About

What this is

After-Tax Engineering is a research and calculator platform for high-income professionals making tax-aware investing, real estate, and retirement decisions.

The goal is to answer specific questions: Should I buy this rental property? Should I harvest these losses? Should I sell my RSUs now or hold? How much is ETF tax drag actually costing me?

Most finance sites explain strategies. This one builds tools to help you decide whether a strategy applies to your situation.

Who built this

I am an engineer and investor. I study tax-aware wealth building and build practical frameworks and calculators to make better decisions.

I am not a CPA, EA, tax attorney, or registered investment advisor. This site is educational, not advisory. That honesty matters — every article should make you more equipped to work with a qualified professional, not replace one.

The 10 principles

These govern every article, calculator, and framework on this site. They do not change with tax law.

1. After-tax return is the only return that counts. Gross return is a headline. What you keep is what matters.
2. Tax savings are the optimizer, not the strategy. The investment or decision must stand on its own merits first.
3. Pre-tax economics always come first. A bad deal is not fixed by depreciation. A bad investment is not rescued by a deduction.
4. Complexity has a real, measurable cost. Admin burden, audit risk, locked capital, and time are expenses that most tax-strategy content ignores.
5. Liquidity is a return component. Capital locked for 7 years has an opportunity cost. Model it.
6. The benchmark is always simple index investing. Every alternative strategy must be compared to the after-tax return of a low-cost VTI/VXUS portfolio.
7. Tax deferral is not tax elimination. You are moving the liability forward, not erasing it. The math changes — it does not disappear.
8. Audit risk is an expense. An aggressive position that gets challenged often costs more than it saved — in fees, time, and stress.
9. One strategy rarely changes everything. The W-2 tax toolkit is narrower than YouTube suggests. Stack small edges, do not chase silver bullets.
10. Know when to stop calculating and call a CPA. Frameworks and calculators get you most of the way. Fact-specific decisions need a professional.

What to expect

Every major article follows a consistent structure: who the strategy helps, who should avoid it, the real numbers, the risks, and a decision framework or calculator.

Tax law changes. Every article includes a "last reviewed" date. If you find something outdated, the disclaimer page explains how to interpret content over time.

Disclaimer

Nothing on this site is tax, legal, or investment advice. All content is educational. Always consult a qualified CPA, EA, tax attorney, or licensed financial advisor before making decisions.