What do your neighbors do for a living?

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The majority of my neighbors and friends here in Irvine are single income households (only the husband works) or the wife works part-time. As far as jobs / income sources:

- Lawyers
- Doctors
- Hedge fund managers
- Engineering managers

My experience is that the majority bought near the bottom with down payment assistance from family. I do have friends that just moved up into a $2m+ home and are renting out their old home. They are name partners at a law firm. A lot families own side businesses or rental properties that supplement their income. I personally feel like I'm on the poor end of things here in Irvine despite making 200k+/yr and my spouse not working. Luckily my THP is under $3k/mo and I have no other debt whatsoever.
 
On our street:
1. owns own business, works part time from home
2. FCB - dad works in china. mom and daughter live here. They don't work.
3. empty house - investor
4. empty house - investor
5. FCB - comes for several days to visit. has come maybe 3 times last year
6. FCB - said they bought for their elementary kid who will eventually go to school here. otherwise it sits empty.
7. empty house - investor
8. FCB owned but they rent it out.
 
Maserson said:
On our street:
1. owns own business, works part time from home
2. FCB - dad works in china. mom and daughter live here. They don't work.
3. empty house - investor
4. empty house - investor
5. FCB - comes for several days to visit. has come maybe 3 times last year
6. FCB - said they bought for their elementary kid who will eventually go to school here. otherwise it sits empty.
7. empty house - investor
8. FCB owned but they rent it out.
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Wow... The block parties on your street must be epic!
 
About to move, but in the old place: To the left, UCI students, to the right IUSD school facilities management. Across, who knows, only time I've seen him was when he was outside screaming at the mailman  ;D.

Us,  four UCI alumn, now all full time young professionals. Quad income no kid house.

EDIT: 0 FCBs in our neighorhood, maybe it's too old, no HOA either.
 
Maserson said:
On our street:
1. owns own business, works part time from home
2. FCB - dad works in china. mom and daughter live here. They don't work.
3. empty house - investor
4. empty house - investor
5. FCB - comes for several days to visit. has come maybe 3 times last year
6. FCB - said they bought for their elementary kid who will eventually go to school here. otherwise it sits empty.
7. empty house - investor
8. FCB owned but they rent it out.
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Is this eastwood?
 
bones said:
misme said:
bones said:
Nothing.

Ever go to preschool pickup in irivne during ?working hours??  Lots of moms AND dads there together to pick up their one kid. It?s precious.
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Some people may be working from home and have the flexibility to do pick ups even in the middle of the day.
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Or Ive asked and the answer is nothing :)
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Or some vague answer like "We own our own business".

#DonutShopsAndPrinterCartridges
 
Maserson said:
On our street:
1. owns own business, works part time from home
2. FCB - dad works in china. mom and daughter live here. They don't work.
3. empty house - investor
4. empty house - investor
5. FCB - comes for several days to visit. has come maybe 3 times last year
6. FCB - said they bought for their elementary kid who will eventually go to school here. otherwise it sits empty.
7. empty house - investor
8. FCB owned but they rent it out.
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Maserson must be another BTB burner account.

Kidding. Maserson is not YF.
 
inv0ke-epipen said:
Us,  four UCI alumn, now all full time young professionals. Quad income no kid house.

no HOA either.
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^^^ This guy saves!  Good for you man, keep up the good work and financially sound decision making!

Both my wife and I are service professionals (vague I know, but internet...), first baby on the way.  We had some help with the down payment from our parents.  Still have a nice hefty mortgage to service and do notice the dent the property tax payments make in our savings account.  I expect both of us will be working full time until about 60.

As for my neighbors...  Let's see...
1) Indian couple with kids, not sure what they do, but they both leave for work every morning and are very sweet people
2) White couple with two adult kids living with them, Dad is a lead sales manager for dental products, not sure if mom works, don't think so
3) White/Korean couple with two young children.  Dad is a civil engineer, mom is a paralegal
4) White couple with kids, dad seems to own a network hardware install/repair business, not sure what mom does, they rent
5) White couple with kids, dad goes to work early everyday, not sure what mom does, they rent
6) Sketchy white dude who is doing something shady, just not sure exactly what, but 100% gives me that shady vibe every time I see him
7) Solo white dude, living that single past middle age life, not sure if he works, but doesn't seem to have a 9-5 job
8 ) There was a white retired couple, but they moved recently.

The rest I'm honestly not sure.  I'm not particularly social and there seems to be a significant language barrier with about 80% of my neighbors.  My best guess is a mix of
1) Rich af FCB family, do whatever they want, park 6 figure cars on the street because the nice stuff is in the garage
2) Empty "investment" house
3) FCB full time mother and kids, dad is mia
4) FCB family, dad does something, mom does whatever she wants

So yah, I kinda wonder the same as OP, what exactly do my neighbors do for a living...  I have to remind myself to be grateful for the ability to earn a living and for the satisfaction derived from sacrifice.  I hope I can raise appreciative and hard working children...
 
My wife and I bought our house in Woodbridge after renting for a year in another part of the area.

In our old neighborhood, most people were owners of greater than 15 years. Most were caucasian or elderly asian. The older residents have kids finishing highscool or in college. Middle age couples like ourselves (30s-40s) tend to be dual income families with younger children (like my wife and I, middle management in the Tech sector), or single income families where the breadwinner is an executive (CEO, EVP). There were 2 or three LDS families, but I never got to know them enough to get their job situation. Among the people I know, either they have lived here for a long time and didn't have to plonk down $1+ MM for a house or have a very high net income (Over $300k/yr)

Our current neighborhood is around 1/3 Orthodox Jewish, 1/3 Retiree long time owners, 1/3 like us (Dual income GenX professionals). I have no idea what the Jewish population does for a living- they are perfectly friendly, but we don't mix socially other than talking in the park. I get the sense that the Dad/Grandfather is very successful and the kids have all had help buying houses nearby, and have in-laws living with them/helping with payments. The Retirees are all professionals- professors, engineers, etc- who bought in a long time ago. Some have their adult kids and grandchildren living with them, and another family or two "bought" from their parents (i.e. paid for their parents to live somewhere more reasonable).

I get that living in Irvine is hard but rewarding. It was a bit of a sphincter-clenching moment when we put down our down payment and the property taxes are about what we paid for rent when we started out. Nevertheless, we love the community- the people we talk to when walking the dog, the ability to bike everywhere, walking distance to school and pools etc (And HOA for homeowners here is peanuts). I would never have enjoyed it in my 20s. But with several kids, it is the most ideal for our style of life while still being within range of our family.
 
Burn That Belly said:
someguy said:
We had some help with the down payment from our parents.
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That's the way to do it!  ;D Cheers.

(Asshats like 'Rizdak' wishes he had parents like ours. Too bad, not even close. His parents were probably deadbeats. All that bottled up anger is spewing out now.)
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Haha, yah, I mean, wife's parents and my parents worked their butts off to lift themselves out of poverty.  I'm 100% grateful and undeserving of their generosity, but yolo, love you guys, thank you, trying to make you proud.

I don't know who this Rizdak guy is, but it sounds like we should buy him a large order of freedom fries.
 
It's annoying to run a business in Irvine and see that housing is not really affordable for your (non-management) employees. Traffic is getting worse for these line employees who live in Westminster, IE, etc and commute in to Irvine every day.
 
HMart said:
It's annoying to run a business in Irvine and see that housing is not really affordable for your (non-management) employees. Traffic is getting worse for these line employees who live in Westminster, IE, etc and commute in to Irvine every day.
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Just build a couple dozen of these in the great park
hong-kong-residential-buildings-michael-wolf-architecture-of-density-05-600x400.jpg
 
To the OP, I know what you mean. Once you've lived in Irvine for a couple of years, when you look "elsewhere" for housing options it doesn't look very appealing. Besides all the other fancy cities that are just as or more expensive than Irvine (aka Newport Coast) most of these cities with potholed roads, visible power lines everywhere, old/mismatched shopping centers are tough to stomach living in. Living in Irvine has spoilt us all! And if you have kids you're also limited to areas with good school districts that are $$.
We are conservative and follow the Dave Ramsey rule of thumb - 20% down payment, THP to be no more than 1/3 of your take home pay on a 15 year fixed mortgage. If the THP is 50% or more of your monthly take home pay how would you ever build wealth/invest and/or enjoy your $$?
At OH I've found that most of my neighbors are either professionals, business owners or FCB (with businesses outside of the country). Some did roll over equity from a previous home and some did have family help with a down payment.
At the end of the day assume that the fancy lives of "the Joneses" is not all it's cracked up to be. Most are drowning in debt, living paycheck to paycheck and probably have a close to negative net worth.
 
Paris said:
To the OP, I know what you mean. Once you've lived in Irvine for a couple of years, when you look "elsewhere" for housing options it doesn't look very appealing. Besides all the other fancy cities that are just as or more expensive than Irvine (aka Newport Coast) most of these cities with potholed roads, visible power lines everywhere, old/mismatched shopping centers are tough to stomach living in. Living in Irvine has spoilt us all! And if you have kids you're also limited to areas with good school districts that are $$.
We are conservative and follow the Dave Ramsey rule of thumb - 20% down payment, THP to be no more than 1/3 of your take home pay on a 15 year fixed mortgage. If the THP is 50% or more of your monthly take home pay how would you ever build wealth/invest and/or enjoy your $$?
At OH I've found that most of my neighbors are either professionals, business owners or FCB (with businesses outside of the country). Some did roll over equity from a previous home and some did have family help with a down payment.
At the end of the day assume that the fancy lives of "the Joneses" is not all it's cracked up to be. Most are drowning in debt, living paycheck to paycheck and probably have a close to negative net worth.
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Really excellent advice.  While I think Ramsey's advice is a bit overly conservative (and maybe made during times of higher interest rates on mortgages?), I have always felt it's wise not to stretch yourself to the absolute limit.  You do, after all, want surplus money to invest in other areas (stocks, rental property, etc), so that you can generate some kind of income stream later as you get older.
 
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