Double Journey

I was chatting with a friend today that I hadn’t talked to in a while.  We were just discussing how things were with each other and the conversation eventually turned into how she was doing at her job.  She has been in the job for a while, and I know she has been thinking about leaving for a long time.  But as we talked it came up that she was thinking of looking for a job out of state.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing until she explained that California has just gotten to expensive to live in.

And to a large degree she is right.  She is, like me, part of Generation Screwed.   She does OK by most standards, but she is, like me, a renter.  She wants to get married, raise a family, and eventually own a home.  Of course those in the generation face the daunting problem of saving a small fortune to buy a house.  Coupled with the high taxes and high gas prices in California, no wonder she is thinking of leaving.

It really makes me wonder how bad it is for those in California less fortunate than me.  I have started thinking about how I can save money when faced with these economic uncertainties.  Now for me, most of this is psychological in nature (more on that later), but for many many people it is a stark reality.    California is a very expensive place to live.  For many people, all the benefits of living in California don’t outweigh the lower standard of living. How does the average person achieve the American Dream in California?  How is it possible to start out, pay off loans, stay out of debt, save enough to buy a house, save enough to send your kids to college, and then save enough for retirement?  I find it difficult enough as is with a high salary, no kids, and no debt, I just can’t imagine how it must be for those faced with multiple challenges.

So what happens when more and more people start feeling this way?  Is it possible that we see a migration out of California?

Despite the fact that gas is soon going to be $5 a gallon, I’ve decided that I’m done with the train.  I’ve been trying to take the train
on and off for the past few month but decided today that I have had it.   Like a typical Californian, I’m addicted to my car.

A couple of things killed the train experience for me.  While it is generally more convenient for a majority of people who can get on it easily, it really isn’t for me.  My commute isn’t that bad.  I do hit some traffic, but I know enough of the side streets to be able to get around any traffic jams.  The money hurts a little bit, it is taking me about $60 a week to fill up my tank, but it isn’t horrible.  Two things did it for me.

1. The train takes longer.  Door to door, it takes me 30-40 minutes in my car.  The train takes me about an hour.   Round trip, I can save 40-60 minutes a day.  That really starts to add up.
2. I get a headache when I ride the train.  Don’t know why, it isn’t bumpy or anything like that.  It just gives me one.  it usually takes me about an hour to recover from it when I get home, sucking up even more time.

So that’s it for me.  I was trying to do my part to help the environment and the horrible traffic congestion in Los Angeles, but in the end, my own convenience and comfort wins out.  I know, I’m a horrible human being.  Was it the right thing to do, or did I give up too easily?

Thought of another California advantage today.  I have a black Honda Accord.  I both love and hate black cars.  Black, when clean, is the best color to have on a car.  It is very shiny and reflective and just makes the car look fantastic.  Of course, black is also impossible to maintain.  Every little scratch shows up on a black car.    Also, a dirty black car just looks faded and old.

I washed my car this weekend, and it is still clean.  The entire time I was in Seattle, I only washed my car about twice.  The problem was that whenever I washed my car in Seattle, it would rain the next day.  There goes the car wash.  So my car just stayed dirty.  I hate a dirty car, but also hated wasting my time washing the car.

But not in California.  I washed my car and my car stays washed.   It’s great.  Chalk up another advantage for California.

Gas is getting more and more expensive.   Here in California, we are at about $3.75 a gallon depending on where you are.  $4.00 looks like an absolute certainty.  Despite this lunacy, I think it is even more ridiculous the lengths people will go to to save a buck on gas.

If I asked you to just stand still for five minutes for $0.60, would you do it?  I’m betting most of my readers would not.  However, that is exactly what is going on down the street from me.  There is a 76 station down the street that is known for having the least expensive gas in the Pasadena area.  Since it is down the street, I drive by it often and regularly see lines extending out to the street to get gas.

I never wait in this line.  If there is nobody there, and I need gas, I’ll get gas. But if there is the smallest hint of a line, I just go further down the street and get gas somewhere else.  The thing is, the gas is about $0.05 cheaper than it is just down the street.  On a 12 gallon fill up, that amounts to about $0.60 or a 1.3% savings.  Is that really worth waiting in line for?  I’m all about saving money when it makes sense, but this doesn’t make any sense.  Now if you factor in that a lot of these cars will sit and idle while they wait, then then these people are actually spending more money by sitting and waiting then they would be just going down the street.

What do you think?  Do you think it is worth it to wait for cheap gas?  Why do you think other people think it is worth it?

My Birthday was this weekend.  This would explain the lack of post on Friday as I took the day off of work to just lounge around and not do a heck of a lot.

It was a big birthday for me actually.  I’m now 30.  However, I’ve long gone past the point where I do anything really significant for my birthday.  I spent the day looking for some furniture and enjoying the California weather.   My girlfriend came down from Seattle this weekend and it was good timing for her.  While it was warm and sunny down here, I heard it was snowing in Seattle.  Sucks to be up north.

At night, we went to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.   We were going to eat in but I decided that it would be better (and frankly easier) to just go eat out.  Ruth Chris is well known for its steak, and it didn’t disappoint.  I got the Surf N’ Turf which meant a lobster tail and Ribeye steak.  It was mighty tasty.  Since I don’t really drink alcohol, and we generally don’t order apetizers, the bill came to “only” $130.

I was thinking as I was eating in the restaurant how fortunate I am to be able to go to this type of place when I feel like it.  I really don’t worry about how much money I’m spending at these types of things because I do it so rarely and have more than enough saved so that it doesn’t hurt my bank account.  At dinner, my girlfriend and I talked about her friend who is a lawyer who makes more money than I do yet has almost nothing saved.

Now if I wanted to, I could probably eat out at this type of restaurant almost every single night.  It would be expensive, and at the end of the month, I wouldn’t have very much saved, but I wouldn’t be going negative either, not even close  So it got me thinking what on earth can people be spending their money on to go through that much money.  If I can afford to go out to one of the nicer restaurants in the country every single night, what must someone who makes more money than I be spending his money on?

Other than that, it was a nice relaxed weekend.  The one other highlight was going to watch my friend Jenny play in a softball game and being part of her team’s first victory.  If you have seen them in other games, you would know what a big victory it was as most people have never played a game of softball in their life.  I think my cheer leading was a major reason they won as this was only my second game in attendance, and they generally lose.  Coincidence?  I think not!

It’s been a little bit over three months since I moved back to California. Was it worth it? Well there are a couple of things to consider. Let’s talk about the negatives first.

1. In a little bit under 3 months, I’ve already paid $2000 in state income tax. My equivilent in Washington would be $0.
2. Traffic is bad enough that I’ve started taking the train every once in a while.

And that’s about it. On a personal note, my girlfriend is still in Seattle, so California has been a little bit of a drag without her. But she is moving down soon so that will soon rectify itself. Now let’s talk about the good things

1. Housing wasn’t as bad as I thought. I’m paying $1700 for my two bedroom. For this area, it’s a pretty good deal. Still slightly more than I would spend in Redmond, but not by much.
2. If you like looking at girls in short skirts, there are definitely more of them around. Not only are they better looking but they obviously have the opportunity to wear short skirts because …
3. The weather is SOOO Much better.

Let’s look at that last one shall we. The weather forecast for tomorrow in Redmond is

It’s going to be fairly cold and pretty rainy. Typical March weather. The forecast for Pasadena tomorrow.

Not quite the same thing. It is actually pretty damn hot down here lately. If you go outside and stand in the sun for a while you will actually start to sweat.

So on the one hand you have pretty girls and nice weather on one side and traffic and a few thousand dollars on the other. So is it worth it? Yes! There are some things money can’t buy, and most of the good things you can find right here in California

I am in the market for a new TV. I’m one of those people when I buy something I analyze it to death to make sure I get a good deal. It’s what I did when I bought a fridge, and it is ten times worse now that I’m trying to buy a TV.

Here is the thing, despite the fact I want to get a really nice TV, I probably don’t need one. I’ve gone over two months without any Cable TV and while I sometimes miss it, I have definitely found other things to occupy my time. It’s been rare when I sit around and think, “Gee, I have nothing to do now. I wish I had a really great TV.”

And the thing is, I not only save money not buying the TV (and not buying something is as good as earning that money), but I don’t pay for cable. I would probably get satellite and I would get an HD setup since I would have a HDTV. That would cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $70 a month. Something I could definitely afford but doesn’t hurt me not to spend it.

Now that I think about it, I actually don’t spend much more money living in California vs. Washington. My rent is $1700 per month. That is about $300 more than a similar place in Washington. Add to the fact that I do not pay for water, trash, gas, a second parking space, or anything else other than electricity and the gap narrows even more.

I plan on taking the train in the morning. The Pasadena Gold Line, the train I will take, is pretty convenient as it is about a 5 minute walk for me in the morning. It takes me to downtown where a bus that goes directly to my building is waiting for me. As the cost is only $1.25, it is pretty cheap for me to take the train. When you take into account that gas is running $3.50 per gallon, and it looks down right cheap for me to take the train.

Up until now, I haven’t done it. It’s amazing the excuses one will come up with to try and avoid doing something. First, it was because I had to walk 5 minutes. Then it was that the times weren’t all that convenient. Then it was that nobody in California takes public transportation. In the end, it was just a change to my routine that I wasn’t quite ready to make. It’s amazing how we are such creature of habits. It affects all aspects of our lives. It just makes sense for me to take the train. It will save me money, and for the most part it will even save me time.

Speaking of this, I am starting to think L.A. public transportation gets a bad rap. I took the LAX fly away this past weekend. It travels from Union Station to LAX for only $4. Seriously, that’s dirt cheap and very convenient. Way easier than getting someone to take me to the airport.

I’m watching the Morning Show right now and they just put up a graphic of the weather throughout the country. They showed the northwest, including Seattle, to be in the 30’s and 40’s today with rain. I’m looking outside my window at the bright sun and blue sky. It is 70 degrees and it is only going to get warmer as the day goes on. Guess my cat isn’t the only person happy to be back in California

Yesterday we had a very nice, albeit typical, California day. It was in the mid to high 70’s for most of the day and even got to the point I turned on the AC just to cool the apartment down a bit. There was one person who was even more happy than me to be back in California. That would be my cat pictured above. One of the big drawbacks in living in a place like Seattle was that we just did not get much sun. To make matters worse, my apartment in Seattle did not really get any direct sunlight.

When you have a kitty that loves to sun bathe, that can be a problem. Now that we are back in Southern California and I have a southern facing apartment, kitty just loves to spend his day sprawled out and laying in the sun. Lucky for him he doesn’t realize how much more expensive it is to live here. Despite a higher salary than what I was earning in Washington, I’m really not saving more money. In fact, I’m probably saving less. We will see how it all equalizes as soon as my move in cost are gone and my girlfriend eventually makes it down, but for now, definitely not saving as much money as I was before.