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Got an offer for a sales applications manager role at Cisco and a Strategic AE role at Amazon - both are basically the same pay (130~ base, 220 OTE)
I don’t have any friends at either company so I was curious if anyone has experience and can shed some light on culture/ work life balance to help me make a decision? Thanks for the help guys!
what are your average weekly hours?
Siemens technology is product based company?
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Yes, I’d love to purchase land and pay an insane amount in taxes. And pay for all of the maintenance and upkeep of a house. And increase my commute 3x.
Subject Expert
Respectfully, this is dumb.
Coach
Seconded
Why is the ultimate goal land ownership??? My ultimate goal is to live a good life which is more directly correlated to how much money I have, not the land I own?
Without owning your own land where in the world will you bury your gold and silver bars and coins, respectively? Never mind, shame on me for being nosy, but I'd give anything to own my own turf and stomp around mad without damaging wooden floors, sheetrock and my neighbors.
Seems like we have a desperate seller here
I take it you didn’t take any finance classes when you were in school.
Eh it probably makes sense to avoid buying for the next 5 years, given the insane real estate appreciation that happened between 2020-2022.
Mentor
This assumes it will come back down. It has a little but cat say it will continue?
Death to the landlord class and their paymasters, the imperialist running dogs. Long live the work-peasant alliance.
@associate 6: Either you're joking, or you're a MARXIST revolutionary wannabe. If the latter is the case, eat sh*t.
Mentor
SFH investment as an optimal wealth-building strategy as opposed to the stock market is only viable in CA.
Prop 13 keeps property taxes artificially low (effectively pegged to your purchase price, with a cap on rate increases). Draconian environmental /permitting laws keep the supply of SFH way down. And money flowing into SV’s immigrant populations ensures demand stays high.
Plenty of people in SV are paying 1% property tax on homes they bought for $400k (and taxed at such), but are now worth north of $3mm. Go back even further and you’ll find even worse abuse. Lots of fake progressives in SV who suddenly become Republican at the thought of repealing Prop 13.
Mentor
So pretty limited use in NY. It’s universal in CA. Has made this place unlivable for new residents.
Go back to Jacksonville, NYC doesn’t want you.
Yeah, s&p 500 is a total "scam"...
Whoosh. Usually it's the attorneys on this sub with no sense of sarcasm
Yes, you too can be a slave of your own property. Upkeep and repairs. A new roof, a new A/C unit, repairing squirrel damage, broken appliances, a pool to maintain and repair, repainting, recarpeting, pest control, fence repair/replace, tree maintenance, lawnmowing. And you can get it all in a place that is farther to drive to work adding 2 hours to your daily commute and more car maintenance and gas because that's the closest to the city you can afford. I've been a homeowner since about age 25 (30 years). I like the level of control I have, and the ability to make my house what I want it to be. But saying it is a money saver? An asset? No. And if you are young and in a fast moving career, it's an albatross around your neck because you can't just take that new job halfway across the country on a whim, you have to sell your house. Worst case with an apartment you lose a months rent for breaking a lease. Worse case with a house, you can't unload it for months and have to pay mortgage and upkeep on a house you are 1000 miles away from, (or worse, one I did where you have to carry a bridge loan briefly where you have your old mortgage, new mortgage, and a bridge loan all at one time until your house sells. Fortunately that was in a sellers market and it went fast) if squatters don't move in and burn it down. There's no right answer to whether you should or shouldn't buy a home except the answer that fits your life and your needs.
There is no substitute for doing the math. I'll say that til I'm blue in the face. Enough with the tropes. Do the math people, if the present value of mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, and other property upkeep/ added utilities (if applicable) exceeds that of perpetual rent payments until you're 70, don't buy. Don't be fooled by the "appreciation" bs either, you still need a place to live so if the value of your home goes up, congrats, chances are so did everywhere else and therefore it's not relevant unless you need a reverse mortgage during retirement, which should be a last resort (you'll likely need that equity for a HELOC for major repairs, such as a new roof). The equity math only becomes relevant when the decision becomes more complex than "rent vs. buy".
This. Right now the math favors renting in most markets.
I think you are offering good advice. The monthly rent price seems almost an equal price or more than the mortgage payments today. Renters have no other gain on a rental apartment other than a place to lay their head, compared to equity, using house as collateral for businesses, which is available to a house owner.
Subject Expert
You’re picking a very specific scenario and still leaving things out. A $1M house with 20% down is an $800k mortgage. At current rates, $4,500 is roughly principal and interest only. Once you add property taxes, insurance, and realistic maintenance, you’re meaningfully above that.
The $1,300/month tax “savings” also isn’t automatic. Between the SALT cap and the standard deduction, a lot of high earners in NYC are not getting anywhere near that level of incremental benefit, and the interest deduction declines over time as the loan amortizes.
I’m not saying buying is irrational. If you’re staying 7–10+ years and want stability, leverage plus appreciation can absolutely make sense. But at today’s prices and rates in NYC, renting is often cheaper on a straight monthly cash-flow basis. Calling rent a “scam” ignores the actual math.
Dumb
The difference between rent and mortgage if you have a decent down payment is not much when you consider how much you pay for rent in NYC. OP is being a bit dramatic but the general point is not a bad one.
Subject Expert
The general point is a bad one.
Mentor
Someone once told me that the dumbest thing you can possibly do is buy a residential property in NYC, and they were right. My inlaws are selling their condo at a 6 figure loss. I’d lose similar if I sold mine now, after ten years of ownership.
Won’t buying result in a mortgage that will make the golden handcuffs tighter?
Subject Expert
Yes but:
“Real estate only goes up, so it’s worth it!”
“Buying a house is always a solid investment, regardless of the costs!”
“Renting is ‘throwing money away’—buying a house and paying mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance = better golden handcuffs!”
Yes, please be sure to buy property in New York City. When Mamdani or his successor imposes a wealth tax on "billionaires," i.e., people making six figures a year like you, you absolutely want to be stuck in NYC because you can't take a six figure loss on your home.
NYC is actually the smartest area to buy a SFH in around the ny metro area - you get dirt cheap property taxes compared with the suburbs and phenomenal public transit access
People are brainwashed to believe things that appeal to their simple short term thinking. You're right mostly about the underlying agenda. It's obvious to anybody who pays attention and studies history and sees what's happening. Too bad people on here drink the Kool Aid social media feeds them