How much annual budget do you need to feel comfortable in retirement?

[Anonymous]

Why is this thread about taxes for the extremely wealthy?

What does this have to do with the question?
Start your own thread to complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is this thread about taxes for the extremely wealthy?

What does this have to do with the question?
Start your own thread to complain.

+1!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

That doesn’t add up, FICA is 6.2% up to $176,000 of income. Federal is 37% only after $626,000, income before that is taxed at lower rates. 10% is very high for a state tax rate, you should think about moving to a lower tax state. VA is 5.75%. I’d also be surprised if you didn’t have some income that’s not taxed, retirement contributions, health insurance premiums, etc.

Yes the lower is taxed lower. But if you have W2 income of well over 1M and any interest/dividend income is taxed as "income" you will have A LOT taxed at over 37% and your top state tax rate. at that point your "health insurance premiums" and your "retirement contributions" are really nothing in comparison. It's simple math. Yes the lower 500K is taxed less, obviously I get that. But my $1M+ in dividend/interest is also taxed as "income" along with my real income over ~$600K.

Point is, many of us with HHI are not "hiding from taxes" and certainly pay our fair share, we dont need to Pay more taxes.

Would you prefer to make a lot less and pay a lot less in taxes?

You are paying higher taxes for your ability to make this crazy level of income in the first place. We all subsidize access to low wage labor pool proportionate to how much we benefit from the system.

Nope, but we made choices to get where we are. And when after the first 1/3 of our income, we pay almost 50%, yeah I'm allowed to believe I am paying enough for the good of society after 20+ years of being in that situation (and always being above 100K as a family even 35 years ago). I'm not asking to pay 5-10% total, just that you start realizing that there are plenty of W2/income high earners who don't have ways to "avoid paying taxes" and do pay 40-50%+ on a good portion of their income.

That “after the first 1/3” is doing a lot of work. Your first 1/3 is much, much more than most people earn—including very hard-working and highly educated people. I hope that if I found myself one day to be earning over 15 times the US average HHI, as you are now, I would understand that I don’t need all or most of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone's lifestyle and expectations are different. What's your annual amount to feel you are living a comfortable retirement that would you enjoy, that wouldn't stress you out, but is also realistic (so can't say $5 mil a month). Please add where you live (to give a sense of cost of living) and what you plan to do in retirement.

We retired this year. We aimed for $120k a year. We did not include Social Security, just in case. Since stocks and housing have done so well, we overshot. We did it by doing the 401k/IRA things since we were able. 401ks came out around our late 20’s. Prior to about November 2024, I was not stressed at all with our savings.

In the current climate, I really don’t know what my number would be. It all depends on what happens to the ACA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

Whenever you see this, you know the poster is SHAM and husband is the one making serious bacon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

Whenever you see this, you know the poster is SHAM and husband is the one making serious bacon.

Nope, I am retired, and DH retired this year. Not sure where you get that impression, but one thing you are correct about is DH did earn the "serious bacon."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

Whenever you see this, you know the poster is SHAM and husband is the one making serious bacon.

Nope, I am retired, and DH retired this year. Not sure where you get that impression, but one thing you are correct about is DH did earn the "serious bacon."

LOL. That WAS the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

Whenever you see this, you know the poster is SHAM and husband is the one making serious bacon.

Nope, I am retired, and DH retired this year. Not sure where you get that impression, but one thing you are correct about is DH did earn the "serious bacon."

LOL. That WAS the point.

Well I am comfortable in my own skin and enjoy going to pilates 3X a week. I have plenty of retirement savings and can easily live very comfortably without DH's income. Plenty of $$ in my name only lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

Whenever you see this, you know the poster is SHAM and husband is the one making serious bacon.

Nope, I am retired, and DH retired this year. Not sure where you get that impression, but one thing you are correct about is DH did earn the "serious bacon."

LOL. That WAS the point.

Well I am comfortable in my own skin and enjoy going to pilates 3X a week. I have plenty of retirement savings and can easily live very comfortably without DH's income. Plenty of $$ in my name only lol.

Seems like you both made “serious bacon”. 🙂

That’ll probably come as a shock to the captain caveman poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

Whenever you see this, you know the poster is SHAM and husband is the one making serious bacon.

Nope, I am retired, and DH retired this year. Not sure where you get that impression, but one thing you are correct about is DH did earn the "serious bacon."

Yet with all that money and all the free time you now have and all the things you could be doing but instead you’re just getting off rubbing your money into the noses of internet strangers? I’m sure your husband and family would be proud . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

That doesn’t add up, FICA is 6.2% up to $176,000 of income. Federal is 37% only after $626,000, income before that is taxed at lower rates. 10% is very high for a state tax rate, you should think about moving to a lower tax state. VA is 5.75%. I’d also be surprised if you didn’t have some income that’s not taxed, retirement contributions, health insurance premiums, etc.

Yes the lower is taxed lower. But if you have W2 income of well over 1M and any interest/dividend income is taxed as "income" you will have A LOT taxed at over 37% and your top state tax rate. at that point your "health insurance premiums" and your "retirement contributions" are really nothing in comparison. It's simple math. Yes the lower 500K is taxed less, obviously I get that. But my $1M+ in dividend/interest is also taxed as "income" along with my real income over ~$600K.

Point is, many of us with HHI are not "hiding from taxes" and certainly pay our fair share, we dont need to Pay more taxes.

Would you prefer to make a lot less and pay a lot less in taxes?

You are paying higher taxes for your ability to make this crazy level of income in the first place. We all subsidize access to low wage labor pool proportionate to how much we benefit from the system.

Nope, but we made choices to get where we are. And when after the first 1/3 of our income, we pay almost 50%, yeah I'm allowed to believe I am paying enough for the good of society after 20+ years of being in that situation (and always being above 100K as a family even 35 years ago). I'm not asking to pay 5-10% total, just that you start realizing that there are plenty of W2/income high earners who don't have ways to "avoid paying taxes" and do pay 40-50%+ on a good portion of their income.

That “after the first 1/3” is doing a lot of work. Your first 1/3 is much, much more than most people earn—including very hard-working and highly educated people. I hope that if I found myself one day to be earning over 15 times the US average HHI, as you are now, I would understand that I don’t need all or most of it.

Definitely understand we dont "need" it all. But we earned it, we pay very high taxes, and it should be ours to donate and use as we see fit. Because we also pay way more overall in taxes to everything than those people. We donate to food banks (doing that now in our area and have always done it over the last 25+ years).

But it's not yours or the governments choice for what to do with the rest of our money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

That is federal. Now include your state taxes, and medicare that you paid (it's not on your Tax form, but on your W2. That's another 12%.
Never said we pay 50% in federal taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

Whenever you see this, you know the poster is SHAM and husband is the one making serious bacon.

So? Spouses who do not have to be worried about "everything at home, including the kids" tend to have more opportunities at work. If you never have to leave at 5:30pm to get the kids by 6, or never have to stay home with sick kids (or cancel a work trip to stay home with sick kids because spouse has a "more important" work trip) you will advance faster at work. You also have less stress in your life, allowing you to 100%+ focus on work when needed.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what style you are accustomed to. I don't understand the point of these posts. They aren't too valuable unless your question is what the minimum is for people to retire and what is needed for basic life, and addition of what budget can buy nicer things. There is always a floor.. There are basic needs people have to meet to survive (shelter, food, healthcare, and for elderly - also some assistance).

But there is no ceiling to luxury spending. People get mad when someone says how they need 7 figures passive income to enjoy themselves in retirement, but it can easily be spent by people with very high spending habits wanting luxury lifestyle, multiple homes, paying grandkids private schools and homes for the kids who aren't well off, travel, charity donations, pricey personal healthcare, etc. Some also want to leave sizeable wealth to their descendants and that's their goal in retirement. I think it would help to separate these goals that go beyond "comfortable in retirement" that tend to get blood boiling for majority of population that doesn't have 8 figure NW

Mostly because we think you should be paying more in taxes.

All of our income is taxed at over 50% when you include federal, state, fica, etc


Even cap gains are taxed at 22 fed and 7% state.

So nope we don't need to pay more taxes.
I don't hide money anywhere or have a way to protect it from taxes.

I don’t see how anyone’s income could be taxed at more than 50%. I mean my take home is less than 50% of what I earn but that is bc it includes retirement contributions and health insurance.

Because if you are earning $1.5M+ as W2 income, anything over ~$512K is taxed at 37-39%+, FICA is 7.5% (on lower amounts), medicare is 1.45%, state is ~10%. Earn higher and even higher percentage is taxed at those rates. So yes the "majority" is taxed at 45-50%+ quite easily.

We earned $2.9M last year and our effective tax rate was 35%. The bulk of this was was W2 income with a large portion of that including income from exercising stock options. I don't see how anyone could be paying 50%. You need to actually look at your tax return and divide by taxable income (line 24/line 15).

Whenever you see this, you know the poster is SHAM and husband is the one making serious bacon.

Nope, I am retired, and DH retired this year. Not sure where you get that impression, but one thing you are correct about is DH did earn the "serious bacon."

LOL. That WAS the point.

Well I am comfortable in my own skin and enjoy going to pilates 3X a week. I have plenty of retirement savings and can easily live very comfortably without DH's income. Plenty of $$ in my name only lol.

I've been a SAHP for 25+ years, and all of DH income is mine