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Yes and no. Ended up having a 2nd kid and upgraded to a 'Captain's House' in SoCal. Other than that, still drive my '99 Accord and our '14 minivan. To mitigate the more expensive mortgage, we have paid off all outstanding revolving debt and then have been saving like it's going out of style. I do the max for ESPP - that goes into savings, we saved up a emergency fund prior to our CBA. We save for any big expenses and don't buy anything on credit unless it's so low interest it's basically 'free' money. So, we are prepared just in case I get downgraded. You kind of expand your tastes and etc. with your income, but I try to keep the mindset that it could all change tomorrow.

So yeah, that's the goal. Budget and live at FO Min guarantee... But, there will always be expenses. No one saves enough for retirement. College funds. Whatever. I'd say, have a plan, stick to it as best as you can, but don't define your life by it. If you want something nice, and you can afford it, get it. Buy the fancy high thread count sheets, don't sleep on 200 thread count t-shirt material. You upgraded, you deserve it. :)


Do you hang onto ESPP shares or sell them right away?

What's your guys plan? 6 month lookback and 15% discount from the lower price?
 
Well PDX area, that's as close as I wanna get to seatards. Waiting for the next displacement bid so I can make it official.
Let me know if you want to grabs beers or something. I am over in Vancouver.
I'm assuming live WA side and shop OR?
Not worth the bridge traffic to shop over there. Maybe if you buy something huge, but other than that it’s not worth the time to deal with the bridge.
 
I'm assuming live WA side and shop OR?

Yup on WA side. We all get paid the same no matter where we live, so I think it's the cheapest cost of living within driving distance of a base. Also my wife did a bunch of research on the best schools and safest areas and was happier with this part of the PNW.

LOL the writing is on the wall bro. He’s just making life easy on himself.

Yeah exactly. We had a massive mortgage in OC and a great house, but my wife and I both had to hustle to afford it, all while the kids would have to be in day care. It didn't seem like a healthy work/life balance and not have time together as a new family (3 year old and 5 mo old). We're kinda the hippy millennial mentality of valuing experiences over possessions.

The PDX area offered affordability on just my income at min guarantee, so we can go out and explore a part of the country we've enjoyed visiting a lot over the years. Plus as the eskimo de-Virgins the red side of the house, the party is officially over. *sad face*

Let me know if you want to grabs beers or something. I am over in Vancouver.

Not worth the bridge traffic to shop over there. Maybe if you buy something huge, but other than that it’s not worth the time to deal with the bridge.

Hey I appreciate that! We're renting an apartment in Vancouver till the new place is done in June. If you have any advice on stuff we should see/do I'm all ears!
 
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Yup on WA side. We all get paid the same no matter where we live, so I think it's the cheapest cost of living within driving distance of a base.



Yeah exactly. We had a massive mortgage in OC and a great house, but my wife and I both had to hustle to afford it, all while the kids would have to be in day care. It didn't seem like a healthy work/life balance and not have time together as a new family (3 year old and 5 mo old). We're kinda the hippy millennial mentality of valuing experiences over possessions. The PDX area offered affordability on just my income at min guarantee, so we can go out and explore a part of the country we've enjoyed visiting a lot over the years. Plus as the eskimo de-Virgins the red side of the house, the party is officially over. *sad face*



Hey I appreciate that! We're renting an apartment in Vancouver till the new place is done in June. If you have any advice on stuff we should see/do I'm all ears!

Where in OC was your house? I'm assuming you had no problems selling/multiple offers?
 
Where in OC was your house? I'm assuming you had no problems selling/multiple offers?
It was in Rancho Mission Viejo, a new development behind Dana Point. Oh yea we killed it, sold for $498 a sq ft. Made almost $100k in equity in just two years living there. The real estate market in nuts! Also if anyone is looking to sell a house, I highly recommend Redfin, 1% selling agent fee.
 
Do you hang onto ESPP shares or sell them right away?

What's your guys plan? 6 month lookback and 15% discount from the lower price?

Pretty much, discount is based on the last day's closing.

I usually sell it so fast that it barely registers in my brokerage account. Limit @ a little bit higher to cover the brokerage fees and I'm out. The idea being that I've already got most of my financial future tied up with my employer. But, then I do stupid things like buy penny stocks and GME on the way down. (And am probably the only person in the universe who has lost money on BOTH Tesla and Apple. Buy High, Sell Low!) Although it would have been a good idea to hold the shares that I bought in the last round when airline stocks were very low.
 
And am probably the only person in the universe who has lost money on BOTH Tesla and Apple. Buy High, Sell Low
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I kind of regret selling all of mine at 54 ish. But I made money on all of it and stuff was really weird with all the AME memes...

Oh well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

That's about right.

There is a whole group of pilots on one of our web boards sharing penny stock tips and (me included, depending on the chatter) are buying in with no real d.d. at all. I've been lucky so far, and a couple of the companies that have been promoted actually make real-world things. (I've been holding some of those for months and they shot up when they hit benchmarks and when researchcame back with positive news)

One of the companies - I sold all my positions a couple of days ago (0.028/share) - I would guess is only still unnaturally high because a couple hundred pilots with 'gambling money' have been 'pumping' it when it should have been 'dumped' a week ago. Probably driving the day-traders and pumpers batty on why it hasn't crashed yet with someone else holding the bag.

One pilot put his whole retirement into a penny stock back in November. (It got a lot of momentum, especially in the last couple of weeks, and he sold enough to make back his initial investment...) And with the shares left over he actually made enough to punch out of the airline if he wants to... but it so easily could have gone the other way. Crazy.

He did share the tip with all of us and I did manage to lose a bunch during a stop-loss raid at one point. I ended up buying back in and it shot way up so I made up my losses and gained a bit. (That did make up for the Tesla/Apple loss earlier in the year.)

Pilots and wacky financial advice. Multiplied by a million thanks to months and months of the pandemic.
 
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