Comments by "Wakeup and Sniff the Coffee" (@Wakeupandsniffthecoffee) on "Michael Bordenaro"
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Being retired from Maui Electric in Hawaii, but living in Virginia now, I can say there is an awful lot more behind this going green than is commonly known.
I put solar on my roof here a year and a half ago and I am mostly immune to the rising costs for utility power.
This year I expect to finish it off and be 100%.
By doing that I can be considered a solar facility.
Basically net metering here is kilowatt for kilowatt. If I produce 10 kilowats and use 30, I am only charged for the 20 net difference.
As a 100% solar facility, I am going to be able to maintain that, maybe even get paid for over producing.
The new laws are trying to change the 1 to 1 ratio to as little as 1 to .5.
This means if I produce 10 kilowatts, they only have to credit me for half of it.
New solar customers by next year could be faced with the decrease in net credit, unless they set themselves up to produce 100% of their power and be designated a solar facility.
I am so happy I did this. I had power bills ranging from $200 to over $400 a month.
The money I spend now goes to pay to own my solar system.
I have a natural gas powered whole house generator running off the gas companies system. It costs me about $16 a month to excersie it 4 times a month.
I have had it kick in automatically during power outages and been one of the few houses with power.
Since I have that, I don't have a solar invertor battery system.
Without one and without a generator, I would lose power during an outage.
A solar system tied to the grid ensures I can use their power for nights and shady days, but I reimburse it on sunny days.
Adding batteries is a pretty costly addition and just having the solar meets my needs.
I use any and all the power I want, of course I use energy efficient lighting and appliances and also run a pool pump 24/7, but I have no real concerns about my bill going up, especially for most of the year.
A good feeling because the utility will have to raise their rates due to the cost of oil and coal, investing into green technology and maintaingna grid.
So the ones that only buy electricity will be the ones footing the bill.
I sort of feel bad that I am not in need of buying power and that is cost shared among those that do, but these days, you have to do what you can to survive the long term and the economic turmoil we are faced with.
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Back when I lived in Hawaii, I was oart of a financial group that helped other learn what you are saying 18:52 .
Oaying off cards and debt in a selective way promotes the good feeling that you are getting somewhere.
If you want a good credit score it goes counter intuitive to this. You accept more credit cards, not to soend more, but to sprrad your usage among them.
Keeping you credit card usage below 30% goes a long ways to building credit.
I went in disability and eventually had to go through a foreclosure and bankruptcy.
I expected to be credit black kisted for the rest if my financial life.
Instead I took small soecific loans using credit cards from olaces like tire shops. I then oroceeded to oay it down to under the 30% point and opened another card.
The same thing.
Not with the untention of running up debt, I jeep it at a manageable kevel, but multiple cards had a positive affect on my credit score.
I did that for three years and by the fourth year, I bought a home for what renting ine would cost a month.
Seven years kater, my home is nearly double the value if what I paid.
I then used that credit to lower my mortgage interest and pay off loans I took to make repairs.
I dont hild much hop, but am hoping the next interest rate drop, I will further consolidate my debts.
At 67, I dont expect to be around to the end of the mortgage, so how much I have monthly is my main focus.
But, staying in this path, if I do ever sell my place, I will be debt free and money in the bank.
My oroblem is I tend to buy houses I like, not to flip. So its very hard to let it go and cash out.
Inwould rather buy a send home in another location and split my time by renting one out at a time.
Not that I want to be a landlord either.
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I'm retired from Hawaiian Electric on Maui.
Back when solar was taking off, people got upset if they couldn't get authorized to have a system.
What no one understood was that the grid was built out based on the development done in the 60's.
So if a subdivision had 100 homes, the grid was designed to accommodate probably 125 homes.
But as speculation and development came in and housing went nuts, many homes added to the house and built cottages in the backyard.
So before solar came in, the grid was being stressed by all the unplanned and yet permitted, even unpermitted additions.
So with solar, the transformers and lines feeding those places need to be redesigned and upgraded.
But to do that the pic has to approve the extra expenses the utilities had and needed to get back from the sales.
Plus, solar is great when the sun provides the power, but that isn't all day or even everyday. The utilities were obligated to provide power during all those times.
The power plants designed to provide enough power to feed everyone, had to have not only enough, but more than they needed.
That means that when people needed power that wasn't provided by the sun, they expected to still have power.
The power plants had to have what's called a spinning reserve in order to instantly provide power.
All the power plants were running, even if the grid didn't need it.
It can take hours to start up a powerplant. So they can't just shut them down and turn them back on when needed.
This means they ran and used fuel 24/7 in case power was needed.
Then there is the infrastructure which is primarily lines on poles.
These had to withstand storms and hurricanes, but unless a lot of money was spent to upgrade from wood poles, it wasn't likely they could.
Again, those fixes like everything would be reflected in already high priced electricity.
The Lahaina fire that is blamed on a spark from the lines could not be upgraded enough, without going underground and that would be so costly, no one would stand for it.
Everyone wants to see electric cars, windmills and solar everywhere, but no one wants to foot the huge bill it would take.
You can't have all that and a bullet proof system, without investing huge amounts and definitely can't expect to have cheap electricity.
Based on what we have today, if the whole system was redesigned and the old system eliminated, then maybe it would all work, but hundreds of years of power generation and infrastructure would have to be eliminated.
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26:28 after walking away from a mortgage in Hawaii and my first house, disability, foreclosure and bankruptcy, I never intended to have a house again about 4 years later and a settlement, I walked into a great place in Virginia. It's gone up over $150k in equity.
When I went for a mortgage and solar for the house and an brand new HVAC system, I mainly look at the monthly costs. If I can afford it monthly, then that's fine. How much I pay in total doesn't mean much because I won't outlive the debts anyways.
So if I can get the place and pay for needed repairs and still have money at the end of the month that works for me.
Of course having enough for savings is rough, but I'm slowly trying to have 6 months worth as a target.
My whole world evolves around what it costs me monthly, not at the end, like I said I won't be here or probably not in my house if I am.
I wish things were better and maybe they might, but just a notch over surviving is acceptable. I wish I was thriving and had the money to travel and such, but that's not in the budget.
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My grandson just turned 21 and lives with me.
But straight out of high school he went to aircraft mechanic school for two years, graduated with his FAA A&P certificate (Airframe and Power Plant) and can now go on to earn 6 figures in any of various industries requiring this.
He is starting off at a small local airport to work on planes and acquire experience, while paying down debts, like his government loans and then he can pretty much pick a big company most anywhere in the world.
Being just 21 and no girlfriend or wife, which I hope he maintains, he can really set his life up nicely and maybe when he hits his forties, he can select a nice young attractive woman with a low body count to settle down and have his own kids with, not raise some other guys kids.
The crazy thing about this is hearing from you on another video about California raising its minimum wages for fast food to $20/hr.
While my grandson could relocate and make $35-$40 an hour starting in the big metro airports or factories, to stay here in Virginia he has to start off at $20.
So with his training and certifications, he is still making as much as a California fast food worker.
Fast food is already crazy expensive, I can imagine how expensive it will be after these pay increases.
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My situation is I have a nice 1.6 acre property with a two story house, two car garage and a barn.
I bought it in 2017 and it's worth nearly $150k more than I paid.
I am retired and 67, single with just a grandson living with me here in Virginia.
I thought about taking the money and just renting afterwards or mostly traveling.
The problem is I have animals, gardens and enjoy this place.
Buying a place that's better than most places I could move to makes it hard to sell.
The house has an inlaw section that is big enough for me.
I thought I could rent the rest of the house and have a base to come back to.
My family is scattered between Hawaii, California, Virginia and Australia.
Traveling is expensive and a pain. I don't care for California and Australia. Too expensive and too far.
I spent most of my life in Hawaii, been there and done that. It's a crazy place from what I experienced growing up.
I even thought about an Airbnb for the main part of the house or moving into an RV and just keep moving.
If you buy a house that you love, you may not want to profit from it and sell it later. Even if you did, what can you buy next?
I really hate paying someone else's mortgage by renting, which is why I have this house now. It only cost me about $200 a month more for the mortgage over the rent.
I sort of like the idea of moving to a place for a month to see what it's like and then move on to another location, while retaining my home base and renting the main part out.
I make enough monthly in retirement to live okay and it's mainly the cost of having a house, animals and loans for the maintenance, that eats up my income.
I even thought of being a passport bro and living where I can make my money go much further, but I have good doctors and medical care here and that may not be the case elsewhere.
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Since buying my house, I have approximately $50,000 in repairs and upgrades that I didn't see when I bought the house.
If I knew that it would have radically changed the deal and I probably wouldn't have bought it.
Luckily, I paid $270k, spent $50k through additional loans and refinancing.
Luckily my house is over $400k now, but it became tighter than I had expected it to be.
All the work, trim and soffits, two all new HVAC and ducting, as well as solar, does add value, but if I wanted to sell, it cuts into how much I could make.
I will stick it out because I like the place and can't imagine where else I would care to live, especially states or countries.
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