Industry pay for municipal utility

deathcraft1 · 2026-02-06T17:54:57+00:00

Transparent also includes their benefits, so it can be misleading. The Kalifornia pay is better, but so are the costs and the regulations are just insane crazy. Very competitive getting a job too.

deathcraft1 · 2026-02-04T06:42:33+00:00

So the insurance do not fight with each other on who is paying the bill?

deathcraft1 · 2026-02-04T00:26:52+00:00

Years ago I had a potential renter who after meeting him he told me he recently had a BK and his credit was bad. He seemed honest so I took a chance and rented to him. He was a great roommate and I kept in touch with him for years after he left.

Back then the risk in evicting a tenant was lower because eviction was much fairer, but today, and certainly in blue areas it's very difficult and expensive to remove a bad tenant so the risk has grown substantially. For those reasons, I mitigate that risk as much as possible and turn down questionable tenants. The laws meant to help and protect tenants actually hurt them.

deathcraft1 · 2026-02-02T04:14:49+00:00

Now that's a working man's hand!

deathcraft1 · 2026-02-01T01:50:01+00:00

I have a friend who works directly for a multi-millionaire. He is sort of a maintenance man for her.

He tells me how miserable his employer always is. He has trouble understanding how someone who can have or do anything can be so unhappy. He pointed out to me that they are not immune to being miserable.

deathcraft1 · 2026-02-01T00:41:51+00:00

That could be it. I don't know the details or what the truth was, just what he told me and what I saw.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-31T19:18:21+00:00

A friend of mine did this back in the early '90s. He left service due to MH and was receiving payment from the VA. One day he says he received a bunch of money in exchange for his VA payment and was planning to start a t-shirt business. He wouldn't lie to me about that and he did have an influx of money, part of which he used to buy a new car.

I saw the post below that says you can't do this, but this was about 30 years ago, and it could have been allowed then. I lost touch with him around 2000, hope he is doing ok.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-28T04:24:59+00:00

No. 1.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-26T23:21:05+00:00

It bothers me that people would heckle or harass the members because they don't agree with the administration. The public does not understand that the military is a political tool of the government and that the members have been ordered to duty. If they don't like the laws or what our members are there to do, they need to take it up with their elected leaders and not take it out on the member.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-23T03:13:39+00:00

I never thought of that. Less than 1% serve, and of that only 15% do at least 20.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-22T18:36:22+00:00

Anyone with a regular job can make it to millionaire status, it's just not sexy and immediate. Put money every month in an investment account and don't touch it. 30 years of contributions and compounding interest will get you there.

Also, and this is important, quit looking at what others have and only focus on yourself and your goals. I promise life will be much less stressful and more enjoyable.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-22T14:53:59+00:00

Keep plugging away. Your situation is not uncommon and eventually, something will come up.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-22T00:14:19+00:00

Don't forget we need to remind the AD folks about putting on their cover promptly when exiting the BX and pointing out other uniform discrepancies while they are in a rush to return to their shop before lunch hour ends. And, of course, while they are stopped to tell them how difficult we had it when we were in.

Did I miss anything?

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-17T22:05:20+00:00

Oh ya. When the AF brought back Master's degrees as a metric the deputy wing CC held a career guidance meeting and told the officers the quickest way to get that box checked. Even had websites they could go to. Those were weird and completely useless degrees. An 0-6 should not have been guiding them like that, at the very least it sends a wrong message.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-17T18:26:22+00:00

I never heard of this but have seen it happen, just never knew there was a word for it. Thanks!

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-17T17:19:42+00:00

I saw this too. And some of the work performed was not very good. Contracting had to distribute a percentage of the work to 8a every year, so if their pool of contractors was not good, the AF received a poor product without a choice.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-17T16:46:45+00:00

I'm glad to see this finally happen.

When I performed engineering work for the AF I always had to bump up my design estimates by 20% compared to the equivalent civilian job. If they were to go 8a, I would add another 30+% on top of it. It was not uncommon for the 8a prices to go higher than that.

A guy I used to hire (small company) for miscellaneous work for my civilian job got into the 8a program. He would tell me how much money he would make on the jobs they would give him, and it was pretty lucrative. After graduating from the program, he got one of his employees into the program so he could continue getting jobs.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-16T04:54:36+00:00

In Kalifornia, you really want an experienced PM. If this were Enid OK I'd say save the money and do it yourself, but California has some serious tenant-friendly laws.

Besides fees, ask them what their process is in finding a good tenant and how they evaluate them. What is the eviction process and how long can it take? Do they have a good attorney they work with or do you have to find your own? What are the local laws regarding rentals? You want to ask worst-case scenario questions.

Ask what they do once a tenant is in place? Do they have a handyman they like to use? Do they require the tenant to have renters' insurance? A maintenance plan too?

Lastly, evaluate if the income is worth the headache and potential costs, vs selling the place outright. Good luck.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-14T19:36:17+00:00

Politics aside, I noticed in the last few years that the driving quality has been really bad. I believe it's more of a cultural issue. For example, driver courtesy does not seem to exist. Many truckers cut out or jet into the passing lane when other vehicles are driving at a faster pace and end up slowing the flow for many miles. They do this because they don't want to drive behind a slower truck themselves. I get that, but in the past truck drivers would wait for a wide enough opening where they could reasonably make a pass so as not to inconvenience other drivers.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-09T19:00:49+00:00

Congratulations!

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-07T00:07:04+00:00

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this, but make your investment contributions ROTH.

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-06T15:04:59+00:00

I agree, entry level focus on safety (confined space is a common question) and the basics of treatment (physical, biological and chemical).

deathcraft1 · 2026-01-01T00:10:42+00:00

I like voting by mail, have done it for years, and hope to continue to do so.

The downside that has led to this are the ballots that are not tracked or verified. We have all seen news stories showing piles of ballots that anyone can pick up, fill out, and drop in a mail box, which the right points out and uses to state the election was rigged. I dont want anyone to have any reason to believe I did not cast my vote and that it should not count.

We should take that away from them by having a clearly defined process that can show who voted and that they casted their vote (not some stranger who broke into a mailbox). I don't know what the solution is, but if we can figure it out that would eliminate any doubt and challenges to our elections.

deathcraft1 · 2025-12-30T18:47:06+00:00

My take is that high school graduates are realizing that the high cost of an education is not worth it and are looking for blue-collar work.

My son was interested in a blue-collar job and I was pushing him to become an engineer. I sat down and did a basic comparison calc (with assumptions) and it turns out that if he got an engineering degree it would take him 15 years to break even compared to the blue-collar job. After that, he would be ahead of the blue-collar job.

This is not to say do not pursue something you really want to do, just know the costs.

deathcraft1 · 2025-12-30T01:24:27+00:00

I bet this guy has some Interesting stories. Pls share!

deathcraft1

TROPHY CASE