For years we have comfortably resided abroad, enjoying a royal lifestyle that included fine dining, a deluxe apartment in the sky, a nanny, quality affordable health care, and frequent visits to the country club. And for the most part we even lived in a COVID-free oasis.
So of course we abandoned all of that and returned to the US.
Coming to America
We have now been in the US for 2 weeks. We bought a house, bought a car, enrolled Jr in 1st grade, and have more or less immersed ourselves in a typical suburban American life. Just without jobs.
It has been quite the whirlwind – today, for the first time, my action item list had a completely free morning.
We have been looking for our forever home for awhile and all of life’s variables seemed to align at this time… So here we are.
Moving
To celebrate our youngest child’s 1st birthday, we boarded a United flight to San Francisco. The staff was great, moving some other passengers around so we had 2 rows of 4 seats all to ourselves. Flights were not cheap – I used miles for 1 adult and lap-carry child and paid $2,266.28 for another adult and child, 1-way. (I guess I shouldn’t have cashed out all those points.)
We were on a covid lockdown for the prior 2 months which gave us plenty of time to sell/donate/discard most of our worldly possessions and load the rest into a shipping container. That thing should arrive sometime in the next 4-8 weeks, apparently. Maybe. All for the low low price of ~$3,000.
We adults and Jr had a COVID PCR test (all negative, naturally) and wore masks throughout the flight. The little one wore a mask during the times that he was distracted by something else. We adults were also able to get our 1st jab in the week before departure.
The flight was mostly empty and 100% of passengers were coming from Taiwan – no connecting flights are allowed at the moment. I reckon that is about as safe a flight as one could take in these troubled times. The kids did great and the flight was largely uneventful – we left and arrived early.
 Snack time |  Nap time |
The 1st Week
A fully-vaccinated friend picked us up from the airport in the family mini-van and brought us to our completely empty house. He also helped with a quick grocery store run to get some essentials. Thank you!
Our realtor met us at the house and handed over keys, etc… A king size mattress I ordered arrived that same day so we at least had a place to sleep the first night.
The next day I took an Uber to pickup a rental car, $486 for a week. “Would you like a free upgrade to a Mustang convertible?”
I chose poorly.
We all fit!
Winnie made me return it after 2 days (“you idiot!”) and we got a reasonable Nissan Altima, which worked much better for the thrice daily trips to Target.
Jr started school 5 days after we arrived – all teachers and staff fully vaxxed, masks required indoors. We had to get him a second Chicken Pox shot for his vaccine passport which cost $159 at an urgent care clinic. We also had to get school supplies which was harder than one might expect.
 1st Day of School – walking distance |  Sold Out! |
We were all experiencing a bit of jet lag so naps were required. Sometimes in strange places. We also had several early morning trips to nearby parks.
Who needs a bed?
Morning Madness
Acclimating and Integrating
Slowly things are coming together – we now have a few more pieces of furniture, got some bikes on craigslist, and have all the kitchen essentials.
We’ve done all of the important things to acclimate and integrate, such as…
Introducing the kids to local delights:
 |  |
Exploring the local sports scene:
 |  |
And ensuring the kids continue to have have many of the same regular experiences:
Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh, BATMAN
Jr loves school and he only had to go to the nurse’s office twice in the first three days, so things are going well. Yesterday he played baseball with the kids next door, and we signed him up for basketball starting in October.
I’ve visited Home Depot and Lowe’s, bought some yard care equipment, and mowed a lawn for the first time since 2005. I’ve also joined a biking club and a sailing club, although I have yet to do either.
Winnie has started a new yeast culture and baked her first batch of bread. She has also connected with a facebook group of Taiwanese people living in the area, and one of them kindly donated some toys so the kids have some variety before the shipping container arrives.
Winnie also tried yard work for the first time in her life and decided that she never needed to do that again. That’s ok, more fun for the rest of us!
child labor*
The little one is mostly happy no matter what is going on, but he loves loves loves going in the pool. His first steps have taken place in this house, which is a nice milestone for a bright future.
We have been mostly close to home these past couple of weeks, although we did hit up the Farmer’s Market this Saturday. I think in just another few weeks home life will be back on autopilot and we can start to explore more broadly.
Summary
We now live permanently in California and intend to remain here until our second child graduates from high school, another 17 years or so. We will still travel, of course – we have already booked hotels for 4 weekends and (fully refundable) flights to visit family for Thanksgiving.
We bought a house (more details to come), bought a car (also more details to come), and are currently living a typical suburban lifestyle… or at least we will be once I get a barbecue.
Everyone is doing as well as can be expected for 2 weeks after a big change – we are all positive and optimistic. There is a lot of excitement around coming to America.
Some perhaps helpful background info:
- Going Back to Cali…? – an early analysis about taxes and health insurance costs living in California
- Playing With House Money – plan to buy a house
* all child models were compensated for their work (details)
Kids are in school… Welcome back to reality.. fun while it lasted right?
Welcome back! 🙌🙌🙌
Thank you, sir
fun now too
Welcome back. I look forward to hearing your new frugality, tax, and travel-hacks thinking applied in the US.
Congratulations! California is the best place on earth.
It’s nice
I feel very bizarre now! I felt like I could vicariously live through you and your abroad lifestyle. Yes I’m much more of a princess, and couldn’t do the things your family has managed to do, but I wouldn’t have guessed you’d come back to such a tax-heavy place! Or own a car! I’ll look forward to the new posts on how to be financially wise given these circumstances – if anything , it’ll be a boon for the rest of us. But I will miss hearing and reading about your abroad experiences and lifestyle ! Please stay safe. It’s insane here (I say that as someone whose wife repatriated during the pandemic also)
I love Winnie’s reaction to the convertible, haha! Welcome back and congrats on the CA home, that sounds great. We are currently on an island in FL where we built a house that is primarily used as a rental (helping us pay for it) then once we retire from Birmingham (yikes to be in AL right now -head in sand-) sell our Bham house and voila mortgage free. I can’t wait, but being able to visit your beach house in a pandemic once a month has certainly helped our mental health! One day – we will fly again!
She is much smarter than me.
A beach getaway place sounds wonderful
I was in Oahu in May. My camping neighbors had a red convertible Camero with two car seats in the back. Cracked me up. But maybe that was the only rental available?
Anyway good luck on this next phase.
Younger son started his first day of his junior year of high school.
Older son starts is second and final year of his associates in technical school tomorrow.
Looking forward to a less location dependent life once the youngest fledges the nest.
I hear people were renting U-hauls in Hawaii because they were cheaper than the rental cars available. Alas, you can’t put 2 child seats in a U-haul
I had reserved a Jetta. When I walked up to the off airport car rental I was a bit worried. They had no Jetta’s. They had four vehicles total. One was a big box truck. Another was a 12 passenger van. The other two were regular SUV’s. I ended up with that and only paid ~$330 for eight days. We
Welcome back! It sounds like you guys are all enjoying the experience. Sending the kid off to school is great. He’ll have a ton of fun. Looking forward to reading more about your move.
Just want to say that I really enjoyed the post. Thanks for sharing it.
Also, the kids are cute as can be!
Welcome back!
Welcome to California. I love it here but wish it was a more bike friendly state. Some areas are better than others for that.
Just in time for our special election with like fifty names on the ballot for Governor. Or one – however you look at it.
Can’t wait to see your upcoming posts and would love to know at least approximately where your family settled.
Good biking was one of the things I was looking for – lots of good trails and active biking groups in this area.
Are you going to share which coastal CA city ?
Sacramento area
So glad someone asked where because I was really wanting to know too. I’m fortunate enough to have been born in Sacramento county and love it here. I’ve tried to find the perfect place to retire for years and realized I already lived there. Welcome to the neighborhood!
Thank you! Seems nice so far – perfect temperature and lots of great trees. I can’t wait for my bike to arrive.
Spotted: (link removed)
Often thought Sacramento and Canberra had much in common – a genteel, suburban, low density, low hassle cities near mountains.
That seems a good description – I’ll be able to get to respectable snowboarding in 60 minutes and everything else we do in life is within a 10-15 minute bike ride. Lots of space, wide roads, big sidewalks… pretty nice.
Really? Sacramento and Canberra similar? I don’t think so….
Hey… I know that DQ.
Welcome to California!
Welcome back. I’m dying to know what your new costs are, and if you will still be living a tax free life.
I too am retired early and living an almost tax free life now because your blog inspired me to do the same 10 years ago.
This year won’t be tax free by a long shot, but I did some fun tax minimization things and we should be nearly tax free going forward.
I did a budget estimate awhile back with just 1 kid, but will update in a future post: Going Back to Cali…?
Hey GCC
My high school friend lives in Sacramento. If you run into Vic, say hi for me. Do you have as many pics of #2 as you do Junior? There were 100’s on his modeling page!
Bike on..
Steve and Kay (SMA)
Will do!
We do have a ton of pics of #2 but Winnie got bored of Instagram so not much shared publicly.
Oh wow, I just took a closer look at the picture. I also recognize that DQ. My neighborhood.
Dying to know EVERYTHING!!
where should I start?
Yes.
All wonderful updates! What a whirlwind. Glad to see you all settled right in. Hope your shipping container arrives soon too!
Congrats on the move! Impressive planning and execution. Can’t wait for more updates on the new cost of living part!!!
Loyal reader since the beginning. I thought that you all would choose to never settle down in one locale. Curious to learn what changed. What were the drivers?
What are your thoughts on those that are refusing the vaccine?
Gino! If you’ve read this blog, you don’t have to ask. Jeremy has family that works in health care and he does not have time for nonsense.
Jeremy, welcome back! Excited to read about this phase. Truthfully, I’m sure it will be just as exciting – doing all the same things as in Taiwan, but in the US. What will you do about Chinese language for the kiddos? (Obviously Winnie, but I meant more like immersion or Chinese weekend school.) Feel like America just got a little better.
I told my Mom that if she wanted to see her grandkids she had to get vaccinated. She finally did that last Thursday.
Welcome back! Altima was probably a better choice for moving stuff. :)
Congratulations! I don’t comment much but have followed you for a few years and I am really happy for you and Winnie and the kids. We have kids at an almost similar age spread and it’s fun to relate. Would love to see a post on how you chose California over another state- but I am biased being from WA myself ; )
We lived in WA for 10+ years and didn’t go back because of the long winters.
This is the criteria we used to narrow down the list of options – Finding Our Forever Home
Congrats on the move! After you get settled in, maybe you would like to meet a few of us in the Sacramento FI community…we would love to welcome you to the area! Here is our Choose FI Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/830856023762667
I’d be happy to meet up even just for a coffee once we are all vaccinated and settled
Congrats! I’ve been following you since the beginning, and always wondered what your early retirement would have looked like if you had the more traditional lifestyle (to which I can relate): US based, with a house and kids. Excited to see your future articles.
Welcome welcome and welcome.
That was amazing. Can’t wait to read more details
Exciting stuff! Welcome back to America. I’m not sure there’s a lot of good Taiwanese food in Sacramento, as there isn’t much in San Francisco yet.
But I hope Winnie and the kids will get accustomed to the new surroundings.
Let me know whenever you visit SF post covid!
Sam
South Sac is full of Taiwanese people, but Winnie said, and I quote, “I don’t think any restaurant will do better than my own kitchen.”
Will let you know when we hit SF
Time to start planning some family summer road trips! Maybe a little travel trailer and see the National Parks.
Yosemite for sure
So funny about the Mustang. I would have done the same thing. Welcome to the US!
Great minds think alike! :)
Welcome back, Jeremy. I started my own “extended sabbatical” 3 weeks ago. Let me know when you’re next in Seattle and thirsty for a pint.
Congrats!
MSFT has had a good run since I left. You’re welcome ;)
We will visit Seattle for sure I’m just not sure when yet.
Welcome back to America!
I’ve only spent a few days there but good choice of a city.
Thank you for writing out all the details. I enjoyed reading it. I’m looking forward to more details about the house and car buying.
But…you are not really a suburban family until you have a mini-van lol
Is it close enough if we got an SUV?
As a longtime reader, I’ll be crushed if you didn’t get a vintage Escort.
Ha! Me too, actually. Love classic cars ;)
Welcome back to the USA! If I can make one recommendation on the BBQ: get a pellet grill!
Any particular grill? I’ve had some amazing dinners at a friend’s place from a pellet grill but his particular model costs $2,500
An inexpensive Traeger works great. So easy to use. Either new from Costco or find a used one for cheap on CL or FB Marketplace.
I’m considering whether to take out a mortgage or purchase with cash. Specifically, I’m leaving a HCOL area and building a home in a state with no income tax.
If I purchase with cash, I’ll have to sell a small chunk of shares in my brokerage account to combine with the cash I have on-hand. Unfortunately, because I’d have to sell prior to gaining residency in the no tax state, I’d be on the hook for 15% capital gains plus state and local taxes on those gains.
How did you handle your situation being you sold shares as well?
I’ll write a post about this later, but for your situation you might be better off getting a mortgage (or a loan in general.) Then once you reside in the no tax state, sell your assets and pay off the debt if that is what you prefer.
There are a lot of options now to get a mortgage with no fees / no costs (except interest, naturally.) The mortgage company may even pay you thousands of dollars.
Wow, where has the time gone? It seems like just not so long ago you and Winnie had retired and were spending a lot of time in Mexico. I think it was your second year there, that she bought a fancy blender to take to Mexico for the season—I always wandered whatever happened to the blender. Anyway, best wishes on your move and please keep up the outstanding tax related posts. (And enjoy your children, the school years will fly by.) The end is in sight for me–well 2.9 years–it wont be much of an early retirement compared to some but we’ve had a decent life and it will be earlier than some others. Thanks again for sharing your journey!
We sold the blender, but now Winnie has her eye on an even better one :)
3 years goes by really fast – I think the key is just having a good life, there are no special prizes for retiring sooner or later than an arbitrary date. Enjoy it!
Long time reader here. You bought a house, a car, and mowed a lawn?? Thought this was an early April fools post, until I saw that you upgraded the rental car to a convertible on your move-in day — definitely a real post.
Change is the only constant. Looking forward to posts digging into the finances of your new situation over the next year.
Happy for your little family with such big news. This was a surprise! I wonder if it will be a bit of culture shock? Certainly higher prices on many things.
I certainly do not want to be a downer but just wanted to put out there that perhaps you should look into a fence around the backyard pool if you haven’t already. Little ones don’t understand the danger. Not so fun fact: drowning in swimming pools is the leading cause of accidental death for children under 5, mostly in backyard pools.
Yes – no fence around the pool itself but there is a gate to get to the pool area
Is this for real?
Rock on – welcome back! Love that you took your kids to the skate park. Just returned from one myself, lol… Good to have him start young so he doesn’t look like such a noob as I do at 41! :)
I saw some of your skating pics – looking good, sir!
We left some blood behind from his first trip to the skate park. Jr’s comment was, “at least I didn’t get blood on my clothes.”
Welcome back! I was going to ask if you stuck around the Bay Area and say howdy but I’ll just wave from the Peninsula :)
Thanks! It’s a shorter distance wave than before at least
Welcome back! I finally made it to California for 1st time in my adult life this summer. We traveled around to national parks and stayed about a week. I definitely liked the central parts much better than LA (or what I’ve seen of SF). At least as far as living there and raising a family.
Hope Sacramento treats you well!
Thank you sir. Stop by next time you are in the area
I’ve only been to North Carolina once, interviewing for a job in RTP. I believe it was May and I almost died stepping off the plane into the oppressive heat and humidity. Fortunately a terrible salary offer made it even easier to not make the move. Of course I’ve lived in Taipei since then so maybe my humidity tolerance has improved.
Patricia joins me in welcoming you and the family back to California. Nice to see that you are continuing to operate in your great, fun and well planned manner.
Abrazos,
Tom and Patricia
Thanks Tom! Hi Patricia!
Welcome to California. For me the “paradise tax” of living here is worth it.
It’s a nice place
I stopped reading in “San Francisco”. Who in the world would move from paradise to there….anyway..never mind
I’m here for you Leonard.
Congratulations on the new place! Hell of a time to be moving, glad everything went smoothly for you and the fam :)
Thanks man. So far so good. We have a guest room if you are ever in the area.
歡迎來到加州！
謝謝
Welcome back.
Just curious, did fear or concern about mainland China ‘acquiring’ Taiwan play any part in your decision to move from what you described as a near ideal place to live?
Not really, no
Take a look at the “Long Term” section of this post: Why Taipei?!
Was about to ask the same thing. I hope my gut feeling is wrong on that situation.
Hey Curry. I’ve been reading you for years now and somehow I knew this day would come for you. Congratulations on the new situation.
I just got back from 14 years in South America, and your details about the time crunch of getting the kids in school, the trips to Target, buying a car, etc., could have been written by me! I only beat you back to the USA by a few weeks. I had some trepidation about how we would acclimate, especially with a wife and kids who had never seen this country before. But so far so good.
All the best to you, dude.
Same to you, good sir.
Where did you end up in the US? I’ve lost count of the number of trips to Target and the amount spent… and have now switched exclusively to curbside pickup.
We are in Missouri. I want to help my parents through their final years here. Though, I am not looking forward to Midwest winter with a wife and kids who have never before experienced a single day below 65 degrees.
Now that the the initial school supply spending assault is on the wane, we have gravitated away from Target and toward the target-rich environment of the St. Vincent DePaul thrift store!
My sister’s kids spent early life in Florida where they went barefoot and shirtless year-round. Then they lived near family in Minnesota for a stint – there was a lot of crying that first winter.
Hi Jeremy! Welcome to California! My husband and I met you for coffee in Taipei a few years back. :) Did you ever consider moving to Portugal? Seems to be a popular FIRE country nowadays.
Hi! :)
Portugal is nice – friends recently purchased a condo in Porto. Were we to live in the region we would most likely end up in Catalunya.
You keep blazing the trail Jeremy!
This post feels surreally consequent. A friend just moved from Taiwan to Barcelona in a calculated move to further optimise their family’s quality of life and children opportunities (namely language).
You were kind to meet for a coffee in Taipei a few months back and for me was like meeting a rockstar. I read further above FSam comment and it makes you think: two of the world FI role models happen to have (and enjoy) strong links with Taiwan but ended up in California.
Our personal plan involves FI in three years and then relocating to Europe. Having read ‘going back to cali…’ and your Taipei articles your move is only logical.
Like all the other posters I’m craving for your posts on pros and cons and the long term drivers (children’s language, education?) – – another poster has asked about how to keep the Chinese skills installed well up to date.
In conclusion California and Catalunya are similar in many ways. I spent a holiday in North Cali and for a second I thought a was back home (Spanish living in Taiwan here). It does make you think about which places get it right worldwide, and I am sure its not just the weather.
All the very BEST Jeremy, Winnie and family!
Welcome back!
did you move to US for better education for kids?
Taipei is a great place!
Taipei is great, yeah. We want the kids to experience both of their cultures, so that means the US with visits to Taiwan.
So many questions!
Why the US over Taiwan (or elsewhere)?
Why Sacramento, not SF/SD/LA/SC?
Did you pay cash or do some kind of mortgage, and if it’s the latter, how?
Hope everyone is settling in well and enjoying the pool.
We want the kids to experience both of their cultures.
Paid cash but am doing a cash-out refi.
Sacramento we can get to mountains for hiking / snowboarding in 60 minutes and SFO in 120.
Santa Cruz we got outbid on everything and also concluded it is too cold and schools are kinda meh.
SF and SD are overpriced and SF is overrated.
Looking forward to hearing more about all, but especially the cash-out refi. Thinking of doing this on my primary residence, not sure of the tax implications.
Unless you use the funds for home improvements there is no deduction for a cash-out refi. And that assumes you itemize anyway.
Welcome back to the good ole USA. I love CA but could never figure out an economical way to live there in my retirement. I have found your analysis of making it work to be interesting. Looking forward to reading more about your life there.
Make sure the donated toys are lead free.
it’s all recent playskool stuff
Welcome back to California. Although cheaper, Sacramento has increased a lot in percentage terms compared to the bay area. I remember similar situation leading up to 2007.
Was considering another rental property last year but decided against it.
Ahh well, better luck next time
When the novelty of mowing the lawn wears off, think about looking up your local native plant society, and replacing some of that grass. Planned properly, it can mean less maintenance and more value for pollinators. I hope you can start with some Asclepias for Monarch butterflies; the western population needs help!
Yes, that would be great. The local government subsidies landscaping for reduced water usage too.
There is actually very little lawn here – it’s a bit more than 1/4 acre lot and total grass is less than 800 sq. ft. It takes about 10-15 minutes to mow it all, the rest is landscaped with drip irrigation and trees (lemon tree, orange tree, a TBD fruit tree…)
I’m up for helping out the monarchs – we visited a sanctuary in Mexico many years ago that was incredible.
https://www.gocurrycracker.com/millions-of-mariposas/
Citrus are low maintenance, are kind to bees and hold fruit for months.
This is nice for grown-ups: https://www.daleysfruit.com.au/buy/lemonade-tree.htm
Birds and kids like black mulberry.
I see the Dairy Queen photo is close by me, glad to see you back in the US and maybe down the line you could setup a meetup. I would definitely love to meet you.
I’ll schedule something once covid numbers are down again.
I think a weekday carpool to Tahoe skiing would be good also
I would love to join such a meet up if it ever gets organized. Glad to hear that you are now in my neck of the woods (we live in Davis)!
Btw you may want to check out Choose FI Sacramento Facebook group. They also occasionally have meetups although I haven’t attended one yet.
*Checks date to see if it’s April 1.
It’s not.
Whoa!
I know, right
Glad to hear you are in CA. I have tried (unsuccessfully) to convince my wife to move elsewhere. It will be good to hear what your costs are going to be and compare notes :)
Our US expenses will be lower than our last couple of year of Taiwan expenses, I think. I’ll share a budget plan in a coming post.
In the meantime, this is an old one: Going Back to Cali…?
Hi, I have been following your post for a while now.
I’m currently visiting Carmichael. You mentioned earlier that you joined a couple of clubs (biking and sailing). Can you share more details. How did you find them, how do you like them so far? It would be great to meet you at one of these activities. Thanks
My bike is still in a shipping container and I am not double vaccinated yet so I haven’t done any activities yet.
A group called the Sacramento Wheelmen do regular group rides all over the region and the Yacht Club on Folsom Lake has sailing events. Also look at the Sac State Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma for small boats and lessons.
Congrats on the move! Sounds very exhausting. I am in the Sacramento area too and would love to have a meetup. I am Taiwanese, what Facebook group did your wife join? I didn’t know there was one here. We moved here from SoCal last year.
I’m not sure the exact group but she searched for Taiwanese people in Sacramento or something similar. I can ask later
Hi Jeremy! Congratulations on the move. I remember when you lived in Taipei and had the most beautiful kitchen. It helped me dream of what my life could be. More than anything you’ve helped me enjoy my life at each stage. Enjoy this part of life, I know you will!
What a fun post!
Thanks so much for sharing your adventure and all the pics!
Oh wow a big change! Welcome back to the States and looking forward to seeing your children grow up. Thanks so much for sharing. I’ve been a huge fan of your blog for many years
Hello Jeremy
I used to live in Sac and TBH its best hidden gem in cali. Me and wife got paid most in Sac, plus living cost was pretty decent. Lot of outdoor activities. Unfortunately had to move due to career change but still miss Sac.
Welcome back. It’s a 180deg sharp turn when you sold your Seattle house and went overseas. A lot has been changed since then.