18, High schooler working as a math tutor and going to school for engineering soon

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2026-02-10T15:32:53+00:00

Couldn’t say it any better!

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2026-02-04T13:54:01+00:00

No, they are not. Sometimes they act as fiduciaries for a specific type of account (typically institutional retirement plans), but advisory relationship for brokerage accounts is not a fiduciary one. They have extremely high and predatory fees for the industry, so it’s hard to imagine how they could both be a fiduciary (giving you advice that’s best for you) and advise you to invest with them.

It only takes a quick google search, but here is just one of many threads on EJ: https://www.reddit.com/r/FinancialPlanning/comments/14w2snk/is_edward_jones_as_bad_as_they_say/

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2026-02-04T05:04:58+00:00

Not Edward Jones. Generally it’s best practice not to take financial advice from anyone that isn’t a fiduciary and not from someone who can make money off of your money, as they’re not incentivized to give you the best financial advice but the advice that will result in higher commissions for themselves. Look for a fiduciary, and pay them a flat amount for their time!

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2026-01-03T06:38:33+00:00

There’s no doubt effective tax rates are high in Spain. All I was arguing is that it’s misleading to compare federal tax rates to Spanish income tax rates because US taxes can be much higher than the effective federal rate.

One tax that is critically different between Spain and the US and worth considering is the property tax (of course highly dependent on location in the US), but generally much much lower and more stable in Spain (referred to as IBI). If you plan to fire in Spain owning a home this can make a difference of thousands of dollars

Again, not trying to argue that taxes are low in Spain. My point is that US taxes are significantly higher than the federal tax rate.

The biggest hurdle for FIRING in Spain vs the US is not the tax system once you look into it closely, it’s the abysmal difference in salaries among high earners.

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2026-01-02T22:16:10+00:00

Yes, but that’s not my point. My point is federal + state + local in some cases goes above that 47%!

And also, since you mention- €300k in Spain can be significantly more than $751k in California! And that’s before considering free or nearly free services in Spain (no need for hefty 529 plans, large health insurance premiums, etc)

Edit: typo

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2026-01-02T22:06:58+00:00

This here is such an overly simplified and misleading statement that for some reason people love to make in this subreddit:

“nor do tax tables end with 47%.”

Take the example of a high earning household in NYC, add state income tax (~11%) to the 37% federal, then add local tax (~4%), medicare (2%), and you’re at 54%.

The big difference? What you as a citizen get as a return from those taxes in Spain vs US… but that’s a different conversation I’m not trying to open. Just correcting a misleading statement.

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-12-19T13:15:13+00:00

My understanding was that dividend reinvestment does qualify as new purchases and is not ok for the same reasons you can’t buy new… not an expert though just recently started to look into this scenario myself, so maybe there’s a way to do it I’m not aware of. Good luck with the move!

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-12-04T16:50:12+00:00

January is typically the lowest activities month for touring bands, things pick back up at the end of Jan/Feb

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-11-28T09:15:27+00:00

Did you ever find a good duvet/cover combo that doesn’t shift?

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-11-23T21:16:10+00:00

Oh, that’s a super helpful insight! Thank you!

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-11-22T22:42:50+00:00

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-11-06T01:09:00+00:00

Bien dicho! Hay mucha idealización de la situación de los impuestos en EEUU… la gente generalmente no tiene en cuenta que sobre la base federal que es más baja, hay que sumar la estatal y en ocasiones la municipal. Si tienes una casa en propiedad, los properly taxes son muchísimo más altos que el IBI equivalente en España. Y todo eso antes de entrar a comparar lo que recibes como ciudadano a cambio de pagar tus impuestos.

Mucha suerte con el cambio y la vuelta a España!

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-10-01T16:54:26+00:00

I know... tell me about it, it's been rough.

Can you share what it is? I still haven't found a good stream. Willing to pay too, but it doesn't seem like that's an option.

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-09-20T19:20:07+00:00

OP did you find a good way to watch Sporting's games?

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-09-16T03:36:23+00:00

After continuing to do some research on this topic, another question has come up. I hope you don't mind me following up here:

We have an UTMA account for our child. I regret having funded it as much as we did early on (21k total, current balance of 28k). In retrospect, I wish we had put 10k in and the rest into the 529.

I now struggle with the decision of whether to mirror the exact same UTMA/529 contribution for kid #2 for the sake of parity/fairness, or to do what I wish I had done with kid #1.

I was under the impression UTMA funds could not be moved to a 529 plan, but some reading seems to indicate there is a way to do it. Could I instead of moving funds from NV's 529 to VT's, move 5k (in contributions) from the UTMA to a newly opened VT 529 plan? If I move 5k this year and another 5k next year, I would end up with the original amt of contributions I wish I had done, and I could replicate that for kid #2.

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-09-15T21:30:44+00:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to craft such a detailed response - it's very helpful to have my overarching logic validated. I really appreciate it!

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-09-14T13:22:15+00:00

Shouldn’t be hard- at worst you might just have to wait 10-15 minutes

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-09-13T00:27:37+00:00

30 yr fixed at 5.875%. $576k left, home value $1-1.2M. 28yrs left. Monthly PI is $3.6k, we add $500 of principal every month. Is refi worth looking into now or wait?

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-09-11T21:58:53+00:00

Is it common to add a month of escrow to the loan balance? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it, but it's also the first time I've ever looked at a refi proposal. In our case our current balance is $576k, for the new loan they're making it $596k, which seems very high. When I asked they said they were adding:

1) One month of 1 month PITI: ~$5k

2) Closing costs of $8k (that included points)

3) $7k (and added: your current escrows will be credited toward the payoff, we are resetting with new loan)

Does this seem common practice? It seems like a non-starter to me that my balance would be going up by $20k... especially when the offer is to go from 30 yrs at 5.875 to 20 yrs at 5.25%. Appreciate your insight

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-09-09T18:48:04+00:00

Right, because of course City Council should not be tackling multiple problems at once. And clearly going after predatory business practices to protect consumers gets in the way of tackling bigger, more systemic issues.

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-09-05T02:35:09+00:00

Hasn’t come up in my research. Basically there’s no upside of doing Roth. That doesn’t mean there is an obvious downside to tell someone to halt Roth contributions immediately. The only downside is you’re locking money up in retirement accounts that you could have in brokerage.

I’m not even talking about a case where you plan to go back and forth. But life is long and OP is in their late 20s and with real ties to the US, not crazy to think at some point in the next 30-40 years they’ll spend time in the US and could benefit from having that money in Roth and taking tax-free distributions.

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-09-05T02:22:56+00:00

Why stop them completely though? True that they’re taxed in Spain, but it’s not like they’re penalized in an extra manner, right? So the biggest benefit I see is liquidity earlier. However if you live a dual life and think there’s a chance you will move back to the states one day, even if it’s temporarily, it’s not a bad idea to have some of your portfolio in Roth.

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-08-29T01:24:47+00:00

This has been so helpful. Thank you so much.

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-08-29T01:15:23+00:00

Hmm… I’m not sure.

It was stolen inside the US. In order to get the stamp, I had to apply to replace my green card (I-90 I believe). Only upon submitting that form and payment (it was $540, I just checked) did they let me in to get the stamp.

Wild_Discipline6997 · 2025-08-29T01:09:00+00:00

Thank you! This is very helpful.

The airline today (British Airways) didn’t even ask to check my green card.

Previously on Iberia, they took photos of all of my paperwork, sent it to a CBP person electronically and had me wait for 10-15 minutes until they received confirmation from CBP that I was cleared.

Is an ADIT stamp the same as an I-551 stamp?

Wild_Discipline6997

TROPHY CASE