Hi guys,
So I'm an expat American working and living in Australia. Currently I'm back in the USA visiting family and my SO and I decided it might be time to move back closer to family before they get too old. I did the math and could roughly pay cash for a house in a few years depending on the city(scouting out best semi retirement spots currently). Looking at buying ~250k house. With no mortgage I can get our cost of living to ~3k a month in the USA considering the COL in some of the cheaper states here compared to Australia.
The whole situation only works if I can either work remotely for my Australian employer a few days a week or do a 3-4 month stint back on Australia by myself once a year to cover the year. I can make ~60-80k USD doing this. I had a few questions I was hoping my fellow mustachians might be able to comment on.
1. Do you reckon I'll get taxed to death due to the mixed residency issues? Right now we reside exclusively in Australia so we get the foreign earned income credit shielding us from any US tax obligations.
2. Has anyone done a similar job setup working abroad for small periods of time? Did it work or was it just a big headache?
3. One city were really looking at is Salt Lake City, well maybe one of the cheaper suburbs of SLC. Is 250k-300k unreasonable for a house there? Is this city fairly average for COL? I just love the idea of being near park city and the ski resorts but may just be a pipe dream.
4. Any other headaches you might forsee in this situation I should keep an eye on?
Cheers and thanks in advance for your comments.