231–240 of 321 posts
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Isn't short term cap gains taxed like earned income, which below $50k a year is 0 in CA? For federal if you make <$52k (w/ standard deduction) you only pay like a 11% tax rate.
No it has it's own tax bracket and there is no 0% bracket
There's very few places where there is an overlap of "jobs that pay $100k" and "homes that can be afforded at $100k salary".
Look for places that other people don't want to live. There are plenty of midwestern cities with senior developer jobs paying $100k+ and a low cost of living. My two bedroom condo 20 minutes from the downtown of a major metro area was $80k.
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> "homes that can be afforded at $100k salary" There are many places throughout the south, midwest and northeast with decent job markets and dirt cheap housing. The mortgage on my 1800 sq foot house is nearly a third of the cost of my tiny one bedroom back in Seattle. The cost of the entire house is a tenth of a house in the Bay Area. I am fortunate to work remotely but when deciding where to live I wanted to be able…
How does your total comp fare relative to Seattle? I’m living in downtown Seattle now working for Amazon. I’ve been here almost 8 years. My TC is north of $300K, but the mental strain this fucking company has had on me has me constantly on the edge. I’m thinking about leaving to join another FANG company or drop out of big tech all together.
Living in Seattle on two high incomes(maybe not relative to you, but still) and having no kids was amazing. Paid off about 80k of student loans in a short amount of time. However, the prospect of having a massive 500k-1m mortgage in a boom or bust town was just too much for me. Here, If the housing market flipped upside down and my house magically worth 0$ id still come out alright! It's that, plus I can afford my housing while working at Starbucks(exaggeration) that gives me peace of mind.
I will say though, if Seattle's housing market crashes I'd be back in a heartbeat. I miss the water and the mountains!
Also FWIW my company is remote first, and I get paid the same in Seattle as I do here.
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Yeah in my area I'm paying probably $200+/month more for my small apartment than I would for a house that's 2-3 times the sqft. It's frustrating to know that I'd actually be saving money + building equity of I could just buy a house today. But saving up is hard when you're also paying off student debt. My family has told me that you should always save up the 20%, but it seems like like the FHA 3.5% is the winners cho…
One thing I keep telling people is that buying a house really won't save you money in the long run. I only bought a house for the space, me and my wife both work from home in the midwest and need the office space. You'll spend more than you realize on upkeep, furnishings and the increase cost of utilities. My opinion is If you really want to save money, find a cheap cost of living area and rent. Only buy a house if y…
But surely the cost of (apartment rent + other associated costs) * however many months is going to be higher than (cost of house + interest from mortgage + upkeep + increased utilities) - (eventual price you sell it for)
The apartment situation you will always be negative, whereas even if you only end up selling your house for the same price you bought it at, you've only paid for interest + upkeep + utilities. The interest + upkeep are certainly not insignificant, but when your rent is as high as the mortgage cost, surely buying has got to be the better option over the longterm.
But maybe I'm just fooling myself.
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I pay $2k in rent, so $24k. That leaves $1300/month for everything else. I'm easily below that most months. (No car, no drinking, cook during the week) I don't find SF to be any more expensive than any other "big" city outside of housing cost, especially when you factor in not needing a car to get around.
How much of that $1300/month goes to dental and medical insurance? Because with no family to support, I don't see how you aren't paying close to half that in insurance.
But if I did, there's the premium tax credit, which caps premiums to some % of your annual income. For a single person, 322% above the federal poverty line is $40k with a 9.56% cap, so you'd pay no more than $318 in premiums a month and whatever you pay extra (say $182 for a $500 premium) becomes a tax credit.
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Don't forget the highly underrated community college systems in VA.
I hear community colleges put out there as an option to move into a 4 year state school often. I can't help but think it applies to many more states than I expected initially.
$100,000 still a lot of money. You can buy a beer in Vietnam for 20 cents. The problem in the Bay Area, where I live, is we artificially limit the amount of housing. So prices move to infinity.
Interestingly housing is very expensive in the cities in Vietnam, on a relative basis. A friend’s mother sold a 1000 sq ft home in Saigon for $250,000. New apartments are often $100k+. Considering the average wage is $6,000 in Saigon, the housing is outrageous.
These are likely houses marketed towards "investors", aka rich people who don't need a mortgage or have a network of private lenders who specialize in providing credit for the house-flipping industry.
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Unless you get very lucky with housing living off $40k/year is pretty difficult in San Francisco. Even if you manage I would definitely not call it comfortable.
Just Obamacare will cost you $20k. Of course, on $40k/year I suppose one would be taking subsidies or medicaid instead of paying full freight. But, then I guess it could be said you can make it in SF on $0/year...