The C Fund (S&P 500) is a total market index fund. It's the benchmark, and is what most people use.

Worrying about the difference between a 3000-stock fund vs the S&P 500 is splitting hairs, which is why the latter considered good enough for most things. The expense ratio for the C Fund here is 0.043%, very low, and will be hard to beat. VTSAX that you mention here has an expense ratio of 0.04%, which is effectively the same.

Phone. Car. Why are you financing everything?

Mobile phone, internet, and electric all seem high to me. Why so expensive?

Lol it’s not a lot of trips (2/week) but I wfh & live in the DC metro area so it’s very walkable & public transport is great. The grocery stores, gym and shops are a 5-15 minute walk. The bus is ever closer and comes every 5 minutes during the day.

I'm in awe of the $200 grocery bill. I don't think that would last me even a week :(

Pittsburgh has a famously pretty good transit system, i understand you might be out in the suburbs but you might find that once you've gotten an inexpensive uber into town you can do really well without a car for social events. I split rideshare rides across train rides all the time.

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Doesn’t have to be a whole room. It can be part of a room. But whatever it is, the use has to be exclusive.

That would be less than 5 trips where i live rip

I did this. I had a home office that was in my bedroom. However, I could only claim about 100 sq ft of a 300 sq ft bedroom for business. You can also divide the square footage of the space by the total house and claim a percentage of utilities as well. For me I kept track but I ended up doing the standard deduction.

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Again, what are you spending that money on? You need food to eat but what are those other incidentals you acquiring for $200 a month? If it is things you want, are you planning on taking them with you to another county or will you need to find a way to get rid of it before you leave? If you don’t plan of taking it with you, don’t buy it.

The reality is you probably already own everything you will need for the next six months. The things you don’t have (but have need of) can probably be borrowed from family, friends, or nice neighbors. If you simply want it, then skip it.

Your car is costing you $800 per month, you only need it for your social life, and you are trying to move out of the country in six months?

Sell your car. If you desperately want to own one, find one that starts and holds oil and coolant and pay $500 cash. You won't ever even need to get the oil changed.

If you make 120K in the East Coast 150K would be the equivalent with some assumptions.l for SF Bay Area.

The phone isn't a problem. Not like the line is being tapped by hackers. The dentist probably wants it to confirm your ID with the insurance company (medical ID theft) or to run a credit check on you.

The potential risk is the dentist having their data base hacked and all identities stolen. Avoid giving out your SSN if possible.

The space where you work has to be used exclusively for your business, but if so, yes. This explains it:

https://www.keepertax.com/posts/rent-as-a-tax-deduction

Do you have a room in the home used exclusively for your business? No personal use?

If you have a place where you normally do your work, and really only do work, you can likely consider it a home office.

Hire a good local tax person. They are worth it!

You can, but you won’t. That’s the beauty of not having a car payment hanging over your head. You won’t allow yourself to pay that much for Lyft/Uber. I don’t have a car and the most I can spend is $300. After that I sit my ass home or take the bus.

We checked the price of our old apartment recently. It's the same. But yeah the rental market has definitely increased. But that doesn't mean that deals don't exist especially if it's only for 6 months.

Agreed, I think it’s dumb and a waste of everyone’s time. Being informed coming into an interview is a good idea though.

If you can walk for essentials and don’t need the car for work, there’s no way ubering or taking transit socially will cost you $800/month.

Also you’re trying to move abroad. How important is this social circle given that?

While I understand that loopholes exist, practices like these don't make for very good public relations. And you'd be hard pressed to find top talent being attracted to companies that operate in this way, especially in the SF Bay Area, where there's a lot of large companies that pay competitive wages without the bullshit.

I would not count on the OP being able to do so. WF most likely will have reported the involuntary account closure and prolonged overdraft to ChexSystems and most banks are going to run a check with them before approving a new account.