If it went away, I would give up on my home and walk away. It's the only reprieve I have every year. I get almost $3k out if it every year, and it makes up for the difference between if I was renting or owning. Take it away, and staying my house that's now underwater from value loss makes no sense.
No no and no. When is enough taxation enough? This country was founded on freedom and a large part of that was freedom from taxation. If you want equality then how about a flat tax for everyone instead of half the citizens paying no income tax at all?
MP3 downloads!! Usually from Amazon, we don't have an ianything, so itunes is difficult. (We tried to buy a gift for someone there, and they rejected us because we have an old version of itunes downloaded. No thanks, I don't need the clutter, and you obviously don't need my business that much!)
I don't anymore. I rarely listen to the radio in the car anymore, and at home if I want to listen to music, I either use the CDs we already own, or more likely I turn on one of the music stations from our satellite.
Yes! You can waste so much time trying to complete tasks that are simply beyond your skill set - these days, it just doesn't make sense to try to learn new skills that you will only use once, when you can get someone else to do the same work in a snap.
I can't imagine anyone buying a house solely for the mortage interest deduction. I bought a house because I wanted a house, the deduction was just a minor benefit. I don't want it to go away, but if it does I don't plan to sell the house and start renting.
Have you tried applying ointment during stressful time? Whenever a get a cold or the flu, I keep the ointment with me at all times, and occasionally rub a bit around the corner of my lips, even before I get a tingle at all, or at the very first sign of discomfort. Because I've had so many cold sores over the years, I sometimes get tingling when there is no cold sore on the way - it's just lousy nerve damage. But I try to keep the ointment around, just in case.
I'm glad to know that anti-viral meds are cheaper in other countries - the US is well known for our government's devotion to Big Pharma and their drug patents/profits. They keep renewing the patents on inhalers for asthma attacks, ensuring that it will always cost about $40 for a basic albuterol inhaler. It's inhumane.
I am all for ending the Mortgage Income Tax Deduction but, for once, the Real Estate industry is correct. Eliminating the MITD will lower prices because people will have less to spend but it was NEVER an advantage for the same reason. Basically the introduction of the MITD raised the price of houses artificially so there was never a benefit and, in fact, a huge cash-flow disadvantage.
Look at it this way. If you have $2000 to spend on a mortgage per month you'll buy a certain amount of house. If you add the MITD you can now buy about $2500 of house (assuming you have 20% tax rate, not realisitic but makes the math simple for this exercise). Your spend $2500 and you get $500 back with the MITD. So what happens is a person is now willing to spend 25% more on the same house because they can afford 25% more in monthly payments. Since houses are basically bidding processes enough people compete such that the price goes up to absorb the entire deduction. At the end of the day the person is no better off and actually is worse off because they scrape to find the extra $500 per month and then get relief at tax time with a big check the makes them whole. Instead if they had that $500 on a monthly basis (or got a windfall mid-year that they could have put to something else other than the mortgage payment) they could have invested that.
So the MITD is really either no advantage or a slight disadvantage and really the only people who benefited by it was the banks because they got to charge your $2500 in interest payments a month as opposed to $2000 for the same house. And remember this all becomes moot the minute you start paying principle back in which the MITD goes away for that portion of your payment. Basically the MITD is an elaborate way to encourage the use of bank provided financing and to increase the amount of that financing.
This is yet ANOTHER example of the banks successfully taking advantage of us and all of us gleefully going along.
WHEN I buy music (which isn't often; I'm not as obsessed with music as many other people are), I prefer to buy the physical CDs. It just feels more "legit" to me, I guess, and I like having the CD insert that comes with it. I've never been into mp3s (I don't own an mp3 player and don't want to), and "burned" CDs feel so cheap. If it's just a random song I want to listen to and not an artist's CD I feel like I must have, I'll go to rhapsody.com and use their free listens.
I haven't purchased a CD in years. Unless it's a gift, a buy all of my music exclusively online, usually through iTunes. I tend to misplace and scratch CDs, so it's a better investment. I do miss the full-size album art and liner notes though.
if you are stuck on name brand formula, then this is what you do. Buy $5 similac or enfamil coupons on Ebay, which can be found en masse, for $1 per $5 coupon or less. Use these to buy pre-made quarts, which will come out to nearly free, after the coupon is applied. If you figure this per 168 oz (a Similac simple pac) you would pay $21 at Target (-$4 if you used your $5 coupon you paid $1 for) or $17. You can get the same amount pre-made by simply buying a ton of coupons for $8.13, after figuring your coupon purchase cost. No mixing, no hassles, less than half the price of the powder, brand name, and ultimately less than $500 per year to feed a baby on formula the entire year.
Breast feeding is supposed to be best, but my pediatrician or other medical providers have shown me a few studies that indicate that kids get important benefits from formula that they do not get from breast milk. At any rate, as my wife's OB / GYN wisely put it, like abortion and birth control, the "decision to breast feed or not is the woman's choice" and if you frown upon your neighbor for an intensely personal decision they made, then I know I don't want you in the legislature.
We are on our second and he is now four months, and I used this coupon trick to buy about 80 quarts for roughly $100 total, and I still have a bunch left. I highly recommend Ebay as a source for buying all the coups you need to supply your child with the full year's worth of formula.
I'm a dinosaur and buy CDs, sometimes from an online store, sometimes at the local classical music store. I'll listen to music on Pandora, too (the free version) and tag CDs I'd like to buy eventually.
@ Andrea Karim - we don't have prescription creams for cold sores here in Australia. Zovirax is an over-the-counter cream in a 2g (1/15oz)) tube (about $15), but it has limited effectiveness unless the coldsore gets treated early. If, like me, they come on too quick and have no tingle to treat, this limits how effective the Zovirax is - and for me, it helps maybe 25% of the time (which is better than nothing, of course). There are one or two prescription oral antiviral medications, but so far none have been approved for oral herpes - only genital herpes. I've tried the ice trick mentioned by Julie, but it has no effect on me since I can never get to them early enough. I've never had one appear during waking hours, either - they *always* appear while I am sleeping! Unfortunately, I do not react well to stress of any kind, especially work-related, and cold sores are the result for me...
If the Mortgage Interest Deduction is mainly only benefiting the rich, I'd say do away with it. The middle class is assuming far too much of the tax burden in our economy. Our economy is making the rich their money; they need to support it with tax dollars.
I listen to the radio and when I hear a song I really like, I buy it on itunes!
Thank you for sharing that perspective. That is definitely food for thought.
If it went away, I would give up on my home and walk away. It's the only reprieve I have every year. I get almost $3k out if it every year, and it makes up for the difference between if I was renting or owning. Take it away, and staying my house that's now underwater from value loss makes no sense.
I can't be alone.
No no and no. When is enough taxation enough? This country was founded on freedom and a large part of that was freedom from taxation. If you want equality then how about a flat tax for everyone instead of half the citizens paying no income tax at all?
I liked you on Facebook
I don't buy music, I just listen to the radio in my car and Pandora on my phone at home.
I'm so old. I buy CDs.
MP3 downloads!! Usually from Amazon, we don't have an ianything, so itunes is difficult. (We tried to buy a gift for someone there, and they rejected us because we have an old version of itunes downloaded. No thanks, I don't need the clutter, and you obviously don't need my business that much!)
I don't anymore. I rarely listen to the radio in the car anymore, and at home if I want to listen to music, I either use the CDs we already own, or more likely I turn on one of the music stations from our satellite.
Yes! You can waste so much time trying to complete tasks that are simply beyond your skill set - these days, it just doesn't make sense to try to learn new skills that you will only use once, when you can get someone else to do the same work in a snap.
"As they say — fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, somebody punch me."
This is among my favorite adages.
I can't imagine anyone buying a house solely for the mortage interest deduction. I bought a house because I wanted a house, the deduction was just a minor benefit. I don't want it to go away, but if it does I don't plan to sell the house and start renting.
Have you tried applying ointment during stressful time? Whenever a get a cold or the flu, I keep the ointment with me at all times, and occasionally rub a bit around the corner of my lips, even before I get a tingle at all, or at the very first sign of discomfort. Because I've had so many cold sores over the years, I sometimes get tingling when there is no cold sore on the way - it's just lousy nerve damage. But I try to keep the ointment around, just in case.
I'm glad to know that anti-viral meds are cheaper in other countries - the US is well known for our government's devotion to Big Pharma and their drug patents/profits. They keep renewing the patents on inhalers for asthma attacks, ensuring that it will always cost about $40 for a basic albuterol inhaler. It's inhumane.
iTunes for my iPod, CD and radio for the car.
Responded on Twitter. http://twitter.com/#!/1bets1/status/103517267228229632
To purchase for iPod, I use iTunes. I have to keep it legal! In the car, I listen to my CDs that I bought a long time ago.
I purchase my music via iTunes!
I am all for ending the Mortgage Income Tax Deduction but, for once, the Real Estate industry is correct. Eliminating the MITD will lower prices because people will have less to spend but it was NEVER an advantage for the same reason. Basically the introduction of the MITD raised the price of houses artificially so there was never a benefit and, in fact, a huge cash-flow disadvantage.
Look at it this way. If you have $2000 to spend on a mortgage per month you'll buy a certain amount of house. If you add the MITD you can now buy about $2500 of house (assuming you have 20% tax rate, not realisitic but makes the math simple for this exercise). Your spend $2500 and you get $500 back with the MITD. So what happens is a person is now willing to spend 25% more on the same house because they can afford 25% more in monthly payments. Since houses are basically bidding processes enough people compete such that the price goes up to absorb the entire deduction. At the end of the day the person is no better off and actually is worse off because they scrape to find the extra $500 per month and then get relief at tax time with a big check the makes them whole. Instead if they had that $500 on a monthly basis (or got a windfall mid-year that they could have put to something else other than the mortgage payment) they could have invested that.
So the MITD is really either no advantage or a slight disadvantage and really the only people who benefited by it was the banks because they got to charge your $2500 in interest payments a month as opposed to $2000 for the same house. And remember this all becomes moot the minute you start paying principle back in which the MITD goes away for that portion of your payment. Basically the MITD is an elaborate way to encourage the use of bank provided financing and to increase the amount of that financing.
This is yet ANOTHER example of the banks successfully taking advantage of us and all of us gleefully going along.
WHEN I buy music (which isn't often; I'm not as obsessed with music as many other people are), I prefer to buy the physical CDs. It just feels more "legit" to me, I guess, and I like having the CD insert that comes with it. I've never been into mp3s (I don't own an mp3 player and don't want to), and "burned" CDs feel so cheap. If it's just a random song I want to listen to and not an artist's CD I feel like I must have, I'll go to rhapsody.com and use their free listens.
I have not bought music in a long time, has to be at least 6 or 7 years ago.
I haven't purchased a CD in years. Unless it's a gift, a buy all of my music exclusively online, usually through iTunes. I tend to misplace and scratch CDs, so it's a better investment. I do miss the full-size album art and liner notes though.
if you are stuck on name brand formula, then this is what you do. Buy $5 similac or enfamil coupons on Ebay, which can be found en masse, for $1 per $5 coupon or less. Use these to buy pre-made quarts, which will come out to nearly free, after the coupon is applied. If you figure this per 168 oz (a Similac simple pac) you would pay $21 at Target (-$4 if you used your $5 coupon you paid $1 for) or $17. You can get the same amount pre-made by simply buying a ton of coupons for $8.13, after figuring your coupon purchase cost. No mixing, no hassles, less than half the price of the powder, brand name, and ultimately less than $500 per year to feed a baby on formula the entire year.
Breast feeding is supposed to be best, but my pediatrician or other medical providers have shown me a few studies that indicate that kids get important benefits from formula that they do not get from breast milk. At any rate, as my wife's OB / GYN wisely put it, like abortion and birth control, the "decision to breast feed or not is the woman's choice" and if you frown upon your neighbor for an intensely personal decision they made, then I know I don't want you in the legislature.
We are on our second and he is now four months, and I used this coupon trick to buy about 80 quarts for roughly $100 total, and I still have a bunch left. I highly recommend Ebay as a source for buying all the coups you need to supply your child with the full year's worth of formula.
I'm a dinosaur and buy CDs, sometimes from an online store, sometimes at the local classical music store. I'll listen to music on Pandora, too (the free version) and tag CDs I'd like to buy eventually.
@ Andrea Karim - we don't have prescription creams for cold sores here in Australia. Zovirax is an over-the-counter cream in a 2g (1/15oz)) tube (about $15), but it has limited effectiveness unless the coldsore gets treated early. If, like me, they come on too quick and have no tingle to treat, this limits how effective the Zovirax is - and for me, it helps maybe 25% of the time (which is better than nothing, of course). There are one or two prescription oral antiviral medications, but so far none have been approved for oral herpes - only genital herpes. I've tried the ice trick mentioned by Julie, but it has no effect on me since I can never get to them early enough. I've never had one appear during waking hours, either - they *always* appear while I am sleeping! Unfortunately, I do not react well to stress of any kind, especially work-related, and cold sores are the result for me...
If the Mortgage Interest Deduction is mainly only benefiting the rich, I'd say do away with it. The middle class is assuming far too much of the tax burden in our economy. Our economy is making the rich their money; they need to support it with tax dollars.
Great related article by warren Buffet in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.h...