philipcamilleri

thanks Dan!

(...apart from the breads -- banana bread, cheese-beer bread and home-grown yeast :-|)

I've been working on https://FoundersList.com -- a place for founders to connect, share ideas/posts/launches, connect with professionals/experts, ask questions, find cofounders, events, etc.

Would love any thoughts/comments/feedback!

hey Werber -- have you checked outintech and startout.org? (Also, for covid-related projects, helpwithcovid.com seems to be doing a great job). HTH.

SmartAsset, NYC. Back-end and Front-End Developers, QA Automation Engineers, Financial Analysts

* Work with a rapidly-growing, Series-A financed startup, in the heart of Wall Street * Excellent benefits, competitive salary and stock-options * Flexible vacation time * Plenty of exciting upcoming projects to work on (from customer-facing interaction, new mobile app and high-availability API for third-party integration)

More info at https://www.smartasset.com/page/jobs

SmartAsset - NYC, NY - QA ANALYST https://www.smartasset.com/page/jobs

At SmartAsset we are building technology to help people make better personal finance decisions, but giving real-world, accurate, quantifiable advice on these big decisions.

We are therefore looking for someone with a keen eye for detail and a passion for quality to help us build formal test processes around our products. This will include anything from manual testing (in-house or outsourced) to scheduled or triggered automated tests.

More info and details about the position at https://www.smartasset.com/page/jobs

Good job!

Sorry about that. We've disabled that right now...

But that's exactly it: at what point does tax "avoidance" become unethical or "civically irresponsible". After all, Apple is operating in the USA: doesn't it have a responsibility to the country (and state), along with it's shareholders and customers?

My lawyer cousin always said it's all about the difference between "avoiding" versus "evading" taxes. But this just seems to take things to another extreme...

Interesting!

30, NYC

Good job guys!

Agreed! But unfortunately it seems almost half the country disagrees with that :-(

@chernevik -- thanks for the comments. W.r.t. the 6% "cost of sale" that is actually baked into the numbers. Granted it is fixed at 6% and cannot be changed (something we will allow shortly).

Please also understand that we've only just taken the first steps on this product. There are several more questions to be answered, and more interactive pages explaining the jargon, allowing users to visualize the variables that go into various (complex) decisions.

We also know that what we've embarked on is not something simple: answering complex financial questions, and personalizing them to an individual's needs is no trivial task.

However, we think we can build this out. What we released today is just the tip of the iceberg... plenty more to come shortly.

Hope this helps. And as always, if you have any comments or suggestions feel free to get in touch with us (info@smartasset.com) any time.

Thanks!

@abecedarius -- quite. We've tried targeting the general home-buyer (who usually put 3.5% - 20% down, and takes out a mortgage to cover the rest).

The decision mechanics for someone in your (or such a) situation are completely different, right?

Thanks Phil. It's been quite a tough job keeping things looking clean/simple, yet providing all the content and info needed. And I believe we've still got much to learn and improve on...

However, kudos to Michael Calleia -- our UI/UX designer.

@kevinpet -- totally understand where you're coming from, and we've received several similar comments today. To date, we've been trying to "mask" a lot of the complexity as well as the numerous variables that go into the model.

However, clearly a number of users want to see more details, along with an explanation of assumptions being made, and the ability to tweak and change these assumptions.

We hope to add these to SmartAsset.com very shortly.

@ianferrel -- thanks for pointing that out (I'll check what's happening in year 30 of the model).

As for the interest rates on non-home investments, right now we are making an assumption (that cannot be changed). However, that will be configurable (at a fixed rate, or against a curve) very shortly.

Please let me know if you have any other issues or comments/suggestions.

thanks, Phil.

Thanks!

@brianmckenzie -- you can change the mortgage and/or downpayment on the home-affordability page (or any other page, clicking the "Edit" button in the Home Value box on the left sidebar). Feel free to ping us on Olark chat (on the site) if you have any issues.

Also, please do let us know why/where you think the tax and rent/own calculations are screwed up. thanks!

@kevinpet -- you are spot on there. We have discussed this several times internally, and feel very strongly about including this. However, we simply tried to get the most done in the shortest period of time possible. More features (like this) are on the way shortly.

The issue with LGBT couples, or un-married partners, is simply complexity. LGBT couples, for instance, can file joint taxes in certain cities/states, but then separate federal taxes, applying or not applying various deductions, etc. It gets very messy!

Stay tuned for more... and feel free to send us any comments/suggestions you have!

@varikin -- right now we don't source VA loans, however that is certainly on our near-term roadmap.

Also, the current product is limited to "first time home-buyers". Re-financing, buying a second home, and more are all coming very shortly.

@liber8: thanks for pointing that out! Will get that fixed.

@icefox: that is exactly on our roadmap. We want to (a) be able to show users what they can afford in their selected (and neighboring) regions; and (b) to get all the right information for specific properties.

We're coding this right now, and should have it released this summer.

Thank you!

Can you hit us up on the Olark chat on the page? We'll see what happened and get it fixed asap.

The NY Times Buy or Rent calculator is a great tool (and probably one of the most commonly used).

However, it has certain flaws: for starters, it assumes you know exactly what tax you pay, what mortgage interest rates (and fees) you qualify for, what your property taxes will be, etc, etc.

One of the key features about SmartAsset.com is that we do all that for you, and then let you tweak the numbers if/as you wish.

We also pull in live mortgage data (along with a number of other datasets) to compare various buy-v-rent scenarios that actually apply to you.

This is also only the beginning of the product. Apart from comparing buy/rent, we want to ensure users understand how much they can really afford (and why), how taxes will change over time, how their credit-score affects their ability to borrow money, etc.

Beyond that, there's also managing the process that goes with any major financial decision (what we like to call the "interest, learn, shop, buy" steps.

Thanks! That's exactly one of our objectives. Plenty more to come over the next few months...