Thankyou to the US goverment- "I am going to Disney World"

[capecodhome]

I am hoping with the extra tax money the goverment is giving to us to put back in the economy, I will put money down for a vacation in 2009 :sohappy:.

 

[Phonedave]

Fortunately, I have enough in savings to easily cover the cost of this trip while I'm waiting for my tax refund, since there's no way I'll have it by Feb 28, which is my 45 day mark by which I must have the trip paid. Then the tax refund will go into the savings account.

Just a word to the wise: Don't participate in stock programs at your workplace. :brick: I work at Walmart and have worked there for 10 1/2 years. Ever since 2000, I have been having money taken out of every paycheck and put into stock. I stopped last January, after spending 6 years taking 100 bucks out of every paycheck and putting into stock. Over the years, I would sell chunks of it periodically if I needed extra cash, for Christmas, etc. When you sell stock you must file a Schedule D for capital gains and losses. Unfortunately, after 7 years of bi-weekly stock deductions from your paycheck, with each deduction at fluctuating stock prices, it's a nightmare to try to figure out a cost basis for the stock you have bought and sold. Normally, I would have filed my taxes by myself and had it in the mail last month. But since I sold stock last year (and I sold all of it, at that), I have no clue how to file a Schedule D, especially when it is impossible to figure up a cost basis. So I dumped it off on a tax preparer to figure out, which is why I am late in filing and will not have my refund by the time I must have this trip paid for.

So, although it's off topic, I just thought I'd issue that word of warning to anyone who works in a place where you have the option of buying into company stock. DON'T DO IT!

Were you able to buy stock at a discount? If so, then it is a good program. however there is something to be said for not having all of your eggs in one basket. Working at (your paycheck) and investing in (your stocks) the same company leaves you open to danger ---- everybody say Enron now.

If you have a 401(k) plan at your company, by all means invest in it, even if it is in company stock. The Pension Reform Act of 2006 now allows you to sell off any company stock that you have held in a 401(k) plan for more than 3 years. You can sell that stock and move it to another tex defered savings vehicle.

As far as determining the cost basis of company stock that you bought, if you know exactly what shares you are selling you compute the cost basis that way, if you cannot, you use a first in / first out rule. You sell your oldest shares first, and use those values to report cost baiss - if it ends up hurting you taxwise, thats the penality you pay for not keeping records

However, if you sold all of your stock holdings at once, I fail to see the problem. If you bought $50 of stock a week for 7 years, you paid $18,200 for the stock. Thats your cost baisis, if you sold it for $40,000, then you had $21,800 in capital gains (minus any costs). On Schedule D when it asks for purchase dates, you put "various".

-dave

 

[VillanovaBlue]

My sympathies for anyone who already spent this money.

If you already spent this money, you're an idiot...

 

[elizs77]

~~Pixie dust good vibes~~

 

[ypcat]

I have always heard this argument and while it works great on paper it just does no work with the average person. Most people simply do not have the discipline to simply let money sit in an account that they have easy access to. They take out $20 here $50 there and by the time the end of the year hits they have spent 10 times the amount of interest they would have earned. If you are the type of person that can leave the money alone then by all means it is the way to go but if you are not the lost interest is a good trade off for not being able to spend the money on useless stuff and get one check at the end of the year that can make a difference in paying down debt or a major purchase.

Which is why I so graciously offered my service. I can easily take 0% loans all year and send out the deposits much more efficiently than the government.

Seriously though, I get a larger refund every other year since my I can only claim my son from a previous marriage on odd years. I am too lazy to submit a new W-4 every year, so some years I try to get a very small refund, and other years I get a nice one. In fact, this year I am getting a rather nice one that is paying for our trip.

 

[slappy magoo]

If you already spent this money, you're an idiot...

Well, after potentially dashing some dreams, I didn't want to sound like I was gleeful or spiteful, knowhutimean? Just passing the info along.

 

[Tiggerfanatic]

You have to do what works for you. I can put money in an account and for all intents and purposes forget that it is there and never touch it. My wife on the other hand will consider it disposable income and periodically pull from it. Our solution, I have a savings account that she does not have access to and I stick a percentage of my check in there every week without fail. At the end of the year that account is what we use for Christmas.

I do kind of the same thing - my credit union offers a vacation club, so I have $50 direct deposited every pay - a virtually painless way to set money aside - you don't miss what you didn't get. There isn't a time limit on the club, either. I can leave it there for 6 months or 3 years. I just call when I'm going on vacation, and they send me the check.

 

[wdwmomof3]

This was a vote on the Senate's version of the bill. Now that that didn't pass they will likely vote on the house's passed version. This bill would have sent rebates of $500/$1000 and not the $600/$1200+kids version that the house proposed.

The senate set a deadline of Feb 15th to pass it so it hasn't been stopped yet.

I thought that I read that it was $500/$1000+kids version that we are waiting on. I think that the kids are still in it.

 

[TestTrack]

I thought that I read that it was $500/$1000+kids version that we are waiting on. I think that the kids are still in it.

It's tricky.

The $600/$1200+kids version was proposed and approved by the house

The senate has since made their own $500/$1000+kids version that has different restrictions.

The latter was voted down because of the added clauses democrats wanted for unemployment extension and home heating help.

So that version could be voted on again(because the person that proposed it changed his vote to nay...and there are rules that say that that allows you to bring it up again). However, unchanged it likely still wouldn't pass unless they could convince more republicans to vote for it.

So they have a choice. They can drop the clauses they wanted added and it would likely pass. OR they could vote on the houses version. If they did the latter it would go to Bush for approval.

We don't know which way they will go.


P.S. you're right that both include the $300/kid. That was an accidental omission.



EDIT:

They just approved the House's version:

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Sto...D029-92CC-4FCD-A5BB-74A560A3A7B8}&siteid=mktw

So it's pretty much guaranteed now that the $600/$1200+kids version is what you can expect.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

The Senate-approved version DOES include money for the elderly and disabled vets not included in the House version, but they dropped the unemployment and home heating provisions. So the amount of these checks still isn't a sure thing. I would assume the House and Senate would need to have a conference, since their approved versions are slightly different, and from there we'll know what we're actually looking at here.

 

[TestTrack]

The Senate-approved version DOES include money for the elderly and disabled vets not included in the House version, but they dropped the unemployment and home heating provisions. So the amount of these checks still isn't a sure thing. I would assume the House and Senate would need to have a conference, since their approved versions are slightly different, and from there we'll know what we're actually looking at here.

Yes, it does need to be reapproved by the house. However, you can be guaranteed it will be voted through again. The big deal was the added provisions which were elminated brought the cost up to $200 billion. The added costs to give the rebates to disabled veterans and retired people is not as significant.

 

[smk]

While I would love to celebrate and splurge for something special, like a deposit on a trip, I can't help but to wonder where this money will come from? Our government is borrowing this money, putting us further into debt, that is not what we need. IMHO. :shrug:

 

[TestTrack]

While I would love to celebrate and splurge for something special, like a deposit on a trip, I can't help but to wonder where this money will come from? Our government is borrowing this money, putting us further into debt, that is not what we need. IMHO. :shrug:

It comes from the taxes they took in. However, you are also correct because we currently spend more than we take in so in the end that money did come from somewhere else...or was printed by the gov.

 

[accord99cutie]

I wonder how many people are like me and are going to use this money to pay off credit card debt/school oans??? I don't think that will be helping the economy but Ive got more important things to put money towards than to just spend it... (side note: Im not saying that going to Disney isn't worth spending the money on, I just mean that its less important at this time for me, lol)

 

[EPCOT.nut]

I do kind of the same thing - my credit union offers a vacation club, so I have $50 direct deposited every pay - a virtually painless way to set money aside - you don't miss what you didn't get. There isn't a time limit on the club, either. I can leave it there for 6 months or 3 years. I just call when I'm going on vacation, and they send me the check.

Yeah, we have Christmas Club. Which can be "Vacation Club" if we go during Holidays Around the World...

 

[TestTrack]

The bill was just approved in the HOUSE. It is now in Bush's hands to sign. Which he has already said he will

 

[sbkline]

Were you able to buy stock at a discount? If so, then it is a good program. however there is something to be said for not having all of your eggs in one basket. Working at (your paycheck) and investing in (your stocks) the same company leaves you open to danger ---- everybody say Enron now.

If you have a 401(k) plan at your company, by all means invest in it, even if it is in company stock. The Pension Reform Act of 2006 now allows you to sell off any company stock that you have held in a 401(k) plan for more than 3 years. You can sell that stock and move it to another tex defered savings vehicle.

As far as determining the cost basis of company stock that you bought, if you know exactly what shares you are selling you compute the cost basis that way, if you cannot, you use a first in / first out rule. You sell your oldest shares first, and use those values to report cost baiss - if it ends up hurting you taxwise, thats the penality you pay for not keeping records

However, if you sold all of your stock holdings at once, I fail to see the problem. If you bought $50 of stock a week for 7 years, you paid $18,200 for the stock. Thats your cost baisis, if you sold it for $40,000, then you had $21,800 in capital gains (minus any costs). On Schedule D when it asks for purchase dates, you put "various".

-dave

The problem is that the stock price is constantly changing. One pay period, I may have bought 100 dollars of stock at $48.25. Another pay period, my 100 dollar payroll deduction may have purchased stock at $53.67. On and on for 7 years. 26 pay periods a year for 7 years or so with stock prices that are going up and down virtually every day.

As far as getting a discount on the stock, well sort of. Walmart would match 15 percent, up to a certain limit. So for every 100 dollar payroll deduction, Walmart would match 15 dollars. However, the limit would be reached at some point into the year, where Walmart wouldn't contribute anymore for that year. But it would end up totaling over 300 dollars if I remember correctly. Which is one of the reasons why I thought it worked as a good savings account. 300 some odd dollars of free "interest" on top of whatever profit I may make if I sell the stock at more than I bought it for.

But I think my problem was that I was shortsighted and foolish to try to use it as a savings account. When I first started doing stock, I closed out my savings account and put it all into stock. Then, I would have my payroll deductions which, at that time, were 30 or 50 bucks or so. When stock would get to a certain price, I would cash it all out, and then reinvest it when the price dropped, so that I would have more shares than I started out with. Then when I started my job with the county and went part time at Walmart, I upped my payroll deductions to $200 per pay period for a while, and then down to $100 per pay period, where it stayed for the next 4 or 5 years. Then, when we got married, we put the extra wedding money that we didn't spend into the stock account as well, and then periodically, we would sell some stock if we needed extra cash.

At the end of every year, Walmart would issue a statement showing all the account activity over the year (but I didn't sell stock every single year). I was wise enough to realize that the tax preparer would need that to figure a cost basis for any stock I sold that year, but I was foolish enough not to think ahead to the time when I would cash out all my stock and quit participating in the stock program. So now I still have the stock statements for those years that I actually sold stock (since those years I had to have a tax preparer to my taxes and I still have the tax returns). However, those years that I didn't sell stock and I was able to figure my taxes myself, I tossed the stock statement into the garbage.

Like I said...looking back in hindsight I did it foolishly and now I'm paying the price for it. I suppose the stock program can be a very good idea if one participates more wisely than I did...by keeping all the records and by not using the stock program as a savings account.

 

[k.hunter30]

While I would love to celebrate and splurge for something special, like a deposit on a trip, I can't help but to wonder where this money will come from? Our government is borrowing this money, putting us further into debt, that is not what we need. IMHO. :shrug:

They are thinking that Americans will turn around and spend this money, boosting our economy. They are hoping the end result will be more positive than the means are negative--if that makes sense.

 

[MichWolv]

They are thinking that Americans will turn around and spend this money, boosting our economy. They are hoping the end result will be more positive than the means are negative--if that makes sense.

Your sentence makes sense grammatically and is accurate.

It is the "thinking" in the first place that makes no sense to me. Kind of like people who think they can afford to buy things because their credit cards aren't at the limit yet and they hae enough money to make minimum payments each month.

 

[k.hunter30]

Your sentence makes sense grammatically and is accurate.

It is the "thinking" in the first place that makes no sense to me. Kind of like people who think they can afford to buy things because their credit cards aren't at the limit yet and they hae enough money to make minimum payments each month.

Oh, I'm with you on that. But because that happens to be the mentality of the majority of Americans, I guess the government's "thinking" in terms of why they're doing this is spot on... unfortunately for some.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I haven't read all the particulars in this thread but I've noticed since the passing of this thing it's being referred to as the 'Rebate Program'. Sounds a lot like an advance of next year's refund money. Like last time. We're still working on our taxes for this year but it looks like we'll be owing. I don't want a check that applies to next year. I'll have to pay it back and then some. :shrug: No, thank you. I'd like to tell them where to stick their check, too. :fork: