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They already are. There was a thread on a politician that wants to remove elderly people from homes that have appreciated too much in value to avoid giving them a property tax credit. He said his neighbor is sitting on a 350K house that could be occupied by someone else, like she is hoarding it and intentionally withholding it from those more deserving. It's her home but to them it's just a pile of cash and she is worth less than that pile. Retirees better beware because it is dangerous to own "more than you need" even if you worked paid and sacrificed your whole life.
Wait until they start taxing wealth in its entirety. There is already a war on saving, seen as hoarding, even if one is retiring, unemployed, disabled. The boomers are finishing with their investing, they need their money to live, "seizing" it to eat and pay bills.
Sounds alot like what NY wanted to do with the senior STAR tax credit...
If memory serves me correct, they not only required documentation to justify the lowering of taxes, but proof that you could still maintain the property and home... I could be wrong whether or not it was proposed I have no clue didn't stay in NY long enough to find out. Guess the state needs as much money as they can get to fund free SUNY college tuition and heroin injection safe sites to prevent overdoses...
Priorities... best to kick Ethel out of her home, because you grossly assessed the home and property value making it unaffordable for her fixed social security income. Tax the hell out of whatever investments she has... Then lock her up to suffer bed sores from under staffed and under paid nursing homes to "live out" her days in squalor rotting away. God forbid the grass grows a little high or that paint fade decreasing someone else's property value by 2k dollars.... Boo. Freaking. Hoo.
No different than throwing away a squeaky dryer for having a worn belt in favor of the latest and greatest 3k dollar Samsung that you need an engineering degree to repair when a 300 dollar circuit board or 90 dollar sensor chits the bed...
Throw away society. Ain't it great?! Why fix what you have there's always greener grass on the other side of the fence... or so you hope... LOL
Windows and HVAC is understandable... but bathrooms and kitchens?
Granite counters, marble floors don't cause you to go number 2 any faster... and seriously, how many know how to properly maintain said granite? Never mind cut it and seal it... That alone wasn't worth it... too time consuming to clean it twice a week.
Unless you have leaks, damages or mold, don't fix what isn't broken... I know hypocritical coming from someone who did put granite counters and back splashes up, that was done strategically. The property value is based on outside appearances. So it looked like the Clampets lived at my house on the outside, right on down to the junk cars in the front yard, but was very nice on the inside. I still sold the house well below assessment and market value to avoid capital gains tax.
Didn't hurt me... but sure hurt them when they went full bore with the siding and everything else.
But if you have a new roof, upgraded electric service, and other practical necessities covered, why not ask 100k? Oh because the bathroom isn't fancy? Kitchen can't meet the demands of a 5 star chef? It's unrealistic and not practical...
A bathroom, you're there to take care of business, wash your hands, and shower... who cares so long as there's no leaks or damages...
A kitchen? You don't need commercial grade appliances for a family of 4 or even up to 6... you don't see any restaurants with granite counters in the kitchen, so let that serrated knife slip off the edge of the cutting board... plus the time to maintain it...
An island with a sink, right behind a sink? How many dishes do you have that need to fill 2 sinks? What's wrong with a double din sink that's worked for years left side for rinsing fruits and vegetables, right side for rinsing dishes/washing hands to be going into the dish washer afterwards?
I like fancy homes just as much as the next person... some things aren't worth it. I'll take a house that's mechanically and structurally sound as boring and bland as can be over something loaded with all the "amenities" requiring extra time to clean and maintain for an unjustified extra 100k asking price based on visual appeal...
No, no need for granite or anything. Just basic cabinets , Pergo flooring and a nice sink. Maybe a $3500 kitchen (not including appliances and doing it yourself) as far as the bathroom, most people don't like that horrible pink , black or baby blue tile. So nothing really fancy.
No, no need for granite or anything. Just basic cabinets , Pergo flooring and a nice sink. Maybe a $3500 kitchen (not including appliances and doing it yourself) as far as the bathroom, most people don't like that horrible pink , black or baby blue tile. So nothing really fancy.
You're lucky to be able to do that. 30% of my income goes straight to rent. Utilities, car insurance, groceries, student loan, and household items take up another 40%. That leaves me with 30% to put into savings.
Some of my friends are worse off. 50% of their income goes to rent.
About 12.5% of my gross annual income goes to ESCROW (PITI). No student loans helps. 30% is still awesome.
Overall, yep, I'm lucky. But I would say it's a combination of luck (being born in this country, having no health issues), discipline (spending modestly, staying local for free time, ability to get by with less, etc.), life choices (career path, I have no kids, I chose to live in a relatively inexpensive area, etc.), and hard / smart work (lots of self-improvement and finding ways to become valuable).
I don't care for the pink, but I love old tile. We've remodeled many times and I always try to work with our pre-ww2 tile. It's a bit heavier than the 50's stuff and worth keeping in my opinion.
I don't care for the pink, but I love old tile. We've remodeled many times and I always try to work with our pre-ww2 tile. It's a bit heavier than the 50's stuff and worth keeping in my opinion.
And crystal door knobs. If you find them at a reclaimers or anywhere antiques and can get them cheap do it. Especially if they have the brass lock sill plates!
I saved countless claw foot tubs too... what would have been destroyed, I yanked out put in the bed of my truck and shoved in the basement. I'd sell them for between 500 and 1000 to anyone who was bonkers enough restoring an old Victorian era house.
Yes, healthcare, education, and housing costs a lot more than they did years ago and have actually increased orders of magnitude above the average rise of inflation. Why? In each of those three sectors of the economy, there has been a dramatic and often times damaging increase of government involvement in those three sectors. Oh, it's always sold as a 'good' thing to have the government in there to make those three things 'better'. But what has it really done? It's increased the costs dramatically for one and in some cases, like in education, diminished the quality of the product. Has innovation or government involvement made healthcare better? I know which one I think is the answer.
So, when you have the government more involved, have them start dabbling in their efforts to 'improve' a sector of the economy, it always ends up being far more expensive. So I say this to Millennials. It's not the baby boomers who are impacting your spending power. Look to the one entity which has the greatest negative effect on prices and cost - the government. So, Millennials if you want someone to 'blame' or someone to paint as the bad guy, you're really looking to the wrong people if you think the baby boomers are the ones to blame.
The government has no hand in health insurance until Obama, and even then insurance companies are still operating on profit motive, so..no..your ideology doesn't work here.
The boomers are a virus that fed off the host to the point it may no longer survive. And now the selfish boomers want to destroy Social Security and Medicare for anyone that is younger than they are. Any proposed changes to those systems always include exemptions for the boomers that are "close to retirement". Boomers are so greedy that they don't even seem to give a chit about what happens to their own children and grandchildren.
I'll bet you couldn't keep up with what I do in a day now when I'm 55, much less what I did at 20. Ever roofed a house? I used to do those on the weekends after I worked 60 hours in my other job. You probably spend your weekends playing Xbox right?
The government has no hand in health insurance until Obama, and even then insurance companies are still operating on profit motive, so..no..your ideology doesn't work here.
Round peg not fitting into square hole.
You should get out more, do a bit more reading. Even before Obamacare, health insurance has been a quasi-government program. I actually found a decent historical timeline of how government has been in healthcare and the health insurance industry. It shows both initiatives which passed and those which did not. Here you go.
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