4 ms·

Frankly the answer is expensive hobbies and/or hobbies requiring space. And "Money doesn't buy happiness" is only said by people who have enough of it to not wo

by ilyt 4y ago

Frankly the answer is expensive hobbies and/or hobbies requiring space. And "Money doesn't buy happiness" is only said by people who have enough of it to not worry. Yeah "money is not everything" but I'd be able to do more things I like if I had house and spacious garage. But that's $$, $$$ if I also want to live in place with reasonable commute

wil421 4y ago
Average home price in the US is $375k. If you add a $100k-$200k to that price, a SE should be able to save and afford a house. My hobbies take up a lot of space so I understand what you want. We had to move out of an in town location to get the house we wanted. A 1,000sqft in town house the same size as our duplex rental wasn’t going to cut it. Luckily I was able to find jobs in an area 45 minutes away from downtown with virtual worker status (3-5 days a month in office max). I changed jobs and was able to find many other ones in the same area.
- ohgodplsno 4y ago
  Unfortunately, in a group made up of myself and Jeff Bezos, our average net worth is $90 billion. Jeff does a lot of work in that average though. In the same way, it's very possible this person is in an area where the cost of life is absurdly high and the actual price of homes where they are is not reflected in the average, due to the dream that software engineering is massively profitable, which increases the cost of life, which makes the need for a massive salary higher, which...
  - eropple 4y ago
    This phenomenon is real, and the best way to combat it is to Go Elsewhere. I'm still in a pretty expensive spot. But I'm very comfortable having somehow managed to never work for a big-tech-payin' big tech shop. There's a lot of great places out there. Believing that we have to all cluster around a few cities is pretty bad for us.
  - wil421 4y ago
    Why are you living in the high COL area? There are more developers working outside of Big Tech/FANG/West Coast than inside. The West Coast does have a higher employment of Software Developers per 1,000 people. Especially SF/San Jose. Texas seems to be increasing more than other areas outside of California and Washington. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    This is why you don't want to live in Medina WA, to be compared with Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, keeping up is tough.
eropple 4y ago
> but I'd be able to do more things I like if I had house and spacious garage. But that's $$, $$$ if I also want to live in place with reasonable commute My house is 2000 square feet. I have a recording studio and a wood shop and too many 3D printers. I am getting a garage permitted for another ~800 square feet. The place cost $480,000 four years ago and is around $620,000 now on Zillow. I am a fifteen minute walk from a train and can be in downtown Boston within the hour. There are ways to get what you want other than "be an extremely unlikely curve-breaker of a success". It frequently means "not being in San Francisco or New York", granted, but...you've got options.
- burnished 4y ago
  Are you really promoting your half a million dollar home lifestyle as the affordable and approachable way? And it appreciated how much over four years? Im glad for you but I don't think you are making the point you intended.
  - eropple 4y ago
    It is absolutely affordable—for a software engineer. Boston salaries aren’t SF, but you aren’t going to be hurting. Other folks? No, and that’s an entirely different problem we need to be solving. That’s why tomorrow night I’m going to a town meeting to argue in favor of a new 500-unit apartment building that my neighbors don’t like. (I bought this house to live in. Add more supply, bring down those prices!) But I don’t expect the person to whom I replied to be concerned with individually solving it either, and so while I think we can solve our own problems while being mindful of our society’s, the latter didn’t seem appropriate here.
    - letsdothisagain 4y ago
      Really? I'm in a similar situation outside of Vancouver and my house price doubled since I bought it. The salary we pay for the position that I used to purchase it went up maybe 10% in the meantime, while the financing costs went up by 100%. You don't really need a graph to understand that change... Good on you for fucking with the NIMBYs though, they're the reason house prices went up by an insane amount.
eternalban 4y ago
> And "Money doesn't buy happiness" It doesn't. Money buys comfort, power, prestige, security, ..., but not happiness. A happy person is a happy person. An unhappy person is an unhappy person. It sucks in a way but from a different pov it is a wonderful equalizing fact of human experience (like the bliss of orgasm, available to poor and rich alike).

by ilyt 4y ago

wil421 4y ago

Average home price in the US is $375k. If you add a $100k-$200k to that price, a SE should be able to save and afford a house. My hobbies take up a lot of space so I understand what you want. We had to move out of an in town location to get the house we wanted. A 1,000sqft in town house the same size as our duplex rental wasn’t going to cut it. Luckily I was able to find jobs in an area 45 minutes away from downtown with virtual worker status (3-5 days a month in office max). I changed jobs and was able to find many other ones in the same area.

ohgodplsno 4y ago
Unfortunately, in a group made up of myself and Jeff Bezos, our average net worth is $90 billion. Jeff does a lot of work in that average though. In the same way, it's very possible this person is in an area where the cost of life is absurdly high and the actual price of homes where they are is not reflected in the average, due to the dream that software engineering is massively profitable, which increases the cost of life, which makes the need for a massive salary higher, which...
- eropple 4y ago
  This phenomenon is real, and the best way to combat it is to Go Elsewhere. I'm still in a pretty expensive spot. But I'm very comfortable having somehow managed to never work for a big-tech-payin' big tech shop. There's a lot of great places out there. Believing that we have to all cluster around a few cities is pretty bad for us.
- wil421 4y ago
  Why are you living in the high COL area? There are more developers working outside of Big Tech/FANG/West Coast than inside. The West Coast does have a higher employment of Software Developers per 1,000 people. Especially SF/San Jose. Texas seems to be increasing more than other areas outside of California and Washington. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  This is why you don't want to live in Medina WA, to be compared with Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, keeping up is tough.

eropple 4y ago

> but I'd be able to do more things I like if I had house and spacious garage. But that's $$, $$$ if I also want to live in place with reasonable commute My house is 2000 square feet. I have a recording studio and a wood shop and too many 3D printers. I am getting a garage permitted for another ~800 square feet. The place cost $480,000 four years ago and is around $620,000 now on Zillow. I am a fifteen minute walk from a train and can be in downtown Boston within the hour. There are ways to get what you want other than "be an extremely unlikely curve-breaker of a success". It frequently means "not being in San Francisco or New York", granted, but...you've got options.

burnished 4y ago
Are you really promoting your half a million dollar home lifestyle as the affordable and approachable way? And it appreciated how much over four years? Im glad for you but I don't think you are making the point you intended.
- eropple 4y ago
  It is absolutely affordable—for a software engineer. Boston salaries aren’t SF, but you aren’t going to be hurting. Other folks? No, and that’s an entirely different problem we need to be solving. That’s why tomorrow night I’m going to a town meeting to argue in favor of a new 500-unit apartment building that my neighbors don’t like. (I bought this house to live in. Add more supply, bring down those prices!) But I don’t expect the person to whom I replied to be concerned with individually solving it either, and so while I think we can solve our own problems while being mindful of our society’s, the latter didn’t seem appropriate here.
  - letsdothisagain 4y ago
    Really? I'm in a similar situation outside of Vancouver and my house price doubled since I bought it. The salary we pay for the position that I used to purchase it went up maybe 10% in the meantime, while the financing costs went up by 100%. You don't really need a graph to understand that change... Good on you for fucking with the NIMBYs though, they're the reason house prices went up by an insane amount.

eternalban 4y ago

> And "Money doesn't buy happiness" It doesn't. Money buys comfort, power, prestige, security, ..., but not happiness. A happy person is a happy person. An unhappy person is an unhappy person. It sucks in a way but from a different pov it is a wonderful equalizing fact of human experience (like the bliss of orgasm, available to poor and rich alike).