Spending
Rent - 212.5
Records - 126.82
Groceries - 92.15
Gas - 60.95
Various Project Supplies - 39.98
Electricity - 25.99
Phone - 17.7
Internet - 17.5
Garden supplies - 9.99
Good month overall. Bought too many records, all current jazz. I figured if I want to have current jazz records released in the vinyl medium I need to be part of the demand for them. It'd be great if there was even enough demand to get some 90's-00's reissues coming. At any rate Chris Potter's Circuits and The Bad Plus' Activate Infinity are getting heavy play right now. Totally worth it.
Reading and Running
Have fallen off both these horses a little as the past few weeks. Reading excuse: I've been pretty busy. Running Excuse: had a week of really shit weather. Hopping back on those horses now.
27. The Dark Forest - Liu
Both this and The Three Body Problem have such cool ideas and concepts but really fell short on the execution for me. His characters and story arcs are such a drag. Perhaps it's a cultural or translation thing? I'll finish the trilogy at some point.
28. Zappa: A Biography - Miles
He's such an amazing composer, bandleader, and guitarist, but man what a deeply deeply flawed human being.
On to...
29. Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, 2nd Edition - Long
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DR: 53
MR: 281.7
I've gotten it into my head to try to bring my average miles per run up to 5.5 by the end of the year. This is a totally arbitrary goal. Currently at 5.31.
NW
My pre-covid recorded peak was on Jan. 31st. Including contributions I'm now way beyond that peak. This market is crazy.
Quantifying House Purchase
I've been doing a little work to actually put a number on realizing this little pipe dream of mine. I'm using a foreclosure listed a couple miles from me as a baseline for this hypothetical. 1200ft2, .23 acre, ugly Ugly UGLY interior, falling apart exterior, big shop in back, in a less safe neighborhood that I currently live, doubles distance to current jobsite + adds lots of road biking, listed $200k. I'm not going to find my unicorn so I think something like this that checks half the boxes is a reasonable expectation.
With 20% down, the total payed in property taxes, ~insurance, and interest over a 30-year fixed rate loan at 4.1% would be $208,322.26. If I'm currently "wasting" $212.5/m on housing I can reduce that number by $76,500 (212.5x12x30) for a total 30 year cost of $131,822.26, or $366.17/m more than I'm paying now. That's just money I'm "wasting", my monthly payment would necessarily be larger to include principle. This obviously does not include the costs I'd incur fixing the place, maintenance, utilities I'm not paying for now (water+garbage), extra commuting cost, changes in taxes/ins., and probably a bunch of other things. Looking at a total interest cost of over 118k makes me want to die inside a little, but an average cost over 30 years of $575/m for a shop and a large backyard I could turn into garden beds is a more reasonable way to frame it in my mind. Still a lot of money, though...
Currently I could put 20% down, but that would leave me with only a couple month emergency expenses and I like the peace of mind knowing I have multiple years of living expenses as a back up.
Other places to live
Supplementary to mortgage math I've also been distracting myself hunting for cheaper locales that interest me. Atop the list is Great Falls, MT.
Pros
- Not too big, not too small
- very similar climate to where I grew up, which is preferable to the climate where I currently
- cheaper houses, duh!
- further north, potentially long-term good from a climate-change angle
- extensive bike paths along the Missouri river running through town
- No UA local, which is high on the priority list as another local effectively solves employment problems should I absolutely need them.
- a laundry list of other things as I've never actually been there.