JoeTaxpayer

The Huffington Post reports, “There are 16.4 million American children living in poverty. That’s nearly one quarter (22.6 percent) of all of our children.”

We seem to find money for most other things. The food stamp program isn’t fat we need to cut from the budget, it’s an essential program to keep people from starving to death in the richest country in the world.

As exciting as the new tax table was for me, the retirement limit announcement produced a hollow thud.

You see, for 2014, the 401(k), 403(b), 457, and Government TSP are all unchanged at $17,500 limit, with a $5,500 catch-up provision for those 50 and older.

The IRA limit is also unchanged at $5,500 with a $1,000 catch-up for 50 and older. The phaseout for IRA deductibility for a single filer covered by a workplace retirement plan is between $60,000 and $70,000, and for married filing joint, between $181,000 and $191,000. The AGI phase-out range for taxpayers making contributions to a Roth IRA is $181,000 to $191,000 for married couples filing jointly.

For those in that phaseout range, these numbers are important. Above or below them, and you’re not impacted at all.

This lack of an increase comes thanks to a low CPI inflation rate, which is either good, or if you are a conspiracy theorist, is purposely understated to keep Government programs COLAs from increasing too much. Either way, the numbers are out.

For Tax Geeks like me, it’s an exciting time when the new tax tables are announced by my friends at the IRS. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know how taxes work, more or less. The tables aren’t the actual tax you pay on gross income, but on taxable income which is gross less a number of items, including the personal exemption which rises to $3,950 in ’14 and the standard deduction for single $6,200 or joint $12,400. 

I’ll be referring back to this article over the next year whenever the tax table is part of the conversation. Check out the new rate table and start planning for 2014.

Spring ahead, fall back. The time shift gives us an extra hour of sleep tonight, but when finish our dinner tomorrow, we will notice the sun will set an hour earlier. This means that if you had any outdoor projects to do before the winter weather sets in, it will need to be done on the weekends. I read an article in which an economist suggested The US needs to retire daylight savings and just have two time zones—one hour apart. A fascinating idea, but is it practical? I thought part of daylight saving time was to keep it light during the time the kids were going to school. Wouldn’t this mess that up? I’ll keep an open mind, I promise. It’s strange to get past 50 and suddenly something you’ve been used to all these years might change. It would be similar to waking up one day and reading they cancelled Pluto. An entire planet gone, by committee.  Wait, that really happened. Two time zones? Bring it on.

On a lighter note, Nate St. Pierre shared My Evil Plan To Destroy The Westboro Baptist Church. Nate has a cause, and as he put it in a different article,”When the Hell’s Angels and the KKK show up to shield the victims from their actions, you get a sense for how truly ugly these people are.” If you don’t read the article, I’ll offer you this; it’s not about suppressing free speech, just the opposite, it’s about not giving them any press coverage. They thrive on attention. Good luck, Nate.

Next, at Mighty Bargain Hunter, I read Unit pricing can tell an interesting story.  John’s thoughts on K-Cup pricing was another interesting twist on the K-Cup pricing story. A coincidence that I wrote about this 2 days ago, the images I put up were taken by me last weekend in advance of the idea.

What is the American Dream? Asked and answered at Making Sense of Cents. Michelle was inspired by a presentation from Chase bank at FinCon two weeks ago. It made all of us consider what our dreams are. For some, a house, others, a family, or early retirement. What’s your dream?

Miranda Marquit wrote Why you spend more when you use a credit card. I’m still skeptical. A few reasons – (a) all studies seem to be with college kids and a gift card of some kind. I’d conclude that college kids spend more using cards than cash. (b) no distinction between the pay-in-full group and those who carry a balance. I’m certain those who carry a balance are going to spend more on credit than if they use cash. These folk should just freeze those cards. (c) No study that I’ve seen has followed a family for a year’s time to analyze their spending. This seems to be one of those memes that are so often repeated that they become ‘fact.’

And with winter right around the corner, Brock shares how to Save Money By Winterizing Your Own Sprinkler System. Our guy charges about $100 to do this for us, but I might just DIY it next year thanks to Brock at Clever Dude.