All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

The stability of owning a home is a two-edge sword.

When I bought my home years ago, I stopped worrying about whether my landlord was going to raise my rent next year and instead started focusing on how I was going to afford a new roof in a few years. Then when my employer announced a major reorganization three weeks after I moved in, I started worrying about how I would cope if I lost my job (which I did, but luckily was able to find another one soon therafter) and couldn't afford to pay the mortgage.

For those people who owned their home outright, the Financial Crisis of 2008 became: What financial crisis? As long as they wanted to stay put, they were fine. If they wanted to move, however, who would buy their home (banks weren't lending money at that time)? If they decided to rent out their home instead of selling it, would the renter still have a job after moving in (the economy was faltering and people on financial media were looking for "green shoots")?

While there are legal recourses against lenders and creditors, the government can still seize your property through an eminent domain proceeding. The government has to pay fair market value and if you disagree with the government's offer, a jury will decide the fair market value. But when it's all over, you have to surrender your property.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain_in_the_United_States

The examples I cited my be less violent than Molotiv cocktails (or major storms, earthquakes, or volcanoes), but they still have the potential to disrupt one's life in a major way.

My two best days as a homeowner were the day I bought my house (the American Dream) and the day I sold my house (harvesting my equity and having a major responsibility lifted off my shoulders). I was advised by my realtor to rent for awhile to learn the neighborhoods where I'm now living before buying a home here.

I'm questioning whether I want ever own a home again. As a renter, I write one check a month to the landlord who takes care of everything (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and repairs). I realize the landlord is not losing money and will benefit from any appreciation in real estate prices. Relative to being a homeowner, as a renter, I have the luxery of being able to change my address on short notice (subject to the terms of the lease).

My investments are separate. In my case, I access them through any Internet connection to my online brokerage account. On the other hand, some landlords on BiggerPockets own rental property at locations far away from where they live. All that matters about one's personal address is to have the current one on file.

What kind of zoning hurdles have you found in terms of being able to live in a Tiny House?

I'm interested in the Tiny House concept for both personal and business interest reasons. I've gone through the extreme decluttering process for retirement and couldn't be happier. When I moved across country, for example, I used the rule that if it didn't fit in the trunk of my car, I didn't take it with me.

When I research the Tiny House, I find zoning challenges. When it's on wheels, it's regulated by the DMV, but when it's on a foundation, it's regulated by the city zoning laws, which often don't take kindly to the Tiny House. Getting utilities connected, for example, can be a problem without the proper paperwork.

People's lives are affected by money (some good, some not so good). At the height of the dot-com boom of the 1990s, the local newspaper said Silicon Valley was minting 5 new millionaires a day (I thought the number was much higher than that).

The PBS station in San Francisco had the show This Week in Northern California and one of its segments talked about the land office business some psychiatrists were doing treating Sudden Wealth Syndrome. Some non-tech people were persuing careers as butlers and butler schools were catering to their training need.

Other articles discussed the ethics of how a dot-com family might deal with their non-tech neighbors when their children were best friends and had gone to summer camp together (you want to send your child to a more expensive summer camp this year, but you know your neighbors can't afford to send their child to that same camp -- what do you do?).

All of this self-corrected when the bubble burst. Nordstrom's no-questions-asked return policy meant they clawed back sales commissions when customers returned the gold jewelry they bought during the bubble. Apartment buildings put balloons out and offered free trips (and other inducements) to attract tenants to fill the vacancies left by tech workers forced to find work elsewhere.

I had been in two startups (both unsuccessful) before the dot-com boom took off. I was jaded by those experiences and my focus became paying off the mortgage (I felt like I was walking 3 feet off the ground when that finally happened), building up my cash reserves, and funding my 401K and IRA plans. I watched in awe as people reportedly got rich during the boom. Then I took advantage of the 70% off sales some stores were holding after the bubble popped.

Does Arizona still require real estate contracts be signed in Arizona?

In the 1990s, I attended seminars in San Jose from promoters pitching the benefits of Arizona investment real estate (they would take care of the small day-to-day stuff and the investor would only have to approve over the phone the spending of the money on the really big items [new roof, new water heater, whatever]).

At that time, Arizona law required all real estate contracts be signed in Arizona, so the investor would have to fly to the Arizona airport to meet the company's representative behind the security lines (this was before 9/11) to sign the contract.

P.S., If the above description sounds like a scam, it probably was. I ended up not going for it, but not for lack of trying. I ran into too many frustrations that raised enough red flags to tell me to stay away.

California now has the world's 5th largest economy

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-now-has-the-worlds-5th-largest-economy/

Regardless of what I ever did for a living, as I got older, my money-based focus shifted to the peace of mind created from having enough regular cashflow from investments to cover my living expenses.

When I found myself in a sticky job situation (such as working for a boss who thought I should be taking my career in the direction he wanted me to take rather than the direction I wanted to take), I had the means and confidence to vote with my feet. When someone asked me why I left my previous job, as a contractor working through a temporary help agency, I could say I completed my contract (I never used the "take this job and shove it" approach to moving on).

As my wealth grew, I became confident enough to open and contribute regularly to a donor-advised fund and make anonymous donations to various 501(c)(3) charities to satisfy my need to be a Secret Santa. Other people I know, however, prefer a more hands-on approach to helping others.  I've also made small crowdfunding investments when I thought the startup had a mission I wanted to support even though I believed its chances of survival were nil.

For me, perhaps it boils down to the separation of wealth and philanthropy.  It's just that philanthropy is easier when one has the money to give away.

Balancing the Benefit and the Burden of Wealth

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/your-money/wealth-happiness.html

Japan's Palace Grounds Once More Valuable than California

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japans-palace-grounds-once-more-valuable-than-california/

When the Cold War ended and President Bush declared a peace dividend from the military base closures and reduced defense spending, LA was hit hard and the aerospace industry there took it on the chin. The Bay Area was also hit hard, but not as hard as LA was hit. California real estate prices actually dropped between 1988 and 1997.

Howard Hughes, the aviation pioneer of an earlier era, built his empire in Culver City (now part of Silicon Beach). I worked at Hughes Aircraft Company in the 1970s before moving to Silicon Valley. I received my graduate degree there while working at Hughes during the day and attending classes on a Hughes scholarship at night.

The hanger where Hughes built his Spruce Goose (an experimental airplane made of wood) is going to be housing Google.

https://la.curbed.com/2018/1/29/16938828/google-office-playa-vista-spruce-goose-hangar

The university (Cal Tech, UCLA, USC, and others) and industry infrastructure in Los Angeles is pretty much the same as the university (Stanford, UC Berkeley, and others) and industry infrastructure in Silicon Valley. Once the cold war ended, both infrastructures were looking for their next big thing. Commercialization of the Internet provided the answer.

If you feel like geeking out on the origins of the personal computer and the Internet, PBS aired two shows in the late 1990s as the dot-com era was unfolding. To find the shows on YouTube, Google Triumph of the Nerds (personal computer) and Nerds 2.0.1 (Internet).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Nerds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerds_2.0.1

Surprisingly, the Internet was invented at the Pentagon just weeks after the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Today, most people know about the Internet, but the lunar landing is something they have to learn about in history class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ib-U4dZRM

Will your talk appear on the Talks at Google YouTube channel?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbmNph6atAoGfqLoCL_duAg