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joec
ParticipantAs other people have said, it really depends on the car and model and mileage and year. Very high priced cars depreciate quickly because there is more room to drop.
Used cars sometimes don’t even drop at all if you buy it cheap. A friend of mine bought a used Acura NSX way back and sold it for more than he paid after tracking it and driving it around a few years.
That said, if you talk about “MOST” cards, buying used usually is still a better deal (as it should be), but when you bring in financing, your credit, loans, etc…
USED might make a lot of sense for a lot of people.
LEASING also isn’t as bad as people make it out to be depending on how you own/use/drive your cars and if you can deduct it for a business.
Bottom line is that the answer really depends and using a Prius as an example is pretty bad since Prius used to sell more than new since there was a shortage early on.
I personally like new myself and will probably lease (for business) our next vehicle.
Last 2 vehicles were purchased new.
ParticipantDamn, I thought this was about a vintage arcade opening up here. Read the article in the UT earlier, but miss the old arcade games at Chuck E Cheeses and those other spots.
It’s not the same playing on MAME. 🙁
ParticipantAlways good to do AP classes if possible, downside in the UC system is if you have too many credits, it could be a bad thing when I went (20 years ago). Maybe it’s different now, but if you major in engineering, your classes are pretty much set and many upper division classes are only offered once a year so it’s really hard to graduate in 4 years. Maybe they will be ok with it now since I read about kids with like 15 AP classes now and some crazy 4.6 gpa.
With some classes curved and then failing half (half gets a C- or lower), that alone will keep you another year around college (good times though!).
My brother almost got kicked out of UC since he had so many credits from being double engr and pre-med major.
I also had a ton from taking other “fun” classes and changing majors and always had so many units that I always got my classes since my registration times were the same as people a year ahead like you said.
June 11, 2012 at 7:40 AM in reply to: Mortgage 3.875%, car loan 2.69%, which to pay extra first? #745430ParticipantDoes anyone here listen to Rob Black and your money? He talks about not paying off a mortgage a lot.
In regards to the car loan, I think the interest on some of those are so low now that unless you are making bank and maxing out everything, there are probably better uses for it in terms of longer term investments, emergency savings, 401k, IRAs, 529s, etc…
If I had to pick one, I’d choose the car loan, but this question is easier to answer depending on a lot more of your personal factors like age, job, insurance needs, long term care, etc…
May 30, 2012 at 4:36 AM in reply to: OT: UC school and asian american enrollments going down. #744527ParticipantI’m not sure if relevant now, but back in early 90s, I had a friend who got into my UC school because his parent was an alumi and donated before and wrote a letter to get them in.
Originally, he was either denied or waitlisted, not sure which.
I don’t mind too much of this actually since I already accept the world we live in, and with the school funding issues, you either get funds elsewhere (China) or quality of the school would suffer in general. I could see them dumping all these fancy facilities.
Pretty much, either way you lose and it will never be fair when it comes to admissions.
May 30, 2012 at 4:26 AM in reply to: My next door neighbor was a cop, still under 60, been retired for more than 5 yrs #744526Participant[quote=moneymaker]When I was younger I thought my dad was lazy wanting to retire at the age of 50. Now that I’m 50 I feel the same urge, if I could, I would, which makes me rethink, am I using my time wisely. If I were being paid more/earning more then I would be able to retire earlier. Truth be told though I think I would get bored if I were not working. Happily bored, but how do I know until I try it. I’ve worked 34 years continuously and have realitively little to show for it. If I weren’t drinking wine right now I might even be depressed about the whole thing.[/quote]
This is one reason to do the take time off if you can work it thing early in your work career (age 30-40) if circumstances lead to that. There was a discussion earlier about this on someone taking time off and most comments said to do it if you can afford it.
Bottom line is if you don’t take it when you have the opportunity, you probably will never do it…pretty much kids kill any chance of this.
The downside with being a cop is you are generally a bigger target for the bad folks since you are out there in uniform.
I read about all the “downsides , but I think everyone would agree being a fire fighter or a cop is far better than being in the military with less pay, benefits and much higher risk of dieing (I assume, no data) in a very hostile environment with very little choice of where you end up.
Best deal nowadays is to probably work in a low stress public sector job with better benefits (healthcare is probably the most valuable thing now) and then retire once you qualify for the key items.
ParticipantThe article above really described my case. Left IT back in early 2000 and when I was job hunting back then, I already saw the demand/desire was really dropping. Of course, the tech crash happened too. That said, IT jobs were very commoditized already with a lot of foreign born engineers and offshoring done. This will be true with web 2.0 when something new hits. The good thing with web 2.0 is that it’s a lot cheaper to start companies now and if you’re young, your expenses are low. Then again, facebook has tons of engineers so maybe it’s not so bad really.
I’m sure there were areas which were hot, but when you have worked for a number of years being hammered with projects and lack of time in general, it’s nearly impossible to stay ahead with the latest and greatest technologies on your own time.
Anytime you work for a company, it’s nearly impossible to have the time to just code, do whatever to keep up, worst if you have a family/spouse.
I don’t think some people realize it, but anyone working for someone else could be one layoff away from never finding work again. You could be a rock star now, but after 10 years, the market changes a ton.
I read all the time that there is all this pent up demand for engineers and CS people, but no company really wants to even try to retrain you much. Best shot you have as always is if you know someone at the company, network/beg for the work. As I loss interest in tech in general, just hard to really be motivated to do the grind anymore.
Before leaving tech and my last job, never had trouble finding work, always had above average raises, worked at multiple startups, but sorta glad I left I guess. Pay/benefits and perks were nice though.
Just harder to really do as you get older/family…
ParticipantI bought the Quicken Willmaker Premium which has a ton of books included as well as the Will stuff. Wish I had the time to use it. If I get around to it, I’ll update my thoughts here for you. I’d also like to setup a trust and know I should, but a $1000+ bill right now is a bit tough for us.
Just want basic stuff myself and if me and my spouse are dead, probably won’t care what’s in the public and don’t have enough to really have anyone fight over anything.
ParticipantYeah, reverse osmosis uses a lot of water. I would recommend just getting the fridge ones. We used to use a Brita drip thing, but the filters need to be changed often and having to refill it practically daily or a few times a day totally sucked. With the built in fridge one, I change it like once every 5 months or so and filters can be bought cheap at Amazon. Save a lot of time and is cheaper I think. Generally, your tap water is probably also safe to drink too.
Just paid a ~$46 water bill for 3k sqft house with small lawns and mostly drip irrigation for plants. In Olivenhain Municipal Water District if that makes a difference.
Maybe it’s low cause I don’t shower much?Water bill was never that bad for us, it’s the power (gas mostly to heat) which is killer.
ParticipantIn regards to ebay, amzn, nike and dis, i think most people would agree that amzn, nike and disney will be around for a long long time and something our kids will continue to use…Bezos has been mentioned as probably one of the few ‘visionary’ CEOs now (like Jobs was) and his mindset is for the long term.
eBay, I don’t think so anymore since the founder left a LONG time ago and like you, I hate that company myself. eBay also hasn’t changed much from 12 years ago and I think that’s due to the founder leaving and not taking an active role (sell and move on).
FB was supposed to price around 28-35 or so, but that was probably before the revenue estimate drop so who knows what it should be worth now. I’m in no rush to buy yet mostly due to the huge amount of insiders who want to sell, especially now. You gotta figure their ESPP stock also is way underwater now even with the discount and would have to reprice probably at the lower point (if they are still doing that sorta thing).
In the US, anyone who wants to be on FB is already on there so the growth there is done as mentioned everywhere. It’s just a matter of whether they figure out mobile ads or not.
I just see people leaving the site like myspace, friendster as they get older, etc…
Also, as you get older and fall off the dating scene, I don’t think you really care anymore how many online ‘friends’ you have or letting people you see at most once a year know what you’re up to. Get kids and you’re so busy, all your time is just gone.
ParticipantAlso note that FB raised their offering price and the thing that scares me is the huge number of shares coming to market in a month and in the next 4-6 months. With that much supply and insiders dumping, the stock would probably be under a lot of pressure for the rest of this year. Also with the tax cuts expiring may put more pressure for people to sell before Jan 2013…
The IPO was GREAT for Facebook since tons of insiders can sell now and they raised more money, but it f*cked all the people who bought at the IPO price (your long term investors you hope) who may now dump it since it’s a train wreck now.
If they didn’t change the lockups and all the insiders didn’t dump shares, maybe I would have bought some already. This is just too much like rushing for the exits.
ParticipantGood analysis above flu. I don’t visit much anymore, but have been reading up on this whole FB thing. The problem that a lot of idiots don’t realize is that the price of a stock is meaningless. People think GOOG was overpriced at $85 and FB is cheap at $38. What they don’t understand is that GOOG went public with a market cap (value of the company) at around $25 billion. FB is already over $100 billion at the $38 price. I read posts saying that FB will hit $700/share and just laugh. That would make FB worth 1.8 trillion dollars. There just isn’t as much growth when a company is already valued at 100 billion so your upside is very limited.
Also, there are 400mil+ shares trading now. In a month, it will hit 800 mil. Supply will be plentiful soon enough and the stock will probably collapse. FB does have value and I may buy some, but not at $38 and glad to see it didn’t pop.
It has pretty much no user growth in the US anymore and still hasn’t figured out a way to do ads on mobile at all. Unlike search with GOOG, people are also paranoid with their privacy and people will leave FB if they feel like they are being tracked.
All the insiders are selling for a reason and I feel this IPO will be more like Groupon. Goldman Sachs was planning to dump 25% of their shares and upped it to 50%. A lot of early investors are also dumping which is a very negative sign since obviously, they know the company better than you or me.
Having worked in multiple startups as well in the late 90s-2000s, things that they are doing now like 1 month lockups are so different and short sighted.
ParticipantWanted to add that Morgan Stanley also had to step in and buy shares to support the price so it doesn’t drop BELOW $38 so if they didn’t do that (it’s legal btw), the offering may have done a bit worst.
Maybe being over 30 makes me bias, but if you want in and I can see why people might, it doesn’t hurt to get in slowly or dollar cost average or wait till the hype dies down a little.
ParticipantI sorta doubt we’d see elimination of mortgage interest deduction on investment property. The tax code seems to be written where pretty much all legitimate business expenses can be written off. An investment property is all business so they can write off the cost of the mortgage payments.
One reason why removing these things just continues to “stick it” to the W-2 middle class wage earner…
If they can’t write it off on their tax return, people would just create LLCs or something for the property and write it all off anyways.
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