Money Matters - Part 10

Isn't that just "product testing"??

Good point! Pride and work ethic.

Yes, the products need to be tested for quality.

Karen

How typical.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57371781/home-buyers-left-holding-bag-for-payroll-tax-cut/

yep with any cuts the $ has to come from somewhere else...robbing peter to pay paul but peter is quickly becoming broke


Closed on the refi for our house. Nice that the title agent came to our house to sign all the paperwork. went to a 15yr, 3.25%(the lowest she's seen), rolled in our former home equity loan and all closing costs and with the taxes we are paying $100 LESS a month!!!!! woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crazy thought- the year we pay off our mortgage my son is going to be 24! but will be years before retirement age for hubby

Congrats! Great rate. Think you'll still be there in 15??

I didn't want to be but hubby does....we had a plan when starting the business that if it didn't take off in 5 years then we'd close it up and move, and if it did good we'd be here at least for 15 years. We've been doing very well so I guess we're here for now. The next step is do enough that we can get the office out of our house and I can get this space back

that is a great rate jen.

I KNOW!!!! We were so excited to get that!

awesome Jen, well done.

Wonderful, Jen.

Victor, another reason not to vote for Obama. Ugh!!!!!

Karen

Just read the 'how typical' link. I doubt that many people outside this forum will even know about this.

Ever worked as an "election judge?" Its a whole long day of inconvenience and possible near to tears boredom. 150$ in this county. I expect our primary is going to be very boring, since we are heavily democrat in this area, and they hardly have a reason to come vote in the primary this go round. And by April 4th, its looking like the repubs might be all over but the shouting. It costs the gov a lot to run an election.

Karen - I thought Congress enacted the legislation for the "tax cut".

With full WH approval, and signed by the president, Cat.

Sigh. Why don't "we" ever win?

No one wins. We all lose!

We really should try not to be so overtly political. I '*try* not to mention names or parties, etc., but just kvetch. We have to draw the line somewhere or we will get in trouble. It is tough to avoid altogether when money/finance/economy is the subject.

Anyone do their taxes yet? Refund? Still waiting for info before I send it to the acct. Stock stuff is always the last to come. Annoying since I don't sell all that much in a given year.

We had multiple new/unusual factors in our taxes so we're not sure yet. Yay for Turbo tax.

Don't want to be edited so I'll stay off that topic...LOL


I usually do my taxes a little later, going to be weird getting used to another accountant

I'm working on them. It takes me awhile to enter in the charity deductions because I give a little bit here and there - a lot! Looks like I will get refunds - I never plan on that. Looks like I have to adjust down my witholding now that I only teach one class a year instead of two.

I imagine the sale of winter clothes and items has been pretty awful.

Felt bad for Lowes as I walked past full shelves of sleds, stacks of shovels, rows of snowblowers!!!!!

Nice sales coming, I guess.

I think there was a reference a bit earlier about the Bush tax cut. It can't be political to call it that, it's what eveyone calls it. It enabled money to be made in stocks that pay high dividends, even in 2008. Even if the Obama administration renews the same or a similar tax plan, a family's needs may change. We probably have to spend the money.

It's irritaing not to have the 1099's for the stocks but I called and found out mid February is their goal. Some colleges want our 2011 tax returns by then, so we REALLY want to finish our taxes.

On another financial subject, if our kids go to state schools, they get to waive the $1500 tuition per year because of high scores on the state's MCAS competency test (just found the letter) . Times three, we could save $18,000 over four years making total cost about $258,000 plus other general expenses. Of course if they raise tuition even more, we might qualify for aid because we'll have less money! On this one, the pols who talk about college finance reform are talking about how tuition gets raised because federal aid makes up the difference. College costs keep going up because they can!

The sad reality is that whenever the gov gets involved in anything, costs go up. Simple reason - those charging for the good or service know they have pretty much a guarantee. Happened with loans - student and mortgages, healthcare - both for care and prescription drugs, construction, you name it.

Rose - $258K for state schools?!!

Yep. But that price is over four years for 3 kids with state scholarships. This is Massachusetts and lots of funding is going into the state schools. There's little public impetus to keep public prices lower. That's why we're bargain shopping, because publics might not be the best value after all. Every kid we know that applied to Harvard, Brown, Wellesley, Brandeis or MIT early decision got in. Either their parents are professors or they can affort it. Just about everybody's parents are professors or there's a legacy in some school for that matter. And the kids know exactly where they stand because these days it's all put on scattergraphs before they apply.

That is still a LOT of money for state schools. Scary.

What's scary is that with all the applications it's hard to keep the kids applying for scholarships. One of my DDs got tired, so she didn't get the academic scholarhsip applications to some colleges done in November when they were due, so those colleges came off the list. College success comes from what used to result in a Ph.D---the one with the most perseverance succeeds.

Ugh. Not looking forward to that. So much more involved now. You will need a vacation when all three are finally in!

Today was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. I recently added Tale of Two Cities to my collection.

Can't wait for a vacation!

We're still hoping all 3 can close the deal with a college. Right now they're having to check their college applications online because odd requests come back. Now DS has to go ask for a reference from his physics teacher becaus WPI sent an email that they wanted it. Other colleges didn't even say what they meant on their sites when they said they wanted another letter. DD had to send in an agreement twice. Things get lost before they're acknowledged.

Rosemary are all three applying at once?

We have kids and some (little ) experience with private Xtian colleges. The two with higher tuition 'on the books' seemed to come back very easily with 'scholarship' making the costs 'surprisingly' comparable between them. I think they all know what the market will bear. That state school price sounds comparable to the christian college price, which does seem too high for state school. I am talking MD VA PA area.
Of course we use our states tuition savings plan. We can put up to 5000 a year into each kids college plan and knock the amount off our income for state tax. But then this big dedicated savings account might be "hurting" us at FAFSA time. If you can manage to have most of your savings in retirement accounts, those do not count as usable income on FAFSA. If you have college savings plan, the full amount I believe had to go on the application for aid for just the one student, but our full amount is supposed to cover three kids.

My daughter is 4 years old but I started saving for her college a couple years ago. I figured the sooner I start the easier it would be. After doing some research I decided to put her college savings into a 529 Indepedent plan which basically allows me to purchase "tuition certificates" at today's rates. That allows me to figure out exactly how much I need to put away each month to have her college paid for by the time she turns 18.

The major drawback is that not every college participates in this program (only 270 do as of right now) so in order for her to have her tuition fully paid for through this program she would have to select one of the participating schools and then be accepted by that school. If she decides to go to a different school we can still use the money we saved up toward the tuition but we would be paying whatever the going rate happens to be in 2026.

https://www.privatecollege529.com/OFI529/home.jsp

I use the NY College Savings plan, a 529.

our financial advisor told us unless we can save the entire tuition don't save any, student's tuition will be based on the $ you make and the money you have, so say you have $72,000 tuition per year will be total $96,000 and your take home is 60,000....they will say oh that student will not have any problem paying so they charge you the full 24,000 per year
next student comes in has no $ saved and take home is 60,000, they will give that student a break on tuition because taking 24, 000 out of the 60,000 would be a hardship...Princeton is one of those colleges that does lower tuition like that -my bookkeepers daughter will be going there instead of paying the same amount for The College of NJ(formerly Trenton State) which doesn't lower the tuition cause it's a state college

That's the first I've heard that. Doubt many schools do that unless they cannot fill spots.

all schools except state ones do that, cause I'm pretty sure Princeton isn't hard up for applicants

This message was edited Feb 8, 2012 3:32 PM

Lowes is having an Auction Sat. & Sun. They closed 3 stores in NH and moved all the inventory in my town :-) There is tons of stuff outside in the Nusery - From birdbaths to ferilizer and lawn mowers, Oh boy.