[surveyor]

….

while i have no first hand knowledge of this, i really doubt they would stop building because of the amount of money they have already put in. Most of the maps have already been approved, all the environmentals have been permitted. If they are at a far along stage, they are not going to stop. They need to at least put it out there and try to get some money back, as opposed to just writing it off altogether.

[surveyor]

points

The reason Americans aren’t applying to engineering or CS programs like they used to isn’t because they are lazy or stupid. It’s because those jobs are perceived as being difficult, not lucrative and lacking in prestige and security.

Isn’t that the definition of lazy, when you don’t pursue something difficult that is lacking in prestige and security? And you’re saying increasing the pay will change that? Not true. By your reasoning, high-paying jobs should have high enrollments in their university majors. That is not the case.

The easiest branch of engineering is civil. It has the highest enrollment. Why? Because it is considered the easiest. Civil engineering is among the lowest paid of the engineers that the supply meets the demand (one could say that there is more supply than demand).

Also, to draw on the illegal immigration component, saying that if you pay Americans more to pick lettuce that Americans will show up, that is not true either. I talk to landscapers who have a hard time hiring even though they pay very high wages (in excess of $20/hr.). They cannot keep an “American” on staff. (sidebar: does this mean I want open borders? no, but I don’t believe paying more will make someone necessary want to work).

IIT applicants who can’t quite make the cut frequently end up at MIT and Stanford.

Interesting perception. I would argue they make the cut at MIT and Stanford because we don’t have enough good quality students here to go to those universities.

Keep on telling yourself that some jobs are safe from outsourcing. Pathology and radiology work are being outsourced.

I believe the claim was not saying that engineering jobs were safe from outsourcing. The claim is that they are MORE safe from outsourcing because of several factors – language, quality control, and the ability to manage. Maybe for jobs that are somewhat “soft” in skills (like call centers) these can be outsourced and they can see a cost savings. However, from the companies I’ve seen try to use outsourcing to address complicated professions, like ENGINEERING, there is a furious communication problem. Try explaining to a guy over the telephone or even a tele-conference that you want certain designs implemented. I’ve seen it done. It usually ends up costing less to hire someone here. These are the limits of outsourcing.

I will not argue that outsourcing makes things here in the U.S. difficult, but the world is changing and you have to be able to change with it. Should you just give up just because your job has a 10% chance of being outsourced? Should we just give up hope altogether? No, we should make ourselves better than everyone else and look for opportunities whenever we can. And the other posts here have shown that despite outsourcing, there is a lot of opportunity that still exists. If you’re talented, good at your job, you’ll find and make your opportunities.

[surveyor]

righto bobo

totally agree with you, bob2007. i think we in the U.S. were so starved for talent, we started poaching other countries’ talents. imagine, our corporations are so desparate to fill jobs that they have to go abroad. why aren’t our schools or our children filling these jobs?

a part of it is we’ve gotten a little lazy. i mean, why toil in a really difficult job like engineering, or any other hard science when you can take it easy? why should we ask our children to become doctors, nurses, scientists and other professions that are severely in need? it’s just too hard! that we’ve gotten lazy is not bush’s fault.

i know a little bit about the h1b visa process and it is hell to go through. Getting someone through the process is not easy. The gov’t has enough bureaucracy in it to make you pull out your hair. Believe me, corporations do not want to go through the h1b visa process, but the other choice is to leave those jobs vacant because there’s nobody else who can fill it.

[surveyor]

looking ahead

i don’t know what majors your students are pursuing, but to me there is a pretty good future ahead of them. there are many people who are going to be retiring and there is virtually no one who is able to replace them, recession or not. In practically any skilled industry, there are shortages of skilled labor and the ones who are already there are ready to retire.

besides, i remember what it was like when i was their age – i thought i was going to be making $70k to $90k right out of college (not!). Anything less than that was considered a failure. Tell them to plan ahead, look towards what is going to happen, and educate themselves to take advantages of the numerous opportunities that are going to present themselves. Learn as many skills as possible, sign up for every difficult task imaginable, and for god’s sake, do not show up to a job interview with tattoos and piercings.

My profession itself needs an influx of about 50 land surveyors a year to replace those who are retiring and leaving (just a week ago, I attended the retiring of SIX land surveyors in San Diego alone). My industry is only putting out about 20. My wife is an electrical engineer. Her own profession is a difficult one, but she sees so many openings for electrical engineers, software designers, programmers, technicians. She and I are often the youngest workers in our field, with no one who can replace us.

[surveyor]

bubble

Vegas is a nice place, but I thought you were avoiding “bubble” areas like San Diego. If you were to live in Vegas, you probably won’t be buying real estate…

[surveyor]

stats

Here are some actual stats for you to look at…

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2006/index.html

You can go through each city it recommends and see what they have to offer.

[surveyor]

irs two income earner worksheet (W-4)

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf?portlet=3

[surveyor]

forgot some more…

oh, forgot some more factors: California is generally the most difficult place to get construction projects drawn up, approved, and permitted in the country. The regulations, fees, and the time cost involved in getting a project from dream to finish is so large that they have to charge so much to break even.

Bubble or not, California will always be expensive than other states under this and other factors.

Construction of a major subdivision often takes about 10 years or more in California. Other states this process only takes a couple of years.

[surveyor]

(…)

California has been in a boom. North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia have not participated in that boom until now.

There is also a lot of capital flowing around California in general (and a lot of wealth) as opposed to North Carolina. The economy in California is much larger than North Carolina. Sure, NC has a lot of industries, schools, and jobs, it doesn’t compare to California. Also, taxes and cost of living is much lower in NC.

Florida has no income tax, but has a brutal property tax.

There are more reasons, but those are the basics.

Expect North Carolina to have a mini-bubble because of the amount of investors going to North Carolina.

[surveyor]

more deductions

No matter what, if you combine incomes, you will be subjected to a higher tax rate. Certainly having children can reduce your tax footprint, but you will still owe taxes more taxes due to your combined income. If you want to balance out the taxes you paid, you will have to use the Two Earner Worksheet at the back of your W-4.

My recommendation is to use more tax deductions, put more money towards your 401k (the max if possible, which is currently at $15000 each if I remember correctly), use your flexible spending accounts more aggressively, and find more deductions to use. Use the Two Earner Worksheet and account for the up to $30k worth of money you can put in your 401k and you might find that your taxes will improve.

(unless of course you have a job that does not have a 401k set up, where it gets harder…).

[surveyor]

lowering taxes, saving money….

Unfortunately, a lot of the great tax deductions require you to be in real estate (and it is a really good side business as well).

To offset my household’s high salary, I went into out-of-state real estate investing, but that is not something I recommend to newbies. Still, the ability to pay very low taxes is appealing.

I assume you are already taking advantage of your employer’s daycare flexible spending account? That will at least help you defray the cost of daycare (my daycare cost was $10,000 last year, haha).

[surveyor]

re investing

I read the article, I personally didn’t see anything wrong with the advice given in the book. In fact, the math does work out regarding not paying your mortgage early or minimizing your principal payments.

When you are aggressively leveraging to invest in real estate, it is not very useful to make principal payments because you will tend to refi that money back out anyways every two years (in a hot real estate market, you usually have to do it every year).

Is it risky? Heck yes.

Still, you got to make sure the real estate you are buying is going to work out, math-wise. With that in mind, no properties in San Diego will work out.

There are specific instances when to use IO loans and when to use fixed loans in real estate investing.

For appreciating markets, where you will have to refi money out frequently, interest only loans are useful.

For depreciating markets, fixed rate loans are advisable, because you don’t know when the market will start appreciating and you will have to refi/re-leverage money out again.

[surveyor]

cc

i just submitted a condo conversion in the city of san diego in december 2006. no eir requirement yet. i know aguirre has been threatening that for awhile now, but nothing has been done yet. this doesn’t mean this requirement will not be imposed.

[surveyor]

sc

the economics look pretty good at south carolina. it actually has an economy like san diego (although not as big). the housing market still has some upside to it, so you can get some decent appreciation for probably the next few years.

if you do move there, do a comparison and see how much money you can save and invest for san diego vs. columbia.

i have a 4 plex in columbia. it cost $232k and cash flows $300/mo. if the money works out, you should consider buying a 4 plex and live in one and rent out the other three. if you don’t mind the extra job, haha. but if i were you, that’s what i would do. the 4 plex will give you a little extra cash and will lower your taxes so it will feel like you are making $100k anyways.

congrats

[surveyor]

currently

I can’t tell you what happened in the last cycle (I wasn’t here) but from my meetings with the builders, they are still building houses, and they are building whatever they have that is along far enough. The reaction I have seen to this slowing market is that they will stretch out their phase releases – releasing only 3-5 homes per phase as opposed to 5-10 homes per phase.

Most of the talk I hear is that they hope things get better in the summer (sales-wise).

[Author]

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