Taxes

When my husband and I got married, we married each other and we married each other's debt. I think we had something like $28k in student loans from my husband when we got together, which we started paying off immediately. Those were the good old days before mortgage and a kid, and we were fortunate to have jobs that paid damn close to what we make combined now, eek, ten years later. If we had to pay those loans off now on top of childcare and all the stuff that comes with rising utilities and food costs and house repairs, we would be in serious trouble. Even back then when everything was (relatively speaking) flush, I lived in fear of being in default of those loans, because what would that do to our credit rating and our ability to buy a house or a car or get a job in the future? Messing with your government loans is serious business: the government can seize your tax returns, garnish your wages and more.  Read more >

Like most people, I  occasionally find myself in the trap  of "Keeping Up with the Joneses".  It's so easy to whine about the fact that we can't take that vacation this winter because the windows needed to be replaced, or bemoan the fact that my closet is a shadow of what it once was. In these trying times in our country, so many people are without work, health care, or even a home to live in.  That in itself is enough to put things into perspective.   Read more >

Here is a short (less than 4 minute) video that illustrates the fact that 53% of our tax dollars, conservatively estimated, go to finance our military.  Read more >

"Trickle-down economics" and "the trickle-down theory" are terms that refer to the policy of providing across the board tax cuts or benefits to businesses and the wealthy, such as tax breaks, in the belief that this will indirectly benefit the broad population. The term has been attributed to humorist Will Rogers, who said during the Great Depression that "money was all appropriated for the top in hopes that it would trickle down to the needy."  Read more >