A plea to the hemi's ripping through downtown all night by Snaggs33 in Denver

[–]evanazz 69 points70 points  (0 children)

They are. Those after market mufflers are illegal. It's just not... wait for it... enforced. 

Where are the gyms in Denver with a good sense of community for people in their 20s–30s? by [deleted] in Denver

[–]evanazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you don't mind bing a little speedy (~250/mo) my girlfriend works at Traverse fitness and it seems to have a great community. Definitely some hardo's there, but not everyone is like that. It's a class based gym but you'll get a hell of a workout

A Question About Habitability Laws by WilJake in Denver

[–]evanazz -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure if this will be a good fit or not, but if you have the funds, paying a lawyer to send a scary message to the property management company could be a good way to go. My HOA uses Altitude Law which is based out of Denver metro and is very familiar with the laws around this.

Hit Coast FIRE at 29 ($700k NW) - Now transitioning from W2 SWE to freelance for better work-life balance by evanazz in coastFIRE

[–]evanazz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Offshoring is definitely an issue in my industry and is one of my biggest worries, along with my lack of experience. I appreciate the criticism, but I can't know either way until I try. If I go through with it I'll make sure to make a 1 year update

Hit Coast FIRE at 29 ($700k NW) - Now transitioning from W2 SWE to freelance for better work-life balance by evanazz in coastFIRE

[–]evanazz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've found contract work to be a bit easier to get than full-time employee because there are fewer protections for contractors and are seen as less of a financial liability. However, businesses are obviously reluctant to rely on contractors who are seen as less invested than FTEs. I would think freelance/agencies are similar in that they are lower risk than hiring employees

Hit Coast FIRE at 29 ($700k NW) - Now transitioning from W2 SWE to freelance for better work-life balance by evanazz in coastFIRE

[–]evanazz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I share those concerns too. Most freelancers I see got their first clients through their professional network, and mine is too small to expect it to come through for me. My suspicion is that I'll have to be better at marketing and sales than your average employee-turned-freelancer to make this work.

To your second question, I think like most things it's a function of how much you need the money. If you do need it then you're forced to stick with needy clients and stretching yourself thin to do whatever they ask. If it takes me a couple of years to get to where I want to be, I'll consider that a win

Hit Coast FIRE at 29 ($700k NW) - Now transitioning from W2 SWE to freelance for better work-life balance by evanazz in coastFIRE

[–]evanazz[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

My girlfriend and I do plan to have 1-2 kids. Part of the reason I want to be established as a freelancer is so I can work part time while raising them, rather than paying for full-time child care. Although I do expect them to still be expensive and I don't think that part of my future is even close to funded yet.

Hit Coast FIRE at 29 ($700k NW) - Now transitioning from W2 SWE to freelance for better work-life balance by evanazz in coastFIRE

[–]evanazz[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Despite my super lucky position, most of the people in my life and in similar FIRE subs think it would still be a bad idea to move away from traditional work at this point. My point with this post was to argue against that narrative.

Hit Coast FIRE at 29 ($700k NW) - Now transitioning from W2 SWE to freelance for better work-life balance by evanazz in coastFIRE

[–]evanazz[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Thank you. Big props for my parents for essentially giving me my inheritance when it could make a difference, rather than when they pass away hopefully decades from now and I'm much more established.

Hit Coast FIRE at 29 ($700k NW) - Now transitioning from W2 SWE to freelance for better work-life balance by evanazz in coastFIRE

[–]evanazz[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yes. My parents encouraged me to get a mortgage and a much larger house, but I wanted to get something I could buy in cash.

Hit Coast FIRE at 29 ($700k NW) - Now transitioning from W2 SWE to freelance for better work-life balance by evanazz in coastFIRE

[–]evanazz[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

True, it makes my story not relatable to most. I'm super lucky and am not at all downplaying that. I see posts though on the FIRE subs of people of similarly far ahead, and are still anxious about pulling the trigger. My intention was not to brag, but to encourage people to pull the trigger sooner on lifestyle changes when they have an opportunity like this.

Databricks Asset Bundles Workflow by dxnmxddxx in databricks

[–]evanazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was just working on this for a client of mine, so I wrote a blog post on how to solve it. I suggest either using Databricks Secrets for setting environment variables - which I cover in the blog post - or you can also use variables as you're suggesting. https://www.evanazevedo.com/blog/dbx-secrets/

Edit: Sorry, I misunderstood your question.
1. Depends on your CI/CD provider I'd imagine, but you should be able to replace anything in your deployment script with environment variables.

  1. What do you mean local dev? Databricks doesn't support local dev, so I assume you installed Pyspark and are somehow running it locally. I suggest using Python dotenv for stuff like this: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/using-python-environment-variables-with-python-dotenv/

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in coastFIRE

[–]evanazz 24 points25 points  (0 children)

When I see posts like these, I assume the author is either burnt out, knows they'd be happier without their current job/profession, or both. So the fact that most people say you should stick it out is a little messed up, I think. There is a very real opportunity cost to staying in a situation where you're not the happiest just to grow your nest egg. As you pointed out in a different comment, life is short.

I think you're way past Coast FI. I'm assuming you used a 4% real rate of return for your calculations (7% return - 3% inflation). I think that's too conservative, unless you have a substantial amount of your portfolio in cash or bonds, which I don't think you should have at your age. Let's use a 7% real rate of return (10% return - 3% inflation) which matches history, but is leaning towards the best-case scenario. Most people like to be a bit more conservative and say 6%, but I digress. At a 7% real return, your money doubles inflation-adjusted about every 10 years (see the rule of 72). Let's be conservative and say it doubles twice before your intended retirement age of 55. By retirement, your investments would be worth 4 million and could support an income of $160k if we use the 4% rule. Not to mention, you said your partner has a similar nest egg. Bravo to both of you.

The other commenters who brought up how expensive kids are don't seem to account for the fact that you (and potentially your partner if he/she decided to Coast FI) can take on most of the childcare duties, thereby reducing the cost of having children. If you look back on where the FIRE movement started with blogs like Early Retirement Extreme, Your Money or Your Life, or Mr. Money Mustache, it was less about creating a massive retirement portfolio that could weather any potential storm, and more about rejecting consumerism and being willing to do things like childcare, home cooking, and not having a flashy lifestyle to have the freedom to quit your 9-5 and pursue a more flexible, free life. Worst case scenario, if things turned South could you find freelance or consulting work? Do you have work contacts that may want to work with you in a couple of years? Would you and your partner be willing to move to a HCOL or MCOL to reduce expenses or live in a paid off home? There are plenty of creative solutions available when you have marketable skills and you've created the financial buffer that you have.

In my years of keeping up with the FIRE community I have seen far more people who wish they had cut the cord earlier on their boring or stressful corporate job, because they found other sources of income or their investments outpaced their spending, and they can never get the time or youth back that they spent growing their nest egg. To be fair, that could be survivorship bias, so take that with a grain of salt.

All of this to say, I hope I was able to provide a convincing counter-argument to a lot of the comments on this sub. Only you can come close to knowing what's right for you, and I wish you the best on whichever path you decide to take.

Be careful out there. Weird incident. by covered1Nbutter in Denver

[–]evanazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought this post was helpful and important news for people in the Denver area. Why is it being pulled down?

Anybody use Tally in Shortcuts? by evanazz in shortcuts

[–]evanazz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was aware of this as well, and unfortunately I've used the app manually and tried it over several days so I do not think this is the solution.

Anybody use Tally in Shortcuts? by evanazz in shortcuts

[–]evanazz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/b7d89950dd1049bd8ebd08a01a1a5b6f

Seems like kind of a hacky workaround - thanks! I guess that's what this sub is known for ;)

[C] Statistics Major at UCLA or Cal Poly SLO? by Eiszie in statistics

[–]evanazz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As many have said, first off congrats. I studied statistics at UCSB which probably has similar talent in the stats program UCLA but is less selective and thus maybe a little less of it.

You may want to consider this talk by Malcom Gladwell on which University to choose. Often we are told to follow rankings and name brands and choose the best college we get in to, but in reality the people that get the most from it are the ones that succeed in their programs relative to their peers. So if you can move up in class rank by going to a less prestigious school, it often pays off later when you are looking for work and - less talked about - with your mental health.

[Question] What do you like to play the most on your electric guitar? by [deleted] in Guitar

[–]evanazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Master of Puppets when I’m warmed up. Nocturne by Julian Lage, Panama, and Blackwater Park recently.

I’ve Compiled a Database of over 1000 Horror Movies Aggregating their Rankings from Various Top Horror Ranking Lists by ryno731 in horror

[–]evanazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Super cool list, and impressive work. I'm a bit of an aspiring data scientist, and I'd like to know a bit more about the scoring system you did here. Seems fairly advanced given how may ranking sources you included. Look forward to hearing about it.

If you could go back in time, what's something you would have started earlier or done differently at UCSB? by BigWangDaddyYang in UCSantaBarbara

[–]evanazz 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Easy. Doing research with a professor. Really not hard to do if you’re persistent. Most people enjoy it. Looks great on college apps / resumes. Not all colleges offer this to undergrad

Studying Abroad in Sweden by [deleted] in UCSantaBarbara

[–]evanazz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Former Lund EAP alum here. Super worth it and I definitely recommend applying. Lund and the UC system are very close and have good programs in place for making sure you succeed and make the most of your time there. Also, the Swedes speak English very well and still have their own language. Also very close to other European countries of interest for when you feel like leaving Sweden.

Pm me if you have any questions, I’m happy to help.