Glen,

First, I'd like to thank you for saying this. I'm a "DC native" in that I grew up in this area, attended Howard University and have been here most of my life. I've also spent some time in California, including 2 years working for a startup in Irvine, CA. While its not quite Silicon Valley, between working for Bay Area companies, visiting the area and my startup experience, I'm SO glad I was able to move back to this region. While I sometimes long for the good things of California and the Bay Area in particular, I think about how much better the quality of life is here. Similar incomes levels (on average), lower tax rates and costs in general (e.g. 6x less to register your car in MD or the lowest sales tax rate in CA is about 7.5% [and yes, there are multiple sales tax rates], never mind higher insurance rates, etc.), and the seat of US government, so we'll always be "taken care of" on some level. CA can't say THAT.

I agree, Glen, that more time should be spent by the 3 jurisdictions working together. Also, I think we need more entrepreneurs who tell their stories, get out and be seen, mentor (formally such as Founders Institute and informally), investing (as angels or part of funds), and recycling back into the local scene. I've mentioned to Peter Corbett and others that I think its entirely too easy for people to choose Beltway Bandits over doing a startup or working for one. Its like Ramit Sethi has said - it only takes $5000 to take people's startup dreams and CRUSH them underfoot.

Anyway, you're spot on. I think there are some other things that need to happen, but these steps would be extremely useful and helpful. Thanks for writing this!

Claude Johnson

Ugh. Ok, it looks like Bochs is a x86 simulator (technically) which explains why I was able to consider running it on Ultrix.

Where does Bochs fit into this conversation? I ran into Bochs long before I ever heard of VMware (and probably before VMware was a company, since this was the mid - late 90s, maybe around the time of the Disco project).

http://bochs.sourceforge.net/

How do you figure it's "right"? How do you define "right"? Maybe it's "right" if you're a 15 year old in London? Otherwise, it's largely irrelevant and incorrect.

For once, Money Magazine makes the point well.

http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/07/...

And Robson's economics still make no sense, and your "because it's right" comment doesn't add any value either.

The whole report is stupid.

First, he's a kid. He has no concept of the real world, as several commentators have noted.

Second, he's just incorrect about Twitter. Maybe UK teens don't use it, but couldn't that have something to do with their lack of understanding of economics? I mean, the sender pays in Europe, right? So if I send 1 text message to Twitter, and it re-sends 20 to my followers, doesn't that reduce my cost instead of sending a message directly to 20 followers? Maybe I'm short on understanding of the UK SMS billing policies, but that is my understanding. Twitter has more to fear w.r.t. costs than teens do. And since when do teens have anything worth reading by the majority of people? Outside of your own circle of friends and family, I doubt many teens will be tweeting anything of interest. So do we actually care that teens - anywhere - are not using it? (Wait, there is one place we do care. Iran.)

Third, everything else in the report was obvious. So yes, just another indication of how out of touch these marketers, investment professionals, others who responded to the report really are.

Can we come back to this in 5 - 10 years when these kids actually have their own money? I don't get why such an un-novel report of anecdotes from an inexperienced youth generated so much interest.

Forgot to mention:

Received flyer from a ASE certified mechanic who lives in my complex. He's actively looking for customers. Haven't spoken directly too him though. I will continue going to the dealer for now.

Apartment complex was offering discounts on 15 month lease if renewed by 31 March. My lease doesn't expire until August (IIRC).

Posted on the last thread re: observations from Baltimore, and ID lost it. :(

Got an offer from The Palazzo in Vegas for up to 3 complimentary nights & $250 in gaming credits. Stayed at The Venetian a few years back. Thinking seriously of taking them up on the offer.

A few weeks ago, noticed what, by my estimate, must be at least 500,000 sq ft of new CRE under construction in DC. Maybe as much as 750K.

Still seeing new townhouses and SFHs popping up in various areas around DC metro. Downtown Silver Spring seeing an apartment construction boom. Hasn't forced down rents on the high end though. The Veridian and Portico, new buildings, still obscenely high for 1 BR ($1500 - $1900 approximately). At least 3 other buildings under construction in the area, maybe 4. Praying for falling rents in new buildings so I can move back to that area.

Still seeing local birddog trying to move a multi-unit property in Baltimore after several months. May be sold by now, but as of last Sunday it wasn't AFAIK.

Monday morning traffic heading toward DC is fairly light crossing over I-95 @ MD 212 on my way home. By Wed, that same stretch is a parking lot. At $4.00 gas, the traffic died down considerably.

Seeing Ford Excursions, Lincoln Navigators, Hummer H2s and Mercedes CL 500s (low end) come out of hibernation. CL is most expensive regular production car to insure, according to my insurance company. Saw tons of them during credit boom, in all sorts of conditions (usually bad). Consistently saw the low end model, not the CL 600 which is more expensive and even pricier to insure, bigger engine, etc. So with the CL 500s coming out in force, it seems that people are comfortable showing off a little wealth still AND now they can afford to put gas in the car.

Heh.

I grew up in your county.

You might want more funds available for the rental emergency fund. I say that because I have a co-worker who did the same (he upgraded to a much larger home and rented out the old one) and his old house (the current rental) was vacant for something like 8 months. This was only 2 years ago, so for most of 2007 the house was empty and he was paying 2 mortgages. Needless to say, this is severely negatively impacted his family finances. You might want a year or better available, since not only might you have the carrying costs and property taxes but also maintenance costs.

Also consider that you may not get the kind of tenant you'd like. My co-worker has a Section 8 tenant, and not only is that less desirable (yes, I said it!), but Section 8 may not cover the full note. He's losing $120 (approx.) monthly renting out his house. Mind you, the note on that house is only like $150K - max! I don't know what your note is and what kind of property (townhouse vs. SFH) but if you're guaranteed to lose $200 per month - $2400 annually - on top of carrying maintenance, property taxes, and you have the risk of an empty property for extended periods of time, that rental property emergency fund sounds a bit shallow.

Speaking as a landlord through a partnership (LLC) that I have been unwinding for the last year, what about management. If you're going to be living in NoVA, do you want to have to travel to your current city to management the property? I doubt it. Remember, for a single property, a management company will likely charge 8% - 10% of the monthly rent, and the 8% is the "we got lucky!" figure. That monthly rate is in addition to the likely upfront cost of 1 month's rent for placing a tenant (if they happen to do so). Seriously consider whether you want to try to save that management fee by doing it yourself; property management sucks unless you're a FT investor. You're already busy, and your spouse is as well IIRC, so SERIOUSLY think about this.

All of these things (and a few others) have impacted my decision to get out of the partnership I mentioned.

Honestly, if you can sell that house, you might be better off to do so. My top of the head calculation says this is a losing proposition.

And as long as they bring to the table the same things they request and require in a man, then God bless 'em!

Ashe:

It makes sense. Those private loans are killers. I could talk about the impact of lending on college tuition but that's a different conversation. I hope you at least used that money to find a career path with real earning potential.

As for being mandatory to upgrade properties...why? It's a free country. That's why we choose to live here. The landlord can do what they want, and for most, that kind of decision is purely economic. (Speaking as a landlord. You put as little into maintaining the property as you reasonably can.) If you don't like it where you live (for these reasons), can you move? Where do you live? I would recommend considering it. In this environment, it should be a lot easier to find lower cost rentals than a few years ago. (I for one plan to move back closer to the city - DC - and I fully expect to cut a deal on rent because of the rental property boom of a few years ago.)

I guess it sounds to me that you're not taking responsibility for the fact that you took out those loans (for 2 levels of education) and you chose your current living situation. Maybe a better plan would have been to work for a few years before returning to grad school? (Presuming you went direct to grad school.) I don't know. I don't have enough information to make an informed comment, but taking on student loans requires cost/benefit analysis, calculation of payback periods, and other good analysis, given that it is a financial decision. Now that you're in the situation you're in, maybe the best escape is to go through. If you've cut the expenses to the bone, get creative and find a way to increase your income. It is totally doable, even in this economy. I didn't say easy, mind you, but I did say doable.

Oh, Gingerlatte, here's a caveat to #2: there is approximately 30% of the American population that pays no Federal income tax, for various reasons. That means, by how you worded #2, they would not be subject to receiving relief for student loan or mortgage debt. (And as an aside, it should again illustrate why the US needs to cultivate and coddle the rich, as, in dollar terms, they pay more of the taxes than anyone else. Don't give the people who carry the tax burden a reason to take their money elsewhere. Especially when there is infrastructure to rebuild, among other things.)

Cheers!