CHAPTER 6 THE LONG TERM WEALTH IMPACT OF CHOOSING THE RIGHT TOWN There is a moment that happens sometimes when I am sitting with homeowners and reviewing long term numbers. Usually they lean back in their chair. Their eyes shift slightly to the ceiling. And they go quiet. Not because anything terrible happened, but because something clicked. For the first time, they realize that property taxes are not a yearly annoyance. They are a long term financial force that shapes the trajectory of their wealth.
This chapter is about that moment.
What Happens When You Stop Losing Money Every Year In Chapter 2 we looked at how tax differences accumulate over ten, fifteen, and twenty years. Those raw totals are powerful enough on their own. But the real magic happens when you consider what that money could have been doing instead. If you saved even a portion of the money you would have otherwise spent on taxes, your long term financial picture could look very different. Let us use a conservative example. You save $10,000 dollars per year by moving to a lower tax town. You invest it at a modest average return of 5 percent (not guaranteed, of course). After 15 years, between contributions and growth, you could have well over $200,000 dollars in future value.
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