To me it feel like one of the spend money to save money things. There is a crossover point for income where it makes sense to figure out how to shelter your income. And it seems to be right above 250k. Above that people start paying to get their income sheltered and pay less taxes than people below.

 

that point should be 0K.

 

Agreed. But if I was making 250k+ a year I might have a different opinion. Hopefully some day I'll find out lol.

 

Nah, that's snakeskin.

 

I'm pretty close to the point where almost nobody actually has a higher percentage of income going to the federal government. houshold income from actual work earning salary just below cutoff for social security, no kids and not very much motgage interest and not many tax loopholes or deductions within reach. Pretty close to 30% with everthing combined is actually going to the federal governmnet.

 

270mph street car.

 

Again, I ask the following question: Why is this considered unfair?




Well, as a person making a little over $100k and filing as an individual, I guess I ought to have more right than anyone to be all riled up and claiming that I deserve a share of other people's money.

But I'm not.

I am the 13%.

 

I hate that the tax system has little incentive to be a successful worker. There are incentives to be a successful business owner or investment banker, but as a semi successful worker, taxes are a kick in the *** every year. I make enough to be comfortable, but definitely not enough to put significant nonliquid investments aside in long term investments or donate significantly to charity.

 

8%er DINKs here.

I believe my wife used to be a die hard democrat. For the longest time, she kept telling me that something was wrong and she wasn't being paid correctly. She wanted to know "where is the other $3k/month going?". When I pulled out her pay stub and explained to her what the lines "FICA", "Medicare", and "Social Security" meant, she about lost it.

We're both independantly right at about 30% taxed once you factor in state and local taxes. I can't wait to get over the hump.

She's slowly coming to the light side.

 

....Really ?

I mean, has she worked any other job where this is not normal?

 

The mortgage interest deduction is a device to keep bankers in country club memberships. It encourages people to borrow money.

Let's say you pay $10,000 in mortgage interest in a given year and you are in a 30% tax bracket. You get your taxes owed reduced by $3000. You have still paid $7000 in interest to the banker. The other $3000 went to the banker, through you, from the federal government.

You are out $7000, the banker is $10,000 richer, and the government has encouraged you to borrow money.

Flip the scenario. Let's say you weren't actively trying to pay bankers lots of interest and instead got a 15 year mortgage and paid that sucker off quickly. Now you are not paying $10,000 in tributes to a banker every stinking year. You no longer have a mortgage interest deduction of $3000 so you now pay the $3000 to the government instead of $7000 to the banker.

$3000 is less than $7000. I would rather pay the $3000 each year than the $7000 each year but that's me.

 

If less than 25% of your monthly mortgage payment is going to buying down the principal each month then you are in too long a term. Interest is killing you with that long note. And if you cannot afford the payments of a shorter note then you might possibly have bought too much house.

For anyone contemplating buying a house, shop what you can afford in a 15 year note. You will pay tens of thousands of dollars less to the bankers and be able to save more for retirement (or hookers and blow).

 

Although with interest rates being as low as they are it can make sense to get a longer term note, if you invest the difference. Typically though most people lack that financial discipline.

 

I just built this model. It's from a company called Fascinations. It's laser cut metal, and it's tiny. Only about 4" long. Snagged it from ebay last week.

 

I suspect she knew what they were, but probably hadn't paid much attention to the actual values in those lines since working a $35k/year job. 3 times the income is apparently about 10 times the taxes.

She suggests every 6 months or so that we could easily pay the house off in only a couple short years. I have to remind her that at 3.75%, the money is too damned cheap to pay back. Instead, we're putting a substantial amount of monthly income into retirement investements.

 

! Nice.

I have this tiger tank one at work on the desk.

 

We keep electing people that feed the public the "job creator" line of BS and maintain tax for actual workers while eliminating or reducing taxes for every other form of income. pretty soon you have a situation where wealthy people are becoming exponentially more wealthy and the productive working class is paying for everything while their wages stagnate along with the economy.

 

I doubt that 13 percent you calculate includes the 15.3 precent of your compensation that is taken out of your paycheck before you get it, Only half of that gets reported on your check stub and none of it gets entered into your tax return.

Nearly half of all federal revenue is payroll tax. investors pay zero% in that catagory and income over ~115k also pays 2.5% instead of 15.3%

you're getting screwed a lot more than you think. You don't make enough and you mistakenly make it from working instead of owning.

 

Just ordered one, cheers.

Why are the tracks crazy camber though?

 

Blown up tank?