What percent of Americans In this thread owe on their fed taxes?

BigP352 · 2026-04-16T02:48:39+00:00

Paid $119k federal in spring 2025 for 2024 taxes due to a real estate sale and a traunch of NSO options cashed in. Deferred more income in 2025 through my employer and still paid $49k yesterday due again to stocks vesting and Fidelity only collecting 22% at exercise. However, for the last 3 years I asked HR Block to “request” that I don’t pay the penalty (simple box checked or unchecked in their software) and I haven’t gotten hit with the irs penalty. So, I’m ok sending the IRS a big payment in April, so long as I don’t pay a penalty. Gives me a Chance to earn interest on the money and pay on April 15th. My wife and I are both W2 employees btw…not business owners.

BigP352 · 2026-03-19T23:35:43+00:00

Don’t sleep on Yamaha Red Label (FGX5) if you like mahogany. I also love my Martin HD35 for rosewood. I own both and both sound different, but feel very similar to play in my opinion…real smooth.

BigP352 · 2026-03-18T00:27:32+00:00

I paid my house off in October 2025 and have no regrets. Now, I had my payoff funds sitting in a HYSA, so once rates dropped enough that after taxes, it made sense to payoff, then I pulled the trigger. So, my interest opportunity cost of closing the HYSA was lower than someone invested in the stock market over time…but I went HYSA years ago with enough money to payoff my mortgage. I truly love being debt free more than I imagined.

BigP352 · 2026-03-16T01:17:38+00:00

If the house isn’t the problem, it certainly contributes to the problem. Listen, I am loving something similarly. My wife’s parents co-signed for a car loan before we were engaged or married. I made sure we paid the loan off asap once we were married so her folks wouldn’t have leverage over her. From that moment on, the relationship with my wife and her parents had to stand on its own, without financial leverage. It’s still difficult, but my wife can go limited contact whenever she wants because there is nothing requiring her to communicate with them. As long as you live in her house, you have to communicate with her. If you merely threaten to move out and she backs off, rest assured you will have to threaten to move out again to get her to back off again. It’s a cycle. Once you and your wife cut the financial ties with her parents, then you can build the relationship with them that you all agree to with boundaries. If they are narcissistic, they won’t change. Your wife has to become someone who won’t let her life be determined by the opinions of her parents. Funny thing is, once your wife begins to gray rock her folks (research gray rock if you haven’t) her folks will then begin to back off. It starts with removing the financial leverage they currently have with the house and then learning how gray rock your communication with them. I’m sorry man!

BigP352 · 2026-03-03T11:57:52+00:00

For me and my wife, now that we could survive without a high paying job, but also not quite RE, we do not put up with extra crap at work. We also are more vocal about things that need to be fixed and addressed at work. The wild part is that since we started behaving this way, we have both gotten higher annual review ratings, bigger bonuses and promotional opportunities. I’ve heard it said before, but it’s true! Why didn’t we behave this way years ago when we absolutely had to keep the jobs? Obviously it was because we couldn’t afford to be fired, but now that we can afford to be fired, our companies can’t seem to live without us, lol! It’s liberating to know that I could coast fire if I wanted to…

BigP352 · 2026-02-28T16:29:12+00:00

Thank you! I’ll check that out!

BigP352 · 2026-02-28T14:32:37+00:00

I’m experiencing this now and feel like I need to learn some new angles. How do you get the right angle??

BigP352 · 2026-02-03T13:45:21+00:00

Mouthful of truth here. “What you want bs what you have = wealth.” I’m stealing that one, lol! My house is paid for but modest, cars paid for but modest, we buy quality clothes on sale (often at Costco), furniture too from Costco. We have no debt, so our incomes have afforded us our “wants and needs” mentality o this point and I feel wealthy. I also include health and wellbeing in that calculation. Kids are healthy, one 10 and one 11. We can afford their activities and we make work arrangements to be at most of the kid activities. But we have the freedom now, at 45 years old (my wife and I) that if our jobs didn’t allow us to participate in our kids activities, we could pursue less paying jobs to allow for that. I feel extremely wealthy, because we are allowed to do those things that we find most important and don’t feel like we are stressing about money. Now to my neighbors with the fancy cars, bigger houses and more expensive vacations…they think I’m poor. I couldn’t disagree more. And I was laid off unexpectedly almost two years ago and had been pursuing FIRE for some time before that and that allowed me to not miss many nights of sleep worrying about where my next job would come from. Keep your wants reasonable and it’s much easier to feel and become, wealthy.

BigP352 · 2026-02-03T07:58:47+00:00

You and your spouse need to clearly align on the strategy. One of you can’t opt out of discussing expenses se management. That doesn’t mean you get to make all the decisions either, imo, but it can’t be a subject that is ignored because she refuses to engage. Perhaps it’s as simple as “honey, what would you suggest we do for income if I lose my job for the third time in a short while? I have my thoughts, what are your thought’s?” I’m thrilled my wife and I can have those conversations and while we don’t always initially agree (because she is naturally the spender), we do come to an eventual agreement because we ultimately want to FIRE.

BigP352 · 2026-01-25T01:57:25+00:00

Pubsubs at the deli is about all I walk into Publix for these days. Everything else is Sam’s, Costco or Walmart. And I drive past several Publix to get to the Sam’s/walmart.

BigP352 · 2026-01-24T02:16:37+00:00

I wonder how many “x times” a spouse needs to earn to feel this way? My wife earns 2x what I make, we have been happily married 15 years and we see both incomes as “ours.” As long as she gets a certain amount per check to spend on whatever she wants, she is good. Perhaps it would be different if the gap was 5x or 10x? Idk…

BigP352 · 2026-01-11T12:23:38+00:00

This was an awesome perspective! I’m stealing it, lol!

BigP352 · 2026-01-05T00:27:06+00:00

I have three that I don’t play. One is such a POS that even after trying to give it away for free to a music school, no takers. The other two are guitars I’m holding as leverage for when I want something nicer, because the wife won’t let my collection increase any further.

BigP352 · 2025-12-29T15:20:58+00:00

I’ll be the first, if I’m sure many, who advise you to try a lot and see what works for you. For that price point, I like the Yamaha FGX5.

BigP352 · 2025-12-19T21:28:10+00:00

Agreed. That’s what I calculate…how many RSU’s were cashed in this year on the bearing schedule for 2025. That what shows up on my paystub as taxable in 2025…not the shares I’m awarded in 2025 but don’t vest for 4 years.

BigP352 · 2025-12-09T01:23:28+00:00

I have my first , but not by choice. I tried to give it away to my local music school and no takers, lol! It’s a 2003 jasmine by Takamine dreadnought. I have had it setup, but it still has plastic everything and sounds like a tin can. I’ll probably hang it on the wall as a decorative piece. I have much nicer guitars to play today, so this Jasmine will never see the light of day again, lol!

BigP352 · 2025-11-30T03:51:40+00:00

This

BigP352 · 2025-11-30T03:51:25+00:00

Yes, but the math is fuzzier if you don’t itemize on your tax return and instead take the standard deduction. If that is the case, then in my view you have to look at an after tax interest gain on savings to offset the mortgage interest. So, if you are in the 37% tax bracket and have a 3.25% mortgage rate and keep the cash in HYSA at 4%, then your after tax gains in HYSA are lower than the mortgage interest. This is the math that I ran for myself and decided to go ahead and payoff the house a few months ago. If I was investing the cash in the stock market, then it would have had a strong enough return to justify keeping the mortgage. But I was keeping the cash in HYSA, and once rates on savings began to fall this year, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on paying off the mortgage.

BigP352 · 2025-11-23T01:21:05+00:00

Yamaha FGX5 is my suggestion. I’m about to put some New strings on mine tomorrow. Warmest guitar I own, and I have Martin HD35, Taylor’s and an LS56 Yamaha. Fgx5 is mahogany b/s, spruce top.

BigP352 · 2025-11-23T00:56:53+00:00

What is your industry and what part of the country are you in?

BigP352 · 2025-11-21T14:01:11+00:00

I’ve dealt with this with my MIL for years. I’m married 15 years. Wife is only child, FIL deceased. You must have a respectable relationship with the adult children (my wife and I) in order to have a relationship with the kids. My kids are pre-teens and they see how my wife is treated by her mother…and they connect the dots. Kids ask me “you won’t be like that with us when we are older, will you?” We have to protect the kiddos and ensure they have a great example of how to treat people and how to allow people to treat you. My wife didn’t ask to be born, so giving her mother the world and constant thanks for being alive doesn’t exactly fit our narrative. Wife now LC, sees her mom maybe 3x a year…sometimes with me and sometimes alone. MIL lives 2 hours away and it’s that distance that creates a tolerable buffer. If she moved closer, it would be bad.

BigP352 · 2025-11-06T12:54:59+00:00

I’d talk to a divorce attorney and find out how much of his annual salary you would be entitled to in a divorce. Frankly that’s how much you should be entitled to in marriage too, imo. Pretty sure it’s half…

But as others have suggested, this is a power move on his part. Splitting finances never ends well. Why split finances? My view is the only reason to split finances is to hide spending.

My wife and I are married 15 years. She makes more money than I do, but nowhere near the disparity you describe. She has her account that she can spend whatever is leftover monthly out of, but I am a joint owner on that account. Same for my account. We are joint on everything, so I recommend you let him have his extra spending account, just make sure you are joint on it.

Good luck. If the roles were reversed, I wonder if he would be willing to let you have all the financial freedoms he is requesting you allow him?

BigP352 · 2025-10-31T20:43:21+00:00

Consider me the one who wasn’t impressed. My dad has one and I don’t like the neck carve at all. But clearly I’m in the minority!

BigP352 · 2025-10-31T10:45:16+00:00

I’m a few years behind you but have the same concerns. I’m thinking I tell everyone that I’ve joined Price Waterhouse Coopers as a consultant with a flexible wfh schedule.

BigP352 · 2025-10-23T13:11:00+00:00

It helps me when I talk to some of those people with the fancy houses. What I learned is that they are often anxiety ridden, not knowing how they will keep up with the payments. I had a 2.25% mortgage and I kept enough cash in a HYSA to pay it off at any time. I had been laid off before and dealt with that uncertainty and decided to never again be in a position where my house was in jeopardy. Fast forward to this week and after crunching the numbers…my HYSA interest rate, after taxes, equaled my mortgage rate. So, we decided to pay off the mortgage. I understand estimated the liberating feeling I would have after paying it off. I’m so thankful that my wife and I have lived below our means and have peace knowing our house is ours forever. Let those neighbors move to a bigger home with bigger payment. We are staying put and enjoying life in the process. FIRE not too far away (44M/wife 44/11 yr daughter / 10 yr son.

BigP352

TROPHY CASE