# Smaller Paycheck



## fishonline (Jan 15, 2013)

Huh.. I just got my first paycheck for 2013 and it went down by about 60 bucks due to tax increases. I guess there will be less wine in my cellar now.


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## btom2004 (Jan 15, 2013)

ahhh. The old age antics. The more you make the more they take. Just make smaller batches. Wine making must go on.


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## fishonline (Jan 15, 2013)

The problem is that I'm not making any more $$.. The tax cuts expired. Has anyone else noticed that their paycheck decreased? That's like a Super Tuscan kit a month gone.. poof. For nothing.


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## ibglowin (Jan 15, 2013)

SS went back up to what is was for the oh last 30 years or so. Everybody sure got used to not paying the full amount.


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## fishonline (Jan 15, 2013)

I'm sure the gov will squander it on something other than Social Security.


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## Boatboy24 (Jan 15, 2013)

Gonna get worse. BOHICA!


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## Thig (Jan 15, 2013)

ibglowin said:


> SS went back up to what is was for the oh last 30 years or so. Everybody sure got used to not paying the full amount.



That is one of the problems with the government trying to "stimulate" the economy. After a year or two we tend to think we are entitled to it and forget we used to pay it.


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## ibglowin (Jan 15, 2013)

Its sorta like overtime pay. You better not get used to it because as soon as you do it will all go away. Back to reality....


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## Tripplett (Jan 15, 2013)

Dropped $103 per the wife but she didn't clarify if that was each or both of us combined. I think it was combined.


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## fishonline (Jan 15, 2013)

Well I wouldn't say I feel entitled to my own money.. lol! Which I'm sure SS will be gone by the time I'm 65 or 67 or 72. I sure get used to having a budget and having to live within my budget. Unlike the government. So when I lose 120 per month it hurts.


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## Thig (Jan 15, 2013)

Yeah I guess entitlement was not exactly the right word. If we thought 7.65% of our pay was OK to pay for SS and Medicare and then the gov said Ok to help the economy we are going to cut that by 2% for one year. Then at the end of that year the gov said Ok, the economy is still bad so we going to leave the 2% cut for one more year. Then at the end of that year they said we have to stop this because SS and Medicare were not financially sustainable even at 7.65% so sure can't do it at 5.65%.

By that time we think we should only be paying 5.65%. Like I said when the gov gives you something, even if it is your own money, and then takes it away we think we have been wronged.


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## Hokapsig (Jan 15, 2013)

I'd like to see the govt come out and say that SS and Medicare will go away in 50 years. Those that are collecting SS will continue to do so. Those that are young have time to plan and save. Then start to reduce the SS 2% per year for the next 50 years. Those that fail to plan to get old will have to work or rely on charity. People need to learn personal responsibility.


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## grapeman (Jan 15, 2013)

We don't want to turn this political here, but we all pay Social Security whether we like it or not. It could be worse. If you are self employed you will pay both the employee and employer amount yourself, up to I believe 13.3% . There is a cap to it. These are the rules we have to live by and all hope there is something there for us when we need it. I would love to be able to collect SS Disability now since I haven't had much income since 3 months ago when learning I will have to live with cancer the rest of my life. My type of cancer is one that is included as a disabling one, but not until I have the need to have more than one treatment series in a year- so I basically don't quality.


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## Wade E (Jan 15, 2013)

Yeah, it hurts especially when Im already only living on 1 paycheck now until the lawyers and state decide when my wifes perm. disability can be graded. Its been 1 1/2 years now and on top of that I took a 10% pay cut when the economy went in the sh!tter. Do the math there!!!  Its why I fish a lot, its the only thing I can afford to do for fun.


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## dangerdave (Jan 15, 2013)

Everyone has a story!

Four years ago, my wife and I got married and we bought a house---second marriage for both of us after dating for seven years. No kids in the house and two nice incomes. We were living very well when the Recession hit. We were a very active couple. Two years later, Johnna's back started bothing her regularly. As a restaurant manager, she was on her feet 12-14 hours a day. She loved her job and was exceptional at it. She got to the point she just couldn't do it anymore. X-rays showed bad degenerative disc disease (DDD). The only thing that saved us and our home was the disability insurance policy she was working under when she was labelled as disabled. She only lost half of her income instead of all of it. We have been fighting for her SSD ever since. We are currently on our third or fourth appeal---I've lost count. Johnna is unable to work, and the doctors told her to go home until she gets _worse_, so they can do surgery!

As a unified group, the firefighter's union of Chillicothe agreed to defer pay raises for two years and give up some other forms of pay in order to prevent the layoff of some of the younger members. I struggle constantly trying to keep our household on budget in the face of these cuts. We make a couple of steps foreward, only to be shoved back a few more. Now the federal government is messing with what little we have left, all so that the rich folks can keep more of theirs. Repeatedly denying my wife's disability claim is just another insult from the feds. In the next election, I am not voting for a single one of those idiots currently in office in Washington. Vote them all out and give a new bunch a try! That's what I say!

On a positive note, all of this is why I got started making wine. It helps with Johnna's pain, and gives me something to do, now that I don't get out as much.


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## Wade E (Jan 15, 2013)

I HEAR you about the disability appeals. My wifes been through 3 surgeries already!


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## 2PUPs (Jan 16, 2013)

grapeman said:


> We don't want to turn this political here, but we all pay Social Security whether we like it or not. It could be worse. If you are self employed you will pay both the employee and employer amount yourself, up to I believe 13.3% . There is a cap to it. These are the rules we have to live by and all hope there is something there for us when we need it. I would love to be able to collect SS Disability now since I haven't had much income since 3 months ago when learning I will have to live with cancer the rest of my life. My type of cancer is one that is included as a disabling one, but not until I have the need to have more than one treatment series in a year- so I basically don't quality.


 
I hate to say it grapeman , but you are wrong about we all pay social security . I , as a railroad worker , pay into what we call , railroad retirement , not social security . Just a bit of info , not trying to cause trouble .


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## joeswine (Jan 16, 2013)

*Amazing*

IT'S AMAZING HOW WE COME FROM ALL PARTS OF THIS COUNTRY AND WALKS OF LIFE, YET ARE AFFECT BY OTHER PEOPLE who MAKE DECISIONS FOR US.


I'm WILL BE STARTING TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS SO,IM RETIRING IN MAY...LETS SEE WHAT TIME HAS BESTOW UPON ME.... and yes some politics is good talk as long as it 's under control....


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## grapeman (Jan 16, 2013)

2PUPs said:


> I hate to say it grapeman , but you are wrong about we all pay social security . I , as a railroad worker , pay into what we call , railroad retirement , not social security . Just a bit of info , not trying to cause trouble .


 
Interesting. Did you guys get the 2% reduction the last couple years also since the tax rate for Railroad Retirement is tied to the SS tax rate? There always seem to be exceptions to almost everything. Of course if you are retired, hopefully you are getting paid back some of your retirement funds like we all hope to some day.


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## ibglowin (Jan 16, 2013)

So how long have you been working on the railroad? All the live long day? 

Is this some ancient holdover from when the railroads where the only way to travel? Do new hires still have this option or has it been long closed for years now?

When I first came to work for DOE (1986) I was surprised that all of the "old timers" did not pay into SS. Of course that option had been closed for years when I came on board.





2PUPs said:


> I hate to say it grapeman , but you are wrong about we all pay social security . I , as a railroad worker , pay into what we call , railroad retirement , not social security . Just a bit of info , not trying to cause trouble .


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## Wiccan_Lager (Jan 16, 2013)

Not to brag here, but for some reason my paycheck went up by more than 200 dollars...


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## Thig (Jan 16, 2013)

Wiccan_Lager said:


> Not to brag here, but for some reason my paycheck went up by more than 200 dollars...



Gross? Congratulations
Net? Watch out when it comes time to file.


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## Wiccan_Lager (Jan 16, 2013)

I dunno. I have had direct deposit since I started working for my company. Been the same paycheck over and over. Then all of a sudden I saw this pay check with more money. I am certainly not complaining.

The only thing I can think of is they rasied the commuter benefits back up to 245 dollars. So I am guessing that it's saving me some cash. Either way, more money=a happier me.


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## Fabiola (Jan 17, 2013)

fishonline said:


> Huh.. I just got my first paycheck for 2013 and it went down by about 60 bucks due to tax increases. I guess there will be less wine in my cellar now.



I had a big isssue with all my clients when we handed their payroll checks for their employees, we got everyone calling and complaining about that (close to 700 calls), so we had to print information from the IRS web site and included in their next paycheck and an explanation about the "fiscal cliff" thing...


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## joeswine (Jan 17, 2013)

*Be careful what you wish for*

This is just the tip of the, removing backwards. S


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## SpoiledRotten (Jan 17, 2013)

You get what you vote for!


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## Julie (Jan 18, 2013)

You know this has been a nice general discussion and everyone was warned about politics so let me say this AGAIN. Keep the politics out of it, I don't want to here about who is in office and how bad or how good they are nor do I want to here about who anyone voted for nor commenting that this is what we are stuck with.


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## JohnT (Jan 18, 2013)

Julie, 

So far it has not seemed very political in that noone has mentioned any parties or candidates. You should be very proud of these folks... 


That said, to chime in here, There is no way we will stop paying social security. Once the government taps a source of income, that tap is never shut off. Much like when tax increases occur, they very RARELY ever get reduced! Once they have your money, they never give it back!

The other issue is that the government seems to have lost sight of the concept of "return on investment". Take Fema for example. After Sandy (and being a New Jersey resident) I saw first hand that FEMA does nothing but eat up billions of tax dollars. If this sort of thing was privatized, a whole lot more would have been accomplished, for a lot less money, and a whole lot sooner!


Julie - If this has crossed the line, please delete this post with no hard feelings.


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## Julie (Jan 18, 2013)

JohnT said:


> Julie,
> 
> So far it has not seemed very political in that noone has mentioned any parties or candidates. You should be very proud of these folks...
> 
> ...


 
JohnT, I am proud of our members, lol, but I want to make sure no one gets upset. 

And yes you are right about FEMA, remember Katrina, you would think they would learn from past events but they don't.

No Johnt, you did not cross the line, you always seem to make your point without crossing any lines and I thank you for that. One of these days you and I are going to meet and I am going to so enjoy that meeting, hope you are willing to meet with me.


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## Hokapsig (Jan 18, 2013)

Julie, as the moderator, your job is draw the line in the sand. We, as posters, need to test that line with each post. You, as the Mom of the site, need to either whack us back across the line when we cross it, or allow us to move the line.

You have more than fair when moderating. Keep drawing that line.


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## ibglowin (Jan 18, 2013)

Anybody that wants to know how privatizing government agencies does NOT save you anything in tax dollars. PM me. 

My employer is a perfect example..........


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## Hokapsig (Jan 18, 2013)

Privatization is supposed to bring in competition, which drives prices down. The problem with govt' is that many times it sole sources to a single private company and does not shop the market, hence prices stay up (there is no incentive for the sole source company to lower thier price). Economics, whether it be by competition and when not influenced by foolish gov't rules, will bring down the price. 

A prime example is the post office. The post office refuses to regulate itself, so it operates in a deficit. To offset the deficit, the post office raises the price of stamps. With the stamp price up, less people mail things and revenue goes down. What does the post office do? It raises the stamp price and less people send mail and revenue goes down. Meanwhile, UPS, Fed Ex and email make mailing things cheaper, so people naturally gravitate to those. Gov't looses and continues to raise its prices on stamps. Meanwhile, private industry has to continue to seek efficiency in order to make a profit. Gov't doesn't do this.


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## GreginND (Jan 19, 2013)

Well, the postal service is operating at a deficit because congress in 2006 required it to prepay its retirement funds for 75 years into the future. This is taking billions in revenue from the operation of the postal service. Without this unprecedented mandate they would be operating more efficiently than private companies. It's not the government run institutions that are the problem, it's the self important legislators that get in the way and micromanage.


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## grapeman (Jan 19, 2013)

The line in the sand just dissapeared from a HaBub moving through. No more pushing it. This started out as a gripe about a smaller paycheck- let's not tear down any government agencies here...............or the government...............


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## joeswine (Jan 19, 2013)

*Old sayings*

THE GOVERMENT CAN'T GIVE TO YOU WITHOUT TAKING IT FROM SOMEONE ELSE FIRST...............THE WAY OF IT ALL.


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## GreginND (Jan 19, 2013)

grapeman said:


> The line in the sand just dissapeared from a HaBub moving through. No more pushing it. This started out as a gripe about a smaller paycheck- let's not tear down any government agencies here...............or the government...............



I tried very hard to stay out! Kept reading and not posting. Just couldn't stop myself. 

I think it's time to open a bottle of wine and forget about it.


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