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December 6, 2012 at 11:49 AM in reply to: OT: Lawn care: Do you pay when they don’t show up? #755842
UCGal
Participant[quote=ctr70]I just went on a tax calculation web site and compared what someone living in CA making $400k a year vs. someone making $40k pays in total taxes. The assumption for sake of discussion is single person:
$40k income
-$5,484 federal taxes
-$1,680 social security
-$576 Medicare
-$396 SDI
-$1,320 CA state income taxes
Total:$9,456 – 23% of income$400k income
-$116,400 federal taxes
-$16,800 social security
-$5,796 medicare
-$3,996 SDI
-$40,608 CA state income taxes
Total:$183,600 – 46% of incomeSo the person making $400k pays 20 times more in taxes as a total dollar amount! And the liberals want them to pay more!!! $183,600 is not enough blood for the parasites! What would be fair if it was a flat tax and the person making $400k also paid a total of 23% out of their paycheck. They would still be contributing $92,000 vs. $9,456 for the person making $40k. Still 10 times as much!
I personally think the whole escalating tax brackets are total BS. It is basically a legal means for the lower income to steal from the higher income because they outnumber them in the electorate & will always vote for the candidate who taxes “the rich” more. The ONLY guy who EVER got it right was Steve Forbes with the flat tax plan. Why should a person making $400k have to pay out double the % of his income as a guy making $40k? There has never been a good reason for it. It is totally unjust and unfair and IMO a Governmental form of theft, a form of stealing. A much better plan is the RADICAL shrinking of the size and scope of Government and more frugality with tax dollars collected, so our citizens can keep more of their money & choose to spend it how they wish.
I do not want to live in a Euro-style quasi socialist society where the Gov takes 60% of my income and re-distributes it. I don’t want to live in a place with chronic high unemployment and stagnant economies with no decent jobs like Greece, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, etc… I would rather personally choose how I spend my money.[/quote]
Your numbers for SS and medicare are off.
Assuming worst case (highest tax) – which is for someone self employed. Self employed folks pay both employer and employee side of SS payroll tax.Your 40k earner would pay:
10.4% * $40k = $4760 SS tax.
Your 400k earner would pay:
10.4% * $106,800 = $11,107.20 SS tax.
(ss payroll taxes are capped at the first 106,800 of payroll income)Medicare also seemed off.
Your 40k earner would pay
2.9% * 40k = $1160 medicare taxes
Your 400k earner would pay
2.9% * 400k = $11,600 medicare taxessource: http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10003.html#a0=0
If they are an employee – it will be less since the employer will pay a big percentage of the SS tax.
Medicare is a flat tax – so you can’t make any argument about the high earners being unfairly taxed. Flat is flat. 2.9% on all earned income.
SS is a regressive tax – higher earners pay a lesser overall percentage because only the first $106k is taxed… People making less than $106,800 pay the tax on their entire income.
ParticipantWe buy the organic strawberry preserves… what’s the issue with it? My kids like it.
We also buy the Kirkland brand dog food… so does our vet….
I love Costco… between costco, trader joes, and sprouts…. I rarely go to vons anymore.
ParticipantBG – I love you to death but I have to wonder why you get so dogged and rude to other posters on this site.
What did Jazzman ever do to you that you basically called him a liar on the property tax thing? And just because you dream of retiring to Tahoe, doesn’t mean his dream of retiring to Europe isn’t equally valid.
Seriously – I’m a fan of the way you dig into any topic… and provide links and details. But I can’t figure out why you went after Jazzman so hard and called him a liar. If he says he paid his taxes – who are you to dispute that?
I get the European home dream. I’ve got that dream myself except in southern Italy. And like spdrun – my family has dual citizenship – so the legalities are easier.
Not sure why you’d not include halls in the square footage for French homes… they’re included in the sf of our homes.
Jazzman – I love that 2nd home with the summer guest house.
Participant[quote=bearishgurl]
Where we stand depends on where we sit.[/quote]I am planning on retiring here.
It assessed slightly higher than the range you stated – but still put us well underwater on paper. Good thing we have very little debt in it.
I do care what my neighbors think of me… friction with neighbors reduces your quality of life. But they like us despite our ongoing projects.ParticipantAll I can say is on the Russ V BG discussion – I’m in the Russ camp.
And I’m glad BG isn’t in my neighborhood – since we have several partially completed projects. After contractors burned us we are strictly DIY and stuff gets done as we have time. Progress is being made – but not on the pace it would be made if we’d hired someone.
Thankfully – we have neighbors who like us and are fine with our pace of progress. Even if we are DIY – even for stucco.
ParticipantI saw an interview with the screenwriter yesterday…. it looks like an awesome movie.
November 24, 2012 at 2:40 PM in reply to: I’m thinking of building a house on the back of my OB lot #755214ParticipantI agree with this. And even with an architect that is leed certified… not all projects he or she does need to be leed. The accounting / paperwork add to the cost and it’s probably not practical on a budget oriented residential project – even if you incorporate some of the green ideas like efficiency, reuse, and liveability (light, air quality, etc.).
disclaimer, our granny flat incorporated ideas that would have qualified it to be a leed project… but we did that because it made sense… and never bothered with the certification.
Participantmy understanding is that one of the issues of the strike was that hostess brands stopped funding the pension in August 2011, despite union contracts requiring the. too.
The size of the near $1 billion union pension claim is likely, in part, because Hostess’s hedge fund owners stopped contributing to the company’s pension plan in August 2011, as a result of bitter labor negotiations and deteriorating finances.
Hard to put the blame of the pension problems 100% on the workers….
November 21, 2012 at 1:18 PM in reply to: OT: Newark Mayor Cory Booker to live on food stamp budget #755083Participant[quote=AN]I don’t like veggies or fruits, so I didn’t add it. But if you’re into fruits and veggies, here ya go: http://zionmarket.com/sale/store1.htm
5lb of oranges for $0.99.
5lb of melogold for $0.99
2lb of persimmon for $0.99
5lb of raddish for $0.99
3 bunches of lettuce for $0.99
10lb of cabbages for $0.99So, how much veggies and fruits do you eat? more than 5lb of oranges/da and 10lb of cabbages a day?[/quote]
The problem with buying veggies in bulk is it limits you to one specific veggie. I think any family of 4 would be hard pressed to eat 10 lbs of cabbage in a week – even with cabbage intensive dishes of corned beef and cabbage.I just checked the add – 3 heads of red leaf lettuce for 99c is good. It’s a better price than costco.
You talk about someone eating 5 lbs of oranges in a day – that’s unrealistic… for one thing it’s not nutritionally complete – And would eat up too big of your $4.44/day. But 5lbs of oranges for a family, for a week… that’s reasonable.
I’ve been meaning to check out zionmarket and this new market you mention… I think that’s how I’ll spend my “black friday” shopping.
Participant[quote=squat250]we are library folk too, but, it’s nice to own also.
all our harry potter books have been read at least 5x each by threekids, so that’s 15 readings per volume, x 5 books? 75 readings.
i mean, the little one was so thrilled to have the new diary of a wimpy kid in hsi grubby little hands last nite….he will probably read it a dozen times….it’s worth it..[/quote]
I hear you on some books being worth owning. We have the HP set, the Lemony Snickets books, The Percy Jackson books. With two boys – they’ve been read a LOT. And yes – we have several of the wimpy kid books.That said – I just picked up The Maze Runner, and Enders Game at the library – I expect both boys will have read them by the end of the long weekend.
ParticipantInteresting. Thanks Flu.
I’ve mostly consolidated to Shwab and my last account at fidelity is a really old rolled IRA. (almost 20 years since I rolled it.)I’ll have to look into grabbing some freebies.
Participant[quote=Ren]
Anecdotal – I know an early 40’s crab fisherman. He works two seasons per year (6-7 months total?) and makes over $150k in that time. He’s got seniority, so he doesn’t do the dangerous work anymore – he sits in a nice warm cabin operating the crane. I’m not sure I would ever have been willing to put in the work he did to get to that point, and probably physically incapable now. He says that most 20-somethings wash out after one season.[/quote]Ever watch deadliest catch? – unless you’re running the pilot house or the crane – that work SUCKS.
That said – I lived in NW Washington for several years. There were a lot of boat owners who lived in Bellingham during the off season. It’s *very* lucrative if you own the boat… but those boats aren’t cheap. And there’s the months away from your family working extremely long hours (up to 48 hours straight if you’re lucky enough to have hit a high yield spot. That puts wear and tear on your body.
A friend of mine dated the son of a boat owner. He was 30, but looked closed to 50 because of the hard life during the season.
ParticipantI used to buy books a lot… then I realized the library was free- I could waitlist books that were checked out by others… It’s been a while since I bought a book.
As far as leaving books around for the kids to read – I take the kids to the library once a week – and am more than willing to enter their “wish list” books to reserve them.
This thread just prompted me to put in a hold request for the wimpy kid book. My hold is number 91 of 91… but there are 15 copies in circulation – so it should get to us around Christmas break… that will work out.
In the meantime they’re working through dystopic stuff like Hunger games and Maze Runner trilogies.
ParticipantReally – that’s not a good thing. The three brokerages with a rep for low cost/decent funds are Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab… with Vanguard being the lowest cost- but least service, and Fidelity being more expensive, but good service… and Schwab in the middle.
I’ve got money at all three – but have been migrating it all to Schwab. I’ll need to check what fees I’ll incur if I roll an old IRA out of Fidelity.
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