January '24 Chat -- Happy New Year!

[Dozerboy]

I had some time off for the holidays, so I built a new Fence. Like always it's way over built, but I hope to not be doing it again. The old fence made a nice 20' bonfire. Not much left after 20yo cedar starts burning. Happily the fire department didn't show up.

I hope to be buying a new travel trailer soon and make somemore trips with the family this year. The truck needs new body mounts still. I'd like to get a 4" lift on it. Who knows how much longer the engine/trans will hold on. I'm definitely asking a bit much of them.

 

[Dm23]

I had some time off for the holidays, so I built a new Fence. Like always it's way over built, but I hope to not be doing it again. The old fence made a nice 20' bonfire. Not much left after 20yo cedar starts burning. Happily the fire department didn't show up.

I hope to be buying a new travel trailer soon and make somemore trips with the family this year. The truck needs new body mounts still. I'd like to get a 4" lift on it. Who knows how much longer the engine/trans will hold on. I'm definitely asking a bit much of them.

Damn man, the fence looks great!!! How long did that take?

 

[malibu795]

Follow some restoration machinist channels..
I'm ~8 minutes in and addict and upset my stuff doesn't come apart this nicely

Source: https://youtu.be/B13vXFj37RI?feature=shared

 

[TheBac]

Isnt the skill of some people, no matter the field, just amazing?

Had to take the day off and start getting financial things done. Still waiting on DCs, but getting subscriptions canceled and final cc bills paid.

 

[malibu795]

Rant
Algorithms have been feeding me a bunch of media personalities complaining they can't lol lllsustain a $2.00 lifestyle on a $1.00 income.

Latest one was saying 74k year isn't enough.. first question was.. where are you trying to live at? NYC? Or any other Major metros proper areas?!? Or rural america ?
What type of vehicle are you driving? Payments??
Student loans?
Insurance vehicle? human?
Did you buy a bigger house than you need?
Paying for poor life choices you made 5, 10, 15 years ago? Be they willfully or unknowingly..

Friend recently Complained state took her DL because of no SR22.. she keeps running 10-15 over all the time.. but it's the state fault and not hers.

End rant

 

[PureHybrid]

There are tons of people who go deep into CC debt maintaining their appearances, second and third mortgage type deals (which can be OK if you're doing it for a good purpose). But things are getting expensive, especially housing, and even in some relative off the beaten path type properties going for lots more than what they should IMO.

Wife and I both work full time with two kids, only loan we have is the house. We aren't hurting by any means, but we were talking about housing the other day. We pretty much came to an agreement that if starting from scratch with our two kids we probably couldn't afford to buy our home again in the current market. Both of us make a lot more than we did 10yrs ago when the house was purchased but our buying power hasn't followed suit

 

[Dm23]

Try living in Socal, which I'm sure most of you wouldn't lol. The prices of homes in my area don't sell for under a million, and that is for a fixer upper. If you want something worth while your looking at 1.3-1.7million depending. Rent for an apartment is 2,500kish/month and renting a home is $4500 a month. Then add the cost of fuel, which around here is $5 for diesel. I just got rid of directv to save 1600 a year. I honestly don't know how people can afford a kid or kids here.

 

[malibu795]

Try living in Socal, which I'm sure most of you wouldn't lol. The prices of homes in my area don't sell for under a million, and that is for a fixer upper. If you want something worth while your looking at 1.3-1.7million depending. Rent for an apartment is 2,500kish/month and renting a home is $4500 a month. Then add the cost of fuel, which around here is $5 for diesel. I just got rid of directv to save 1600 a year. I honestly don't know how people can afford a kid or kids here.

I spent May 05 to October 08 in Oxnard stationed in the Naval base there.. The house I lived in was 3bd 1 bath attach garage no AC, central heat outdates everything was 0.8 Mill on sub .25AC.lot. rent was ~2800 at the time, split it 3 ways. No utilities included.

I've got a lot friends in that area and San Diego.

The registration for my 01 2500 CCLB at the time was ~750.00 for 12 months. I can get 10 year tag for the same truck in Ohio at almost same cost.

 

[malibu795]

There are tons of people who go deep into CC debt maintaining their appearances, second and third mortgage type deals (which can be OK if you're doing it for a good purpose). But things are getting expensive, especially housing, and even in some relative off the beaten path type properties going for lots more than what they should IMO.

Totally agree.
I never really got mixed up with CC debt, my big financial mistake was co-signing for a junior guy on a 04 grand am GT in 04 that was a big mistake. 25k loan..
Took me 7-8 years to get out from under that mess.

You also have big investments firms buying up stuff for stupid money

 

[Dozerboy]

Damn man, the fence looks great!!! How long did that take?

4 days to take down the old fence and put up the new one. The post are the worst to do. But I've had the lumber for 3 months letting it dry so I could paint it and stain it which was about 4 days of work. Probably spend 1-2 days building the gate since I had to teach myself to stick weld, because steel gate frames don't sag.

I built myself a "tank" to dip stain all the pickets with drip trough to drain stain back into the tank.

 

[PureHybrid]

Try living in Socal, which I'm sure most of you wouldn't lol. The prices of homes in my area don't sell for under a million, and that is for a fixer upper. If you want something worth while your looking at 1.3-1.7million depending. Rent for an apartment is 2,500kish/month and renting a home is $4500 a month. Then add the cost of fuel, which around here is $5 for diesel. I just got rid of directv to save 1600 a year. I honestly don't know how people can afford a kid or kids here.

I'd be living in the homeless encampment That's why we stay in the rust belt

Totally agree.
I never really got mixed up with CC debt, my big financial mistake was co-signing for a junior guy on a 04 grand am GT in 04 that was a big mistake. 25k loan..
Took me 7-8 years to get out from under that mess.

You also have big investments firms buying up stuff for stupid money

Never got into cosigning thankfully. Ever since the Intel announcement there's been a couple larger outfits buying smaller empty lots or anything that can have another residence built on it for outrageous money simply hoping they'll make bank in a couple years. I honestly thought everything was going to crash by now. I'd love nothing more than one of these Chinese funded places go belly up

 

[Dm23]

I'd be living in the homeless encampment That's why we stay in the rust belt

Never got into cosigning thankfully. Ever since the Intel announcement there's been a couple larger outfits buying smaller empty lots or anything that can have another residence built on it for outrageous money simply hoping they'll make bank in a couple years. I honestly thought everything was going to crash by now. I'd love nothing more than one of these Chinese funded places go belly up

There are plenty of homeless that's forsure. It's gotten a lot worse too. But the weather is great

 

[NC-smokinlmm]

Houses are nuts in Wilmington now. A 1700 square foot 65yo brick ranch is 400k plus and that’s for one that needs hvac, roof, floors, bathrooms, kitchen, plumbing, electrical, exterior decking and windows unless you want to live retro in a 1960 or 70’s style home interior. It’s out of control, I could never live like do if I hadn’t bought 15 years ago.

 

[TheBac]

Our home has been paid off since 2018. I see home prices now and think, "WTF?!?"

 

[Dm23]

Just so you guys have an idea.

755 Avenue A, Redondo Beach, CA 90277 | MLS #SB23229423 | Zillow

This 882 square feet Single Family home has 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. It is located at 755 Avenue A, Redondo Beach, CA.

www.zillow.com

1203 Lilienthal Ln, Redondo Beach, CA 90278 | Zillow

1203 Lilienthal Ln, Redondo Beach CA, is a Single Family home that contains 1001 sq ft and was built in 1953.It contains 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.This home last sold for $1,300,000 in February 2024. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $1,316,800, which has increased by $9,242 in the last...

www.zillow.com

 

[chevymec]

Happy New Year to all!

Got to do my HG's.
Tahoe needs the tank dropped since the evap canister came apart. Clean the lines out because it is a pain to fill up. Also needs a cam and lifters soon.
S10 needs the rear end rebuilt.
Wife's car needs a few things.
Chevelle hasn't been touched in years, well not since I bought it. Engine has been on the stand for almost 3 years I think.
It is gonna be a busy year.

 

[PureHybrid]

Just so you guys have an idea.

755 Avenue A, Redondo Beach, CA 90277 | MLS #SB23229423 | Zillow

This 882 square feet Single Family home has 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. It is located at 755 Avenue A, Redondo Beach, CA.

www.zillow.com

1203 Lilienthal Ln, Redondo Beach, CA 90278 | Zillow

1203 Lilienthal Ln, Redondo Beach CA, is a Single Family home that contains 1001 sq ft and was built in 1953.It contains 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.This home last sold for $1,300,000 in February 2024. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $1,316,800, which has increased by $9,242 in the last...

www.zillow.com

At that rate, I need a raise just to live in poverty!

 

[TheBac]

$1.9M and $1.2M for two houses smaller than my home on lots quite a bit smaller than mine. My God. I dont care what kind of weather you have there, thats freaking ridiculous.

 

[PureHybrid]

$1.9M and $1.2M for two houses smaller than my home on lots quite a bit smaller than mine. My God. I dont care what kind of weather you have there, thats freaking ridiculous.

It's no wonder the hotties out there think $3-400k yr income is bare minimum to even look at you

 

[malibu795]

At that rate, I need a raise just to live in poverty!

It's really any major metro area they have that mindset.

I've got a couple old flames that wanted me to move to socal... They had I hard time comprehending "I can double my income and take home less money" doing same job.
Plus 90% of the stuff I like/own isn't welcome in California.
For giggles looked up couple places I lived at while in Oxnard