Debt Dumpers 2026

[Bellex917]

they've already got the highest property taxes and one of the highest income taxes in the u.s.-i cannot fathom choosing to live there.

Neither can I, but I'll never leave LOL! I am 20 minutes from the beach, 50 minutes from NYC, 1 hour from Philly... I truly love where I am. BUT... I pay a "stupid tax" for living here....

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Whenever our car tabs come up, I've never seen anyone complain about the fees for an ev, so I don't think they've done that here. Most of us complain about the added cost for the light rail that got added to our yearly tabs.

We have one of the highest gas taxes in the country, last I saw it was in the top 3 for thr state portion, but evs don't pay. I'm in the seattle area, there are so many evs around here. Meanwhile I saw gas for 5.19 and 5.39 at the two stations I drove by earlier.

I also realize I could have bought an ev but between the batteries, lack of recycling, cost of replacing, range and all the other things, I am fine with my gas powered car.

Yikes!!

We paid $3.44 this week for gas, and we don't even have to get out of the car.
They get you one way or another. At least we don't pay tax on food, clothing or shoes or toilet paper.

There are a lot of Teslas here. I likely wouldn't recognize other EVs but I'd guess there are others too. I'm no expert. lol.

 

[afan]

Yikes!!

We paid $3.44 this week for gas, and we don't even have to get out of the car.
They get you one way or another. At least we don't pay tax on food, clothing or shoes or toilet paper.

There are a lot of Teslas here. I likely wouldn't recognize other EVs but I'd guess there are others too. I'm no expert. lol.

We don't have tax on non prepared food but some cities have sugar tax.

We don't have stage income tax so I shouldn't complain too much

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

they've already got the highest property taxes and one of the highest income taxes in the u.s.-i cannot fathom choosing to live there.

I was born here and all of our families are here except for 2 of dh's brothers who later moved. It's a free country and we could move anywhere but our jobs pay well and we get 4 seasons with nothing being too terrible for very long. We're 20 mins to one airport, 50 mins to another and 2 hours to yet another. One hour to the beach. 20 mins to Philly. 2 hours to NYC.

Before we got married, we looked into moving to FL. While on vacation there, we took a long drive on east coast, west coast and made lots of stops along the way. We spoke with a realtor that was hosting an open house at a new construction development. This was in the early 90s so of course this will sound amazing but we could have bought a 3BR/2Bath new home for around $60k. Super cheap property taxes.
The flip side of the coin is that when I looked at what jobs in radiology were paying down there, it was around half of what I was making up here. IIRC it was like $10/hr.

So yes, the house is cheap but costs for everything else was similar to up here: food, clothing, cars, Home Depot, etc. So at age 24 or 25, I had a hard time trying to choke that down, the thought of having my pay cut in half was too much for me to want to look any further into it. Also at that young age, I was not exactly proficient at budgeting which also led me to this thread eventually but that's another story.
Within a few years, we were getting married, & having kids. There is no way I would have moved us away from their grandparents. One set was 10 mins away, the other were 15 mins.

So now that our kids are financially independent, we could move but I can't just dump my dad on my niece and move away. Also even as adults I don't want to see my kids just a few times a year. I love being able to have dinner together on some weekends. So unless one of them takes a job far from home, we'll be staying put.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Not all NJ towns have super high taxes either.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Oklahoma has a tax for literally everything. Lol

 

[barkley]

Not all NJ towns have super high taxes either.

are you referring to sales tax and/or property tax? is there a large variance between towns? here for sales tax it's as low as 7.7%- as high as 10.7% but the real high taxes are the sin taxes-alcohol is taxed an additional 20.5% and cigarettes are an additional $3.02 per pack BUT there's a bill on the floor to increase it come July to $5.00 per pack. the liquor and tobacco (including vape) stores across the boarder do ALLOT of out of state resident sales.

 

[afan]

are you referring to sales tax and/or property tax? is there a large variance between towns? here for sales tax it's as low as 7.7%- as high as 10.7% but the real high taxes are the sin taxes-alcohol is taxed an additional 20.5% and cigarettes are an additional $3.02 per pack BUT there's a bill on the floor to increase it come July to $5.00 per pack. the liquor and tobacco (including vape) stores across the boarder do ALLOT of out of state resident sales.

This side of the state, the reservations do a good business I'm sure for tobacco unless it's drastically changed in the last couple of decades. I know their gas was cheaper but it didn't seem enough cheaper for the one closest to me to not just use fuel points at the station 2 miles from my house.

Did a 5k this morning at the Mariners stadium and got a shirt from their store after. Surprised the tax is only 10%, I don't think that's accurate. I think my city is 10.1 or 2.

If I ever had a big enough purchase that it made sense to, I'd drive down to OR since they don't have sales tax. Plus there's an In and Out in southern WA now I could stop at

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

are you referring to sales tax and/or property tax? is there a large variance between towns? here for sales tax it's as low as 7.7%- as high as 10.7% but the real high taxes are the sin taxes-alcohol is taxed an additional 20.5% and cigarettes are an additional $3.02 per pack BUT there's a bill on the floor to increase it come July to $5.00 per pack. the liquor and tobacco (including vape) stores across the boarder do ALLOT of out of state resident sales.

Property taxes vary a lot between towns. Sales tax is 6.625%. I'm an ex smoker and we only drink very occasionally, usually on vacation we have 2-3. Frankly, I don't care how much they tax them.

 

[Bellex917]

Not all NJ towns have super high taxes either.

I unfortunately live in a super high tax town. My property taxes are 14k for a 2400 square foot house on a tiny lot... but... NJ schools are consistently #2-4 in the country, and as a teacher and parent of school aged kids... I'm not leaving that. Plus I make 6 figures as a teacher, which is definitely NOT the norm in other states.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Some cities have their own sales tax in addition to state sales tax. Philly does that and they also have city wage tax. That applies to Phila residents and anyone who works there. So yeah, I pay to Phila, NJ and IRS. Delaware has no sales tax. That's about 1 hour drive. We always say we'd go there if we were going to make a big purchase but the only one big enough to make it worth a tank of gas in a truck is buying a car and we have to either pay the dealer for NJ sales tax or pay it at DMV.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I unfortunately live in a super high tax town. My property taxes are 14k for a 2400 square foot house on a tiny lot... but... NJ schools are consistently #2-4 in the country, and as a teacher and parent of school aged kids... I'm not leaving that. Plus I make 6 figures as a teacher, which is definitely NOT the norm in other states.

Ours are over $11k for 1800 sf. on 1/4 acre. Yes, our teachers easily make 6 figures too. They did 10+ years ago when our kids were still in school. Most have a Master's degree. Most went way above and beyond for our kids.
The consensus up here is that anyone moving to FL needs to factor in the cost of private schools if you want the equivalent of what we have here. Also nowadays, their homeowners' insurance is crazy high. Ours is $1700/year. So we'd trade one big bill for another.

 

[barkley]

My property taxes are 14k for a 2400 square foot house on a tiny lot.

Ours are over $11k for 1800 sf. on 1/4 acre.

those amounts are staggering to me do you mind sharing what dollar basis your homes are being valued on by your assessors?

 

[Bellex917]

those amounts are staggering to me do you mind sharing what dollar basis your homes are being valued on by your assessors?

My house- 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bath, kitchen, dining room, 2 living rooms, and a sun room... VERY small property... I could sell for about 800k, easily.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

those amounts are staggering to me do you mind sharing what dollar basis your homes are being valued on by your assessors?

What they assess it at is meaningless in the real world. Ours is assessed at $235k but we could easily get $550k.

 

[barkley]

My house- 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bath, kitchen, dining room, 2 living rooms, and a sun room... VERY small property... I could sell for about 800k, easily.

What they assess it at is meaningless in the real world. Ours is assessed at $235k but we could easily get $550k.

meaningless as far as sales price b/c yeah-it rarely reflects what you could actually sell for. I was just curious at what kind of taxable value justifies that much in taxes. mine is valued by the assessors for tax purposes at just about $600K which is easily at least 30% lower than the resales these days-my yearly property taxes are $4892.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Had a super cool expirence today with my little gymnast. Our club was able to get tickets to see the SEC championship. Paid $60 for 2 tickets, $10 for parking, and $10 for one drink (), but it was such a fun event to go to. She already wants to go back to another one next year. Sadly our team got 2nd by .25. So cool to see 2 different girls get a perfect 10 in person. The energy was so fun too.
Next thing to save for is OU softball and OKC Spark tickets to take my oldest to.

Kids getting older has been so much fun.