Given my upcoming job in Afghanistan, we are sorting out the tax implications of this. We are still looking into the full details of tax implications, but according to sources thus far it appears that while the first $82k is tax exempt our investment income will be taxes at a higher rate. This may mean that we do some shifting of our portfolio so we don’t have a pay out of investments, currently much of James’ monthly expenses are paid for by stock dividends.

Other sources seem to say that it might make no difference. We are currently checking in with our tax accountant but if you know any further info we’d love to hear from you. It looks like expats are being hit harder than ever one way or another, but it might still be better than here, we’ll keep you posted.

We’ll let you know what our tax gal has to say about the situation. Anyway you hack it, we’ll need to make sure that we aren’t getting hit by the AMT or any other nasty taxes. Given that our effective tax rate was only 9% last year, we’d like to keep it that way!

Cheers,

Miel

P.S. I’ll be doing my best to avoid death and taxes in Afghanistan!

P.P.S. I’m also getting used to blogging in other languages. I’m currently in Ukraine, but am close to the Polish border, with a Polish internet provider. Thus blogger switched from Ukrainian to Polish. I’d have to say that Polish is easier than Ukrainian. Good thing I blog enough to do it on autopilot! Just another part of living abroad I suppose!

MANAGE YOUR MONEY TOGETHER

Here are some simple guidelines for DINKS to build wealth:

1) Collaborate: Meet regularly to talk about money, set goals together, track and monitor them.

2) Understand and respect your partner. Take time to understand your partners values about money.

3) Watch the numbers. Get a budget, monitor your spending and track your net worth.

4) Max your retirement. Maximize contributions to your tax deferred retirement accounts.

5) Invest in stock. Stocks perform better than bonds or cash.

6) Avoid high interest debt. Credit cards and title loans are financial cancer.

7) Diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

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