Author Topic: SF/Bay Area?  (Read 195154 times)

The Bearded Bank Builder

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SF/Bay Area?
« on: November 27, 2012, 03:18:50 PM »
I'm living on the Peninsula, anyone else living around here?

js

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2012, 05:51:13 PM »
San Jose in the house.

The Bearded Bank Builder

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2012, 03:03:33 PM »
Have you been able to find a decent price on an apartment/house? Pretty tough in this area in my experience. We found the cheapest place we could but it's still way too big a chunk of the paycheck

dragoncar

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2012, 01:41:58 PM »
SF - has there been a meetup?

ponchoape

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2012, 10:24:07 AM »
North Oakland reporting in.

Bakari

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2012, 01:46:59 PM »
San Pablo (tiny city within Richmond)
Lived in Oakland until last year.  I consider everything between Pinole and Oakland "home"

iamlindoro

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2012, 07:51:51 PM »
San Jose here.

waltermundt

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2012, 05:05:02 PM »
Sunnyvale here.

kisserofsinners

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2012, 05:13:14 PM »
San Francisco, Lower Haight.

I'd be really into hosting a meetup if there's interest. However, it seems like critical mass is in the south bay.

kisserofsinners

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2012, 05:15:47 PM »
Have you been able to find a decent price on an apartment/house? Pretty tough in this area in my experience. We found the cheapest place we could but it's still way too big a chunk of the paycheck

Unless you're looking for a room in a house with roommates, the market is not worth making long term commitments in. If i was looking for housing, I would wait it out in the smallest place i could stand until social media has a bad day.

supersixfour

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #10 on: December 07, 2012, 09:43:41 PM »
san jose here too

Ihoo

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2013, 01:44:13 AM »
Downtown Oakland living, SF working.

nofool

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2013, 03:15:49 PM »
Hey everybody! Kisserofsinners and I are meeting up next Sunday, the 13th, in SF and I wanted to open it up to anybody who wants to join! I know a lot of you guys are in South Bay/East Bay, but if you wanna make the trek out here, comment below or PM me, and I can send you the details! :) Hopefully we'll get a chance to meet!

kisserofsinners

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2013, 04:04:57 PM »
Hey everybody! Kisserofsinners and I are meeting up next Sunday, the 13th, in SF and I wanted to open it up to anybody who wants to join! I know a lot of you guys are in South Bay/East Bay, but if you wanna make the trek out here, comment below or PM me, and I can send you the details! :) Hopefully we'll get a chance to meet!

SMART I was just about to do this. :) Well played.

Landor n Stella

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #14 on: January 15, 2013, 02:37:21 PM »
How did the meetup go? We'll soon be in the Sonoma area. I just took a new job, moving from Central Indiana to Sonoma in February 2013...whew. Sticker shock is still hitting me on housing prices. Hopefully there will be another meetup at some point in the future when we are out there, and I can meet some of you!

dragoncar

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #15 on: January 15, 2013, 08:32:51 PM »
Wanted to go, but had to work :-(  Anyone want to try for a redo?

John74

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #16 on: January 16, 2013, 06:11:47 PM »
I am in SF too (SoMa).

nofool

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #17 on: January 16, 2013, 07:11:28 PM »
It was great meeting kisserofsinners! :) We met at Philz Coffee and got to chat. I brought a friend along who is new to personal finance, and it was fun! We should definitely do another meet up. John, where in SoMa are you? I work on the edge of FiDi and SoMa.

John74

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #18 on: January 16, 2013, 07:15:16 PM »
It was great meeting kisserofsinners! :) We met at Philz Coffee and got to chat. I brought a friend along who is new to personal finance, and it was fun! We should definitely do another meet up. John, where in SoMa are you? I work on the edge of FiDi and SoMa.

I am close to AT&T Park.

kisserofsinners

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #19 on: January 22, 2013, 01:43:28 PM »
It was great meeting kisserofsinners! :) We met at Philz Coffee and got to chat. I brought a friend along who is new to personal finance, and it was fun! We should definitely do another meet up. John, where in SoMa are you? I work on the edge of FiDi and SoMa.

I am close to AT&T Park.

That's right near my office.

I had a great time meeting and hanging out with nofool and her friend. It's relaxing to just feel comfortable geeking out about this stuff. I can assure you my friends are done listening and i'm not done talking yet. :) I'd love to do it again.

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #20 on: January 23, 2013, 11:15:58 AM »
I'd love to do it again.

Send me a PM if you do.
I get email notifications of them, but not for forum updates, and I don't always check here regularly

I would have gone last time, but it happened to be my Coast Guard drill weekend

nofool

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #21 on: January 23, 2013, 12:21:05 PM »
I'm down to hang out again! :)

kisserofsinners

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #22 on: January 24, 2013, 03:45:02 PM »
I'd love to do it again.

Send me a PM if you do.
I get email notifications of them, but not for forum updates, and I don't always check here regularly

I would have gone last time, but it happened to be my Coast Guard drill weekend

Will do.

Xandamere

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #23 on: February 05, 2013, 01:15:34 AM »
New to the community, but I live in Daly City and work in the financial district. It looks like I'll only be in the area for another few months (will likely be relocating to Las Vegas for work), but I'd love to join a meetup if there's another local one before I go!

kisserofsinners

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #24 on: February 05, 2013, 10:28:39 AM »
We can keep it monthlyish.

I liked meeting on Sunday as it was convenient for me, but i'm open to evenings also Mondays and Thursdays. The month of Feb is pretty dense with birthdays I've only got the 17th and 24th left available.

If it's nice we can picnic in Dolorous Park.

dragoncar

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #25 on: February 05, 2013, 11:12:15 AM »
A lot of people seem to work downtown.  Weekday evening would be good for me

kisserofsinners

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #26 on: February 12, 2013, 11:33:21 AM »
A lot of people seem to work downtown.  Weekday evening would be good for me

Downtown after work also works. I have time Mondays and Thursdays most weeks.

nofool

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #27 on: February 14, 2013, 05:24:24 PM »
Pretty much every evening except Tuesdays work for me.

vivekg

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #28 on: March 06, 2013, 02:39:44 PM »
is anyone in san jose / south bay willing to meet up?
i am brand new to this site and love it already. can't wait to apply mustachian princhiples...

mbk

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #29 on: March 16, 2013, 01:10:58 AM »
Moved to Berkeley recently. It would be nice to meet fellow Mustachians.

tongzhi

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #30 on: March 21, 2013, 02:58:57 PM »
Live in Hayes Valley (SF) in a 400 square foot studio with my BF.

kisserofsinners

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #31 on: March 21, 2013, 04:28:17 PM »
Planning for SF propper. PM if you'd like to be a part of choosing where and when.

momo

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #32 on: March 21, 2013, 05:34:43 PM »
Another vote for downtown SF. Cheers!

Bakari

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #33 on: March 21, 2013, 06:55:50 PM »
PM Sent.
Any day but Tuesdays, and the 2nd weekend each month, works for me, given enough advanced notice.

But if its in the city, hopefully as close as possible to BART (and preferably one of the first few stops)

kisserofsinners

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #34 on: March 21, 2013, 07:13:47 PM »
Currently looking at near downtown, BART station most likely Montgomery or Embarcadero. This will likely be a bar stop as i don't think there's any parks or public areas to hang out, maybe House of Shields or Dave's Bar but i'll do a little legwork to find a happy hour if it's to be had.

Most likely, Monday or Thursday. I'm gonna give it a day or two before a final call is made.

Come out and play!
Peace

John74

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #35 on: March 21, 2013, 09:36:55 PM »
The Yerba Buena Gardens are near the Montgomery station in case you guys want a park.

kisserofsinners

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momo

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #37 on: March 25, 2013, 12:56:59 PM »
The Yerba Buena Gardens are near the Montgomery station in case you guys want a park.

The Yerba Buena Gardens works and one of the easier places to find people is infront of the Martin Lurther King Jr wall. As a backup if the weather does not hold we can easily move to meeting indoors to the Food Court seated area in the former Metreon (now Target & AMC Building) too.

Generally Mondays and/or Thursday work best as long with advanced notice. Thanks.

Stachebound

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #38 on: June 15, 2013, 12:20:07 AM »
San Jose here!

CanuckExpat

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #39 on: June 26, 2013, 11:22:11 AM »
Hey,

I hope you don't mind me injecting into this thread:
I'd like to get thoughts from people here who live/work in the Silicon Valley area (Santa Clara, San Jose, etc). How do you deal with what seems like the high costs of housing, and around what salary range does the trade off become worth it? Also do you find it reasonable living close to work, or do you end up with a long commute (ie. from San Francisco?)

KS

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #40 on: July 02, 2013, 12:28:28 PM »
CanuckExpat- Are you considering relocation to this area? Housing costs are definitely outrageous, and have been going up again significantly since the start of 2013. (At least as far as purchasing goes; I have been fortunate to have fairly "cheap" rent that has not gone up too much over the years, but I suspect the crazy housing market will lead to overall rent increases as well, if it has not already). If you were hoping to buy, be aware anything under 600-700K (and sometimes even over, especially if it's a good school district) tends to go to a cash buyer. And cash or not, homes are averaging about 10-20+ offers, and generally sell quite far above list price.

Commute will depend a lot on where you're thinking of working. Santa Clara/San Jose tends to be much cheaper to live than further North up the peninsula and into SF. Everything within short commute of Google/Facebook etc is crazy expensive since those employees (and all the venture capitalists funding the startups) are willing and presumably able to pay it. I currently commute about 8 miles from Sunnyvale to Palo Alto, can take up to 30-45 minutes depending on traffic and how badly the streetlights are timed that day. Some public transit options available, and do see a fair amount of bikers out although the bay area could definitely use better bike-friendliness.

Hard to comment on what salary is worth it, although I ran it through this calculator:
http://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/
With the default setting of $50K salary in Baltimore, says you'd need ~$93K in San Jose for equivalent standard of living. Not sure how accurate that is, but I can say almost everyone in non-computer industries around here feels the squeeze. My husband and I frequently talk about getting out of here for somewhere more affordable. If it wasn't for family in and fairly close to the area, we would be much more inclined to leave. That being said, this can be a really nice place to live too, just not necessarily so much nicer than everywhere else to justify the prices.

Sorry, I'm not sure how helpful this is... overall I'd say you should do a lot of research before moving here if you're hoping to live the MMM way!! Not impossible to save up money here, but you likely won't get there as fast as you would living somewhere else.

CanuckExpat

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #41 on: July 15, 2013, 10:14:09 PM »
KS, thanks for the input. Unless something changed, it looks likely that my wife and I are will be relocating to the area. We should both have good paying jobs (good for any other area, maybe not great for this particular area) and it's nice to get the input on this board, as other places you start to see sill stuff like "you can't survive on $150k in Silicon Valley", etc.
We are happy renting, and have no need to purchase unless it makes financial sense (and we decide we aren't going to move again soon). To a first approximation, I figured that if we had to pay an extra $1500/month in rent, that would be offset as long as the offers we are considering pay at least $36k/year more than other locations (ignoring other factors).
I'll probably have more questions as this develops, and I'll either post here or start a new thread if I feel like I'm thread jacking (though it is nice to have so many local experts see this).
Once the jobs are confirmed, we will have to decide exact location. It looks like she will be working in San Francisco itself, but with a lot of travelling and maybe working from home options, where as I will be in Santa Clara, without working from home option. It would be nice to figure out a location that minimizes commuting time for us both as much as possible.

BikesAreTheAnswer

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #42 on: July 16, 2013, 10:36:38 PM »
How about a meetup for Mustachians in the south bay?  My wife and I just relocated to Cupertino from Eugene, OR and would love to meet some likeminded folks and get some tips on staying on track in such a high-cost area.  Any ideas on places/times from someone who's been here a bit longer?

KS

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #43 on: July 18, 2013, 12:06:20 PM »
Glad to help Canuck! Good luck with the relocation and definitely post if and when you have more questions... I'm pretty sure there are a decent amount of Bay Area folks in the forums, so you should be hopefully be able to get some helpful info out of us. :)

Bikes- I'm south bay too and I think there are some others in the forums, seems like so far all the meetups have been in SF though. Would be interesting to see if enough people would come out of the woodworks for a south bay meetup. I've got a bit of a case of introvert-itis on top of somewhat long work hours, but will try and fight that and maybe attend if something comes together!

AlmostIndependent

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #44 on: July 18, 2013, 03:40:14 PM »
I'm in the Bay Area for work until the end of September. If there's anyone interested in meeting up I'm down.

EmEmEm

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #45 on: August 01, 2013, 11:35:16 PM »
Hi all,

I'm from South Bay too... near downtown San Jose.  I'm DEFINITELY interested in a meet up down here rather than in SF... is it just me that thinks travelling all the way up there is completely unmustachian?  I can't remember the last time I went further north than Mountain View :-)

Anyway, how about we try to meet up at the Italian Family Festa on either Sat 24th August or Sun 25th?  The festival is at Guadalupe Gardens (right alongside the Guadalupe Bike Trail; not far from Diridon Station).
Free admission. Live entertainment. Picnic style setting (byo blanket or chair).  No bottles, cans, or coolers allowed, but you can bring your own food in if you don't want to pay festival prices. 
More info here  http://www.italianfamilyfestasj.org/

Anyone interested?

BikesAreTheAnswer

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #46 on: August 10, 2013, 01:18:21 PM »
Anyway, how about we try to meet up at the Italian Family Festa on either Sat 24th August or Sun 25th?  The festival is at Guadalupe Gardens (right alongside the Guadalupe Bike Trail; not far from Diridon Station).
Free admission. Live entertainment. Picnic style setting (byo blanket or chair).  No bottles, cans, or coolers allowed, but you can bring your own food in if you don't want to pay festival prices. 
More info here  http://www.italianfamilyfestasj.org/

Anyone interested?

Sounds like a plan to me!  Wife and I can bike over from Cupertino. To keep the ball rolling I'll propose a meetup at noon on Sat the 24th.  I'm not familiar with the park, but on Google Maps satellite view there seems to be a circular feature (fountain?) just south of Julian St.  We can try to meet up there?  I'm open to other times/places if those don't work, but I wanted to propose something that others can accept or modify.

dragoncar

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #47 on: August 12, 2013, 01:21:48 AM »


I'm from South Bay too... near downtown San Jose.  I'm DEFINITELY interested in a meet up down here rather than in SF... is it just me that thinks travelling all the way up there is completely unmustachian?  I can't remember the last time I went further north than Mountain View :-)


I don't know, is it just me that thinks travelling all the way down there is completely unmustachian?  Why don't we all meet in the exact center of the bay?  I'll bring my floaties.

AlmostIndependent

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #48 on: August 12, 2013, 09:13:13 AM »


I'm from South Bay too... near downtown San Jose.  I'm DEFINITELY interested in a meet up down here rather than in SF... is it just me that thinks travelling all the way up there is completely unmustachian?  I can't remember the last time I went further north than Mountain View :-)


I don't know, is it just me that thinks travelling all the way down there is completely unmustachian?  Why don't we all meet in the exact center of the bay?  I'll bring my floaties.

Anyone have a peddle boat?

EmEmEm

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Re: SF/Bay Area?
« Reply #49 on: August 14, 2013, 05:42:31 PM »


I'm from South Bay too... near downtown San Jose.  I'm DEFINITELY interested in a meet up down here rather than in SF... is it just me that thinks travelling all the way up there is completely unmustachian?  I can't remember the last time I went further north than Mountain View :-)


I don't know, is it just me that thinks travelling all the way down there is completely unmustachian?  Why don't we all meet in the exact center of the bay?  I'll bring my floaties.

Haha, touche!  I guess what I was meaning is that we should do individual meet ups for the different areas of the Bay.  Not suggesting that you SF'ers bike all the way down here just to meet us South Bay'ers!

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!