Rich people from many provinces are buying Beijing homes. Beijing is more popular than Shenzhen.
I feel the salary comparison is across job levels including clerks. However, Beijing homes are sold to the high end. If we set the bar high and filter out clerks from our population, then average salary might be higher in Beijing than Shenzhen.
If you were to invest in real estate in US, i would pick NY, SF, and Chicago. I don’t feel confident about other cities.
Hi Jay,
I have decided to go without insurance for now. I am already covered by two Singapore plans
For outpatient medical costs not due to accidents, I am uninsured. (These costs are excluded under the PGMTek plan anyway.)
Statistically, I used to see doctors at most once a year in the final 3 years working in the U.S. Chinatown doctors tend to be cheaper, including Traditional Chinese medicine. Now I’m older, that incidence may rise to 2 to 4 times a year. Perhaps $200 – $500 a year.
( Even in a bad scenario, 10 times that would be $5000/year, still insignificant compared to a hospitalization bill. )
Q: Is there some outside health insurance to cover outpatient medical? (I doubt there’s any plan costing $1000/year or lower.)
Victor
My main motivation for learning DIY is strata-lease (my own phrase) — basically leasing out one entire floor to collect rental.
When the tenant gets the privacy of an entire floor, rental rate can improve significantly. My family have two bubbly kids, so it might be hard to get good rents for tenants living with us on the same floor.
Most multi-floor houses are wood structures. I would need to learn DIY home improvement.
Condo or co-op won’t work.
I know 2 Chinese friends (both in IT) learned to do it. I also know 2 Australian guys doing a lot of DIY on their own homes.
By default, I need to buy health insurance for all 4 family members. Perhaps $20k ($18k to $24k) a year.
I think wife and I seldom fall sick, so I might carve out, say, $12k/year and earmark that for our medical cost. Most likely we use only a small portion.
For the kids, we might want to buy insurance for the winter months only.
The location has to feel orderly — safe and clean. Reference the broken window theory. Need not be spacious or super-convenient compared to nearby locations.
Zofia said Boston is better. I think she meant Richdale Ave felt better than Brooklyn.
Newport – she felt good location (unit size is acceptable to her).
Just to share my observations. You need not read.
I read a few on-line articles about violent crimes (including gun violence). I believe they are concentrated in pockets of poverty. A few authors describe Wilmington (or Chicago or Washington) as really 2 cities in one place, so you probably didn’t spend a lot of time in the bad Wilmington city.
I actually lived in a bad block in Brooklyn. The streets were cordoned off on two occasions, as police investigated gun crimes. I asked one of the officers "So this block is not so safe lately?" and he answered something like "This area is never safe".
I was curious why there were no/few white-collar professionals living there with kids. My wife did bring my 3-month old baby boy to the playground during the day but I saw rather few babies playing at the playground. Now I feel very few middle-class family would choose that area.
I moved out of there only to prepare for my parents’ visit but once I moved out I didn’t want to go back there. Rent there was 30 % to 50% lower than elsewhere. Also the subway was very near. These were the 2 main reasons I stayed there so long.
On 23 January 2017 at 23:02, Jay <jay.hu> wrote:
That works. No, not that bad. I do go there on regular bases. Oakland and South of Chicago is realllllly bad. LOL
—
Jay Hu
PGM TEK, Inc
614-8436820
Jay.hu
www.pgmtek.comFrom: "Bin TAN (Victor)" <tiger40490>
Date: Monday, January 23, 2017 at 9:58 AM
To: Jay <jay.hu>
Subject: official work locationHi Jay,
I would be asked many times by immigration officers "Where would you work". My prepared answers is
"Would be project by project. Currently CEM Tech has clients in Wilmington and Dublin Ohio. My manager is based in Dublin and travels."
By the way, Wilmington is one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. I heard.
The violent crime rate is number of reported cases per 100,000 population.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/003799-crime-down-urban-cores-and-suburbs — shows that urban core is 3x higher than suburbs.
In Town vs. Country, It Turns Out That Cities Are the Safest Places to Live
.. covers not only violent crimes but other injury deaths, often from cars.
moved to tanbinvest https://tanbinvest.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=14177&action=edit
what determined my choice of new home
#1 cost. I don't buy the “invest” argument. I see lots of transaction
costs and risks associated with a high price
#2 d2sta — defines quality of life for me
# all TPY amenities on the way home
# familiarity with TPY amenities. Low fear of uncertainty and change.
# school — mostly wife's needs
Living in Pasiris (but not Tampines) I felt impoverished…
Living in Yishun far away from the commercial center, i felt impoverished.
Living in Admiralty, i felt impoverished. The shopping facilities are too limited.
Living in Bedok, facilities aren’t as abundant as TPY or clementi, but i felt well supported.
remote location far from development facilities for the kids.
far from sports facilities
far from library, with enriching resources for adults and kids