Life is so expensive for young adults these days

[iris lilies]

Believe me, I have a long way to go before I don't pay any taxes. I just think it's a statement on our values to allow mortgage interest deductions, but not education, so if I had to choose, I'd remove the mortgage interest deduction and let students, or parents who are footing the bill for their kids, deduct a bigger part of the cost of tuition. Do we want to encourage education or mortgage debt?

Of course it's a statement of our values, or the values of Congress in the social engineering of our society. Progressives like herding the sheeple toward doing things.

"We" should not be putting the official stamp of Nanny G approval on any of it--mortgages, education, popping out tots--none of it. Could we please just move to a flat tax structure?

I was today looking over our 2013 tax return today: deductions, exemptions, credits--jeez, when will it end? Stop the madness.

[jp1]

Of course it's a statement of our values, or the values of Congress in the social engineering of our society.

Could we please just move to a flat tax structure?

.

Actually, I think it's a statement of K street's values. Obviously the real estate lobby is more powerful than the education lobby. Which shouldn't be a surprise considering how much more real estate brokers make compared to teachers.

I'd be fine with the flat tax structure as long as it was somewhat progressive. I make a good living. I don't expect minimum wage workers at Walmart to contribute an equal percentage of their paycheck to federal taxes that I do.

But good luck making a major change to the federal tax structure. Wall street's lobbyists will have a freak out at the idea that investment income should be taxed as much as earned income. Thanks again, K street! Always making sure that the wealthiest among us don't have to suffer the indignity of paying their fair share.

And now let the discussion of whether fair share is defined by dollars or percentage of income begin...

[iris lilies]

.... Which shouldn't be a surprise considering how much more real estate brokers make compared to teachers.

Median salary of middle school teachers in the St. Louis Public Schools
$44,800

http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Middl...Louis,-MO.html

Starting salary of teachers in the St. Louis Public Schools:

$38,250

http://www.nctq.org/districtPolicy/c...trict.do?id=97

Median earnings of real estate agents
$39,140

http://money.usnews.com/careers/best...l-estate-agent

There's no difference. And don't get me started on the lobbying efforts of the NEA (don't you watch House of Cards!!!??? hahaha.)

[Lainey]

Actually, I think it's a statement of K street's values. Obviously the real estate lobby is more powerful than the education lobby. Which shouldn't be a surprise considering how much more real estate brokers make compared to teachers.

I'd be fine with the flat tax structure as long as it was somewhat progressive. I make a good living. I don't expect minimum wage workers at Walmart to contribute an equal percentage of their paycheck to federal taxes that I do.

But good luck making a major change to the federal tax structure. Wall street's lobbyists will have a freak out at the idea that investment income should be taxed as much as earned income. Thanks again, K street! Always making sure that the wealthiest among us don't have to suffer the indignity of paying their fair share.

And now let the discussion of whether fair share is defined by dollars or percentage of income begin...

The "FIRE" group - Finance, Insurance and Real Estate - gives far more money to candidates and parties, mainly the Republican party, than any other group.
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/

[pcooley]

Really?? I can't imagine having such a small, cheap-interest mortgage that it isn't worth itemizing, but as you say, I live in Central Jersey, so...

I was surprised when we originally bought our house that the interest on the loan was not enough to outweigh the standard deduction. (Our house cost $127,000). There appeared to be no tax benefit whatsoever to owning a mortgage. I itemize every year on Turbo Tax. Every year the standard deduction wins.

[JaneV2.0]

I just used the standard deduction this year. It appears to have cost me about $100; I'm not sure it's worth it to save me forty-five minutes of time.

[iris lily]

I just used the standard deduction this year. It appears to have cost me about $100; I'm not sure it's worth it to save me forty-five minutes of time.

I know, I'm getting so that I hate the Health Savings Account paperwork. Sure, it's not incredibly time consuming and is easy, but it only seems to save us around $100. I asked DH if we could for go it this year but he said "nope" and he is the boss. About this stuff, anyway. His eye glasses are very expense and he changes out lenses or frames annually. That's predictable, and our dentist bills are predictable, so that's what we register in the HSA. Our health bills are incredibly cheap, especially when compared to our vet bills.

[awakenedsoul]

Life is so Expensive for Young Adults These Days: I just talked with my neighbor this a.m. about her sons. They are in their early twenties. One just moved into an apt. with a friend. He's working in construction and paying his own bills. She seemed so relieved. He'd had some addiction problems last year and had spent time in jail. (There are a lot of drugs and dealing around here.) Her younger son, (twenty-one,) still lives at home. He works all night at Ralph's, stocking shelves. He goes to school at 9:30 a.m. He also has his own sound studio that he drives around and makes money that way. He's bought himself a Trans Am and several other cars that are parked in their front yard. I asked her if he's going to move out soon. He likes living at home. He makes good money, and buys these cars (to fix up) with it. She said that he has doubled his salary at Ralphs. He's a manager there. My hit on it was that he doesn't want to spend money on the stuff that isn't fun. (Insurance, deposits, rent, food, etc.) The people his age around here are living with their parents well into their late twenties. It's like a new culture.

[sweetana3]

Young Japanese women have had this lifestyle for a long time. Called "Parasite Single" and can be looked up on Wikipedia. Maybe it is just spreading?

[Teacher Terry]

One thing that is different is that when young (age 60 now) there were many good paying manufacturing jobs that people could raise families on that had good health insurance for those that did not want to go to college. Now there are many crappy jobs even for college grads & many jobs w/o health insurance. The ACA is helping this some but still the deductibles are so high on some of these that people will not be able to use it anyways. While some young adults need the best of everything I know many that don't but are still struggling.