Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Do you guys have no deductions at all, like a mortgage, daycare costs, after school daycare costs? If you work, the summer camps can also be deducted.

No deductions at all. Two professionals making 120k each. Standard deduction and the exemptions are the only thing we can deduct. Tax is about 40k. I have a 401k at work, so 17,500 are sheltered. We each contribute to our IRAs but no immediate tax benefit for that. We think of it in a positive way- there used to be years when we lived on less than 40k of income ( grad school). And we were happy.

We cannot even deduct some substantial medical expenses because our AGI is so high. There is some nonsense with the current tax code for sure- we are considered rich when it comes to paying taxes but we are not rich enough to buy a house in this area.

I would buy a small place, like a condo or TH or something in a desirable area. Long term, you'll earn some equity and short term, you will get some tax deductions. My CPA kept pushing us to buy a rental property because we were paying so much in taxes.

I am the poster you sited. This is our plan, we want t buy something small, by this area's standards. We paid 150k of law school debt in 4 years and incurred significant medical expenses related to infertility. These slowed us down. And just when we're were about to enjoy our debt free status and start to save aggressively for a down payment, we had to take a 30k loan for another round of fertility treatments. Used zero APR cards for that, so have to pay it within 18 months.

We have a rental property in another states. Due to depreciation deductions, we have a rental loss which we cannot deduct due to the passive loss rules. But bying a condo here, could turn into a rental property in the long run.