My relatives make 20k a year, and live better lifestyles than me making 100k

[Danke]

...

Have you looked into the Obama Student loan forgiveness program?

http://www.obamastudentloanforgiveness.com/

 

[onlyrp]

Have you looked into the Obama Student loan forgiveness program?

they probably make too much to qualify

 

[AceNZ]

See, I should not have even brought up the charity thing. 1.) As a born-again Christian I believe that I am under no commandment to tithe 10%. Instead, I am to cheerfully give whatever I like from my heart. 2.) I am not going to stop giving to church and charity so that I can buy a laptop.

That sounds an awful lot like a commandment to me: "I am to cheerfully give".

But if your giving was "cheerful," then you should also be happy with your resulting economic circumstances--which you clearly aren't.

If you want to continue giving, then perhaps you should add a couple of additional items to your list:

3) I am not going to complain about my economic circumstances, since they are of my own making.
4) I feel others have a claim on my life, and it is therefore my duty to give, no matter the consequences; the more I sacrifice, the better.

In case you think I'm exaggerating, #4 is the original Christian moral view, right?

 

[cornell]

Something doesn't add up as far as taxes go...are you sure you are maximizing your deductions? As other posters pointed out, medical expenses over 7.5% of AGI as well as charitable contributions will all count. Not to mention personal exemptions knock off another $7,000 or so.

 

[well_met_sir]

I was inclined to sympathy but clearly this guy isn't spending his money how he wants to. If you want to give 10k to your church then do it. Consider that your luxury good. You get to spend 10k on the church. Do the families making 20k have that option? No. Perhaps they would love to give 10k to their churches but they aren't able to afford that luxury. Whole Foods/organic is all about status and has nothing to do with health. The apples you buy at Whole Foods are no better than the apples that you get at a regular grocery store.

David Ramsey's advice only applies to people with higher incomes. I'm not going to go so far as to call him a crank, but you typical Paul supporter can't learn anything from him. He has absolutely nothing of value to say to someone who has to take a 40k/year job in a city where rent is 18k per year and student loans are 8k per year.

 

[onlyrp]

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/en...um-wage-has-more-disposable-income-family-mak

very similar story (but math is all wrong)

 

[Johncjackson]

No offense, but even without knowing you, I can already state that I live with less than you. I do not own a TV or pay for cable, you probably have both; I do not have Internet service in my house, you probably do; I have eaten out twice since September (this includes fast food, or something as simple as a burrito from a gas station), you surely have eaten out more than that this month alone; we do not use or pay for cell phones, you do; we have not gone to a movie theater, concert or sporting event in over five years, you have; we have not been on vacation (one that we did not even pay for, I might add) since 2008, you have; our $10 bed is from Craigslist and EVERY other piece of furniture was free from friends, family or Freecycle, you surely have some new furniture; this is the first winter we have paid to heat our house above 55 degrees, I know that your house has been warmer.

We want her to be a stay at home mom, but we made the mistake of taking out student loans for college. To pay well over $2k a month in student loans requires us to find good paying jobs; having good paying jobs means that over 30% of our income goes to taxes.

If you believe you live more simply than me, and it saves you money, tell me where so that I can adopt it and save more money myself.

Where does your 100 grand go? I agree with the general sentiment of your post/premise but it seems exaggerated. I understand a big chunk goes to taxes and student loans but you still have a lot of income leftover.

Yeah, the 20k people might get a lot of tax rebates and possibly food stamps and Medicaid ( Medicaid varies by state. In my state the children would get it but not the adults), but even with those handouts, I'm sure they are living on less than 40k. So I don't think that allows comparative luxury.

What kind of student loans do you and your wife have? Are they all private? I'm not going to claim to be an authority on student loan repayment, but I know that many have income based repayment options. I thought there was a 10% of income cap or something like that. I'm not saying I agree with that or not, just that there might be other options.

Your location says Kentucky. Again, I don't want to make assumptions- you live in a high cost of living area? I just know that my wife and I make way less than 6 figures. She has never worked but has loans from grad school, and I completely maxed out my student loans. They are in repayment. We have a house payment, 2 paid-off cars, 2 kids, 8 pets. We live in the Midwest, relatively low cost of living. We are doing just fine, and have multiple computers, internet, cable, Netflix and other subscriptions, kids go to camps, play sports, and take weekly lessons. We eat well- Dont shop at Whole Foods though ( and doubt your relatives do either). We have 5 cell phones but dont have any iPhones or data plans. We eat out more than I would like ( I detest paying for fast food and the unpleasant experience it brings).

 

[onlyrp]

I was inclined to sympathy but clearly this guy isn't spending his money how he wants to. If you want to give 10k to your church then do it. Consider that your luxury good. You get to spend 10k on the church. Do the families making 20k have that option? No. Perhaps they would love to give 10k to their churches but they aren't able to afford that luxury. Whole Foods/organic is all about status and has nothing to do with health. The apples you buy at Whole Foods are no better than the apples that you get at a regular grocery store.

exactly, organic food and vegetarian diet are liberal environmentalist scams .

 

[onlyrp]

Something doesn't add up as far as taxes go...are you sure you are maximizing your deductions? As other posters pointed out, medical expenses over 7.5% of AGI as well as charitable contributions will all count. Not to mention personal exemptions knock off another $7,000 or so.

I am willing to bet he doesn't know anything about deductions and doesn't know how much he puts into savings each year. These are the type of people who don't know their math so they feel they can complain about poor people living better.

 

[specsaregood]

exactly, organic food and vegetarian diet are liberal environmentalist scams .

fwiw: the biggest organic grocery store chain is run by a libertarian ron paul supporter, not a liberal.

 

[NCGOPer_for_Paul]

To the OP, I'd suggest that you talk to a Certified Financial Planner.

If you're paying an effective tax rate of 28% on an income of $85k, you're probably filing a 1040-EZ, and not even researching anything. You should NEVER file an EZ, unless you have no deductions, period.

Also, was this combined income? Because neither one of you are withheld at the 28% rate if it's combined.

Seriously, you need to talk with someone.

Either that, or you have just come on here to blast poor people.

 

[dmo069]

David Ramsey's advice only applies to people with higher incomes.

Not at all. Ramsey advocates living within your means. That is good advice for any income level.

 

[youngbuck]

How much did you take out for student loans, and for what degree?

 

[Sola_Fide]

The answer is obvious. Quit your job and move in with your relatives.

 

[onlyrp]

The answer is obvious. Quit your job and move in with your relatives.

lol, was that sarcastic?

 

[Sola_Fide]

lol

 

[specsaregood]

lol, was that sarcastic?

Of course not! We as a country have lived beyond our means for so long that much extended families living under one roof is inevitable. just like many other 3rd world nations. he might as well get a jump on things.

 

[onlyrp]

Of course not! We as a country have lived beyond our means for so long that much extended families living under one roof is inevitable. just like many other 3rd world nations. he might as well get a jump on things.

The funny thing is, that sounds like something I would say (minus the quit part), because I am very unsympathetic to people who either don't know their options, or make poor choices. Even less for people who think they make too much and are unfairly penalized to the point of being worse off making more. I didn't want to pat somebody on the back just yet if he was joking. I wouldn't say its inevitable, if there's enough empty houses, or if we can stop zoning and allow empty storefronts to become homes. But I totally agree with living within your means.

 

[Tobias2dope]

Yeah something doesn't add up. My advice is that God is more interested in you getting out of debt than he is in you giving money to your church, most churches don't need it. (I'm a Christian).


Personally my wife and I's situation is complicated, but I know we're at "poverty" level,
we both have cheap phones, we shop at aldi's, we don't eat out a lot, we have a decent TV, pay for netflix, utilities, $300 for rent, , and we live pretty comfortably, this winter I kept the heat at about 60 degrees. I still got about 2k in savings and bought a cheap laptop for my wife. No medical, though, and I don't have a lot of money to give to church, but I do when I have it, plus I play music 3 times a weak for them so I figure that's my tithe. We also take no government handouts of any kind.

Personally I consider giving to the Ron Paul Campaign a Christian Duty, on par with charity.

 

[furface]

To the OP, I'd suggest that you talk to a Certified Financial Planner.

If you're paying an effective tax rate of 28% on an income of $85k, you're probably filing a 1040-EZ, and not even researching anything. You should NEVER file an EZ, unless you have no deductions, period.

Also, was this combined income? Because neither one of you are withheld at the 28% rate if it's combined.

Seriously, you need to talk with someone.

Either that, or you have just come on here to blast poor people.

No kids, no mortgage and 85k per year? I can totally believe a 30% effective tax rate. The MINIMUM federal tax rate is 14% for SS & medicare (including employer contributions). FICA goes down eventually, but not at 85k. It's bracketed, but the average federal rate from 0 to 85k is about 16% for married jointly. That's 30% just federal, so with state+local then deductions and exemptions, 30% totally is plausible.

But, personally I don't worry too much about people getting things like free medical care and food stamps from the government. If governments are going to hand money out, it's better to hand it out to everyday people instead of government unions & bureaucrats who to a large degree are predatory towards honest, productive people in society.

People who do nothing and spend money to keep the economy going are way less of a threat than government workers who claim to be giving us "services," much like a rapist "services" a rape victim.

It's very likely that we could get rid of the income tax and just tax pure resource consumption like gas taxes & have excise taxes and user fees and we'd be able to pay for a sort of "safety net" state. A predatory bureaucratic military state like we have now requires big money that has to be aggressively taxed and printed.