[joec]

the joys of living in a condo/townhome, rental, you name it…

If you have to rent, renting a home gets you away from most of this stuff, but the cost is tons more.

My previous rental had a problem neighbor downstairs with loud music, bad skanky perfume smells from the daughter, etc etc…I don’t think there’s anything you can do. We called the office, all the time and at the end of the day, I think most everyone will tell you that having their own home is to avoid situations like this.

Renting with close neighbors simply sucks ass. It gets real old fast and the older you are, the more pathetic living like that makes you feel.

As has been stated, good luck trying to get 3 young kids to pipe down. If you do anything, you are more likely to get eggs all over your house or car, egg in the gas tank, slashed tires, you name it. I assume financially, you have more to “lose”. Also, as a minor, they also won’t even go to jail.

At the end of the day, picking a fight with people with little or nothing to lose is a stupid fight to pick.

This is why most people move and buy their own separate “house”.

[joec]

Exactly…Since Greece cannot just print more Euros to pay off the debt, converting to Dracmas won’t lower their Euro debt since Dracmas will be worth nothing.

The US can inflate their way out since they can just print more dollars or find ways to flood the system with dollars so since the debt is still the same, it’s easy to avoid having that control.

This seems to be a common problem with having someone else control your currency while you also happen to do business in another currency.

I think it’d just be “interesting” to see a country exit the Euro since most people assume they will work out some last minute deal or kick the can further down the road. Simply put, the Greeks don’t have the money to pay back and never will have the money so any changes seem like a waste of time. The money is also already gone.

Funny how I read/saw that Germany had debts forgiven after WW2 and now, they say they can’t forgive other countries debt.

[joec]

Working in this area in the past, I’d say it’s an advantage to work at the larger companies due to simply more money for projects (more toys!), tougher, more scalable environments to play in and much more useful skills in general to transfer to other companies so if you wanted to work at Amazon AWS or something, having worked at Walmart or financial companies or highly available sites is a better, more useful skill.

[joec]

Not sure why you keep picking up, but whenever I get a call from anyone, I just put it on auto-ignore on my phone and my phone doesn’t even ring anymore for those people…Honestly, I’d probably move on to “white” lists soon and just delete all emails and phone calls from numbers I don’t know.

Also, I screen all my calls so in general, I don’t waste my time or pick up anything unless it’s from a number I know…(and even then, I don’t answer a lot of times)…

Just too many scammers (like your front door) that you’re better off just ignoring all of it IMO.

[joec]

Yeah, I’m surprised more people/countries don’t default. Maybe this is the financial engineering where everyone simply kicks the can down the road…to protect all the bond holders and banks who invested.

But if anyone of us had a medical bill or some insane debt that was say 50 million and we had to have austerity forever, I’d leave the country as well and just say I can’t pay and won’t anymore.

Isn’t that what bankruptcy is for?

Seems a lot easier than trying to put so many restrictions that you’re sorta a druggie for some dope dealer who wants to suck all the money they can out of you while they can.

Yes, no one will lend to you again, and your country may collapse financially afterwards, but from everything I’ve seen (and I watch/read this daily), the stuff put in place hasn’t helped much neither and everything is stagnating anyways.

Also, in Greece, the people simply don’t want to pay so since in a way, they sorta need some tough medicine of lack of all public services to give a wake up call that, Yes, maybe I do want to pay for fire and police, etc…services…or start their own perhaps…

All these bailouts just seem to help the financiers become whole.

[joec]

I must be the only poor joe who doesn’t use a house cleaner…

I suppose that’s the reason for my messy place.

[joec]

Since only you know both companies and have all the info, it’s going to be real tough to know what’s best for anyone (even you included).

One thing to also think about is that the “new” company ALWAYS looks better than your current place. It’s just like that hot chick you see where who can ever assume she’s actually a psycho? You also know ALL the bad things at your current place and it’s easy to feel the grass is greener on the other side.

Anyhow, food for thought, I actually know someone who just left his stable tech job of 10+ years in SD and moved to a smaller place, and is now, moving BACK to the old position now. Not sure what happened since I haven’t talked to him in a bit, but will ask when I see him.

Since we live in our own worlds and see what we want to see, one thing to look hard at is if the new place is “really” that great. To me, that’s not possible, but since it’s already public, I’m guessing the instant millions is passed so it’s mostly a type of work, balance comparison.

It sounds like the current place is a dead end long term as most acquired companies are, but the new place (being already public) to me also means that if their valuation is insane now like most other companies, may have limited upside as well and may collapse faster.

I used to do this a ton during the crazed startup days in the 90s with some of my friends/co-workers for hours and hundreds of emails back and forth. One thing I’ve noticed in my decisions (which was probably wrong most of the time) is it seems like luck plays the biggest factor of all so rolling a dice seems just as good. Money is never that different IMO (unless it’s private).

Another thing, I noticed at the company I worked at and left, some of the people who were still there will their management help are now all VPs, Directors, CIOs, etc…so staying also opens up a lot of promotions and opportunities as well since “someone” still has to man the place. If you’re connected in your current place, that someone could be you and that could lead to higher positions in the future as well.

The KEY thing I think to getting ahead is it’s critical who your manager is or who you think will HELP you get further and higher in your career (remember, the networking part)….

Your CURRENT manager is under the same gun as you at your current place so he or she is probably looking as well…If you’re close, you can ask what they plan to do. Downside of course is San Diego is so small probably for tech vs. the bay area.

I know if I left my last startup and went with an old manager to Apple (sure I would’ve gotten hired), I’d definitely be a millionaire now a few times over.

Good luck with your choice, but I think going where you think the best manager or person looking out for you will be the “win” choice.

I did regret going to some startup due to mostly greed, but in the IPO game, luck plays a bigger role than most regular jobs.

[joec]

I think after the Fed gets off 0, if at all, they will probably hold for a while. 0 or negative rates just isn’t good in general for a normal economy.

[joec]

[quote=AN]It’s crazy how much the Leaf fall in value. You can pick up a Certified pre-owned 2013 Leaf SL with <20k miles for ~$16k. New, they're going for around $30k after tax rebate. 1/2 off in 2 years. I'm seriously thinking of picking up one and switch over to TOU. If I go with a 2012 model, I can pick one with only 26k miles for $10k.[/quote]

Is the low price due to the older battery? I assume after all these charge/recharge cycles, a new battery will easily run you 8-10k. I think we all had this discussion here before actually...

[joec]

[quote=flu]i have a sibling that worked for i-banking since they graduated from undergrad…. And it’s not just Goldman newbies that have really long hours..Every i-bank newbie had long hours, at least for the very first 3-4 years, until you became an associate…Maybe 90+hours/week. The base pay was bad, but the bonus (at the time) was good sometimes 3-4x of base. My sibling commented that they enjoyed what they did, and that they didn’t nearly have as much stress as those guys that were derivatives traders. Usually though, most folks in i-banking are done with before their thirties. Many end up doing something else not quite as grueling: hedge funds, VC’s, etc.

I compared that to my startup days when I was young. I too put in maybe 70-80 hours, to the point that in one startup, we had a bunch of hammocks in there so you didn’t even need to go home and sleep. Back then, it was kinda fun, since aside from work, you had a bunch of friends that just hung out. I didn’t mind working long hours, because back then, it wasn’t a drag, and you ended up spending most of your time with those people outside of work doing other things anyway.

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the most financially prudent thing to do. Even though stock options was alright, I remember blind dating this one girl that did reasonably well as a headhunter (not enough to retire on), but then spent all her money flipping homes in SF and bay area, and did well…Really well… I thought that was pretty cool, because among of sea of tech workers (male and female), she was one of the few people that was cruising along at her own pace, not really giving a shet about anything else. She was actually a pretty cool girl that was pretty good looking too, except at the time I was too dumb to care about dating. Typical geek, I was.,,,If I saw a talking frog on the street that would of turned into a princess if I kissed it, I would have picked up the frog and kept it as as frog thinking: “cool frog that can talk, I’ve never seen one before…..” HA!

These days, with family and age, I wouldn’t want to do something like that again…though sometimes, work tends to follow me home…[/quote]

Pretty spot on with my experience as well…I think when you’re young, it wasn’t that big a deal to work a lot since you really didn’t have that much else to do. Might as well spend the time working, making more money, advancing in your career, taking courses in your field, etc…if you don’t have kids/gf-wife, it was a lot easier to get ahead since those other folks couldn’t do that and be “more dedicated”.

It’s just as you get older, it’s simply harder to compete with the young gun who is determined and non-stop working. You get a bit more burnt out from the long hours, body is not as great, may have g/f-wife/kids, etc…

Just don’t have time to dedicate it all to work anymore…I used to work and had so much vacation, I would start losing them.

I think for older folks to survive, you sorta have to also give it your all mostly if you want to succeed in work at least. Pretty tough with family so try to marry well with someone understanding if you can, but even then, it’s a tough road (goodbye Jen Garner and Ben Afleck; Elon Musk, divorced 3 times?)…

I know someone who was in real estate too who is a multi-millionaire…I think some of that was timing luck during the boom.

In tech, if you were lucky, it only took 1 company (similar to the folks up there now…) to be set for life (at least financially). Have a friend already retired from being acquired…40s.

[joec]

Another thing people are doing are moving in with each other or living with parents for a bit longer…Know some folks in my kids school doing this (stay with parents mostly to get the good area schools).

People think using half income on rent is normal because for places like here and LA and Bay area, that seems to be the norm now. Rent is just too high so unless your income or IPO riches will get you there, I’d suggest most people leave.

If it was me and I had to do it all over again, I’d probably just have roommates assuming I was young (20s). Heck, I did have room mates for a long while when I started work. When you have, say a room in a house in a nice area, each person can split say 4 rooms at 1k/month and that’s not really that bad…Better yet to just “live” at work and not even pay (or live in a camper in the parking lot).

So glad I don’t have to worry about rent going up or down!

[joec]

I seem to recall during the crazy bubble period, people were giving offers without contingencies to buy a house.

If you had contigencies, it was tossed out since the seller didn’t want to deal with you.

It’s probably not as crazy now, but I can see the bay area being very bubbly with near all time high stock valuations for a lot of tech shops (apple, facebook, google, saleforce…) and so much wealth.

[joec]

I’d like to see the autopsy report on how he died…

When I worked in tech, I worked non-stop as well back in the 90s…It was common to leave work and light was out by then. His VPs are probably a lot worst though than I had it…course, I’m sure he’s making tons more money.

Anyhow, I think the tough thing for kids and young people is you don’t really “know” why you’re even working that hard. For this guy, it sounds like he didn’t last a year even.

The money isn’t “as” much at his level, and without kids, mortgage, there was no, “I have to provide for my family” mentality.

Most likely, working that much is a very lonely experience since the article said he was there alone all the time…

I assume a lot of other analysts are in the same boat though. Maybe I should be more sympathetic, but until the autopsy report comes out, this “job” like many others generally suck. Work is work after all and if you want prestige, money, women, whatever, a lot of people sell themselves to the work life.

Until the reports come out though, I don’t think I can say it’s anyone’s fault…other than his dad maybe. Not surprising he’s an immigrant.

Just saw Jamie Dimon has joined the billionaire’s club. From what the reports say, banking is still the highest percentage way for people to make billions if that’s what you want (Tech is good too, but probably too hit/miss).

[joec]

I wonder if the market is hot now, can you do sold as is, and offer no contingency period allowed? Or at least ignore lower cash offers and state that you know of the “game” they are playing…

I think for scammers, when you call them out and you are on to them, they would (I assume) tend to move on since you would take their deposit and find your own legal ways to keep it.

[joec]

This sounds like a good way to get on the board or at least plan to run in it later. With all the public information out there as well, maybe it won’t be too hard to see which vendor they plan to use, then look up all the people on the board with the same last names, etc…

Since the “owner” is the one who has to pay for the upgrade, I’d guess most people would prefer to do something else with their money than upgrade a perfectly working window.

HOAs in TH and Condos suck. I suppose this is the downside of having “some” money to own a rental even.

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