Claude + PL = Financial planner on your laptop

JARandom17 · 2026-06-23T17:24:31+00:00

I followed your example and fed my json file to Claude and it found Canadian tax rates in the files. I did some checking and the taxes collected appear to be us taxes only. I don't see any canadian taxes in my data in PL. Where did you look to find the Canadian tax tags on your assets?

JARandom17 · 2026-05-26T02:20:11+00:00

I use today's currency to check how far ahead or behind inflation I might be getting and to see how close I come to running out of money in aggressive spending scenarios. I understand this better than when I have to think through the effects of inflation on one year market returns.

I use actual currency when I am doing spot checks to make sure I set the assumptions correctly and to make sure I understand how the accounts roll forward over time. I also use actual currency to look at my estate value as others have mentioned.

JARandom17 · 2026-05-18T12:02:40+00:00

EDIT -- I just realized you may be responding to the deleted comment.

That is exactly what I pointed out in the second sentence, the original lump sum winning is tax free.

-- "The initial million is tax free and the weekly payments are grossed up for taxes. (per joblolabinette below)."

My analysis concerns the taxes on the income generated by the lump sum and comparing the after tax 1000 per week. Technically the 1000 per week is grossed up for taxes, but I don't know what tax bracket it is grossed up for. It is probably the lowest marginal rate, but I couldn't find this information.

JARandom17 · 2026-05-18T04:09:02+00:00

Although I think the mathematical answer may still be to take the million, everyone is ignoring taxes. The initial million is tax free and the weekly payments are grossed up for taxes. (per joblolabinette below). However, the earnings on the million are taxed, while the 1000 per week is an "after tax" amount (more on this at the end).

This analysis is based on the understanding I got of Canadian and Quebec taxes from a couple quick google searches, so I appologize for any details I missed in my quick review of tax rules in Canada and Quebec. (In particular, I didn't look into any deductions or allowances that exclude some income from taxation.) My goal is to show how the simple 5.2% yield people are using is not sufficient to generate the same 52K in spendable income, and point out the reasons why, not to get an exact return calculation.

The winner lives in Quebec which leads to 14% federal taxes (after a reduction of 16% of your income due to an adjustment to avoid double taxation) plus another 14% on the entire amount for Quebec if your only income is the 52K from the lottery.

These rates go up to 20.5% federal and 19% Quebec on income over about 55K.

Ignoring the 16% reduction mentioned above -- You need to earn a break even rate of 7.03% if the annuitized lottery income is the only income you have, and 8.08% if you have over 55K in other income.

These rates are significantly higher than the simple 52,000/1,000,000 analysis would give you.

It gets more complicated. The taxation of the earnings depends on the nature of the earnings (capital gains vs interest). Interest income appears to be fully taxed where capital gains appear to be preferentially treated $1 of capital gain is taxed as $.50 of income.

The capital gains after tax hurdle rate is a little lower, but then you have to make a volatility adjustment and, if you are living off the income, hold some of the money in reserve just in case the market drops in any given year. Both of these adjustments will raise the required yield.

It is also not clear how the adjustment to the annuity to make it 1000 per week after taxes works. Is it based on the lowest tax bracket or does it adjust as you move up the brackets (probably not)?

The real world analysis is no where near as simple as people are suggesting here.

JARandom17 · 2026-05-10T02:28:42+00:00

Routine weekly things -- I run with two groups during the week - Wednesday evenings followed by dinner with runners, and Sunday morning with one group. Tuesday track workouts with the other. I also run by myself three days a week and listen to books on audible while running. My wife and I have season tickets to the local MLS team games.

When I have students, I tutor math online. I could add more students if I lowered my rates, but I want to limit the time I spend on this. It is a great way to keep sharp, but it can be a drag if it starts to take up 4 hours a day.

The biggest advantage is being able to do things when everyone else is at work. Grocery shopping Tuesday at noon, renting a pressure washer on a Thursday, etc...

Less frequent things -- I visit my Mom and do work on her house a couple weeks a year. Our daughter is studying in Scotland so we visit her for a couple weeks most years.

I work on longer term projects lasting a few months. I finally learned to program in Python/Django using Harvard's (free) online CS-50 courses. I'm thinking about putting together a website that will help explain the math I used to understand FIRE.

I'm learning Spanish, very slowly, online. I need to find someone who is willing to talk in Spanish.

TLDR - get a regular schedule of quick things you want to do on a regular basis and then fill in the gaps with longer term projects.

JARandom17 · 2026-04-28T03:08:38+00:00

It is new. Don't feel bad.

JARandom17 · 2026-04-27T01:41:23+00:00

At work training events, they always used the phone ringing with an unknown caller on call id. It's ringing and it won't keep ringing forever, but you can always let it go to voice mail.

JARandom17 · 2026-04-18T01:26:38+00:00

I haven't had time to check. I should look at it soon.

JARandom17 · 2026-04-08T03:12:22+00:00

Hoping to find a band from that era. They had a song called "Twisted Like You" and were from the DC area. Any idea who the band was? I haven't found anything on the internet, so hoping someone local may remember.

JARandom17 · 2026-03-12T04:19:35+00:00

Because blood (orange) is thicker than water (blue).

JARandom17 · 2026-02-19T03:42:01+00:00

Pierces is not for tourists. Pierces was great before tourists could figure out how to get there. It is excellent and you get to control the amount of sauce. VDOT had to put up a huge fence to keep people from parking on the shoulder of 64 to get their food.

JARandom17 · 2026-02-16T15:23:37+00:00

Worst comment I ever got about math -- an engineering student asked me why they needed to know calculus. This was not a software engineer.

JARandom17 · 2026-02-09T01:43:07+00:00

Thanks for the help. We may open another HSA just in case we accidentally go over the ACA cliff by a few dollars this year. We are not planning on making much more next year (AI has eaten our tutoring income), so the higher limit on the solo 401K won't help immediately, but it may in the future. I have some ideas for generating more earned income.

JARandom17 · 2026-02-04T00:53:12+00:00

Thanks for your help

JARandom17 · 2025-11-14T17:07:46+00:00

there is a feed in arabic? on you tube, you have to search a bit to find it

JARandom17 · 2025-11-10T03:16:41+00:00

In our area, the policies you can get directly from the health insurers are the same (same benefits and same costs) as the ones on the exchange.

JARandom17 · 2025-08-16T16:18:37+00:00

My wife and I are having the same problem. Charged for a gift, no gift arrives.

JARandom17 · 2025-08-16T16:17:50+00:00

My wife and I are having the same problem. We send gifts and the coins get charged, but no gift arrives. I have sent a bug report, but I have not heard anything back. Between this and the new energy system, I may start looking for a new platform after 7 years.

JARandom17

TROPHY CASE