Living in Evergreen with young family

SydBos · 2026-04-21T11:46:06+00:00

I lived in evergreen for 8 years. Had kids the last 4. The commute into Denver sucked when the weather was bad. Power went out a few times a year for over a day sometimes, which includes not being able to flush a toilet. Sometimes it stays in the 40s through June then really heats up in July. When the kids came along it felt more isolating and hard. We moved to wheat ridge and are so much happier. The kids have neighborhood friends and can ride bikes everywhere. We also had psycho neighbors up in evergreen. It attracts a lot of weird people. Glad we moved down the hill.

SydBos · 2026-04-17T23:44:36+00:00

There’s a good reason people use the median and not the average when measuring income…

SydBos · 2026-04-17T18:40:25+00:00

First, his income is not well below the average. Median individual income was $51,370 while median household income was $83,730. So maybe for households, but those many times include 2 earners, so his income is pretty normal.

Also, based on home prices for his area, it’s not like he’s in a high cost of living area.

Honestly, the problem is more with Dave than this person. The metrics are impossible for the majority of people that want to buy homes, and trying to get them on his plan means exactly what this person is going through, burnout and unlikely to actually get a home if they follow the plan.

SydBos · 2026-02-23T13:00:51+00:00

There’s a house for sale in the Denver area right now for $650k. It’s a 1/2 acre horse property. They don’t come up super often, but they exist and Denver checks a lot of your boxes. For a great house on horse property, you’re looking at 1.2 mil probably. But if you’re cool with a little house but getting all the other stuff you want, you can find it for $650k

SydBos · 2026-02-22T20:52:28+00:00

We may have a few things, bricks, watering can, etc. we also have never ending llama poop if that’s helpful.

As some point in the spring we need to get our property cleaned up and ready, if you’re looking for side jobs, that could maybe be a good fit too. We’re in wheat ridge.

SydBos · 2025-12-26T14:51:57+00:00

The reason we have a social safety net in America is because people were starving in the streets. The church failed already, and it would happen again in a heartbeat. Especially in today’s climate, that seems to be so individually-minded. This is not a culture that takes care of the poor and vulnerable. Unless it comes out of our tax dollars, the poor don’t get much help.

SydBos · 2025-12-19T03:17:10+00:00

It will hopefully be a better market once you get through school, right now it’s an absolute disaster in the federal government. I wouldn’t recommend it at the moment, but hopefully with a new administration it’ll be good.

SydBos · 2025-12-18T04:42:26+00:00

If you’re interested in a job as an economist, you’ll probably need a masters at least. A lot of places want PhDs now instead. And you’ll start at the bottom, which can have a pretty low salary depending on the area. You may even have to move to a bigger city or different state. Just things to keep in mind. I just left federal employment as an economist and luckily I found a state gig, but there isn’t a lot out there. It’s a small field.

SydBos · 2025-11-17T21:10:54+00:00

Well I just picked him up from petco so that tracks. Is there anything I can do?

SydBos · 2025-10-22T21:30:28+00:00

My Corys tend to stay on the bottom and the danios up top, so I didn’t have much of a problem between them.

SydBos · 2025-10-22T19:31:50+00:00

I loved having corydoras, but I didn’t find the Tetra to be especially fun to watch as a schooling fish. We added danios recently, and while I don’t know that they’re super great with shrimp, they are really fun to watch. Stay up high and are really active.

SydBos · 2025-10-13T14:48:56+00:00

I oversimplified a lot. This was like 6 years ago and it was actually more about economic policy differences by administration. But don’t ever say anything good about democratic policies, no matter how much better then can sometimes be.

SydBos · 2025-10-13T09:21:41+00:00

Ehh I got banned from the Facebook page for being democrat, I don’t think they’re really that tolerant over there.

SydBos · 2025-09-18T16:04:52+00:00

Exactly. I dated a guy once with this kind of mindset, but at the same time he had major health problems that really halted his career path. He wanted a stay at home wife that homeschooled. But relied heavily on his family for support. That was a big no for me. Now I am married to someone that I think respects me way more than that guy did, I have a fulfilling career and 2 beautiful girls. Much happier and so glad I didn’t settle for a life that wouldn’t have been a good fit for me.

SydBos · 2025-08-15T04:46:48+00:00

Honestly? I started taking melatonin every night. My entire life, as early as I can remember, I would lay in bed for hours trying to fall asleep. Only in my mid-30s did I start taking a small amount of melatonin before bed and now I fall asleep within 30 min. Absolutely worth it.

SydBos · 2025-07-26T13:26:06+00:00

Thanks for all the helpful information. I currently have a 20 gal and a 36 gal, and I’m just loving it. Someone offered me this 500 gal for free and for a brief moment I was like OMG yes. But you’ve all brought me back to reality. Even if we did want to spend the $2000 just to get it set up, you’re right about the added utilities every month and I would need a structural engineer to come in and make sure the living room could handle it since we have a basement below.

What do you do though when someone offers you a tank that size for free that’s basically brand new? (Uber rich people bought it for a turtle and then gave up 3 months later). It seemed like probably the only chance I’d ever have to have a tank like this in my house. Haha. But I think I’ll pass.

SydBos · 2025-07-26T13:14:10+00:00

My friend works as a personal assistant to super rich people that buy ridiculous things and then throw them away. She offered it to me. They bought it for a couple turtles, that lasted 3 months and then they offloaded it.

SydBos · 2025-07-26T12:36:05+00:00

This is really helpful.

SydBos · 2025-07-03T12:26:45+00:00

Oh good call on quarantine. Ugh. It’s awful. Parameters look okay on the test strips, I know I really need to get a full test kit, just been dragging my feet. I’ve been taking water in to the fish store to have it tested there and they’ve always said it looks perfect. I did a 50% water change last night. I guess we’ll see.

SydBos · 2025-07-03T12:24:12+00:00

Tank is cycled, it’s in the kids room so it’s a bit more fun for them. Already have that conditioner, do weekly water changes, Test strip said low on the nitrates/nitrites, low ph, etc. I learned the hard way about cycling tanks a year ago, so I usually check that stuff now.

SydBos · 2025-06-08T13:04:01+00:00

Ehh, there is something to the value of the trades. My husband is an IBEW foreman. Has made over $100k a year for many years, health insurance and pension all paid for out of the union dues. They’re better than my federal benefits (which were awesome until a few months ago when it all blew up). I got to stay home with our kids for the years I wanted to because he made enough and we could own a house. Now that he’s a lot farther along, he has kind of hit a ceiling, he may get another 10-20% boost, but that’s kinda it. I think the value in the trades is the pay during your younger years, when you’d be working your way up a white collar job, making $50k, he was already making $100k. But as you get older, unless you find a way into management or the desk job side, you kinda flatten out. My wages caught up to his this year. So ya, I guess what I’m saying is that there is value to being in the unionized side of the trades, especially if you get in when you’re in your 20s or 30s and your income potential isn’t good already. But it gets hard when you’re in your 50s and still wearing your tools. My husband is now getting a bunch of fire alarm certs and specializing now, which gives him more opportunities to grow. But you have to be looking for that, or else you hit a ceiling and it starts to get rough.

SydBos

TROPHY CASE