[TheMetetron]

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Consider moving to Vegas, or at least getting another home and doing most of your playing there. No state income tax in Nevada.

If you're playing at Bay 101, post your picture so I can avoid your table. :-)

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I'm moving to Vegas in Feb and I also play at Bay 101. My avatar is my picture, though not a very good one.

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Also, I went and saw a financial planner for an hour long consultation. Her recommendation was overwhelmingly an individual 401k plan which has a maximum contribution of somewhere around $40,000 per year (It's the max 401k contributation, $14k, + the max profit sharing / SEP contribution).

Like a traditional 401k, it allows borrowing against itself for usually around half of the value, but she advised strongly against doing this as you are not earning on the money you have out (though you are paying the interest back to yourself).

She said not to put in more than I could afford to not see until I'm 60, but she also recommended that if I could put in 10% of my yearly earn, I will be very set by the time I retire.

She also did a home-buying scenario based on my financial outlook for next year. It was a really bad deal to buy a house in San Jose, and a bad deal (though closer) to buy a house in Henderson/Vegas. These scenarios did not take into account the house gaining value. The only reason to do so would be if I felt that the housing market was a good investment.

It was her take (and I was in agreement with it) that the housing market and where it is today is not likely to continue it's super gains of 20%+ a year. It will more likely fall into the traditional 3% a year and I can likely do better by paying lower rent and investing more money in higher-yield account, especially with interest rates on the rise.

In fact, it's not likely to make sense to buy for me until interest rates come back down again in 5-10 years, so I'll likely stay renting until then.

She mentioned some other stuff, but I got to go now.