4 ms·

I went into college during the dotcom bust. Everyone told me I would be making peanuts. I'm pretty happy where I am. I've lived my life trying to minimize th

I went into college during the dotcom bust. Everyone told me I would be making peanuts. I'm pretty happy where I am. I've lived my life trying to minimize the financial downsides. I want money for security, not to live the high life. I like my job, and don't feel the need to retire early - I would love to do it until I'm 6 feet under. I make a decent enough income, although not the level of many here. I bought a modest house (700k - hey, it's California) compared to what lenders wanted to lend me (1.3mil). We could afford our expenses on two minimum wage jobs if need be. And that's with 3 kids.

wahnfrieden 4y ago
I experienced the same and I’ve probably enjoyed similar extremely cushy tech career experiences that also aren’t that relevant to a macro discussion but it’s nice to hear individual anecdotes
deathanatos 4y ago
> We could afford our expenses on two minimum wage jobs if need be. And that's with 3 kids. Let's assume a $15 minimum wage. The housing one can afford on two such wages is $1,560/mo. On a $700k home, assuming 20% down, to repay the principal alone is $1,556/mo. A mortgage calculator says $3,800/mo once you have interest in there — or 73% of your gross income. And that ignores insurance & taxes. And those 3 kids.
- thebradbain 4y ago
  I imagine that the OP probably has savings to fall back on (since they stress financial security), and more equity in the home than just the downpayment— not to mention that if they bought it not so recently (5-10 years back), the home value appreciation has likely been insane to still come out well ahead in even an 2008-esque crash, plus they could have refinanced at 2% fixed 30year rates in 2020-2021 drastically lowing their monthly payments even further, depending on how much equity they had. Also, California just passed a law requiring minimum wage be $22 in some industries/companies of a certain size (and the next step will likely be rolling that out to all industries and companies, as they did with the $15 minimum wage between 2016-2020)
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wahnfrieden 4y ago

I experienced the same and I’ve probably enjoyed similar extremely cushy tech career experiences that also aren’t that relevant to a macro discussion but it’s nice to hear individual anecdotes

deathanatos 4y ago

> We could afford our expenses on two minimum wage jobs if need be. And that's with 3 kids. Let's assume a $15 minimum wage. The housing one can afford on two such wages is $1,560/mo. On a $700k home, assuming 20% down, to repay the principal alone is $1,556/mo. A mortgage calculator says $3,800/mo once you have interest in there — or 73% of your gross income. And that ignores insurance & taxes. And those 3 kids.

thebradbain 4y ago
I imagine that the OP probably has savings to fall back on (since they stress financial security), and more equity in the home than just the downpayment— not to mention that if they bought it not so recently (5-10 years back), the home value appreciation has likely been insane to still come out well ahead in even an 2008-esque crash, plus they could have refinanced at 2% fixed 30year rates in 2020-2021 drastically lowing their monthly payments even further, depending on how much equity they had. Also, California just passed a law requiring minimum wage be $22 in some industries/companies of a certain size (and the next step will likely be rolling that out to all industries and companies, as they did with the $15 minimum wage between 2016-2020)
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