REMINDER: THE ARENA PLATFORM, INC. has no obligation to monitor the Forums. However, THE ARENA PLATFORM, INC. reserves the right to review any materials submitted to or posted on the Forums, and remove, delete, redact or otherwise modify such materials, in its sole discretion and for any reason whatsoever, at any time and from time to time, without notice or further obligation to you. THE ARENA PLATFORM, INC. has no obligation to display or post any materials provided by you. THE ARENA PLATFORM, INC. reserves the right to disclose, at any time and from time to time, any information or materials that we deem necessary or appropriate to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, contract obligation, legal or dispute process or government request. Click on the following hyperlinks to further read the applicable Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
What do you consider a comfortable annual salary?
- Thread starter Eunice
- Start date
My town is a bit out of the ordinary beings as its a beach town that has had an explosion of redevelopment beginning around 2000. The house pictured in my prior post is surprisingly similar to mine. Similar sized lot and similar vintage house. I'm not going to kid you.....if I sold mine a developer would buy it and because of a zoning change in my neighborhood they would build two McMansions in its place. That zoning change and my location made my lot quite valuable.
Moving inland 4 miles here is a house that is quite affordable at $159,900 that is not a tear down. This would pun the young person's housing expenses just under $1k per month. Buying this would be far better long term than pissing money away on rent.
Moving inland 4 miles here is a house that is quite affordable at $159,900 that is not a tear down. This would pun the young person's housing expenses just under $1k per month. Buying this would be far better long term than pissing money away on rent.
Retired with 5k a month from the city of Newport Beach for the rest of my life after
33 years of service. Now work as a shuttle driver full time to stay
busy in life. Sort of double dipping. I'll get killed in taxes. But well
worth the money.
Stay busy, stay happy.
33 years of service. Now work as a shuttle driver full time to stay
busy in life. Sort of double dipping. I'll get killed in taxes. But well
worth the money.
Stay busy, stay happy.
Next year is the last year I'll get to writelaidback said:
the triplets off, they'll be eighteen. I usually get back
about $7,300.00. After that? I'll probably
be paying the IRS and California about $4,200.00
Even after all my tax investments.
But I can go anywhere in the world
knowing my direct deposit from military , the city of Newport and
and now Social Security is banked.
It's a warm feeling for a bat shyt crazy bastid
like me.
Wish you all the best. Work hard, invest, enjoy. It's that simple.
Moved in with my girlfriend, who was already living with her parents. Hey folks, the unemployed boyfriend is here to stay!GromsDad said:The best advice my father ever gave me was to buy a house as soon as possible when I got married. We bought a fixer upper and put a lot of sweat equity into it. We rented a hole in the wall 1 bedroom apartment for two years while we both busted our asses and saved up for a down payment and paid off my wife's student loan. We never ate out or did anything extravagant those two years. We had scraped together $13,000 by the time we bought our house. Our combined income at the time was probably about $52,000. This was in 1994 and two years after graduating college.Boneroni said:Bob said:" Buy a house where you'll like to live long term early and gain equity. "
Isn't this the problem?:rock:
Place you like to live equals expensive to begin with
Early means you don't make a sh1tload of money
for a downpayment which you will need to make the mortgage.
great sounding advice though :jam_on:
Ugh, too true.
For me, a comfortable salary is what I get, which is only about $50K
But, it's only as comfortable for as long as the rent stays the same.
Comfortable enough to afford a house here? More like $400K per yer.
Took me over 6 months to get a real job.
Lived there for another 2.5 years, both of us saving every penny.
Packed a lunch to work every day.
Rode the shittiest mountain bike in my crew. Kept driving my trusty red Honda Civic hatchback for ever.
Vacation? Pack the tent!
Booze costs too much, no bars (just an excuse for me, the introvert, not to go to bars which I don't like anyway)
Got married.
Bought a nice house.
Freaked out 'cause we could barely afford it.
"moved in", still living on camp furniture, been there like 3 days and a huge tree fell down from our yard, just missed crushing another house, brought down the utility lines. Late at night, there was an army of PG&E guys standing around and telling us that we'd be on the hook for the entire bill (no). Freaked out over that.
Sewer backed up, long story short turned out that one of the two bathrooms was not on sewer but still on an undisclosed septic tank. Was told we'd have to pay $50-$100k for permits and work. Freaked the fuck out. Turned out to be a relatively easy fix, no expensive permits.
re-financed, lowered our payments, kept paying the original amount.
Just payed off our bay area house. Also, we both make significantly more than we did when we bought.
Started surfing around the same time we bought, house is not near the beach :-(
Go on at least 1 surf trip per year though. More if you count camping at a semi-local beach spot.
oh, those kids never did happen, so that helps too.
Still drive old cars.
Still live frugally. Sorta, anyway.
I wasn't kidding when I said minimum wage and healthcare. I'm eligible for retirement in a couple of years with healthcare benefits. Most people work much longer than I will, but my dad died when he was 58. My grandad died when he was 58. I'm 58. So, I'm going to retire as early as possible even though my income will be like a full time $15 an hour job.
I should mention that we plan to down size our house. I agree with Gromsdad (Hey Grommy, we agree on something!) that the best thing we did was buy a house (initially a condo) as soon as we could. I never poured money into a retirement account but instead paid down our mortgage. I too looked on Zillow and the least expensive single family home is our zip code was this-
Absolutely no way we could buy in our neighborhood now. We could not even afford to rent.
So what we plan to do is sell or maybe rent our place, and move into a lower rent area, still coastal but maybe not walking distance to the beach like we are now.
So with no rent or mortgage, healthcare paid, the minimum wage is going to have to do it. I was thinking I would try and find a part time job, like one or two days a week to afford a nice dinner out every now and then. I always thought pulling weeds at the Getty Villa would be kind of nice....
I should mention that we plan to down size our house. I agree with Gromsdad (Hey Grommy, we agree on something!) that the best thing we did was buy a house (initially a condo) as soon as we could. I never poured money into a retirement account but instead paid down our mortgage. I too looked on Zillow and the least expensive single family home is our zip code was this-
Absolutely no way we could buy in our neighborhood now. We could not even afford to rent.
So what we plan to do is sell or maybe rent our place, and move into a lower rent area, still coastal but maybe not walking distance to the beach like we are now.
So with no rent or mortgage, healthcare paid, the minimum wage is going to have to do it. I was thinking I would try and find a part time job, like one or two days a week to afford a nice dinner out every now and then. I always thought pulling weeds at the Getty Villa would be kind of nice....
I had a number in my head that I thought would be comfortable. When I got there it still didn't seem enough. The only way things started to feel different is when you live frugal and majority of your income goes into savings. Once you start putting 50%+++ into savings and that starts snowballing, then it feels different. It's not what you buy that feels different, it's what you save that feels significant.
My income is taking a hit right now, the ups and downs of self employment, but the savings I did over the past few years when times were good is keeping me cool. Income will go back up again and I'll be even more frugal.
My income is taking a hit right now, the ups and downs of self employment, but the savings I did over the past few years when times were good is keeping me cool. Income will go back up again and I'll be even more frugal.
I watched my Dad out live his money. It was painful to watch and I decided I was not going to let that happen to myself all possible.
With that said I haven't increased my overhead in about 25 years. I live like a minimalist. Very frugal. Not cheap. There is a difference.
I sock away every extra penny and contribute 15% to my 401K. I've been at the same company since 1986 so 401K is looking pretty good right now.
It's been a sacrifice but I feel like I can breath a lot easier as I approach retirement age because of it so for me it was worth it.
I guess the moral of the story is live within your means whatever that may be. Easier said than done I'm sure depending on your circumstances but a good goal to pursue.
With that said I haven't increased my overhead in about 25 years. I live like a minimalist. Very frugal. Not cheap. There is a difference.
I sock away every extra penny and contribute 15% to my 401K. I've been at the same company since 1986 so 401K is looking pretty good right now.
It's been a sacrifice but I feel like I can breath a lot easier as I approach retirement age because of it so for me it was worth it.
I guess the moral of the story is live within your means whatever that may be. Easier said than done I'm sure depending on your circumstances but a good goal to pursue.
I'll second buy real estate.
I bought my first house with a VA loan in Temecula when I was 27. I lived in it and commuted over an hour each way down to San Diego. I was just starting out in my career and it was really all I could afford. Turned around and sold that house for a 100K profit four years later. I will concede that timing was on my side. I bought at the downturn and held it on the way up. The commute sucked though and I'm glad I no longer do it.
I bought my first house with a VA loan in Temecula when I was 27. I lived in it and commuted over an hour each way down to San Diego. I was just starting out in my career and it was really all I could afford. Turned around and sold that house for a 100K profit four years later. I will concede that timing was on my side. I bought at the downturn and held it on the way up. The commute sucked though and I'm glad I no longer do it.
I will also add that the best thing I ever did was save money when I was in my early 20's and finish college with no student loans. I joined the military to avoid paying for college. Turned out that I liked the military and it was a great decision. Finished state school with no debt to my name. Best thing I ever did and it allowed me to buy my first house.
theres ppl making 300k+ that cant save a penny. short term goal is to save 50% salary towards returement. wife isnt helping here
I am reading the comments about the income, what about benefits? I earn a good wage and have medical, dental, vision, pension, vacation, and now an annuity (wish it was in place 25 years ago)! The income is really nice, but my concern for my children is benefits. My youngest daughter drops off after 26, the other 2 have already dropped off. 1 has excellent benefits, the other, not so much. I have spoken to my sons in laws about getting into the trade, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest. I guess making 3K a month, doing what you want trumps making 5K a month as an entry level wage, that increases every 1,000 hours, until you journey out. Then your starting wage is 100K, plus benefits.
What trades start at $50 per hour?xxx said:
Trades gets thrown around a lot as the best thing ever. IMO, the work wears your body down fast and you're well being is at the mercy of economic cycles.
Besides, is 100K really worth back breaking labor that will lead to life long injuries? The finance, engineer, and accounting guys in my office in their late 20s clear well over 100K to sit at a desk. Seems like a much better path.
I want to take a week off and go around the beach towns of San Diego and ask everyone living near or west of the coast 101 HWY what they do for a living and how much they make? Every home from Carlsbad to Point Loma is genuinely over $1.5MM and most are north of $2MM, and there are thousands of homes... how are there that many rich people in just this small stretch?
I think it would be awesome to have a Wikipedia like resource that described jobs in every category and what the real world compensation is for those roles if I were just getting started out in life. For instance, my son has an open invitation to go through the life guard academy here in Encinitas when he turns 18... could work that job up to captain over the years and I am sure that job has good benefits and perks... but how much can he realistically expect to make at the top of the ranks? I am sure it probably would not be enough to buy a home in Encinitas.
It's insane to me how much it seems like everyone makes around my town, I am fascinated and want to know what they all do for a living!
I think it would be awesome to have a Wikipedia like resource that described jobs in every category and what the real world compensation is for those roles if I were just getting started out in life. For instance, my son has an open invitation to go through the life guard academy here in Encinitas when he turns 18... could work that job up to captain over the years and I am sure that job has good benefits and perks... but how much can he realistically expect to make at the top of the ranks? I am sure it probably would not be enough to buy a home in Encinitas.
It's insane to me how much it seems like everyone makes around my town, I am fascinated and want to know what they all do for a living!
Basically a builder has to be able to buy the property, and build a new house with a much larger square footage which will yield a sale price equal to the neighborhood's going price per square foot. Construction lenders want builders to be able to buy properties selling for less than about 35% of the planned new house. It leaves enough of the new house proceeds to pay for materials, labor, profit and loan fees. This formula varies by region mostly due to variations in labor cost and construction codes.casa_mugrienta said:GromsDad said:Just hit Zillow and the lowest priced 3 bedroom single family in my town is listed for $289,900. Its a fixer upper similar to how mine was when I bought it. In my town these days its unlikely someone will buy it and fix it up though. A developer will probably buy it and tear it down and build a house they can sell for $650,000 to $1,000,000. Here is a picture from the listing. Take note of the monstrosity next to it. That's the norm now in my town. Given the nice corner lot this house sits on there is no doubt a developer will grab it and tear it down for the lot.bird. said:
Bold added for emphasis.
How do you figure out the value of a teardown property?
The new construction sale needs to absorb the price of the old house.
.
Around here a lot of the developers in the game often buy with cash which makes it hard for someone who might want to buy and live in the old house to get the deal. The developer doesn't have to go through the mortgage process, home inspection, get insurance....etc all of which takes time for the first time home buyer.
My GF was trying to buy a house in the hood of SF before things got crazy and some Chinese people came in with shopping bags full of cash.