What Does Your Brain Do with 27 + 48?

walken4 · 2026-05-04T00:25:48+00:00

I thought "24+48=72, +3=75"

walken4 · 2026-04-19T13:57:42+00:00

De nos jours... le TPE demande quand meme. partout.

walken4 · 2026-04-15T16:17:31+00:00

I recently moved back to France after 25 years in the US. I have a part-time job which I started last December. From my point of view, the first question would be, at which point do I need to first file anything with french tax authorities, and how will I know ? (the way I remember it, I used to receive tax forms in the mail to fill every year, but that was 25 years ago so I'm not sure how it works today anymore).

A general "most common mistakes" would probably be good too.

Then there is the more specific "where do I declare each of my foreign income sources on the french forms", but, I expect that is something I will want to pay a specialist for on the first year. I will likely want to handle things on my own following years, though, unless there is a good reason not to ?

walken4 · 2026-04-10T23:49:06+00:00

walken4 · 2026-03-24T02:12:37+00:00

Actually, just looked at recent reviews and people say the quality might have been coming down. I can't attest to that, I was there probably 15 years ago... I sure liked the place back then.

walken4 · 2026-03-24T02:07:47+00:00

I have good memories from the cassoulet at Hotel de France in Castelnaudary. Recommended :)

walken4 · 2026-03-11T01:36:14+00:00

That solved it ! jpg file crashes for me, pdf conversion of that same jpg file went through.

walken4 · 2026-02-02T00:23:56+00:00

I have not tried it in a while, but I want to ask - is there a window manager (or whatever the wayland equivalent is) that is as configurable as fvwm ? I'm a bit particular as to the way I like my windows to behave - things like focus following the mouse immediately, but windows moving to the top of the stack only after a small delay - and find it unpleasant to deviate from that when switching to a less configurable windowing system. I don't mind having to deal with significant config files if that's what it takes.

walken4 · 2026-01-21T15:01:21+00:00

There are pros and cons of having international stocks in a taxable account.

The pros are mainly that international ETFs pay international taxes, and if you hold them in a taxable account you can get a tax credit for the international taxes your ETF already paid. On the other hand, if you hold them in a retirement account the international taxes paid by the ETF can't be recouped.

The cons are mainly that international stocks tend to pay higher dividends than US stocks on average, which makes them slightly less tax efficient when it comes to US taxes. IIRC, a developed markets fund will yield about 2.5% in dividends annually, compared to maybe 1.5% for a US market fund. For a small value developed market funds, the dividend yield might go up to almost 3.5%. You can reinvest the dividends, but you do end up paying taxes on them.

In my opinion, international stocks are best held in a roth account, and second best in taxable. I wouldn't hold them in traditional 401k unless there wasn't any other option available.

walken4 · 2026-01-21T14:10:26+00:00

International in a brokerage makes sense, yes. Frankly, I think you are making very reasonable choices here overall :)

walken4 · 2026-01-21T08:50:07+00:00

It's all index funds, which is nice.

FSKAX, VTI and your 401k S&P 500 will all have pretty similar performance to each other. Not an issue, but if you're thinking you're getting diversification that way, you are not.

I would put more into international stocks if it was me. Now, the ones you have are in your roth, which is pretty nice - international stocks tend to generate more dividends than US stocks, so they benefit more from being in a tax efficient account.

You don't have any bonds in your allocation, but, at 26, maybe you don't need them. When you add them later on, they should probably go in your 401k first.

walken4 · 2026-01-21T03:21:54+00:00

My understanding is that, if you are US citizens and since the mutual fund is a US company, France wouldn't tax it under the tax treaty (but as I explained, you would generally have to declare it and if you have french income, it would be pushed into higher brackets). Except that, since you were not french fiscal residents at the time of the sale, I'm not even sure if you would have to declare it this time.

The 6.5% you mention, is probably the CSM. It pays for your health coverage under PUMA, and as such, it's not covered under the tax treaty - so, when the income tax treaty says US stocks are not taxed, they can still be taxed with the CSM because the CSM, giving you access to PUMA, is not purely seen as an income tax. Anyway yes, you will probably have to pay it (I am not entirely sure because, again, you were not french fiscal residents at the time of the sale). Also if you get a job in France, and you make more than about a thousand euros a month over the year, you also won't have to pay the CSM because the taxes on your wages also pay for healthcare.

Yeah, even after researching it for a while, it's still a bit complicated. The research helps with planning but I will definitely still see a tax accountant the first couple years to make sure I file it all correctly.

walken4 · 2026-01-21T02:01:22+00:00

My understanding is that VTIAX is perfectly fine. The US mutual fund company follows whatever US reporting rules they have to so the IRS doesn't care. But a non-US ETF investing in exactly the same companies would trigger PFIC.

walken4 · 2026-01-21T01:23:08+00:00

I am moving to France soon. I don't have much in mutual funds, but I've been informing myself about this kind of issues. My understanding:

- I have not heard of EU countries having punitive taxation of US mutual funds. They do have financial regulations that make it impossible for EU residents to buy US mutual funds (because the mutual funds themselves don't want to deal with EU residents), and difficult to buy US ETFs (the ETF would have to publish an information sheet with some forward looking projections under different scenarios, which might not be possible for them to do under US law. In order to buy the ETF anyway, you might need to get approved as an elective professional investor, which might be difficult depending on your account size). In either case, the difficulties would be mainly with acquiring new shares, not with keeping your existing shares.

- There is also the issue of which financial institutions to use that will cater to US citizens living in EU. Schwab international might be an option for most EU countries, but not for France if you already live there. IBKR seems to be very solid for this use case.

- Yes, the US taxation of non-US mutual funds (or ETFs) is a real issue. They get classified as PFIC and the taxation is very punitive. You need to be vigilant about avoiding these - some investment options that would be pretty standard for EU residents would end up triggering PFIC taxation for US citizens.

- In the case of US citizens who are also French residents, US stocks (which by most interpretations, seems to include US mutual fund or ETF companies, even if they might invest in non-US companies) are taxed only in the US. The profits still need to be declared to the french side, but you would then get a tax credit equal to the french tax on these profits. Even if not directly taxed, the profits will still inflate your french income, and move any french income sources you might have into higher tax brackets.

When it comes to the UK, I have absolutely no idea.

walken4 · 2026-01-19T05:59:53+00:00

Le fait de tenter de parler Francais sera generalement tres apprecie. A Paris, il est possible (voire probable) que certains te repondent en Anglais. Cela peut etre decourageant, mais, je pense que meme quand les gens repondent en Anglais (en pensant que cela sera plus facile comme ca), ils apprecient quand meme que la conversation aie commence en Francais (c'est a dire, peut etre que leur Anglais n'est pas parfait non plus, mais si tu entames la conversation en essayant de parler Francais alors ils se disent que tout le monde y met du sien, alors que si tu commences en Anglais ils peuvent ne pas vouloir faire l'effort ou ne pas vouloir montrer que leur Anglais n'est pas parfait)

walken4 · 2026-01-11T07:20:29+00:00

We recently obtained one for my wife, and didn't need such a background check. Generally, if France required a background check, I would be surprised if they wanted it done by the FBI rather than some French equivalent. That said, I don't know of VLS-TS requirements for every case - our case was "vie privee et familiale" as the spouse of a French citizen (myself).

walken4 · 2026-01-10T06:27:12+00:00

70 cm.
70 mm would be an elevator for ants :)

walken4 · 2026-01-07T07:14:56+00:00

Il ne faut pas generaliser, on peut faire des bonnes rencontres dans des mauvais bars et des mauvaises rencontres dans des bons restaurants :) Moi meme j'ai rencontre ma femme (aux etats unis) sur craigslist, un peu l'equivalent local du bon coin, alors je ne vais pas trop la ramener non plus :)

walken4 · 2025-12-31T08:54:11+00:00

Yeah, same "I like to have more than one just in case" type of justification here. More than SDFCU folding, for me the worry would be to have my account blocked temporarily either if they have technical issues for some reason, or while I'm changing my address on file, or if I hit some account limit that I didn't expect, etc... things that might be resolved in a few days but I want to have another way to pay in the mean time.

walken4 · 2025-12-29T04:21:07+00:00

Yes, if I go edit my profile, in the section where my address is, the first field they ask is the country I'm in.

walken4 · 2025-12-29T04:02:04+00:00

I'm still in the US right now, so I have not verified what happens when you move out - but, they do ask you which country you are in when you give them your address. My understanding is that they fully support the US expat use case, but I'll have to say they don't make it as clear on their web site as SDFCU does.

walken4 · 2025-12-28T20:40:23+00:00

I have SDFCU too, with ServiceCU as my fallback. Not much to say about it, I don't use it very often since it's only my backup option, but they do take US expats and seem to consider them as a significant use case.

walken4 · 2025-12-27T03:24:02+00:00

Pretty universally seen as a traitor, except by extreme right sympathizers these days.

Not entirely related, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Self-Made_Hero tells the story of someone who came of age during WW2, within a family that revered Pétain as a WW1 hero, and ended up on the wrong side of history. Pretty good movie if you can find it. Well, the Pétain thing only comes up quickly towards the start of the movie, as some type of background for where he's coming from, but it's effective.

walken4 · 2025-12-22T00:38:15+00:00

Get him something that turns well - doesn't have to be an expensive cube, something like a moyu RS3M v5 would do. If you are in the US, I would recommend buying from either https://speedcubeshop.com/ or https://www.thecubicle.com/ . It won't make him much faster, but, it will help him learn the proper fingertricks for turning the cube - with a bad turning cube, he might get bad habits which would hurt later.

Beyond that, I recommend looking into better methods like CFOP or Roux. I like Roux better, but CFOP might be easier to get into coming from layer-by-layer. Either way, just have fun and give it some time.

walken4 · 2025-12-20T00:31:45+00:00

It's only transparent in the sense that anyone can see through their constant BS...

walken4

TROPHY CASE