[joec]

One thing people also hasn’t mentioned here is even if this ever got in and that’s an impossible “IF” (note all the “if this…it that happens in CA comments …it’s simply not going to happen), it can also get repealed and CHANGED AGAIN. You get all the money they taxed, etc…back after republicans take back both houses and the presidency and repeal this.

ObamaCare passed and is supported because the US is the only country in the developed world without some form of healthcare for everyone. Like I keep saying, unless we are ok and just start letting people just die in the streets to check their insurance first, healthcare is sorta a right in all the developed nations of the world. US pays near the most and has the worst healthcare and this issue hits me especially since even if you’re willing to pay, before Obamacare, insurers simply don’t want to sell to you so you had little to no options to buy. Praise the ACA for passing and curse Republicans that want to repeal it (I’m independent btw).

Tax laws change all the time yearly,,,you just play the “game” based on the rules and try to always win. As people notice, tax on earned income is very high. I suggest people who can afford to retire before 65 if they can afford to and pay for healthcare…then draw down or Roth convert all their retirement accounts for income without paying much or any tax. Make sure to refinance your mortgage to get a large tax deduction with super low rates while you’re working to offset the income withdrawn. After 5 or 10 years, you probably will have a lot of tax free money.

Also if tax rates become horrendous enough, people will simply also just leave the USA in droves (maybe this is just me).

Anyhow, I doubt this will even generate much money tax wise so it’s a stupid plan to begin with.

Like I would say, you tax or get money from the people who have it. Not the small amount in various small 529 plans.

[joec]

AN, I think the problem with some of the blanket comments you are making is that there is a cost for the business to do this. If a “company/corporation” is buying/expensing fancy cars for the owner/exec, it’s costing them money. If companies choose to waste their money this way, be my guess. Take the tax benefits, but it’s still coming out of their cost. It’s not free. It’s a deduction. If you look at how some old startups were ran, they weren’t wasting money like this (except during the .com boom)…Most companies save as much as they can and don’t spend on frivolous things.

For sole proprietorships, you are limited in that you CAN’T deduct driving into the office. No one can. YES, there is some benefit to leasing a car, but it HAS to be justified. If you say you need a car to get to work and code, if you get audited, driving to work is not considered a valid deduction.

Yes, I see people deduct all sorts of things, but again, anyone can make up anything and risk an audit with no defense.

In terms of computers, all that stuff, all companies need these to run. It’s a valid business cost. Can you operate without it?

All that said, I’ve made the bigger bucks in the past in hi-tech as a w-2 worker and yes, taxes suck, but I had it tons easier too. I got plenty of “free” trips and travel, toys from work, free internet, expenses, meals, fun events, you name it. I honestly miss it actually and DON’T do any of that now. The company paid for all those back then, but it was a cost to keep me working and honestly, to do the work.

It IS TRUE that businesses get better retirement options and can write stuff off, but they still have to be legitimate for the business. Like can I fly to New York and say it’s work? Probably not…unless there is some event there relevant to work. Companies get this too, they send people to conferences and write it off. Just be a shareholder and you’re now a business owner as well. Of like I said, quit your day job and start a business and see how you do. It’s not as easy as stated I feel.

I also know dual income massive income people making more than 500k and what I hear is (true spoken words out loud): “They have so much money, they don’t know what to do with it”.

I’m not really feeling “sorry” for people making 500k+ alone in just income…not even counting passive investments, retirement, etc…

If they can’t do “well” or “get ahead” in this world, then something is massively wrong.

All this said again, I highly doubt this will past since it’s a Republican congress.

[joec]

[quote=AN]The more I see these kind of stuff, the more I’m convinced that it’s not worth it to be a rich W2 earner. If you want to be rich, be a biz owner. There are a shit load of stuff you can write off or have the company pay for your life style. Then, you don’t need a big pay check to live just as lavish of a life style as those W2-er in the upper echelon.[/quote]

I think a lot of the complaints are simply people voicing what will affect them the most, and even then, it might not be true…If implemented, it probably wouldn’t jump once you hit past a certain income level.

Being a poor non-w2 business owner, whenever I see people complain about people who are self employed with tax write offs, I’d challenge anyone to quit their safer “day” job and become a biz owner.

It’s a ton harder than most people see/make it out to be and there are some tax benefits, but you lose a lot as well. Before it was impossible to get decent healthcare, good luck trying to refinance (we can’t currently)…also, competition in almost every market is insanely fierce.

A lot of people only see the few successful people and think it’s a cake walk, but try it yourself and see how it goes.

Also, I think this tax law only affects people who make over 500k in income. I don’t think that many people actually pushes this high in income (I do know some dual doctors who do…), but all the better I feel as these people already pay a much lower tax rate than regular Americans (think Warren Buffet comments). I agree that they should just tax income at the higher rate to begin with.

All that said, it’s always been easier to make it super rich as a business owner. Look around at the super wealthy.

Most business owners dump every single profit cent into their business and actually have little or no income…no income = no tax…They expand till the business is massive.

Also, a lot of large massive business pay little to 0 tax and it’s all offshore. They’re already not paying much, if any tax so there is no double taxation. If anything, more things should be done for normal Americans/small business who can’t have offshore operations like the Apples/Googles of the world.

Wishing this would pass, but with a republican controlled Congress, don’t see how this can pass at all…

[joec]

Always wanted to learn krav maga myself…I’ve seen a few videos in the past here and there and like how some concepts are very different that other martial arts (jui jitsu/grappling on the ground, etc…). The idea is in a street fight, you need to stay standing, never fall, and expect people to randomly drill you in the head when you aren’t looking.

If you google youtube videos of fights, a LOT are ended in 1 punch when someone wasn’t looking. It looks unfair almost, but that’s probably life/live/die situations.

[joec]

Such a lame punishment…None of the penalties seem to affect her life much at all. Home surveillance just means you’re monitored right? Probation means you can’t do bad stuff for a while I assume…I’d be more happy if she’d get SOME prison time at least and have a felony on her “permanent record.”

This is not a punishment at all…

[joec]

[quote=carlsbadworker]It is about 2MB now and expect to grow above 2MB next year. But seriously, volume limit is predominantly impacted by video, as a Netflix movie can cost you 3GB (HD) to 7GB (Ultra HD) per hour.

By the way, most computers will have noticeable improvement if you just replace the hard-drive with SSD. You can extend the computer life that way instead of buying an entire new computer.[/quote]

Pretty much do the above before doing anything else…

SSD is the only way to go, especially for the O/S drive.

Hard drives tends to swap a ton so going to a SSD will stop that.

You can also test this by setting up a “RAM” disk on your machine. These were popular back in the 80s when hard drives were non-existent to run apps quickly from memory.

[joec]

Maybe in 50 – 100 years, but I foresee much higher and massive unemployment in many countries. I’ll be long dead, but this will lead to greater social unrest and increased violence…

There is simply an oversupply of human capital/labor/bodies/slaves…you call it what you will, but most jobs can be replaced and more will be replaced as time goes on.

Think what will happen when you have some countries in Europe with 50%+ youth unemployment already…and in 10-20 years. More violence, radicalism, people who simply “don’t care”…

[joec]

I still like Netflix DVD option since it’s the only way we can still watch HBO stuff (Game of Thrones)…

Also, streaming doesn’t have every show and the DVD’s cover it. Cost a bit more though.

[joec]

1st thing, you really should seek legal council from a family law attorney, not some housing forum here where people here have absolutely no idea how the law works in divorce cases.

That said, since you asked and since I’m a member of the divorced club, the situation really depends.

What I sense from how you worded your question and your “scenarios” (Honestly, there really is no SET scenario IMO), but they all sound like you (hypothetical you or friend) wants some money back since you put a good chunk of your savings into the house.

Honestly, I think you’re fighting a losing battle here and the money is gone. Also, if the house went UP in value, will you claim it was all your investment so you should get near all the gain?

All that said, from what I’ve read/did in my own situation, there is no “set in stone” ways to divvy assets, retirement, etc…

Someone can walk away with nothing, half, all, you name it. You just negotiate. I got a divorce without lawyers and didn’t split a thing since ex worked and had her own thing…but I feel if you argue this point with your (or your hypothetical friend), this is going to blow up in your (his) face and this is where legal fees will far strip any money at all.

Lastly, if there are kids, you should probably get a lawyer since there are a ton more complexities when kids are involved.

If it was me, I’d just look at it as a 100k “loss” / bad investment / marriage, whatever. Be happy it only “costs” you 100k and be wiser or just don’t marry again.

At the end of the day:

TL:DR: It depends, people can negotiate whatever they want, but be careful what can of worms you open.

[joec]

This is why I am fascinated by companies who never lay people off. They find ways to reallocate and retrain those “resources” to new tasks. Like you find a way to reuse your old phone for your kid to play android games, etc…instead of tossing it out. This is sometimes done at the executive suite to train up and coming C-level folks to do global tasks, but would be nicer if thought about more throughout more companies.

There’s this constant complaint in the tech industry (and I’ve worked in it in the past) that there isn’t enough tech folks.

The reality is that with the way how tech works, unless you learn the current/latest stuff, you’re old news and useless to the company. There is VERY LITTLE desire at a lot of companies to get workers exposed to different technologies, current stuff, give them time to learn new things, etc…Just do your basic task and don’t bother me.

Some companies are better about this, but I suppose ultimately, it’s more profitable to just fire and hire.

[joec]

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I agree with the above. If people are “forced” to pay for higher levels of service, what’s to say ISPs will not just FORCE people to pay up or throttle you down to 64kbps? It sounds like they can hold anyone hostage unless you pay up. Internet bills are already too high (as are cell phone bills) and it sucks you can’t get something basic/decent for < $30.00 It just sounds like it puts too much power with the Telcos and if it's a good thing for them, it will probably be a bad thing for the consumer. This reminds me of how getting rid of Obamacare can be very bad... Think of this scenario, what if we dump Obamacare and health care providers can just dump anyone/everyone who wants maternity? We all know the cost is extremely high for delivering babies and complications can be extreme (I've seen 300k+ bills)...especially with older moms nowadays. As an insurer, why not just dump all women to get more profits and not pay much out? I speak this from experience because prior to Obamacare, I searched all over as a self employed family and there was all of 1 (ONE) plan which even had maternity at all and it was a bad plan to begin with. Even though we're done with kids, there's just something f*cked up about the whole US system. Also, even if you WANTED and are willing to pay, NO ONE will sell you the insurance (since when we bought it, Obamacare wasn't around yet). Sorta like the messed up mortgage market for self employed too. Anyways, back on topic, the Internet access market isn't that competitive. At least there's T-Mobile to shake up the wireless industry a bit.

[joec]

The cable/internet companies sorta have a monopoly so you can’t really switch. My previous Internet provider retention sales rep told me that point blank and “dared” I switch saying that no other Internet company was in my area…

Little did he know there was another so I canceled and sign up for another promo 12 months. I expect that I would have to switch again after the 12 months is up. The good thing is I had service before so it’s just changing what cable I plug into my modem.

We don’t have cable tv other than Netflix so don’t tend to care what DirectTV or sports is out there so that might not work for you.

Also, after seeing other people with DirectTV and cable, I don’t know how anyone can sit through commercials anymore. They pop up so much!

One thing to also watch out for is AT&T has Internet download limits so that can be very bad if you download a lot of movies (or watch a lot of p*rn), games from Steam, etc…

Overall, the US Internet infrastructure is crap due to lobbyist, monopolies, special interest, big business, etc…Even in major metro areas which would be profitable for new players, it’s not done in the US. Go to anywhere in Asia an their Internet is like 100x faster…for MUCH less cost. (Yes, I hate the US more and more each day)…I’d probably leave, but wife can’t see living anywhere else.

[joec]

Everything near all time highs again…I’m sure once I buy in, it will go down.

[joec]

Generally, I tend to think it’s not as gloom as doom as some of the other posters here, but the idea that the Bank of Japan is just going to throw money at stocks to stimulate the economy sounds a bit strange/scary…

If earnings collapse or slow and governments are buying in “just because”, it seems like this is a last gasp of the market.

There’s no reason to buy, just that the government needs to buy to make the price go up higher…seems like pushing on a string/trying too hard.

[joec]

Maybe women are buying romance novels because it’s an escapism like men with sports (wishing they were the star player, etc…).

Everyone would agree relationships are a lot of work and for working women, a lot don’t want or have the time to deal with some other guy who they don’t need any handouts from.

I saw some video in Japan where some Japanese professional ladies go and have fun and meet guys at these talking/social bars and just hang out, drink, talk, etc…

No sex is even involved. The young guy working there said he cleared 600k last year. Again, no sex involved at all.

Even though rich women marry rich men, I still see the majority of successful women marry even MORE successful men. Especially when the guy is pretty dog ugly like James Packer (net worth, 7.9 BILLION) with Miranda Kerr (20 million).

Then there’s George Clooney and his new wife 20 years younger…

Rich guy with richer woman is John McCain (10 mil) and Cindy McCain (100 mil)…

[Author]

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