At least the residents who cannot leave can brace for impact of crumbling infrastructure and social serves. I can understand estate tax planning strategies. But I will never understand why anyone with a 8 figure net worth and a 6-7 figure income would willingly relocate to another state only for a trivial (for that person) amount of money that would never make a dent in his/her lifestyle (not to mention lifestyle of his/her heirs).
I have the same question as @doschicos, about where to go for sound tax advice, specific to our situation, and disagree with people who think because we make our own investment decisions we should be able to figure out the best way to handle things for tax savings.
I am thinking many people would agree that a key way to do well with investments long term is to ābuy regularly, maintain a diverse portfolio, and hold it for the long term,ā and itās my opinion that using that āruleā is really more important than what a particular person is choosing to buy (within reason). For multiple years, I would check out the rate of return on the picks I chose on my own, vs what my husband chose, vs what we paid a guy to do for us. I (really just through mostly luck) did better multiple years.
However, tax laws are very specific and detailed, and I think there is less āluckā involved when it comes to taxes/tax planning. (I do realize you have to make assumptions that may or may not work out for you.
For most of my life, it didnāt even occur to me to think about tax planning for retirement. I just knew I had to start early and save regularly. I was happy to be postponing taxes on the savings. Now Iām lucky enough to be in the position of maybe having saved ātoo muchā in my tax deferred accounts, and canāt figure out when would be a beneficial time to do a ROTH conversion, for example.
Iām not sure thereās a point in all thisā¦ but it is certainly wise to consider various options as we build more wealth and get older, and thereās nothing wrong with consulting experts along the way.
@1214mom, as I mentioned above, I asked a number of people when trying to find a real good tax accountant who was proactive. I then looked for a good fee-only financial planner. And, I have used an estate planning attorney and a trust attorney. but, the main two people I am going to are the financial planner and the tax accountant. The only person who I didnāt do a lot of research to find was the estate planning attorney ā he works for the law firm I use for my main business.
Itās not just income tax, although in New York city that can reach 12.7% (state + city). Property taxes are very high, and NY has an estate tax of up to 16%. And the appetite for more taxes never seems to be satiated.
At what point do you decide enough is enough? Especially if the weather is nicer where you move to. Itās easy to say āI donāt understandā when itās someone elseās money, but for the really wealthy it can run to millions of dollars. There was a guy in New Jersey, a hedge find manager, who moved himself and his business, and it cost NJ hundreds of millions. Itās like getting a free mega-yacht as a reward for moving, so why wouldnāt you?
Because I wouldnāt want a mega yacht. Because one can only sleep in so many beds, drive so many cars, eat so much food, and take so many vacations. You may be saving 100K in taxes, but if you have millions of dollars, why would you care? With that much money, the best thing to do would be to give a lot of it away to help make other peopleās lives better.
Iām not in the same league as yāall, and that sure simplifies my financial matters.
@notrichenough
I like your user name
When we are ready to retire, we will move to our second home in a beautiful state, which was not chosen based on (absence of) state taxes. And weāll be very fortunate to continue paying taxes for the privilege to live our golden years where we want to be. In the meantime, we will continue supporting a small army with our state and city taxes in our homestate. At this life stage, I am very confident that we have more than enough (which is much less than you can imagine), even though weāll never own a mega-yacht, or even a regular yacht (but we do have a DAF)
If you are a billionaire who is planning to give your wealth away anyway, would you rather have tens or hundreds of millions more to give away to your charities, or give it to a state to waste on a giant bloated overpaid bureaucracy?
Obviously not every wealthy person is making that choice, or NYās tax shortfall would be a lot more than 1 or 2%. When you are so heavily dependent on the rich, though, it doesnāt take many to decide to move to make a noticeable impact.
Iām not real proud of it, it was chosen in a fit of pique in 2009 as I went through the first of the seven stages of the financial aid process for my first kid.
ābut if you have millions of dollars, why would you care? With that much money, the best thing to do would be to give a lot of it away to help make other peopleās lives better.ā
I wouldnāt assume that ultra wealthy people arenāt giving a lot of it away. Many do. But, they also may desire to shield their wealth from higher taxes. They can afford to live anywhere so why not live where it is tax friendly? Plenty of nice, tax friendly places to set up residency.
However, most tax returns will only go through one path of the dark green (taxpayer preparation) and one path of the light green (IRS processing after receiving return) sections in the upper left before they are done. Complex or disputed returns, or those where the taxpayer does not pay the amount owed, can go through paths in the other sections.
We started some health insurance shopping in earnest today. Talked to a broker. Our COBRA goes through the end of September. We are not in total agreement about what is best to do. There is a $900 per month differential in range of prices depending on network coverage. $1,500 - $2,400.
Can a husband and wife have two different plans? I could get the Cadillac and dh could get the VW - lol.
^I googled. Yes, we can. Which makes sense. There could be many reasons why spouses would be on different plans. Just didnāt occur to us to ask the broker that question since we were not, at that point, having our ādiscussion.ā
If thatās for two, thatās about what Iāve seen. The difference is usually in the deductible and max out of pocket, and the network. It can be quite tricky to compare. Some of them have such high deductibles and OOP maxās that they are essentially catastrophic plans.
For me, COBRA would be in excess of $2500/mo for the two of us, but thatās with a pretty low deductible and OOP max.
Sorry to have been unclear - those prices are for both of us. Our COBRA has been a great deal - even with our paying 100%. Sad to see it go.
I can handle a high deductible and higher OOP max. Itās the network thing that gets me. As one example, the best cancer center in our area is in network on the $2,400 plan but not on the $1,500 plan. I like and am used to having a wide range of choices.
ShawWife had a conversation with her BIL (her sisterās husband) who didnāt understand our trying to save for retirement and or progeny. They put all their money into two stunning houses (and are building a new one jointly with us). He says they will sell their City house to fund their retirement in 3-4 tears. The kids can sell the country house when they die. That will be their only insurance. Interesting.
I just didnāt make the connection with the acronym after all the boat talk. 