Living within your means........

They're only worth what you can sell your product for minus franchise fees, cost of goods sold, waste and employee salary + benefits.

 

When a large number of people who are capable and want that job, they are only worth what someone is willing to receive to do it.

If a person wants to be worth more in the job market, they need to make themselves worth more. Do the job better and faster. Expand their capabilities, take on more responsibilities.

 

Well, I do not know just how to do a "show of hands" on the internet. But please put me down an someone who could certainly repair his car--or even buy a new one, if necessary (and pay cash for it).

 

This is surely true.

But if one simply chooses to be entirely indifferent to such matters--and it is, indeed, a choice--one may ward off that influence.

Example: I have a next-door neighbor who has had her entire condominium redone. I took a tour of it--from room to room--and it is simply magnificent! You would truly have to see it in order to believe it!

But does that mean that I intend to remake our own condo? Not at all. (I feel entirely impervious to the "keep up with the Joneses) mindset.)

 

Millennials are more likely to use your approach. Are you one?

 

I see you still don't understand cause and effect.

If some guy stops you on the street and offers to sell you a tarnished "gold" watch, and you're dumb enough to buy it, it is not "cause and effect".

I'd suggest more study.

 

jumping in on the conversation here - but - I would say that the above claim is at least partially correct in some ways - although very poorly worded. Corporations themselves can't actually be bad - "Personification" - a figure of speech apparently lost on our judicial system - but that is another story.

So you are putting out kind of a black vs white meme .. claiming that spending more than one has - " personal debt" - is being blamed on the evil Corporation.

Behind every bad corporation - better word "Oligopoly" - there must naturally be a bad person. So we can now rephrase argument.

Are the folks that own these Oligopolies - responsible for increased personal debt ?

And that is a very complicated question.

 

Sayeth the Trumper with a straight face.

 

Says the guy who can't win an argument against the Trumper.

 

Yeah, sure...

 

$50k is a middle class, blue collar earning bracket. Its just short of the earning average, but not bad either. I'm reminded of the slang acronym for job: Just Over Broke. And its true, regardless of profession. Its not as much about budgeting or living below your means, its about the expenses that add up not in your control, like rent, that car payment, insurance, property taxes. I owed back taxes to the state last year but that's simply because the software made a mistake. That's the only time I've ever actually owed money. So I know you can pay taxes correctly, and not owe money to the IRS.

 

If you are managing your taxes properly you will owe a slight amount at tax time. If you are getting a big refund you are screwing up your taxes. I hope the tax software company paid any interest or penalties you were charged.

 

Wait... rent and car payment is not "beyond one's control."
Insurance is somewhat in a person's control, depends on what you are insuring.
Taxes are somewhat in a person's control: Vote for D instead of R, probably get higher taxes.

A person saying that all this stuff is out of his control indicates that he has thrown in the towel and given up. Yep, he will never be financially secure - because "it is out of my control."

 

I am a Baby Boomer (I was born in 1948.)

 

How is it not? You get stuck with a car payment once you finance a vehicle for so many years that is fixed. Rent-wise, I suppose you could move out if its not working out for you but rent, unless you got tenants to cover a majority of your share, rent is always going to be a inconvenient expense, often at the beginning of the month. Taxation in itself is not a bad thing, if its being invested properly. Tax laws are biased in favor of the rich, not the middle class.

 

Turbotax didn't. Lesson to be learned. Go to an actual CPA.

How is getting a big refund screwing up your taxes? If you paid a fair chunk to the IRS in the last year, wouldn't it make sense to get a big refund?

 

Millennials are the generation of students I had over the years least likely to respond to "Keep up with the Joneses" advertising. They seem motivated to have quality, though not necessarily expensive, "experiences." Travel. Dining Out.

 

Your refund has NOTHING to do with how much it taxes you paid last year. It has to do with how much money you are having withheld from your paycheck. You can adjust that with your employer. Getting a big refund merely means you were having too much withheld. That's money you could have been getting each paycheck and essentially an interest free loan to the government. Prudent tax planning is that you receive as little as possible in a refund or as I do plan to pay some additional at tax time having made the government wait to get your money.
It's amazing this time of year I will hear someone say they just had their taxes done and I ask "how much did you pay in taxes" and they beam back "OH I got $3000 back" and I repeat "how much did you pay in taxes last year" and they don't know.

 

What is your indicator federal taxes are in favor of the rich? How does that manifest itself?

 

Well, when a person buys a car, they certainly make the decision of how much the car costs and what loan they get and so they absolutely do have control over these things. Plus, if the monthly payment is too much, sell the darn thing and buy a beater, get out from under the loan. As for rent, a person has the freedom to decide where they will live and what rent they are comfortable with.

I don't know that taxes are biased. Don't the upper class already pay the vast majority of the taxes owed? There have been threads on this forum about this very thing.

Remember, you are in control of most everything in your life. Your decisions do affect your future, so make good, frugal decisions based on future goals, not short term pleasure. Of course, making bad decisions and then saying it is out of your control, and feeling that you are a victim is a loser's mentality. (Please note, the "you" above is generic, not referring to you personally.)

 

They do. But there are tax advantages that legally reduce to no taxes that have to be paid that are reserved for the upper class. The upper class is who makes the tax laws. Specifically real estate is where the tax deductions take place.

Getting out of financing a vehicle isn’t so cut and dry, because of the negative equity involved you have left it you sell or trade in your vehicle. In some cases you might end up with the monthly payments on the vehicle you got rid of and the vehicle you replace it with.

 

Yes, and I know you know this, but claiming oneself to be a "victim" and "my budget is out of my control" seem rather disingenuous when there is an $80K Lincoln Navigator sitting in the driveway and a $950 Iphone in their hand.

 

That is allowing the IRS to keep your money for the past 12 months.

I would rather have it myself, and draw interest on it.

(This year, my tax refund was a whopping $19--which is really $19 too much; but is very close to being just right.)