San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

I meant your rebate check not you're. I don't get why on piggington that you can edit a post but you can't edit the main thread starter.

Isn't it obvious?

$500. It's a lot of money!!!! I'm rich, I'm rich. Woooohoooo. It's more money than several people put down for a home. I'm planning on using it as my full downpayment for a $1million home.

Oh wait, I did the typical consumer thing. I already spent the $500 before I got it...... Come to think of it, I already spent an extra $3000 because I was counting on getting the $500. $500 is a lot of money. I can make 50 additional $10 minimum payments on my credit card. Wooohooo.

Oh wait, I did the typical consumer thing. I didn't read the terms and conditions for getting this rebate before I spent it. Now that you mention it, I won't even get one. Oh well, but my new $3000 toys are really cool....Though I typically get bored with them after the month I get them. No worries, you'll find them at my next garage sale, because obviously I didn't really need to buy all this crap.

</sarcasm>

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

I am getting skunked as well. The funny thing is, if they gave me the money I would toatally blow it on consumer goods the way they want me to. I read somewhere, maybe CR, that the majority of Americans plan to use it to pay down CC debt. I guess that works too, as long as they run their balances back up!

Come on America! Spend! Spend for your very lives!

Hi Alex,

That would be $2100 just a few hundred short of what my family of five spends per month. Couple that with the tax credits I get for three kids averaged out on a per month basis and it easily covers the whole month with a little gas money to boot. Who says we don't get good vacations in the good old U S of A? Hey FLU if you don't want your $500 I think we can make it to Yellowstone!

eccen in esc
I'll probably buy a tank of gas

"MY wife and I make over the $150k cutoff so I believe we get zilch"

I'm in the zilch category as well. There will be no stimulating for me. Of course, the ginormous tax bill I just paid will certainly help to stimulate some of you...

And I agree with Navydoc, as someone who lives life on pretty much a cash basis (only debit is car and house) I would have just spent the money since I don't have any 'consumer' debt to pay down. C'est la vie.

Buy gold coins and bury them in the back yard.

Not only do I not get the rebate check, but the amount of money I paid Uncle Sam in taxes in 2007 (including what I still owe) is enough to "stimulate" a small village.

Am I the only one not making a HHI of more than $150K? Last year my wife was in school so we were making less than that. She returned to full time work this year. Good thing that they're doing the rebate this year, otherwise if they'll do next year we'll get nada as well.

Back to the original post, we'll save the money for our trip to Hongkong/Manila/Singapore next year.

Not only do I not get the rebate check, but the amount of money I paid Uncle Sam in taxes in 2007 (including what I still owe) is enough to "stimulate" a small village.

sigh, you're not alone.

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

Not only do I not get the rebate check, but the amount of money I paid Uncle Sam in taxes in 2007 (including what I still owe) is enough to "stimulate" a small village.

sigh, you're not alone.

Word.  I look at it like charity.  In fact, it might be fun to put "charity: u.s. treasury" on your schedule B next year.

My wife and I were talking about this and finally decided to buy a McMansion in Temecula with our rebate checks.

Ohhh...maybe we ought to wait another year or so :-)

First off I would like to thank all of you for your money. If for any reason you feel like giving more, I will happily stop by and take any cash, jewlery, electronics still being sold in stores, houses, or other contributions to the "there are more of us than you and we say so" plan. I do not promise to share it with my poor bretherin, but I do promise to stimulate the hell outa the retail, fast food and tourism jobs that our elected leaders seem so happy about creating by all this. So think of the poor clerk bored out of his/her mind with no one shopping anymore and give generously. Thank you.

(BTW, I saw that Sears will give you an extra 10% good at sears or Kmart if you walk in and hand them a stimulus check. Now that is going for the throat of everyone else dont you think?)

Ill probley just use it to buy my girlfriend something or take her out to dinner, or let it rot in my savings with all the other money that is devaluing as we speak.

el skunko here too.

But that's okay - since the US is running a deficit, at least I don't have to carry the guilt of having my kids pay for the $$ unk sam would have given us!

Even if you make more than $150K, you may get something. It gets phased out based on how much your AGI exceeds the $150K mark. Our AGI was about $165K this year and our CPA estimates we will get $550. That is for 2 adults, no kids. We are replacing our dying dishwasher with the $$.

I think if your AGI exceeds 175K, then you get nothing at all. I'm sure FLU and most people here exceeds that. Two white collar professional can easily makes more than 175K.

What on earth do all of you people do for a living?

Our AGI was $160k for last year and Turbo Tax said we get $677 of rebate. We have around $50k that we keep liquid, so that $677 just gets dropped into the kitty. I sure as heck don't need or want to spend any money right now. It disturbs me that we are no longer citizens and are consumers. It is crazy. I would love to see home prices go way down. I don't want to tap any equity, I just want to see my property tax go down. They'll probably just raise the rates to offset values going down though.

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Zero debt and paid for house.

Now a days you are paid for what you know. Knowledge. Never stop learning, though that doesn't really mean keep going to school. Just read lots. Keep up. Stay current. It is very easy to get left behind.
My wife is in IT. I'm an engineer working in building automation.

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Zero debt and paid for house.

wow.. piggs ARE rolling in cash!

I get dinged during tax time and I don't make as much as you guys.. *sigh*

next year we may not be so lucky..

I actually checked on the IRS website, and even though we are a single income household, we still get squat.

I guess I'm not really complaining. I certainly wouldn't want to trade my economic situation for someone who is getting a refund.

Nada for me either. While it 'sucks' not to partake, I paid more in taxes this year than the before tax San Diego median household income, so I can't exactly say I need it.

Oh, and yes, you do get paid for what you know and how well you use it. Want to get a raise, walk into Barnes & Noble and start reading those books! You don't even have to buy them.

There was a time when I spent more every month on technical books than I did on rent...

i'm single and over $75k so no money for me.

Rebate check = Loser

If you qualify for a rebate check you are a loser....Unless you are just out of school or an old fart retiree.

So I guess the fact that my husband and I both max out our 457 accounts each year makes us losers because it lowered our AGI to a level that still lets us get a measly $500 check. If we didn't do that, we wouldn't be getting a rebate check at all.

Looks like no rebate check here either.

Single, over $150K AGI. A significant part through investments. Just barely slid under AMT (not that I have many deductions. What causes me to bounce against AMT limits is the difference in marginal tax rates for W-2 income vs Long Term Capital Gains). This also means that if I bought a house, the mortgage interest may not be deductible for me, or as deductible (so I stay renting for now).

Rebate check = Loser

If you qualify for a rebate check you are a loser....Unless you are just out of school or an old fart retiree.

That's not a very nice thing to say. Lot's of people who qualify for the rebate that don't want it, and plenty of people that do noble things for the sake of those things where money isn't the only motivation. Teaching would be one, civic service would be another.

One thing for sure, I'm glad that there are more noble people in this world than myself, because if the world only consisted of people like me, we'd be screwed.

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

Some of us slipped under the $75K cutoff by maxing out of our 401k. I was just trying to save 3% in taxes, the $600 is just a bonus.

I was under the impression that those over the cutoff would just receive a decreased rebate, but not necessarily nothing at all.

$$$$$$$$$

I haven't seen anybody else comment on this, but it appears if you got shorted on your "tax rebate", don't worry about it, the IRS will be sending you the rest of it in July.

Here are the details: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24655421/

We received our check last week, minus the $300/kid credit (which my wife and I wondered about but were too busy to really care about at the time).

I would probably have felt a lot better about this "rebate" if it weren't for the fact that I was going to get it back anyways, due to my tax strategies...

Anyways, I have dutifully donated the check to a worthy cause (no, not a plasma tv!).

Unfortunately, I already spent the rebate check that i didn't get on two things....

1) a new water heater. Wow. I should be a plumber. The parts including the the heater was $500. It cost another $400 to install (2 hours). WTF?

2)and this when I was at a JavaOne conference.

http://livescribe.com/smartpen/videos.html

It's actually pretty cool (Aside from demostrating applications with JavaME). Writes like a normal pen, captures audio and handwriting and does playback of handwriting on the desktop. Also allows you to search on the desktop, recognizing words from your handwriting. Hackers would be especially interested in knowing it's pretty programmable.

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!