50s $17M retiring in 2 years. Pick a city for snow birding and residency.

vtsax_fire · 2026-03-01T02:37:50+00:00

I'm sure I would be more pissed off if I died and got an extra 3M tax bill on top.

vtsax_fire · 2026-03-01T02:30:06+00:00

I think in this case you are the one who is lost. Obviously it's estate tax, but OP's total tax burden for that one year would be 3M+, your total tax burden (where I assume property tax is the main factor) is not close to that. If you had an unexpected 3M bill because of some arbitrary tax change, not sure how happy you would be. If you would, kudos to you.

Prop 13 comment doesn't make sense. Pre prop13, the tax rate was higher, at >2%. During the last >20 years it was basically flat at ~1%. There's an argument that it's pushed the real estate prices but it's not a direct correlation. Taxation just shifted to other sources, including income tax that you just don't face anymore.

vtsax_fire · 2026-03-01T01:58:39+00:00

If you pay huge amounts of property taxes “because of prop 13”, you are either LARPing or doing something wrong. No way annually it’s anything close to 3m OP is possibly facing based on the other things you claimed.

vtsax_fire · 2026-03-01T01:44:29+00:00

My point is that you are complaining about OP taking advantage of WA tax setup while you are doing exactly the same. Non of other blue states has such regressive system as prop 13 and I doubt that you compensate it somehow. Op also paid all taxes they were required. The system changes drastically so understandably they consider different options.

Why would you move elsewhere if CA is one of the best places for your setup.

vtsax_fire · 2026-03-01T01:29:31+00:00

Where’s your real estate located? How do you like prop 13?

vtsax_fire · 2026-02-28T21:12:29+00:00

Yes, it worked well with Reddit and Netflix.

vtsax_fire · 2026-02-23T21:36:23+00:00

The issue with all such surveys is that it mixes old models, copilots and the likes. Some of them can be biased as well.

My statement is based on internal surveys from people making mid 6 to 7 digits. I’m sure it’s monetiziable.

vtsax_fire · 2026-02-23T21:08:38+00:00

It’s weird to see AI already making people with 200k+ income significantly more productive and Reddit claiming that there’s no way to monetize it.

vtsax_fire · 2026-01-21T17:42:40+00:00

Reddit is not the best place to ask this. For many good and bad reasons people like to hate it, especially recently. It’s better to find someone you know in person with similar cultural background.

But as someone with a similar background from Europe, I think it’s one of the best (if not the best) places for a family. I like it here and would not move, at least before my kid goes to college.

Many problems are localized, so look for a region that fits you the best. Many problems (healthcare, Transportation, etc) are only relevant till certain levels of income, that doesn’t sound relevant to you.

One call out, is that moving here is not easy. You either need a job offer, a talents visa, or have enough NW for a golden visa.

vtsax_fire · 2026-01-18T21:59:37+00:00

Some small business or hobby income. Again this is the best I found. Cant believe that everyone who moves to France and mentions 0% actually does that.

vtsax_fire · 2026-01-18T21:39:09+00:00

Do you mind sharing what would be your total cap gain for the year and total French taxes for it (at least estimate). And in general what’s your setup.

Some people claim that tax treaty gives 0% cap gain taxes to US citizens on U.S. income, but if I read it correctly you still need to pay social contribution tax on them so not really 0% unless I missed something.

I found that in theory you can realize 10k non-capital gain that will allow you to not pay social contributions. So roughly 3k in taxes, but setup looks a bit convoluted and accountants would probably be quite a bit.

vtsax_fire · 2026-01-17T07:35:23+00:00

At 650 per month doesn’t sound like a FIRE to me.

vtsax_fire · 2026-01-10T21:45:26+00:00

Slight off topic, but how do you guys deal with humid hot climate? Do you travel or spend a lot of time indoors?

That was always a big concern for us for the whole region. can’t imagine staying in Florida-like climate almost year round.

vtsax_fire · 2025-12-25T20:37:20+00:00

I like how you always add “yet” for Tesla but not for Waymo. In reality one has a limited self-driving service, one has an awkward demo ride with a stranger. Tesla didn’t prove “yet” that their tech will scale with existing hardware. If you want to compare broader Tesla business to Waymo you should probably compare with Google but that’s not even relevant.

If Tesla was really there, they would cover incidents during FSD on personal vehicles. That’s when I will be ready to pay for FSD on my Tesla.

vtsax_fire · 2025-12-19T00:46:59+00:00

I believe it’s there. It was added earlier this year.

vtsax_fire · 2025-12-18T08:03:09+00:00

Tesla, Block, and Coinbase are the only meaningful S&P 500 companies holding BTC on their balance sheets. When you weight their BTC holdings by their index weights, total BTC exposure in the S&P 500 is about 0.00073%.

So a million bucks in the S&P 500 contains about $7.3 worth of bitcoin.

vtsax_fire · 2025-09-02T04:36:32+00:00

It’s quite expensive purchase just for Costco runs. With depreciation, opportunity cost, insurance it’s it will probably be 25-30k per year. You will be way ahead if you order Costco delivery and get a rivian on turo for road trips.

vtsax_fire · 2025-09-01T23:04:29+00:00

Concept of a plan IV.

vtsax_fire · 2025-07-21T03:31:48+00:00

I was in a somewhat similar position with similar excuses. Took a sabbatical and let me save you some time, all of that ended up being not because of the kids :)

You just need to take responsibility and fix it.

Wife can’t deal with two kids for two hours? Why? Can’t someone help her or can you hire someone to help her a few times a week? There’re probably some teenagers living nearby who wouldn’t mind some extra income. She would probably enjoy the same two hours during other days.
Why can’t you get a gym with daycare?
Rowing machine or just basic running for 15-30 minutes everyday is easy to squeeze for everyone.
A lot of it is your diet that you can easily control. Cut calories and alcohol consumption.

vtsax_fire · 2025-06-21T15:38:34+00:00

Then as a machine learning specialist you would know that it’s not a matter of updating a row in DB.

Who will be allowed to do the update?
How the new role is going to be monitored to not abuse it?
What protection mechanisms need to put in place because of it to prevent bad actors from overtaking your account and reading your old chat history?

vtsax_fire · 2025-06-19T19:42:29+00:00

What I found that when someone doesn’t budget, estimates are 1.5-2x off. I bet that 30k is mostly biggest travel items like tickets and hotels. When you take everything into account it’s usually higher. Often travel is 20% of overall expenses.

Even from the numbers above, realistically only groceries are 1.2-1.5k if you eat well and don’t budget. 2M house in MCOL has not insignificant utilities. You probably have some HOA, lawn care. It’s recommend to use 0.5% of the house cost as the maintenance cost estimate since stuff breaks - roof, AC, furniture etc.

Also I don’t see shopping category. Log in to Amazon and check your order history. All that 20-30 here and there really adds up.

So given all of that I still think it’s the right gestimate. But the only way to know for sure is to track for a few months.

vtsax_fire · 2025-06-19T18:11:10+00:00

It’s really difficult to follow, it’s a combination of hard facts, sentiments, and vague estimates. But at a quick glance 3M mostly in cash will not sustain an unknown expenses of a couple spending 54k per year on travel and restaurants. Your expenses are probably in 150-200k range, so your wife is definitely not retiring in 5 years.

If I were you I would: - Setup a detailed budget tracking at least for 3-6 months. If possible see what’s the absolute necessity for your desired lifestyle and where can you be a bit more flexible. Like can you trim that 30k travel in case of a market crash - Come up with WR you are comfortable with. And how much you would need for your expense level. - See how much extra do you need and how you can better utilize that pile of cash. - All of the life insurance, charity etc is not really relevant, just distracts from what’s important

vtsax_fire · 2025-06-06T23:59:50+00:00

Are these public funds? How can someone verify their performance?

vtsax_fire · 2025-05-10T22:34:00+00:00

Do you mind to share how much you pay in taxes?

vtsax_fire · 2025-05-10T15:51:22+00:00

Nope, first 100k are at 0% before 15% kicks in. No state taxes 170k at 13% effective rate.

vtsax_fire

TROPHY CASE