Useless Conversation

[Viin]

Now only 16 1/2 years and I can be freeee!

Of life? What's after paying off your mortgage?

[Sky]

Retirement. I'll turn 62 the year after she turns 67, so we can both retire at milestones within a year of each other (barring the goalposts being moved back, of course). With state pension, SS and a little investing we should come fairly close to our incomes, especially her (and she's the higher earner).

On the other hand, in 5 years I can start thinking about early retirement with 20 years vested in the state 

[rattran]

Tomorrow we find out if the bank will approve the mortgage, then 10 years of debt to look forward to!

[Samwise]

If I don't have any significant new expenses (like kids) by the time my mortgage is paid off, which should be before I hit 50, I'm planning on going into semi-retirement... working part time, or full time doing something more fun than software, or I take on a renter and just live off that income while doing whatever the fuck I want.  It's gonna be awesome.

[Yegolev]

Choosing landlord over programmer is hilarious.  Sort of.

[Sky]

Speaking of landlording (landlordship? landlordery?), if we buy a new place, suddenly the lowered overhead of my bachelor house makes it far more attractive to rent, I should net profit more than I was paying for my entire monthly mortgage payment (net!). Huge pain in the ass, of course.

When we first started looking for houses I had nightmares of selling mine, it's in such a key location, one of those magical locations you can find tucked away in certain locations in older cities. We've identified about a half dozen in our city, and giving one up for anything less than another would be tough. Plus, it's an amazing fall back plan, moreso now that it's super affordable.

To tease you big city folk, my escrow was running about $250/mo out of a $620/mo mortgage. I could rent it for an easy $900/mo if I blow the $200 to convert it to a 2br (my den is currently open to the kitchen but has heat, windows and a closet). (of course, I make a fraction of what you guys make, so it balances)

[Merusk]

Choosing landlord over programmer is hilarious.  Sort of.

He hasn't spoken to enough landlords, I imagine.

I have constant, fleeting, thoughts of being a landlord. Then I remember the stories from people I know who are and I decide that groveling for mediocre pay and no appreciation is far better for my health and sanity.

[Paelos]

Being a landlord is fine if you have a company manage it. And there are several companies that do it for a fee that's not outrageous.

If you try to do it all yourself, then yeah you're nuts.

[Sky]

Before it would become a viable option, I'd spend a long afternoon with my attorney. Like bring steaks and beers to his house long :)

[Merusk]

In NY and CA you've got all kinds of laws that us Midwest types don't have to deal with because of your ubercities. No way in hell I'd even begin to think about it in either state.

I'll see if I can remember the worst story in enough detail to relate it. Know that after hearing it I recall thinking Nerf was a reasonable and sane tenant.

Also: Stories about taking a year+ to evict non-paying tenants and the destruction that happened in that timeframe.

[Rasix]

Heh, we're about ready to transition out of our construction loan into a mortgage of some form. 

House is mostly done.  We're in but there's some punch list items to finish as well as the courtyard wall and driveway paving. House is fantastic, almost worth all of the stress and aggravation of choosing every little fucking thing.

[Nebu]

All this talk about new houses and paid mortgages is reminding me of my bad life choices.  I'm still looking at 5 more years of paying off student loans.  I should have been a plumber.

[apocrypha]

We had 5 years of our mortgage left, and then my wife's job relocated a couple of years ago and we're back up to 15 years left after the move. And last week she was made redundant. 

Also, a car with the license plate GYNO somethingsomething overtook me this morning. Which was appropriate because he was driving like a cunt.

[Lantyssa]

I'll see if I can remember the worst story in enough detail to relate it. Know that after hearing it I recall thinking Nerf was a reasonable and sane tenant.

Do a search for Nerf.

[Samwise]

In NY and CA you've got all kinds of laws that us Midwest types don't have to deal with because of your ubercities. No way in hell I'd even begin to think about it in either state.

Luckily I'd be exempt from most of that as long as I only had a single lodger within my own home (my mother deals with landlord/tenant law so I have some inside intel on this).  That's the only way I'd consider it -- I wouldn't want to manage an entire rental property, but apparently I could take on a lodger in my spare room, charge them a couple thousand bucks a month, and they wouldn't get the usual tenant protections because they're essentially a guest in my house rather than renting an entire unit.  I can enter their room whenever I want (not that I would because I'm not a dick, just using that as an extreme example of how normal tenant rights don't apply since that's the sort of shit regular landlords get sued over all the time), and more importantly I can evict them at the drop of a hat if they piss me off.

If I had multiple lodgers then I'd legally become a "boarding house" because then I'm renting multiple units and a different set of laws kicks in -- I'd be making money hand over fist renting multiple rooms, but it wouldn't be worth it.

That said, I'm not champing at the bit to have a roommate... but if it meant I didn't have to work?  Miiiight be worth it.

[Ironwood]

I could hook you up. 

[Viin]

All this talk about new houses and paid mortgages is reminding me of my bad life choices.  I'm still looking at 5 more years of paying off student loans.  I should have been a plumber.

Sad but true!

[Polysorbate80]

Smoke update: local air quality is now at "hazardous".

University response?  Not cancelling classes.

[Yegolev]

I've made plenty of terrible decisions in my life.  That might not be consolation.

I haven't considered landlordery (it's a word now) but I have thought very much about mini-storage.

[Sky]

I could definitely use some storage for my minis.

 

I'm seriously intimidated by the sprues I'm getting with Kingdom Death...

[Paelos]

It's the time of year when I spend two days in an accounting seminar listening to speakers talk about accounting and audit changes.

I'll be kept alive by coffee

[Signe]

Wouldn't it be nicer to spend two days at a hot spring spa and drink chilled spring water with cucumber and lemon?  Do that instead.

[Rasix]

It's the time of year when I spend two days in an accounting seminar listening to speakers talk about accounting and audit changes.

I'll be kept alive by coffee

Heh, in a week I'll be kept alive by Iron Dome, while listening to thick Russian Israeli accents drone on about storage arrays.

[Yegolev]

No WebEx?

[Rasix]

I'm sure we have an infinitely inferior Notes based product we could use.  Networking is somewhat better in person. 

[Yegolev]

Hmm, yes, I think you do... but somehow I can't remember what it is.  It was apparently so bad that the companies in which I used Notes did not use it.

The AIX group is using gotowebinar.com, and citrixonline.com if you are using linux.  Do you guys own Citrix?  IS IT CITRIX?

[Rasix]

We should.  Giving up on Notes would make a lot of people really happy.  Well, except those working on it.  I suppose they could always work on the inevitable years it would take to migrate off it.  We do have something called Verse now.  It's just a cloud/web version of Notes that is terrible.

I had a craving for Skittles today.  Eating a bag before a presentation is not a good idea. 

[Pagz]

So I got a new oneplus one phone off e-bay yesterday and as soon as I loaded it up bam one dead pixel flat bang in the middle of the screen. Super pissed off I sent a message back to them and they said it needs three or more for a replacement. Is this just what I get for living in Australia with nothing anywhere? Is there anyway to blow-out pixels deliberately?

[Cyrrex]

Smashing the screen will technically blow them out.  Or maybe you can just paint red dots all over the screen.

[Pagz]

Smashing the screen will technically blow them out.  Or maybe you can just paint red dots all over the screen.

[Trippy]

So I got a new oneplus one phone off e-bay yesterday and as soon as I loaded it up bam one dead pixel flat bang in the middle of the screen. Super pissed off I sent a message back to them and they said it needs three or more for a replacement. Is this just what I get for living in Australia with nothing anywhere? Is there anyway to blow-out pixels deliberately?

You can sometimes "revive" a dead pixel (which is really just stuck not actually dead) by cycling through the various colors. Google "stuck pixel" for a solution that'll work on mobile phones.

[Pagz]

You can sometimes "revive" a dead pixel (which is really just stuck not actually dead) by cycling through the various colors. Google "stuck pixel" for a solution that'll work on mobile phones.

Yeah I tried this overnight and still to no avail. I think I might just have to ebay this one off and then ebay another one. Fuuuunnnnnn.

[Teleku]

I've made plenty of terrible decisions in my life.  That might not be consolation.

I haven't considered landlordery (it's a word now) but I have thought very much about mini-storage.

I spent several years of my life working at a software company that made accounting/management software for mini storage places.  And now because of that, know way more about that weird ass industry than I thought I ever would.  Ask me anything!   

[Merusk]

Based on the one I had to rent when I sold the first house, all you need is a dad willing to fund it and some conveniently located land near a suburb. 25 year old kid had been running it for going on 6 years (My sister rented from the same kid when she moved) and he was never around. Always quick to call you if the CC expired, but he was never on property outside of the billing days. $200 a month for an 18x24 unit and he had easily 50 of those alone. The 'unsecured' units that made up the perimeter were only 8x12 but rented for $75 a month and he had easily another 60 of those, all on about 3 acres. There were some mid-sized units, too, but I don't know how many since I only dealt with the large and the small units so I wasn't ever in the midsize area. The remaining land was leased for folks in said suburbs to park the RVs their HOAs don't allow to remain at the house longer than 24 hours.

Because of the location he was never below 85% leased. Often he'd have a sign on the office that said no units were available that month. Even during the crash he was busy, because people losing houses didn't want to sell their stuff, so they'd lease a unit.

That's just the one I dealt with and there's 4 others in the area with another being built. It's got to be crazy lucrative.

[Morat20]

I've made plenty of terrible decisions in my life.  That might not be consolation.

I haven't considered landlordery (it's a word now) but I have thought very much about mini-storage.

I spent several years of my life working at a software company that made accounting/management software for mini storage places.  And now because of that, know way more about that weird ass industry than I thought I ever would.  Ask me anything!   

The incidental knowledge bit is kind of fun. I, for instance, have learned that guys who build airplanes and rockets get really excited about aluminum alloys. It's like double Christmas.

Also, that watching shit break is surprisingly fun even if there's 45 minutes of math before and after a video of something undergoing 'catastrophic failure'.

And also that listening to FAA guys detail the root causes of famous aircraft accidents is horribly terrifying. (One of those "Oh, half the plane just peeled away mid-flight sucking shit out of the plane" things? Caused by a guy with an knife cutting off some sticker or decal. He gouged the aluminum skin, just a bit. Started a crack that grew and nobody saw it.).

I've basically come to realize that cracks tend to grow really slowly, up until a magic point where they suddenly grow super-fast (like "blink and you'll miss it") and metal shatters like glass.