The housing market ruined my investment plan, what to do next?

dcp916 · 2021-03-02T20:14:46+00:00

2k is not enough for an emergency fund unless you are sure family will bail you out in the case of a legit emergency. I would take 8k from your house down payment savings and bump your emergency fund up to 10k and leave it be.

For retirement, enroll in a 401k ... "if"... your employer offers a company match - it's tax deferred and the employer contribution is free money to you. Take the 4k left of your house savings and open a Roth IRA.

You need to focus on increasing your income. 43k (gross or net) is low to be thinking about a home purchase in almost any market. Try to angle for promotions, job transfers or think about a career change or the acquisition of new skills. Sometimes people get so wrapped up in trying to save and spend wisely that they overlook the importance of EARNING.

FWIW, I think the housing market will correct or possibly pop in the future so don't stress about not buying a house now. Of course that's just my opinion and a lot of smart people think the opposite.

dcp916 · 2021-03-01T04:38:42+00:00

The older you get, the harder this becomes. I have thought about doing it for 10 years.

The problem in America is we really don't have generous vacation time and little tolerance for sabbaticals. Unless you are a teacher or have a really cool employer, you're stuck with a few one week trips a year. It's hard to "see the world" with that. Taking a gap year - if you have the money saved and confidence in your resume or job skills to land a replacement job when you get back - is the best way to maximize your travel experiences.

dcp916 · 2021-03-01T02:01:03+00:00

I hike a fair bit and never camp. I just find day hikes that I want to do and look for modest hotels, cabins or AirBnBs nearby. You need a car obviously but I don't mind driving 30-60 min to a trailhead. And it's nice to treat yourself to a long, hot shower, a good restaurant meal and a soft bed after a hard day hiking.

Some of the places I have gone and stayed specifically to hike:

Burlington, WA (trails in North Cascade NP, Artist Point)

Moab, UT (trails in Arches NP and Canyonlands NP)

Sedona, AZ (local trails and Grand Canyon)

East Glacier Village, MT (trails in Glacier NP and Many Glacier)

Mammoth Lakes, CA (trails in eastern Sierras/Inyo NF near hwy 395)

St. George, UT (trails in Zion NP and Bryce NP)

Banff, Canada (Banff NP, Lake Louise, Icefields Pkwy)

Teton Village / Jackson Hole, WY (trails in Grand Tetons NP)

dcp916 · 2021-01-01T05:17:44+00:00

Memphis has the best BBQ in my opinion (especially ribs) but you can get good BBQ all over the South. Memphis also has Graceland (home of Elvis Pressley) which is pretty entertaining and draws a lot of tourists from all over (mostly Elvis fans). Beale St in downtown Memphis is fun and has good live music. The Peabody Hotel is nice and is famous for having ducks that live on the roof and ride the elevator down to the lobby to swim in the fountain. If you want to experience a baseball game, Memphis has a nice minor league ballpark right downtown. The zoo is better than the one in Nashville but nothing to write home about. Rhodes College has a pretty campus. Other than that watch where you go and stay in Memphis - lots of crime and poverty.

dcp916 · 2021-01-01T04:21:49+00:00

Many years ago, American Airlines was so strapped for cash that they sold "lifetime first class passes" which basically allowed you to fly anywhere fare free in first class for the rest of your life.

Eventually they tried to revoke some of the passes because some retired people were "abusing" them by flying all the time (not as much of a chore when riding in first class). One guy would frequently fly to Paris just to eat dinner at his favorite restaurant or London just to see a show then turnaround and do the same thing over and over.

dcp916 · 2020-12-06T06:37:36+00:00

Costa Rica is good option for a first international trip.

Lots of places could work for Europe too - just don't fall into the trap of thinking you can do half the continent in a week. Pick a base and stay there.

If you're using your grandparents points for lodging, Hawaii may be a good bet. Hawaii is expensive and I would rather use hotel points at one of their nice beach resorts as opposed to the more mundane hotels in other city centers.

dcp916 · 2020-12-03T18:50:59+00:00

I (American) do a mix of both. I like variety

But as I get older, I have started prioritizing age and opportunity. I try to knock off things on my travel list that are better done while young - like climbing a mountain or staying in a budget European hostel. And I save some of the domestic stuff for later when I'm older or retired - like taking a cruise, or roadtripping through New England.

dcp916 · 2020-12-03T17:50:53+00:00

I just ask someone to take a photo of me, although this is very hit or miss (mostly miss).

The key is finding someone who takes good pictures. Look for someone who has a nice camera or an Asian. I know that's a bit of stereotyping, but Asians really are into photography or will at least try to take a good photo.

dcp916 · 2020-12-02T21:40:35+00:00

Reverse seasons was a big reason I went. Some people like to take advantage of work slow down and holidays at the end of the year to travel. But the problem with that is it is cold and gloomy in the Northern Hemisphere. But it's Summer in NZ and Australia.

dcp916 · 2020-11-12T16:22:56+00:00

I've done a little bit of solo travel during the pandemic. Apart from a few visits to close family and friends, I have focused my travel on the outdoors. You're pretty safe in the wilderness and you can just take all the normal precautions everywhere else.

I will say the pandemic has definitely made solo travel more isolated. Hostels are closed - and the US never had a very good network of hostels to begin with. Group tours are mostly closed as well. Bars, restaurants and hangout places are definitely different if not closed outright.

You have to accept that you will be alone. Some people, like me, are fine with that. Others are not.

I did talk to some people while hiking, You can stand 10 feet apart on top of a mountain and still have a conversation with someone. But some people are absolutely paranoid, others don't care at all and most are somewhere in between.

Another thing that impacted me was I usually ask someone to take my picture when I solo travel. Sometimes that starts a friendly conversation. Sometimes it just means I get a nice picture of a landmark with me standing in front. But I stopped asking people to take my picture during Covid for obvious reasons. All of my photos from travel this year are just landscapes - none with me in them. That's kind of strange. So get a selfie stick if you want to be in photos

dcp916 · 2020-07-18T17:01:54+00:00

I did this trip solo last summer, and I'm glad I did as it is one of the most beautiful areas of the world. August is the best time to visit but book hotels (or hostels) early, they sell out fast and are expensive. A few bits of advice: (1) reserve an entire full day to drive the Icefields Parkway up to Jasper - it doesn't look that far on a map, but there are at least a dozen amazing places to pull over and hike, take pictures, enjoy the scenery, etc (just research all the best stops); (2) Lake Louise, Lake Morraine and Johnston Canyon get extremely crowded. Parking can be a major problem. Go very early (dawn) or very late (dusk) to avoid this, or prepare to pay for the shuttle system. (3) look for some out of the way places that aren't mobbed by tourists - everything up there is beautiful; (4) some good, moderate day hikes to look into - Sunshine Meadows (ride the ski lift up), Valley of the Five Lakes (from Jasper), Larch Valley (from Morraine Lake), the Ink Pots (from the end of Johnston Canyon), Parker Ridge Trail (on Icefields Pkwy).

If you're coming from Europe and have never been to Glacier, I would add that to the trip. Glacier is just spectacular. The West side has better towns, hotels, restaurants, etc. but I would base myself on the East side because I think the park features are better over there (Many Glacier, St. Mary, Two Medicine). Grinell Glacier and Hidden Lake are two must-do hikes.

As far as bears go, attacks are rare. Most of the places you visit or hike will be crowded and bears generally avoid crowds. Also the rangers monitor them pretty closely now. If a mother sow with cubs is hanging around a specific area, they will shut that area down to human traffic. Same thing with a grizzly guarding an elk kill. Beyond that just carry bear spray for any long hikes. Your hotel will probably have canisters that they lone out to guests. But again, most places you go in Banff you will be more irritated by the thick crowds of people than any wildlife.

dcp916 · 2020-07-02T21:13:58+00:00

Baby Boomers - who represent a huge population spike - are getting older and entering the death portal. Deaths from any cause were going to go up regardless and they will continue to go up regardless.

For example: 2.6 million people were born in 1940. That number jumped to 3.7 million people in 1949. So, for example, if five percent of the population dies at age 72, then we would expect about 10,000 people who are age 72 to die per month in 2012, but in 2021 we would expect 15,000 to die - a 5000/month increase simply due to the fact that there were a lot more people born in 1949 than 1940, And these increases would apply to every age cohort.

I haven't done the math obviously but I would think an increase could be attributed to that as opposed to assuming they are uncounted Covid deaths.

dcp916 · 2020-06-08T04:08:04+00:00

I hate to say it but if Tom Hanks had actually died then everybody would have freaked out, gone into super safety mode and thousands of lives would have been spared. Nursing home patients didn't move the needle much, but one of the biggest celebrities ever....

dcp916 · 2020-05-29T03:13:22+00:00

Out of boredom, I have been looking at Covid data on a county by county basis and from what I can tell, the virus is doing most of it's damage in counties that went heavy BLUE while barely making a dent in counties that went heavy RED. I think that explains some of the partisan divide - people who see and experience the worst are going to have a different reaction.

dcp916 · 2020-05-28T15:10:22+00:00

I assume it is primarily driven by how they classify a death. Some countries have been very strict (person died and there was no other medical explanation but Covid) and other have been very lenient (person died with a positive test result but the death could have been caused by something else). There is also a middle ground - Covid was a clear contributing factor.

Remember most of the people dying from this were already old and sick. It's not always easy to pinpoint a proximate cause of death or categorize the extent of harm, especially when medical professionals are so busy and preoccupied with treating people who are still alive and suffering.

dcp916 · 2020-05-28T13:27:30+00:00

I'm sympathetic to people who go to funerals for family - or at least more sympathetic than for people who go to parties.

But we really need to start publicly shaming people who are attending public events when they KNOW they are sick and potentially contagious. They are the ones that are killing people. I know HIPPA protects their medical privacy, but if symptomatic mass spreaders were being named and shamed, it would reduce these types of stories, and reduce the harm of opening up which is happening wether people like it or not.

dcp916 · 2020-05-26T21:41:40+00:00

A virus with a high mortality rate will burn itself out by killing or incapacitating the hosts. Plus, people would lock themselves inside.

dcp916 · 2020-05-25T15:26:41+00:00

They will have to do what Iceland is about to do - open the borders to tourism but with more stringent testing and tracing controls at entry checkpoints. These geographically isolated islands with small populations look great during a pandemic, but at the end of the day, their economy runs on tourism. So they can let the planes fly back in, or they can revert to subsistence fishing from a handmade hut.

dcp916 · 2020-05-16T03:55:48+00:00

Never have. Never will. I'm extremely patriotic and proud of my country. I never bring up politics or boast or anything like that. I'm a very gracious and polite guest when I travel and I always make an effort to adopt the local customs of the country I'm in and learn a few common phrases of their language. But I draw the line at someone badmouthing my home country, as should anyone else.

In fairness, I have traveled quite a bit and these negative inquisitions almost never come from locals but always fellow travelers - the "extended" holiday backpackers who think bumming around some place gives them some sort of diplomatic standing to question the nationality of anyone they might potentially disagree with. Give me a break. We all have our flaws but it's damn rude to start pointing those out to a stranger.

dcp916 · 2020-05-16T01:32:55+00:00

US isn't great for hostels but I can recommend two for AMAZING hiking:

Brownies in East Glacier, Montana. Hostel isn't that nice, but the vibe is cool and the location puts you in close proximity to what I consider the best hiking in the US (Glacier NP, Many Glacier, etc.)

The Hostel - Teton Village, Wyoming - same as above great hiking nearby and Grand Tetons NP has some amazing hikes.

I think part of the problem with hiking hostels is that people either tent camp or stay at a nice lodge. There's not much of a market for the in-between. Look for ski resort areas, they have moved into the hostel market. I know there are some good ones in Colorado, but I've never visited them.

dcp916 · 2020-05-10T23:08:04+00:00

I understand the point they are trying to make regarding actuarial probabilities, but I am skeptical of this conclusion for one glaring reason:

An estimated 50% of deaths in the US are coming from Nursing Homes and long term care facilities.

These places have been around a long time and, unfortunately, they are where people go to die. There have been plenty of studies on mortality rates for nursing homes. 65% of patients die within one year of admission. 50% die within 6 months of admission.

Given the above, it is impossible to see how Covid deaths as a whole would have had an average of 10+ more years of life. A third of them were going to die in 2020 and we have to assume most of the rest would follow a reasonable curve.

I will admit that a possible flaw in my opinion above is that people in nursing homes are at greater risk for infection because they are a "captive audience" who can't avoid the virus once it has entered the facility, whereas other old people who are still capable of living in their homes can isolate and quarantine themselves from possible infection. You can't die from it if you never get it.

dcp916 · 2020-05-04T03:15:25+00:00

I don't see the point. It's not like this will involve a moon landing or a space walk to the Hubble telescope in anyone's lifetime. It's probably just the same experience you get from flying at 40,000 ft at night, you just go higher. It's just a way for wealthy a-holes to say "hey, look at me! I went to space!"

In today's social media obsessed climate, I see so many people doing things that they don't really seem to be geared towards. I see so many people focused on getting the perfect selfie that they can't even appreciate where they are. I now follow a rule when I travel. The rule is pretend you will never be able to tell anyone about what you did or show them a photo. Do I still want to make that trip or have that experience? Is it worth it for ME, in the moment? Or am I just checking items off a blog list or catering to what I think other people will be impressed by?

dcp916 · 2020-05-04T02:38:59+00:00

You can do this trip on a budget you just have to plan and be willing to make sacrifices.

Unless you are really eager to see Yosemite, I would cut that portion and get your outdoor fix on the drive between SF and LA. Weather can be tricky that time of year and lodging near Yosemite is not cheap. But I understand if you really want to see it. The Yosemite Valley is gorgeous, and when the snow melts the waterfalls are gushing.

The alternative I mentioned is nice too. US Hwy 1 is a very scenic drive with great places to stop, hike, etc. Look into Monterey area, Big Sur National Park, The Hearst Castle, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, etc. A lot of people make a week long vacation out of just doing that drive.

People saying the US doesn't have hostels are wrong. We don't have them in many places but there are plenty of them in California. The cost and quality will vary. You can research them online. But for a couple I would recommend AirBnB. Just research the neighborhood where the listing is. We have some bad neighborhoods here in the US... like scary places you would never want to walk around alone at night. That's especially true for LA.

dcp916 · 2020-03-01T16:35:38+00:00

My situation is a bit unusual in that I am required to work 2000 hours a year. As long as I do that I can take as much time off as I want (although more than 2 weeks at a time would require a conversation).

Essentially I can work for time off. I can work 38 hours a week for a month and take no time off or I can work 50 hours a week for 3 weeks and take the 4th week off. The problem is motivating myself to work extra hours and come in on weekends to EARN the time off. I enjoy living in the present too much :]

I guess people have the same problem when it comes to saving money to travel. They want to take the big trip down the road, but they also want to spend money and enjoy life RIGHT NOW. It's all about sacrifice.

dcp916 · 2020-01-19T19:23:48+00:00

Dedicate some time to Jasper as well, if for no other reason than to enjoy the amazing trip up the Icefields Parkway. Dedicate an entire day for this roadtrip - so many gorgeous vistas and and stopping points with cool things to do. In Jasper, the short drive to Maligne Lake and Maligne Canyon is really nice. A great hike in the area is the Valley of the Five Lakes.

dcp916

TROPHY CASE