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Home > Self-Indulgent Politicians Break the Future

Self-Indulgent Politicians Break the Future

January 3rd, 2013 at 06:53 am

All of them. I'm not picking sides.

I do not like the hit we are going to be taking with the end of the payroll tax holiday. I'm estimating $500 a month on a normal month. Probably $750 this month due to the extra week of pay. I may come up short paying off the BoA VISA this month. I am still going to try to squeeze it out, because gosh, darn it, I want it gone, but any breathing room the extra week of pay gave us is gone. Your gubmint dollars at work.

I am just very, very glad we have spent the last few years buckling down hard and paying down our debt with a vengeance and that we are used to living on less than half our income. And if it is that bad for us with a good middle class income, I can't even imagine how hard this is going to slam those who are barely scraping by. Well, hello there Great Depression 2. I'm not an alarmist by nature but I don't see us coming out of this for a long time. I worry about what the world will be like when my kids are adults.

I am starting to think about putting the whole buying a new house thing on hold for a few more years. Well, I've been thinking it for the last few months, but this may just be the final nail in the coffin. It's going to take longer to build up an emergency fund with $500 a month missing from DH's paycheck. It's certainly going to make saving for and cash flowing college harder than I thought. And Mom isn't getting any younger. With two mini-strokes to her name already I really worry more about leaving her on her own.

It's even crossed my mind to cancel or postpone Disneyland. I'm not going to, but I think this is going to be the last vacation of consequence for a few years. I'm just really glad that we'll have a full kitchen in the condo.

It's possible DH might pick up another week in February. If he did I could bank that and it would go a long way towards making up the shortfall for the rest of the year.

I am worried about my knee. It has been swollen and painful since Christmas and it's started clicking. I am going to try to get a hold of the doctor tomorrow now that the holidays are over. I am hoping it is just needing to be drained of fluid. I do not want cortizone. I also do not want to end up having knee surgery again and having yet another medical debt to pay off.

Okay, I know I sound negative and down, but I am actually in a surprisingly good mood today despite everything. This has been more of a getting it out of my system rant. DS was pretty easy on me with his first day of homeschooling since the holidays ended. And I am totally understanding the math today, so go me. I thought I was going to struggle the whole year, but I think that this unit at least will be easy.

10 Responses to “Self-Indulgent Politicians Break the Future”

  1. TexasDisneyGirl Says:
    1357220493

    I was so sure that they'd either extend the payroll tax cut or put something else in place to offset it. Boy, was I wrong! We increased DH's 401k contribution at the same time so I don't know what to expect for his first paycheck.

    Sorry about your knee. Frown

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    1357227960

    Robin, I'm sure MonkeyMama or CCF would be much better qualified to address this, but since the payroll tax is only on the first $110,100 of income, I believe the maximum hit is $183.50 per month. (For my family, since AS files separately, it's going to be more than that, but since your husband is the sole wage earner, yours should be capped.)

  3. rob62521 Says:
    1357227962

    There's a bumper sticker that has been around for about 4 years which says "vote them out...all of them!" and I agree. Term limits are a good idea.

    As for buying the house, you want to make sure you buy something when you are ready that you plan to stay in because with the Obamacare law, if you sell anything for more than you paid, you pay huge capital gains taxes.

    Hope your knee improves.

  4. Looking Forward Says:
    1357228904

    I really hope you can get your knee feeling better soon! Smile

  5. MonkeyMama Says:
    1357239962

    Ceejay is right - though it can be higher per month (the new tax is 2% of income, capped at $110k). If it is higher earlier in the year, it will also be zero at the latter part of the year.

    Actually, now that I think about it, you are probably noticing that it went from -0- to 6.2% in the new year. Probably because you capped out at some point last year and maybe haven't paid social security tax in recent months. That is nothing new. Just that it was 4.2% for the past 2 years - was 6.2% before that.

    & Rob's comments about the house tax are untrue. Married couples still enjoy $500k tax-free gains on their residences, for a home owned and lived in for two years.

  6. LuckyRobin Says:
    1357248025

    MM--I had used a calculator earlier in the year that said we'd have to pay $6000 more a year, so I just divided that by 12, which makes it average out at $500 a month. We did cap out sometime in October, but was basing it on the income before that. Maybe the calculator got it wrong? DH made just under $150K this year.

  7. ceejay74 Says:
    1357255510

    LR, maybe it was a calculator of what would happen if the Bush-era tax cuts weren't extended.

  8. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1357256349

    Can you increase your witholding #'s on your taxes to offset it somewhat? I need to see how my taxes play out for 2012, but once that happens, I will probably go from my current -0- to maybe -2-. I'd put the number at -0- due to having no idea how my taxes would play out in 2011 having half the year SE and half the year with W-2 employment. The 2% increase for me isn't going to be a big number, but it will definitely make some of my savings goals more difficult to reach.

  9. MonkeyMama Says:
    1357264805

    Yes - that calculator was incorrect since several tax changes were made just a couple of days ago, for 2013. Any tax calculator earlier could not have been set up correctly since no one knew what Congress was going to do for 2013. They didn't increase any taxes for anyone under $300k-ish in income. So I'd think your taxes are largely the same, except for the extra 2% to social security. (Which is how it has been for about eternity, except cutting it temporarily for some stimulus).

  10. LuckyRobin Says:
    1357271183

    Okay. Yeah, I used that calculator a month ago so it wouldn't have taken into affect the new changes. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see when we start getting paid this month. Have I mentioned before just how much I hate waiting?

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