DDC XXXIV: The Original Home Of The DISDads!!!

[docsoliday1]

Still looking for a permanent job, but a friend of mine gave me some good tips on cover letter writing. Well, hope all is well, have to get the day started.

I'd be interested to compare notes...
Hopefully, I won't ever have to worry about it again, but just in case...seems to be a lot of job uncertainty going around sadly.

Just saw Randall's reaction...
Maybe some clarification is needed ...
I'm not saying my job has uncertainty, but the issues some of the other guys are talking about. I shouldn't ever need a cover letter again, but nothing is certain except death and taxes (and debates about political candidates)

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Nice. That's a quality item right there. Can I refill your egg nog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere, leave you for dead?

Here's a question for the group - how old were you when you bought your first house? And did you actually put 20% down, or less? I'm 27 right now and looking at renting for at least a few more years and trying to get an idea of what's realistic

I was 26. My wife and I bought a new townhouse. I think we paid something like 7% down, and then we learned that if you put down less than 10% as a down payment, you get hit with an extra charge called PMI "Private Mortgage Insurance". Basically, it means the bank doesn't trust you to make your payments since it wasn't a huge down payment to begin with and is the equivalent of flushing money down the toilet every month. So I learned it was best to have at least 10% down in order to avoid that charge.

We treated the townhouse like an investment (bought in an area where home prices were increasing steadily). We lived off my salary and saved my wife's (this was so we could save up for a real house and be prepared for when we had kids). In 2 years, between the value of our townhouse increasing and our savings, we were able to sell the place and put down 20% on our current home.

Hey guys, just checking in. I missed quite a bit. I've been busy avoiding axes at work.
I was hoping to do a longer post sometime. I've had a rough couple months on the job front to be honest but it's been a sh!t storm around here so I'll have to keep it brief.
Short story is that my company is not doing well and in an effort to get into the black before year end the axes have come out in force.
I had to lay off three of my staff last Friday and I really haven't been sure about myself for a while.
I finally received an offer letter last Friday to move into a different position. So at least I will be OK for a while longer.
I hope to have more time later to fill you guys in more.

Dang. I'm sorry to hear that, Jeff. That's rough. Hoping you survive the storm.

I wouldn't worry about affording "enough" house. People usually overestimate how much house they need. Small homes can be just fine.

This is true. We have a 4-bedroom house and 4 kids, so two of our boys have to share a room. It's the smallest model in the neighborhood. We make it work, though. I like to think that there's no wasted space.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Morning all…
Dreary & rainy here today, but I’m is a surprisingly good mood.

It does look like I’ll still be having troubles posting here during the day.
The site isn’t directly blocked, but there is some kind of utility running in the background that will block it after it catches me here. Basically, I can sneak in a post or maybe two.
Strange…

Took the day off and enjoyed my Basil Hayden bourbon in my Griswold vacation moose mug tonight. I went to the store and saw that eggnog has 21 carbs per serving. Anyone have a keto friendly eggnog recipe?

Yep…
Fill the moose mug with bourbon.
Drink.
Job done.

Best eggnog ever concocted..

but after 10PM last night wasn't really in the mood to get into the party spirit. Hopefully my worst fears won't be realised.

Ours have…
May you be somewhat less scathed over time.

What we did was for 6 months take out the new mortgage sum from the accounts into a holding account to see if we could manage on the money that was left, so it's kind of a risk free trial.

That’s a good idea just in general.
And the benefit of having saved a passel of cash is a serious benefit.

My father-in-law and I did all the framing ourselves as well as the electrical work. We did contract out a few things that made sense: Digging and pouring of the foundation, insulation work. We've also added a whole second floor (we paid someone to do that), so essentially doubling the size of the house. Does that count?

It certainly counts as impressive.

Being a Triscadecaphile…
I consider every one of these to be potentially great days.

But then again, I’ve always gravitated toward those things that other folks belittle, fear or discard out of hand. Probable because I am one of those things.

 

[MantaRider]

I got lucky, my wife inherited our house from her grandmother, so I haven't bought a house yet. I have, however, doubled the size of our house over the years. We put on a 450 sq. ft family room, on the same footing as the back deck we use to have. My father-in-law and I did all the framing ourselves as well as the electrical work. We did contract out a few things that made sense: Digging and pouring of the foundation, insulation work. We've also added a whole second floor (we paid someone to do that), so essentially doubling the size of the house. Does that count?

That definitely counts, I wish I was that handy. Or could inherit a house! My MIL is supposedly giving us money for a house down the line. But I feel like it's not real until it happens

 

[MantaRider]

Morning guys from a grey London. Xmas party last night, so a bit of a sore head. It would have been worse but after 10PM last night wasn't really in the mood to get into the party spirit. Hopefully my worst fears won't be realised.

Ponzie, enjoy your days off buddy. Here's hoping you don't get a call.


Hey Jeff, that sounds awful, having to do the deed this close to Xmas. All the best from us mate, and like the guys said, glad you missed the axe, my friend.

We stretched ourselves a bit for the house we live in now. What we did was for 6 months take out the new mortgage sum from the accounts into a holding account to see if we could manage on the money that was left, so it's kind of a risk free trial.

That is good advice. One other is try and have 6 months of mortgage as savings.

That's very good advice, we are trying to build up that savings right now. We live with my MIL in Pittsburgh right now, and by June we should have about 6,000 saved up. Financially it's great for us to live here, but personally I hate it. We lived in Atlanta renting for 4 years and I miss the South so much. Western PA has constant cloud cover, making winter a real drag.

 

[MantaRider]

I was 37 and I believe it was 5% down. But this is when financing was a lot easier too, so I don't know how strict lenders are being these days.

I hate to say it but I"m kind of hoping the market crashes again so I can take advantage of it

 

[pkondz]

Morning, boys.
It's warmed up quite a bit around here, so that's good at least.
Currently -13C/9F. Back to the cold tomorrow, though, so it's short-lived.

This is a test of the Employer DisBoard Blocking system.
Let's see if I can get away with this...

You didn't. Not a single photo of extremely hot and underdressed women came through.

I'm sure we all have stories like this. I got passed over once for someone who left engineering altogether and went to sell insurance for 6 years. But she was good friends with the chief engineer, so...

Yep. Same thing. Nepotism runs deep in the management ranks.

Another cold one here, we may be getting near Winnipeg levels with a windchill of -20c.

Yep, that's getting down there.

For those not on FB, this came in the mail yesterday.

Nice!
I (of course) immediately looked into it, but... I don't know where you got yours, but... on Amazon it's $40 plus $12 for import duties... and that's with Prime!
I just can't see paying $50+ for a mug, no matter how awesome it is.
At least not for me. Not necessarily for others.

Here's a question for the group - how old were you when you bought your first house? And did you actually put 20% down, or less? I'm 27 right now and looking at renting for at least a few more years and trying to get an idea of what's realistic

We lived up north and had government housing from work for the first while.
We moved south and bought a house with 5% down when I was 35.

Anything at all.
Yesterday the entire site was unaccessible
Today though, so far – so good.

Got it. I wasn't thinking of the overlords. I was thinking of Dis Mods and the thread that shall not be named.

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

Yeah, I'm a little scared to buy a house right now. Even though this would be two years away. I'm worried I won't be able to afford it 'enough'

Tough call... if you're worried about affording it... can you afford it "enough" for a while? Generally speaking, your wage should go up while your mortgage will remain the same. (Unless you chose to increase it, to lower the time remaining.)

I was hoping to do a longer post sometime. I've had a rough couple months on the job front to be honest but it's been a sh!t storm around here so I'll have to keep it brief.
Short story is that my company is not doing well and in an effort to get into the black before year end the axes have come out in force.

Saw that on my TR first... (some of it)
And... ouch. Sorry to hear that.

I had to lay off three of my staff last Friday and I really haven't been sure about myself for a while.

That couldn't have been much fun. Right before Christmas...

I wouldn't worry about affording "enough" house. People usually overestimate how much house they need. Small homes can be just fine.

This.
We built a nice big house and... we love it and... are talking about downsizing when the kids move out.

Ponzie, enjoy your days off buddy. Here's hoping you don't get a call.

Won't be. I'm maxed out on overtime.

Nice. That's a quality item right there. Can I refill your egg nog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere, leave you for dead?

I was going to say that, but you beat me to it.

 

[MantaRider]

I wouldn't worry about affording "enough" house. People usually overestimate how much house they need. Small homes can be just fine.

My house is only 1,114 sq. ft. with a 1-car garage, two bed, one bath, and it's perfectly fine for my wife, son, and I. My wife would prefer a larger home, primarily for more storage. But if we just got rid of the things we never use (like the stuff that's been in the garage for 6 years, never touched), we'd have more than enough room.

When we got married, my wife's condo was 1560 sq ft, 3 bed, 2 1/4 bath, 2 car garage. She really wanted to stay in her place. It was a 2 minute drive for her work but 45-70 minute one-way commute for me to get to work. We had a constant back-and-forth with my wife arguing that we needed more house and should keep hers. I replied that the commute to her place, compared to my place, would be equal to 30 days over the course of a year. She was very sad to sell her condo, and it made our marriage really difficult.

Then life happened. My wife got laid off. When it came to school for our son, my wife really wanted our son to be in a Catholic school. The best one in about 100 miles is a 5 minute drive from my house. It would have been a good 30 minutes out of my way had we stayed at her house. And 90% of the kids from the school live within a 10 minute drive of the school. When my wife is sick, because we live at my house, I can come home and pick up our son from school and get back to work within an hour. Living at my wife's place would have required a half-day off work burning leave.

Get a house if it makes financial sense and buy what you can afford. Don't worry to much about too much or too little house, because life doesn't work that way!

This is really great advice, thank you. It's reassuring to know we aren't too off track.

 

[MantaRider]

Morning, boys.
It's warmed up quite a bit around here, so that's good at least.
Currently -13C/9F. Back to the cold tomorrow, though, so it's short-lived.

We lived up north and had government housing from work for the first while.
We moved south and bought a house with 5% down when I was 35.

Tough call... if you're worried about affording it... can you afford it "enough" for a while? Generally speaking, your wage should go up while your mortgage will remain the same. (Unless you chose to increase it, to lower the time remaining.)

This.
We built a nice big house and... we love it and... are talking about downsizing when the kids move out.

Wait a sec, you live in the south and it's 9 degrees F? That's rough. It's 30ish in PA today.

When it comes to the house, my goal is to have mortgage + property taxes be equal to a rent payment in the area. I haven't looked too much in Florida yet since I'm more concerned with moving out of my MILs to an apartment in PA right now, but it seems like Florida is going to be a little more expensive.

So many things hinge on big decisions we have yet to make. We are thinking about having a second kid, which would set us back a few years with the extra daycare expenses. My wife works full time now and her check minus daycare comes out to about 400 a month, so we are making enough that it feels worth it. i'm not sure what we'll do though. The big difference in opinion we have right now is - I want to move straight to Florida when we move out, and she wants to be up here for another year or so.

 

[declansdad]

Morning all,

I think I going to take in some high school basketball action this afternoon so it will be an early office day. Of course it's all in the name of work; love working in this sector.

Off to the age-class provincial volleyball championships tomorrow and Sunday. No pressure on us as we haven't made it past the semi-finals in any tournament this Fall, sounds like upset time.

Have a good one all. I'm sure Dan will call it soon so he can work on Brexit.

Yep, that's getting down there.

-20 this morning, -8 now, 0 this afternoon. Love this weather!

 

[docsoliday1]

Short story is that my company is not doing well and in an effort to get into the black before year end the axes have come out in force.
I had to lay off three of my staff last Friday and I really haven't been sure about myself for a while.

Others have already said it, but sorry Jeff...this sucks. Praying for you and especially those you had to let go

Hopefully my worst fears won't be realised.

This sound ominous!?

 

[docsoliday1]

Wait a sec, you live in the south and it's 9 degrees F? That's rough. It's 30ish in PA today.

Oh this is funny!
No, he's in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
He was saying they used to live further North in Canada and then they moved South. With the temps and snow they get though, not sure the move helped them.

Not laughing at you, just definitely not South.

When it comes to the house, my goal is to have mortgage + property taxes be equal to a rent payment in the area. I haven't looked too much in Florida yet since I'm more concerned with moving out of my MILs to an apartment in PA right now, but it seems like Florida is going to be a little more expensive.

There are several factors to consider
When renting, you have no equity.
But, you also have little to no maintenance or responsibility. If something breaks, they did it (hopefully not waiting too long for said fix)

When you buy, it's ALL on you, but the advantage is you're building equity, which ultimately increase your net worth.

Its up to you how detailed you want to be, but IMHO, you need to do a cost benefit analysis...it is a very individual decision.

 

[declansdad]

Oh this is funny!
No, he's in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
He was saying they used to live further North in Canada and then they moved South. With the temps and snow they get though, not sure the move helped them.

Not laughing at you, just definitely not South.

Wait now, he's in southern Manitoba. It's all relative.

 

[MantaRider]

Oh this is funny!
No, he's in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
He was saying they used to live further North in Canada and then they moved South. With the temps and snow they get though, not sure the move helped them.

Not laughing at you, just definitely not South.


There are several factors to consider
When renting, you have no equity.
But, you also have little to no maintenance or responsibility. If something breaks, they did it (hopefully not waiting too long for said fix)

When you buy, it's ALL on you, but the advantage is you're building equity, which ultimately increase your net worth.

Its up to you how detailed you want to be, but IMHO, you need to do a cost benefit analysis...it is a very individual decision.

I guess South is all relative! I'm not sure what we are going to do when it comes to renting vs buying long term. We've discusses the possibility of just staying renters, because of expensive home repairs we see family doing and the never ending maintenance that YOU are responsible for.

 

[AirGoofy]

Happy Friday. Made it in to the office for an hour, played tennis, mowed up the rest of the leaves, drained the gas out of the lawnmower & edger, and did laundry. I need to go back to the office to rest.

I got lucky, my wife inherited our house from her grandmother, so I haven't bought a house yet. I have, however, doubled the size of our house over the years. We put on a 450 sq. ft family room, on the same footing as the back deck we use to have. My father-in-law and I did all the framing ourselves as well as the electrical work. We did contract out a few things that made sense: Digging and pouring of the foundation, insulation work. We've also added a whole second floor (we paid someone to do that), so essentially doubling the size of the house. Does that count?

Inheriting a house is nice, but doing your own construction on a home is impressive. That's certainly a way to keep home expenses down, if you have the talent and ability.

Yep…
Fill the moose mug with bourbon.
Drink.
Job done.

Best eggnog ever concocted..

I like eggnog though. Just one more thing I miss on keto. Maybe another year and then I can enjoy.

Nice!
I (of course) immediately looked into it, but... I don't know where you got yours, but... on Amazon it's $40 plus $12 for import duties... and that's with Prime!
I just can't see paying $50+ for a mug, no matter how awesome it is.
At least not for me. Not necessarily for others.

$14.99 for one and $24.99 for two. Amazon pricing difference.

So many things hinge on big decisions we have yet to make. We are thinking about having a second kid, which would set us back a few years with the extra daycare expenses. My wife works full time now and her check minus daycare comes out to about 400 a month, so we are making enough that it feels worth it. i'm not sure what we'll do though. The big difference in opinion we have right now is - I want to move straight to Florida when we move out, and she wants to be up here for another year or so.

That's a tough decision as well - moving your wife away from her mother. I couldn't pull that one off. Good luck.

 

[MantaRider]

That's a tough decision as well - moving your wife away from her mother. I couldn't pull that one off. Good luck.

I think I actually get along with her mother more than she does, so that shouldn't be too hard!

 

[Fred M]

I hate to say it but I"m kind of hoping the market crashes again so I can take advantage of it

The problem with market crashes is that homes become cheaper but financing becomes harder to get because lenders get more conservative with their loans. Arrrrrgghhh!

 

[Fred M]

This.
We built a nice big house and... we love it and... are talking about downsizing when the kids move out.

My coworker decided to downsize. He said, "my oldest will be gone soon to college and we won't need the space." I gave him serious side eye because his oldest is 12 and still in 7th grade!

 

[docsoliday1]

We've discusses the possibility of just staying renters, because of expensive home repairs we see family doing and the never ending maintenance that YOU are responsible for.

True, but again, you're building equity for someone else that way. Again, you have to decide which has more pros and which has more cons and choose appropriately.

Wait now, he's in southern Manitoba. It's all relative.

So, are you saying they're all relatives in Manitoba, as in Alabama here? Jeff Foxworthy --- If your family tree does not fork, you might be a Redneck.

I like eggnog though. Just one more thing I miss on keto. Maybe another year and then I can enjoy.

You can make it or possibly find a sugar free version.
Eggs, cream, some spices and stevia or erithrotol (I can never remember how to spell that right and I'm too lazy to look it up)

$14.99 for one and $24.99 for two. Amazon pricing difference.

Hey @pkondz I can pick you one up, but then trying to get it back would suck.

The problem with market crashes is that homes become cheaper but financing becomes harder to get because lenders get more conservative with their loans. Arrrrrgghhh!

Market crash does not necessarily mean the housing market will crash as well, unless of course you meant housing market to begin with vs. stock market. We sold our house in GA, so we've got a nice chunk o' change in savings now...if there is a crash (market or housing), I'm hoping to put that to good use.

 

[londontime]

Morning chaps from a relatively sunny London. I have my freeloading extended family over tonight, who come round my house once a year, bring a cheap bottle of wine and then help themselves to my top shelf spirits. Never been invited around their houses. I just do it for my mum, but I've put her on notice that this might be the last year I do it, as I've done it in one form or another for 20 years, pretty much as soon as I had a house, it was "Good ol' Dan will pick up the slack"

I can't seem to shake this funk I'm in at the minute.

Have a good weekend all