Thought and Question #3
As I lay in bed last night around 3 am after getting up a few times and unable to sleep I kept thinking about this. I am kind of wondering what 2 genereations think on this one. It seems like all my friends in their late 20's through the 30's are living life in a different way than their Boomer parents. Seems like our parents almost lived the 20's and 30's like they had nothing. If they lost their job they couldn't even ask their parents to help them out temporarily because they didn't have anything either. Now it seems like almost all of my friends have parents that have investment properties, building their dream house, buying cottages and condos, etc. So the bottom line seems to be that the Boomers changed something somehow. Did they work harder? Better economy? Save more? Because we as the 30 somethings now seem to have parents as a back up "just in case" unlike the Boomers at our age. I wonder how it will change how we raise our kids. Give me your thoughts...
posted by David Drury @ 9:01 AM
4 Comments:
Wow. Everyone seems to have blog these days. I'd get one I suppose but something in a lawyer's ear keeps whispering that anything we say can and will be used against us in a court of law . . .
I saw your tax questions on Uncle Tuesday Column's site. All Drurys love taxes and I sounds to me like you're the tax maven for the Spring Lake Drurys.
Since you are family, I thought I'd give you my two cents on your tax questions. I'll leave your Question #3 for some more astute social commentators than I.
I use Mapquest to run the mileage to my destination and multiply by two. If you want documentation, print it out. I might lose out a few miles because I got off and went to a Walmart or took a wrong turn but in the end, a mapping/mileage program makes up for it in ease.
As for the other, I may be mistaken but I don't think you can offset any expenses against Misc income (maybe some limited ones for itemized deductions--but typically hard to get because of 2% floor issues). If you had to incur expenses to collect the income you need a way to deduct them. Business deductions are different and much better than itemized deductions anyway. I think I would do a schedule C.
I hope you guys are doing well. Give my best to David. W/ a preacher and 3 kids at home you guys better not be paying any taxes
:-) Scott
Good to hear from you Scott! Thanks for your tips!! Glad you tracked this down!
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
Dennis and I discussed this one a bit. Wondered if the first boomers born in 1945 - 1955 find what you say to be true; their parents weren't able to help them out. Dennis and I are boomers from 55 and 57 and we definitely didn't have much in our 20s and 30s - unlike that age group today. But, our parents were able to pitch in at some desperate times.
Of course, we started out having kids one year into our marriage and did church planting from our 3rd anniversary to the 8th - none of this helped with building a financial foundation, of course. I remained a stay-at-home mom throughout all the years of raising children. Never regretted this - just the way it was and what we chose to value.
I'm not sure what it is - seems like we do live in an affluent culture. Sometimes we are bewildered by the vacations taken, restaurants patronized, homes owned by those in their 20s in comparison to that time in our life.
I'm sure the economy has something to do with it. How do credit cards play into this? I wonder if the "got plastic" mentality has given the free reign of materialismm.
Both our parents worked hard for what they earned. I wonder what has happened to the work ethic in many - do less, earn much more than those before us.
We tried to teach our kids strong work ethic. Even taught them principles of "pay now, play later", "and then some", money management (save, give, spend). We gave them a somewhat hefty allowance (relative)in order to teach them these principles practically. They were managing their money in 5th grade. Intentionally, we didn't give them enough to "live" on once they were in senior high, so they would have to supplement the allowance with a job. And we didn't cover the entire college ed. - the majority of it had to be paid by their own earning power.
Anyway, I don't have the answer but just some thoughts from my own experience.
thanks Gwen for your insights and Dennis too! You have some great points. I wonder too about the whole credit card thing and peoples debt. Even without CC debt I wonder how we got where we are sometimes at our age compared to our parents. I guess it is combinations of things.
The thing is you never really know peoples financial situations. Even parents really. We are finding that with elderly grandparents now. No one ever knew their situation. Everything so secretive.
Interesting topic I think and I am hoping more people post their ideas too.
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