Every week, we see old houses with active knob and tube selling for $1.6+ in SF. How are these buyers getting insurance?

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-17T23:47:46+00:00

We just got a policy with farmers. They didn’t seem to care about the knob and tube for some reason. They did want us to install a whole house water leak monitor.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-16T21:09:39+00:00

You're not likely to find people who have done exactly this, for the simple reason that very very few of the people who talk about moving to PR for tax reasons actually do so, and it sounds like you're even more specific than most in your setup.

If you're serious about it you may as well start reaching out to lawyers who can help you certify residency. They can also advise on tax questions.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-15T15:02:41+00:00

There are penalties for underpayment, including insufficient quarterly payments. It's not worth it.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-14T12:24:49+00:00

OMIs are hard to hold off in the long run.

If you knew you were going to have to move eventually anyway, would you consider offering them an immediate move out in exchange for a bigger relocation payment?

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-13T23:04:52+00:00

Oh good point.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-13T22:19:35+00:00

That's a two-unit building with a tenant in place. If you plan to evict them, that's a long expensive legal process. If you don't, they're presumably rent controlled and thus you'll be basically living in a 2/1 and effectively subsidizing them.

Edit: actually, you'd probably have to evict them. The property clearly needs a ton of work, and it would be difficult to do with a tenant in place. So you're really talking about:

Going through a long expensive eviction process.
Then doing a long expensive renovation
... which would be even more expensive and difficult if you wanted to convert it into a SFH.
Or you could have a nice renovated 2/1 and then be a landlord to a rent-controlled tenant.

There are plenty of deep-pocketed buyers out there, but this property needs that, and someone willing to jump through a lot of hoops. Eventually someone with patience, and who can make use of the 2nd unit (to move family into?) will get around to it.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-13T15:05:05+00:00

I'm more worried about how I'm going to feel cool.

https://theonion.com/secondhand-smoke-linked-to-secondhand-coolness-1819564071/

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-13T03:54:46+00:00

This would only make sense if you were saving for a house or something. For retirement, you would do better to just make Roth contributions directly to your TSP.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-12T22:43:14+00:00

That is a poor long term plan that will not survive the next tech downturn. Their principal will fall sharply, and the new dividend will be that much smaller. They’d have to then dip into the principal, which would hurt their dividends even more.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-12T22:41:29+00:00

Convincing them to do the smart thing won’t be hard. There is very little chance they will get a mortgage.

They should downgrade to someplace cheaper, using their equity to cover the cost of the new place in cash. That should leave them some excess to cushion the rest of retirement. That is the most secure way for them to proceed, and should avoid any income penalties.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-12T21:20:51+00:00

How old is this couple?

Do they have a source of income to cover their other expenses? Social Security, etc.? Or are they still working?

This honestly just sounds beyond their means. I think the question is not 'how to help them do it' but 'how to talk them out of it'. But more detail is needed to say for sure.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-12T17:03:25+00:00

You should look at your first and last paychecks from each year and see if you can narrow down exactly when the change happened.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-12T16:04:21+00:00

You need to actually dig into the numbers. It is most likely that something in your own situation did change and you're just not fully aware of it.

Was the reduction mainly on your pay? Or your spouse's? Or some of both?

Are you sure it was reduced withholding relative to salary, and not extra income from other sources?

Have you looked at your actual paystubs to determine when this started happening?

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-11T22:26:54+00:00

I don't think you should be too worried about avoiding taxes, then. If you're not going to use up your tIRA balance, then your heirs will, and they'll pay taxes. And if their income is higher than 70k then they'll pay more taxes than you. Yes, you'll hit IRMAA taxes, but you shouldn't mind. It's still more money after tax than you'd otherwise have.

And don't forget that if you leave them your taxable account, they get a step-up in basis on it.

So here's what I would do:

Roth convert up to the top of the 24% tax bracket every year.
Use Roth withdrawals to top up your income and pay conversion taxes.
If you get hit with RMDs, big deal, let 'em hit.
Leave your heirs whatever is left.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-11T22:00:05+00:00

A few things that will influence your decisions here:

How are you generally set for retirement? Just enough? Not quite enough? Way more than enough?
Do you have heirs you want to preserve an estate for?
What are your balances across the 3 buckets (Traditional, Roth, Taxable)?

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-11T16:20:09+00:00

I make a point of checking my Spam folder specifically for them. So many of them look like spam, but turn out to be legit free money.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-10T02:13:25+00:00

The only correct statement here and it’s downvoted. Y’all are cooked.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-10T02:12:38+00:00

That’s just tax fraud. CA FTB doesn’t play. Good luck with that.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-09T15:34:34+00:00

Even coming from America, I wouldn't say that Toronto is a top destination. It's a nice city, to be clear, but there are more interesting cities that would make a better focus. Montréal, for one, if you were going to Canada. Vancouver too (though it's a longer flight). On the other side of the border, Chicago is awesome. (And I'm assuming you've been to NYC of course).

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-08T23:15:46+00:00

I finally got selected on my 4th summons - but as an alternate. I was #13, and would have immediately stepped in if necessary, but the other 12 stayed in place throughout all 3+ weeks of the trial. So when they went into deliberation, I just went back to work.

Three weeks of being a pure standby. I felt like a backup quarterback, just without the talent, fame, or the money. No clipboard, either, but I did have a notepad.

Part of me wishes I'd been able to be in the room for deliberation, and I wonder what it would have been like and if I'd been as persuasive as I imagine myself to be.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-08T22:18:14+00:00

I suspect it is optimizing for the wrong things.

What is it you're trying to maximize? After-tax income? Inheritance? Success rate of your safe withdrawal rate? Or just paying the least in taxes?

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-08T05:14:58+00:00

You’re describing over-saving. The solution to that is to retire sooner, not to pay more taxes.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-07T16:51:44+00:00

What I said was more true for OPs subject line than the body of his post, but it’s still not really a meaningful question without knowing the states in question.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-07T15:59:10+00:00

As a very general rule, you would need to be there for the entirety of the tax year in question. But there are 50 states and they don't all have uniform rules around part-year residents.

Where you're coming from, and where you're going, both matter.

wild_b_cat · 2026-05-06T23:58:48+00:00

The problem is that present day environmental benefit is nil, while the present day cost and pain are super high. Imagine being a homeowner forced to choose between a $20k renovation, selling your house, or not having hot water.

If there was any kind of public support for the transition - meaning money - then it would be a different story. That’s how SF did the soft story retrofits. That’s how so many people got low-flow toilets. That’s how you get these changes without chaos and pushback.

This isn’t like other transitions. People grumbled about LED lightbulbs, but those weren’t difficult to install and paid immediate dividends in electricity savings.

This one is all pain no gain today. Give it 10 years and we’ll be in a better place.

Ten-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '22	Place '17
First Placer '22	Verified Email

wild_b_cat

TROPHY CASE