What do your monthly bills total?

[Grey Fox]

Yes but there's also a supplement program based on income. I qualify for that one too.

It's part of it too, 7$ now too but there is also a 4 times a year payment.

[The Brain]

Meh, counting money is so gauche. Whatever that means.

[Richard Hakluyt]

For some, health insurance is a monthly bill. For others it's an auto-deduct from your paycheck. You can decide for yourself how you want to count it.

Either way it's an expense. Same with taxes. I guarantee most of the people here are wildly understating their expenses for that reason alone. Don't start with the net. The difference between the gross and the net are all expenses and need to be added in to the total. The only wildcard is 401k/IRA contributions.

Take into account income taxes then we are just back to a proxy of our gross annual incomes 

The monthly bills as defined by meri is quite a useful measure in my opinion, it represents fairly inelastic costs that it would be tricky to reduce even if our gross incomes collapsed. High income taxes, after all, are not a problem if one hits hard times.

[Maximus]

I just checked and I pay $286 a year in property tax.

Where I grew up my parents paid  less than $100 per year in property taxes on 240 acres.

[merithyn]

For some, health insurance is a monthly bill. For others it's an auto-deduct from your paycheck. You can decide for yourself how you want to count it.

Either way it's an expense. Same with taxes. I guarantee most of the people here are wildly understating their expenses for that reason alone. Don't start with the net. The difference between the gross and the net are all expenses and need to be added in to the total. The only wildcard is 401k/IRA contributions.

Take into account income taxes then we are just back to a proxy of our gross annual incomes 

The monthly bills as defined by meri is quite a useful measure in my opinion, it represents fairly inelastic costs that it would be tricky to reduce even if our gross incomes collapsed. High income taxes, after all, are not a problem if one hits hard times.

One can lower monthly expenditures, but it's often a bit harder. This is obvious by the fact that our monthly costs went up considerably once Max got a job, because we added smart phones to our cell phone bill, got HBO, and bought a car and car insurance. If something should happen and we're back to a lower income, we could reduce those again as necessary.

But in general, your monthly expenditures are what they're going to be.

[Caliga]

Where I grew up my parents paid  less than $100 per year in property taxes on 240 acres.

Is there some kind of massive homestead exemption up there?

[11B4V]

I just checked and I pay $286 a year in property tax.

Which is precisely why your public school system is as shitty as it is.

No that's due to lazy ass teachers and teachers unions.

[Jacob]

No that's due to lazy ass teachers and teachers unions.

Do you have kids?

[11B4V]

No that's due to lazy ass teachers and teachers unions.

Do you have kids?

I do, an 8 y/o.

[Barrister]

Where I grew up my parents paid  less than $100 per year in property taxes on 240 acres.

Is there some kind of massive homestead exemption up there?

I know the general area where Max is from.  It's miles from anywhere and likely receives essentially zero in services for those property taxes.

I mean I pay a lot in taxes, but at least I get water, garbage pick up, snowclearing, schools, etc. for that money.

[Jacob]

I do, an 8 y/o.

Gotcha. Cool

I was just wondering how personal your experiences and decisions were re: your local public school system.

[11B4V]

Besides her last two teachers were nice, just hippies. Sending home incomplete homework assignment..etc.

The PTA was peddling this summer workbook for 17.00. I was like, yea, good idea. Now I was think along the lines of a book similar to a brainquest workbook, which is like an inch thick with multiple subjects. Oh no, not those fucking PTA swindlers. What I get is some 50 page lame ass workbook.

 

[Maximus]

Is there some kind of massive homestead exemption up there?

I don't know the exact details as I was 13 when we left. At the time that area was an Improvement District rather than a Municipal District. A Municipal District in Alberta is sort of similar to a county in the US although they have counties as well. An Improvement District means the population was low enough/sparse enough that it could not support its own infrastructure etc, so the province handled much of that and levied the property taxes at a low rate. I believe the Northern Residence reduction applied to property taxes and there may have been other exemptions related to underdeveloped areas.

In addition it was "agricultural land" which taxes at a lower rate than, say, residential. In reality, when they bought it it was wooded muskeg that wasn't even good for commercial logging. By the time we left it had all been drained and about half of it was cleared with about half of that in cultivation.

[Barrister]

Is there some kind of massive homestead exemption up there?

I don't know the exact details as I was 13 when we left. At the time that area was an Improvement District rather than a Municipal District. A Municipal District in Alberta is sort of similar to a county in the US although they have counties as well. An Improvement District means the population was low enough/sparse enough that it could not support its own infrastructure etc, so the province handled much of that and levied the property taxes at a low rate. I believe the Northern Residence reduction applied to property taxes and there may have been other exemptions related to underdeveloped areas.

In addition it was "agricultural land" which taxes at a lower rate than, say, residential. In reality, when they bought it it was wooded muskeg that wasn't even good for commercial logging. By the time we left it had all been drained and about half of it was cleared with about half of that in cultivation.

IIRC you'd also be getting a discount since you're doing all those improvements to the land.

[Maximus]

Possibly