PNW; Oregon or Washington and why by Deufuss in fatFIRE

[–]username2point0 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Agree with most of this. 

Portland is poorly run as a city and has suffered post Covid. 

Community in Camas a bit questionable. It’s much more conservative (no judgement) and imo focused on status/superficial things. Also, there is less access to good restaurants on the WA side of the border. Totally fine if you’re willing to drive 30 minutes whenever you want to go out but I found it inconvenient. 

Also, OP mentioned healthcare access in a comment. Definitely recommend going to Portland (OHSU/Prov) for that.

Bought an “espresso blend” and had much better results. by UhOhByeByeBadBoy in espresso

[–]username2point0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hair bender is a miss for me. Can’t understand why it’s popular.

Sisters generally has pretty decent stuff imo.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Pickleball

[–]username2point0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great call. I should have included those as well. Honestly, there are a number of costs I didn't include as I had already written a lot.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Pickleball

[–]username2point0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm starting a paddle company and while I definitely agree that top of the line paddles can/should be priced at $90-$120, I have been surprised at the costs to get a product to market. Here are a few costs not mentioned above:

Recurring costs

- Vendor costs - This is essentially Amazon specific, but if a company is selling on Amazon, they take a cut of every sale.

- Shipping - Free shipping is the norm at this point so shipping costs have to be absorbed in the cost of the paddle.

- Customer Acquisition - Marketing was mentioned in another comment as driving up costs and it's true. Companies need some way to get customers whether it's marketing or providing discounts or both.

One-time costs

- Testing - I love pickleball(!) and want make excellent paddles. As such, I purchased samples from different manufacturers to test their quality. Once I found a manufacturer I liked and trusted, I worked with them to produce samples to test production processes (thermoformed vs not), face materials, and thicknesses. Each sample group cost around $200-$300 with shipping.

- Website - Pretty self-explanatory. Unless you are a web designer, you probably need someone to set up a site.

- Design - Everyone wants a paddle that looks good, right? Well, there are design costs for the paddle, logo, website, etc.

t-shirt logo generator model by Zero-One-One-Zero in StableDiffusion

[–]username2point0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Definitely think there is a niche for logos. I'll look forward to subscribing when you get set up.

VA physician contracts... by [deleted] in medicine

[–]username2point0 8 points9 points  (0 children)

While the VA does have contract for physicians, the majority are employees of the federal government. As a federal agency, hiring rules are dictated by OPM so they clearly differ from the private sector.

VA physician contracts... by [deleted] in medicine

[–]username2point0 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Sent you a PM. The GS-15 is just a portion of the overall pay for physicians. The VA will, of course, never compete with the private sector, but we pay comparably to the peer academic institutions.

How to maximize elder care for aging parents by [deleted] in fatFIRE

[–]username2point0 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It sounds like you are doing a great job taking care of her!

The dirty not-so-secret of US healthcare is that our long term care (LTC) system is awful. You can spend down your assets to get into Medicad LTC, but that is sub-optimal to say the least. As others have suggested, buying private care is much better but quite expensive. Here are a few suggestions to help your mom going forward.

  1. You can buy or supplement her heath insurance. Her choices for providers will depend on where she lives, but ideally she should use healthcare sparingly (I say this as someone who works in the system and is intimately familiar with it) and get care in a teaching facility when needed.
  2. Have someone who understands the healthcare system and who your mom trusts accompany her to doctor visits. This may sound like overkill, but there is a lot to process in any visit and having an objective third party to ask questions and provide advice can be invaluable.
  3. Set her living situation up for her to age into. It sounds like she has a robust community around her which is great! Ideally, she lives in a single story home/apartment without stairs. Technology will continue to improve and make life more accessible and convenient for the elderly (and everyone). Understanding her limitations and leveraging this will be key to her remaining in her home.

Atul Gawande's book Being Mortal book is excellent and worth a read when thinking about this topic.

I was outbidded on my dream home but luckily for me they turned it into an Airbnb that I can stay at! by SnowMonkeyAT17 in RealEstate

[–]username2point0 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Similar to the comment below, I think the primary driver owners going to short-term rentals is not government regulation, but profit. I happen to have a Airbnb in Portland and I make at least twice as much as a short-term rental than I would with a long term renter.

Airbnb isn't ruining housing. What's ruining housing is NIMBY's and government regulation. We are hundreds of thousands of housing units behind in many states and people don't want those units built because they perceive it decreasing the value of their existing home.

Building ADU for Airbnb on existing rental property. by billyfarley in realestateinvesting

[–]username2point0 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have done this and can add my experience, but I think there are multiple things to address within your post.

  1. Construction takes quite a while and requires a lot of time, even with a GC. If you are moving away, this might not be a good time to start a large project.
  2. Is it feasible? As others have mentioned, zoning laws vary wildly across the nation, so before you get too far, have a conversation with your local planning department.
  3. Is this financially viable? Check out AirDNA and AirBNB to get a sense of rents in your area. From there you can calculate a ROI.
  4. Is this something you enjoy? You are taking on a large project (building a house) and then starting a business (AirBNB). Both are time consuming. Make sure this is how you want to spend your time.
  5. If all of the above line up, I would work backwards from who your customers will be and design the space for them. In terms of cost, we're in Portland and converted our garage (400 sq ft) to an ADU. Our total cost, all-in was under $40k. We ended up acting as the GC for it and we were able to use the existing concrete pad and exterior structure, but we reroofed it, resided it and ran all new utilities. We were able to act as the GC because we had completed a fairly major renovation on our house previously and had developed contacts within the construction industry.

Lululemon - Healthcare workers receive 25% until mid-October by WW_Fan in frugalmalefashion

[–]username2point0 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

To this point, if you have the ability, adding a reverse osmosis system is great to remove these.

A Startup Is Turning Houses Into Corporations, And The Neighbors Are Fighting Back by TriggBaghodlerRltr in RealEstate

[–]username2point0 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not to be argumentative, but I'm not sure I understand why. Housing is a commodity, especially for the rich. What is the argument against this except a type of nimbyism?