The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 14:00:48 GMT -5
From one of my tax feeds: IRS Sets Out Additional Approaches to Excise Tax on High Cost Plans; Seeks Comments (Notice 2015-52),(Jul. 31, 2015)
The IRS has issued a notice intended to continue the process of developing regulatory guidance regarding the excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage under Code Sec. 4980I, which applies to tax years beginning after December 31, 2017. The new notice addressed additional issues, including the identification of the taxpayers who may be liable for the excise tax, employer aggregation, the allocation of the tax among the applicable taxpayers, and the payment of the applicable tax. The notice also addresses further issues regarding the cost of applicable coverage, and seeks comments.My employer's plan is self-insured. If you were to do a bell curve on the employees age I would be on the younger side about 3/4's up the top of the hump. The bulk of the workforce is over 50 with a significant % over 55. I am 48. As such we have a much higher average cost per employee than the national average. We've been waiting (and are still waiting although I have to read the above notice) to see if we will be subject to the penalty on high cost plans simply because of our demographics. We currently qualify as a high cost plan, even though my employer has scaled premiums based on salary. The employer still pays averages per employee/family that are greater than those identified in the ACA as high cost. The excise tax "penalty" is 40% of amounts spent beyond a cap that is considered excess spending. We still do not have good, clear guidance as to what these caps are, or how the amounts are to be figured. For us this is huge. My employer may need to increase either deductibles or employee share of the premiums to avoid this excise tax. We are still taking a wait and see stance, but it will take at least a year or more to roll out any significant changes, and the deadline is approaching. This article does a good job of covering the issues: www.healthaffairs.org/healthpolicybriefs/brief.php?brief_id=99On the edge as far as planning for this, but to be honest - I'm glad it's not my baby to prepare for.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 13:28:07 GMT -5
This is sooooo funny because I've picked up a "second" vocabulary from these boards. I looked at DH the other day and asked him if he was in a mood for Thai...one blank look later I had to scoot out the room laughing! Speaking of which. I have a third date tonight. Did we say that the ring finger needs to be longer or shorter than the index finger? Umm, I forgot? But have fun on the date (are they a cutie?)
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 13:16:08 GMT -5
In my area Zillow tends to lag the market by about 4-6 months. I don't use it for price estimates, but rather go by comps from recent sales.
In any event, real estate is so messed up I'm just watching for now.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 13:02:20 GMT -5
Yea, not getting much done during the week.
Will try to get more done during the weekend.
(sniff, sniff...)
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 12:55:36 GMT -5
A coworker was talking about being mad at another coworker. I informed him that I had room in my freezer and he gave me this weird look. I think it was more funny because he didn't understand what I meant right off. This is sooooo funny because I've picked up a "second" vocabulary from these boards. I looked at DH the other day and asked him if he was in a mood for Thai...one blank look later I had to scoot out the room laughing!
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 12:34:25 GMT -5
I'm single... and I did hit the 500K in retirement accounts by 50 (which is more than 5X my salary by 55 will be)... I'm hoping that by the time I truly 'retire' I'll have the proverbial Million dollars in my retirement accounts. I've got a pension and then whatever SS will be available - and whatever money I manage to get into my after tax accounts (I'm lite in this area and am working a 5 year plan to get some money into them). I think the best advice is to start saving EARLY - even if it's just a piddly 1-3% of the 'little income' you have when you start out. My current Self is truly thankful that my Distant Past Self did set up savings at 8% to a 401(k) - even if I did then ignore it for the first decade. My current Self is also very thankful my More Recent Past Self (10 years or so ago) bit the bullet and increased my savings/investing dramatically (based on a 3/5/10 plan).
Even if Distant Past Self had only saved 3% - it still would have made a big difference to my Future Self. ADDED: just for fun - if I won 1 million (after tax) in a Lottery - I'd retire tomorrow. If I won 500K after tax I'd definitely be 'retired' by 55. Haven't heard this one before - will you please elaborate?
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 12:29:46 GMT -5
Sigh Dear no win situation... This sucks. I didn't really want to be paired with my fellow dept manager to run this transition. I tend to think that two people running the same initiative will be doomed. I realize that the reason I was paired with fellow manager was because she's new and wasn't understanding what had to be done. But now I'm running this damn transition when my part is minuscule compared to the other manager. Now other manager is pissed at me because I've taken over... I've taken over because you weren't doing what needs to be done. So please don't give me attitude 10 minutes after you ask me to lead the status call.. when I ask if you have finished your task. Our boss owes me one for this... Signed.. damned if I do and damned if I don't Sorry Sroo - sucks to be you. I've got one of those going on right now myself.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 12:24:15 GMT -5
You got: You come in peace!
It’s a tough life for a martian like you. Here you are, a superior being from a civilization that’s solved all the problems in the Universe, you’re just trying to spread some love. But every time you show up, the locals start freaking out! They’ll shoot at you, put you in a glass tube filled with jelly, and poke you with all sorts of weird pointy things. You know what!? These humans can figure out global warming for themselves! You’ve had enough of this!
*Snort* Now we know the stupid test is broken.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 11:20:59 GMT -5
www.watertowndailytimes.com/news03/mitchell-may-keep-pension-despite-conviction-20150731
Joyce Mitchell, the woman who helped Richard Matt and David Sweat escape Dannemora prison, pleads guilty. She keeps her accrued NYS pension.
Your thoughts?
I'm not sure how I feel about this. The search cost NYS millions of dollars. However, it's a property right she earned through her employment. If NYS passed a law requiring felons to forfeit their public pensions, it would be a serious deterrent to plea bargaining. And if the felony wasn't through their employment (like a DWI) why should they lose it? A public servant who places an additional burden on the public they are supposed to serve (by committing a felony, crime, whatever) should not benefit from the public at the same time they are creating a burden to the public. In other words, use the pension money to offset the cost of the search/jail. It is the law in IL if it's in relation to the employment which I think is bullshit. Now we have too much time spent trying to split hairs as to what is directly vs indirectly related to employment and how far the indirect involvement can reach. I don't know how much, or if at all you followed the Ryan case here - but the amount of resources spent arguing if he lost his pension or not was just freaking insane. The same thing went on with Drew Peterson. You want the benefits of public service (pensions, earlier retirement) then yes, you should be held accountable to the public you serve and not benefit from a pension if your actions place an undue burden on the public. Just my thoughts. I'm sure there are good counter-arguments.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 10:59:44 GMT -5
I'm doing well.
I'm busy, busier than I was prior to leaving the other place. Most of my clients came with me, and a picked up a bunch of new ones that didn't want to make the 20 mile drive to my old office. I'm doing mortgages for the same bank, and another one. I'm on the list for one more bank, but they haven't assigned any to me. Whatever. The other bank more than makes up for it.
So, do I hire another support staff, or buy myself a new jet ski?
You hire a law clerk that can do most of the heavy lifting, thus freeing you to do an 3:1 review freeing up your time.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 9:41:00 GMT -5
Personal or as a couple for those who are? do we have a standard conversion factor of single to couple retirement savings? It is *2, but it isn't the same either....I was thinking maybe a .75 conversion factor whereby 500k for a couple was = 375 for a singleton? If you find something reasonable please let me know. I've always been a bit miffed by "all in ones" like this, as well as the "X times salary" rule which doesn't take into account possible major bumps in salary. At the end of the day, does your projects inflows exceed your projected inflows? Someone mentioned a 15% excess margin on the inflows which I like. I think that's a better rule than anything else.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 9:10:27 GMT -5
Ugh! Quite the battle you're having. If you're that busy during Jan - March, what if you and the fam moved into like a long term Marriott's suite for a month and let the contractors work two full shifts to get it done more quickly? You might break even on the cost if they are able to work during their slow season and get it done quickly?
*disclaimer--I have never ever ever done such a thing. I just watch a lot of HGTV and that's one of the Property Brothers strategies. Seriously woman?!? Are you trying to drive me over the edge . DH has me nailed. I'm a cat. I HATE having my routine disrupted. Any disruption in my life makes my fur stand on end. During the busy season I need as much normalcy as possible. I was only kinda kidding about sleeping at the office, but in truth I need the comfort of my home and my own bed more so then, than at any other time. Not having a working kitchen then actually wouldn't be so bad because I do miss a lot of weeknight dinners. We could set up a temporary kitchen in the basement, so I could cope with that. In addition, there are no long-term temporary housing out where we're at that's close to DD's school and my train line. (Yea - I checked because maybe I couldn't treated it like a mini vacation - but no go). Good idea, though.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 8:17:02 GMT -5
ok, keeping a close eye on this one.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 31, 2015 8:15:52 GMT -5
Will need a visa for study purposes which requires passing a language test. Language test won't be in English. Better know some German ..... The articles I've been reading all say not knowing German isn't an issue. However, there's no way I'd send him over without at least having taken a couple years of it in high school. Yea that! (I'm having icon issues) I used to administer an expat/foreign national program with between 200-300 participants either in or out of the US. Sending an individual overseas for a work assignment is expensive. Sending a whole family (where one parent only can usually work) is even more so. Our program covered a housing stipend, COLA, Tax equalization, language immersion, medical, and schooling for the children in the native language in the assigned country. The company put a LOT of money into this to make sure it was a success. The #1 reason an assignment failed? The wife or children felt isolated and couldn't interact outside the (sometimes very) small expat community. Seeing as how an overseas assignment cost the company an average of about $100K per year per family that was an expensive failure. We added a cultural immersion program and did some pre-assignment screening which helped a bit, but didn't solve 100%. So make sure your son can at least hack his way through German so he won't be isolated. If nothing else, it will get him kudos from the local population for trying and break the ice. Also, just the transition from small town to big city can be a shock. Is there anyone in a big city you can send your son to visit so he gets some exposure?
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 15:54:42 GMT -5
So, I read about this on another forum and was intrigued. www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32821678I brought it up with older son's Dad and he is as well and actually had been meaning to mention something to me about it. He's been considering moving his family to Europe after our son hits 18 and now is thinking Germany...not that he'd have to move there for our son to go to school there. I'm not sure the money savings would be as great for us because tuition is pretty affordable here and I'm thinking we'll probably be eligible for grants that could cover as much as half of it, but I just think it would be an awesome experience. Right now he's talking about going to school in our town, which is a good school, but I'd like him to have the opportunity to spread his wings some. I'm afraid he'll do what I did. Just plant myself and limit my options. So anyhow. Discuss the advantages and drawbacks. What's COL like over there? The schools are supposed to be top notch, but it also shows most pursue degrees in the liberal arts. I see DS going into Natural sciences or Engineering. I'm actually surprised to see this. At some of the companies I've worked at the bulk of the engineers were German. One of my friends is an engineer and he frequently has to work with teams from Germany on multi-national projects. When I think engineering I think Germany, Japan, and Switzerland - in that order. If you can swing it, and it doesn't break the bank - I think it would be a fantastic experience. Coming from a small town, would he be ok with the cultural shock? How about language barriers?
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 15:14:41 GMT -5
DH and I have one kid, so we don't qualify as DINKS.
No judgement here, but I find it curious that in every area we've ever lived in, we would be considered gentrifiers.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 14:15:29 GMT -5
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 14:00:37 GMT -5
Dh is really into it. I think it's highly intelligent writing, the acting is very good, and for once we have a plausible plot. There are elements that I don't think add to the story in any way, and to be honest those are really turning me off. I get that the "hero" isn't perfect - BUT they glamorize the flaw wayyyyy to much IMHO and it's really out of character (from what I know of those types, heck - I'm one myself) for them to engage in those activities. Don't want to put spoilers out, but if you've watched the show you know what I'm talking about. First Orphan Black, now this, your DH and I have too much TV in common. If the flaw is the one I'm thinking of, they sort of allude to an explanation to it a few episodes in. Hmmm, I must've missed that - was it good writing or just empty fluff? If you're talking about the event he shares with the blonde chick I'd call that empty fluff.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 13:58:10 GMT -5
Yep. I looked at how it defines thing and I guarantee the averages the next town (same county) over are wayyyy higher than my area.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 13:15:52 GMT -5
Stuff like this sucks, big time!
I'm a firm believer in it's the parent's money - they can do whatever they want with it.
However, I've seen what happens (both ways) when the parents support one child more than another, then either does or doesn't try to even it out in the will.
Probably the worst I saw was the above situation where the bulk was left to the one who didn't "need" help all their lives. Then after the parent died the "poor" sibling came to the other for their "fair share" in a major guilt trip.
No good solutions any way around.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 13:08:44 GMT -5
Goal set about 10 years ago was .5K by 46, 1 M by 50, 1.5M by 53 and and 2M by 55. These are combined accounts and the age milestone is my age, not DH's.
After the crash of 08 I didn't think we were going to make it.
Now it looks like we may be hitting certain milestones a bit early if there isn't another bit of a downturn.
Note: DH and I both save heavily for retirement socking away way more to the ROTH 401(k) balances now than the tax advantaged amounts allowed to the deductible 401(k)'s. In other words, we are putting away more than $18K a year each.
I want to be in a position to retire if I wish at 55. I will likely keep working at least part time or seasonal, but I want it to be because I want to, not because I need to.
By 55 DD hopefully will only have one year of college left, the rentals will be mostly paid for, and the principal on our primary will be so low we could pay it off if we wanted.
In other words, retirement is a multi-legged plan.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 12:51:47 GMT -5
Bonny - awww - I'd love to get together with you guys and sarcasticgirl! Just please oh please wait until the stupid kitchen is done!!!
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 12:38:50 GMT -5
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 11:42:51 GMT -5
Last year we did a kitchen gut remodel. I cringe at talking about the money spent, but here it goes. It was $65k. We live in VHCOL area and some of the items in the kitchen are higher end (mainly cabinets) but for the most part, everything is mid range. Our kitchen is not all that big. We had to move a wall and added a breakfast bar. When I look at the breakdown of costs, everything seems on par with what it should be. It's just amazing how things add up. Our kitchen was original to the home prior (over 50 years old) and I am hoping we can keep our current kitchen for a lifetime. We tried hard to go with timeless. The splurge was the custom made cabinets by a local woodsman. That was $16k but the kicker was we had our hearts set on a darker stain and wanted the cabinets to be top notch so staining ended up being an additional $6k!!! I didn't realize that the cabinets were a higher price because they had to use nicer stain grade wood for the look we wanted. So going with white painted cabinets would have saved us a small fortune. I have zero regrets about our remodel. We had to skip some vacations for it. It took 6 weeks to complete (I was impressed) and I wouldn't change a single thing. It's SOOOOO functional and even though it's only been a year, I really think this is a kitchen for a lifetime. Good luck... I recall how stressful the planning was. We also initially thought we could spend $30 - $40k. Thanks for this post - it's VERY helpful. The quote (post #17) that knocked me out had about 22-24K for cabinets I think? That's one area I thought was out of line and reading your post seems to affirm it (they were semi-custom - not custom). I don't even have that much $ worth of furniture in the whole house...
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 10:47:48 GMT -5
Yea - a few times.
First time was when I had a major asthma attack. Was in for over a week. Not fun.
Few more 1-2 night stays after that with, yea - more asthma attacks until I got it more controlled.
Last time was when I had DD. Normal birth, 2 night stay. Couldn't wait to get home. Had a Romeo and Juliet drama/baby mamma thing going on with my "roommate".
Speaking of drama - what is the biggest drama going on in your life right now?
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 10:04:16 GMT -5
I love the fact that he knew what type of ammo to use to keep it safe! Showed more common sense than the drone owner.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 8:36:21 GMT -5
Dh is really into it. I think it's highly intelligent writing, the acting is very good, and for once we have a plausible plot.
There are elements that I don't think add to the story in any way, and to be honest those are really turning me off.
I get that the "hero" isn't perfect - BUT they glamorize the flaw wayyyyy to much IMHO and it's really out of character (from what I know of those types, heck - I'm one myself) for them to engage in those activities.
Don't want to put spoilers out, but if you've watched the show you know what I'm talking about.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 30, 2015 8:32:13 GMT -5
I use my tablet for commuting and about 80% of what I need it to do.
It cannot handle some of my spreadsheets or most of my graphic programs, for those I'm using my laptop.
I have one drawing program I'm considering getting. My laptop will not be able to handle it. I could get a more expensive one (current one is 3.5 years old) or I could get a much more powerful desktop that will likely last a few more years than a laptop in terms of processing capacity.
So for most peeps I think a good tablet will meet most of their needs. For heavy gamers, graphic design/art program users, and heavy numbers crunching there will always be those who want just a bit more power.
Software designers have always pushed the limits of current technology. This has been the case since back when processors were 8086's. No matter how fast, or how much data capacity, current processors possess, there is always a program out a few months later that pushes it to the limits.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jul 29, 2015 15:17:57 GMT -5
Under the dome. Never read the book, never watched the TV series. Happened to plop down next to DH the other day when he was watching it.
Raised one eyebrow and asked "Umm - was the book like this?"
He replied no, and acknowledged they jumped the shark a while ago.
Name one activity other's love that you have no desire whatsoever to do.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 29, 2015 15:07:21 GMT -5
I like to be surprised. Even for movies that are supposed to be surprises I often have the ending figured out.
What TV series would you like to see resurrected from the dead?
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