Solar tax credit? Fair or unfair?

[Tulex]

do you know a nice bench i can work from while I save some?

and as I explained, I'm saving nearly all of my money (which is not taxed or spent on survival). Maybe in a few more years I'll be able to afford a home. Until then, the majority of money I'm spending, not saving, is being "wasted" on just having a place to live, and eating <2000 calories of very cheap food daily. I can't do any better than this, and it kinda sucks to live like this for 5 or so years before I can even _start_ to really use the money I earn.

If the argument is that I should forego "luxuries" like a $2 energy drink a day, or I'm irresponsible, then lol.

I actually did the math (because I track my spending) and I've spent a total of 5% of my income before taxes on "non-essential" things, using the upper estimate of what I've spent on:
- I've spent on all hardware, parts, odds and ends of solar stuff ~$4000
- my workstation which I use for work
- The cost of all "random" modules/sensors/single board computers/network devices I've bought to do research on the tech

Almost everything listed there falls into the category of "personal investment" in my opinion, as it's almost entirely spent on tools/components I need to learn and engage in projects I enjoy. I also use those skills to make myself more valuable so I can potentially get paid more in the future.

No, you feel entitled to live in an area above your means. Period.

 

[Tulex]

When I was at my last job, there was a young man, early 20's who just got married. Smart kid. Probably making in the 40-45K range. Wanted to buy a house. He was paying rent to live just outside of our small city. Did some math, and figured out he could move a couple towns away and cut his rent nearly in half, even with the extra gas. Junky apartment, longer drive. Gave up some other habits, went on a budget. He stood out like a sore thumb doing that. I really think his work buddies couldn't relate. But later on, he'll have his house, they will still be crying that they can't afford one.

 

[Zwy]

6 figures sounds like a lot if you're in the woods, that's not very much if you're living alone in a major city.

That is part of your dilemma. I decided to settle down in Iowa and the cost of a decent ranch style house in a small town where I live was equal to one year's income for the position I had open for employment a few years ago.

I couldn't find anyone willing to move here at the time, people think the "big money" is in the city. Yet, as your posts indicate, the cost of living can eat away at income. I'm certain you pay a nice sum in income tax if you are single.

Fast forward to today and those cheap houses in small towns aren't so cheap anymore. My son and his wife purchased their first home in a town of just under 3,500 that was just remodeled for $145K. They sold it 3 years later for $225K when they purchased an acreage. He listed it himself and it sold in under 2 weeks. We get people from out of state moving in now that are retired or looking for the quiet crime free life of small town Iowa, somewhere to raise a family where their children are safe. Acreages in my county have appreciated in price quite substantially which now drives the property tax assessed values higher. But if you have a six figure income here, you will still do quite well. My assessed value on my acreage increased $40K this past year. That is more than I paid for it on the sheriff's sale 15 years ago.

I have a friend who is an engineer in a local company. He saves 75% of his income per year. Fully invests in his work 401K, plus maxes out his Roth IRA. He always says he learned how to be savvy and save from me. LOL His biggest change came when his wife left him and the children to live as a drug addict. He couldn't believe how the money piled up once she was gone. She had been spending it on "things" over the years. Clothes, fast food, "sales", and probably even drugs without him knowing. With her gone, no money was spent except for what was needed to live without any luxuries. He is in his mid 40's and wonders if he should retire soon. He told me how much he has, he has done well.

But back to your problem of the inability to save money. Write down every single dollar you spend everyday for the next month. Be honest with yourself if you want to improve your situation. After that, determine what you don't need to spend money on. The results might surprise you. If you look thru history, some of the robber baron's of the past learned to run a daily ledger early in life so they could track exactly where every single penny went. If you are forced to write it down, you might think twice about spending it.

I'm semi retired at age 58. I didn't get to this point by accident. It required discipline in spending in my 20's, investing the money saved back into my business while others had a good time with their income. It was worth it.

 

[Zwy]

Invest $20 per day compounded daily at 5 percent for 1 year

AI says $7485.09

Here is more.

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View this content on Instagram

 

[ksmithaz1]

lol, I barely spend money on anything. pretty much all of my money goes to housing, and the next largest expense is internet service (which I use for work). In my area, the average home price is around 500k. I can let you do the math, but for a down payment I'd need 75k saved. I've saved >90% of my income except for money spend on housing and absolute necessities, and an occasional project, such as solar stuff or hardware projects. I would need to save basically every dollar except for what is spent on survival for 4 years to afford a house, mostly because rent is so damn high.

I don't have any debt, and I'm not making any monthly payments but my rent/electricity/car insurance/health insurance/internet service. I don't subscribe to any streaming services. all of that adds up, and I can't stop paying for any of that unless I want to not be able to drive or worry about bankrupting myself over an illness or injury. In fact I'm saving for a down payment but the goal posts keep moving. I'm also telling you that the only people in my age group I know of who are even close to affording a house a) have a partner who also has relatively high income b) work multiple MAANG jobs.

6 figures sounds like a lot if you're in the woods, that's not very much if you're living alone in a major city.

Got it, not irresponsible, just dumb. Find a decent job somewhere you can afford to live and buy a house, or demand more money for your labor, or shut up about not being able to buy a house. Plenty of jobs in other places that pay less but offer enough income to afford a house. If you want to be dumb then you better damn well be tough.

 

[didapper]

When I was at my last job, there was a young man, early 20's who just got married. Smart kid. Probably making in the 40-45K range. Wanted to buy a house. He was paying rent to live just outside of our small city. Did some math, and figured out he could move a couple towns away and cut his rent nearly in half, even with the extra gas. Junky apartment, longer drive. Gave up some other habits, went on a budget. He stood out like a sore thumb doing that. I really think his work buddies couldn't relate. But later on, he'll have his house, they will still be crying that they can't afford one.

this works for people who don't value their own time

 

[didapper]

That is part of your dilemma. I decided to settle down in Iowa and the cost of a decent ranch style house in a small town where I live was equal to one year's income for the position I had open for employment a few years ago.

I couldn't find anyone willing to move here at the time, people think the "big money" is in the city. Yet, as your posts indicate, the cost of living can eat away at income. I'm certain you pay a nice sum in income tax if you are single.

Fast forward to today and those cheap houses in small towns aren't so cheap anymore. My son and his wife purchased their first home in a town of just under 3,500 that was just remodeled for $145K. They sold it 3 years later for $225K when they purchased an acreage. He listed it himself and it sold in under 2 weeks. We get people from out of state moving in now that are retired or looking for the quiet crime free life of small town Iowa, somewhere to raise a family where their children are safe. Acreages in my county have appreciated in price quite substantially which now drives the property tax assessed values higher. But if you have a six figure income here, you will still do quite well. My assessed value on my acreage increased $40K this past year. That is more than I paid for it on the sheriff's sale 15 years ago.

I have a friend who is an engineer in a local company. He saves 75% of his income per year. Fully invests in his work 401K, plus maxes out his Roth IRA. He always says he learned how to be savvy and save from me. LOL His biggest change came when his wife left him and the children to live as a drug addict. He couldn't believe how the money piled up once she was gone. She had been spending it on "things" over the years. Clothes, fast food, "sales", and probably even drugs without him knowing. With her gone, no money was spent except for what was needed to live without any luxuries. He is in his mid 40's and wonders if he should retire soon. He told me how much he has, he has done well.

But back to your problem of the inability to save money. Write down every single dollar you spend everyday for the next month. Be honest with yourself if you want to improve your situation. After that, determine what you don't need to spend money on. The results might surprise you. If you look thru history, some of the robber baron's of the past learned to run a daily ledger early in life so they could track exactly where every single penny went. If you are forced to write it down, you might think twice about spending it.

I'm semi retired at age 58. I didn't get to this point by accident. It required discipline in spending in my 20's, investing the money saved back into my business while others had a good time with their income. It was worth it.

If I were 20 years older, I think I'd be much more comfortable. imagine being able to afford a home between 2008 and 2020. too bad I was in school, then getting my early work life destroyed by covid. oh well, better luck next time.

I track all of my spending, I went over it in previous posts, I'm saving pretty much all of my money. I'm not investing as much as I should but am personally uncertain about most ways I should invest it right now, as things seem unstable. My main issue is that the the cost of homes are rising faster than my wages are. I'd have to look for work elsewhere because I've hit the ceiling at my current job.

This is also less of a problem for me than the _majority_ of people in my age group. I know a lot of people are not in great shape out of college, have tons of debt, and can't get hired. Not to mention "entry level" jobs are evaporating and the hiring process is insane. I know people who submit literally hundreds of job applications with no response. Nobody is hiring anyone without experience, which is part of why I'm sticking at my current job for a bit.

I could get a place somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, but that's not very conducive to my current career which requires a stable internet connection. I also don't think the trade off of "waste hundreds of hours on the road" outweighs cheaper housing. I hate driving, and wish one day I could push my car into a lake. Maybe driving is some other people's thing but Texas drivers are insane.

 

[Tulex]

this works for people who don't value their own time

An answer for everything. I still call it entitlement.

 

[didapper]

An answer for everything. I still call it entitlement.

There is more of a cost to driving for several hours a day than gasoline. It wears down your car, increases insurance rates (if you are honest), and takes up huge portions of your time. I know people who have 2.5 hour commutes, in both directions. You know what you could do for 5 hours a day? If you're not getting paid to travel (as most people are not) that means if you were working for $20/hr for 8 hours, it's really like you made $13.33/hr for 12 hours of work, except i guess those 4 hours of driving aren't taxed, they just tax you, and add to your car maintenance. It also means you're further from your family/friends. I guess gotta do what you gotta do because housing is so expensive now right? You also won't be part of the 50,000 national driving fatalities right? Lots of people zone out and text/call people while driving, and the younger people are by far the worst. Lets give them more road time, and less sleep.

i think you also missed most of the part where I've explained that i've mostly saved up for a down payment, despite my "complaining". I think older people have a hard time realizing that houses truly used to cost less, and people used to get paid more: https://www.longtermtrends.net/home-price-median-annual-income-ratio/

the ratio is now almost 7.5:1 home price to median income, from an average of 3-5. that's a massive difference.

Maybe I can wait for this bubble to pop, or maybe the ratio will be 10:1 by the time I've saved enough, who knows. At least I could afford a RV or something and go fuck off, but I'd rather be part of a thriving society than be a barnacle in the woods. Also someone's gotta pay the taxes to support those rural folk, right?

 

[Lprantner]

Currently there is a bill that just passed in the house to get rid of the solar tax credit.

One convincing argument I have heard is that when utility companies buy solar equipment, the expense is a tax deduction. But when a homeowner purchases the same equipment, they need to use personal income that is already taxed.

My opinion is that I'm against all subsidies, but I also understand that we have lots of subsidies for utilities. Especially oil and solar companies. So people can make an argument that getting rid of the solar tax credit is "unfair"

 

[Lprantner]

If there is to be any subsidy, make it a cash rebate, as retirees can't do crap with a tax credit, but the cash back would be a nice touch.

 

[k490]

The tax credit and utility incentives helped get the solar industry going. The problem I see is the tax credit mostly goes into the installers pocket they just raise their price accordingly. What needs to happen is deregulation that will spur more competition and lower cost for consumers to install solar. NEC, UL, and local AHJ's have this idea every year they need to create more regulation which drives up the cost it justifies the cost of having them and all their employees salary increases.

 

[Hedges]

I'm in my 20s, and only know a few people around my age who can afford to eat out more than once a week. I make 6 figures and can't afford it. over 1/3 of my income goes just to housing (which I rent).

the ratio is now almost 7.5:1 home price to median income, from an average of 3-5. that's a massive difference.

Maybe I can wait for this bubble to pop, or maybe the ratio will be 10:1 by the time I've saved enough, who knows. At least I could afford a RV or something and go fuck off, but I'd rather be part of a thriving society than be a barnacle in the woods. Also someone's gotta pay the taxes to support those rural folk, right?

I was going to point out that the financial system and house prices have been out of whack your entire adult life, but you got that.
Liar loan boom precipitated world financial crisis. Quantitative easing gave us 2% 30 year mortgage, re-inflating the bubble, so house prices went even higher.
Interest rates went up to 7% but prices didn't come down. Houses are now unaffordable.

You make $100k, house is $500k. Ideally you save up $100k down payment but there could be alternatives.
$400k mortgage will cost $2800/month, well within your means. Not sure what taxes and insurance cost over there; here it would cost me $650/month for $3450/month. You should be able to afford that. take a roommate or two.

I've never been a renter. I bought a mobile home when I began work as an engineer (after commuting from parents home for 9 months.)
Wish I had stretched and bought that Victorian house in Mountain View for 3.5x my salary, with a 13% mortgage.
Wish I had bought mountain acreage and camped or used an RV.

Consider that last option for yourself. Ditch the apartment that costs 1/3 of your income and take up van life, with or without a piece of land you own. Operate a farming business on the land so all expenses (other than principal payment) are tax deductible on schedule F while you take standard deduction. If while you are building it up the farm operates at a net loss (maybe waiting for nut trees or Christmas trees to mature?) the operating loss will be subtracted straight off your otherwise taxable income.

 

[Zwy]

I occasionally watch Nick Johnson on Youtube. One video he was at a homeless camp and talked to a young couple who lived in a tent. They were leaving in a few days and moving to Kansas where he had bought a house. He had made $500K trading bitcoin while living as a homeless person using free wifi at various places. Kid was pretty smart, he paid cash for the house.

As Hedges brought up interest rates, back when I first started out in life, interest rates were around 18%. Eventually it dropped to 12 to 15%. Some years I paid more in interest than what I took home for pay. Contrast that to a few years ago when one could finance at 2.25%.

Either you pay more for a house or more for interest. The only way housing will come down is if interest rates go back to the levels of the 80's and 90's.

Take the $500K house the OP mentioned. At a 12% rate, the interest for the first year would be $60K for the first year. Even with a 20% down payment, the cost of interest would be $48K. With an income of $100K, 50% of gross income would go towards just paying the interest. Property tax, principal and maintenance still need to be paid.

If prices drop due to the high interest rates, that same house might be $300K. At 12% with a 20% down payment, interest would still be $28,800 per year. That is almost 30% of gross income just for interest. Again, taxes, principal and maintenance need to be added.

The point is that people managed to buy a house and pay for it, many with income lower than what the OP has for income.

 

[ksmithaz1]

Definitely there is a bubble in the housing market right now. Keeping interest rates artificially low feeds volatility in the markets. When I started looking for a house the rates were 18-21%, stupidly high. I bought at 14 and refi'd to 9, then 7. . . Covid stoopidity created a dearth of new housing, coupled with a dramatic influx of people, and you don't have to be a mentalist to figure out prices are gonna go up, and rent is gonna go up.

This of course created a wonderful boon for people with the wealth and influence to peddle overpriced housing and purchase rental property. Housing has stabilized, at least here, and there is a ton of construction going on, for both multi-family and single-family housing. I think we are going to see a slight decline in housing prices soon, as the cost of construction is significantly less than the cost of existing dwellings, and people would rather have a new home than an old one everything else being equal. I've seen it before, and will probably see it again before I die, gawd I'm old.

 

[teal95]

Your location is what's killing you. If you're working from home the entire country is available. If you need Internet redundancy starlink and cell network gets you 2 connections almost anywhere. And rural Internet isn't a sparce as you think it is. I live in what I consider to be a rural part of Michigan and we now have 3 wired sources, 2 fiber and one coax.

 

[ksmithaz1]

Your location is what's killing you. If you're working from home the entire country is available. If you need Internet redundancy starlink and cell network gets you 2 connections almost anywhere. And rural Internet isn't a spare as you think it is. I live in what I consider to be a rural part of Michigan and we now have 3 wired sources, 2 fiber and one coax.

My Starlink is more reliable than my Cox. The latter falls over 2-3 times a day.

 

[didapper]

I was going to point out that the financial system and house prices have been out of whack your entire adult life, but you got that.
Liar loan boom precipitated world financial crisis. Quantitative easing gave us 2% 30 year mortgage, re-inflating the bubble, so house prices went even higher.
Interest rates went up to 7% but prices didn't come down. Houses are now unaffordable.

You make $100k, house is $500k. Ideally you save up $100k down payment but there could be alternatives.
$400k mortgage will cost $2800/month, well within your means. Not sure what taxes and insurance cost over there; here it would cost me $650/month for $3450/month. You should be able to afford that. take a roommate or two.

I've never been a renter. I bought a mobile home when I began work as an engineer (after commuting from parents home for 9 months.)
Wish I had stretched and bought that Victorian house in Mountain View for 3.5x my salary, with a 13% mortgage.
Wish I had bought mountain acreage and camped or used an RV.

Consider that last option for yourself. Ditch the apartment that costs 1/3 of your income and take up van life, with or without a piece of land you own. Operate a farming business on the land so all expenses (other than principal payment) are tax deductible on schedule F while you take standard deduction. If while you are building it up the farm operates at a net loss (maybe waiting for nut trees or Christmas trees to mature?) the operating loss will be subtracted straight off your otherwise taxable income.

2800/mo ends up being much more than im paying right now. I can afford it, but I guess there goes a huge portion of my ability to save. I'm saving now, so I can pay even more "rent" to the bank for 20 year, in hope of not having to pay rent. This is the American dream right? For most people this would be easily years of saving and 30 years of mortgage payments. Imagine the idea of _maybe_ being able to own a home by the time you're 60, and essentially putting 80% of all income into that process. That assumes you don't have any major life problems that cost you money (you will)

In other words, most young people don't even bother with a 40 year long term plan to MAYBE own a home.

I'd almost rather burn money and wait for the bubble to pop, because I don't want to be holding the bag with an expensive mortgage.

Your location is what's killing you. If you're working from home the entire country is available. If you need Internet redundancy starlink and cell network gets you 2 connections almost anywhere. And rural Internet isn't a spare as you think it is. I live in what I consider to be a rural part of Michigan and we now have 3 wired sources, 2 fiber and one coax.

My job is 95% remote, I have to visit job sites _in the area_ enough to not be able to just live anywhere.

True WFH jobs are fading, I can't just pick up a new totally remote job tomorrow. Maybe I could, but it would probably be some souless job I don't care about. At least right now, my job involves keeping the lights on for critical systems, and I think that's not a bad job.

I would not be able to use starlink, they CGNAT everything. Their service is also a joke. I have dual ISPs, one with symmetric 2g service adn one with 1g service with ipv6. If I was CGNATted (like starlink does) I would literally not be able to do my job from home.

 

[didapper]

Definitely there is a bubble in the housing market right now. Keeping interest rates artificially low feeds volatility in the markets. When I started looking for a house the rates were 18-21%, stupidly high. I bought at 14 and refi'd to 9, then 7. . . Covid stoopidity created a dearth of new housing, coupled with a dramatic influx of people, and you don't have to be a mentalist to figure out prices are gonna go up, and rent is gonna go up.

This of course created a wonderful boon for people with the wealth and influence to peddle overpriced housing and purchase rental property. Housing has stabilized, at least here, and there is a ton of construction going on, for both multi-family and single-family housing. I think we are going to see a slight decline in housing prices soon, as the cost of construction is significantly less than the cost of existing dwellings, and people would rather have a new home than an old one everything else being equal. I've seen it before, and will probably see it again before I die, gawd I'm old.

Yes, so you can see how as someone who "has been saving to buy their first home since around the end of the pandemic", this all really, really sucks. That + insane inflation means that I was going from saving nearly everything and being on my way to "well now all of my groceries are 20% more expensive, I'm not getting a raise without changing hobs, and housing is also getting more expensive".

Meanwhile others in this thread: Back in my day I saved a nickel a week and was able to buy a house by the time I was 30!
Nobody is saying it wasn't "hard" then, but I want one of you to actually share some numbers suggesting it's somehow easier for the youth today.
I'll also say, I don't think back in your day, you had to deal with your salary being capped because the people who were going to retire at 60 are now retiring at 65. or later. If only the economy were strong enough to allow those peopel to retire, too bad it's on life support because it's been left to run by billionaires since the 70s or so.

 

[ksmithaz1]

Yes, so you can see how as someone who "has been saving to buy their first home since around the end of the pandemic", this all really, really sucks. That + insane inflation means that I was going from saving nearly everything and being on my way to "well now all of my groceries are 20% more expensive, I'm not getting a raise without changing hobs, and housing is also getting more expensive".

No, what I see is someone who is impatient and feels like everything in the world should work the way they think it should. We all get it, we were in our twenties once, though that may be hard for your generation to believe. Perhaps you should look at an economics course, maybe read a little Thomas Sowell.

Meanwhile others in this thread: Back in my day I saved a nickel a week and was able to buy a house by the time I was 30!
Nobody is saying it wasn't "hard" then, but I want one of you to actually share some numbers suggesting it's somehow easier for the youth today.
I'll also say, I don't think back in your day, you had to deal with your salary being capped because the people who were going to retire at 60 are now retiring at 65. or later. If only the economy were strong enough to allow those peopel to retire, too bad it's on life support because it's been left to run by billionaires since the 70s or so.

Perhaps we should just jail all the "billionaires" and take their money? That's worked out so well around the world. I'm paying a kid about your age $25/hour to dig trenches in my back yard on the weekends, I'm getting too old to do this stuff. It's 105F+ here.. He has another gig doing the same crap during the week. He's happy to have the extra income, and hey, it's cash. You are pouting because you only make 100 grand a year sitting in your air-conditioned apartment typing on a keyboard. Yea buddy, we all feel your pain.

No subsidies, no handouts, no nuthin. Make your way on your own. The only thing subsidies do is drive the cost of whatever the product is up. The minute the government got involved with funding college educations, the cost of that same education went up in direct proportion to the amount available money from government. So now we have a bunch of over-educated indebted young fools, who are not willing to dig a ditch to make money, complaining they can't buy a house in an overpriced area when they are 25. This has GOT to be a troll, This is a DIY forum, people here tend to be self-reliant.

 

[didapper]

No, what I see is someone who is impatient and feels like everything in the world should work the way they think it should. We all get it, we were in our twenties once, though that may be hard for your generation to believe. Perhaps you should look at an economics course, maybe read a little Thomas Sowell.



Perhaps we should just jail all the "billionaires" and take their money? That's worked out so well around the world. I'm paying a kid about your age $25/hour to dig trenches in my back yard on the weekends, I'm getting too old to do this stuff. It's 105F+ here.. He has another gig doing the same crap during the week. He's happy to have the extra income, and hey, it's cash. You are pouting because you only make 100 grand a year sitting in your air-conditioned apartment typing on a keyboard. Yea buddy, we all feel your pain.

No subsidies, no handouts, no nuthin. Make your way on your own. The only thing subsidies do is drive the cost of whatever the product is up. The minute the government got involved with funding college educations, the cost of that same education went up in direct proportion to the amount available money from government. So now we have a bunch of over-educated indebted young fools, who are not willing to dig a ditch to make money, complaining they can't buy a house in an overpriced area when they are 25. This has GOT to be a troll, This is a DIY forum, people here tend to be self-reliant.

lol im not really following your argument. Are you suggesting that all 20 year olds should pick up a shovel and start ditch digging so they can own a home? what do we do when we're out of ditches to dig? If we all do this the ditch digging market will be saturated and people will be looking to work for $10 an hour. I guess this is fine if a lot of ditches need to be dug, but we also have things like excavators and whatnot so I'm not sure a kid with a shovel is the best idea. Florida didn't seem to be able to replace their undocumented labor with children, but maybe you can help them out.

You can ignore the plain and simple fact that people now have to save about 2x as much, relative to income, to afford a home, that just makes you a bit... silly.

This comes off as you being a bit upset that someone was able to learn valuable skills so they can work from behind a keyboard, in the AC. Sorry you weren't educated as well as I was, but someone's gotta export services to other countries, and keep things running, because we can't sell american dug ditches to china can we? You were sarcastic, but you very clearly don't feel "our" pain. With comparable job titles/wages 20 years ago, people in my age range would be rolling in money. Too bad we're barely keeping our heads above water because of increased costs everywhere, no increase in wages, drastically rising housing costs, and debt which is basically the "norm".

I'm not looking at "expensive houses", plainly, the "average" home costs in this large area, with a population of ~10m which gives a very large sample size for averages. Moving a 3 hour drive outside of the city to cut costs simply isn't a reasonable option for me, especially given that I need an actually stable internet connection, but the junk musk is selling people. Some people are fine turning their mind off for 2-6 hours a day on the road, that's not me. 2 hours driving is 2 hours I could have been learning something. Too bad we're trying to get Americans back into the factory instead of in a position where they can actually design stuff

Again the assumptions about what I'm doing and people saying "i know someone who did this 10 years ago" "or i know a 'smart' man wasting countless hours on the road just to afford something most people could relatively easily afford on a single income when I was younger". The average home price in dallas has gone from ~200k to ~350k IN THE LAST 5 YEARS

young people: stop using housing as an investment strategy
old people: stop being entitled and work harder

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

This comes off as you being a bit upset that someone was able to learn valuable skills so they can work from behind a keyboard, in the AC. Sorry you weren't educated as well as I was, but someone's gotta export services to other countries, and keep things running, because we can't sell american dug ditches to china can we?

I'm not sure I'm following your logic. If your education is not able to provide for your preferred lifestyle, you made a youthful mistake or are making continuing miscalculations.

 

[didapper]

I'm not sure I'm following your logic. If your education is not able to provide for your preferred lifestyle, you made a youthful mistake or are making continuing miscalculations.

you're not following my logic.

I'm doing pretty fine myself, few of my peers are. Given the cost of housing/wages, I'm making pretty above average rates for the area, but the cost of housing is rising much faster than my income is.

When I started working, I was looking at average home costs of a bit over 200k in the area. Now the average is closer to 350k. That is a HUGE difference in how much I'd have to save. For a 15% downpayment that's 30k vs 52.5k, for the AVERAGE home in the area. The issue being that if I was a few years older, as in was not in school when homes were cheap, this would be a non issue for me. I wouldn't mind a 30k down payment, 50k is a lot of money and I feel nervous about doing that when it seems like stuff is a bubble, so I guess until then, the safest/smartest option is to wait it out and throw away money for rent.

I don't have mommy or daddy to move in with either, if I lose my job and don't have savings, I'll be having a rough time and/or will be living with friends.

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

When I started working, I was looking at average home costs of a bit over 200k in the area. Now the average is closer to 350k.

So why not buy some rural acreage at affordable prices and build a home with your hands? As mentioned above, starlink can give you reliable and excessive web access for pennies compared to your rent.

 

[didapper]

So why not buy some rural acreage at affordable prices and build a home with your hands? As mentioned above, starlink can give you reliable and excessive web access for pennies compared to your rent.

as i've said multiple times, starlink is not suitable for my work. they "carrier grade NAT" all connections so it's impossible to host anything from it. It's also not nearly as reliable as i need, and the latencies are too high. also apparently their "lite" plan is 80/mo. that's more than I pay for my 2gbps symmetric fiber connection with super solid latency (and an actual IP address) with no usage limits.

Their business plan has public IPs, but I average about 6-8tb of usage a month, so that would cost $540/mo as a base for 2tb and an additional $1000 for my usage. $1500/mo is close to what I'm paying for my rent right now (which includes worse internet service I use as a backup)

64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=2.33 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=2.55 ms

I'm not going to get <50ms latency on starlink. I consider <20ms to be usable. How can I do something like measure the latency or packet loss on an endpoint when starlink is giving me 10ms of jitter and some packet loss by default? I can't. Reading up on it, it seems starlink has somwhere in the range of 50-100ms latency and 5-20ms jitter by default, totally unusable for my needs.

If I was just using the internet to post on forums and watch youtube videos? that would be fine. Doing even half of what I do for work/out of personal interest? that's entirely unsuitable.

I do a lot of hosting, and a lot of it is "donating". I have extra storage and bandwidth with a super fast and stable server, so i provide free hosting for open source projects, and act as a mirror. I can't do that in the middle of the woods.

I'm not living my life just for me, I care about other people than myself, and I'm not maxing out my life's design for my personal gain. I think people should be able to live in a "happy balance" where they are supporting themselves, and can do things to help those around them.