[beanmaestro]

Fearful,

I’d expect that the increase in down payment requirements takes a lot of the less educated buyers out of the game. If you have $50-100k in savings, you’ve probably put more thought into where the market is going, and whether it makes sense to wait a year. Cash in hand probably correlates reasonably well with the ability to delay gratification while prices are plummeting.

[beanmaestro]

Fearful,

I’d expect that the increase in down payment requirements takes a lot of the less educated buyers out of the game. If you have $50-100k in savings, you’ve probably put more thought into where the market is going, and whether it makes sense to wait a year. Cash in hand probably correlates reasonably well with the ability to delay gratification while prices are plummeting.

[beanmaestro]

As it happens, I got my annual raise today and finally broke $100k. I gather that I’m a few thousand below mid-scale for a Principal Engineer at a “big defense company” (that starts with an R). That’s three years in my current job and five years post-PhD; total experience is either 6 or 12 years depending whether you count grad research. I gather that folks with lower degrees but the same rank made similar or slightly higher salaries…

Given that I’m doing semiconductor work, I’m sure I could make a lot more in Si Valley or at a startup, but it’s not worth the extra hours to me.

[beanmaestro]

As it happens, I got my annual raise today and finally broke $100k. I gather that I’m a few thousand below mid-scale for a Principal Engineer at a “big defense company” (that starts with an R). That’s three years in my current job and five years post-PhD; total experience is either 6 or 12 years depending whether you count grad research. I gather that folks with lower degrees but the same rank made similar or slightly higher salaries…

Given that I’m doing semiconductor work, I’m sure I could make a lot more in Si Valley or at a startup, but it’s not worth the extra hours to me.

[beanmaestro]

As it happens, I got my annual raise today and finally broke $100k. I gather that I’m a few thousand below mid-scale for a Principal Engineer at a “big defense company” (that starts with an R). That’s three years in my current job and five years post-PhD; total experience is either 6 or 12 years depending whether you count grad research. I gather that folks with lower degrees but the same rank made similar or slightly higher salaries…

Given that I’m doing semiconductor work, I’m sure I could make a lot more in Si Valley or at a startup, but it’s not worth the extra hours to me.

[beanmaestro]

As it happens, I got my annual raise today and finally broke $100k. I gather that I’m a few thousand below mid-scale for a Principal Engineer at a “big defense company” (that starts with an R). That’s three years in my current job and five years post-PhD; total experience is either 6 or 12 years depending whether you count grad research. I gather that folks with lower degrees but the same rank made similar or slightly higher salaries…

Given that I’m doing semiconductor work, I’m sure I could make a lot more in Si Valley or at a startup, but it’s not worth the extra hours to me.

[beanmaestro]

As it happens, I got my annual raise today and finally broke $100k. I gather that I’m a few thousand below mid-scale for a Principal Engineer at a “big defense company” (that starts with an R). That’s three years in my current job and five years post-PhD; total experience is either 6 or 12 years depending whether you count grad research. I gather that folks with lower degrees but the same rank made similar or slightly higher salaries…

Given that I’m doing semiconductor work, I’m sure I could make a lot more in Si Valley or at a startup, but it’s not worth the extra hours to me.

[beanmaestro]

Here’s ours. We make about $100k after taxes. No kids yet.

Rent 20%
Cars/Gas/Ins 4% (two used cars, about 12k miles a year)
Utils 5%
Food 9% (6% eating in + 3% eating out)
Pets 2%
Health 3%
Fun & Vacations 11%
Down Payment Fund 20%
Roths 10%
401k 16% (+4% match)

After carefully tracking dollars in our monthly Food/Pets/Health/Fun budgets and having it be a constant irritant, we recently switched to a new system that’s working well:

Category 1: Groceries, Cars, Pets, Health. This costs whatever it does, and we don’t skimp.
Category 2: Eating out, housewares, fun, spending money. This we aim for $600-700 a month (based on averaging our old painful budget data)
Category 3: Vacations & major house improvements, which are budgeted separately.

[beanmaestro]

Here’s ours. We make about $100k after taxes. No kids yet.

Rent 20%
Cars/Gas/Ins 4% (two used cars, about 12k miles a year)
Utils 5%
Food 9% (6% eating in + 3% eating out)
Pets 2%
Health 3%
Fun & Vacations 11%
Down Payment Fund 20%
Roths 10%
401k 16% (+4% match)

After carefully tracking dollars in our monthly Food/Pets/Health/Fun budgets and having it be a constant irritant, we recently switched to a new system that’s working well:

Category 1: Groceries, Cars, Pets, Health. This costs whatever it does, and we don’t skimp.
Category 2: Eating out, housewares, fun, spending money. This we aim for $600-700 a month (based on averaging our old painful budget data)
Category 3: Vacations & major house improvements, which are budgeted separately.

[beanmaestro]

Here’s ours. We make about $100k after taxes. No kids yet.

Rent 20%
Cars/Gas/Ins 4% (two used cars, about 12k miles a year)
Utils 5%
Food 9% (6% eating in + 3% eating out)
Pets 2%
Health 3%
Fun & Vacations 11%
Down Payment Fund 20%
Roths 10%
401k 16% (+4% match)

After carefully tracking dollars in our monthly Food/Pets/Health/Fun budgets and having it be a constant irritant, we recently switched to a new system that’s working well:

Category 1: Groceries, Cars, Pets, Health. This costs whatever it does, and we don’t skimp.
Category 2: Eating out, housewares, fun, spending money. This we aim for $600-700 a month (based on averaging our old painful budget data)
Category 3: Vacations & major house improvements, which are budgeted separately.

[beanmaestro]

Here’s ours. We make about $100k after taxes. No kids yet.

Rent 20%
Cars/Gas/Ins 4% (two used cars, about 12k miles a year)
Utils 5%
Food 9% (6% eating in + 3% eating out)
Pets 2%
Health 3%
Fun & Vacations 11%
Down Payment Fund 20%
Roths 10%
401k 16% (+4% match)

After carefully tracking dollars in our monthly Food/Pets/Health/Fun budgets and having it be a constant irritant, we recently switched to a new system that’s working well:

Category 1: Groceries, Cars, Pets, Health. This costs whatever it does, and we don’t skimp.
Category 2: Eating out, housewares, fun, spending money. This we aim for $600-700 a month (based on averaging our old painful budget data)
Category 3: Vacations & major house improvements, which are budgeted separately.

[beanmaestro]

Here’s ours. We make about $100k after taxes. No kids yet.

Rent 20%
Cars/Gas/Ins 4% (two used cars, about 12k miles a year)
Utils 5%
Food 9% (6% eating in + 3% eating out)
Pets 2%
Health 3%
Fun & Vacations 11%
Down Payment Fund 20%
Roths 10%
401k 16% (+4% match)

After carefully tracking dollars in our monthly Food/Pets/Health/Fun budgets and having it be a constant irritant, we recently switched to a new system that’s working well:

Category 1: Groceries, Cars, Pets, Health. This costs whatever it does, and we don’t skimp.
Category 2: Eating out, housewares, fun, spending money. This we aim for $600-700 a month (based on averaging our old painful budget data)
Category 3: Vacations & major house improvements, which are budgeted separately.

[beanmaestro]

Well, for shits and giggles, the duplex we’re currently renting has a Zestimate of 1.47M, despite having a total rent of $4100/mo, and being in worse shape than duplexes that have rotted on the market around $1.1M. When they’re off by 50%, you just have to laugh.

[beanmaestro]

Well, for shits and giggles, the duplex we’re currently renting has a Zestimate of 1.47M, despite having a total rent of $4100/mo, and being in worse shape than duplexes that have rotted on the market around $1.1M. When they’re off by 50%, you just have to laugh.

[beanmaestro]

Well, for shits and giggles, the duplex we’re currently renting has a Zestimate of 1.47M, despite having a total rent of $4100/mo, and being in worse shape than duplexes that have rotted on the market around $1.1M. When they’re off by 50%, you just have to laugh.

[Author]

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