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June 11, 2012 at 9:58 AM in reply to: My next door neighbor was a cop, still under 60, been retired for more than 5 yrs #745437
UCGal
ParticipantI knew my house was average… now I have proof it’s average in size…. actually slightly below average by 60ish sf.
Whatever… it works for our family.
June 6, 2012 at 4:29 PM in reply to: Mortgage 3.875%, car loan 2.69%, which to pay extra first? #745186ParticipantThe rule of thumb is to pay off the highest interest rate first.
I found an interesting article that does the math…
ParticipantPSA alert.
That hand me down car seat… be careful. Carseats have expiration dates… the plastic breaks down over time, I think it’s like 8 years… so if your family uses it for 2 kids over 5 years – then passes it on and they use it for 5 years… those last few years it’s not as safe.On the expensive stroller thing. I have friends in Philly who spent big $$ on their stroller… but they live in center city and don’t drive anywhere… shopping, library, etc is all done on foot and on bus… so a good stroller is required. I would imagine this is true for several east coast cities as well as SF proper.
(disclaimer – we had the pricey Peg Perego stroller – well worth the price because it was tall enough that my husband didn’t need to hunch. Unfortunately, an airline destroyed one of the handles – but we just duct taped it. LOL)
My kids wear a combo of hand me downs and discount/on sale clothes from target. No gymboree or Hannah Anderson. Sports are through the rec center which makes it cheaper. Swim lessons were also through the park rec center. We do spend for piano lessons. Talked my employer into sponsoring the lego/robotics team… so that saved $$s.
We make our kids earn $ for their gadgets. (DS upgrades, computer games, etc.) They are paid for chores. And they’ve just started getting “clients” in the neighborhood to mow lawns. They’ve started learning they can fund that “must have” purchase quicker if they go out and earn the cash.
Participant[quote=Rhett]Save for one grade school, the public schools in Clairemont range from average to awful. Save for one person, everybody I’ve met that owns in Clairemont either sends their kids to private school or ends up choicing their kids into a UC school (since the aging demographics there have twice as much capacity in south UC than students that live there).
This is why Mira Mesa might be a lot more attractive to some people.[/quote]
Ironically – I live in UC and am in the Curie neighborhood. I’ve got my kids (2nd son moves starting next year) at Hawthorne Elementary in Clairemont. On paper Curie looks fabulous and Hawthorne looks awful. In reality – the teachers are what counts and the seminar program at Hawthorne is beyond exceptional. Seriously, it’s an amazing program, better than the seminar program at Spreckels in the UC cluster… This is entirely because of the two teachers there and the parent foundation – plus a great principal that really puts the students needs above all. My son has been much better served by a “crappy” Clairemont school with a great schools rating of 6 than by our neighborhood school that has a great schools rating of 10.
I have quite a few friends with kids at Holmes – including another UC family who moved the child because Curie violated the IEP. Holmes is a very good school in Clairemont.
That said – probably 25-30% of the kids at Curie are from Clairemont.
I like Clairemont. First house I lived in (from coming home from the hospital after birth) was on a Mt. street. Obviously, I like south UC too – bought the house I grew up in (that we’d moved to from Clairemont) from my parents when I moved back to San Diego.
You have to look at more than just the paper ratings when looking at schools. Especially if your child is exceptional in any way at all. If there are special needs (of any kind – GATE/Seminar, ADHD, whatever… anything at all non-typical) you need to look at what each school provides to serve those needs.
Ok – off my high horse.
June 5, 2012 at 1:27 PM in reply to: How are people dumber than us going to make out with their 401(k)s? #745066Participant[quote=flu][quote=svelte][quote=flu]
Max limit on 401k is $16.5k per year if you are not self employed (IE w2 at a company)Married couple can do that twice though.[/quote]
Actually, it is $17K in 2012, with an additional $5.5K if you are over 50, for a potential total of $22.5K
http://www.irs.gov/retirement/participant/article/0,,id=211334,00.html[/quote]
Oops.. Close enough for me… And I’m not near over 50, so I wouldn’t know about the 22.5…Sorry….[/quote]
flu – when you get closer to 50 you should be aware that you get the higher limit the year you turn 50… my birthday is later in the year – but I upped my 401k contributions at the beginning of the year I turned 50. I was saving anyway – this allowed me some tax advantage on that saving.
June 5, 2012 at 1:26 PM in reply to: How are people dumber than us going to make out with their 401(k)s? #745065Participant[quote=sdrealtor]How does someone who buys 7 day old bread expect to pay cash for a few rental properties in SD?[/quote]
Perhaps being frugal is how one saves to pay cash for rentals.
There’s a lot of folks who believe that living below one’s means (LBOM) is the best way to accumulate for retirement.
Over on the early-retirement.org forums there are folks who have made living cheap into an artform.
I don’t by 7 day old bread – but I definitely pinch pennies as I try to reach my goal of retiring early.
Participant[quote=flu][quote=sdrealtor]Thats the going rent for a newer home in the South Carlsbad/Encinitas area for 4BR and 3000 sq ft plus. IFIRC Matt is in LC Oaks and could be charging below market now. I’ve seen rents up to $6000 there and most of the homes with at least 4,000 sq ft are starting around $4500.[/quote]
Maybe it’s just me.. But it seems like spending $4000/month on rent….means time to buy,even if it means buying a crapier location… I mean, we’re talking $50k a year in rent….Ouch..But then again, maybe for some people $50k a year is pocket change, and the sad realization that I’m still poor because I think it’s a lot of money to be paying for rent.[/quote]
If you think you’re only going to be in the region for a year – why would you buy. Hard to make up the transaction costs.
ParticipantThe Wealthy Barber – David Chilton (light read but reminded me of a couple of financial health things I need to update.)
Your Money or Your Life – Vicki Robbin. (less of a light read – about transforming your view of money and spending etc… to give you more freedom.)
Free lunch – David Johnston. A discussion of how f’d up and interwoven our political and financial systems are.
And I have “Private Empire” on hold at the library.
It’s easy for me to know what’s on my nightstand – just log onto the library. I’ve gotten too cheap to buy books. 🙂
Participant[quote=CDMA ENG][quote=UCGal]I see a migration of school obsessed families migrating from Carmel Valley and 4S to San Marcos in the near future.
Pleasantly surprised to see UCHS is third in the district, 66th in the state, 371st in the nation by the criteria of US News… I’m not planning on moving so it’s good to see that by at least some criteria the local school doesn’t totally blow chunks.[/quote]
I heard some bad things about UCHS from a neighbor. He was very down on the school citing bullying, gang activity, and mediocre academics. He was also very down on the magnet school too so I am not sure if he was just anti-UC or if it was an individual issue. What would your comments be UCGal?
CE[/quote]
We have a neighbor who’s also really down on UCHS because her daughter got beat up, more than once, by some girl gang and the administration did nothing about it. This happened a few years ago. But the issue is real. Not sure how widespread it is.Since we’re not planning on moving it looks like UCHS is in our future. Because they’ll both (hopefully) be attending a seminar program in a different cluster next year, I could let them continue on to i-Middle and Madison… but I don’t think that’s better than Standley and UCHS. At this point I’m in full denial.
I have friends who’s kids have thrived at UCHS… but like you, I’ve also heard about gang issues at UCHS. I’ve also heard that the problem may be lessoning, ironically due to budget cuts. This may sound racist, or socio-economic-classist… but the reduced funding for busing will change the makeup of the school. Standley and UCHS have a lot of bussed kids. Not saying the white-bread UC kids are all angels… I suspect there are home-grown thugs in UC too.
But I’ve got another year before I have to figure it out for middle school. My 5th grader didn’t make it into High Tech Middle (lottery to get in), but should be allowed to continue in the seminar program till 6th… so I’ve got another year before panic sets in.
ParticipantI agree with AN.
Mira Mesa is a good choice… affordable, good commute to Del Mar. Decent schools.
May 17, 2012 at 3:00 PM in reply to: WSJ article – first time in U.S. history white newborns less than 50% of total #744002Participant[quote=ctr70]http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303879604577408363003351818.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories&_nocache=1337272204829&user=welcome&mg=id-wsj
Interesting WSJ article with some cool color coded maps. For the first time U.S. history whites of European ancestry account for less than half of newborn children in the U.S.. Ethnic make up of U.S. is on the move big time. Americans of European ancestry are having a lot less babies than Hispanics.[/quote]
Not to quibble… but for the first time in US History?
So you’re saying there were more European settlers than native folks when the Declaration of Independence was signed?
And if you watch enough old westerns – you know that there were a lot of brown people in Western States. Just watched the John Wayne flick “El Dorado” over the weekend – he was speaking Spanish to a number of non-lead characters.The WSJ does not say how far back they’re going. So one might assume it’s back to the first census. I have no idea if they gathered racial data – but I’m pretty sure they didn’t count babies born to Indians or to slaves… After all – blacks were only 3/5ths of a person, and Indians were non-citizens.
We’re in a global economy. I look at my work group – we’re at about 50% non-hispanic white vs everyone else.
ParticipantI see a migration of school obsessed families migrating from Carmel Valley and 4S to San Marcos in the near future.
Pleasantly surprised to see UCHS is third in the district, 66th in the state, 371st in the nation by the criteria of US News… I’m not planning on moving so it’s good to see that by at least some criteria the local school doesn’t totally blow chunks.
May 10, 2012 at 7:46 AM in reply to: OT: best place to buy appliances, don’t send me to Worst Buy #743428ParticipantIf you can figure out what you want – I know folks who’ve ordered from AJ Madison (ajmadison.com)
I’m bummed to hear that Pacific Sales is now associated with Best Buy. I refuse to shop at best buy and we recently bought a range at Pacific Sales. They were the only folks in town who carried Bertazzoni. But we got a free range hood (list price $1k)… so I’m happy with the pacific sales purchase. Haven’t had to deal with warranty.
You can also go to the Sears Outlet store down in Bay Park. I have family members who’ve been very lucky with purchases there. My stepmom got a “dinged” fridge there – the ding is in the back, minor, and no one would know if she didn’t keep bragging about the deal she got.
ParticipantIt says right on the link you gave that it’s a short sale (look to the right of the pictures.
And it looks like, other than price, they’re not really marketing it… Pictures of toilets and of junk piled on top of washing machines? C’mon….
I suspect they already have a buyer picked out. Nothing to base that on other than crappy photos.
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