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Knyteguy posted:Day job is salary so I don't get to make extra money here. Freelancing takes far more than just doing the work - like finding the client, figuring out their needs, planning, etc. And then it can still pay like crap if you're doing it on freelancer or ewhatever. Selling my time for income is something I want to avoid, as my day job takes enough time as it is.
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Sep 25, 2014 17:49
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Knyteguy posted:1) Should we sell our bikes? They're really nice bikes (wife's is a Giant, mine is a Specialized), and we just put some work/money into replacing the tires, brake pads, tubes, grips, chain lube, etc. They don't get use much unfortunately, at least not at the moment. If we move I'll pretty much 100% be using mine to commute, however.  Looking at Reno's climate, looks like depending on your heat tolerance you should be able to bike 8-10 months out of the year during the day, and any month in the morning/evening, is that right? quote:3) Got a spare TV. We may want a second tv in our house sometime, and it's a nice 3D plasma 51" 1080p. Thoughts on whether to sell or keep for later? quote:The bikes at least make it difficult to organize the clutter room, due to awkward shaping. They're too nice to leave outside to rust.
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Sep 26, 2014 20:08
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Knyteguy posted:3) Hah I didn't even know such a thing existed. I probably wouldn't mind finding a place for the bikes in our living room if they didn't have to take up ~4 cubic feet a piece. I'll keep an eye out on Craigslist.
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Sep 26, 2014 21:32
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facey fred posted:Wait. You have a two-bedroom apartment, and one room is just filled with random poo poo. And you are unsure about whether you should clear out said room so that your child can have a nursery?
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Sep 26, 2014 23:53
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There have been plenty of smaller success stories too, they're just hard to remember. I remember Pillowpants having his own BFC thread (granted, most of the problems were his gf's), and he went on to become the resident budgeting guru of SA-Mart. LoveMeDead also seems to be doing much better than she was at the start of her thread, and there was that guy in...New Zealand? I think that one turned out well.
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Dec 2, 2014 02:13
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Teach her to code? Even if she only got a mediocre programming job, it would pay a lot better with better hours than retail.
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Dec 3, 2014 05:10
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I basically agree with Knyteguy on languages. It's not super-important to choose the 'right one' to start with, but if you want something that feels very beginner-friendly, Ruby or Python; if you want something that feels 'safer' career-wise, Java or C#.Bugamol posted:Are you sure? Do you talk about salary among your peers? I know computer science is definitely one of those "pave your way to success" type fields, but I think not having any sort of degree can/will hurt you in the long run. It's like MBA, CPA, CMA, or any other "letters after your name". Then again I'm in accounting and not computer science so it may not translate at all. Cicero fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 20:58
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KG, have you considered teaching your wife the basics of coding and then hiring her as an unpaid intern* for a few months? In the short term that would hit your finances bad, but in the long term it could work out really well. * Obviously it'd be better for her to be paid, but trying to be realistic here since she would be a total newbie.
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Dec 12, 2014 01:50
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My parents supported me all through college, tuition (albeit at a cheap university) and a living stipend. Between that, my wife getting the GI Bill, and working part-time jobs, we were basically rich for college students. But instead of saving money, we blew it on tech crap and eating out wayyy too often. My wife had to take out student loans for her first semester and had some pre-marriage debt to her parents, and we still had that on graduating, when we didn't need to. Not much improvement in financial sense plus having a kid our first year out of college meant that for a while we were practically paycheck to paycheck (aside from modest 401k contributions). It was stressful being the sole provider with no real financial cushion, especially since my first year at Amazon was...not good (it got much better later). Now that I have at least a good year and a half's worth of money and taxable stocks as a buffer, I don't worry nearly as much about losing my job. It's nice.
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Dec 12, 2014 21:23
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More storytime: A few months ago, we had a bunch of car maintenance/repair issues pop up, to the tune of $2500 or so; we were even starting to think about whether it made more sense to just replace the car (it's a 2002). And then my wife didn't stand her bike up correctly and it fell over onto someone else's car, which cost us several hundred dollars to repair. My reaction to these problems was basically, "Huh, that sucks. Oh well." and that was it because by that point our savings was high enough for those things to just be a little blip to our net worth. Heck, we could've gone out and bought a brand new car -- although of course we would never actually do such a thing, Mr. Money Mustache Be Praised -- to replace our current one in cash and we still would've had plenty of emergency fund to go around. That kind of financial security just feels great to have.
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Dec 13, 2014 00:21
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quote:I know cloth diapers new are roughly $75, and for used maybe $50 or so?
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Dec 18, 2014 20:29
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Right so, we used cloth diapers but it was my wife who bought them, I just seem to recall them being more expensive than what you suggested, plus I googled around a bit and none of the sites I looked at seemed to say they were that cheap. See: http://www.diaperdecisions.com/pages/cost_of_cloth_diapers.php As for how many you need...maybe in the 25-30-ish range? I know that sounds like a ton, but an infant can/will go through several a day, plus you want somewhat of a buffer when your schedule overflows and you don't get to washing them when you planned, and you'll want to stash some (along with wipes and whatever else) in random places like in a diaper bag, in the car, maybe family members' houses, etc. Babies are messy, you can pretty much never go wrong with overdoing it a little on preparing for them to poop or drool on everything.
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Dec 18, 2014 20:40
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All I did was google "cost cloth diapers". I'd definitely read more than one site and see if there's some consensus. PS - death to strollers, baby wraps/carriers forever
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Dec 18, 2014 20:59
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Something to keep in mind: moving to a major tech hub sounds like a great idea for a career, but your pets will be problematic, because all those cities (except for maybe Austin) have something in common: high housing costs. Which means most people, and especially most frugal people, live in apartments, unless they want to have a long commute.
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Dec 19, 2014 21:35
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Statistically people spend more on their kids as they get older, not less. Although it's possible that this is just because on average people with older kids also have higher incomes.
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Jan 8, 2015 19:49
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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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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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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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Robo Boogie Bot posted:Wait, is that website supposed to be cheap? Am I missing something? It's very expensive actually.
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Jan 20, 2015 01:37
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I don't think you should be planning for a long road trip with a new baby until you've had the baby for a few weeks. By then you'll know how the kid handles being in the car.
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Jan 21, 2015 20:56
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Toddlers love drumming. Don't bother buying actual drums for them though, they prefer pots and pans.
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Jan 27, 2015 18:59
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Hey KG, now you can come visit SF for free! http://hackersurfing.com/
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Jan 29, 2015 03:08
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Congrats you two!
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Feb 20, 2015 18:25
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Knyteguy posted:Hey Cicero you were talking about the mobys right? Those things are rad my wife tried one for the first time today. We'll be using that when we go out geocaching for sure.
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Feb 27, 2015 02:31
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slap me silly posted:Disagree. JC Penney is sucking bad and will probably fold completely sometime in the next 5 years. Meanwhile, milk them for all they are worth. I notice I misread the info - they're matching half, up to 6% contribution (3% match). It's still free money and Knyteguy's wife should still grab it. quote:You vest, or become an owner of your Company Matching Contributions, after three years of service.
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Feb 27, 2015 05:14
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Knyteguy posted:I'm at a bit of a weight crisis here (office job) that I need to take care of. Weren't you going to start biking?
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Mar 12, 2015 00:24
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Knyteguy posted:I was biking quite a bit there, but it became too much of a grind instead of fun. I don't really have the right clothes for it in the winter. Plus there's a lot of up hill and I was just being a sissy about it. Let the hate flow through you, KnyteGuy.
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Mar 12, 2015 05:55
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What's the downside?
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Mar 18, 2015 22:20
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Knyteguy posted:Hm, the downside I can think of is the job potentially not working out and needing to look for another, instead of just exploring the waters more or less. It's likely a small chance, but still possible.
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Mar 18, 2015 22:37
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OneWhoKnows posted:Have you ever ridden before? Do not get a motorcycle with this attitude, please. Go for it, KnyteGuy!
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Apr 1, 2015 18:39
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Grouco posted:You can't walk 3 kilometres in a mostly residential area?
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Apr 1, 2015 19:46
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Horking Delight posted:Don't forget to buy a helmet for the baby too (obviously). I don't know if they make them that small, so you might have to get several (babies grow!) sizes custom made.
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Apr 1, 2015 20:32
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Robo Boogie Bot posted:I remember there being some discussion of taxes and there being an estimate of $10,000 being owed. Did that end up being accurate, did you file yet?
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Apr 2, 2015 22:27
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:Hate to change the subject because this is some good stuff, but wasn't there an offer on the table for a new, substantially higher paying job? Any news related to that?
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Apr 3, 2015 05:29
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You seen this, KG? http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-10/reno-wants-to-be-silicon-valley-s-back-office
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Apr 11, 2015 23:13
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Knyteguy posted:Mango that was Cicero who gave me the mock interview which was very helpful. I think about what I learned from that often. On the technical side I know what I have to do. You should probably do more practice interviews before you go for real ones. I'm up for it, or you could ask in the newbie programming interviews thread (or look at the list of goon mentors in the OP).
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Apr 14, 2015 18:33
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Yeah programming interviews are a crapshoot, especially if you're trying to 'move up' substantially. Of course you should definitely still try, but realize it's a numbers game; you may have to do a bunch before you pass, even if you're perfectly competent as a developer.
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Apr 20, 2015 21:33
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quote:if I get an offer quote:I'm very confused why you would bring this up to your current employer when you have nothing in-hand.
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Apr 20, 2015 22:54
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A short exclusivity window like that is probably fine, just don't let the recruiter hard sell you on a subpar offer.
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Apr 20, 2015 23:15
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Selling the dog seems like a great idea. You guys probably have your hands full with an infant as it is, one less mouth to feed, easier to move, and it sounds like the dog may even be happier in the new situation.
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Apr 22, 2015 00:06
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