The month of August 2026 is another month of dividend income landing in my accounts.  Due to becoming debt free, I changed my pay myself model. Starting the beginning of August 2021, I am paying myself 30%, just like before. This will now consist […]

Hey Everyone! I just realized it’s been 30 years since I moved to Portland. Wow, that feels like a lifetime ago. In 1996, I graduated from UCSB and moved up to Portland to start a job at Intel. It was a golden era for us (me and Intel). The internet was ramping up, and it was a great time to be a young engineer. All my college friends were able to secure jobs relatively easily. Ahh, what I would give to be 22 again! Life was so much fun when I was young. It’s a very different story in the age of AI. The job market for recent college grads seems much tighter and more competitive than ever. My son doesn’t even want to study Computer Science because he heard it’s so difficult to get an entry-level position. The cost of living is also far higher today than it was in 1996. My first apartment cost just $550 a month. I could comfortably afford a one-bedroom apartment on my RCG salary. Even so, because I grew up without much money, I remained frugal. I lived alone for only one year before taking on roommates again to save money. Today, I’m sharing our 30-year house hacking journey because it is officially coming to an end. Here’s how life changed over three decades. The Timeline 1996: I signed a lease and lived by myself for a year in Beaverton, close to the Intel campus. After sharing a bedroom throughout college to save money, I was tired of roommates and wanted more privacy. 1997: Suburban life turned out to be extremely boring for my younger self. I made a lot of friends and decided to move into a two-bedroom apartment in NW Portland with a roommate. That neighborhood was awesome back in the 90s. It was packed with great eateries and cool shops. We lived in an ideal spot to meet up with friends before hitting town on the weekends. My old apartment building, The Envoy. I think we paid $850 for a 2-bedroom apartment, $425 each. I loved it. Our apartment had hardwood floors, old-timey central boiler radiators (free heat in the winter), and a little office. In retrospect, we should have taken the 3-bedroom penthouse and gotten another roommate. That would have been amazing. 1999: After college, Mrs. RB40 joined the Peace Corps and went to Uzbekistan for almost three years. When she returned, she visited me in Portland, and we decided to get back together. We moved into a one-bedroom apartment downtown and got married shortly after. All my friends thought I got her pregnant, but that wasn’t it. We just decided we were better off together. 2000: We purchased a 3-bed/2-bath house in Hillsboro to be closer to my work. I figured my bachelor days were over, so I might as well have a shorter commute. The master suite was on the first floor, and there were two bedrooms