Am I Crazy for Considering Moving to Los Angeles

[Shiva]

An interesting tangent. I posted to this California thread for one main reason, to B**** about the heat. ☀️ Which peaked today at 100 Degrees!  I’ve never seen or heard of that temp, in this town.  Supposed to be about 15 degrees cooler tomorrow.  🙏

[OO1]

 

3 hours ago, oldtimer said:

Why not just say San Juan Capistrano?  It is so much cooler than "orange county."  

yes , San Juan Capistrano is such an evocative name , , whenever we are  in Irvine or Anaheim , we drive over to revisit -a truly beautiful area -

[OO1]

28 minutes ago, Shiva said:

An interesting tangent. I posted to this California thread for one main reason, to ***** about the heat. ☀️ Which peaked today at 100 Degrees!  I’ve never seen or heard of that temp, in this town.  Supposed to be about 15 degrees cooler tomorrow.  🙏

are you guys also enjoy  the wine season , or is it more to the North  near SF

[Shiva]

8 minutes ago, RandyH000 said:

are you guys also enjoy  the wine season , or is it more to the North  near SF

This area is not what one would call wine country, though Im sure there are some who may have a vine or two.  Inland , there is a town called Temecula, which is a region where there are lots of wineries.   

[Fido]

I have lived in San Juan Capistrano for over 40 years - Before that I lived in Dana Point. My family had a house on the beach in Laguna when I was growing up. Im a water baby for sure. Surfed, body surfed, scuba dived etc etc etc - this is the hottest I have ever felt it in all my years here. 98 degrees at 5:30 PM - dang! 

 

My wife and I ride our bikes to Kiiller Dana almost every day - and it gives us our fix and we love the beauty of it all.

 

The Dana Point Marina

[Shiva]

As far as the postings of locations goes, one of my favorites is where Garyrc lives.  👍   

[Seadoc]

Put crazy in perspective.  Sounds  like several rung jumps on the career ladder though. 

1) Weigh the pro's and con's

2) Consider how close to retirement you are

3) Taxes, taxes, and taxes (CA is not a friendly tax state)

4) Hardships on family, friends, etc.

5) Cost of living (doesn't make sense to go from 100k to 150k salary if cost of living eats up the extra 50k) 

6) Awesome to have Avocado trees in your front yard BTW

7) You could make a day trip to the Cabo Wabo distillery (and support Sammy Hagar like I do)

8) Check pricing on HAZARD insurance

Just don't get stuck and say "I should have taken the BLUE pill"

[Dave A]

4 hours ago, Seadoc said:

Put crazy in perspective.  Sounds  like several rung jumps on the career ladder though. 

1) Weigh the pro's and con's

2) Consider how close to retirement you are

3) Taxes, taxes, and taxes (CA is not a friendly tax state)

4) Hardships on family, friends, etc.

5) Cost of living (doesn't make sense to go from 100k to 150k salary if cost of living eats up the extra 50k) 

6) Awesome to have Avocado trees in your front yard BTW

7) You could make a day trip to the Cabo Wabo distillery (and support Sammy Hagar like I do)

😎 Check pricing on HAZARD insurance

Just don't get stuck and say "I should have taken the BLUE pill"

He goes out there it will be to the epicenter of blue pills. #1 mistake made is thinking those extra dollars you will be getting will actually mean a better life standard. First off what I have here in Tn is not available at any price in the LA area so there is that. You like acreage and privacy and green things and water you better be a big time multi millionaire to even dream about this.  Taxes, real estate cost, regulatory costs all who live there pay. Think gas taxes and electricity costs. Water also. Then there is the utter nonsense of urban sprawl and congestion. If you like people crammed in right on you the social aspect has to be good. I figure you have about convinced yourself to go and encourage you to do so but spend plenty of time checking it out before you make a permanent leap because it is going to really cost you a LOT of money and loss of autonomy.

  Like many who speak of the LA area in glowing terms my brother thinks it is just wonderful out there and would never leave and then later in the conversation starts complaining about things. He has been there almost 40 years now and owns his house like many oldtimers do and kind of forgets what it would be like to start over and do it again at today's prices. He is also the frog in a pan of water getting hotter by the year and things he would never have tolerated 20 years ago he thinks are OK now.

 

   California is on the cutting edge of Malthusian societal devolution so you can participate in the grand experiment just like my brother.

 

  Considering most here on the forum I am an aberration. I have been self employed since 1981 and have never worked for anyone besides myself since then. I choose where I want to live and then make a way of earning money to do so and if I want to earn more I am my only limiter. The idea of moving for more money is alien to me and if I want more money I figure out how to do so where I live. Good quality lifestyles and abundant rich fertile land with trees, water and privacy and a much higher degree of personal freedoms are worth far more to me and those things can only be found through geography.

[Shiva]

What a difference a day makes.

The setting sun on yesterdays 100 degree day.  

This morning.  Heavy marine layer, 70 degrees out and misty. 👍

[oldtimer]

Too hard to resist:

"Play Misty for me."

 

lol

[LarryC]

Off-topic, to Dave Mallett:  Weren't you going to move to Beltsfile, MD or some place like that?  Where are you located at present.  I live very near there and would like to chat.  Garymd lives not very far from there, and would want to do the same.  email me at larryclare@aol.com.  Thanks.

 

 -- Larry

[dtel]

Looks LA got warm today 111degrees, neighboring town of Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley got to 121.

 

Rolling blackouts again as to not overwhelm the wind farms, the mayor said unplug anything not needed and set your ac to 78 or just use fans. People are not happy. 

 

 

[oldtimer]

I run mine at 78.  Lately i have splurged and set it at 77.  Bfd.  You sound scornful.  Well, maybe you don't.  Our town's electric company gets easily over 60 percent of its power from wind.  In the brutal Texas summer heat, or the cold snaps of winter we don't have rolling blackouts or brownouts or rarely even outages at all, when we do it's usually from a thunderstorm lightning strike.  Wind farms work.  You just have to be smart about it.

[dtel]

Not scornful at all, could care less really. It just seems silly with all the wasted power, bet the guy suggesting use fans will not use one instead of ac, it's one of them do as I say not as I do things. 

 

I said that about wind farms because they complained about the money for them, then complained it was killing to many birds and they didn't want them in their areas, can't have it both ways. Why not more of them along the coast ? There is also technology to make power from the non stop waves, no one does that either, solar, not quite there yet to make it useful for the cost it seems ?

[Marvel]

39 minutes ago, dtel said:

solar, not quite there yet to make it useful for the cost it seems ?

 

Our utility has a program which includes the TVA, where they have installed a little over 4,000 panels. You can license/rent a panel for $5 a month, and get a bill credit for the power that panel generates. That means you could have a lower bill if we have lots of sun, or not, depending. Obviously, you won't get a credit for your whole bill. They have different arrangements as well. The nice thing is you don't have to do anything to your own property.

 

At present, the power generated is only equal to the power  needed for about 130 homes, but it's a start.

[oldtimer]

We have the lowest rates in the area.  I am curious if the CA residents will chime in with what they pay per kwh?  Or anyone for that matter.

[Ceptorman]

Our recent talks have went well, I am planning on going out there the first week of October. My plan is to spend a month there, and then decide if it's for me. I have a feeling they will love me there, I bring more experience than anyone else there, but it is a much different market. I feel like I'm in a great position, he needs me more than I need him. I have a great gig now, plenty of work, they're all referrals, my system works well. But....I'm 57, and after 40+ years of physical work, my days of being that physical are limited. According to him, and what he thinks I can achieve, my income can increase 4x. I know the cost of housing, it's about 4x the cost here, on average. I will live modestly there, not blowing it all on a lavish new lifestyle, if I can't save more than I make now, I won't go there, I'm only going there for the money. Even if I move there, I will keep my house and all my tools here in Indy, just in case I need to come back. 

 

There are dozens of things I am considering. I have 5 older siblings, and the oldest turns 70 next month, we are all very close, they are important to me. My wife is a teacher with a contract until next May, she would finish the year here. My daughter just started her second year of college (nursing) she would finish the year here as well, and there's as much as a 2 year wait to get into some nursing schools there. 

 

Even though I only spent 4 days there, and that was before the pandemic, I did not experience any of the congestion and traffic jams that LA is known for. I never felt unsafe, threatened, or out of place, everyone was very friendly. Of course I was in the north and east part of the city...Beverly Hills, Brentwood, North Hollywood, Burbank, Pasadena. Some of their work is in downtown LA, but not much. I wasn't prepared to like it as much as I did. 

[Ceptorman]

The power and AC shortage is a concern, currently my house is 70 degrees (wife is 47, need I say more)

 

I will need a different vehicle though, my gas guzzling giant pickup truck might not be so efficient there!

[JJkizak]

6 hours ago, oldtimer said:

Too hard to resist:

"Play Misty for me."

 

lol

 

Thanks for reminding me about throwing a broad out the living room window.

JJK

[garyrc]

22 hours ago, RandyH000 said:

are you guys also enjoy  the wine season , or is it more to the North  near SF

 

Wine country is mainly Sonoma,  Napa counties. north of SF, with in Marin, Humbolt, and Mendocino contributing some.   In Oregon, the Willamette Valley has about 600 wineries.

Coppola has wineries in both California and Oregon. 

 

Even my favorite auto mechanic had a winery, Cakebread.  Jack Cakebread graduated from UC Berkeley, went to graduate school at Stanford, and was the middle generation running the garage.  He was a good friend of Ansel Adams, studied under him, and sent him wine until Adams could no longer drink it because of illness.  Jack's sons run the winery now.