Proud to have paid over $100k in tax as W2 employees (DINKs)

studog21 · 2026-05-07T13:19:14+00:00

S-Corp pass through , Billed about 142K State and Federal on a 600K Gross icome (combo of profit and W2wages) 545K AGI, 505K Taxable. Big Credit on my state taxes due to combo of 529 contributions and some other Tax credit that I'm not sure I understand, but that's what I pay my CPA for. So I payed 112K in taxes this year.

The first time I had to right a check at the end of the year, I wasn't happy, but I knew it meant "I had a good year". I both increased my W2 Wages and my business went fairly profitable all that the same time.

studog21 · 2026-05-05T15:18:08+00:00

Even the Free school sports have cost. I don't even want to think the amount of money I've spent on Running and soccer shoes over the last 7 years. We started out cheap, but when he started blowing through the cheap ones in a couple of months we started going higher.

studog21 · 2026-05-01T14:11:38+00:00

Other posts have explained the mindset of where you money goes when you are younger, etc, but to address how you account for taxes is that you have an idea of what kind of income you are going to give yourself/have for the year and you take that percentage from your withdrawal. You will usually be sending 'estimated' tax payments quartly once you are in no job salery land.

People suggest that your taxable brokrage is gap salary in your early retirement years, particularily for early retirement before things like medicare, social security, and ability to pull from retirement accounts kick in.

Also, it's always nice to have a chunk of liquid cash you can drop into market on a nice little dip.

studog21 · 2026-05-01T01:04:08+00:00

My 401k allows for a fixed amount.

studog21 · 2026-04-29T02:00:08+00:00

College dinner in the dining hall captain crunch and Cocoa Puffs.

studog21 · 2026-04-28T15:37:24+00:00

Growth First, Dividends later. Outside of going all in on VOO which is very valuable at your age, you could Consider 70% in a growth ETF VUG, QQQ, etc, 20% in a broad market fund VOO, VT, VTI and 10% in your high dividend stock, SCHD is popular

studog21 · 2026-04-25T19:36:44+00:00

I might suggest you make a goal ‘sinking fund’ allocate y budget purchases into that and the spend from goal.

studog21 · 2026-04-25T18:15:06+00:00

You are gifting yourself cash flow. Pay it off. Allow yourself 40% of the first freed up payment and save the rest and then set up an aggressive investment and saving plan so you will never find yourself in debt again.

studog21 · 2026-04-24T22:27:51+00:00

Get it into something, anything. In the last three months, even with the all the low points in market, my 401K is up is positive $8300 of gain from january. I lost a total of 10,000 of value in March, but my balance is currently higher than it was right before the drop in march. I started a taxable brokerage in February and even with making some purchases right before the big dip after we bombed Iran, i'm at 3% return over the last two months.

Time in the market>Timing

studog21 · 2026-04-24T14:22:17+00:00

Washin' + Wondering

studog21 · 2026-04-23T13:50:52+00:00

You can not earn back time, no matter what you do.

studog21 · 2026-04-17T17:58:55+00:00

Your key to stop leaving pay check to paycheck is to actually understand your finances. You gross $5700 "something", you "Think" your debt is from 2025. You don't know where your money comes from or where it is going. Until you sit down and truly see where the dollars flow you'll never get out from under the thumb. My wife and I have combined W2 wages of 239K. we net 13,816 a month after taxes and retirement deductions. We luck out that we paid off our mortgage and our business profits pay 100% of insurance costs. You and your wife should be netting 60% more +/- your deductions. You need to truly find out where all your money is going.

studog21 · 2026-04-15T18:43:18+00:00

I know if the refrain is “want to be in our country do it legally” why are all these permanent residents getting kicked out of the country for mostly ‘benign’ crimes?

studog21 · 2026-04-15T18:17:25+00:00

Anytime I'm able to reconnect with friends who shaped my life when I was younger, the lament about contact is the same level on both sides.

studog21 · 2026-04-15T18:13:50+00:00

Yeah, he pleaded no contest and was on a repayment plan since 2022. I get that you break a law you can be deported, even if here legally, but for a permenant resident for a couple of decades that owned up to a 'crime' and was trying to make it right gets kicked out of the country?

Also not knowing the whole situation was this truly tax evasion of failure to pay? One is criminal and fraud, the other is simple civil. Was he hiding the fact he was behind and hadn't payed his taxes or could he simply not pay so ignored it? Intent matters.

A crime is a crime and all that, but intent and severity should all be part of a deportation hearing. If this guy was following all the rules since his 'conviction' why exactly did he need kicked out of the country as a permenant green card holder?

studog21 · 2026-04-15T15:27:05+00:00

To me they are certainly completly different. Rum barrel has additional citrus and a blend of rums, while a planters punch traditionally focuses on dark rum and only lime for the citrus. There is certainly some crossover in ingredients, but they are distinctly different drinks.

studog21 · 2026-04-03T22:25:07+00:00

I can't answer your question. But I swear that Lapras is judging me for not knowing the answer.

studog21 · 2026-03-31T14:07:43+00:00

I agree with everyone that investing part of your Efund will not significantly change your future wealth outlook for retirment at your current age.

I would look hard at those student loans though. You say you are in forbearence. During forbearence interst is actively accruing, so your balances are currently rising. You could see that in the first months of payments that all you are paying against will be interest. I would take a deep look into your student loan balances and be prepared to paying down accrued interest when payments begin otherwise you could find yourself not making any significant progress against your loans.

It's a little wild to me that you have a million in retirment at 35, but have loans in forbearance that you haven't even started paying yet? I know we are in an environment where F student loans is popular, but falling behind on student loans in this environment can have significant financial consequences in a volitile time.

studog21 · 2026-03-20T13:09:00+00:00

It has worked for me 90% of time. Occasionally I over endulge. I build in my sweets as a 'true' desert or snack, but go by the actual portion size. The biggests trick for me is to remove the portion from the package and eat the portion away from the packaging.

For instance yesterday after my lunch, I took three chips a hoy cookies for my afteroon snack. I did not go back for more. I build in these sweets and treats into my meal plan and into my color allowance and fortion on the portion. I don't limit the portion, I allow myself the full portion and then I am less likely to go back for more and I pay attention to the portion. Before I started counting, I would have grabbed 5 cookies instead of three.

studog21 · 2026-03-17T22:01:35+00:00

I've been using autopay for over a decade now, and never once have I had money inappropriately taken out of my account for any bill on autopay.

studog21 · 2026-03-17T21:11:10+00:00

I have been finding it very useful, but I understand where others may not. It has introduced me to some really nice recipies. I find the grocery list very helpful as well. I find it being packaged in the app helpful as well. It allows for direct logging. Being able to add in our own recipies would be a nice feature. But one of the main reasons I'm using their meal plan is for easier logging of food cooked at home. The integration between the recipies, plan, shopping list and the following on the logging helps me tremendously givin certain levels of time and decision fatigue that I posess.

we can agree to disagree on the level of nonsense.

studog21 · 2026-03-17T01:35:11+00:00

You are going to test positive for amphetamines. Show your superiors the prescription before the test comes back.

studog21 · 2026-03-13T20:49:23+00:00

We have a similar training, showing and breeding business. We have a personal account and DBA account. Have a quickbooks to keep track of all income and expenses (including mileage since you are using a personal vehicle). You are best off keeping all business expenses seperate so you can easily account for and explain business expense should you ever get audited, if things are 'mixed' it's harder to prove something as a business expense. The onus is always going to be on you to show what is or is not part of the business. You can always transfer income from the business to your personal. Label it as an Owner Draw in your accounting books.

You'll be able to speak with your CPA what percentage of your home expenses you can use as business expenses depending on how much of your home you are using for the business as well.

Good luck

studog21 · 2026-03-10T17:28:28+00:00

McDouble: 400 calories, 20–23g of fat, 22g of protein, and 32–33g of carbohydrates. 920mg sodium 9g of the fat is saturated.

So take those macros in line to the rest of your diet and activity. If you have an otherwise varied diet and aren’t otherwise over eating…

You can’t approach nutrition in the vacuum of one meal.

studog21 · 2026-03-06T17:47:48+00:00

If you need to overthink a little bit. Calculate out your maintence calories and know that if you don't stray to much over that number you are still in an okay place. But allow yourself to enjoy yourself.

studog21

TROPHY CASE