San Francisco Investor Commits $1 Million to VC Fund, Gets 46% Called in Six Months

A 49-year-old San Francisco personal-finance blogger says he committed $1 million to a top venture capital fund in March 2026 despite not having that much in liquid cash, according to Financial Samurai. He and his wife are both currently unemployed, working instead as an author and a substitute preschool teacher, and he budgeted based on an assumption that funds typically call 20% to 30% of committed capital per year.

Instead, the fund had called 46% of his commitment within six months, leaving him unable to cover further capital calls above $20,000 without selling existing assets. Doing so would trigger roughly a 33% combined tax hit from long-term capital gains, the net investment income tax, and California state tax, cutting against his buy-and-hold investment strategy of the past 14 years.

To meet future calls, he says he's weighing three options: selling part of a separate position he's held since 2023 that he'd rather hold through an anticipated Anthropic IPO, taking a loan from his father, who told him he has spare funds available, or bringing in more active income through consulting and freelance writing.