Clairemont, Golden Hill, etc that really don’t care all that much about those perceived to be rich folk in CV’s problems. It’s not a CV ballot initiative it’s a City of San Diego initiative.[/quote]I totally agree. Those other places are also much more dense and are getting denser. There are a lot of people who live in downtown and uptown who love density, so this in their eyes is probably a step in the right direction.

[an]

I’m waiting for the day when they remove the 50% owner occupancy requirement for condo. But this is a good start.

[an]

I love these gentrification stories. I’m glad OB is going through it. Let’s hope we’ll see more areas throughout San Diego go through gentrification as well.

[an]

flu, it’s no so much as how much it’ll affect your credit score as much as having say 5 new credit card open w/in the same year, a few months before you refi. Some lender might view that as as risk. I’ve had a lender asked me about all the credit pull I got when I did a refi. Luckily, it was only two and one is a corporate card and the other is for AT&T uverse. But I don’t know what their response would be if I said it’s all credit cards.

[an]

BTW, this is one example of why I love my AMEX SPG card. I like to go snowboarding and Starwood have a great place at Steamboat. https://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=220. If I want to go from 3/20 to 3/29, the night rate would be $439/night. But if I would use cash & points, it would cost $110 + 6k points a night. So, over that 9 days, I would either spend $3951 or $990 + 54k points. So, I would save $2961 for 54k points (you get 1 point for every dollar you spend). So, that calculate out to 5.5% return on every dollar I spend. This is just an OK return as well. I’ve had return in the past that exceed 9%. Also, because I spent a lot on that card (it’s my primary card), I can gold status with SPG, which also give me free upgrade to their best rooms. For trips where I can’t get above 5% return, I would just save my points and pay cash. If I happen to stay at a Starwood hotel for cash, every dollar I spend, I will get 3 points for it. So it racks up fast for places that gives low return so I can use those points for places with high returns. But you have to do proper planning.

[an]

gzz, I’m fully aware of app o rama. I did it awhile back for 0% interest when banks were giving out 5-6% 12 months CD. I would get those cards, stick all the $ in the CD and 12 months later pay it back. But I haven’t done an app o rama since CD rates dropped below 4%.

Can you give me some examples of cards that give cash incentives? I’ve seen plenty of 0% interest balance transfer cards and cards that give you bonus points. But I’ve never seen cards that give you several hundred in cash before. Would definitely be a good thing to do today since interest rate is so low instead of doing app o rama to stick it in a CD. Do you have to spend a certain amount to get those cash bonus?

[an]

[quote=gzz]That’s a good point if you are picky about your hotel when you travel. I usually use priceline and save 30-50% off the lowest published price for a 4 or 3.5 star hotel in the area. I only end up having to pay listed rates about 10% of the time when priceline fails me. Thus for me a free night in a downtown LA hotel like the giant Westin or the Marriott is only worth the $135 I pay on priceline, not the normal $250-300.

There is no comparable way to save on airfare. Priceline and hotwire will save you, at best 8% over lowest published, and so rarely that I usually don’t even check.

Also, the big bucks are in the sign-up bonuses. My CC spend is about 30K a year between biz and personal, so even with a 2% reward that is only $600. But with sign-up bonuses, I actually get more like $1500 the last couple years, and $2200 back when it was really rich 2008-2012.[/quote]I actually don’t use points for cheap areas like downtown LA where there there are an abundant of cheap hotels. I’m saving those points for places like Fiji, Bora Bora, Tahiti, etc. where there aren’t any cheap hotel around or when I want to do a splurge vacation and be able to stay at a 5 star hotel for a 3 star price. BTW, I don’t dispute signed up gets you a lot of sign on bonus. But signing up for a lot of credit card every year could affect you if you want to refi your house. I don’t know how lenders would look at your if you have open that many cards.

[Author]

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