[jstoesz]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=jstoesz]anvil sisters…perfect…

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.

[jstoesz]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=jstoesz]anvil sisters…perfect…

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.

[jstoesz]

The real question is, why should the government recognize marriage at all? All these tax savings make no sense to me.

[jstoesz]

anvil sisters…perfect…

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.

[jstoesz]

This may be obvious, but most people hate their job. Public sector workers think the grass is greener in the private sector. I doubt it is any different. Any job you have to show up for in excess of 25 hrs a week is going to suck a large portion of the time. Hell if I had to ski for 40 hrs a week year after year, I would get pretty darn sick of it. I worked a summer in a remote part of idaho hiking streams for a ecology research grant. I was with my friends all day every day. Man was I sick of counting crap by the end of that summer, despite getting to kayak every day. Bending over is just part of life…not just public employment.

[jstoesz]

Pri, I agree with you. It is all about striking the right balance. We may differ on the balance here and there…

Libertarians and socialists are both painfully naive. They believe their own Reductio ad absurda.

[jstoesz]

I agree with much of what Brian and Harvey/pri said. Although, I do think the wealth disparity of cities vs country has much to do with the problem (unlike pri), I agree that it is not everything. And Pri’s point is solid that not all federal outlays in states are due to welfare, such as army corps or engineering/defense work, although I have no idea what percent of federal spending that stuff is and how it fits into the whole picture.

Another thought I had which goes to what brian was talking about, is related to the cost associated with low population density. I would assume federal highway funding for a state like S. Dakota is quite high on a per capita basis compared to Rhode Island, but it is beneficial for the whole nation to have I-90 and I-94 running through its borders. Similarly, Farm subsidies are definitely a benefit to rural states, but those subsidies are also a benefit to everyone who buys their product by providing cheaper food (albeit to a lesser degree, and I am no friend of farm subsidies). Etc, etc. It is not immediately apparent what level of federal outlays benefit the nation as a whole, and what level are only useful to the states themselves.

My only point in all this is to show that the map doesn’t really tell you a whole lot. Or at least it is not as hypocritical after first blush.

[jstoesz]

[quote=poorgradstudent]Bottom line, a big part of why California has such “Budget Problems” is the Federal Government takes from California and gives to sparsely populated, historically Republican states like Mississippi, who then complain about the size of the Federal Government.[/quote]

There’s a good argument for a limited federal government…

A lot of people feel this problem is the fallout of the 17th amendment. Senators were no longer beholden to state financial constraints.

[jstoesz]

The colors on the map seem to have more with where there are major metropolitan areas, big cities tend to allow people to make big bucks. Because top earners pay the lion’s share of taxes. There is no opportunity to make the big bucks in Albequrque, so they pay almost no federal income taxes. My guess is this isn’t a redstate blue state issue, it is a progressive income tax issue. Half of all households don’t pay federal income tax, you have to have some serious high earners to make up for that. The rural republican states just don’t have that high income tax base that major metropolitan states have.

Maybe this is an argument for flattening the tax base…

This is not the whole reason, but I would suspect it’s a biggie.

[jstoesz]

BG, you said the word Utils! My affection for your long winded posts has grown exponentially. My sailboat in SD is titled Utils. It’s a great word that deserves it place in common vernacular.

[jstoesz]

Btw, I love ca, but the middle class vibe is really a drag. His did so many smart people get so stupid? I wish it wasn’t so.

[jstoesz]

I am trying to leave, but I was not born here, so net zero. My wife on the other hand…

[jstoesz]

He is a pound mutt from Helen Woodward animal center in rancho sante fe. They do a really great job rescuing and rehabbing them physiologically. Its a non-kill shelter, so I guess they have to. We are really not sure what breed he is. I am guessing he is some kind of Rough collie (long snout, tall and lanky, less dense long coat) and husky/malamute (defined markings). You have probably had this discussion as well. All I know is he is the best dog I have ever had, super mellow even when he was a puppy, can run for days in the mountains, and instinctively knows how not to hurt himself.

Did I mention Helen woodward is amazing?

The pic probably qualifies as my backyard (an hour away), in Desolation Wilderness (part of El Dorado NF) on the 4th of july last year. It was up from twin lakes on the way back from Lake aloha.

[jstoesz]

A simple wilderness area name will do.

[jstoesz]

haha, nice. I had always meant to go out there when I lived in SD. Never could convince the wife to drive a long ways and spend a day looking at old burnt out buildings in a wasteland. Something about it just looks really interesting to me.

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