[UCGal]

I don’t think it will be broadly repealed. But I can see it being modified.

– eliminating Prop 13 for investment or non owner occupied properties.
– perhaps allow a slightly higher increase per year.
– eliminate the family transfers or senior transfers. (Disclaimer, I benefited from the generational transfer, otherwise my dad would have used the clause that lets seniors transfer their rate to an equal or lesser value property.)

[UCGal]

I don’t have it and don’t know how it would work.

I have a legal plan (through my employer) which covers a very limited amount of items, but phone advice for more items. It would *not* have our legal issues related to our granny flat.

The play we have is Hyatt Legal Plan. It gives us referrals to lawyers who give advice and do simple work. It’s great for folks putting together estate type stuff (living trusts, wills, POAs). We’ve used it for advise (but not representation) on eldercare issues. And we were referred to (but not covered for) a probate/real estate attorney we have on retainer to help with the sale of a property jointly owned by several family members. He gave advice on the phone – but when it came time to start drawing up documents we had to pay him.

If you purchase it – make sure you read the fine print on EXACTLY what it covers…

[UCGal]

[quote=EconProf]In discussing one’s “tax rate”, it is important to first define terms.
If you mean your income tax paid in one year relative to income for that year, that is called your average tax rate. I believe that is what most of the posters are referring to here.
But if you mean your tax bracket–the tax you paid on your last dollar earned–that is the marginal tax rate. It is far more important in decision-making…whether to take on extra income or not, whether to invest in tax-free municipal bonds or not, etc.
In a progressive tax system like ours, where your rate goes up as income increases, marginal rates will always exceed average rates.[/quote]

Yes – I’ve heard the term you used, average tax rate, also referred to as “effective” tax rate. My marginal tax rate is higher (25%). I will be hyper aware of where I fall in the marginal rate when I early retire in a few years – since we’ll be converting IRA to RothIRA up to the top of our marginal tax rate (Hopefully this will be in the 15% marginal rate bucket).

I fully acknowledge my overall tax rate is quite a bit higher – sales tax, property tax, state tax, gas tax, SS tax, medicare tax, etc.

[UCGal]

[quote=no_such_reality][quote=flu]How the heck are you folks getting a 12% tax rate on fed. Mine is close to 19% and that’s with itemized deductions.

I must be doing my taxes wrong[/quote]

No, your taxes are the taxes of a person with high income.

UCGal is working the plan to have more life without realizing income. It’s the financial independence plan, you greatly simplify your life if you figure out how to happily live on less income.[/quote]
Exactly. Working part time gives me less $, but more time with the kids and for a life outside of work.

[UCGal]

Has there been harassment of the other owners of the easement? You mentioned there are 3 of you that share this easement.

Civil litigation is a bad place to be. (Remember, I’ve been there, done that in the past.) Mediation would likely be non-binding, so I don’t think that’s a solution.

Good luck with this.

[UCGal]

Turbo tax says my tax rate (fed income) was less than 12%. That’s not terrible. I don’t like paying taxes – but I do like freeways, education, a safety net for those less fortunate, etc.

Will probably pay a higher percentage next year for two reasons – losing the mortgage interest deduction (should have house paid off) and DH retired so no more deferring income into 401k/IRA for him… instead we pay on what he pulls out… and we’ll be pulling out extra to do roth conversions.

[UCGal]

[quote=Essbee]
Now, regarding D39… ultimately, I know of 4 kids from the preschool class whose parents applied for D39 kindergarten slots. (We did not apply). Apparently, two got in and two did not. One of the parents I was speaking with was speculating about “racial quotas”. It just happens that the two kids who got it were Caucasian, and the two who did not were Korean and Indian. The Korean parent felt that perhaps there were quotas against “too many” Asians in the school. I have not idea if that is correct, but that is apparently speculation among some in this community.[/quote]
I have two coworkers who applied for their kids. One (Vietnamese) did not get in. The other (Indian) got in. Just adding that as data points.

[UCGal]

my sons have recently requested wallets. They don’t have credit cards, id’s, or much cash… but they want them.

They also lose stuff a lot – so I’m not getting them fancy ones. I’m thinking those cheapo nylon ripstop/velcro jobs.

Or I could make them wallets out of duct tape. 🙂

[UCGal]

If it sells – this will be the third sale. Although it looks like they did a bit of work before the prior sale.

Sale that closed 7/2013
http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-130029813-1712_Beryl_St_San_Diego_CA_92109

They clearly did some work (landscaping, paint, spruced up the inside significantly.) It was flipped on 1/17/2014
http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-130063444-1712_Beryl_St_San_Diego_CA_92109

They even used the same pictures on the latest listing.

I can understand the bump between the first and second listing… but there’s not a lot of justification for a bump of 425k.

[UCGal]

A friend is a firefighter, after getting an ivy league MBA and working at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker, etc. He chose to leave the big bucks environment to give back. He’s got a strong sense of duty and giving.

As far as risks – it’s easy to have a non-life threatening risk that is still serious. So death rates aren’t the whole story. It’s hard physical labor and when you’re hauling people out of burning structures, you can easily injure your back or have other injuries.

Not everyone goes into firefighting for the perceived money. My friend left a much better, safer, career that paid a heck of a lot more money.

[UCGal]

They tried to sell it last year for $490k, and it didnt’ sell – so they jacked up the price by more than $100k? No work done?

[UCGal]

I’m at a slightly different asset allocation than Warren Buffet proposes – but I’m doing essentially what he’s recommending.

What I advise here is essentially identical to certain instructions I’ve laid out in my will. One bequest provides that cash will be delivered to a trustee for my wife’s benefit. (I have to use cash for individual bequests, because all of my Berkshire shares will be fully distributed to certain philanthropic organizations over the ten years following the closing of my estate.) My advice to the trustee could not be more simple: Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund. (I suggest Vanguard’s.) I believe the trust’s long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors – whether pension funds, institutions or individuals – who employ high-fee managers.

http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-recommends-sp-500-index-2014-3#ixzz2v6kMYdzm

Index funds with an asset allocation of equities and bonds. I’m at a 60/40 mix… The key is not to sell when the market goes down… and to do the counter-intuitive – when equities go up a lot – sell some and buy bonds, when bonds go up a lot, sell some and buy equities. Rebalancing and having a mix of bonds and equities is like dampening the volatility of the market.

[UCGal]

[quote=joec]I suppose I’m in the more have debt, manage it well camp…

I actually would like to refinance my mortgage just as I’m about to retire to get a large tax deduction to offset forced IRA withdrawals…You have to pay a certain amount of tax anyways so why not make that tax 0?

Even Mark Zuckerberg, being a $20+ (?) billionaire has a mortgage on his home when he can obviously pay it off:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-16/zuckerberg-s-loan-gives-new-meaning-to-the-1-mortgages.html

Course, it’s 1% adjustable 🙂 which none of us can get, but hey, I’m sure it’s still a hassle for some folks.

If you manage your money well, you’ll always have income in your life. Unfortunately, the USA always likes to tax income so having ways to make that 0 is a wise thing IMO.

Obviously, people should do what makes them feel the most comfortable, but I’d take minimizing taxes to 0 over “feeling more secure”.

Course, I don’t have money to pay stuff off so I don’t have this problem to actually have to choose.[/quote]

I don’t get the ‘pay interest to get a tax deduction’ argument. It’s a tax deduction, not a tax credit. So for every dollar you pay to the bank in interest, you get 28cents or so back in reduced taxes. Which means you are still out 72cents of each dollar. I’d like to keep that 72cents.

Arbitraging leveraged debt I understand… But not taking out a loan you don’t need just for the deduction.

Plus I plan on doing enough Roth conversions before I turn 70.5 in order to reduce my RMD tax worries.

[UCGal]

I’m a big fan of renting other people’s timeshares – often for about the cost of the annual maintenance on their time share. There’s a resort in cabo I’ve been to a few times that I like to rent at.

Like ER – I use homeshares, VRBO, but also look at timeshares – since I prefer a place with a kitchen and separate bedroom (when travelling with kids.)

Timeshares commit you to the same place and/or the same family of timeshares for the same week, every year. Might work if you have a fixed vacation – but it’s too inflexible for me.

[UCGal]

As the most debt averse person here… let me chime in.

The payment doesn’t effect your lifestyle now – but what about when you retire? Or do you plan to work the full 20 years into the future?

Once that debt is resigned – you can cashflow the $320/month into other investments, dollar cost averaging. Pick an investment – equities, gold, big heavy things to haul up and down your driveway?

But I think I’m atypical for most of piggington. My goal is to get 100% debt free. (Less than a year till the mortgage is paid in full – and looking at lumpsumming it now.) I’m looking at the freedom of not having to service the debt… that’s huge to me – and frees up my income for other investing.

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