# But I'm on a fixed income! **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 25, 2020, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216 "2020-03-25T00:24:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/1 "2020-03-25T00:24:12Z")
And as long as Trump et al keep their hands off my Social Security I’m glad I am. But will I be eligible for the stimulus payments? A grand or two would hit the spot before June, when I get all my SS (it’s complicated). ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/2 "2020-03-25T00:29:18Z")
I don’t know if it’s clear yet who will get payments. The bill hasn’t been passed yet. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/3 "2020-03-25T00:48:39Z")
Guv-mint. My favorite flavor. (:)) ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/4 "2020-03-25T01:38:45Z")
I’m on a fixed income, too, **dropzone**. But if I qualify for this stupid payment, I’ll give it to my kids regardless of my own needs. It’s a pathetic attempt to buy votes, and their generation will end up paying for it anyway, so they should bet my portion. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/5 "2020-03-25T02:40:18Z")
My wife needs a car. Both of our vehicles died about two months apart. I was able to replace mine at no small cost, but that left me in a position to not be able to help her with hers. So, yeah, I’d take the $$$$. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/6 "2020-03-25T13:10:50Z")
“UP TO” $1200. I’m fucked. OTOH, I’m currently on only survivor benefits. I’m way poor. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/7 "2020-03-25T14:17:38Z")
In response to the OP: According to CNN, [your fixed income shouldn’t affect you either way. You’ll be eligible to receive a $1,200 stimulus check as long as you didn’t earn more than $75,000 last year or last-last year. However, the checks likely won’t arrive until May.](https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/senate-deal-stimulus-checks-coronavirus/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/8 "2020-03-25T14:31:57Z")
Alrighty then. I haven’t made $75k since 2008, back when it was pretty good money. Now it seems like minimum wage. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/9 "2020-03-25T14:40:39Z")
Interesting. I don’t need the money to survive, as I’m still able to work like normal, but I’d be lying if I said I really couldn’t use the money. Had a few car maintenance and repair bills come up that I’ve been paying off and I’d really love to get those taken care of. I’m a bit out of the loop so I apologize, but was it confirmed whether the money would have to be paid back or not? I hadn’t really been keeping tabs on this, figuring that since I haven’t lost my job or got decreased hours, I wouldn’t qualify for any help. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/10 "2020-03-25T14:43:36Z")
> [@Kovitlac](#): > > I’m a bit out of the loop so I apologize, but was it confirmed whether the money would have to be paid back or not? From reading the sources, I am 99.999999% certain that you don’t have to pay them back (it’s a gift, not a loan,) except perhaps in the sense that they might be considered taxable income, in which case you’d have to pay a small fraction of them as federal income taxes next year just like any other income. Probably treated the same as the 2001 and 2008 Bush-era stimulus/tax-rebate checks (and I can’t recall how those were treated, tax-wise.) ---
**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/11 "2020-03-25T14:46:14Z")
A relative has been living off her Roth IRAs and hasn’t filed a tax return since 2013. She doesn’t yet receive Social Security retirement and doesn’t plan to until she reaches 70. So she doesn’t have a record with her tax return but does have a record with Roth withdrawals. Does someone in that situation qualify for the payments? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/12 "2020-03-25T14:46:25Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Alrighty then. I haven’t made $75k since 2008, back when it was pretty good money. Now it seems like minimum wage. Right - and even if you earned more than $75k, you could still get a check, but it wouldn’t be for the full $1,200; it would be a reduced amount. It’s only at $99,000 income that you receive nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/13 "2020-03-25T14:57:56Z")
> [@Tigers2B1](#): > > A relative has been living off her Roth IRAs and hasn’t filed a tax return since 2013. She doesn’t yet receive Social Security retirement and doesn’t plan to until she reaches 70. So she doesn’t have a record with her tax return but does have a record with Roth withdrawals. Does someone in that situation qualify for the payments? Just one correction in case it matters. She did filed up to 2016 when she also took money out of a traditional IRA. She hasn’t filed since 2016. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/14 "2020-03-25T15:11:25Z")
Can someone actually define what “fixed income” means? I have heard that in different ways. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/15 "2020-03-25T15:18:58Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > Can someone actually define what “fixed income” means? I have heard that in different ways. One of my pet-peeves is when people say they’re on a “fixed income”. Aren’t most people on a fixed income, other than those working for commission? If I win the Mega-Zillion Lottery, quit my job, and receive a $40,000 check each month , I’m on a fixed income, right? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/16 "2020-03-25T15:20:13Z")
If I understood my college economics lectures, sending checks to everyone without backing increases the money supply, leading to inflation, which will erode the value of any “free” money you get. OTOH, if there is backing, the real money will come from taxes, past or future, which will erode the value of anything you get. Sounds like a win-win, lose-lose proposition, although the wins & loses won’t be distributed evenly in the population. Overall, however, a zero-sum game. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/17 "2020-03-25T15:21:43Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > From reading the sources, I am 99.999999% certain that you don’t have to pay them back (it’s a gift, not a loan,) except perhaps in the sense that they might be considered taxable income, in which case you’d have to pay a small fraction of them as federal income taxes next year just like any other income. > > Probably treated the same as the 2001 and 2008 Bush-era stimulus/tax-rebate checks (and I can’t recall how those were treated, tax-wise.) I was living with my parents back during that time, so I honestly have little idea how those were done, lol. Thank you for your reply! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/18 "2020-03-25T18:18:55Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > One of my pet-peeves is when people say they’re on a “fixed income”. Aren’t most people on a fixed income, other than those working for commission? If I win the Mega-Zillion Lottery, quit my job, and receive a $40,000 check each month , I’m on a fixed income, right? A fixed income is one that you can count on each pay period, like a salary that doesn’t vary. Social Security is an example. Most commission jobs are variable, based on the amount of commission earned for the sales you make, even though the actual funds received can be a draw upon future earnings. Some commission jobs are 100% commission-based – if you sell nothing, you receive nothing in commission. That’s how my real-estate income is; I receive only the commission from my sales, nothing else. In some ways, this is worse than a fixed income; it includes the possibility of no income at all, while expenses continue. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/19 "2020-03-25T18:30:50Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > One of my pet-peeves is when people say they’re on a “fixed income”. Aren’t most people on a fixed income, other than those working for commission? If I win the Mega-Zillion Lottery, quit my job, and receive a $40,000 check each month , I’m on a fixed income, right? When I was telemarketing I heard the whine in the title about once an hour. Because I’m a saint I never said, "Lady, my rate is based on the program I’m calling for and if we run out of contracted hours I can get laid off for the rest of the month. Don’t think I have any sympathy for you. I only wish I had a fixed income. And FTR, my luxurious SS fixed income will be slightly higher than many months as a telemarketer. This massive influx of home workers will fuck things up for me when I get out of the Home and start looking for work. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216/20 "2020-03-25T19:04:24Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > If I understood my college economics lectures, sending checks to everyone without backing increases the money supply, leading to inflation, which will erode the value of any “free” money you get. > > OTOH, if there is backing, the real money will come from taxes, past or future, which will erode the value of anything you get. > > Sounds like a win-win, lose-lose proposition, although the wins & loses won’t be distributed evenly in the population. Overall, however, a zero-sum game. Well, a subset of people has been worried about hyper-inflation for the last 30 years or so. My nearly 40 years ago economics class said “too much money chasing not enough goods”, and this stimulus is supposed to prevent “no money and too many goods” AIUI. And as AIUI (not well admittedly), the ‘backing’ is the overall economy (at any rate nothing tangible). So if the money infusion causes people to continue to buy stuff, then at some level/percentage it is ‘self-backing’. And certainly if it staves off an actual depression/deflation scenario it is a good thing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-im-on-a-fixed-income/850216.md?page=2)