You're comically overestimating the effective tax rates. SSI maxes at 140K, so you're paying an effective 3.5% rate at 250K. The effective federal and state ta

You're comically overestimating the effective tax rates. SSI maxes at 140K, so you're paying an effective 3.5% rate at 250K. The effective federal and state tax rates for 250K of AGI are going to be below 32 and 9% and they won't be affected by any current Biden plan. The calculator I'm looking at[0] suggests an effective federal rate of 23.5%, CA rate of 8%, and FICA (SSI + Medicare) of 5%, for a total effective rate of just over 36% overall, 13% (or 32,000 a year) off of what you suggested. This more or less matches my experience with an AGI of around that much, although in practice my effective rates were lower than those. To put that in perspective, that ~32,000 you're misestimating by is enough to afford a second apartment, or, you know, the annual SF minimum wage. To hit an effective federal tax rate of 32%, you need to be making 800K/year. To hit an effective overall tax rate of 49%, you need to make more than 2 million/year (less after this year, but not a whole lot less, like 1.8 million a year or something). > And if you're trying to argue you can spend 2k to live in a 1930s apartment in the Tenderloin while making $250k, I think you're too far in the echo chamber to have your mind changed. I can find a handful of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments with W/D and dishwasher for <=3K. I can find plenty under 3.5K. Like, tons. And that's on zillow. You can usually find better rates on craigslist. "I want to live in a luxury high-rise downtown" is a very particular interpretation of the requirements you laid out. [0]: https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#oDlsnEM43v https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#oDlsn...