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Guys, you need to realize he is talking about a gain of roughly 1000 a month in salary...thats not insignificant. Moving away from family may be tough, but being poor is probably tougher? However I do agree, why are you not interviewing in Silicon Valley? I live in TX and get significant offers to move to Silicon Valley all the time. Are you hard to hire?
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Jan 16, 2015 20:14
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edit: /\/\/\ I think he's worried about the expensive housing, which wouldn't be a big problem (a 1 or 2-bedroom apartment in somewhere like Sunnyvale isn't TOO expensive relative to the salaries programmers command here), except for his collection of pets. Moving from Reno to Florida sounds like a terrible idea. If you're going to move may as well go to a tech hub where you have plentiful options in the future, and yeah Silicon Valley is only about 4 hours away, which means you could still visit family on weekends occasionally (and vice-versa).
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Jan 16, 2015 20:15
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See if you can work remote. If they are willing to name your price, it sounds like you have some wiggle room there. Also if your wife carries your health insurance, you could go contract. Also makes it nice if they want you to go over 40 hours a week you get paid for it. Edit: Also switching jobs and trying to ramp up with a child almost born, and then doing it right when the kid is born, is going to be insane. I try to make sure everything else is stable before having a kid, because I just want to focus on that. Not saying it's not doable, but it might be hell.
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Jan 16, 2015 20:21
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DogsCantBudget posted:Guys, you need to realize he is talking about a gain of roughly 1000 a month in salary...thats not insignificant. Moving away from family may be tough, but being poor is probably tougher? However I do agree, why are you not interviewing in Silicon Valley? I live in TX and get significant offers to move to Silicon Valley all the time. Are you hard to hire? It could well be far more than 1000/month, kids straight out of school can get 120k+ in the bay area. That's not to say it'd be easy to hustle for a gig like that but it's certainly possible, and there are many gradients below that which would be huge quality of life improvements for him.
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Jan 16, 2015 20:23
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:It could well be far more than 1000/month, kids straight out of school can get 120k+ in the bay area. That's not to say it'd be easy to hustle for a gig like that but it's certainly possible, and there are many gradients below that which would be huge quality of life improvements for him.
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Jan 16, 2015 20:42
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:Any kind of recommendation or suggestion that they should go to SV is really wrongheaded IMO. New grads out there who are pulling down megabucks typically come from from Ivy League (or other well respected) schools. Also that 120k (which isn't a lot of money in SV) is going to come at the cost of KG working insane hours at a startup. I would take 75k in another city well before I would take 120k in SV. In no way is the difference in living expenses going to be more than whatever that 45k is post-tax. That's way more than my yearly rent and I live in Manhattan. I don't think it depends on working insane hours at a startup either - there's plenty of older folks with kids who make good money without working all night. He's never going to be a star employee but that doesn't really matter, and he's already working insane hours where he is. It's one thing if he'd be making 75k in kansas city or something but it's still a real loss, and almost anywhere else there'd be huge opportunity cost to changing jobs, unlike SV. To me this is a bigger perk than the money. It definitely does put a damper on his home ownership plans, though I find those to be a little misguided to begin with. Pet rental fees are a good point and I have no idea there. *resists urge*
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Jan 16, 2015 20:51
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:Any kind of recommendation or suggestion that they should go to SV is really wrongheaded IMO. New grads out there who are pulling down megabucks typically come from from Ivy League (or other well respected) schools. 2. Knyteguy isn't a new grad. 3. Even non-"megabucks" would be good in his situation; since his debts are denominated in the same currency no matter where he lives, going somewhere for 2x the money and 2x the cost of living still works out in his favor. quote:Also that 120k (which isn't a lot of money in SV) is going to come at the cost of KG working insane hours at a startup. quote:I would take 75k in another city well before I would take 120k in SV. Cicero fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 20:53
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Of this incredibly hypothetical extra $45,000 ~6000 to California (KG pays no income tax in NV right now remember) ~9500 extra federal income tax ~2600 extra social security tax ~650 extra medicare tax So $18,750 or so will be eaten up just by extra income taxes.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:03
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You guys are really downplaying the cost of living in the SV and/or the insane commute times you have to put up with if you decide to live on the outskirts. I used to drive from the Central Valley to the East Bay Area and it would easily take me 1-2 hours each way every day. I have a friend who lives in the East Bay Area (IE not Silicon Valley or SF Bay, before the bridges) and he pays $1750 a month for a studio apartment. I know someone that lives in a 2 bedroom apartment in SF and her SHARE of the rent (split 2.5 ways) is $1400 a month. EDIT: EAST vs WEST error.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:05
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Bugamol posted:You guys are really downplaying the cost of living in the SV and/or the insane commute times you have to put up with if you decide to live on the outskirts. I used to drive from the Central Valley to the East Bay Area and it would easily take me 1-2 hours each way every day. I just read a study yesterday that equated the change in happiness you receive from ditching a 1 hour commute as the equivalent of a $40,000 raise. Also, people should remember: Knyteguy posted:As far as college credentials... well I don't have my degree and it has hindered me a bit because companies like diplomas, but I don't make really any less than my peers with similar experience either. An idea I see thrown around sometimes is to start a company as cheaply as possible and write software for it, and then use it on a resume the same as any other job.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:14
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Droo posted:Of this incredibly hypothetical extra $45,000 Well 45k was for that guy, for knyteguy it could well be even higher. The tax rate before you get to 300k+ is more like 9% than 12%, so more like $4000 for that, so even with the 45k assumption it's still an almost an extra 30k in take-home pay per year. (I didn't do the math for federal, might be higher to compensate.) Even if he doubles his current rent he still stands to take home a lot more money. You're right that quality of life will depend on specifically where in the bay he ends up - SF proper is where I'd want to live but I wouldn't want to do it on 120k. Droo posted:I just read a study yesterday that equated the change in happiness you receive from ditching a 1 hour commute as the equivalent of a $40,000 raise. This sounds like some junk science, especially if your lack of money is the primary source of stress in your life. Long commutes are certainly miserable but you can't just talk about them in a vacuum without considering the total opportunity cost of not keeping the job with the long commute. Jeffrey of YOSPOS fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 21:14
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Hey thanks for the really great career discussion guys. I get interest checks from all over the country, but I generally don't answer out of being content where I am. I learned that the average salary for someone with roughly my experience is about $77,000 in my area. That's pretty significant compared to what I'm making now. If one of these local guys gets back to me then sweet, I'll have an offer letter which gives me, and the company I work for a good idea of my market value. I can use that for a raise. I asked for a day off on the 26th to go handle an errand I need to take care of. This will be a salary day so I won't burn my vacation to take it. That'll help make up for the overtime. Silicon Valley is definitely my end goal for my career, at least until I'm ready to settle at least as mentioned. I just don't think I'm ready to compete with all the formally educated grads there yet. Currently working on my whiteboard interview skills. I don't think this'll happen until we're out of this lease though. P.S: That Orlando FL position is for $65/hr.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:14
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Knyteguy posted:P.S: That Orlando FL position is for $65/hr. $65 contract? or w/ benefits? Not worth moving across the US for, but seriously ask about remote.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:19
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MrEnigma posted:$65 contract? or w/ benefits? Contract yes, so no benefits, probably higher taxes? State taxes too. OK I'll see what the recruiter says about remote.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:23
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:The tax rate before you get to 300k+ is more like 9% than 12%, so more like $4000 for that I love that I specifically posted WHY the number is $6000 by pointing out that KG pays no state income tax now (so the $6000 number I posted is clearly on the whole $120k we are talking about) but you still couldn't figure it out. Also, California has a highly progressive state income tax so 9% is nowhere near an accurate effective rate on 120k.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:24
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Knyteguy posted:Contract yes, so no benefits, probably higher taxes? State taxes too. Is that billable hours only and can you reasonably assume you'll be able to do 40/week the whole time? Definitely stuff to keep in mind since there's plenty of tasks you have to do for work that won't end up directly billable to a client. Droo posted:I love that I specifically posted WHY the number is $6000 by pointing out that KG pays no state income tax now (so the $6000 number I posted is clearly on the whole $120k we are talking about) but you still couldn't figure it out. Yeah I was doing it for the other guy, not knyteguy, who doesn't make 75k but more like 60k and thus warrants different math. (If you were calculating the whole amount you actually underestimated by a fair bit.) California's 9.3% bracket ranges from like 50k to 300k so it's pretty much flat for most of the typical programmer salary range, including the entire range from 75k to 120k that I was comparing. EDIT: I guess I was assuming married filing separately, which probably isn't what they'd do, forgive me. Jeffrey of YOSPOS fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 21:24
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Knyteguy posted:Contract yes, so no benefits, probably higher taxes? State taxes too. If you contract, your only extra tax would be that you have to pay the employer portion of social security and medicare. Those total 7.65%, so you can figure the $65 per hour is more like $60/hour. As far as state tax, you are generally taxed based on where the work is actually performed. So if you get contract work from another state but remain living in Nevada, you should not owe any taxes. Also, Florida has no state income tax anyway.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:28
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Knyteguy posted:Contract yes, so no benefits, probably higher taxes? State taxes too. Pretty sure Florida is another no state income tax state. /\/\Efb
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Jan 16, 2015 21:29
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Knyteguy posted:P.S: That Orlando FL position is for $65/hr. P.S. While earning more money can greatly reduce your burden if you don't fix your spending habits it won't do you any good. EDIT: I do agree though. Looking for a new job 4 weeks before your wife is going to have her baby is the correct timing. Not for the months leading up to it or before you decided to move once again. Also signing a 2 year lease which severely limits your ability to take new jobs is indicative of long term financial planning. Bugamol fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 21:29
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Yeah I was doing it for the other guy, not knyteguy, who doesn't make 75k but more like 60k and thus warrants different math. (If you were calculating the whole amount you actually underestimated by a fair bit.) California's 9.3% bracket ranges from like 50k to 300k so it's pretty much flat for most of the typical programmer salary range, including the entire range from 75k to 120k that I was comparing. The 9.3% at 50k applies to single people only. KG is clearly married - and thus the 9.3% bracket doesn't start until $101,738 of taxable income in California.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:36
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Knyteguy posted:Contract yes, so no benefits, probably higher taxes? State taxes too. No state tax in FL
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Jan 16, 2015 21:38
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Is that billable hours only and can you reasonably assume you'll be able to do 40/week the whole time? Definitely stuff to keep in mind since there's plenty of tasks you have to do for work that won't end up directly billable to a client. Oh yes billable only I'd imagine. It'd have to be. OK so as stated after the increased employment tax we're talking ~$60/hr, and it's not guaranteed to be 40 hours a week, and my wife would have to quit her job or likely take a lower position on a transfer, plus higher insurance... doesn't hardly seem worth it. I think the number is deceptively high. I think I'd be happy with a raise right now.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:38
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Knyteguy posted:OK so as stated after the increased employment tax we're talking ~$60/hr, and it's not guaranteed to be 40 hours a week, and my wife would have to quit her job or likely take a lower position on a transfer, plus higher insurance... doesn't hardly seem worth it. I think the number is deceptively high. I certainly wouldn't consider moving to Florida for it if I were you, but be careful not to just write it off completely when you talk to the recruiter. Try to act as interested as possible, and make it clear that while you are willing to travel to their offices occasionally, you are not currently willing to relocate and would only be interested as a mostly remote position. If you could actually make that happen, you would effectively double your income while making yourself way more available to help with the baby.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:44
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Bugamol posted:P.S. While earning more money can greatly reduce your burden if you don't fix your spending habits it won't do you any good. And yet the thread keeps indulging his dumb instant fix fantasy. I should have never brought up SV. Veskit fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 22:28
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Knyteguy posted:The biggest problem is I'm experiencing insomnia from a huge array of things - my wife being pregnant and experiencing insomnia and getting up all night, animals being restless assholes, stress about potentially leaving work, etc. That on top of 13+ hour shifts is making caffeine a big help to get through the day awake right now. I'm probably down at least a full day's worth of sleep this week, probably another last week. Guess my body is getting ready for the baby. Pretty crazy that you're experiencing insomnia after dramatically increasing the amount of caffeine and stimulants you take. quote:Pet savings will start immediately next month. Food is by far our biggest expense with them and we took some efforts to cut down costs there quite a bit. We wouldn't have gone over budget so much but Amazon sent us an extra bag of dog food by mistake instead of the cat food we ordered, so we just kept it and ordered the cat food again. Did you call Amazon about this at all or just decide the solution was to spend more money? Amazon's customer service would likely have refunded you the cost of the dog food and told you to keep it anyhow, but I guess it's easier to just keep spending money. Spend spend spend, gotta fix things NOW.
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Jan 16, 2015 22:42
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Have your restless pets that have been keeping you awake at night been getting walked regularly? I believe this was something you vowed to change once you got to the house, how is that going?
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Jan 16, 2015 22:51
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bringer posted:Pretty crazy that you're experiencing insomnia after dramatically increasing the amount of caffeine and stimulants you take. The assumptions. My caffeine intake is about the same thanks. I explained why I'm not sleeping. Calling Amazon wasn't exactly high on my priority list because we got a $55 bag of dog food for $25. I don't think we need to make out any better than that. But thanks for asking questions instead of jumping to conclusions.
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Jan 16, 2015 22:52
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Knyteguy posted:The assumptions. My caffeine intake is about the same thanks. I explained why I'm not sleeping. Amazon isn't going to make you send the bag back. They almost certainly would have just sent you the bag of cat food without charging you for it. If casper can do that with a $900 mattress, Amazon will eat the $25 for customer goodwill. Also, suggesting that caffeine may be part of the reason you're not sleeping well, even if it didn't affect you before, isn't a terrible assumption. People's reaction to caffeine changes as they age, or even if it's not that, it is just another thing working against a good night's sleep. I'm not saying you should quit coffee when you have a baby coming. That seems like too much on your plate. I'm just saying don't dismiss it out of hand. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 22:58
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Knyteguy posted:The assumptions. My caffeine intake is about the same thanks. I explained why I'm not sleeping. It can be done with a message on their website, you would not even have to call. It is astounding to me how short sighted you are in every facet. They would have let you keep the food and refunded the money. That is money that you need, you are broke.
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Jan 16, 2015 22:59
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RheaConfused posted:Have your restless pets that have been keeping you awake at night been getting walked regularly? I believe this was something you vowed to change once you got to the house, how is that going? The dogs are great, and yes they're getting plenty of exercise. One of them wakes us up about 7:00am every morning, but that's because that's the time we get up. It's our cats who are insistent upon either meowing like a tom cat at 4:00am, or pawing the door trying to get into the bedroom, or jumping on us... it's been a continual problem that has been getting better, but last night especially was a little rough. E: Then I'll message Amazon. But it's not like we got the raw end of a deal. We're going to need that dog food eventually. E2: I'm just grouchy GrumpWagon bringer makes a good point. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 23:06
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Knyteguy posted:It's our cats who are insistent upon either meowing like a tom cat at 4:00am, or pawing the door trying to get into the bedroom, or jumping on us... it's been a continual problem that has been getting better, but last night especially was a little rough. Do you know anyone with a good burlap sack that lives near a lake?
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Jan 16, 2015 23:12
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Knyteguy posted:It's our cats who are insistent upon either meowing like a tom cat at 4:00am, or pawing the door trying to get into the bedroom, or jumping on us... it's been a continual problem that has been getting better, but last night especially was a little rough.
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Jan 16, 2015 23:13
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Knyteguy posted:The dogs are great, and yes they're getting plenty of exercise. One of them wakes us up about 7:00am every morning, but that's because that's the time we get up. You could try a ssscat, that really worked for us. ( http://www.amazon.com/Ssscat-PDT00-...asin=B000RIA95G ) Just put it in front of your closed door, but I wonder how long you'll be sleeping with the door closed with the baby coming anyway. It could probably train them to stay away from the hallway with the bedrooms totally, if that is how your house is laid out. Our cats will sometimes walk around meowing, but if we give them a very small snack before bed, that keeps them from harassing us in the morning. Sometimes we will also set up an automated toy when we go to bed that has a timer, like the frolicat, and that will wear them out enough to leave us alone for the rest of the night. You could also set up the vacuum outside your door and run the cord over to your side of the bed and plug it in to a power strip. Then when they paw at the door, just turn on the power strip and make the vacuum go off for a split second. That will scare the poo poo out of them/train them not to paw at the door pretty quickly. source: I own 4 annoying cats.
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Jan 16, 2015 23:16
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spwrozek posted:Do you know anyone with a good burlap sack that lives near a lake? So... tempted... Cicero posted:I'm sure you're already aware of this, but this kind of problem is going to be magnified tremendously once you have a baby that is also consistently waking you up at night. Yes, so we're trying to come up with a strategy. They're usually more uppity if they don't get food before bed (so if they have to wait until morning). We're banning them from the bedroom at night starting very soon also. RheaConfused posted:You could try a ssscat, that really worked for us. ( http://www.amazon.com/Ssscat-PDT00-...asin=B000RIA95G ) Haha awesome. We'll give this a go when February's budget opens up - thanks for the idea. We could probably keep them out of the hallway (which leads to all bedrooms yes) with strategic catbox placement.
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Jan 16, 2015 23:25
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Knyteguy posted:Haha awesome. We'll give this a go when February's budget opens up - thanks for the idea. We could probably keep them out of the hallway (which leads to all bedrooms yes) with strategic catbox placement. It's not clear to me that you have the $20 to impulse spend on cat training devices as anything other than a last resort.
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Jan 17, 2015 04:58
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I was not aware of the term 'savings bucket'. I would contend that KG's financial situation isn't to a point where it really matters if he calls it one thing or another, he just has to save as much money as possible. I still don't get why so many numbers are so different from month to month with KG's budget. Food budget one month is $200 and is $400 the next month, I'm going to guess that in total you're spending about $400 a month. I still feel like there is a basic disconnect between the actual concept of a budget and the combination of forecasting/budgeting/reconciliation that KG is currently doing. Why can't you budget be something like this: 1. Savings - this comes out at the beginning of the month - Call this $1500 2. Fixed costs - for things that are truly fixed and do not change month to month - rent/insurance/debt payments. - Call this $1500 3. All other non fixed costs - everything that the number can change month to month - food / pets / clothes / fuel / redbull / cat spray / car expenses. - Call this $1000 Now with that $1000 non fixed portion of things is where you actually budget and make choices. Your goal is to spend as little as possible of that $1000 every month. This is what I call a checking account. Each month, look back at what you spent that $1000 on and make sure you're staying on track. Your goal with that checking account is to build another buffer. This buffer is used to pay for larger expenses such as car repairs and vet bills or whatever. Only as a last resort do you dip into your actual savings account. Once my checking account gets to about $7k, I toss that spare $2k into my savings account. Month over month I'm still trying like hell to live below that allotted checking account allowance that I make every month. Maybe I'm just doing the broken record at this point, but your budget is still far too complicated and convoluted to appropriately manage. Also, that software you are using, at least the way you are using it, is far to easy to juggle the numbers around every month. That's not how a budget works. I contend that if you impose setting three numbers like I outlined above, this will actually give you a hope to start budgeting and to stop whatever number juggling silliness you are doing now. p.s. don't drink caffeine after 2pm - once I got into my late 20s it screws me if I have caffeine any later than that.
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Jan 17, 2015 08:06
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Knyteguy posted:Hey thanks for the really great career discussion guys. I didn't read past this so forgive me if it came up , but what the absolute gently caress are you doing? If someone is offereing you more money, to pay for your housing, and pay all expenses to move you a fair way away from where you are, and you don't think this isn't a valid thing to put too your superiors to ask for a raise because it's not local? What the gently caress, even if it ends up being the same a year as your current job in the new city/state, you're still many thousands ahead from all the expenses paid, and presumably that's only their first offer, if you really are valuable, they'll come up from that if you push them. Knyteguy posted:Yes, so we're trying to come up with a strategy. They're usually more uppity if they don't get food before bed (so if they have to wait until morning). We're banning them from the bedroom at night starting very soon also. I don't see why this is a problem, feed at night instead of in the morning? Rudager fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Jan 17, 2015 |
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Jan 17, 2015 10:43
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n8r posted:Maybe I'm just doing the broken record at this point, but your budget is still far too complicated and convoluted to appropriately manage. Also, that software you are using, at least the way you are using it, is far to easy to juggle the numbers around every month. That's not how a budget works. I disagree with your approach of only having three major categories. He'll get himself into trouble with a "non fixed costs" category because that's just a place to enable dumb spending. Red Bull and cat gizmos as seen in SkyMall shouldn't be coming from the same bucket as groceries and gas.
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Jan 17, 2015 13:01
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Rudager posted:I didn't read past this so forgive me if it came up , but what the absolute gently caress are you doing? That's the whole plan. I want to leverage a/this job offer for a raise. I don't have an offer in hand yet though. I'm still just talking with the recruiter.
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Jan 17, 2015 19:12
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Don't use it as leverage unless you are actually willing to move and take the other job. It could be that your current employer will say "OK, can't do anything, see ya!"
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Jan 17, 2015 19:27
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