A Bit of a Commute

Okay, so I did it. Well, as of Monday I will have done it. I took a job that, according to MapQuest.com, is actually located some 1086.46 miles from my registered, legal residence. Talk about a long commute to work…

This should be rather interesting. My plan is to basically rent housing out here in California and keep my house back in Colorado as my primary residence. I wonder if that’s even a legally viable option…? Sure, why not? This is America – the land of the free! I suppose I can do whatever I want, right? After all, I’m going to be the one paying mortgage payments for the house, utility bills (once again, for the house in Colorado) and rent for my housing in California. As long as the bills are being paid, I guess I can live however I want. It won’t be cheap, but I’m up for the challenge…

Although I am now getting a much deeper understanding of the old Benjamin Franklin axiom that, “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” I’m actually completely lost on how this latest lifestyle change is going to impact my tax status. Can’t be good though… I guess I get to pay California taxes on my income (being that all of my income is being earned in that state) and property taxes in Colorado. I wonder what an out-of-state residency does to state income taxes … anything…?

Oh well, April’s coming soon enough and I’m sure that I’ll get a crash-course on this subject. Heck, I’m still curious as to what needs to be done with the income earned in Germany last year. So far I have received nothing from Dagmar (my German accountant) nor the German government although something tells me that it’s just a matter of time. The Germans aren’t well-known for letting things fall through the cracks. I’m sure that, sometime this year, I’ll be receiving a letter that I won’t be able to understand containing lots of Achtung!’s. I suppose I should send Dagmar an email…

Bottom line with all this is that I suppose I should just deal with the issues and be thankful that I have a job. It’s apparently becoming more and more of a rarity these days. Not only that, but the job that I have landed ain’t too shabby. I was very hesitant to make the transition from contractor to full-time employee; but I couldn’t turn down a 6-figure salary, 5-figure sign-on bonus, thousands of stock options, health insurance and a 401K plan. Opportunities like this don’t come around very often. So life might be a bit more complicated for a while, but I think I’ll make do … after all, they made an offer I couldn’t refuse…

Who knows? Maybe the end result of all this will be the early (well, earlier than many…) retirement that I’ve always dreamt about…

bis später,

Coriolis