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[quote=scaredyclassic]This articles a bit different. It says that while we think we want early retirement from work, what we might actually need is early retirement from other stuff. I may declare my retirement from driving, reading the news, travel, and showering in the next decade. Also retire from trying to be entertaining, hurrying, and eating out.[/quote]

yes, I read it. I usually do more of “taking a break” from those type of things. If I get bored doing them, I stop for awhile.

Sooner or later I yearn for them again and they back on the schedule.

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On youtube there are a lot of channels that follow the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) crowd. Some of those folks are in their 20s and 30s!

A few things I’ve noticed:
1. Some of them consider “retirement” to be synonymous with “not working for someone else”. They’re really working for themselves as maintaining a youtube channel really is work. Depending on how often they put out videos, it could be a full time job!

2. Some of them think they can live the rest of their life on just a few hundred thousand dollars. To my way of thinking, they have a lot of audacity to think they can map out how that money will last over many more decades. Life is full of nasty surprises.

3. They seem to equate not working to happiness. I have to admit I’d be happier working less than 40 hours, but I truly do enjoy my job so I’m not sure how much happier, if any, I will be when I retire.

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[quote=Coronita]

Like I always said… Don’t get mad, get even. Revenge is best served freezing cold ..[/quote]

Totally disagree with you flu. I’ve seen cases where once a person starts poking back at a Karen Boardmember, Karen Boardmember goes into hyper mode and nitpicks even more.

Try revenge at your own risk and be prepared for years of battle.

I recommend staying focused on the specific issue, like house painting.

Question authority and the authorities will question you.

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Wow.

I am so sorry to hear about your dad. And I totally understand how you’d increase your precautions after that.

I’ve been working from home since mid March and have been able to spend much more time with my grandkids (they remote school from my house) and have the opportunity to know our house cleaners and gardeners also. We’ve had the same house cleaner for over 20 years and same gardener for 13. These folks get to see parts of our lives that no one else sees. Not once in all of those years have any of them raised their rates…in all those years!

Back to the colors: if there are already homes in your HOA painted the colors that you selected (and are on the approved list!), I would think there is no way they could dis-approve. How could they stop you from doing what your neighbor is already doing? That would be clear discrimination.

Again, my condolences. Peace and love.

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[quote=Coronita]
the problem I see with HOA’s many times is homeowners don’t give hoot about the elections until something affects them. So if you aren’t lucky , and the HOa Board singled you out for something , you could very well be on your own for a long time. [/quote]

That is kind of the opposite situation – the board isn’t full of Barney Fifes but instead people with a grudge against a particular homeowner. What I’ve seen happen here is that both the grudgee and grudger end up on the board and it is clash of the titans for years! So kiki…have you considered running for the board? 🙂

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[quote=kiki]

I am from South America and although I have been blessed not to feel discriminated – I am pretty laid back so if people did I actually didn’t notice/care. I work for a Asian company so ethnicity diversity is in their DNA. I have strong supporters at work that are white. But you never know, they might not like our last name.

I hope I don’t have to go to arbitration though. I just want to paint, i am not interested in ruining the HOA that at the end will increase the fees for everyone. I’ll keep you posted on my saga.
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I doubt you are being discriminated against based on your ethnicity or country of origin.

More likely the current HOA board or architectural committee probably has a few Barney Fifes and they constitute the majority at the moment. I’ve seen that happen and usually what happens next is at the next election, the homeowners vote them out because other homeowners have been subject to ridiculous decisions just like you.

So a passive way out is to just wait until the next election.

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Most of the HOAs I have worked with have been pretty reasonable.

Kiki’s sounds way over the top. As soon as they said you couldn’t have an approved color scheme, I think you have them cold.

One thing you may wish to research: many HOAs have CC&Rs that state all disagreements must first go to arbitration before they go to court, and that the homeowner must pay for arbitration. I know, been there done that.

In a case that seems pretty clear-cut, I’d probably pursue that anyway and then bill the HOA for the arbitration costs when you win. 🙂

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[quote=Hobie]I suspect your tile was not installed on a cement board base. Glue down hardwood upstairs is very common and will actually strengthen the floor by bonding the subfloor to ply to wood floor.[/quote]

You are probably right about the tile…I ended up firing the guy for other reasons, but I suspect he took shortcuts on the tile install too. Learned a lot of lessons by hiring that guy…

Thanks for the tip…I’ll file it away for when I go out for flooring bids next time.

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[quote=Hobie]Ditto here. Before Covid and the riots, I rented a Uhaul from Seattle to San Diego for $89! Total, no mileage fees! Guy told me they needed trucks in SD as ‘everyone’ is going to Texas. [/quote]

https://jalopnik.com/moving-truck-prices-in-la-and-san-francisco-are-skyrock-1845068350

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Follow up on leaving SF.

My son moved out of SF proper for a smaller nothern california city last month.

He made a reservation for a U-Haul truck. They wanted $500 or just $80 if he would bring the truck back to SF. When moving day arrived, he went to his local U-Haul office that he had scheduled to be the pickup location. They said sorry, you have to pick your truck up in some little burg that was a 3 hour drive from SF. What? He called U-Haul main office. They said his reservation guaranteed him a truck but not a pickup location. He said then cancel my reservation.

He called and I said he should never have used U-Haul, the trucks I’ve rented from them were crappy anyway, and that I always use Penske now. So he called Penske and they got him a truck – in SF – within a couple of hours. All they had was a 26 footer so he took it. Scared the crap out of him driving that in SF! Can’t recall what he ended up paying for that but I think it was similar deal to U-Haul.

So yes there is an exodus from SF. The moving truck situation is telling.

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Our house came with glued HW flooring when we bought it. That flooring is 25 years old now and has been refinished once 10 years ago. I has held up pretty good but does have some fading where sunlight hits it in the morning. Some (most?) glued HW is layered wood so it is important to purchase one with a thick top layer that could potentially be sanded several times. We even have it in the kitchen and it has held up well there also. It does have a few deeper dents where we had to slide the fridge sideways to get it into place in front of the island. The only problem area is right in front of the doggy door – we had strong winds & rain this past winter and there is some slight rain damage right under where the doggy door flap opened in the wind…I didn’t even notice it until this summer.

Our office had carpeting so my son and I took that out and replaced it with a floating floor. In general I am not a fan of floating wood floors because they tend to make a hollow, unpleasant sound when I walk on them – my bro-in-law installed this throughout his house and it makes that annoying sound. I put it in our office anyway because I wanted something easy and cheap. Initially it did make that hollow sound but once I finished putting furniture and cabinets on it, the floor settled right in and now makes no sound when we walk on it.

My eventual plan is to put hardwood throughout the house and at that point I’ll have to make some hard decisions…what do I do with the areas that butt up against the existing glued hardwood? Do I try to match the old HW or take out all the wood and start fresh? And what about upstairs? We have had some issues with upstairs tile grout cracking and coming loose, I suspect from the flex in the subfloor. Should I risk glued HW up there or go with something more flexible, perhaps something that is simulated wood? I just don’t know…time will tell.

All things worth considering.

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[quote=Coronita]
So even with adversity, most tenants were not an asshole about things during covid, despite what some politicians paint the picture to be. My faith in Americans has been restored.[/quote]

San Diego is a market with way more demand than supply.

It may not be the same in areas of California where that is not true – if there are any in California right now.

My faith won’t be fully restored until I see what happens in November.

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[quote=42nate1]
Zillow is wonderful. It does the applications, credit check, background check & collects rent. I do chose my tenants carefully.
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Wow so Zillow may be an even better tool for renters/landlords than buyers/sellers. I didn’t know that!

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[quote=Escoguy]
So combine that and we have the effect of housing inflation, rent inflation but now many underutilized people, unemployment fortunately not too high here but regardless of who wins, they have to keep the game going.[/quote]

And that’s the problem. Sooner or later, the music has to stop.

I keep thinking about Japan who played that game very successfully for a long time…but as with every game of musical chairs, sooner or later someone’s butt is not on a seat when the needle left the groove.

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As I recall flu you have tenants on H1-B visas…those folks are probably pretty likely to keep paying because (a) they still have jobs and (b) they don’t want any blemish on their record that would give cause for being ousted. On this side of the pandemic your decision seems pretty wise.

I would also imagine that lower cost rentals have a higher chance of no-pays right now, probably south of 8?

It will be interesting to hear what the landlords on this site say.

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