[quote=flu]
Pardon if I don’t understand your numbers, and frankly you don’t need to share. But I don’t understand how you could be in the lowest two income brackets and considering to retire in california at 39 with a family. Also , I don’t follow you you say you have $100k in equity and you plan on downsizing to a house in CA. So either your numbers are off, or your net worth is more than you are indicating (which again is none of anyone’s business here)…
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The lowest two federal tax brackets for married (filing jointly) are for income under $67,900. I think the standard deduction for married filing jointing is around 10K. I wouldn’t expect my income to be higher than ~80K if I were retired or semi-retired.

Regarding the house, my point is that I could sell my home today and have 100K from the sale. I could then buy a house in CA with 20% down using less than 100K (if the house is less than 500K of course). The cheaper the house, the more left over.