Tag Archives: condo

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Ridiculous to Stay, A Pain in the Ass to Go

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Ah, it’s a beautiful Saturday morning in my lovely studio apartment. The spring air is keeping the room cool – in a few weeks it will be piping hot outside, with the heat somehow collecting in between the walls of my studio.

In the background of my waking state is TLC’s “My First Home.” A couple is looking for a home in the Bay Area, and they’ve found one they loved.

Meanwhile, I search Craigslist ads vigorously. It’s not that I’ll find a place to move today, as my move-in date is July 1 at earliest, but I’m still trying to decide whether to leave my complex for a more affordable option or stay here and deal with a tight budget and less savings.

When I moved in and the studio cost $905 including utilities, it wasn’t that much of a jump from the $700 + utilities room share options available on the market. For $100 extra dollars, approx, I could have a place of my own. That was a no brainer.

Then rents went up to $1050 and I decided to stay. It was a shock, surely, but it still seemed like a pretty good deal given my options.

$1300 – is about double what I could be paying for a room share situation. I could even compromise and get a room and bathroom in a 2br/2ba condo apartment for less than the $1300.

Moving is such a pain in the ass, though. I could hypothetically “move” for little cost, if I can get some friends to help. As far as furniture goes, I don’t have much. The only large thing I’m sold on keeping is my bed, since I bought that new for a whopping $800 two years ago (I decided after 6 months on a used futon with poor support, I deserved a good night sleep). I have a large bookshelf I got at Target a few months ago and it’s really heavy – but it would be a shame to toss that! Other than the bed, bookshelf, and some small tables, I have a piece of crap IKEA coffee table that started to fall apart before I put it together (though it’s functional) and a large horizontal dresser that I could part with – I’m not sure anyone would want to buy it, but I’d consider trying to sell it on Craiglist. I have plenty of room in my closet now for my clothes, and I’d hope that wherever I move would have at least this much closet space. Then there’s a TV, a printer, a microwave, and other odds and ends. I really don’t have that much stuff. It’s still a bitch to move, but it’s not like I’m moving a house worth of life. It’s just whatever I could fit in a studio for the past two years.

Also, having less space might be good for me. It would keep me organized as there wouldn’t be places to hide things. Heh.

The downside of getting a roommate is – well – obviously enough to have me living in a studio currently. Noise. Roommate drama. Not being able to cook naked in the kitchen. These things are hard to compromise on. 🙂

My biggest fear is that I won’t find anything I like. I have some cushion. If I decide to move – I’d come back to California around June 20-something, and I’d have that time to finish getting out of my apartment. I’d put my things into storage and move in with my good friend who has offered up her second bedroom. I’ll pay her rent, but it will be way less than what it would cost to stay in my studio in August. $1300 versus, maybe $500 or something (plus whatever it costs to put my things in storage for a month.) That will cover the 2 weeks in June that I can’t work because I’m going to be in Israel on vacation. Then I can really take some time to find a good living situation.

The real question is, how picky am I? I get anxious in so many living situations. Finally, in this light and airy studio I feel, well, at the very least calm and comfortable. The greenery outside (beyond the parking area) makes me happy. It almost reminds me of home, back east. I love waking up here.

But is it the stupidest thing in the world not to move? If I did move, I’d look for a place ideally that costs less than what I’m paying now, so I could pay under $1000, and I’d put any extra money between that and the $1300 I would be paying for my studio into a special down payment fund. I’m tired of renting, and dealing with yearly rent increases.

I just wish I felt more settled. All of my friends are getting engaged and married. Buying homes. Me? Well, I’ve been in a relationship for two years. We joke about moving in together one day but we’re talking more apartment than house. He’s going to grad school in fall 2009, and who knows where I’ll be. That’s why it really doesn’t make sense for me to buy anything right now. Even though the prices for condos in the area are coming down while rents are going up, up, up.

The more I think about it, the more I realize the only logical option is to move. I could be saving $500 a month if I find a place for $800, or $6000 a year. $6000 a year is nothing to shake a stick at. That’s a huge chunk of change to go to my downpayment fund. Even if it’s $4000 and I get a slightly nicer place, it’s still a lot of money.

*sigh* – I just… wish there was an obvious option hitting me on the head. But life is never so black and white.

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Forbes Billionaire’s List and How Rich is Rich Enough to Give to Charity?

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A few days ago Forbes posted its annual list of the world’s richest people. While the billionaires gracing the normal list were mostly obvious — Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, etc, the list that I found more interesting was the sidebar “World’s Youngest Billionaires.”

Many of the world’s youngest rich inherited their wealth. Some, like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, are self-made billionaires. At just 23 (he’s only a year younger than me) he’s set for life. And a few other lives, as long as he can reincarnate and claim his savings on his return to earth.

As I’ve been figuring out my budget upon my upcoming raise, I noted that I feel like I’m almost making too much money, and I don’t know what to do with it all.

Of course, that’s not true. Now that I actually have money to put into savings, I can start seriously saving for things I want, like for the down payment on a house.

The other day as I was driving I was thinking about how nice it would be to make enough money that I could donate a substantial chunk of it to charity. Then greed clouded my head and I thought – why donate money when I can save the money? My Roth IRA isn’t maxed out yet, and even then the extra cash put into a SEP Ira, a high interest savings account for the house down payment, a CD or some other saving mechanism would probably be a wiser move.

I always thought that charity should be given in time, not money. If you’re going to be charitable, go do some volunteer work, help build a house with Habitat for Humanity, or volunteer to mentor in-need kids in a local town.

Then I got into the “real world” where I realized time is money and I have more money than time. Yet I still don’t feel like I have enough money to donate yet.

Obviously, given my pay bump I could donate $100 a month instead of putting that to my investments and just pretend it never happened. It would probably make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but I don’t know how warm and fuzzy I’ll feel when I retire and the government has run out of money for social security.

At what point in one’s wealth-building career does charity become a necessity? Does everyone donate to charity? How much is the proper amount to donate, percentage wise, of one’s income? What if one’s job is unstable and while he or she is making a good amount of money now (in the $55-$70k range, dependent on how many freelance projects are completed), but in a few months she might be unemployed? What if, as a freelancer, my entire life is lived like that? And then what if I have kids and more than just myself to worry about one day, financially speaking? When do I give to charity and when do I just be selfish and keep all my money?

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Saving for a House… or a Condo?

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I’ve always wanted to save up enough money to buy a house outright, without dealing with paying double for the house because of mortgage rates. I don’t like the idea of buying anything piece by piece and paying more for it.

How hard would it be to save up for a condo on my own? Well, pretty hard given the cost of living in the Bay Area, but is it entirely impossible?

I probably should get my rent down quite a bit if this is my goal, for wasting $1050 a month on rent that could be put towards monthly house payments seems to be just as ridiculous as paying interest on a mortgage.

This is the first time in my life (as soon as my raise kicks in) that I feel like I’m making more money than I need. I’ve always spent too much as it is, but yesterday when I was re-doing my budget I found that I had the luxury of liberally deciding where to place my hundreds of dollars of savings per month.

I feel guilty for making so much, but when it comes down to it $60k after freelancing and working 40 hours a week is not *that huge* of a paycheck. It’s certainly more than I ever expected to make, and yet I know people my age making much more. What do they do with all that money? I guess the only thing to do… other than living frivolously… is saving for a house and retirement.

Of course, I’m making $62,400 a year between my 40-hour-a-week gig and my stable 10 hours a month marketing writing job, plus any extra freelance pay I take in over the year… but all that’s without any benefits. Last gig I was making $50k plus the $400 a month for the freelance gig, but I had great health benefits at no cost to me. So in the end I think now I’m making just a little more. Plus, I’ve chosen a crappier health insurance so I’m not spending as much on that as I would had I chosen to stay on COBRA.

In any case, if I keep doing a good job at my current gig, and gee I hope I will, I’ll only be looking at raises down the road. Who knows how much… and I’m not sure the marketing writing gig will last forever… but it seems fairly stable (I work for my uncle and write for four different newsletters he designs and sends out each month for his marketing company and the only reason I’d stop writing them is if he loses a client).

I feel overwhelmed with the money I’m making. It’s not that much, yet it’s way more than I know what to do with. Except I certainly could spend it all at the mall in one day, given a slip into depression and a pick-me-up shopping spree.

Instead, I really want to focus on saving. It’s tough seeing my Roth IRA, stocks and mutual funds slipping, but it’s nice to have some extra cash to play with. The major question is, where do I put the money? I know they say to max out your Roth first, but that seems kind of silly if you want to go to grad school or buy a house. This year, for instance, I’ve put $4000 in my Roth, so I have $1000 left to contribute. Next year, though, I’ll have less savings up front to dump in my Roth. I’ve put $7000 in there total for the last two years, I think. It’s down to $6800 or something right now.

Meanwhile my CDs, even those with crappy interest rates, are obviously up a few hundred dollars after being locked away for a year.

To buy a house, and to make money off my money, it seems the Roth might be the wrong place to put my money. Of course I want my savings to multiply towards my retirement, and it’s nice to think of what the money would do over the years if I max out my account every year… and I don’t have a 401k at work or anything, so it’s up to me to save my money for retirement.

It’s funny, because my boyfriend isn’t thinking about any of that yet. Every time I try to tell him to start saving his money in a Roth he gets all defensive and doesn’t want to talk about money matters. He thinks I’m being preachy. Meanwhile, I’m just trying to educate. Oh well, he usually isn’t so stubborn about things, but when it comes to money he wants to figure it out on his own. Fair enough. I just consider him the man I will one day marry, and if I’m going to have money in retirement and he won’t, that will make for one lousy retirement.

Of course, I might die well before retirement (hopefully not) or he might (no!) or maybe we won’t get married at all. Life has too many uncertainties to put all my eggs into one tax-free basket. Right?

But still, the question remains… how do I save $500k for a house so I can pay off the house (or at least most of the house) up front?

I really wish I could save $500k and my boyfriend could save $500k and then we’d both buy a $1 million house. How long would it take to save $500k?

If I save $2000 a month, that’s $24,000 a year.

So it will take some time. It will take 21 years.

So I could buy a house in 2029 when I’m 45. That seems in poor rational.

But… what if somehow I get a raise and I start saving $3000 a month somehow? That’s only 13 years. So I could buy a house in 2021 when I’m 36.

The sad part is that house prices will likely go up by then. Now, and in the next few years during this recession, is the best time to buy. The money I’ll end up paying on inflation and such might end up matching what I’d pay on a mortgage.

I don’t understand how I could save for a house.

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First Generation with Fiscal Suckage?

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Frugal Zeigeist has a great post today about whether we’re the “first generation to be worse off than our parents.” She writes:

…I’d say that I’m way behind because of the way the work world has changed. My dad worked for a single employer in Canada and a single employer in the US; although he went through reorganizations, I don’t think he ever worried about layoffs or downsizing the way I do. He also has traditional pensions both from his years of work in Canada and from working in the US. Between that and Social Security, my parents have never had to touch their retirement savings. — Frugal Zeitgeist

At my age (24), my parents were living in New York City, renting an apartment. In a couple of years their apartment would go ‘co-op,’ and they’d buy and sell their place within a few years for enough profit to put a down payment on the house in New Jersey where I grew up.

My mom was a fashion designer, working for fairly low wages, and my father was… well, I think he was a grad student when he was 24. He was going to grad school for physics but dropped out and ended up working as an actuary (pension planner). He stayed with the same company UNTIL HE RETIRED. He obviously had a good pension plan in place as well. My mom… she stopped working as a fashion designer 10 years into her career to have children (waves).

I’m not sure where they were financially at 24. Were they struggling? Possibly. I assume that if my father had started his job as an actuary, his entry-level salary was probably pretty high. And back then it wasn’t so painfully expensive to live in a city like New York. Then they got lucky with buying their condo and selling it, and the rest is history.

Looking at where I’m at now, I don’t see myself buying a condo anytime soon. It’s not that it would be entirely impossible to make enough money to buy a small studio apartment, but I’d have to live extremely frugally and, even more so, I’d have to be sure I want to stay in this area for the foreseeable future. And I’m just not ready to make that kind of commitment.

Then again, the housing market seems to be pretty attractive right now. I don’t know a lot about it other than the fact that lots of people are losing their houses because they can’t afford their mortgages. That’s sad for them, but good for potential buyers.

I don’t want to just sit back and watch another housing boom happen without having the opportunity to partake. Still, I don’t think I’m ready to buy a condo.

So, instead, I spend $12,600 a year on rent. Ouch.

My 25-year-old boyfriend… he lives at home and works part time. I don’t think he’s ready to make that commitment either. :X

I wonder how much monthly payment on a studio condo would be. Would that help me be as successful as my parents were at my age?

In any case, Frugal makes this important point:

They key point that this thought exercise brought out for me is this: The rules of the game have changed big-time. In the modern economy, the cards are stacked in such a way that if I’m ever going to be better off than my parents, I can’t rely on employers or government to lend a helping hand as a reward for loyalty or years of service. It’s definitely possible to end up being better off than my parents ever were, but I have to make it happen on my own. — Frugal Zeitgeist

Personally I think the opportunity to switch employers and make oneself more of a commodity is to the advantage of the employee. It might hurt when it comes to long-term savings, but salaries (and benefits) are higher if the employee has well-sought skills.

Here’s to hoping that my skills will develop into ones that people want to pay me for!

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