FINANCES (A Place For Discussion)
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Thanks. Just trying to save the integrity of other threads as well as create a space for new thoughts. And maybe someone could merge some of the previous discussion to this thread?
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But let me add DrPat…your discretionary spending money depends A LOT on the place you call home. The SF Bay Area is one of the most expensive places in the world to live. No, it's not London, Paris or Tokyo...but it's up there. We pay a price to live here...every bit worth it, but we do pay a steep price.
But income level generally reflects the regional cost of living. I'm sure the average salary in SF is higher than many other places.
I live in Geneva. It was ranked the 4th most expensive city in the world last year. And I get paid in US dollars. With the current exchange rate, it's not a good combination.
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I live in the VERY EXPENSIVE Bay Area, Oakland (Lake Merritt neighborhood) to be exact – because it's fucking amazing. The Sunday just passed says it all....70 degree F sunny blue skies in early February. Plus, people, attitudes, vibes are totally cool here...
I'm also highly employable elsewhere -- in a state with a much lower cost of living (Texas comes to mind). I would likely earn about the same salary, but my fixed costs -- say if I lived in Austin or Dallas -- would be less than half of what they are now. A new life in Texas would enable me to spend insane amounts of money on clothes -- but would I do it ? Never !
Not in a million years.
Life as an Oakland-er (San Francisco-er, Berkeley-er) is nothing short of grand !
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But income level generally reflects the regional cost of living. I'm sure the average salary in SF is higher than many other places.
I live in Geneva. It was ranked the 4th most expensive city in the world last year. And I get paid in US dollars. With the current exchange rate, it's not a good combination.
As a software engineer, I earn about 10% more in The Bay Area than I would in Texas. But trust me, The Bay Area's cost of living is double that of Texas !
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One thing that gets my goat is this: I work for the government, so I get a base GS level pay…so let's say I make 50k a year...on top of that, I would get a locality pay, which is a percentage of my salary for my cost of living...what Shub said is correct, and the locality pay in TX is much lower than the one for NY...but the kicker is that ALL of NY gets the same locality pay...so regardless if I live in NYC (where I live) or Buffalo, the pay is the same...and the cost of living in Buffalo is CHEAP...
The last time I was in Buffalo, we ate two buckets of wings and drank ten pitchers of Labatts for less than $200...
I miss Buffalo...
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Simon, dude, you are truly adorable ! You just don't realize how YOUNG you are. When I read your posts, I just crack up….and I know you're being earnest and gut-wrenchingly honest when you pour your heart out to us (I totally love and appreciate your open-ness BTW). All I can say is...you are young. Life forces us to grow, mature, get our shit together...life is ruthlessly cruel in that way. And trust me, son...hang in there -- the same will happen to you -- one day, you will wake up...and just realize things. The reason you don't "get things" now...is because you're immature (I don't mean it negatively). I was immature as hell when I was your age, 18. But I would say, smokes or not -- you have more appreciation for/respect for money than I had at your age. At least you understand that money doesn't grow on trees...there's a check and balance thing going on. From ages 18-22, I didn't have that understanding really because I was away at undergraduate college (not working, studying -- paid for by Mom). When I graduated at age 22.5 -- handling money which I earned from my job -- was a shock to me. It took a long time for me to realize indeed that "money doesn't grow on trees". At age 45, I've come a l-oooooong way obviously.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA
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First off, the fact that every thread I or someone else sets up to keep threads consistent gets hijacked by RANDOM commentary. Just makes me laugh now. Second, the fact that Simon is even aware of a song like that. Lastly, that Beyonce is "the sexiest, most beautiful woman in the world !"
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First off, the fact that every thread I or someone else sets up to keep threads consistent gets hijacked by RANDOM commentary. Just makes me laugh now. Second, the fact that Simon is even aware of a song like that. Lastly, that Beyonce is "the sexiest, most beautiful woman in the world !"
+1. ahahahahahah
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hey y'all! there's this new paypal thing starting up. And you get 25$ free just for signing up, and 10$ for every referral!
v just follow this link v
http://www.virtapay.com/r/joubinit's dope!
You start with $25 in your VirtaPay account and it's free.
VirtaPay will add up to $20 per day to your account for participating as we prepare to launch our new service.
You'll be an EarlyBird user—before VirtaPay opens to the public.
You'll help shape the development of the best virtual currency and payment system ever designed for the Internet.
You could have hundreds or thousands of dollars in your account by the time we launch, without ever making a deposit!hehehe: In order to prevent fraud, we only allow one account to be created per IP address per hour.
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Going to merge this thread into "FINANCES (A Place FOr Discussion)". Just an FYI.
EDIT: Merged
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Joubin, only one more thing from me about this, nobody in this world will give you real money for free.
The website give out virtual money in a virtual currency, that at the current point you can not spend on anything at all…. So please keep this in mind. From their Terms & Condition page:
"All account balances are held in VirtaPay virtual currency. VirtaPay maintains a virtual currency that is autonomous and independent of all nations and governments. The VirtaPay currency is denominated in dollars and cents (similar to the currency of the United States and over 20 other countries). The VirtaPay currency is currently in a closed system, and cannot be exchanged or spent outside of this system. Our plans include person-to-person transactions, integration with merchants and shopping cart systems, and much more. As is the case with any currency, once the VirtaPay currency comes into widespread use, its value as weighted against other world currencies can and will fluctuate due to market forces such as supply and demand, etc."
so if you want a opinion from me, hands off! …..
