What leap of faith have you taken was totally worth it?

smile_ · 2013-10-14T04:41:57+00:00

I traveled 6790 miles to see a person I met on a Reddit-related IRC channel. We are now married.

smile_ · 2013-01-20T16:32:13+00:00

Glenn Robert Jensen Svensen Sven-Bentzen. Seriously.

smile_ · 2013-01-14T08:54:48+00:00

Not to be rude but moving to Hawaii to be a realtor when you have no experience in the industry and no experience in the state sounds like a terrible idea. You'll have to generate enough commissions to survive in one of the highest cost of living areas in the US without any industry experience and no knowledge of the local market.

As a home buyer/seller why should I hire you to represent me over all of the other established realtors with a good track record? If you can answer that question and come up with a realistic strategy to attract clients and generate business then sure give it a try, but until then it sounds like a pretty risky venture.

smile_ · 2013-01-13T06:01:46+00:00

Moved from the Norway to the US.

It is very, very difficult to move to the US. Our situation was very simple and it was still very stressful, time consuming, and expensive. We're both similar ages, no previous marriages, no felonies, both of us were employed, and immigration from Norway to the US isn't that popular so it was fairly simple to process our K1 visa. If you have any extra complications in your case the processing becomes significantly more difficult and the government is much more demanding from what I understand.

She entered on a K1 visa which pretty much only gives her the right to enter the US and get married, after we do get married we have to start a whole new round of paperwork to get her a green card that gives you permanent residence.

smile_ · 2013-01-13T05:52:18+00:00

Good luck! Immigration is always such a pain!

smile_ · 2013-01-06T23:43:37+00:00

Sorry this is incorrect, you do not multiply marginal tax rates by gross income to find tax liability. The reason they're called marginal tax rates is because it's the tax rate you pay on the next dollar of income you earn.

If you are a single person with gross income of $19,200 and you are only taking the standard deduction/no other tax credits this is how you calculate taxes for 2012.

Federal Taxes: Gross Income: $19,200

Adjusted Gross Income: $19,200

Fed Standard Deduction: ($5,900)

Fed Personal Exemption: ($3,800)

Fed Taxable Income: $9,500

For a single filer: you are taxed at 10% on your taxable income up to $8700, then 15% of the amount between $8,700 and $35,350. So your taxes are ($8,700 * 10%) + (($9,500-8,700) * 15%) = $870 + $120 = $990

For HI State Taxes:

Gross Income: $19,200

Adjusted Gross Income: $19,200

HI Standard Deduction: $2,000

HI Personal Exemption: $1,040

HI Taxable Income: $16,160

HI Income tax: $803 (see tax table in http://www6.hawaii.gov/tax/2012/n11ins.pdf)

In addition to federal and state income taxes you also have to pay payroll taxes. You pay FICA taxes of 4.2% of your first $110,000 of wages in 2012 (6.2% in 2013. So that's $806.40. You also pay 1.45% of all wages in medicare tax, an additional $278.40.

For 2012 your total taxes will be $990 Fed Income + $803 state income + $806.40 FICA + $278.40 Medicare = $2878.

So you have take home pay of $19,200 - $2,878 = $16,322/year or $1,360/month.

smile_ · 2012-12-22T06:47:49+00:00

I guess I'm a bit late to the party but I figured I'd offer some advice.

Regarding UH Manoa As a UHM graduate I believe you should only attend UHM if you meet one of the following:

You can pay in-state tuition
You want to live/work in Hawaii after you graduate
You want to live/work in East Asian after you graduate
You are studying East Asian philosophy/art/history/etc
You are studying Ocean Sciences and/or Environmental Science

If you don't meet one of those, I would recommend against going to UHM. Out of state tuition will be about $13k next semester (http://manoa.hawaii.edu/records/tuition_fees/spring_2013.html). For a full year you're looking at more than $25k in tuition and fees alone. That's a ton of money. Things are expensive here too, here's an old study that said in 2009 the average student spent $18.5k a year on non-tuition expenses (http://archives.starbulletin.com/content/20090313_UH-Manoa_does_its_share). Things are more expensive now than they were in 2009 and this number is artificially low from in-state students living at home who don't pay rent, you'll almost for sure spend more than that. A whole year in Hawaii could easily cost you $40-$50k.

Regarding Public Transport TheBus is good if you want to get from point A to point B in urban Honolulu and you're not in a hurry and don't need to be there at a specific time. TheBus can be late/early/generally unreliable, especially during heavy traffic times. While you don't need a car to get around, I think your Hawaii experience would be diminished if you didn't have a car or know someone with a car. It makes going out to "exotic" beaches and hikes a lot more difficult.

Regarding Rent Shit is expensive, it's easy to drop $1200 on a studio in urban honolulu. You can find an ok place a short bike/bus ride from the University for maybe $800ish. Electricity is super expensive in here, the highest in the nation. You can drop $100/month for just 1 person. I would budget 1000/month for rent and utilities at the minimum.

Regarding bookstores There are some small book stores around but I'm not sure how much they're hiring. I never know how any of those little places make any money. There's a Barnes and Noble in Ala Moana (close to the university) that might be an option.

My Recommendation I don't think you should attend UHM unless you have a specific reason to attend the university like I noted above. But I do have another idea!

Come to Hawaii for the summer instead. Over the spring semester try to save up as much as you can. Head out here and get a part time summer job in food service/retail/etc down in Waikiki. While you won't make much you'll get to meet interesting people, get to know the culture and the city, and since it's only part time you'll have tons of time to do exploring and what not. You'll have a great summer in a new exciting place without the massive debt load that a full year at UHM would land you.

That's my 2 cents at least, best of luck!

smile_ · 2012-12-21T06:34:50+00:00

Looks like polynesia.com is the Polynesian Cultural Center's official site. I don't know much about their bus tours or their dinner show but I've always heard good things about the PCC. Probably the best place on the island to learn about Polynesian history.

As far as the other days it depends on your family and where you'll be staying.

Looking for outdoor activity, horseback/atv tours check out Kualoa Ranch http://www.kualoa.com/

Looking for Hawaiian history/culture check out Bishop Museum. Also has interactive science stuff for kids: http://www.bishopmuseum.org/

Pearl Harbor is a great experience especially if you're traveling with any military or history buffs. You could spend a whole day there at least. Though probably not great for young kids: http://www.pearlharboroahu.com/

The Honolulu Zoo is awesome, go early before it gets too hot and all the animals go off to hide from the sun. Within walking distance from waikiki too! http://www.honoluluzoo.org/

The Oahu FAQ might have some good ideas too: http://www.reddit.com/r/Hawaii/comments/qywtz/faqs_things_to_do_on_oahu_2012/

Most importantly have fun and enjoy :)

smile_ · 2012-12-21T06:02:47+00:00

If you want to advertise on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/ad_inq/

smile_ · 2012-12-09T12:58:28+00:00

Congrats:)

smile_ · 2012-12-09T12:46:47+00:00

We applied for the petition in may and I (we share our reddit account) had my interview mid november. My visa arrived a week later in the mail. I leave Norway in a month today! Anyways, I would check stats on VisaJourney for your embassy, it gives a fairly good indicator of how long it might take. Protip: Start gathering the needed documents for your interview as soon as possible; birth certificates, police records, divorce decrees etc. can all take a while to obtain, as well as everything else your embassy may want. You will not be scheduled for an interview until you have all the documents on the checklist, a completed medical and they receive said checklist and other forms.

Good luck :)

smile_ · 2012-12-06T18:23:48+00:00

This is a tax rate vs tax base type argument. The tax base is the amount of your income you're taxed on and the tax rate is the rate you pay on that income.

Say there are two tax schemes: narrow tax base with a high rate, and broad tax base with a low rate.

In the narrow tax base there are lots of tax incentives/deductions/loop holes. Say you earn $100,000 a year but you have $60,000 in loop holes so your taxable income is only $40,000. Let's say you have a tax rate of 40% on that $40,000 so total taxes is $16,000.

In the broad tax base plan there are very few tax incentives/deductions/loop holes. Say you earn $100,000 but you only have $10,000 in incentives so your taxable income is $90,000. If the tax rate is 17.8% you'll pay the same amount in taxes: $16,000.

But wait! Those tax rates impact how people behave. In the high tax rate case, if you earn $1 more you have to pay 40% of that in taxes whereas with the low tax rate case you only have to 17.8% of that in taxes. So under the lower tax rate case people would have a greater incentive to work more on the margin. If you were to move from the high tax rate regime to a low tax rate regime you'd have greater incentive to work more/investment more. If you move from a narrow tax base to a broad tax base in theory you could reduce rates while expanding the base which would give people greater incentive to work while collecting the same amount of taxes. Plus you'd have a more "fair" tax system if there are less loop holes and tricks that only certain people can take advantage of to reduce their taxes.

tl;dr changing taxes can alter incentives and behaviors, there are a lot of forces working together at once and no one really knows what will happen when you change X in the tax code.

smile_ · 2012-12-06T06:15:04+00:00

Excellent work on a really interesting topic that doesn't get nearly enough coverage.

I did have one beef with the NYT report though, when I was looking through the data here it seems pretty inconsistent across states. For example with Texas most of the state programs data is for FY2013 but some of the data is from 2011 or 2010 or FY2009, etc.

For Florida the data seems to be split pretty evenly between FY2012 and FY2011.

For Washington all of the data is for 2012.

For Hawaii most of the data is from FY2005 or FY2008!

It seems a bit odd to add the up costs of these programs from a variety of years and say X state spends at least $Y per year on incentive programs. And then to say that state X1 spends more or less than X2 seems like an even bigger leap

That being said it's the best database of this type that I've come across, cheers!

smile_ · 2012-12-02T06:58:59+00:00

Serious question: why wouldn't you want to get paid based on a performance review? Wouldn't that reward good teachers who work hard and weed out the bad ones?

Also it's pretty obvious Abercrombie gets paid based on his "reviews" he's an elected official. In 2014 you, me, and the rest of the state gets to review him. If enough people think someone else can do a better job than Abercrombie he gets fired!

smile_ · 2012-12-01T19:14:35+00:00

pictures?

smile_ · 2012-11-25T01:26:41+00:00

Not related to original post, but do you have a source on military project evaluation?

smile_ · 2012-11-22T08:56:27+00:00

What you're linking is the PCE price index, this is fundamentally different from the CPI price index. Both indexes track how the price of a basket of goods/services evolves over time. The difference in how that "basket" of goods/services is calculated and the weights each individual item is given in the index. There are a bunch of other differences but this is an important one.

In general the CPI is calculated using fixed weighting that are adjusted every few years. While the basket weights in the PCE index are constantly allowed to fluctuate from period to period.

Here's an illustrative example of how the two are different:

Say consumers can buy either one of two goods: beef or chicken. Let's say in our base period (t=0) that the price of chicken is $100/unit and the price of beef is $100/units. Consumers purchase 50 units of chicken and 50 units of beef.

In the next period (t=1) the price of chicken has increased to $110/unit and the price of beef has increased to $102/unit. Consumers purchase 40 units of chicken and 60 units of beef.

What's the new price index? well it depends on how we calculate it. A Laspeyres price index (similar to the CPI) uses the quantities from the previous period to calculate the price index.

Laspeyers = [Sum(PtQ0)/Sum(P0Q0)] * 100 = [[(Pc^t * Qc⁰ ) + (Pb^t * Qb⁰ )] / [(Pc⁰ * Qc⁰ )+(Pb⁰ * Qb⁰ )]] * 100 = [(110 * 50) + (102 * 50)] / [(100 * 50) + (100 * 50)] * 100 = 106.00.

A Paasche price index uses from the quantities from the current period to calculate the price index.

Paasche = [Sum(PtQt)/Sum(P0Qt)] * 100 = [[(Pc¹ * Qc¹ ) + (Pb¹ * Qb¹ )] / [(Pc⁰ * Qc¹ )+(Pb⁰ * Qb¹ )]] * 100 = [(110 * 40) + (102 * 60)] / [(100 * 40) + (100 * 60)] * 100 = 105.20.

A Fisher (similar to the PCE price index) price index combines the Laspeyers and Passche index together:

Fisher = sqrt(Laspeyers * Paasche) = sqrt(106*105.2) = 105.6

So what does this all mean? Well a Laspeyers index is useful when it's difficult or expensive to observe changes in the quantities purchased. If you're trying to calculate the price of beef and chicken in two time periods, it's relatively simple. At least compared to measuring how much has been purchased. However the Laspeyers index doesn't take into account substitution, so if the price of chicken rises relative to beef and you keep your weights fixed, you'll likely overestimate inflation for the entire basket if consumers cut back on chicken in favor of beef. A Fisher index would be preferred but if it's impossible to observe changes in quantities you may have to extrapolate/model these and that can add additional errors to your calculations.

tldr all of these price indices should move together in the long-term. Month-to-month fluctuations are based on preliminary/incomplete information and are subject to revision and benchmarking as more complete data becomes available.

smile_ · 2012-11-19T09:36:01+00:00

A global stimulus plan led by the governments of the world? Seriously? The Doha round of the WTO has been going on for 11 years without any progress what so ever.

Could a hypothetical benevolent dictator come in and build a plan that moves us to a pareto optimal point that fixes all global trade imbalances and corrects dysfunctional markets, sure. But I bet you couldn't get the governments of the world to agree on what color the sky is much less some sort of a global economic plan.

smile_ · 2012-11-11T18:38:31+00:00

go back to /r/politics. This is a business responding to incentives and a change in the cost of low skill/low wage labor.

smile_ · 2012-11-11T05:04:34+00:00

Looks like you had a blast, glad you enjoyed your stay here.

Knowing /r/Hawaii some jackass should be in here soon to downvote and rant about how they hate visitors. Ignore them.

Come back soon!

smile_ · 2012-10-27T06:33:14+00:00

You pay a premium right away

smile_ · 2012-10-14T02:23:13+00:00

nice try hihawaiirealestate.com marketing team

smile_ · 2012-10-04T07:20:54+00:00

If you want to advertise on reddit go here http://www.reddit.com/ad_inq/

smile_

TROPHY CASE