What are you cutting in your budget to absorb the Payroll Tax increase?

[ekatiel]

There are probably a lot of people like our DS who had never worked [a full-time job] yet before 1-1-2011 who just started earning an income and never knew the 6.2% rate existed, and in fact were taken by surprise of the reverted rate.

To the OP, we will be foregoing the set-aside of the FICA tax holiday money that we began when the holiday did. It has been ear-marked for DD's wedding funds, so; sorry DD, it's over.

LOL, I bet your DD was hoping it would last another year or two !! --Katie

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I'm going to beat this dead horse one more time, and then I'll let it go. You are cutting back SOMEWHERE. You will have less money. Whether that is less money to spend, less money to save, or less money to sit on as a "cushion" (I would call that saving), it's less money, and you are cutting back. I'm guessing that people who say they aren't cutting back don't really do a budget. With a budget, you put money into categories until it is all gone. Some of those categories are for spending, some are for saving, but with a budget, every last cent is accounted for. Now, you will have fewer of those "cents", and you will have to decrease your budget in one or more categories. SO, you will be cutting back somewhere, whether you're aware of it or not. Unless you're planning on charging an extra $100-$200 a month on your credit cards to keep up with your current standard of living/spending/saving. Then, I guess you wouldn't be cutting back. --Katie

Your parents tell you that they're going to give you your share of oil money from a lease on family land. Your cut comes out to $200 a month. You know the oil lease won't last.

The oil runs out 2 years later. It's not unexpected.

If you were smart you did something "extra" with that money, something not in your budget.

So from that perspective, the smart cookies aren't "cutting back" they're just not getting the extra they got before, because they never included it in their budgets to begin with.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

We're going to be losing around $190-$200 a month as well. What an awful surprise this was on our paychecks today! I doubt most of the politicians in Washington realize this, but $200 a month is a BIG chunk of change for the average middle class family.

But the average middle class family earns around 50K per year and therefore is not losing $200 per month.

I understand that it is a percent and all relative and I certainly feel for those who have very little wiggle room after paying for bare necessities. On the other hand, I find it funny that so many with incomes more than double that of the "average middle class family" are having such a hard time finding something to cut from their budget.

No one likes to have less money. I am unhappy about many of the rising costs that have reduced our disposable income (especially rapidly rising insurance costs - health, car, house, life). However, I choose to be grateful for the 2 year "break" that we received.

 

[DawnM]

We won't be cutting back on anything per say, BUT, Dh got a raise in November, it will cover the tax increase, so it is like we just never changed our take home pay (by much anyway.)

 

[SaraJayne]

I'm going to beat this dead horse one more time, and then I'll let it go. You are cutting back SOMEWHERE. You will have less money. Whether that is less money to spend, less money to save, or less money to sit on as a "cushion" (I would call that saving), it's less money, and you are cutting back. I'm guessing that people who say they aren't cutting back don't really do a budget. With a budget, you put money into categories until it is all gone. Some of those categories are for spending, some are for saving, but with a budget, every last cent is accounted for. Now, you will have fewer of those "cents", and you will have to decrease your budget in one or more categories. SO, you will be cutting back somewhere, whether you're aware of it or not. Unless you're planning on charging an extra $100-$200 a month on your credit cards to keep up with your current standard of living/spending/saving. Then, I guess you wouldn't be cutting back. --Katie

It isn't a difficult concept to understand.

We are not cutting back on anything. We don't use a budget and have no credit card debt (so that not-so-subtle insult went right over my head ).

 

[bdcp]

But the average middle class family earns around 50K per year and therefore is not losing $200 per month.

I understand that it is a percent and all relative and I certainly feel for those who have very little wiggle room after paying for bare necessities. On the other hand, I find it funny that so many with incomes more than double that of the "average middle class family" are having such a hard time finding something to cut from their budget.

No one likes to have less money. I am unhappy about many of the rising costs that have reduced our disposable income (especially rapidly rising insurance costs - health, car, house, life). However, I choose to be grateful for the 2 year "break" that we received.

You do realize its where you live and your cost of living right? Where we live 50K would mean you "might" be able to afford a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment and then you couldn't afford much else. Apartments run over 1K/month. I earn more than 50K working part time (32 hrs/week) and my DH makes more than twice what I do. We're pretty average for our area. We do have a large home, but we are also in our 50's. Middle class varies.

 

[DisneyBill]

LOL, I bet your DD was hoping it would last another year or two !! --Katie

LOL, she would if she knew it existed. She doesn't know that I've come to grips with the fact that she may get married while I'm still walking the planet, much less saving money for it.

 

[bdcp]

I'm going to beat this dead horse one more time, and then I'll let it go. You are cutting back SOMEWHERE. You will have less money. Whether that is less money to spend, less money to save, or less money to sit on as a "cushion" (I would call that saving), it's less money, and you are cutting back. I'm guessing that people who say they aren't cutting back don't really do a budget. With a budget, you put money into categories until it is all gone. Some of those categories are for spending, some are for saving, but with a budget, every last cent is accounted for. Now, you will have fewer of those "cents", and you will have to decrease your budget in one or more categories. SO, you will be cutting back somewhere, whether you're aware of it or not. Unless you're planning on charging an extra $100-$200 a month on your credit cards to keep up with your current standard of living/spending/saving. Then, I guess you wouldn't be cutting back. --Katie

We aren't putting anything on our cc's because of the holiday expiring. We're very aware of what we're doing. Our current standard of living won't be affected at all. As of this month, car paid off. i was paying extra on it so the payment was $910/month. No more. That more than makes up the $200 that is expiring.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

You do realize its where you live and your cost of living right? Where we live 50K would mean you "might" be able to afford a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment and then you couldn't afford much else. Apartments run over 1K/month. I earn more than 50K working part time (32 hrs/week) and my DH makes more than twice what I do. We're pretty average for our area. We do have a large home, but we are also in our 50's. Middle class varies.

Of course I do. I live in a suburb of Chicago.

 

[bdcp]

Of course I do. I live in a suburb of Chicago.

Couldn't tell from your lack of location, but Chicago suburbs aren't as expensive as DC suburbs. Average only means something to those that are in the average pay. We live in the wealthiest county in the US. My youngest son (26) makes just over 50K and needs roommates to pay rent. He's getting married in the spring and he and his fiance will be able to rent a small townhouse My point is, it doesn't really matter what the "average" is. The more you make,the more you will see taken our of your paycheck. It's a percentage issue, not a $ amount issue. Whether it's $50/mo or $200/mo isn't what's important.

 

[EMAW_KSU]

It isn't a difficult concept to understand.

We are not cutting back on anything. We don't use a budget and have no credit card debt (so that not-so-subtle insult went right over my head ).

If you are not cutting back on anything how are you making up for the lost income?

 

[bdcp]

If you are not cutting back on anything how are you making up for the lost income?

It's not lost if you planned for it.

 

[EMAW_KSU]

It's not lost if you planned for it.

How do you figure that? If you income goes down $2000 per year it goes down $2000 weather you planned for it or not.

 

[tasha99]

It's not lost if you planned for it.

It is no longer there. The only people who can say they aren't giving anything up are those who put it into a retirement account. If they drop that, they could argue that $200 into ss or their ira are both retirement savings--similar, if not exactly the same, budget categories. Those who say they aren't cutting must mean they don't budget. They will get a smaller paycheck, so there will be smaller something (short term savings?) even if they don't notice it.

 

[jsmith]

No cut backs here either-the month to month carry over gets smaller thats all-this tax 'holiday' had to be one of the worst ideas in history. People got dependant on that extra income, which would go away at the end of the holiday and it screwed us all in the future.

 

[lvillotta1]

I can pick up an extra shift 8 hrs Every 2 weeks and be just fine. We have a nice emergency fund and I will be increasing my 403B in the next month. You have to look at all in the big picture.

 

[vacationer1954]

Since the payroll tax holiday was supposed to be temporary from the start, we didn't get used to having that extra money. We mostly just saved it anyway so now we'll just be saving that much less.

 

[JaymeC]

It's only $50 for us. Given, that's $50 in a very tight budget. I'll probably do some extra work on the side to make up for it.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

It is no longer there. The only people who can say they aren't giving anything up are those who put it into a retirement account. If they drop that, they could argue that $200 into ss or their ira are both retirement savings--similar, if not exactly the same, budget categories. Those who say they aren't cutting must mean they don't budget. They will get a smaller paycheck, so there will be smaller something (short term savings?) even if they don't notice it.

Noooo. . .it was just never IN the budget. It was extra "play money." It was supposed to stimulate the economy and get us to buy things. I either chocked it into savings or spent it on things that I don't really need or spent it on charities. I figured one was good for MY eventual retirement stimulus and the other two were the purpose for which it was meant. The fact that we're not cutting back is BECAUSE we budget, and we always knew that $200 wasn't going to be there long term.

No cut backs here either-the month to month carry over gets smaller thats all-this tax 'holiday' had to be one of the worst ideas in history. People got dependant on that extra income, which would go away at the end of the holiday and it screwed us all in the future.

MTE!

 

[eliza61]

Nothing. I pretty much understood that the payroll tax was not permanent so I didn't start spending the extra cash. It went into my discretionary spending and some times my 401K so I'll just readjust that.