Money Monday: Retiring in the San Francisco Bay Area

Posted on June 17, 2013 // 14 Comments

My friend Affinity chided me for looking outside of the Bay Area and away from family, when I can very well retire here at home. She was totally right. She wrote a guest blog post on retiring early here. It was one of my most highly-trafficked posts.

I spent some time on Zillow and found the following places. There are some serious deals to be had.

$250,000 – 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in Vallejo, CA – 30 minutes to wine country,  40 minutes to SF by car

It’s like a cheap version of Falcon Crest or Dallas, right? Clearly a little dated, but definitely has character. A retired couple like me and Dean have no need for 3 bedrooms, but just wanted to showcase the breadth of what’s available.

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$169,000 – 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo in Hayward, CA – 1 hour to wine country,  30 minutes to SF by car

This is perfect! 1 bathroom for me, 1 bathroom for Dean. 1 bedroom for me, 1 bedroom for Dean. Haha! This place is a score at the price. I might have to buy it now. Rent this place out and have it completely paid for by the time we retire. Who I am kidding? We can write a check for the list price, forego the mortgage, save 4% on interest, and rent to college students since Cal State Hayward is across the street! I’m seriously going to ponder this investment.

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$155,000 – 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath home in Concord, CA – 45 minutes to wine country,  35 minutes to SF by car

This price is a steal. I am tasting retirement! 55 here we come.

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Purisima Creek Redwoods

Posted on June 12, 2013 // 10 Comments

Purisima Creek Redwoods, an hour south of San Francisco, is the Mt. Tam of the Peninsula. The parking lot is full, the open space preserve is busy, but as soon as you put in some mileage and hike toward the summit, you only see ripped mountain bikers with true grit. Can’t say I’d go again, I was rather bored with the redwood scenery that never changed despite the several hour hike. But the centipede and banana slug were pretty awesome.

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Ring Mountain Hike

Posted on June 2, 2013 // 2 Comments

We went for a hike up Ring Mountain on Saturday. It’s so weird to live in a place for as long as I have and to discover completely new terrain. Ring Mountain sits atop the billion dollar homes in the Tiburon hills. There are like crazy mini White Houses behind gated fortresses in this neighborhood. Ritzy!

Ironically, across the hill on the other side of the bay is a place close to Johnny Cash‘s heart…San Quentin prison. Yeehah! See it up close and center in the 3rd picture below.

Two things that make this open space preserve special: 1) million dollar views of the Bay Area, including San Francisco, and 2) a unique geology of soil so toxic to most plants that the ones that do survive are extremely rare. At the very top of the mountain is Turtle Rock which rock climbers frequent.

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Wine that Rocks and First Ever Giveaway

Posted on May 29, 2013 // 7 Comments

Wouldn’t it be nice to taste really good wine locally without having to drive all the way to wine country? I’ve got the perfect solution.

A diamond in the rough, Rock Wall winery is located less than half an hour from San Francisco in the former Naval Air Station in my super cute hometown of Alameda. Housed in a converted 40,000 square foot airplane hangar, the winery is due north of a defensive rock wall, which made up the perimeter of the base. Taking their name from this protective wall, the Rock Wall winery building has been retrofitted with state-of-the-art winemaking equipment.

The tasting room includes plenty of outdoor space, a dome where you can lounge, and a food truck! Sip great wine and enjoy the view of the San Francisco skyline.

On Saturday June 15 from 1-5 pm, the company is hosting the Rock Wall Art and Wine Experience—an event featuring barrel samples, live music and performance art, and food trucks. The event will take place in their barrel room which is a 25,000 square foot hangar overlooking the Bay.

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Saturday, June 15th, 2013

1:00-5:00pm

Buy Tickets Now!

To kick-off the summer, Rock Wall has generously offered to give readers tickets to the event. Keep in mind, their last event sold out!

To Enter

Leave a comment here on my blog with your name and email address. You can also follow Rock Wall Wines on Facebook and Twitter! Or visit their website here http://www.rockwallwines.com.

Deadline

Entries close at midnight on Tuesday June 4, and the winners will be contacted the following day.

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Baby Steps

Posted on May 22, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Today was especially hard. For some reason I got to thinking of Christmas, which was the approximate due date for the baby. Isn’t that fantastic? I now have both Mothers Day and Christmas to be melancholic. So I had a silent cry at my desk at work, thinking whether to get a third stocking to remember the baby or if that will just make me feel worse. I have these emotions bubbled up inside and I just wanted to come home and have a good whale of a cry, but Dean beat me home so I’ve had to hold it in. I know he understands and says it’s ok, let it out if I need to, but I’m really just fucking tired of crying in front of my husband. I’d rather do it alone in peace.

Anywho, here are some pics of us recently at the 16th Ave Tiled Steps, also called the Mosaic Steps, which was a collaborative neighborhood project. Friends have recommended I check it out, so away we went one sunny afternoon. I love it, I wish it were in my neighborhood. There are family and businesses names all throughout the tiles plus animals and sea shells. Notice how the SF weather turns from sun to fog.

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explOratorium

Posted on May 15, 2013 // 1 Comment

The Exploratorium has re-opened at its beautiful new location on Pier 15 on the Embarcadero. It is incredible! LOVE-LOVE-LOVE! Featuring over 150 hands-on exhibits, it’s brighter, spacious, and modern.

I think the location is ideal and much more convenient for tourists who can see the Bay Bridge, visit the Ferry Building, then saunter down to the Exploratorium, then continue to the Wharf. Locals get a $5 discount per ticket.

We went on a Saturday when every single parent, grandparent, aunt, and uncle were on-hand to accompany all these gazillion little people. I vow to take a half-day off work and go when there aren’t any crowds. There’s so much to do and it’s all fascinating.

In one exhibit, we listened to a blind man give a sensory-guided tour of the Civic Center BART station. That was really eye-opening to have to listen for contextual clues like coins dropping or the machine sucking in the BART ticket.

There were also petri dishes of the various growth stages of a duck embryo. It was so interesting to see the tiny heart beating in a sac. We could have spent all day there if it weren’t for the exhausting crowds. Definitely going back one day in the middle of the week.

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Partner Post: Highlights of San Francisco in One Day

Posted on May 8, 2013 // 2 Comments

If you only have one day to visit San Francisco, make the most of it without wasting too much time in between. Here’s a one day itinerary that will take the first timer methodically through some of the most interesting places the city has to offer. Wake up early and have breakfast at the Ferry Building. This wonderful waterfront market bustles with activity, with people buying coffee on their way to work and shoppers looking for the best cheese and produce. The stunning view of the bay alone is worth a trip. Stroll the market hall for fresh baked pastries or have a proper breakfast at Boulette’s Larder, where you can sit outside and watch ferries pulling in.

In the afternoon, head over to Crissy Field for up close views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Dip your toes in the icy Pacific or stroll along the beach. If you wish to take a break from your busy schedule, you can head to Chinatown to enjoy great dim sum. While there, you can access online and mobile pastimes like online gaming. To complete the experience, go to binguez to enjoy brief moments of bingo to recharge your tired senses.

For dinner, book a table at one of the cutting-edge eateries South of Market, a trendy area brimming with terrific restaurants. Coco500 offers Mediterranean food in an intimate and casual setting, while Town Hall is big and bustling and serves New Orleans inspired fare.

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Wilkes Bashford

Posted on April 23, 2013 // Leave a Comment

I am going on exactly one week of being sick. It’s made me pretty depressed, but what can I do. I’ve kinda been a zombie lately, not socializing, not responding to emails, just focusing on trying to get better. Hope to see the light at the end of this tunnel sometime soon.

You know what they say about curing the blues? Retail therapy! Haha. Seriously.

Wilkes Bashford, a San Francisco high-end boutique, has been on my To Do list for a while now. Firstly, I don’t really believe in shopping, let alone high-end shopping. However, this place is seriously an institution, with an opening in 1966 and a grand reopening last year after a complete renovation. I pass the store often because it’s on our same street and a block away from my new acupuncturist. Plus, Armistead Maupin references the boutique in Tales of the City which is a quick, indulgent read for anyone who lives in San Francisco.

Dean and I got to check it out recently. It’s cute. It has a townhouse theme with each floor a different living space: garden, living room, penthouse. The first floor is mixed, then 3 floors for women, and 3 floors for men with the top floor penthouse sporting a fireplace and full bar. I would never dare buy something so extravagant, but for shits and giggles, I checked the price tag on a cute dress. It was $1,800.

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Money Monday: Buy Less Shit

Posted on April 22, 2013 // 4 Comments

I’m on a spending diet and I encourage you to join me in this effort to buy less shit. After clearing out a condo filled with crap and trying to make the best use of our storage in a 1-bedroom apartment, I am convinced that Americans needlessly and wastefully buy a shitload of stuff that they don’t need. I mean, it’s embarrassing all the stuff I’d accumulated and never used. The irony is that I am super minimalist. I’ve become very zen about material things and realized I honestly want to take half the stuff I own and drop it off at the Salvation Army. It’s all crap.

We probably have the smallest kitchen known to mankind. We have the bare necessities: plates, cups, wine glasses, forks, knives, spoons. We don’t have a food processor or a blender or a cake display or a fondue set. We don’t pretend to be Martha Stewart nor should you! Get that crap out of your kitchen.

A quick glance at our transactions on Mint.com show the following:

Costco

SF Soup Company

Sprint

Kaiser

Safeway

Sallie Mae

Amazon (I bought vitamins)

Chevron

Haircut

Acupuncture

Osha Thai

Pluto’s (salad)

Kara’s Cupcakes (my sweet tooth)

It’s all food and basic necessities like cell phone, gas, and loan payments.

Here are some things I’ve implemented to assist me in my minimalist diet. I’ve removed all design and fashion blogs from my feed. All that shit just makes you want to buy more shit! Get rid of it. Aside from Vanity Fair (because it’s so gossipy good), I don’t subscribe to any other magazine. All those advertisements can set you down the $$$ consumer path. Out of sight, out of mind.

For us, it’s about eating good San Francisco food and saving for early retirement. I am on a mission to retire when I’m 50. Who’s with me?!

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On Being Racist

Posted on April 14, 2013 // 13 Comments

When I received the 2 offers on my condo, I told my agent, “I hate to play the race card, but let’s just go with the Asian girl.” Granted her offer was higher than the other one, but even if they had been equal, I still would have given preference to her over the white male. Isn’t that totally racist? Don’t we naturally and instinctually prefer people who are similar to us? Which is why you are likely to see groups of Indians hanging out at District wine bar in SOMA. It’s the same reason you see circles of white people hanging out in the Marina. When our ancestors immigrated here, they didn’t choose some ho hum random destinations, they gravitated toward locations where other family members or friends went.

Merriam Webster dictionary defines racism as having a racial prejudice or preconceived opinion. When I favor someone who is Asian isn’t that akin to Hitler favoring the Arian race? If that is the case, then aren’t we all racist? Which brings me to the best song in the musical Avenue Q: Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist.

The reason I thought about this post was because of the Masters. I want Tiger Woods to fail because he disgusts me to no end. But I heard about the 14-year-old prodigy Tianlang Guan from China and have been cheering him on ever since. Again, isn’t that totally racist?!

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