You all will probably yawn at this, but I need to rant about my tax situation. I claim zero deductions for my wife and I, in fact we get a couple hundred taken out each month. We were saddled with huge graduate degree debt from my wife in excess of 6 figures, so we live pretty modest. Should be gone by years end…Rent is 1000k per month and we rarely go out to eat…I drive a 12 year old 205k mile car and my wife’s is 10 years old. So we are putting money towards loans. I got hit with a 9k tax bill last year, and 7k last year. Not sure what I need to do besides pop out some babies, buy a house, and put my wife back to part time/no time.[/quote]
jstoesz, I recommend you and your spouse stay the course. You have cheap rent right now. Your spouse’s very large student loan will likely follow her to her grave if she (and as a byproduct, you) take a deferment for any reason. You will also be able to qualify for a much larger mortgage (if the rest of your credit is good) IF her student loan is retired. If you put some of your paychecks in IRA’s or 401K Plans now, this will shelter it from income taxes but her student loan is likely at a higher rate than you could make from safe retirement investments. This is another reason I feel that ALL your discretionary income should be deployed towards her student loan in order to retire it ASAP.
As you get older, life happens which always costs money. The last thing she (and you) need is a voluminous student loan hanging over your heads, IMHO.[/quote]
Totally agree and that’s what we have been doing for the last couple years, but you can’t help feeling like you got a target on your back earning w2 money paying down debt. 0 deductions…how screwed up is that. Hell even with giving, we couldn’t make it over the standard deduction.
