I mean VGA is good for 1080p 60fps which honestly is a plenty high resolution even today. Sure you can get higher resolution and you can get higher refresh rates, but for a ~20" panel 1080p/60 is a sweet spot and you can get some really good panels for pretty cheap these days at 1080p/60
I learned the “more speakers = more better” when I once had 2 radios tuned to the same station and noticed it sounded better with both playing than either one turned off
Historically in most cities property taxes have nowhere near kept up with inflation. The town I live in right now just did its first property tax increase in over a decade, which increased my property taxes by about $100/year for my extremely average for the town home. My property taxes are about $2100/year and were about $2000/year when I first moved in almost 5 years ago. Comparing to family located in other much larger cities trends are similar. California famously capped property taxes for existing home owners. Property taxes are generally a very small part of the equation for most of the country
Yeah I compared some numbers and guessed a plausible interest rate for the 50 year based on the 15 vs 30 year interest rates at a couple of real banks near me
50 years at 6% with 5% down on 200k (fairly plausible for a decent home where I live and realistic for a first time home buyer who 50 year mortgages are clearly catering to) is 1k/mo almost exactly
So the difference is pretty small on a realistic first time home buyer’s home, but having been on the edge of approval for a home loan before that $100/month can absolutely be the difference between getting the home now and having to wait another 2-4 years depending on markets. In my case they assumed my insurance would cost more and that actually made all of the difference in my home loan application because that shaved about $100 per month off
One interesting side note, one of the local credit unions I looked at offers different interest rates depending on the value of the loan! For a 30 year fixed loan they offer the following rates:
So yeah that’s new! I’ve not seen that before!
And my property taxes are 2k per year and that’s high for this county. It’s all relative and back of the envelope math is all about getting a rough idea, not getting spot on for any specific person
good luck finding a 350,000 home
This is going to vary wildly by region. There’s tons of large cities where the going rate for homes is around 300k and there’s notable large cities where you’re lucky to find any property for under a million.
Depending on the market you might simply need to lower your standards if you’re filtering by homes built too recently or homes with a ton of square footage or a high number of bedrooms/bathrooms. Or you might be in a truly fucked market where your best bet is to get creative and either buy a home with friends and/or family or even buy a home with a family member or friend helping with the intial mortgage and then rent out some space or find some other hustle with the property (I’ve heard of folks buying homes & property in the country and turning it into a wedding venue for example. Or renting it out for film shoots or AirBnB or whatever else happens to work where you live. I know a guy who built an ADU just to rent out on AirBnB as a side stream of income)
Even the homes that are 40 years old in my area
That’s…extremely new even by American standards. I say this sitting in a home which was built while the ottoman empire still existed. Yeah there’s quirks and it would be nice if the home was built to more modern standards, but it’s nothing that a bit of creativity, ingenuity and maybe a contractor or two when you can afford them can’t sort out. Plus the equity I’ve gained in just a few years makes it a damn good choice that I bought when I did and didn’t wait until I could afford to buy the perfect house
So getting a home at $260,000 that you got would be a dream.
Hey, the house across the street from me is listed at that right now. It’s got a pool and some nice updates, decent amount of bedrooms and bathrooms. Cute place. I live in a pretty small town so you might not like that, especially since job availability can be a struggle here even during good job markets if you’re in a white collar role. On the other hand if you’re willing to change careers entirely it’s pretty affordable. Guy who’s selling it works for a landscaping company and mows lawns on the side for several folks in the neighborhood. Or I’m thinking I’ll go be a school bus driving as a backup if things go south with my employment status for example. See above about either lowering your standards to what you can afford or getting creative if you’re in a more fucked market.
Ultimately life in this world is all about finding the best way to enjoy the opportunities available to you. If you’ve got a career you love living somewhere you love maybe it’s worth renting for an extra decade or two until you can finally afford to buy. Or maybe you aren’t fully in love with your career and/or where you live so relocating or a creative change to your finances might make sense.
Usually folks signing a very high interest mortgage do so to snag property while prices are down due to the rough market then will refinance in 2-5 years when rates are lower.
As long as homes are investments, buying a home as soon as you can regardless of interest rate is the most accessible path to financial success for the average middle class American
For one thing, when you buy a home you’re basically locking in your home payment for decades. A 30 year mortgage originated in 1998 would have the exact same payment this month as it did in 1998. Unless of course you pull equity out of the home in a HELOC or refinance but that’s generally not a good idea anyways since you’re trading long term wealth for short term cash, and that’s basically always a path to economic ruin. Point is though, whatever payment you lock in with your initial mortgage it’s not going to change significantly until the mortgage is fully paid off. Even if you refinance, even considering property tax changes, your home costs are largely not going to increase. About the only wildcard is insurance which those rates are mostly determined by the risk of property loss, so as long as you don’t live somewhere that is at relatively high flood, fire or hurricane risk you’ll probably not see a dramatic increase
Truth is rural any state usually has affordable homes, just not the jobs. It’s a good option if you work remotely or in an extremely in-demand job like healthcare
Having worked at a bank before (in their IT dept specifically), banks are extremely risk averse (and that extends to all aspects of the bank, from financial risks to HR risks to IT risks), and all of the loan officers I worked with were far more interested in doing their job right than being sales people.
It’s in the banks best financial interest if it’s customers get wealthier because where does that wealth go? Into the bank they already bank at. Banks need to keep a certain amount of deposits in reserve, so the more cash deposited the more money the bank can invest in financial products itself to make itself more money. If all the bank does is mint loans that customers struggle to pay back their deposits will be very low and therefore they’ll make less money.
Also sketchy loans are harder to sell as securities, as security bundles have to have balanced risk profiles both for legal compliance and for investors to be interested. Investors in mortgage backed securities (MBS) aren’t investing in MBSes for insane growth, they’re investing in a relatively safe security to park some cash in as part of their diversification
I think it’s a famous photo of folks at NASA celebrating but it does look different. You might be right that this one’s been touched up or even fully generated by AI as the depth of field is just all over the place in a way that cameras don’t do. Also some funky compression artifacts that don’t really look like compression artifacts (which I’ve seen AI image generators add generate fake compression artifacts to generated images before)
I might as well just go ahead and replace the PSU too, so the rating is up to date
A good PSU will have an 8-10 year or longer warranty so that’ll should a couple of refresh cycles or more usually. Especially if you’re upgrading every 3 years (I’m on a 5-10 year cycle, or more accurately a “whenever a key component dies or is truly no longer up to the task at hand” cycle)
I freaking love wearing a wristwatch, but it’s most useful for stuff when you’re running around grabbing stuff trying to get kids out the door, or carrying a ton of stuff while setting up/tearing down a display for an event, basically situations not condusive to most smart watches where you have to do a gesture of some kind to wake the screen, you just want to quickly glance and continue
Also having been getting heavy into fitness (biking specifically but also some running and hiking), I get how cool having heart data and whatnot is, but ehhhh. Kinda not really necessary. I get handy GPS data from my phone and that’s sufficient. I can’t do anything meaningful with the heart data, but I can make very useful decisions with distance/time metrics! Or when lifting just knowing the weight I’m working with, how many sets & reps is more than enough
My first job was as a cashier at a grocery store. When I started they required everyone to wear a white button up shirt, black pants and a tie. Hilariously that’s the only job I’ve worked where I’ve been expected to wear a tie. Anyways about a year after I started they shifted to these weird slightly patterned shirts and you could either wear that or a dress shirt and the tie was optional. Now they’ve shifted entirely to just black pants and a red or black logo wear shirt and nobody wears ties anymore. It’s not even been that long! I’m not old enough to see this much of a change am I?!
In context that makes a ton of sense for why you don’t want to go to concerts anymore! Burnout is a bitch! But there’s something beautiful about once you’re past the burnout and try the thing again, where it’s been long enough it’s like trying it again for the first time except with the knowledge of what to expect and how to best enjoy it already there.
Rock on and enjoy yourself! 🤘
The worst part is those single use batteries usually contain a rechargable batter but no circuitry to recharge it. Shit needs to be regulated out of existence!
I try to avoid the keyboard mash sellers on Amazon but for some products it’s pretty much impossible to find anything else.
Oddly enough the keyboard mash sellers can be great value depending on the item you’re ordering. Basically any kind of components or anything that would realistically be purchased by another factory in China has a pretty decent chance of being good enough quality. Hand tools or individual components for making stuff for example are pretty safe bets
At that point you’re already putting in more work than a standard drop coffee maker would take! You literally put a filter in, pour grounds in and hit brew.
Optionally you can get a reusable filter and rinse it after each pot of coffee
Honestly even at the current going rates of $50-100 a ticket going to some good concerts is still a blast and still worth it. Also usually there’s going to be at least one opener and depending on the show they might have 2-3 bands performing. Personally I’m happy if I get to do 1-3 big concerts a year, and that’s really not that much to budget for even at $100/ticket, and some bands are freaking incredible to see live.
Also worth poking around to see if there’s any free/cheap music events near you or comparing with the cost of tickets to a music festival if you really want to be cheap/picky. There’s a couple of free music events I try to go to every year at nearish cities to me and it’s literally free entry and they’ll have a full lineup of bands for the full weekend. I’ve seen Bobaflex, Powerman5000, The Haunt, Black Stone Cherry, Taproot, Red Jumpsuit Apperatus, Fastball, Fozzy etc. all at these free music festivals
Yup many manufactures stopped making anything other than trucks and SUVs in the US, and if that doesn’t make it enough of a challenge, many buyers (especially locally to me) prefer larger vehicles so I have fewer used options to choose from (and I’m too cheap to buy a new car)
He’s an anti-queer piece of shit. Go ham! He deserves exactly as much respect as he gives to the women and girls he’s raped