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[quote=flu][quote=bearishgurl][quote=flu]meh.. it’s just a blog… 🙂

I’m just kicking time. Because I’m in between software builds… I can’t really trade right now on the equity markets (prices are too high…even so, I am sort of..Watch flu get his ass kicked)…I’ve already looked at sdlookup 92130 and 92126 for today’s inventory…for the sixth time…(still the same, although AN did point out to me a 1/1 that was already ridiculously priced, just went even more ridiculously higher), already checked craigslist for new miata parts (none)…And I’m waiting for my damn escrow papers to get done…..

Man, my to be lender is really anal.. I signed one paper slightly different from the rest, and the lender requires me to resign it, and am going to dispatch a courier to do it….[/quote]

This is just another “on-the-clock” description of a “day in the life of highly-paid Pigg, `flu’.”

Thank you for making my point so eloquently ;=][/quote]

You forget I’m in conference calls from 9pm to 11:30pm W/Th/Fri in addition to make regular hours…And unlike you, there is no overtime.
Plus i paid my dues at a top ranked college with countless all nighters…and also startups some of which failed and some of which succeeded.

But thanks for proving my point 🙂

You see BG. Here’s the rub.. You really can’t make an argument that I have soo much free time and am overpaid..When you’re on the same blog, posting at the same time, can you ? And plus, I’m exempt. I’m paid to get my job done, whether it’s 1 hr or 14 hrs in one day. If you’re hourly or bill hourly, that’s an entire different story :)[/quote]

see this is the thing FLU, i don’t think you should have to justify how “hard” you work or how many hours. it has no correlation to being entitled to anything in life. you are not sitting around waiting for your welfare check, you’re paying taxes. i think if you can figure out how to work 2 hours a day and make millions, that would be great. obviously you are serving a market demand.

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actually none of the people i know who work with underserved work for the government, they are psychologists, non profit workers. no, some of these people thought they would have much better jobs than they are doing, but people take jobs because that’s all thats there in a given city, or they have husbands or children. point is, those details are irrelevant, it doesn’t change whether they are entitled to anything. and if they did work for the gov’t, and they got a pension, that would be great for them, but i don’t believe ANYONE is “entitled” to anything. period.

like i said, i don’t really give a damn if someone works a lot less and gets paid a lot more. nor does your hard work entitle you to a pension just because some younger kid is sitting on their lazy ass with millions because they wrote a piece of software. they are entirely uncorrelated.

just try not to lump everyone into the same bucket, there are boomers i know who sit on their asses and no longer work because they were lucky to have worked at rising tech companies. i don’t know if they worked hard or they didn’t and just got lucky. it doesn’t matter to me, good for them if they can get it.

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BG, reality check, but most people don’t have those perks, free, subsidized or otherwise. And yes, I had to dress up in suits every day for years and years and still do for biz meetings. And yes I know people who were sent home because their top was too low. I and many other colleagues had to put up with sexist remarks, sexual harrassment, getting screamed at by clients, cursed out, 15 hour days, long hours at client meetings or in the office. No I didn’t work from home, yes I had to play politics, pretending to like higher ups, living on planes and extensive travel, had to lift heavy boxes to unpack or pack up booths at trade shows. No its not a descriptor of youth, its called work and corporate America BG…and you know what, I had it better than most because I got paid well to put up with this. But a lot of people actually don’t get paid well to work in much less desirable environments. And no, most people I know don’t wear flip flops to work, nor do they work from home. Lots of people have to drive or commute 30 mins or 2 hours each way. I have friends who work in underserved neighborhoods and get peed and shit on by kids they counsel, hit or bitten by kids, and have to leave their work escorted by security guards because people get shot in the neighborhood all the time.

And these are just the white collar jobs. The blue collar jobs, people I know break their bodies or toil over their jobs for low wages. They don’t make enough to afford health insurance for their family so they live without. Their companies don’t offer retirement contributions, forget pensions. They don’t have nice cars, homes, or anything fancy. They work long hard hours in sometimes shitty or dangerous conditions.

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UCG- i’m not saying its not possible, i’m just saying its a heck of a lot easier when you’re dual income, living together to buy 1-5 years out of college. keep in mind that for someone my age, housing was already overpriced 4+ yrs out of college. in nyc, most people out of college don’t make enough in their first 5 years to buy anything or save for a down payment, with roommates or not

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[quote=flu][quote=zzz]FLU, i agree, i actually dont thnk its my place or anyones to judge what “fair” compensation is, but i’m really tired of listening to entitlement defenses. people arent entitled to pensions. they aren’t entitled to anything. if you are lucky and have a pension, great, i’m happy for them, but don’t argue its because they are “entitled” or worked harder. there are no guarantees in life.[/quote]

I know, but what can you do. I’m sure everyone feels everyone else is overpaid and/or how everyone else should pay more taxes…What can you do?[/quote]

thats the thing, i don’t care if someone is overpaid, good for them if they can get it. good for people who have pension. my issue is “entitlement”. its that BG feels entitled and is judging how hard she works compared to others. its irrelevant how hard she worked compared to others, that doesn’t entitle her to anything.

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FLU, i agree, i actually dont thnk its my place or anyones to judge what “fair” compensation is, but i’m really tired of listening to entitlement defenses. people arent entitled to pensions. they aren’t entitled to anything. if you are lucky and have a pension, great, i’m happy for them, but don’t argue its because they are “entitled” or worked harder. there are no guarantees in life.

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[quote=bearishgurl].
I have to laugh at the Piggs’ (primarly Gen Y on this forum who have worked less than a decade and already want to “retire,” lol) opinions on why I don’t deserve my small pension. These “workers” are obviously either “working from home” or sitting in the office with their feet up on the desk in private offices with jeans, a t-shirt and flip flops on with a laptop/tablet on their lap, music playing in headphones and Piggington on their taskbar. 🙂 They no doubt have access to free parking, company coffee carts, company gyms, company jogging trails and wide-screens in their company cafeteria serving healthy food, etc. These workers really have no idea what most boomers did all day to earn their pay. Not a clue.

I would compare my “career” (which earned me a small pension) to serving in the military (except for no deployments and 8-5 pm only) :=0

Basically, it was all about proper “face time” and getting ALL your work done before 5:00 pm.[/quote]

BG, I’m sorry, but your list of why you’re entitled to a pension is laughable. The work you did, the expectations at work, um this is life and no it hasn’t changed that much. There are people my age or younger who have to deal with far worse, work much longer hours, in shitty neighborhoods and with little to no perks to speak of. Hardly anyone I know outside of silicon valley or NYC has free gym, free lunch, free anything at work. And if they do, its because they work 15hrs days. No they don’t put in “face time” as you said, they are actually productive.

You really need to get in touch with what’s going on in the world. And stop being so entitled.

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Here’s an interesting read on being single and the cost: http://t.co/2XyYcpFQ

I’m a GenX/Y cusp as Im 36. Some observations for people in my age group who live in high cost cities – IE SF, NY, LA, SD.

I know many couples who met in college and have lived together ever since or have had serial relationships of cohabitation. Both are professionals and lived in high rent cities. For them, they saved over 300k over 10 years simply by living together in the form of rent, utilities, internet/cable, etc.

Then there are those savings on health insurance, car insurance ( combining onto 1 household policy), groceries, etc

For those of us who waited till our 30s to shack up…well that is a lot of money that could have been invested, used to purchase a home, etc. that 300k savings ended up being a lot more after it was invested and gains were captured. Those friends who co-habited were able to start buying homes sooner. They were able to take advantage of rise in the housing in the early 2000s ( their early 20s), and take the gains to roll them into the next house. They are now on their 2nd or 3rd homes, or also own investment rentals ( they bought condos that they held onto that are now rentals) Many of them have 15 year mortgages because they borrowed very little by the time they took gains from 1-2 home sales and rolled into next purchase. Most 30 something single friends in these expensive housing markets either still rent ( haven’t been able to afford to buy or chose not to with the runup), or have bought crappy small condos that they really hate living in (crappy HOAs, no yard, etc) but are now stuck with them and can’t afford to buy a home in the neighborhoods they want to live in.

I agree with FLU and the frustration about the learned helplessness. I’m really tired by how many people are so damn entitled but don’t want to work for it or spend the time to figure it out for themselves yet want to complain when things don’t work out.

However, having had several friends pass away in recent years, in their 30s and 40s, or their lives altered by horrible accidents, I also take the live life while you’re young approach so do the things you in enjoy, in moderation. Because you 50 or 60s may never arrive. Or when they do, you’re not in the physical condition to enjoy what you thought you’d be enjoying. For us, we love to travel, golf, and enjoy wine. But we also still save between 30-40% of net income in cash, outside of maxing out our retirement accounts.

We also have no kids and don’t really desire to have them. That makes a huge difference in our disposable income.

And I’m with FLU on how scary it is when medical issues arise. I’ve personally spent thousands of dollars even though I had great insurance to deal with chronic problems from a car accident. I’ve had to help my parents out financially, cancer can really wipe your savings out. I’ve spent much of my adult life being a constant worrier/planner/saver, but then I realized that I don’t want to live my life always preparing for the worst. Because thats made me very risk adverse but also tied me down to things I became slave to, like a high paying job I hated or ideals of what success looks like.

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We waited until the short sale lender accepted before scheduling an inspection. I dont think its worth paying for one until an acceptance happens, but the inspector missed a lot of things and hes a general contractor, not that it says much but he was highly recommended by several people.

If you’re serious about the home, if I had to do this over again, prior to a short sale acceptance, I would also have a roofer, electrician and plumber come out. They will all do this for free, so as long as the owner agrees, schedule all of them for the same day. The roofer is really important if you have a tile roof because the only way to really look at a tile roof is to have a roofer walk it, and an inspector typically don’t do this.

Also in an older home, particularly with ones where you see visual damage or deferred maintenance, budget 10-20k in fixes. There are bound to be things that need fixing that won’t be uncovered. But you might find out a month, 2 or six into living in the home.

Finally, if you are looking at a house on a slope, do some homework on what to look for. Are there any major cracks in the house, stuck doors or windows, obvious signs of drywall /stucco repair from cracking? Talk to the neighbors, does anyone have any soil settlement, or slope failure issues? If the house is on a steep slope, what type of soil is typically in the area? Are there any retaining walls? If so, are any of them bulging or slipping? Is water/ drainage in place at the home? IE gutters, drains, etc. Basically you dont’ want water going down a slope, you want it out to the street to prevent erosion. If you think theres problems, call a soil engineer prior to buying the home. ask them to come out to look at a slope and give you a visual interpretation. If there are suspected issues, you’ll need a soil study which is thousands of dollars, and then potentially 10s of thousands to fix it.

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CA renter, I don’t agree that the most successful people avoid debt at all costs. I know a lot of very successful 1%ers and they took intelligent, calculated leveraged risks. They are that successful because they analyzed the risks, but were willing to take them and chose wisely. They possessed the skills to start businesses, or invest their hard earned money. They don’t take risks in areas they have no understanding of, but no one has a magic ball, so they take risks. And living at home to go to HBS or Stanford for their MBAs weren’t options, so they borrowed money.

I also know many moderately well off, debt free folks who take no risks, but they are not financially independent, meaning they will have to work at least until 60 or 65 to maintain their lifestyle in retirement. Should adversity strike, illness or loss of job, they might lose most of what they have.

The point is, there are people we can find that fit both the scenarios weve described but ultimately its about everyone’s personal tolerance for risk coupled with the ability to recognize whether you (not you personally, just the you in general) have the smarts / savvy to take them on, or whether in over your head and headed for financial disaster.

I hope to have the balls to take more risks as I personally don’t want to be a slave to the man. I’m currently taking the move towards working independently, but I also know I might have to go back to being a slave to the man. But each person is different as to what allows them to sleep at night.

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Davelj…..Curious, how would you handle something life threatening but chronic, like cancer, yet not terminal (don’t qualify for Medicare) and requiring continuous treatment and even frequent hospitalizations…so proximity of care is important? I think you could burn through the 100k pretty quickly in the US with certain cancer treatments.

My concern with not having US insurance has less to do with typical things – IE a routine doctors visit as I wouldn’t have a problem paying 200-300 out of pocket for a visit, but more to do with if they discover something that requires ongoing treatment.

Have you looked at Anthem plans? I don’t know how young you are, but I took on an Anthem policy last year for a few months in between Cobra and the next job. In my mid 30s so I was paying like $80/month for a high deductible plan ( I think it was $8500). I’m considering going back to that as I’m on the better half’s crappy work plan insurance right now and paying $60/week for access to HMO insurance. I basically don’t use it at all.

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I dont think the argument should be that criminals can get guns anyhow so lets not bother with trying to fix this. There will always be a way to obtain anything illegally with enough money. This isn’t up for debate.

I’m not saying there are fail safe solution, and we certainly cannot eliminate gun violence, but I do believe we can reduce gun violence.

The nutjobs doing the mass killings are often not criminals, no priors. they are nutjobs who can easily gain access to guns in America, what if it were not so easy? Frankly, Im not so concerned about the criminals shooting each other up. Are there criminals who shoot innocent citizens and can readily obtain guns even with stringent gun laws in place? Sure. But I think what the issue is that we have extremely lax regulation on guns and its easier to buy a gun than do a lot of things in this country.

Im all for the right to bear arms, but what is wrong with imposing a 30 day waiting limit? Might that deter some of the passion / momentary crazy killings out there? What is wrong with asking for a background check? I think its entirely appropriate to compare driving to guns in the context of regulations and national safety. You can’t get your drivers license back if you have too many DUIs, why do we make it so easy to get a gun? Why dont we require gun safety courses, or if you have children under the age of 18, you’re required to purchase a gun lock? We have to pass driving tests to drive, why not have requirements to own a gun? Surely making obtaining guns harder, and educating people who do own guns so their 5 yr old doesn’t accidentally blow his kid sister’s brains out doesn’t seem like a stretch does it?

The stats seem to show in other countries that some level of regulation works.

Also, there are many articles and blogs on this currently, but I agree with other posters, that the other issue that has to be addressed include how we treat mental health issues- or the lack of options for severely disturbed children and people ( varies by state), and 2, how much we overmedicate in this country, startign with children who have sensitive developing brains and chemical makeups, or the failure to properly diagnose children/ or it being easier throw some pills that can make kids and people crazy, suicidal, or murderous.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-do-we-have-the-courage-to-stop-this.html?_r=0

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Thanks.

I just had someone else recommend Pelican as well so have them coming out this week.

Anyone have a good drainage company recommendation? Also a good roofer?

I’m finding thus far the guys/ companies suggested to me by friends are flakes and can’t manage to show up on time or return calls promptly which I know I shouldn’t be surprised by but… I guess the economy is doing great and these guys must all be slammed with work.

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Regarding #2, I need a company that can run drains on a slope, in the front and back of the house, underneath decking etc

thanks

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cabal- no idea if you are active, what you like to do, but since you asked about Missions Hills and North Park, i’ll list the perks and some downsides. its going to be tough to find newer construction unless you go with a townhome or condo, or happen to find that house that has been remodeled from the ground up or a rebuild for 700k. the privacy from neighbors bit is going to be tough too as lots tend to be smaller. also inventory is really constrained right now, and finding a 3 bedroom under 700k is going to be tough. but a townhome isn’t such a bad option – no yard or lot to maintain, downside is privacy and HOA.

i know several people who’ve retired in south MH/ BH, my 2 neighbors included. from these 2 neighborhoods, you can within 1-2 miles or less, walk to BH, MH, Little Italy, Hillcrest. why they chose these neighborhoods- they don’t care about schools, they want to be in an area with a lot of activities, they like the proximity to the airport where they frequently go on vacations, or to visit kids, grandkids, etc. they also like being able to walk to restaurants, bars, grocery stores, multiple farmers markets, the park and a lot of cultural activities. they love that they can walk down to little italy for artfest, kettner nights, etc. walk over to balboa park for a myriad of activities.

they don’t spend much time driving unless its to head up to NC, rather they walk, bike, and take cabs downtown for dinner, theater, ball games, etc. biking downtown on a nice sunday, along harbour to the bike path that takes you into coronado, jump on the ferry back. on the slower side, join the lawn bowling club or bridge club both at balboa park. go sailing along the harbor.

there is proximity to a number of hospitals and doctors in hillcrest.

NP has the proximity to restaurants, bars, and morley field if you are closer to it, as well as the SP neighborhood, but i tend to prefer west side of the park for reasons listed above.

good luck!

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