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I moved From Philadelphia during covid to Maui and then I purchased a home outside of LA 10 months later when I realized just how boring island life is. My onl

I moved From Philadelphia during covid to Maui and then I purchased a home outside of LA 10 months later when I realized just how boring island life is. My only real issue with Cali is the insane capital gains tax which is why I cashed out most of my gains before becoming a California resident. Now that I'm here my salary went up by 1.6x. I work remote so the gas prices don't bother me. Car registration is a write off so it's really 66% of what it actually is. I could have retired at 34 almost anywhere else in the country but decided I'd rather ride the tech salary bubble for another 5-10 years in a place where the jobs are super plentiful. I don't really mind what this article is saying. Just means less traffic. When the bullet train from LA to SF is complete in 10 years I'll be able to get to SF in 3-4 hours. The thing I learned about living on both coasts and Hawaii is that corruption exists everywhere. You'll never escape it. The people that go into politics are largely grifter psychopaths and you'll never escape that. In many ways living in Cali lets me completely ignore politics because my vote on a national level is largely irrelevant. If you care about taxes so much why did you pay 18k to move instead of just renting a UHaul for a fraction of the cost and driving yourself? I mean jeez my 300 cubic foot container from the east coast to Hawaii was only 4.5k. For the record my withholding on a W-2 went from 29% to 33%. All in all with the salary bump I don't even care about the slightly higher taxes. My healthcare plan here is already better (lower deductible for same price) and from what I can tell unemployment in California is better so if I do lose my job or something happens I feel like I get a better safety net. I really don't know what you're talking about as far as infrastructure goes. The state is the only place in the country building new train lines right now as I type this. You should see some of the bridges in Philly. They are falling apart.

junar 5y ago
Only the VLF portion is deductible, so it depends on the value of your car. If you have expensive new car, maybe you are charged a $300 VLF and can get a $100 benefit from the deduction. If you drive an old beater, you benefit might be more like $10. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCalculatorWeb/vlfForm.do https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCalculatorWeb/vlfForm.do If you're a high-income taxpayer, you might also just hit the $10k SALT cap from other taxes alone, making the effective benefit 0. Also, this is probably dwarfed by amount you actually paid for the car (amortized over its lifetime), plus the amount you pay for insurance.
- hparadiz 5y ago
  Yea you're right. My PA state car registration was like $35. Insurance is a lot more too but more is covered by CA state law. Quality of the roads is better though and there are no tolls. I also saved money buying my car in Hawaii and shipping it over. But that's only possible if you can live there for a year to avoid the California penalty. Hawaii car sales tax is only 4% and Cali is 10%. If you buy a car from out of state and try to register it in less than 1 year from purchase Cali will ding you on the difference. But there are ton of other ways I'm saving money. Weed is so much less expensive that I've already saved hundreds on that alone. I used to travel to escape the cold in the winter and now I no longer do that. Heating and cooling a home on the east coast uses a lot more energy year round than what my bill has been here thus far here in Ventura county. When I lived in Philadelphia no matter how hard I tried to avoid it every once in a while I'd still get dinged by a parking ticket or even once got towed just cause the sign that was up didn't make sense. Although I know that's an LA problem too. Being able to not live in a city anymore is also saving me some cash over all.
deleted 5y ago
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junar 5y ago

Only the VLF portion is deductible, so it depends on the value of your car. If you have expensive new car, maybe you are charged a $300 VLF and can get a $100 benefit from the deduction. If you drive an old beater, you benefit might be more like $10. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCalculatorWeb/vlfForm.do https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCalculatorWeb/vlfForm.do If you're a high-income taxpayer, you might also just hit the $10k SALT cap from other taxes alone, making the effective benefit 0. Also, this is probably dwarfed by amount you actually paid for the car (amortized over its lifetime), plus the amount you pay for insurance.

hparadiz 5y ago
Yea you're right. My PA state car registration was like $35. Insurance is a lot more too but more is covered by CA state law. Quality of the roads is better though and there are no tolls. I also saved money buying my car in Hawaii and shipping it over. But that's only possible if you can live there for a year to avoid the California penalty. Hawaii car sales tax is only 4% and Cali is 10%. If you buy a car from out of state and try to register it in less than 1 year from purchase Cali will ding you on the difference. But there are ton of other ways I'm saving money. Weed is so much less expensive that I've already saved hundreds on that alone. I used to travel to escape the cold in the winter and now I no longer do that. Heating and cooling a home on the east coast uses a lot more energy year round than what my bill has been here thus far here in Ventura county. When I lived in Philadelphia no matter how hard I tried to avoid it every once in a while I'd still get dinged by a parking ticket or even once got towed just cause the sign that was up didn't make sense. Although I know that's an LA problem too. Being able to not live in a city anymore is also saving me some cash over all.

deleted 5y ago

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