lol It is always a problem of high cost areas, and in particular California, that FIRE is not achievable without a lot of income. I mean really California has a 13.5% state income tax and in some areas a 12.5% sales tax. Add in exorbitant property taxes and it becomes unmanageable. I love SF but could never live there. I am a native Californian and I realized early I could never retire there. The same for many other high cost areas like NYC, Boston, DC etc. When we retired we were living in NoVa in the DC area. I also had a house in Hilton Head which was rented at a negative (what I got out of my second divorce). After Katrina our Hurricane insurance shot us up to $7k a year for insurance and our property tax was an additional $6k. So, I was paying through the nose for someone else to enjoy our house. It was obvious this was not going to meet our needs for retirement with an annual cost of $13k a year just for the privilege of living on Hilton Head Island. So, we dumped that. We could afford to live out in the Shenandoah Valley but SWMBO was not to pleased with that idea. I also had 65 acres up in the mountains in NC which I had planned to retire to but it was 1 hour from any shopping so again SWMBO was not pleased with this either. I sold those properties as well as our rentals in NoVa and we moved to Europe where she is very happy.
We decided that foreign travel was important so moved to Central Europe for that reason. We chose a country that has low cost living, low crime, high work ethics, zero property tax, and good food quality. Is it perfect? No, but I haven't found anywhere else better. But, you can live well on $2k a month if you own your home outright. We make at least 5 trips a year some close in so we can drive and others further out like China or Thailand. We go to Moscow usually once a year as well for family or meet up in Israel instead or they all come here to Hungary which is a lovely place. Speaking of travel this guy was doing a lot of travel. In my experience if you like to travel comfortably and enjoy good food the cost is going to average around $10k a week. No matter how we do it the cost averages out the same. So, 20 trips is roughly $200k so his problems are obvious and the result is no big surprise.
Property taxes are limited to 1% property value in California. They were locked in in 1978 with Prop 13, with limited increases. That is the main reason state income tax is so high. California income tax is a progressive tax, just like federal. For most it’s probably 8-9%, which is a lot. Marginal rates don’t hit until $400K income for a single.
His kid is 2 years old and he’s complaining about the S.F. school lottery system, which he hasn’t participated in yet.
Two stay-at-home parents do not need to send their kids to preschool. We sent our some to part-time preschool for socialization and language development.
His biggest problem is living in a city that is very expensive and not very child friendly. We moved to an area with top notch schools, lots of activities in theater and arts, several good colleges, a day trip away from NYC, Philly, Baltimore, and DC, horse ranches, a ski resort we can see from our bedroom window, and within 10 miles from the Appalachian trail.
He’s a fool if he thinks he has to send his kid to preschool. My home-schooled niece finished college in 3 years. I know other home-schooled kids whose parents take that job seriously and are quite advanced in their studies.
When I read about the preschool cost, as well as his ridiculous assertion that the school lottery leaves kids locked out of public schools, I realized that he thinks he’s a smart guy, but it comes across as ignorant.
His biggest problem is after the luster of ER wore off, he lost his sense of meaning in his life. Even with a child. Not a blog I would follow.
