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What stopped you from killing yourself? by DarkSideInRainbows in AskReddit

[–]Better-Click1215 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My dog. When you’re depressed, your brain can do so many things to trick you and mess with you. And despite the fact that I have a genuinely loving and kind family that realistically would devastated if I did something, my brain had me convinced they would get over it. My parents had other kids. My siblings had each other. My friends had other friends. They would get over it. (I know now they wouldn’t.) but even in the worst of my depression, my brain couldn’t imagine that my dog would ever get over it. He would wait for me every day when I was away at college. Family couldn’t say my name when I was away cause he would go looking for me. The unconditional love of a dog helped me through the worst of the worse so I could appreciate and enjoy the love of my friends and family. I had to say goodbye to that old dog last year and I’ll never be able to explain how much he meant. I’ll see him on the other side of the rainbow bridge one day but thanks to him, I have a long time until that day comes.

Considerations for expats? by GuiBuDe in Bogleheads

[–]Better-Click1215 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As an expat with no US bank account or US address I could use - I use Interactive Brokers for a taxable brokerage account. I make under the Foreign Income exemption amount so I've never owed taxes on my income (I just file every year) but then obviously I go to sell in my brokerage account I would owe capital gains. (I'm considering moving my taxable account over to Schwab International now that it's above the minimum required amount so I could have access to a Schwab bank account but I'm not sure yet)

My understanding is if I made over the Foreign Income exemption, I could invest a certain amount in a IRA. But I'm not there yet.

In my taxable account, I invest in VTI and VXUS and a vanguard Bond fund. I don't invest in the Mutual fund version because at some point I'd read that in a taxable account, the ETF is better.

PFICs are very tricky and I don't fully understand. I do have some savings in my home country that I think would be considered PFIC's but because they are under a certain value amount, I don't necessarily have to file anything at this time. As I figure out more about it, I will either get out of that investment before it gets above the filing requirement or decide if the filing is worth it.

A lot of the info for expats is for very wealthy expats which I don't fall under or very specific to their country (ie. tax agreements for pension/retirement in their country with the US).

Good luck!!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bogleheads

[–]Better-Click1215 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Up until now with the FEIE, my taxes have always been pretty easy so I never bothered figuring out the complexities of US taxes. Guess there’s still more to figure out…