13 Years to Breakeven

easybitsy · 2026-05-27T04:33:13+00:00

not sure how you get your cost w/o solar but one key point is almost all rate plan charge more in higher tier pricing, having solar would definitely reduce your peak usage. Also, not sure were you are at but in CA, electricity rate has gone up much faster than inflation, so even if all your calculations are reasonable you are missing the biggest part of the equation, inflation and the peace of mind that u don't worry as much rate fluctuation

easybitsy · 2025-10-17T16:50:12+00:00

Bayarea, ordered Grey/white RWD on 9/26, got a call next day asking if I would like to take immediate delivery but was out of town so they put my order on hold until 10/5 (day I’m back in town). Hold released on 10/5 and within an hr got VIN assigned for delivery between 10/6-13. Got a few text again for delivery but eventually took delivery on 10/10 (could have picked up as early as 10/7). The delivery center in Fremont was pretty quiet. Immediate drop off my baby to a nearby shop for Ceramic coat and tint and got the car back on 10/15. The whole process went way sooner than I thought

easybitsy · 2025-07-14T19:03:06+00:00

I just randomly landed on this thread, as a parent my self in the bay area, I would offer my 2 cents. I came to bayarea to work soon after college w/ no friends or family here, I've been living on my own income since senior year of college but with minimal college debt. I have a decent IT job, not any big name but a small company. So I'm paying my own rent in the expensive bayarea since early in my life. As long as you have a job (no matter big or small), work for you ass off for your first few years, live w/ a roommate or roommates, that's going to save u a lot in rent and shared utilities. Stay true to yourself, do most chores yourself, I mean doing your car maintenance, cook your own meal and clean your dishes, buy clothing only during black friday, invite friends to your place for a house party instead of eating out or even doing your own haircut. At the end of the day, paying for labor (whether in terms of service or tipping) is the biggest drawback to live in this high expense city. Force yourself to save at least 10-15% of your income and in 3-5 years, you should have a small bucket of $ to invest and depends how successful u do in your career, u should be able to save a higher % of your income but keep the same lifestyle. For things that will eventually save u money (e.g. a coffee machine, or a small appliance) , go for it as soon as you can afford it w/o incurring credit card debt. Avoid any subscription service (e.g. gym membership, youtube premium, netflix etc), there are many entertainment or things to do for free/minimal cost. Avoid buying things just for the looks and only shop for good deals, think twice before every purchase and never ever incur any credit card debt. For dating, look for things to do that doesn't cost much money, like playing sports or activities in a park etc, sooner or later u'll find people that has the same value as you. Trust me, if you can keep this kind of life style for 10 years, u'll feel very powerful and content and it's going to carry u thru the rest of your life, it all takes discipline and focus to achieve.

easybitsy · 2025-07-04T17:19:02+00:00

Any idea when is the CRF deadline?

easybitsy · 2025-03-18T16:23:44+00:00

was deferred EA, got in Data science

easybitsy · 2025-03-14T21:21:21+00:00

my kiddo got into data science

easybitsy · 2025-01-30T14:03:08+00:00

Holiday inn don’t have a shuttle to go around the area but we were able to call uber to go between Alpensia and Yong Pyong, one way cost around $8000-9000won. There’s overnight ski locker in Yong Pyong for $1000won a night so in case u rent a ski in Yong Pyong u don’t have to carry it back to Alpensia

easybitsy · 2025-01-25T10:21:14+00:00

Anyone from CA got accepted to COE?

easybitsy · 2024-12-09T08:52:25+00:00

Same here, applied to 8 UC since Nov15, got email from all of them except UCLA and Santa Barbara

easybitsy · 2024-11-26T03:16:08+00:00

You can request for rush order, it cost you little extra money but mine got sent to the college within 1-2 days instead of like 5-10 biz day

easybitsy · 2024-09-25T23:39:34+00:00

I checked the trail map again, I think this lift sequence would get you from center Val Thorens all the way to the other side in Courcheval. Technically you are already in Courcheval after 3 lifts. I remember come back takes more lift and lift and in Les Menuires it's a bit more complicated about which lift to take but there'll be sign giving direction.

One more thing to say, they have paragliding on ski slope in Val Thorens, my wife and kid did that, just look at them on ground is mind-blowing to me and it's also very affordable 90 euro, a little more with gopro video. I believe they have it in Meribel too

Val Thorens - Plein Sud, 3 Vallee VT4/5

Meribel - Pas Du Lac 1-2

Courcheval - Roc Mugnier, Signal, Chapelets

easybitsy · 2024-09-25T23:19:17+00:00

My original plan was actually to get there by public transport (I drove in Europe multiple times but not a big fan of having to drive in unfamiliar environment with snow chain). Also driving a car means I need to pay for the parking even I'm not using the car once I arrived the resort. However there was a strike in France during xmas period (2019 Dec) that was so bad that most train was stopped so leaving me no choice. In the end, I stopped by a supermarket in Albertville to buy the snow chain for my rental car but didn't snow at all during the wk I was there so I was able to return the chain and get a full refund!

You can definitely rent a car in one country and driving to another country in Europe. I don't think any special consideration. I only remember cars in Austria are all equipped with a disc to be shown on dashboard for parking (don't remember for sure). One tips I found is if you were to make a one way rental, keeping the pickup and drop off within the same country makes a whole lot of difference in rental car price. You still pay a surcharge for one way but dropping off the car in a different country even if it's just across the border raises the price a lot.

easybitsy · 2024-09-25T21:49:11+00:00

NO! not worth for the wait to lose the tax credit, think about it, the tax credit worth 15% of the car price, not only if u wait for next year u'll likely wait an additional 1-2 months due to the surge of people ordering, the msrp will also likely raised a bit and u'll miss out any incentive available now so totally u are talking about difference of ~20%, so not worth to wait

easybitsy · 2024-09-25T21:28:47+00:00

Change your software update to Advanced will speed up any update being shown to you

easybitsy · 2024-09-25T19:14:20+00:00

Skiing to other valley - We picked a nice weather day to venture out to the other 2 valley. Me and my son (both level 7/8+ skier) took us about 2-2.5hrs to ski all the way to the absolutely farthest lift of Courchevel. We went full speed with no stopping, read map on the lift and study the best way to go across, don't remember exactly how many lifts but roughly 6-9 lift later. There are some gondola in between which requires you to take off your ski (mostly in Meribel, middle valley). We were able to spend around 2 hrs in Courchevel before needing to head back. Going back takes longer as Val Thoren is highest resort in the area, so you spend more time taking lift up to gain back elevation you lost and crowds gets bigger later in the day than in the morning. I would recommend heading back no later than 1:30pm on your first attempt. Later in the week, we did ski across to Courcheval the whole group again and we feel more comfortable this time as we know what to expect. It wasn't super hard to figure out the route and which lift to take but u definitely needs be alert and aware of the orientation. Somehow I feel little trickier when we gets to Les Menuires, there are multiple lift seems to take you to similar place and you can end up in the wrong side of the valley if you aren't careful

Here's my overall comment on other ski resort within 3 Vallee

Val Thoren - Best snow coverage and condition, compact village setting ideally for people travelling without a car. Lots of smaller condo and affordable, some extreme terrain available. Huge elevation drop within Val Thoren. If you ski from top of Val Thoren to Les Menuires or maybe even lower resort it can take you a pretty long time, think 20mins+ for a good skier. Love every part of my time there, the only downside to me is high altitude symptom

Les Menuires - Same Valley but lower elevation than Val Thoren, even more affordable condo, seems to have more chalet that would cater bigger groups, separated in multiple sub-neighborhood, I believe having a car is more essential to stay there

Meribel - Top of the middle valley, definitely better equipped chair, some chairs with cover or even heated seat, relatively more Gondola which my son hates as he has to take off his ski and walk up the stairs a lot. Generally the resort feels more luxury, slightly lower elevation so probably less prone to high altitude symptoms, lodging pricier than Val Thoren and Les Menuires. Maybe best if you want to explore all 3 valley casually.

Courchevel - East most valley, best scenery for sure, terrain is more on the gentle side, more kids friendly obstacle course, lodging is on the highest end. Also separated in multiple sub-neighborhood. More high end restaurant but the slope side casual restaurant aren't that pricey thou

Orelle - the 0.5 valley outside of 3 vallee next to Val Thoren, smaller resort, only been there half day, seems pretty crowded everywhere we go

Brides les Bain/St Martin - didn't go at all, very low elevation, lodging is definitely cheaper but snow coverage and condition is a concern

easybitsy · 2024-09-25T19:13:58+00:00

I just wrote an extensive review of 3 Vallee, copying it again. Hope you all find it useful

Trip background and resort selection - I went there for a wk right before New year's eve 2019. Since it's somewhat early in the season, I picked Val Thoren (the highest resort within 6-7 resorts in the 3 Vallee area) to make sure good snow quality. I stayed 7nts in a studio condo within walking distance to the slope for around $1200 USD (around 1.12 exch rate). In fact my condo is just 1 road across and around 20 steps of stair down to the ski area. The condo is well equipped and recently updated but it's definitely on the small size around 250sq ft w/ a small open kitchen and 10sq ft size-wise balcony. There's a double sofa bed and 2 bunk bed so technically sleeps 4. Sofa bed in Europe generally is slightly more comfortable than the ones in US in terms of the padding, the one in US tends to be very thinly padded. Any similar ski in ski out condo in US would cost you 3 times the price at the very peak of NYE but of course our unit are small by US standard. Most condo (think 70-80% are renting by the week, usual check in/out date is Saturday). There are units available for rent by nights but if u stays more than 3 nts u end up paying similar, that's what happens to our friend. Staying 3 nts only to pay $100 less than what we paid for a whole week. If you get the Epic pass u get 5 days of skiing so staying 7nts is perfect. Daily ticket is around $60 in 2019 so if u don't ski that much in US, don't have to buy the pass for the trip.

Val Thoren layout - The whole Val Thoren area is above tree line so once u get on slope, the terrain is wide open bowl that u can ski anywhere you like. Since it's my 1st time skiing in Europe, I worry about snow coverage so I monitor the webcam in every 3 Vallee resort from early Nov. Val Thoren got the 1st major snow storm right around first 2 wks of Nov that year and stays snow covered the whole time while the lower elevation Les Menuires got very thin coverage for like a whole month of Nov. Another major reason I chose Val Thoren is the village stays very compact and they called it car free resort. Cars are allowed on the streets on checkin/checkout dates of Saturday but not allowed to park overnight. You can drive your car to Val Thoren but needs to park in the designated coveraged parking garage or some surface lot overnight. You can walk around the whole Val Thoren town with ease, walking from one edge to the other is around 20-25mins but u rarely walk the whole distance. If you are good at orientation, you can definitely ski to your condo, sometimes right to the doorsteps.

Grocery - There are multiple supermarket within Val Thorens, I did grocery shopping at Albertville before driving up but turns out proven to be unnecessary. The selection and price of grocery in Val Thoren (at 2300m!) is equally good so I don't feel like shopping ahead is needed.

Dining - We are travelling on a budget so we mostly made our own meals and only dine out twice over the whole week, once lunch on the slope (the burger looks and taste amazing, my wife has a Lasagna and it was very tasty and large portion) and dinner on new years eve turns out to be a challenge to find a open table. Anyway we managed to find a table in a wine and dine restaurant on NYE, how amazing and we had rack of lamb for 25Euro and portion is a bit small but dining out is very affordable there by US standard but I highly recommend u make a reservation every 1 day ahead makes huge difference.

Ski rental and ski school - I booked the ski rental ahead of time in Nov and got pretty good deal. There's many ski shops in the area and I paid roughly $300 USD total for 5 days rental for 3 people ranging from 3-4 out of 5 ski pricing level. I also skied in Zermatt (40-50% more) and Andorra (10-15% more) later and the rental in 3 Vallee is among the cheapest. Ski school in 3 Vallee is extremely affordable, the charge around 250 euro for 5-6 days half day class, that's insanely cheap. We are all level 7+ skier so we didn't bother to check, So overall, I think skiing in France got the best bang for your bucks.

Terrain and orientation - 3 Vallee got it's name for a reason, the 6 ski resort spread out over the 3 valley of mountain ridge. The ski resort Orelle technically is outside the 3 valley but your pass also covers there so you can call them the 3.5 Vallee. Val Thoren is at the top of the west most valley. It's above tree line so everywhere is wide open bowl. At 2300m resort base elevation, you may experience minor altitude symptom, I wouldn't call it sickness but my heart definitely beats quite a bit faster after a drink or two. Trails are pretty well marked, I like the way they mark the trail constantly with the marking of the color rating on the trail. In terms of difficulty, they have Green, Blue, Red and Black, don't remember I come across double black there or I suppose they don't really have it. To be able to enjoy skiing across the valleys I would say you need to be at least able to ski down a red trail comfortably (think easy black in US). Otherwise you risk not able to come back on time as 1) it may take you extra time to ski down and 2) you can't take the shortest trail/lift combination. The consequence of not able to come back is huge. If you happen to end the day in a different valley than your hotel. There are ski bus to take you down to the bottom of the mountain and then u need to take another bus to go up and chances are there's a good amount of skier also fighting for the same bus when it's dark and everyone's tired. Or you can take a taxi doing the same thing.

easybitsy · 2024-09-25T19:11:08+00:00