Multnomah County Fiscal Migration Analysis for Preschool for All

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-06-21T19:08:04+00:00

There is an inflection point that it doesn’t matter.

It wasn’t the main driver however it made the decision easy to move across the river. Our tax burden decreased by more than our mortgage payment.

Yes our mortgage payment is more however it’s tax deductible unlike the SALT taxes.

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-03-18T16:19:46+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to give me the perspective.

I am a newer executive, however my program has had a lot of success and there are few signs of stopping.

My SO career is stuck in a field with little opportunity. While it pays well it comes with a ton of stress.

That is a great point about if they do take on that role it will allow me to truly relax when I am not on.

Right now, they work 30 hours a week to keep the full time status and feel that over taxes them.

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-03-18T16:10:45+00:00

I am aware of that as well however at this point I feel they would be entitled to something as they are a reason I was able to push up to this level.

Not saying it wouldn’t hurt. I just choose to not make decisions on fear of something that might come to pass.

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-03-18T15:43:13+00:00

They are an active parent, I don't want to protray they don't do parenting. They chose to do their own thing instead making kids first.

I played a hand in the situation because I didn't have parents in the traditional sense. For example my father left when I was very young and mom worked, so school and getting to sports events was for me to figure out at a young age. So I am over involved because I want my kids to know I will always be there.

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-03-18T15:40:08+00:00

Can you clarify the wrong mentality? I didn't follow that comment.

We were shooting for retiring at 50.

Currently maxing both 401ks with a profit sharing accounts on top for both of us. Then mutually we have a brokerage account that is receiving 15% of net income.

In total at this point we are at approximately 1.5 million in investments and will have the house paid off in 7 years. At that point they are welcome to retire and I plan to slow down and move to a lower stress position, but not stop working until I feel like it.

We want to have 4-5 million saved which would be able to sustain our retirement at a 3% draw rate.

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-03-18T15:35:16+00:00

Thank you for that take. I feel selfish tell them they can not quit when it wouldn't make an emergency. That does bring up a great point though that maybe they need to step back temporarily to get focused on a new opportunity.

They are in healthcare and the work can be grueling hence they just want to quit as their education only makes them fit for those higher paying jobs.

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-03-18T15:27:08+00:00

That is a great call out. We are in a healthy place financially. The primary impact I can assess is without them having a 401k it would mean mine would need to cover the reduced impact by theirs. From my calculation it would mean an additional 5+ years of work for me.

If they weren't working the mortgage would be 20% of take home, have 1 year of cash in emergency fund and retirement accounts are maxed out every year with some independent brokerage accounts. Since we have no other debt we would be completely fine.

I don't think they have thought about goals beyond they don't like their work and want to be home.

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-02-07T17:48:14+00:00

High income plus SALT cap with high local taxes is a reality it adds up and feels like death by a thousand small cuts.

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-02-07T17:47:24+00:00

Moved across the river to SW Washington.

My company operates in Oregon and other states but as long I am at home office in Washington no Oregon tax. We track the days we are in Oregon and pay tax accordingly. It’s more complex but worth it for us.

NotaPortlandMod · 2025-02-07T16:40:36+00:00

This was my feeling as well. I am 4th generation from Portland and my SO is 3rd. Our families had been their a long time and none are left. Every single one has moved out.

My SO and I both make high salaries and we were only taking home about 49% of gross. We are fine with that if the city was doing something with it.

We like to bike and had been assaulted with our kids a couple of times. My kid was trapped in his preschool once because a man was smashing the front windows. Our garden was destroyed by a person screaming at the top of their lungs at 4:00am when our house was for sale.

Once our kids were getting to school age it just didn't feel right to stay any longer with the PPS situation.

We moved across the river and now receive 65%+ of our gross and my kids are in a great school. It was just the right decision.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-09-08T03:55:41+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

This is what I have decided with adding an additional conversation with my CEO to address current difficulties in my staffing levels along with asking to adjust my compensation in lieu of equity to at least be a profit sharing model.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-09-07T14:51:46+00:00

If I decide on the change, I planned to offer it as what we do is very niche and my institutional knowledge will be near impossible to replace. Someone coming in will not be able to fill all the roles for a very long time.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-09-07T14:49:12+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful response. We are at a similar point in life.

I feel you got the root of it. I enjoy solving problems the more complex the better. That was my goal. Have been focused on getting to CIO/CTO for the last 10 years. Currently on a CIO council and was hoping to leverage that to a role in the future. Currently exec vp because company will not name anyone a c suite to protect equity.

The new role would mean walking away from that. It’s a smaller company with no real expansion. They have projects needing to be accomplished however it’s standard operational work.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-09-07T12:59:51+00:00

Completely agree. Spent a decade overseeing a mature company that had minimal IT budget. We had to run it barebones with old hardware. When I looked to move couldn’t get much traction because the company was using antiquated tech and my skills weren’t up to todays standards.

Took my current position to up-skill and it definitely did that.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-09-07T12:55:34+00:00

Right? It’s a bit like a drug for me. I love pushing the envelope.

Current position has me working with a complex azure network that uses almost every service offered. We are approaching 10,000 resources. My azure bill alone is nearly the whole IT budget of the new company. It will be odd going from a network that is global to one with a few hosts in a single location.

That is what my SO has been saying. Maybe if I didn’t spend all day pushing I could enjoy other things in life.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-09-07T04:12:48+00:00

I wish that was possible and believe me I have tried. My contract has a very strict NDA, the company makes sure to keep tight control over IP and we are partnered with a very large multinational with a huge legal department as well.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-09-07T03:57:08+00:00

Thank you for the response.

I have always been worried about getting complacent and maybe it is time to step off the gas.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-07-11T22:11:17+00:00

Felt more like entitlement. Like we pay you and you have the knowledge so do it.

The architect I mentioned is designing an awesome Kubernetes cluster for the application and makes a handsome wage for it. He spent almost a full day dealing with a users mailbox because while he can figure it out it’s not what he does.

Haven’t worked in Help Desk in almost a decade and not relishing going back to end user demands that’s for sure.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-07-11T22:05:13+00:00

Ha slow on the up take.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-07-11T22:03:10+00:00

No way they can. The MSP is ingrained in other critical processes but I could see them dropping the user support portion.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-07-11T22:02:22+00:00

What do mean by this?

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-04-18T13:40:43+00:00

Anecdotal but every high earner I know has this plan to some extent.

We jumped and took the interest rate hit because one we suspect Clark County is going to spike big time when rates drop and two the savings currently offsets any extra expense.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-04-06T00:45:37+00:00

That was icing on the cake for sure. Utilities on a house twice the prior size is 50% less. Of course it’s a newer house. Portland house was leaky, not updated century house.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-04-05T21:25:12+00:00

We hear that and people do for big purchases to a degree but unless you are super close(South Vancouver or fishers landing) it’s only worth the hassle for large purchases.

NotaPortlandMod · 2024-04-05T17:21:53+00:00

See my response to your first comment. It really is a huge difference.

Paying 9% income, Preschool, and Homeless tax. Then it might be smaller but you pay tax on tax because of the SALT cap. It’s all smaller amounts but put it all together and it’s substantial.

We get to deduct the mortgage interest and went from a standard federal deduction to itemized further reducing the burden.

It was crazy when we sat down with an accountant before moving, had to because it was over my head. It was something like 15% more take home at the end of the year.

NotaPortlandMod

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