[SK in CV]

[quote=FlyerInHi]I don’t find CAr’s comments to be feminist at all.

A true feminist would want full equality and full liberation from the oppression of traditions.

CAr wants cultural preservation and the perpetuation a certain perceived “wholesome” way of life. She wants to punish adultery because she views it mainly as a male issue. In the process, she’s willing to throw her real feminist sisters under the bus.[/quote]

I gotta agree with this. It’s some the most anti-feminist garbage I’ve ever read. My feminist grandmother (who would be 114 now) is vomiting in her grave.

[SK in CV]

[quote=6packscaredy]Family court judges don’t know.

To you who are married I say stay married.

Work it out!!!

Try to be decent.

It’s not getting better.[/quote]

You have no idea.

Sometimes it has nothing to do with being decent.

Sometimes it does get better after divorce. Much better.

[SK in CV]

[quote=joec]I think you’re supposed to pay estimated tax…That’s where the penalty is from.[/quote]

There’s a safe harbor for penalties. Depending on prior year’s income, there’s no penalty if you have between 100 and 120% of prior year’s tax paid in. If prior year tax was $100K, if you have $120K paid in through withholding or equal quarterly estimates, no penalty.

[SK in CV]

[quote=spdrun]Quibble: Assuming you were a full year tardy, you’d pay the 3% on the 50% tax (assuming the state rate is similar) NOT the full value of the house. So the penalty hit would be $60,000, not $120,000.[/quote]

I’m not sure what you mean by tardy. If I win the house today, I don’t owe anything substantially different than I otherwise would have owed, until 4/15 of next year. And there will be no penalties.

[SK in CV]

[quote=AN][quote=SK in CV]Hate to quibble over a few percentage points, but on 3.5 million, 1% is a lot of money. It wont be 53%. Probably no more than high 40’s.

And more likely than not, no significant income taxes would be due until April 15th next year. There are safe harbors that would eliminate the need to pay huge quarterly estimates this year.[/quote]Based on http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm and $4M (not $3.5M since, that’s the value the house is supposed to be at), federal tax would be 38.54%. State income tax is 11.644%, based on https://webapp.ftb.ca.gov/taxcalc/calculator.aspx?Submit=2013+Tax+Calculator&Lang=english&redirectURL=OTC. So, combined, it’s ~50%. less than the ~53% I gave a rough estimated but higher than high 40’s you stated. Of course, it depends on what else you’re deducting. 3% less = $120k for $4M. Not chump change for most, but it still wouldn’t change my general point. Also, obviously, if you really were the winner, you’d get yourself a good tax advisor and not trust some vague estimate from some anonymous person on Pigg.[/quote]

That was pretty much the same as my calculation except that the state taxes are deductible. Pay 350K, about $240K of that will be deductible, saving another $100K or 2.5 to 3%. (to preempt a likely criticism, whoever wins is unlikely to be subject to alt-min tax.)

[SK in CV]

[quote=AN]Take $3.5M, then subtract ~53% for taxes. You can then round down to the nearest hundred thousand to for fees/penalties/etc. I’m guessing $1.5-1.6M? If you invest $1.5M lump sum in a long term CD making say 3% over 20 years, you’ll have ~$2.7M after 20 years. That sounds better than $2.1M if you take the monthly cash payment. Increase that rate to just 4% gets you $3.2M after 20 years. Still very conservative estimate for a 20 years average, IMHO. Considering ~7-8 years ago, you can find CDs in the 6-7% range.[/quote]

Hate to quibble over a few percentage points, but on 3.5 million, 1% is a lot of money. It wont be 53%. Probably no more than high 40’s.

And more likely than not, no significant income taxes would be due until April 15th next year. There are safe harbors that would eliminate the need to pay huge quarterly estimates this year.

[SK in CV]

Here’s how the vast majority of these kinds of suits flow. After filling out lots of forms and possibly a lengthy interview with a paralegal, you will be asked for access to your home for one, possibly more, visual inspections. You may then be asked for access to your home for invasive testing. The inspections and/or invasive testing will be conducted by numerous experts hired by the attorneys. You may or may not hear anything for up to a couple years. You may then be required to make your home available for similar inspections by the defense. Eventually you will be asked to sign a settlement agreement, where the attorneys will get 1/3, the expert’s fees will eat up another 1/3, and you’ll get a little check, and you’re on your own to take care of repairs. Rarely is then net settlement to the homeowners more than $10K.

With legislation in CA that went into effect over 5 years ago, many of your possible claims are beyond the statute. Some of the larger ones remain. They experts will find things wrong with your house. They always do. That’s what they get paid for. What they find may or may not have anything to do with specific complaints you have, as they’re rarely told what your complaints are.

Selling your home during the pendency of the litigation can be a problem. Lenders are sometimes hesitant to lend on properties that may have defects.

If you settle, your lawyers may or may not disclose to you what specific issues on your home were discovered and made part of the litigation. (Some lawyers do, some don’t.) If they don’t tell you, don’t ask. You’ll be required to disclose anything you know, upon sale of the property.

[SK in CV]

I don’t think so. The NYPD has 123 precincts. So less than 1 per precinct has been charged. On average, about 135 cops per precinct. If all charged came from 4 precincts, those have a serious problem. But overall, that’s a pretty small number.

[SK in CV]

[quote=spdrun]0.5% of a given organization is actually a pretty high percentage.[/quote]

Yeah, it is. But is it sufficient to reflect on the other 99.5% of the organization? I don’t think so. Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of corrupt cops. In probably dozens of different ways. I just don’t think these charges mean much to the organization as a whole. If half of them come from the same precinct, that would mean a lot more.

My main gripe is with the reporting. If they’re collecting city disability payments, then the reporting should say that. It shouldn’t say they’re collecting social security disability in amounts far in excess of what’s believable.

[SK in CV]

[quote=harvey][quote=SK in CV]But when reporters make these kinds of simple to refute errors, you have to wonder about the rest of the story.[/quote]

What exactly does one have to wonder about?

That this story does not expose a culture of fraud in these organizations?[/quote]

Is that what it does? Around a hundred charged. There are around 35,000 NYC cops. So that’s significantly less than 1 out of every 200 that are currently working. It certainly doesn’t reflect well on the NYPD or the NYFD, but is that really enough, absent other information, to call it a “culture of fraud”?

[SK in CV]

[quote=livinincali]
Social Security Disability by itself is about $1300/month on average. Of course most fire and police have a separate disability fund that is run by the city they work for. For example NYPD has this program. http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycppf/html/tier_3/tier_3_disability_retirement.shtml

So for example a NYPD with 25 years of service making $100K per year would get $100 *(25*0.2) = $50K – (15K*.5) = $42500/yr.[/quote]

Right, but the article says that SSDI is $30 to $50K. I’m not even sure that they’re eligible for SSDI. Some public employees aren’t.

[SK in CV]

[quote=CA renter][quote=paramount]106 NYPD/FDNY Arrested!

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/4-surrender-social-security-scam-article-1.1568664%5B/quote%5D

No, 80 NYPD/FDNY arrested, 6 from other public agencies. We are not told the professions of the other alleged fraudsters.

——–

Under the United States Social Security law, individuals are qualified as “disabled” and entitled to SSDI payments if they suffer from a disability that prevents them from assuming any job available to them in the national economy. The payment amount varies per recipient, but the average annual payment is approximately $30,000 to $50,000 for each recipient.
[/quote]

As to the bolded part, no it isn’t. Average annual payment isn’t anywhere near that much. I’m 58 and have earned max SS wages for most of the last 35 years and my estimated SSDI would be under $30K a year. Doesn’t diminish the crime any. But when reporters make these kinds of simple to refute errors, you have to wonder about the rest of the story.

[SK in CV]

[quote=6packscaredy]The overarching emphasis on grades shows that our priority is hierarchy not edumucation.[/quote]

Spoken like a true anarchist.

I think the emphasis on grades shows a focus on achievement, as measured by those grades. You may have a point, but absent a better alternative, they’re no more than pretty words. If you can come up with a better objective measurement of achievement, there’s a whole edumacation system that would love to have it.

[SK in CV]

[quote=6packscaredy]I am not sure what a good teacher is.

Most things we learn ourselves.[/quote]

Good teachers motivate us to learn. They teach us curiosity. They teach us how to learn. They teach us critical thinking skills. I had teachers like that. Both of my kids had teachers like that. In fact one of my kids changed from a pretty average student to an outstanding student as a result of one year with one teacher. There are a lot of those kinds of teachers out there. But we need more of those kinds of teachers.

[SK in CV]

The original lease term expired. More likely than not, there’s a clause that says that at the end of the original lease term, unless terminated by either party, it extends on a month-to-month basis on the same terms and conditions. So if you were responsible during the original lease term, you’re still responsible.

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