Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yes, and that's what happened with the person I knew who couldn't pay her $700 doctor bill. She called him up, crying about how she earns very little and doesn't have the money, and he not only lowered it but put her on a monthly payment plan. (I know because she stupidly told me the whole story.) But what the doctor DOES NOT know is that she went to Scotland for 10 days on a vacation a few months earlier. She also has an iPhone. Also bought a late-model car with every available option.
Now, take me. I just had a $600 doctor bill, plus another $325 for the pathology (it was nothing.....), so I will have to pay $925 this month IN ADDITION to the $900 premium (zoomed up under Obamacare). And WHY am I able to pay it? Because I did not go to Scotland when I don't have money saved, I have a $79 Samsung, and I did NOT buy every available option* on my last car purchase. Should I have just bought all sorts of luxuries and flown to Europe and whatever figuring that if I get a doctor's bill I can't pay, I'll just negotiate it down. If everybody did that, the doctor would have to raise his fee on the "full payers" who are responsible savers. (Come to think of it, maybe that's why my doctor charged $600 for a 10-minute appointment! Had to make up for the people who didn't pay.)
*I did buy all the safety features, though. Don't want to scrimp there when lives may be at stake.
Hey, just wanted to tell you that I feel your pain about the insurance premiums and doctor bills.
My husband and I pay $1100 a month, WITH A $6750 EACH DEDUCTIBLE. But hey, no copay! We just basically pay for everything plus pay our premium every month.
Hey, just wanted to tell you that I feel your pain about the insurance premiums and doctor bills.
My husband and I pay $1100 a month, WITH A $6750 EACH DEDUCTIBLE. But hey, no copay! We just basically pay for everything plus pay our premium every month.
Thank you! I am particularly upset because I just got the bill for the pathology this morning, and next week I have to start PT for two months. (Two unrelated issues.) Because of Obamacare, my insurance basically pays NOTHING. Didn't want to complicate the story, but that means that my medical costs for February will be $900 premium plus $925 for the doctor's bill plus $800 for 8 sessions of PT. That's close to $2,000 for February alone! And I'm what Obama counts as "insured." Oye.
Credit card and then pay it off before the interest starts accruing. I did that a lot in college. My first two years I was not very good with money and month to month or worse. Last two I got a better job, the extra $5 an hour helped and I also got better at not spending everything I had so if I needed a new battery or set of tires I didn't need to rob Peter to pay Paul. Much better way to live imo. Give it a try.
Yes, there are numerous ways to make good use of credit cards as well and also can be used in emergencies. We put almost all of our purchases on no-fee, cash-back credit cards and pay them off monthy.
There are ways to lower any burden if one knows what to do.
You just said you agreed with the poster who said some people should be made to wear a barrel so they can feel superior - and specifically called me out by name as how I believe. (Look back a couple of pages.) And again, all I've done is point out that many people don't have $400 in the bank NOT because they are poor but because they bought luxury items when then had no savings.
Let me ask again: What name have you been called?
I think 'wearing the barrel' comment by the other poster describes the pseudo-conservative mindset pretty well, even if you don't see it yourself.
Are you assuming that the people disturbed when others without $400 in savings spend their money on expensive cell phones are "wealthy conservatives"? To the contrary, they are primarily middle-income earners who made prudent decisions, bought the cheaper cell phone and do their own fingernails, so they can put away savings for retirement. They are rightly disturbed when they see people without a penny to their names spend every last cent because they know that these same people will cry "poverty" when it comes time to get on the liberal receiving line for benefits - and paid for by the middle-income earners who made the responsible decisions.
Money is too easy to come by for people to deny themselves small pleasures and conveniences. Our taxes give poor and struggling people food and cash. Farmers are paid to not produce food because there is too much of it. Some business never take the we are hiring signs out of their window. The banking industry wants you to put your cash in their bank so they can turn it into something that’s really worth having. People that I know who have 1 or 2 billion dollars turn it into something other than cash. They don’t have a bank account with a billion dollars in it.
In 1972 when I was 16 or 17 at the going price of a used car for a teenager, I could buy 20 cars with what I had in my pocket, in the bank and under my mattress. Those days are gone. Money is not that much of a resource anymore.
At the AutoZone I was waited on by a man who looked to be in his 70’s. We had a conversation and it was clear he didn’t need the job for the money. He turned his experience and free time into cash just that easy. Complaining that people waste money sounds like some depression era argument because money is everywhere these days.
Yes, there are numerous ways to make good use of credit cards as well and also can be used in emergencies. We put almost all of our purchases on no-fee, cash-back credit cards and pay them off monthy.
There are ways to lower any burden if one knows what to do.
Yes, that's a good use of credit cards. A POOR use is when someone with no savings books a $2,000 cruise and then intends to pay it off over the next year, accruing interest. Happens all the time.
Clearly the ability to look at problems from more than one angle is severely limited. There is nothing conservative in such approach, because they are simply trying to parrot & apply talking points invented by others.
Intelligent people list all causes and then start looking for solutions for those causes which can be solved. By clinging to one cause which does not have a solution is same as saying "there is nothing we can do about it".
I've kept 1 of your links - Bezos cashed in $1.80 of stock, and netted after tax $1.40. 1.8-1.4 = 0.4. 0.4/1.8 = 22.2% tax rate.
or in this case - $400 MILLION dollars of TAXES.
Now, "how in holy hell did he just pay a 22% rate???????" you have to be asking. Because that stock he has owned for > 24 months, and so it is a long-term capital gain with a 20% tax rate.
Not to mention that's a higher tax rate than most pay. I'm at the 22 to 24 percent marginal rate depending on the year plus 9.3 percent state. But that's marginal. Effective is usually closer to 15 percent rather than 32 or 33.
Money is too easy to come by for people to deny themselves small pleasures and conveniences. Our taxes give poor and struggling people food and cash. Farmers are paid to not produce food because there is too much of it. Some business never take the we are hiring signs out of their window. The banking industry wants you to put your cash in their bank so they can turn it into something that’s really worth having. People that I know who have 1 or 2 billion dollars turn it into something other than cash. They don’t have a bank account with a billion dollars in it.
In 1972 when I was 16 or 17 at the going price of a used car for a teenager, I could buy 20 cars with what I had in my pocket, in the bank and under my mattress. Those days are gone. Money is not that much of a resource anymore.
At the AutoZone I was waited on by a man who looked to be in his 70’s. We had a conversation and it was clear he didn’t need the job for the money. He turned his experience and free time into cash just that easy. Complaining that people waste money sounds like some depression era argument because money is everywhere these days.
I'm not talking about "small pleasures." I am indeed saying that people with no savings in the bank should deny themselves the latest iPhone, expensive vacations, and fully-loaded new cars they trade in every five years.
And your comment about it sounding like a depression-era argument? Nobody is complaining about someone buying an ice cream cone. The complaints are about people WITH NO SAVINGS buying expensive electronic gadgets when there are much cheaper versions available (as one example).
I think 'wearing the barrel' comment by the other poster describes the pseudo-conservative mindset pretty well, even if you don't see it yourself.
Yes, and you jumped on it with your follow-up connecting it to "people like Rachel."
Please stop the personal attacks simply because I dared point out that many middle-income people are in financial difficulties due to their own poor choices.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
indeed.
