Monday, January 28, 2008

Income Taxes - On my soap box!!!

On a much heavier note I did my taxes this weekend. Quick simple and highly depressing. We do not have major deductions and so just do a simple form. To keep me from going out of my mind with the nagging that I was getting every night when I got home from work while my DH was recuperating from cervical spine surgery. I hounded him until he went to work, first as a dishwasher and then as a greeter at Walmart. He needed to get out and be around people and that was the only way I could find to get him out of his recliner. He was always a social person until he didn't work any longer and then he became a recluse with only me and our children on occasion to talk to.

Well with that said, his income took us over the limit for social security to be taxable we now have to pay in income tax this year. One wonderful thing about our government - they never want anyone to keep their head above the poverty level. We work all our lives paying into this so called retirement system and then when we get to the point that we can retire we have to keep ourselves at the poverty line to prevent being taxed all over again. Isn't this a wonderful world we live in. It costs more to get to work, to heat our homes, put food in the cupboards and in general just live day to day, but our paychecks do not go up all that much and then we get hit with taxes for trying to survive. So now we are being penalized because we want to be out of debt by the time I want to retire and to have everything ready to hit the road as full time RVers.

It is no wonder that there is rampant depression and suicide in our elder population. One saying that comes to mind. You are Damned if you do and Damned if you don't. What is there to look forward to in the so called golden years.

Have a great day,
Debs

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