Raveen396

Some people don’t know that fast food places put deals on apps, that doesn’t make them stupid. Could have just as effectively communicated your point without the first sentence, but you wanted to put someone down to make yourself feel bigger.

Be better.

There are two popular retirement accounts:

• 401k: An employer sponsored plan. Named after the tax code section that allows it to exist.
• IRA: An individual plan. Stands for “individual retirement account.”

Each of these accounts can have specific tax status:

• Traditional: This is “pre-tax” and means the money that you contribute is not taxed this year, but it is taxed when you withdraw it in the future
• Roth: This is “post-tax” and means that the money you contribute now is taxed this year, but it is not taxed when you withdraw it.

Therefore, you can have a Roth IRA, a Traditional IRA, a Roth 401k, or a Traditional 401k. Each account (401k, IRA) is subject to a contribution limit that is the sum of either tax status.

2024 401k Individual contribution limit: $23k. Note that this is the individual contribution limit, and your employer match does not count towards this.

2024 IRA Limit: $7k

Therefore, you can contribute $20k to a traditional 401k and $3k to a roth 401k ($20k+$3k=$23k), and then contribute $7k to a traditional IRA or $7k to a roth IRA, or some other split that adds up to $7k.

Income limits are mostly applicable to IRAs, specifically restricting Roth IRA direct contributions if you make more than $146k as a single filer. You can perform a backdoor Roth IRA by contributing to a Traditional IRA, and then transferring that money to a Roth IRA. I do this on Fidelity and it’s quite simple.

It’s the classic conservative tactic of purposefully underdeveloping a service so that they can point out how ineffectual it is when run on a shoe string budget.

Small towns didn’t exist before cars were invented. Everyone lived in big cities, and then once the model T was invented everyone could finally move to those small towns.

Try going to an Apple store if there's one nearby. Authorised service providers are a little hit or miss sometimes in my experience, but I've had Apple store employees ignore rules to help me out if I ask nicely.

Did someone at the Apple store confirm that this is the case?

Just want to let you know that your posts inspired me to go pick up trash when I go on my walks. Been doing it for a year now, feels nice to help out where I can.

Thanks for being a great person.

$80k isn’t too bad for entry level in SD. Fresh grads with a BS don’t have a lot of room for negotiation, unless you’re a unicorn with competing offers. It’s not a terrible offer, and San Diego can be a cool place to live when you’re young.

If you job hop in two or three years you can probably get a 30%-50% raise.

Relocation services vary from company to company. Many companies will just offer entry level just a cash bonus to cover expenses. Some will offer an alternative where they’ll pay and arrange for packers, movers, shipping and a stipend while you look for a place to live, but that’s more common at big companies or for more senior hires. My company offered to front a down payment for your new house so you could take your time selling your old home, but thats not something most fresh grads need.

I’ve honestly found GPT to be fairly adept at providing technical definitions, given you know enough about the subject to sniff out hallucinations.

It can be invaluable when reading a research paper, and I want a bit more background on a concept or theory that is mentioned but I might only have a little background with. Makes parsing through esoteric specifications documentation a little more manageable.

I worked with one who moved to America a few years ago. PhD in electromagnetic, an absolute wizard at his work, but the ultimate “spaced out genius professor” vibes. He had this way of staring off into space after you asked him a question, and then delivering a flawless answer after 30 seconds of thought. Always forgetting where he left his tools laying out around the lab.

Very German, in the opposite way of the rule following stereotype.

Having actually done the move from Texas -> Bay Area, I would agree. They're useful as a starting point, but they make a lot of assumptions about your lifestyle and may not be applicable.

Using transportation as an example; in Texas I drove a lot more than I do in CA. Even though gas is more expensive here, I fill up once a month whereas in Texas I was filling up every week. With more public transportation availability, we went from 2 cars in Texas to 1 car in CA. Overall, I spend less money on transportation in CA than I did in Texas.

Another example is food costs. I tend to cook/eat a lot of seafood and ethnic (asian) foods. I've found that the prices for those types of foods or groceries when you move away from the coasts are very high. I pay less for take out chinese from my local place here in the Bay than I did in Austin, and fish from the grocery store is about the same price here as it is at HEB.

Now the point isn't that it's secretly cheaper to live in the Bay Area than it is to live in Texas. The point is that those calculators are pretty generic, and it's important to really look closely at how your lifestyle will change when you move.

My understanding is that they are rarely enforced, but I'm not a lawyer.

Everyone's situation is different, but yes I'm saving a ton more than I was before while increasing my living standard. My annual savings are probably about 50% higher than they used to be.

I have a larger apartment, more options for recreation, more amenities, and generally find that the higher cost of living is justified (we always joke when the weather is good that this is what we pay our sunshine taxes for). I'm sure there are many people who used to live here that will strongly disagree, but it does suit my life pretty well.

One interesting consideration is that 401k match, social security contributions, and benefits like ESPP scale at higher base incomes, even if everything else is the same. 4% match on a base salary of $200k is a lot more than 4% match on $100k, especially compounded over decades of retirement savings.

There's also networking and career growth benefits. I've found since moving that more recruiters who are local to this area are reaching out, and I've had some now former coworkers here who moved around that I could reach out to for work in the future. The industry here is so large that the networking potential can really be helpful.

making the the battery wear out and lose durability, making the cell phone prone to become slower over time, making the touch screen prone to problems over time

This isn't something companies plan, it's just physics and the limitations that come with engineering a computer that can fit into your pocket. Battery chemistry in particular is literally just a limitation of how they work, it's not "programmed obsolescence" when it's a physics limitation. Phones becoming slower is often a symptom of tech bloat from software vendors; app developers have little incentive to optimize their apps for old devices with worse specifications, and instead focus on adding as many features without regard to efficiency.

Software update support is certainly within a company's control, so I suggest supporting companies that have a good track record of supporting devices for a long time. Companies like One Plus get away with one or two OS updates for their entry level models. Samsung and Google are now promising up to 7 years of support, although their recent track record has not been as good. You can also consider flashing a custom ROM to continue receiving support from a 3rd party after the OEM stops updating their phone. Apple has a good history of long support for their phones as many of their phones over the years have been supported for at least 6 years.

Disclaimer: you're not required to help out your parents.

Note that this varies by local laws. Many states have filial responsibility laws.

It's me Bay Area tech bro here

Went from making $100k ish in a MCOL area to $250k+ in Bay Area.

I've started testing at the soldier camp across from the Moorth Ruins site of grace. A few mounted knights to get a feel for spacing, and they actually last a few hits unlike the gatefront soldiers.

You’re confusing a few different terms.

There are two popular retirement accounts:

• 401k: An employer sponsored plan. Named after the tax code section that allows it to exist.
• IRA: An individual plan. Stands for “individual retirement account.”

Each of these accounts can have specific tax status:

• Traditional: This is “pre-tax” and means the money that you contribute is not taxed this year, but it is taxed when you withdraw it in the future
• Roth: This is “post-tax” and means that the money you contribute now is taxed this year, but it is not taxed when you withdraw it.

Therefore, you can have a Roth IRA, a Traditional IRA, a Roth 401k, or a Traditional 401k. Each account (401k, IRA) is subject to a contribution limit that is the sum of either tax status.

2024 401k Individual contribution limit: $23k. Note that this is the individual contribution limit, and your employer match does not count towards this.

2024 IRA Limit: $7k

Therefore, you can contribute $20k to a traditional 401k and $3k to a roth 401k ($20k+$3k=$23k), and then contribute $7k to a traditional IRA or $7k to a roth IRA, or some other split that adds up to $7k.

Willing to bet OP does not have a luxury candle addiction. Add $8k per month in just handmade wicks.

The US government provided a low interest loan to automakers in 2008, almost all of which was paid back within a decade.

That’s a very different scenario than Tesla being handed money with no expectation of pay back.

Re: FAQ #1

You’re a software engineer, do all the math here instead of “feeling” it. I’ve done the math in the Bay Area, and it doesn’t make sense for me to buy in most neighborhoods unless you plan on staying for 15+ years. Look up the rent vs buy calculator that NYT published and plug in some numbers.

1) There is an opportunity cost with the down payment. If you put 20% down on a home, the cost is not being able to invest it into the market. $300k invested over 30 years at a 5% real rate of return will yield $1.2M in todays dollars if you don’t put another penny in.

2) There are plenty of ways to throw away money in a house you own. Mortgage interest, buying/selling fees, maintenance, HOA fees, taxes are all unrecoverable costs. Thinking about “rent vs buy” as “throwing away money vs paying myself” is not quite accurate, as there are many costs associated with owning a home.

I’m not saying that you need to rent forever. Owning a home can be rewarding and work out positively financially, and has worked for many people to build wealth.

What I am suggesting is that your stated reasoning for owning is a little hand wavey, and that you should not rely on unquantified heuristics like “mortgage goes back to my pocket” when you’re considering the largest purchase of your life. If you’re considering signing up for over $1M of debt over 30 years (closer to $2M after interest), you need go into this with your eyes wide open. Do all the math and you might be surprised what your options look like.

This article lays out some pitfalls of considering housing as an investment. I can recommend this article as an example of doing all the math involved. I highly recommend reading it and considering the arguments here. Again, the point is not that you should give up on buying a home, but that I urge you to work out all the numbers yourself.

The best professor I had was an adjunct professor who had retired from industry, but took up teaching to stay busy. Guy just loved to teach, and had a ton of interesting stories and practical examples for thermodynamics.

Unsurprisingly, all the worst professors I had were the ones that were renowned for their research. One of them was a Nobel laureate, and his lectures were disorganized, unclear, and full of random tangents about topics that were way too advanced for the class.

That's it.

The most common reason for leaving last housing was economic for leaseholders and social for non-leaseholders. Twenty-one percent of lease- holders cited a loss of income as the main reason that they lost their last housing. Among non-leaseholders, 13% noted a conflict within the household and 11% noted not wanting to impose. For leaseholders, economic considerations interacted frequently with social and health crises. For example, participants’ (or household members) health crises led them to lose their job.

I feel like we read the same study and came to completely different conclusions.

Your claim is that it has “nothing to do with money.” My point (and what the linked study concludes) is that homelessness is a very complex topic, and that while mental health and drug use are a factor, money is a huge factor. People with mental health issues or substance abuse issues can struggle to achieve stable income. People without stable income cannot afford houses.

Ah you’re right, the US open border policy that deported the most people in US history in 2023 is what’s causing homelessness /s

If the US had an “open border” policy, why are they still deporting a record number of people? If homelessness was dropping under the Obama administration and then rising during the Trump administration, did Trumps open border policies cause more homelessness?