Posted on 05/18/2005 10:06:08 AM PDT by qam1
The company my husband contracts out to said all contractors should incorporate their business, since self employment tax is all SS and medicare. The amount saved from that will be invested.
Professional student was a good one.
What I do not get about the "Greatest Generation" L Many of them lived through the Depression and knew how to save and such. Yet, they complain about not being taken care of now?
I suspect that they were also the generation that got hit the hardest by the inflation of the 70s. There wasn't much personal investment at their top earning period (it was a very, very different market) and probably the only asset that might have appreciated was real estate and that's not always a given and then at the time they would have cashed out they were paying pretty heavy capital gains.
Purely a guess however, I'm sure there are serious and factual writings on it (but I couldn't find anything with a quick search).
Sometimes I post rhetorical questions in place of what I would really like to say. It gets a little of the frustration out without getting me banned. :-)
How charming.
You mean banned by the California Boomer who created and maintains this board?.......
I think you may be onto something. My old Deacon made a bad decision to open a business in his sunset years using his house as collateral. As a result, when the business failed, they were stuck paying the house note on SSI, a very difficult thing to do since the note took all of one of their checks. If he hadn't made that investment, he would have paid off his home and been able to live semi-comfortably but certainly not posh. To compensate, they rented out rooms in their home.
Aren't you brave enough to insult the dolts to their faces?
Nothing tackier than a collective insult.
Funny, your diatribe has supported every word I've said about Gen X. Now, can you debate without personal insult? Or is that your only means of defense?
And inflation in the 70s was brutal and, at least where I was (California) the increase in real estate prices didn't keep up because of 16% mortgage rates (yes, kids, 16%.)coupled with wage and price controls that controlled wage increases but didn't seem to control prices put a real damper on the market.
Unless you were nimble you could get hosed pretty bad. I do remember scarfing up a load of 90 day T-Bills at (I think) 18% and some high interest CD's at some very iffy S&L's that fortunately didn't go belly up, but if one was starting a marginally captalized business 99 out of 100 were doomed out of the gate.
Yep, the market was viewed with skeptisism and fear. A fool's game. We recently found a bunch of International Harvester stock owned by my Grandfather during that time. He was using it as a bookmark. Got it as a bonus when he worked there. I also remember the housing market when we first came out of school. I'm in California, too. It was more of the house owning YOU than you owning the house. Now I see the elderly with their homes paid off barely making ends meet, and their homes are falling apart with no money to fix them. Sad really.
At least, I think that's how it goes.
Let's see if you get it. We're the biggest voting block ever. Will continue to be for a long, long time. Our retirement is in danger. We'll vote accordingly. Gen X's retirement is doomed. Doomed. I don't like that anymore than I like my own situation. Like I said, time to find a resolution. I have a retirement account. In addition to SSI. Lots don't. Lots of older folk are going to hurt as a result in the future. That can't be ignored or avoided, unfortunately. Haven't seen anything posted here that will resolve the issue, though.
All of you people are fighting the wrong enemy.
It isn't generational, it's attitudinal. You can all find examples of people in their thirties who have gamed the system, and will ride a "disability" into their sunset.
And you also know folks in their seventies who may still be holding down two jobs.
So what's the problem? I'll give you an example: A few years ago, here in Maryland, teachers rode buses to Annapolis to demand increases in the tax burden. Yep! Increases.
Why would they do that? Because a small increase in their personal taxes would be greatly offset by a large increase in their negotiated salaries.
Who do you suppose rode to Annapolis to lobby against them?
No one. -- We all had to work.
There are problems inherent in a system where the squeaky wheel gets the grease, especially when some wheels do a lot of squeaking even though they have a "liberal" amount of "grease."
Pick your battles ... but always pick the right enemy to fight.
Thank you.
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