The Bitch, PhD is back on form
But, I thought we were rich!
Disposable income on the left coast, versus income in the flyovers
How the hell have we been doing it
After much informed debate, the gory details of the affluent ex-academic life.
Not buying books will not save enough money for a down payment on a house in LA.
No, don't go for the adjustable, interest only loan!
If you want to live in Ca you either need to: have lump sum to get into housing; or, make good double income (and little or no kids); or, live like a student all your life.
This is of course the academic perspective. YMMV.
Soccer Mum - Tenure or bust!
Wow. The "guilty" rental is being sold, to someone else; Obama gets a Dr Dr B fundraiser; and, should PhD feel guilty about "underemployment"?
- No, of course not - you should do what you must, what you can and what you'd like. No guilt.
Fortunately I arrived in Ca late in my career. My former house had been completely paid off, so I had a down payment! Of course my desire to live within bicycle commute range of work, was not realizable, -even crappy Livermore was out of my price range.
Well at least we get endless sunshine - and no shade whatso-ever. People thought we lived in the desert before, but even the worst desert in New Mexico gets at least occasional rain during the summer, and we had lived in the mountains, so its not really too surprising that it
passes my temperature comfort zone by the end of April.....
It seems that it doesn't matter what your credentials are, or hard and long you've worked, or when you came to this state. It seems that all matters is whether you bought before, during, or after a real estate bubble.
The higher the volatility of home prices, the more nothing matters but when you bought.
And don't get me started on Proposition 13 (all homeowning Californians know what I mean, and practically nobody else).
All I can say is thank goodness for UCOP.
I have no idea how normal people do it.
I came to LA 25 years ago with the aid of a low interest loan from UC. I sold in Cambridge before their bubble, and bought in California during one of the many bubbles here. Overall gain in price over 25 years is only about 5% per year: a factor of exp(1.25). But the weather is nice.
It can't be that nice, it hardly ever snows!
;-)
It can't be that nice, it hardly ever snows?
Depends on Altitude, Steinn. I admit that it's a bit of a drive, maybe 2 hours from Pasadena, to Ski Summit, and other ski resorts in the area. Longer to Mammoth. Longer to Tahoe. I admit that the slopes within 2 hours of Pasadena are way shorter than, say, Whistler, the long one north of Vancouver, BC. But I've personally seen it snow twice in my garden in Altadena. Twice, in just 19 years... It was, to be sure, kind of haily-snow.
My son was born in Pasadena, and had not been in snow until we drove him up into it towards Mount Wilson. He said that heaven must be where it snows all the time. Unlike me, he was a great skiier the very first time he was on skiis, and in the first weekend was way beyond what I'd learned painfully in New England and in Washington State when I'd worked at Boeing.