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Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 234 total)
  • Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2297494

    <div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Justin Donson wrote:</div>
    Barring injury, I would say that I’d put my money on the ‘over’ of Jefferson getting 100 yards in the next 9 games lol.

    I was obviously being sarcastic. He could get it this week already.

    I know you were, so was I! I feel like every Jefferson catch is like a 20 yard crossing route or ‘dagger’ route almost. I wonder if we’ll ever adopt more of an underneath passing game(maybe with Hock back?). Seems like every sack replay they show the ‘behind the QB view’ and all of our dudes are running like 15+ yard routes. Or maybe it’s just Sam doesn’t immediately check-down like Cousins did a lot of times?

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2297383

    Jefferson is within just over 100 yards for the most receiving yards through the first 5 years of anyone’s career. I say he gets it.

    Barring injury, I would say that I’d put my money on the ‘over’ of Jefferson getting 100 yards in the next 9 games lol.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2297372

    Someone mentioned a new(worse) era of quarterbacks in the NFL right now and it reminded me of a theory/analysis I read somewhere that was really interesting.

    Basically, it went something like this(I’ll probably get this somewhat wrong):

    Go back to the early 2000s and you had cover 2 gaining popularity on defense, especially productive with Tampa’s ‘Tampa 2’. As the NFL does, Tampa has a few dominant defensive years and everyone follows suit trying to copy them. Ignoring the fact that not every team has the defensive personnel to make cover 2 effective.

    And what kind of QB play do you really want going against cover 2 defense? A pocket passer who can read the field, diagnose the coverage, and go through progressions to find the receiver who finds his way into a gap in the zone. Peyton Manning was already becoming well established in the league, but enter Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Phillip Rivers, etc. All fueled by drafting strategy, teams are looking for the next Peyton Manning.

    This carries on for awhile, aided by a league that wants more offense, and you see the boom years up until the Seattle Seahawks show up and change the way teams things about defense again. They run a cover 3(I think, maybe it was cover 1?) defense which features a single high safety(Earl Thomas) and a strong safety that drops down closer to the line of scrimmage(Kam Chancellor, one the best run stopping safety of all time), this made them extremely stingy against the run and created a lot of QB pressure. This made it super hard for pocket passer style QBs to get anything going, not enough time to really survey the field and go through those progressions.

    NFL again, being a copy cat league sees many teams adopt this defensive scheme in hopes to replicate their success. They succeed in some ways. We see pocket QBs start to become less effective. What IS effective though, is QBs that can salvage a broken play, QBs who thrive on escaping the pocket and extending the play and finding open receivers normally up the sidelines where Cover 3 is weakest. A few new QBs start to emerge as clear league leaders (Mahomes, Jackson, Allen), and now every team is trying to find the next Mahomes/Jackson/Allen in the draft.

    There’s a challenge with cover 3 though. It requires a ridiculous amount of athleticism from your secondary. It worked perfectly for the Seahawks because they literally had HOF caliber players at free safety(Earl Thomas), strong safety(Kam Chancellor), CB(Richard Sherman), LB(Bobby Wagner), and a very strong front 4, all in their primes! Teams tried to copy their scheme, but what made that scheme so effective was the personnel. Mahomes comes into the league and just starts carving up leaky cover 3 secondaries and sets records while doing so.

    Fast forward another almost 10 years and where are we? A lot of defenses have shifted back to a cover 2 style defense that is difficult for these mobile QBs to take advantage of. Offense appears down this year and even guys like Mahomes are not putting up big numbers like they were.

    The problem? Teams have been trying to find the next Mahomes/Allen for the last 10 years and defenses have adjusted. Maybe the cycle will repeat itself and the pocket passer QB will reign supreme again.

    It could be totally wrong, but it was a really interesting analysis based on the trends/copy-cat nature of the NFL. Also a great study in how uncreative a lot of NFL coaching staffs are. What made Tampa in the late 90s-early 2000s & Seattle in the mid 2010s great was partly their scheme, but mainly it was their personnel. They had absolutely stacked rosters that don’t come around very often, and their coaching staffs built their scheme around the individual skillsets. Cover 3 gets ROASTED by guys like Mahomes when you don’t have the best FS/SS/CB/MLB in the league all playing on the field at the same time, WITH a front 4 that gets consistent pressure.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2294099

    I know every team has some bad contracts, but it feels like Wild may be moving from two albatross contracts that are killing the team to a handful of smaller contracts that in aggregate don’t look good on the back end.

    We have $18M tied up this year in Spurgeon(through 2027), Foligno(through 2027), Hartman(through 2027), Gaudreau(through 2028). That number might be a bit bigger as the years go on too, I didn’t look at year by year numbers.

    That’s about ~20% of our cap. That looks A LOT better if Spurgeon is healthy and playing like he historically can, but he missed most of last season and he’s 35…

    I don’t know how that compares to other teams as I just don’t follow other teams as closely, but its seems like a lot of money tied into players who are on the wrong side of 30 and have been trending down.

    Will those contracts be the next ‘Once we are done with those contracts our window will really be open!’ like we talk about Parise/Suter?

    I imagine some of it is just the reality of trying to build a roster with ‘depth’.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2293803

    Been to Lac Suel For a lot of years but quit going about 10 years ago, I heard that its gotten a lot busier so do you guys out there that have fished Gull Rock and Lac Suel which would you recommend? Thanks

    Do you plan on bringing your own boat or renting one up there?

    I haven’t fished Lac Seul before but I have fished Gull Rock many times. It’s an awesome lake. Give Ian at Five Lakes Lodge a call, he runs a great camp and is probably the most customer friendly lodge owner I’ve ever met. He’s lived his whole life near Red Lake and has been guiding on the Red Lake / Gull Rock lake chain his entire life, he’ll tell you everything you need to know about the area.

    Gull Rock has great walleye fishing with access to a couple other lakes nearby(Keg, Two Island, Red). There’s also great pike fishing on Gull Rock(best in the spring and fall). Not sure about the other camps, but Ian also has boat caches on many smaller surrounding lakes if you want a change of pace.

    I don’t think you’d be disappointed at Gull Rock, but I can’t compare to Lac Seul. GR is a big lake but is not anywhere near as large as LS so you can always fish just about anywhere you want if you have a decent boat. There’s also very few hazards on Gull Rock which is a plus for me.

    Feel free to send me a pm if you have questions about GR!

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2288609

    It was just refreshing to see the Vikings maintain a strong lead for the entirety of the 2nd half and not have it come down to the last drive like every single game has for the last couple of years…

    Darnold looked pretty solid I thought. While the Giants suck, they have some talent on the front 1/2 of their defense. I thought we were in for a long day when Dexter Lawrence came straight up the middle on that first drive for the sack, but we adjusted well!

    But man, Daniel Jones looks so bad. It’s so funny that the Ed Donatell defense basically got him his bag for that WC win a couple years ago and that has totally hamstrung their franchise. On that note, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, and Kirk all looked pretty bad yesterday. It’s nice to be on the, ‘not getting screwed’ side of that fence:

    Burrow: $55M / year
    Lawrence: $55M / year
    Watson: $46M / year
    Cousins: $45M / year
    Jones: $40M / year

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2269614

    For a team that’s too often traded back for ‘value’ or ‘quantity’ of picks, I’m really excited to see the Vikings just go after two potential difference makers. The trade up for Turner was brilliant in my mind, he looks like he’s going to be a stud at one of the most expensive and in-demand positions.

    Of course it depends if JJMc works out, but consider all the cap space we have available in the next couple of years. We already added quite a bit of talent to the defense through Free Agency, and you have a couple of the most expensive positions starting fresh with rookie deals(QB,Edge).

    Apart from some interior O-line help, our offense looks great on paper, a lot of that cap space can go towards getting some help in our secondary and interior D-line and we could have a pretty complete team(again, on paper).

    One theory I heard about the Penix pick that could make sense is that they are expecting to get punished for the Cousins tampering stuff with next year’s draft. IF that’s true, they may be worried about whether they’ll even have a 1st round pick next year, which would be the year they head into the end of Cousins contract more or less. So maybe it’s a hedge against that given there was deep QB talent in this year’s draft and Cousins isn’t a long term solution for them.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2262830

    <div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Justin Donson wrote:</div>
    I mean, I know you’re just waiting for the day that socialism knocks down your door, steals your money, seduces your wife, gives your job to an immigrant, and “turns your kids gay”

    So what your saying is socialism found your parents house when you were a kid?

    jester

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2262829

    lol wow, you guys are touchier than ever.

    Sorry to interrupt your little out of touch conservative square dance!

    LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU, SOCIALISM IS BACK AND HE’S GOING TO ABORT YOUR BABY!

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2262777

    <div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>supercat wrote:</div>
    If it’s so profitable and saves lives why doesn’t the city create there own taxi service. With all the extra money they make they could reduce taxes.

    They already lose money with public transit, the trains & busses. There is NOTHING government does better than the private sector when it comes to business.

    USPS is a national treasure, and way better than private mail/delivery services. I can mail a letter to my family 5 states away for like $.68 through USPS, or I can pay like $11 to FedEx it. How is a private company going to do better than that? Unless by ‘better’ you mean ‘more expensive so they can be more profitable’.

    It should be okay for a service to exist for society who’s goal isn’t to continuously grow their profits and influence, but instead to provide a necessary service to it’s citizens.

    Thinks like mail, public transport, healthcare, etc are GREAT examples of something that could exist in a way that they make enough money to cover their expenses. Because guess what, you are paying WAY MORE for those services privately than you would if it was ‘socialized’.

    I know you guys love the idea of watching billionaires gain even more wealth and power at your own expense, but maybe you should get over that?

    I mean, I know you’re just waiting for the day that socialism knocks down your door, steals your money, seduces your wife, gives your job to an immigrant, and turns your kids gay. Stay vigilant though, socialism knows where you live and it sees where you sleep! You’re going to need at least 75 guns and a lifetime membership to the NRA to stop them**

    **Please send your membership dues and donations directly to your NRA representative if you’d like the latest info on where socialism was last seen and tips for how to protect yourself, vote red. Also, here’s a link to pay off Trumps $200M+ bail for him. If we all band together and pool our money together to help him(not socialism), HE will save us from socialism)!

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2262035

    Ok, if you absolutely NEED a goalie on your mount Rushmore then I think it looks like this:

    Wayne Gretzky
    Mario Lemieux
    Bobby Orr
    Jean Sebastian Giguere’s pads

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2259789

    How close is this to the old Water Gremlin factory? Didn’t they get shut down because they were leaching lead into the watershed or something in that area?

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2256312

    Spent the weekend up in the otter tail lake area. Fished 2 different lakes. One still has about 13” of ice. The other has around 12”. Both were still locked solid to the shore. I think that area probably has another 2 weeks of possible <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>ice fishing remaining. I was a bit surprised to find this much ice still remaining and the ice still locked tight to shore.

    This is good to know, thank you for posting this! I’m supposed to head up there to fish Friday and Saturday and was pretty nervous there wouldn’t be ice. Looks like Tuesday/Wednesday will be cold enough to firm things up a bit and then it should last through the weekend.

    Did you have good luck up there? We’re going to likely just walk out on some smaller lakes in the area.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2254225

    Not summer, but at the rate of this winter it might be, ice fishing trip in northern Ontario for monster pike.

    We might do a family trip to Rocky Mountain National park over the summer.

    It’s my 10th wedding anniversary this year as well, so my wife and I are spending 2 weeks in Switzerland to see the alps. A couple days in Zermatt to see the Matterhorn, about a week in the Jungfrau region to see Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, etc. One night in Zurich to see Taylor Swift lol, and then a couple days in Gruyere on the way back. Couldn’t be more excited for this trip!

    And then there’s a chance I’ll head back up to Canada in the fall!

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2231433

    Yawn, MAGA lost, get over it.

    Water wet, grass green, MAGA crowd here think democrats are extreme leftists when they are center to center-right by just about any accurate political compass.

    Then they elect absolute bat**** crazy people like Boebert and MTG lol.

    GOP is done, it will be a smoldering train wreck for the next 4-12 years until someone finally puts it out of its misery.

    On the other side, elected democrats are mostly terrible, but at least don’t push for abortion bans.

    That said, “Woooo guns and ‘make 11 year olds who were raped by their fathers carry a baby full term’ “ gets you 40% of the vote in this country.

    Good luck when all the boomers die and this younger generation can all vote. They are pissed off and care much more about things that actually matter.

    MAGA could be offered a utopian dream where no one has to work and everyone is healthy with perfect everything and they’d say no if it meant that people who look different than them also get it, or if they allowed abortions.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2229165

    Just reviving this old thread. How do these other pellet grills standup to rusting out. I have a Traeger that we have had approximately 5 years. It is completely rusted out with holes through it and now the brackets that hold the drip tray is falling off. Frankly I am very disappointed with the longevity. We probably use it 3 to 4 times a week throughout the year. Also very disappointed in the winter cook. So my question is what can be done to prevent this? Its sits outside under the covered porch with a cover on. So I am in the market for a new.

    Thanks,
    RVRDUX

    Can’t speak to Traeger, but I’ve had my Recteq RT-680 for like… 8 years? The only part that had rust was the powder coated side shelf. I got a stainless steel replacement for free and it looks new.

    The cooking chamber looks like it will last another 20 years or so, I don’t see any rust starting on the corners or the lid or anything.

    My cover is pretty worn out as well, and lets some moisture/water in, I should get a new one.

    Mine sits outside in the element 365 days a year as well, it’s dirty, but sturdy.

    No weak points on the hardware either, really heavy duty stainless, looks like they sized everything up 2 sizes from what was actually needed, just to be sure. Drip tray, firebox, grates, shelf, hardware, everything is heavy gauge stainless and I don’t see it wearing out anytime soon.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2228564

    It’s like my first time doing fantasy football with some people at work.

    I think I have a decent team, made better by all the RB injuries this year since I went WR heavy early in the draft.

    I’m like 4th in total points forced, and I’m 1-3 lol. My points against are BY FAR the most in the league, so just ran into some bad luck early, hope it turns around!

    After 4 weeks I have 160 more points against than the ‘best’ team. That’s fantasy sports though!

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2226432

    We are nowhere near a complete enough team to sniff a super bowl any time soon.

    We have legitimate talent at exactly one position group, WR. End of list.

    Our O-line is bottom tier.
    Our D-line is bottom tier.
    Our RB room is bottom-mid tier.
    Our TE room is mid-upper tier.
    Our LB room is bottom-mid tier.
    Our secondary is bottom tier.
    Our WR room is top tier.
    Our QB is middle-upper tier.

    This is not a super bowl roster, it would take Patrick Mahomes to make this a contender.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2226382

    Totally perplexing calls in the last 4 minutes or so of that game. Can’t believe the Chargers went for it on 4th down in that position…

    Then we run an RPO and almost fumble the handoff, hated that run with no timeouts.

    Terrible clock management after the last first down, which is a hallmark of the Vikings for years.

    And then our goal-to-go playcalling/design is just atrocious. If I have to watch our RB run straight up the middle and lose 1/2-3 yards another time…We burn a play with an inside run on every set of downs near the goal line and It. Never. Works. Try to get outside the tackles or run something deceptive or something. But as it stands, we really only have 2 downs to work with as we just waste a play running it up the middle when they’ve obviously stacked the box on defense. You think Bradbury/Ingram/Cleveland are going to win that battle against ANY D-line in the league? C’mon, know the personnel you’re working with.

    On that note, how come our pass play design seems to be either a slow developing 20+ yard throw to JJ that sees Kirk get absolutely brutalized, or a dump off to Mattison/Hockenson?

    Do you see what the Chargers did when we blitzed(like every play), they had short and intermediate routes to guys like Allen and just ate up the clock and yards. Are you telling me JJ/Hock/Addison/Osborn couldn’t run similar plays? Sick of seeing Cousins just get absolutely wrecked every game.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2224354

    Can you imagine how many receiving yards JJ would have if we had a competent O-line?

    I was surprised the Vikings kept this game close, I expected a route. We need to invest more in the trenches though, that’s obvious, we lose that battle every game against serious teams. It seems like every team we play against has some nasty Nose tackle or OLB that we just can’t handle. Like every single team, but we don’t have any of those guys.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2222728

    Biggest hobby for me the last couple of years has been climbing, specifically bouldering.

    I mainly climb at a gym but have gone outdoors a few times as well.

    Bouldering is done usually with just a crash pad and shoes+chalk, no harnesses or ropes to deal with. I’m a wuss so I don’t climb anything very high, and the gym walls top out at about 17 feet(with ample padding on the floor).

    It’s an absolute blast. One part physical and one part mental/problem solving. Unbelievable full body workout that’s so just much more engaging than any other type of exercise I’ve done.

    Highly recommend it for anyone looking to get in better shape! The gym I go to caters to all skill levels, if you can climb a ladder, then there’s problems there for you to climb!

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2222632

    Hockenson at $11 is an absolute steal if Kelce went for $70, my guess is your JJ + Hockenson for $90 is probably better than his Kelce + WR1 for however much he spent. Hockenson got SO many targets once he moved to the Vikings, I really think he’s going to have a huge year. Kelce is amazing, but also getting up there in age. At some point he’s going to have injury problems or slow down, I’d rather spend top dollar on someone younger, but that’s just me.

    Auction drafts are always super interesting, you really need to be able to adjust on the fly to how the drafts are going. Sometimes you get in a draft where people will pay any amount of money for the top 1-2 guys at a position, sitting back can be good here. Other times you get more budget minded people, that’s when you swoop in and get as much elite talent as you can.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2221607

    Played a lot of golf in my life, still don’t have a hole in one :(. Been very close a number of times, holed out for eagle from the fairway ~6 times, but not hole in one. Hit the pin and barely missed out on that albatross on number 11 at Stoneridge during a match play tournament, that would have been legendary. Also missed a hole in one by inches on the 240 yard par 3 during a club championship there, also would have been cool.

    Used to play so much more, but like Mahto said, kids make that tough! Only so many hobbies you can maintain as an adult with young kids! Trying to get my youngest into golf a bit, but don’t want to force it and he’s got minimal interest at this point. That, and these days when I get some free time I’m usually at the bouldering gym, a lot cheaper than golf and it keeps me in better shape!

    I also live in Mahtomedi, and will second the recommendation for Logger’s Trail, really like that course. It’s also worth checking out St. Croix National if you haven’t played their in awhile. They have that course in fantastic shape, new owners did a ton of renovation on the course and built a BEAUTIFUL clubhouse with a full restaraunt / bar now. There’s also a sweet looking putt putt course there. The course remains kind of wonky, a lot of elevation change, lots of uphill shots into the green, but it’s a fun challenge!

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2221589

    Justin – I agree with everything you have stated. It does suck, wish I would have went the tandem route to begin with, but wasn’t sure this storage was ever going to happen. I went with the known and am pissed about it now.

    Don’t beat yourself up over it too much, you likely made the right decision for the information you had available at the time.

    At the end of the day, this is very much a ‘1st world problems’ situation for you, hope you can figure something out.

    Agree with the other folks too, maybe some ways to cut weight in the boat that are also net positives elsewhere. I’m also surprised that the factory trailer would be so close to max weight off the lot, I wouldn’t think adding a kicker would screw you up so bad.

    I mean, like extreme situation, but if you’re traveling a really long distance, what else can you remove from the boat and move into your tow vehicle? Sounds super insane, but like how much work is it to take your batteries out(or maybe a couple of them?).

    I can get mine out in probably 20 minutes, would absolutely not do that often, but if it’s the difference between busting springs on a trip to Canada in the middle of nowhere, I’d consider doing it…Obviously kicker and gas aren’t so easy to detach from the boat, and depending on how your boat is setup, batteries could be a really stupid thing to have to mess with more than once a year.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2221446

    I was in a kind of similar situation a few years back, looking for a new trailer as my Ranger Trail trailer was really rusting out. It was bad enough that stuff was starting to break, the welds holding the brackets that the bunks are connected to had completely failed, parts of the trailer were feeling squishy and soft, etc.

    It really is like the worst position to be in, as it’s very rare for someone to sell a used trailer that fits your boat, especially one that’s in good shape. Most trailers just live with the boat unless the boat is totaled on the water.

    I wish I had good advice for you. I’d try to find someone else who’s added an axle to an existing trailer. I’m sure it’s possible, but I’ve just never ever heard of anyone doing that before. I’d be worried about paying $4k to do that and then still have problems or have something not work right. Then what do you do, go back to the fabricators? And if they can’t help you, you’ll be totally screwed on trying to sell that boat in the future. As you have some Frankenstein trailer that nobody will want to touch.

    Also, will modifying the trailer cause any problems registering/transferring ownership of the trailer/title in the future?

    I only say this because I was in the same spot. I’d consider:

    1.) Watching facebook marketplace like an absolute hawk for used boat trailers. They come up every now and then, but DO NOT last long. I lucked out completely and found someone selling my exact same trailer for $1400. His boat was totaled by a tornado, but his trailer was safe in his garage. I went there immediately and bought it on the spot. Later sold mine for like $700 and couldn’t believe my luck. It is possible, but you’ll have to be patient and ready to act.

    2.) I’d seriously think about the trade-up possibility. It’s totally sucky, but if you’re like me and need to trailer your boat to the lake every time you use it, then the trailer is equally important as the boat that sits on it. You will not be happy long term with a trailer that continues to cause problems. So, pay somewhere between 4-9k for a new or modified trailer, or use that extra 4-9k to find a boat with everything you want in it. If there was better loan rates right now, and depending on your space situation, you could probably come out ahead by buying a boat now and selling yours in the spring, but that requires a bit more of a bank roll and higher risk. Plenty of people who would be interested in that boat who may only put 100 miles a year on the trailer, at which point the single axel thing may not matter at all for them.

    Either way, I recognize that’s a really tough spot to be in with nearly a brand new boat. I HIGHLY doubt that your resale value will match what you spend on a new trailer, or a modified trailer. I don’t think you’ll get much added value for a new trailer as a buyer’s expectation for a 2020 boat is going to be a nearly flawless trailer. And a modified trailer may have the opposite impact, it might scare people away.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2218475

    This is super helpful, thank you everyone!

    I know pouring concrete in a reliable fashion isn’t cheap, just wasn’t quite ready for the price tag!

    I have a few PMs I’m gonna respond to, but the examples help give me a ballpark. I also know re-doing the front stoup adds a bit to the cost as I think that sits on / ties into the foundation of the house.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2218398

    Oh, I should mention that cost included a couple drain systems for two gutters we have. They were going to have those gutters cut down underground and empty out further out in the yard somehow. Which is definitely something we’d love, as right now one of the gutters literally empties out on top of our driveway and leaves a super thick sheet of ice every winter.

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2218333

    I don’t know enough about PP strategy to really contribute a lot here, other than that I remember watching the Blues PP in the playoffs last year and it was just so consistently dangerous. It seemed like they played with just one guy on the blue line more centrally, is that more common in the NHL now? Is it a personnel thing though? Like you need a specific type of player to be able to run that single blue-line look?

    Our 2nd line PP absolutely sucks though. Obviously there’s always a big drop off from PP1 to PP2, but look at these PPG numbers from the Wild forwards.

    PP1:
    KK: 17
    Ek: 12
    Zucc: 9
    Boldy: 8

    PP2:
    Freddy: 3
    Hartman: 1
    Johansson: 1
    Sundqvist: 1

    Is that normal for PP2 units? Maybe that’s fine if your first unit is top tier?

    Justin Donson
    Posts: 352
    #2216585

    I’ve done pretty well in IT since graduating with a Computer Science degree 37 years ago. If I did it over again, I would have chosen HVAC tech. My cabin buddy just sold his HVAC company over a year ago. He built one of the biggest HVAC companies in the Twin Cities. He had over 500 employees when he sold. He is a year younger than me (58). To say he hit it out of the park is an understatement. All the HVAC guys I know make very good money working their day jobs. They can take as many side jobs as they want. They can make bank on the side jobs (not uncommon to make a couple grand on a weekend). I worked masonry growing up and HVAC work is a cake walk compared to masonry.

    Wondering if we know the same guy! I don’t know him well, but does his name start with a K and does he have a cabin up on LOTW? If so, he’s great!

    Being single and making that should put you in a decent house, depending on where you live. I bought my first house for about $200k when I was single making less than that about 10 years ago.

    It’s amazing what 10 years will do. Median sale price in the twin cities was like $240k back in 2013, I think that’s up to like $340k in 2023. Wages have not kept up with that increase in most fields, unless you’re in like cyber security or data science or something.

    Not to mention mortgage interest rates are around 8% now, double what they were 10 years ago.

    $200k house in 2012 would have had a ~$950 / month mortgage.
    $200k house in 2012 would be ~$1,500 / month mortgage.

    And that’s before PMI or anything else(which you’d probably have as a first time borrower making $60k).

    That’s if you can even find a house for $200k around here. That mortgage discrepancy jumps to $1,000 different per month on a $340k house.

    I feel for you Bluegill. My wife and I were ‘able’ to buy a house about 9 years ago, but it’d be a lot harder now. We got a house for ~$280k with <4% interest, and could probably sell our house for $430k today, it’s silly, doesn’t seem like it should be worth that much if you ask me.

    It’s not because we worked harder or were smarter or anything, we just had two incomes and were fortunate to have enough money saved up now vs. then.

Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 234 total)