It's Official - I'm Moving!

Looking at the lease renewal letter with the $250 rent increase one more time, I decided I really have to move. So I wrote up my 30-days notice letter, turned it into the apartment office, and clenched my teeth knowing that means I'll have one week to move out when I get back after my trip next month.

I think this is for the best. I hope this is for the best. I'll be saving money, anyway. And given that the only way to ever be able to afford property is to live super cheaply now and save, save, save, well, that's what I'm going to have to do. I just hope I can find some place decent to move.

Ridiculous to Stay, A Pain in the Ass to Go

Ah, it's a beautiful Saturday morning in my lovely studio apartment. The spring air is keeping the room cool - in a few weeks it will be piping hot outside, with the heat somehow collecting in between the walls of my studio.

In the background of my waking state is TLC's "My First Home." A couple is looking for a home in the Bay Area, and they've found one they loved.

Meanwhile, I search Craigslist ads vigorously. It's not that I'll find a place to move today, as my move-in date is July 1 at earliest, but I'm still trying to decide whether to leave my complex for a more affordable option or stay here and deal with a tight budget and less savings.

When I moved in and the studio cost $905 including utilities, it wasn't that much of a jump from the $700 + utilities room share options available on the market. For $100 extra dollars, approx, I could have a place of my own. That was a no brainer.

Then rents went up to $1050 and I decided to stay. It was a shock, surely, but it still seemed like a pretty good deal given my options.

$1300 - is about double what I could be paying for a room share situation. I could even compromise and get a room and bathroom in a 2br/2ba condo apartment for less than the $1300.

Moving is such a pain in the ass, though. I could hypothetically "move" for little cost, if I can get some friends to help. As far as furniture goes, I don't have much. The only large thing I'm sold on keeping is my bed, since I bought that new for a whopping $800 two years ago (I decided after 6 months on a used futon with poor support, I deserved a good night sleep). I have a large bookshelf I got at Target a few months ago and it's really heavy - but it would be a shame to toss that! Other than the bed, bookshelf, and some small tables, I have a piece of crap IKEA coffee table that started to fall apart before I put it together (though it's functional) and a large horizontal dresser that I could part with - I'm not sure anyone would want to buy it, but I'd consider trying to sell it on Craiglist. I have plenty of room in my closet now for my clothes, and I'd hope that wherever I move would have at least this much closet space. Then there's a TV, a printer, a microwave, and other odds and ends. I really don't have that much stuff. It's still a bitch to move, but it's not like I'm moving a house worth of life. It's just whatever I could fit in a studio for the past two years.

Also, having less space might be good for me. It would keep me organized as there wouldn't be places to hide things. Heh.

The downside of getting a roommate is - well - obviously enough to have me living in a studio currently. Noise. Roommate drama. Not being able to cook naked in the kitchen. These things are hard to compromise on. :)

My biggest fear is that I won't find anything I like. I have some cushion. If I decide to move - I'd come back to California around June 20-something, and I'd have that time to finish getting out of my apartment. I'd put my things into storage and move in with my good friend who has offered up her second bedroom. I'll pay her rent, but it will be way less than what it would cost to stay in my studio in August. $1300 versus, maybe $500 or something (plus whatever it costs to put my things in storage for a month.) That will cover the 2 weeks in June that I can't work because I'm going to be in Israel on vacation. Then I can really take some time to find a good living situation.

The real question is, how picky am I? I get anxious in so many living situations. Finally, in this light and airy studio I feel, well, at the very least calm and comfortable. The greenery outside (beyond the parking area) makes me happy. It almost reminds me of home, back east. I love waking up here.

But is it the stupidest thing in the world not to move? If I did move, I'd look for a place ideally that costs less than what I'm paying now, so I could pay under $1000, and I'd put any extra money between that and the $1300 I would be paying for my studio into a special down payment fund. I'm tired of renting, and dealing with yearly rent increases.

I just wish I felt more settled. All of my friends are getting engaged and married. Buying homes. Me? Well, I've been in a relationship for two years. We joke about moving in together one day but we're talking more apartment than house. He's going to grad school in fall 2009, and who knows where I'll be. That's why it really doesn't make sense for me to buy anything right now. Even though the prices for condos in the area are coming down while rents are going up, up, up.

The more I think about it, the more I realize the only logical option is to move. I could be saving $500 a month if I find a place for $800, or $6000 a year. $6000 a year is nothing to shake a stick at. That's a huge chunk of change to go to my downpayment fund. Even if it's $4000 and I get a slightly nicer place, it's still a lot of money.

*sigh* - I just... wish there was an obvious option hitting me on the head. But life is never so black and white.

How We Gonna Pay This Year's Rent? - a $250 a month increase!

I knew it was coming. But I didn't know how fast or how hard.

My rent increase letter arrived in my mailbox today. In its perfect off-white envelope adorned with the elegant and harmless-looking apartment complex logo, the contents inside were more like an offer of a boxing match where the mailer was allowed to bring guns and a knife. I would, of course, have to fight bare handed.

When I moved into my quaint Silicon Valley studio apartment two years ago, it cost me $905 a month, utilities included.

Last year, when they bumped the rent up to $1050 a month (still, with utilities included) I was tempted to leave. But around here, I had few options anywhere near as nice. I wanted to live alone - that's part of the problem. Still, other options for studio apartments that are cheaper than $1050 are, maybe, $900, and look more like a closet than an apartment.

Today's letter, I knew, held the answer to my question - will I have to move out this year or can I stay for one more year? The answer... I'm moving out.

The utilities are no longer "included" although they're offering $50 a month extra for them to be "included." That brings the total rent up to $1300 a month to get what I'm getting now for $1050. A $250 increase? Are they out of their minds???

No, they're just raking in the dough while plenty of people are losing their homes and the rental market is getting increasingly more squeezed. When my rent was $905 another company owned the apartment complex, in fact, I think it was family owned, so the rents were always reasonable. Then this big shot property management company came in, decreased the quality of life around here, and upped the rents. Gotta love capitalism and free markets, eh??

So... now I have to figure out what to do. To complicate matters, I'm leaving town for about a month at the end of May into June, which leaves me with about a week when I get back to find a new place.

The good news is that my friend has offered to let me stay with her while I look. So it sounds like I'll be storing my stuff in storage for the summer, living with my friend, and trying to find a decent rental in this painful renters market. I'm almost tempted to look into buying. It seems like a really good time to buy. I'm not sure I'm in the right part of my life right now to buy property, but gosh, if I'm going to really be spending that much of my income on housing, I might as well be putting it into something I'll own in the long run.

So right now I have about $25k for a down payment if I cash out my Roth IRA and all of my savings accounts. Of course that would leave me with no emergency fund - probably not the best idea. Perhaps I could convince my parents to give me a loan for a more enticing down payment, but I'm not sure they even have the money. Well, my dad will have the money in a couple of years when he can access his 401k, but he retired early and the money is apparently somewhat tight right now.

Do any of you think I should look into purchasing property? I'd probably want to buy a 1br condo - it seems to be in poor judgement to buy a studio (as I doubt it's easy to resell a studio.)

There's a lot I have to think about. I didn't expect such a huge rent increase. I thought maybe they'd bring it up to $1200 and I was going to deal with that. But $1300 a month? For a studio? For a fucking studio?

Seriously.

10 Reasons Why I Love My Freelance Job

I work for a web startup in Silicon Valley on contract, about 40 hours per week.

10 Reasons I love My Job:

1) The people I work with are passionate, fun, and great collaborators working together to create something new.

2) My job tasks are diversified and include many things I'm interested in, such as writing, community management, UI, and QA.

3) The room to grow at my company is only limited by my skills and interests.

4) I get paid a very decent monthly wage for the opportunity to do something I love.

5) Because I'm on contract, I get the flexibility I need to pursue my other passion: theater directing in the evenings and on weekends. I've applied for numerous web startups, but most wanted me full time at 60+ hours a week. If I had no life outside of my job, I'd be happy to take this on. However, I need to have balance in my life. I don't mind sacrificing company-sponsored benefit plans, sick days, holidays and stock options if it means I can keep doing what I love AND have a job I love.

6) While I don't have a lot of time to do "other freelance projects," I have a few hours a week that I can move around to take on some extra work. I like to continue freelancing on additional projects because it's always good to have side income in case your full-time (or in my case, 40 hour per week freelance) gig goes kaput.

7) Free lunch on Mondays!

8) I feel appreciated. My ideas are not always used, but at least they're considered. People seem to respect me. That's the most important thing in making me feel satisfied at a job.

9) Flexible schedule and work location. I work from the office 2-3 days per week and I work from home the rest of the time. I find I actually do more work when I'm at home because I can focus. I'm also not anxious like I was at former jobs where I just didn't feel smart/competent/knowledgeable enough to feel comfortable yet still challenged in the position(s).

10) My job is a great stepping stone to whatever comes next. I'm learning so much, and I learn more every day. As a writer, I'm still involved in research and finding out new things. As a community manager, I get to do my favorite thing ever - help people. Is it so absolutely bizarre that I actually love responding to customer feedback and writing FAQs? Being involved in QA, I'm learning a lot about testing a site for bugs. In general as a marketing assistant and such, I'm learning a bit about product management and general marketing for a web startup. I think all of this puts me in a great spot to move on to bigger and better things later in life, whether that be a position with more responsibility at my current company or something else. A while back I applied to a community manager position at another startup and it came down to me and someone else. I didn't get the gig, probably because my journalism experience wouldn't directly cross over to interacting with site users on a daily basis. But now... my resume can potentially land me another community management job, if I ever need to look for another one down the line.