Weekend activities! (old thread reanimated)

#4240

Enjoy the vacations an publish some photos.
We like photos!

This was my finding today at the flea market.

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Very stylish candleholder, ca 1950.

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#4241

I would’ve found it impossible to figure out what this item was without your description. :grinning:

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#4242

Even after 45 years of collecting, buying and selling things
I always find things I haven’t known before.
So many collection areas, too many.

On Friday I got this spade.
I bought it because it was cheap ( 2 Euros )
It’s not from the Wehrmacht, its US Army WW2.

So I can dig holes with an historical instrument. :grin:
And believe me, that’s a quality you will never get in our days.

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#4243

Are you familiar with martens?
Little smart animals, but not so loved by car owners.
(I am sure they can bite all Anker cables offered without any problems :rofl:)

There are many “defense toys” sold meanwhile.
But all theses don’t help at all,
these are only helping to fill the seller’s wallets. :grinning:

I had such a fellow years a ago in my attic.
He/she was climbing up the roof gutter and found an entrance.

I stopped this by using some tricks.

Today my daughter (good ears she has :smiley:) told me there was a burglar around the house. :laughing:

We found the tracks of that “burglar” this morning.
Eliminated isolation material, beside the roof gutter.

Aha, “new old friend” trying to get in the house on the other side.
And indeed this little rascal detected another entrance and was
preparing to enter.

BUT NO. :grin:

First is to put an “old sock” drowned with KLorix at the entrance.
(That’s the real mighty trick you can do)
And after that I nailed a little board in that entrance.

But what was the most funny thing : I found a little bone there.
He/she was putting it there to decorate the new found home.
I am sure this night the relocation is planned ! :rofl:
And I am sure it will fail!

GREAT! I love animals.

The friends may have better stories with raccoons or bears,
we dont have there in Germany.
But wild boars are showing up more and more in the cities here.

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#4244

The Marten is also known as a Weasel here in the US at least. No experience with them but I have heard of their smarts and persistence.

We deal more with some squirrels here in Orange County, CA. They love the trees (of course). We have many Eucalyptus trees in this area which were brought over from Australia:

The squirrels tend keep to themselves but they did seem to scare off a few beautiful humming birds that we had & eventually set up a feeder for.

Those squirrels always tended to get the neighbor’s dogs in back barking (owners NEVER told them to shut up). Those neighbors have since moved away and took their yapping dogs with them, thank goodness.

My father and his brothers used to hunt wild boar back in Persia (now Iran) before they came to the US back in the late 1940’s. My father loved to hunt and did so when he and my mom (and their entire families) came to the US but there are no wild boars here in California (at least not that I have heard)…so he settled for quail, rabbit and once even made a trip to Colorado to hunt deer/elk. My mom still has an elk head trophy of my father’s from that Colorado hunting trip in her house…she moved it into the garage because she never liked it in the house.

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#4245

I have seen livingrooms of “hunters”.
Full of trophies.

All the wall full of poor animals heads and antlers.
When I see those I think always about “moths”.
and other little “animals” :laughing:

Its like a “chamber of horrors”.
Your mom did the best; hide it remove it.

Talking about eucalyptus.
It was not a good idea to plant these trees all over the world.
These trees were planted, because they are growing quick
(of course needing water, other trees will not have)
BUT
This type of tree is containing oil and it “likes” to burn.
The result can be seen all over the world, but nobody tells the reason.

#4246

Happy Friday everyone! Hope all is going well. I started a new job recently so life has been busy but fun

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#4247

Great news Kaitlyn, hope the job is close by your family.

Congrats!

#4248

May be you tell us more about it? :wink:
I am sure you are doing it perfectly.

But always remember.
Job is NOT University.

Other rules :
Much more competition, much more problems with colleagues .
Not so easy.

#4249

I started a job a software developer so far its been pretty good. While its definitely not the same as university there are still a lot of learning chances which I love. The team I am working on seems really nice everyone is just really busy, but better busy than bored. The real world is definitely very different than school but I am excited to embrace it.

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#4250

That’s true.
I don’t know the real world, because after finishing my studies I got a job at the university I was studying before.
So not much changed only my status from student to teacher. :grin:

And this job kept me young.
Always together with young folks, kept me up to date with many things.
These type of jobs / contracts get very rare meanwhile,
Temporary contracts are quite normal.

I am sure you will doing a perfect job as far its possible. :smile:
Are yo programming or doing administration?

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#4251

My first job ended up a software developer too.

I moved from having to live on a tight budget, but only averaging 3 hours a day “work” as student for 30 weeks a year, to actual work 38 hours a week for 47 weeks a year and more money than I knew what to do with. So I bought a house, which now is worth 15 times as much.

So spend your wages wisely :wink:

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#4252

I those “old times” it was possible to buy a house with even a low budget.
In our days it seems be really impossible or the house/flat is somewhere in the “desert”.
Placed there, one may afford it.

What is most important of a real estate? :

  1. The position
  2. The position
  3. The position
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#4253

Yeah should be interesting. I’m not planning on recklessly spending hoping to save up. Still trying to figure out the best ways to invest in my future. While id love to but property it’s getting really expensive to even just get into property. Got any tips?

#4254

Yeah, borrow from family to add to the maximum mortgage you can get, get at least a 2 bed or ideally 3 bed home in a place with plenty of jobs and/or good
commute transport links.

Then rent rooms out to young professionals similar to yourself, and then pay down the debts. Keep changing jobs taking a payrise. Share food purchase and cooking in the house as that halves the food costs, and obviously sharing heating cooking costs.

Live humbly, over-pay mortgage as much as you can each month.

As your debt pays down, and as usually salary / bonus increases, and as houses usually increase in value, get a line of credit in addition to mortgage, the LoC is a higher interest rate, the mortgage is low and you remortgage to lower it further every few years. Use the LoC for short term costs, e.g. if you lose job to live off while getting job then pay the LoC down first.

If the payrise involves moving home then rent out your property to a family, rent where you are and try to repeat buying borrowing against the increased value (usually) of first home.

Typically after a few years you can borrow on an house, rent it , that pays the mortgage, and get an even bigger/better home.

Rinse, repeat.

As most of your assets are being paid for by tenants, you end up owning far more, and you can retire early if you wanted.

Start the process as soon as you can usually after 6 months from a regular income to get mortgage approved. Work out a budget showing you can pay down debt and show it to family to get their support. They probably can borrow cheaper than you on their houses to help you start, and agree if their borrowing is paid first.

Try to avoid buying apartments if budget permits, go for houses with gardens. They are easier to rent out to families years later if you don’t live in it. Also try to get place with garden / garage space and convert/build a small simple place there to either rent out or you can live it temporarily while main property rented e.g. holiday home for families.

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#4255

And never rent it to a “rent nomade”
(Don’t know if this very special expression exists in English")

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#4256

I think we call them dodgers.

If Kaitlyn does what I suggest then she’s a live-in landlord able to keep an eye on tenants house-sharing.

One place I lived in as tenant the landlord lived in converted rear of garage, he could easily keep an eye and ear on us.

#4257

dodgers : swindlers ?
I select my tenants very carefully.
And here in MĂźnchen its easy.

Best is to visit the candidates in their apartments /houses where they live before one creates the contract. :wink:

The big problem at the moment are the increasing, exploding additional costs here.
Not easy to handle for the tenants at all.
The problems will show up in 2023 when the billings will be done.

#4258

Well done @ktkundy glad you’re enjoying a different challenge.

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#4259

My dear old grandad always said “spend wisely, you can only spend it once”
Even as a teenage kid i had the sense to reply “but grandad, if you spend it wisely you might get to spend that money again many times over”
I understood what he meant and likewise, he understood my point.

I understand it isn’t right for everyone, but investing in property was the best money I’ve ever spent.
And I’ll not lie, most of it was the banks, but its mine now, and thats what counts :sunglasses:

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