Exactly!
In politics, that’s whose vote matters.
I’m with you - but many people don’t seem to have another savings account.
It’s much easier to just piss away $20 a week then stick it in a savings account. But if you get a check for $1,000 at the end of the year, that’s an amount you can actually see/feel and do something with (including potentially dropping it in a savings account).
Have you seen what banks are paying on savings accounts? What is the point?
Having savings available when actually needed, instead of only when the tax refund arrives?
Learning financial discipline and budgeting?
Spring time is a great time for home improvements, vacations.
Maybe learn how to not tell everyone else what to do with their lives?
Funny. I was looking at the inner ant outer towers, and thinking “pre- and post-circumcision”…
…Nazis…
I have ample savings and would still much rather not be slapped with an unpredictably-sized bill come April - or any time, really. Avoiding being slapped with unpredictably-sized bills is a large part of how come I have savings to start with. (The other part being that I sock away a third of my income.)
I always got a small (no more than $500) refund. Now I owe for the first time in 30 years, and it’s twice that amount. The way I understand it, in order to balance things out again, I have to change my w-4 to increase my weekly payroll deduction, which would lower my take home pay every week. Am I correct in this, and if so how would this be considered a tax cut?
I don’t know your finances, but there’s a possibility that your takehome increased enough to compensate for the change in your final bill, but spread out of the year the increase was so petty you barely noticed. Or, alternatively, you’re one of the millions that were boned by all this.
For myself my refunds ended up right about the same (I’ve always deliberately set my withholding high to avoid an April Surprise, and it seems that effect survived any jiggering), and my takehome quietly increased by $30 or so a check. It was literally so little I didn’t notice it until I specifically looked for it.
How much did you pay in taxes two years ago versus last year? If you paid less on a similar income, despite not getting a refund, then you got a tax cut. It’s possible you have actually paid more in taxes last year–a lot of people have. But you have to compare how much you earned in 2017 with how much in tax you paid in 2017 vs how much you earned in 2018 with how much in tax you paid in 2018, not the size of your refund or lack of one at the end of the year.
Again, they changed the withholding tables. Your previous and current refunds are irrelevant. Look at line 15 of your 1040. Run it again with 2017 numbers. That alone will tell you whether it’s considered a tax cut (for you).
With a savings account, sudden car repairs don’t get loaded onto credit cards. Ditto sudden medical expenses. It’s relaxing.
Ummm…Aren’t ALL savings accounts pretty much no interest these days?
It may be that having an (involuntary, admittedly) Christmas Club account (staggered by four month, again, admittedly) beats the hell out of no savings account at all. Plus, there’s the fact that if you never see it in the first place (as net take-home pay, that is), you’re less likely to miss it. If that doesn’t apply to you, you’re almost certainly an outlier.
Nope. Ally Bank has 2.20% interest on savings.
I don’t think I have one of those where I am.
ETA: And by “Where I am,” I particularly refer to “meatspace.”
It’s internet banking, not brick and mortar.
They even offer 0.1% on regular checking.
See the addendum to post #319775. I’m a tire-kicker.
Interest or not, it’s there when you need it in an emergency rather than only becoming available once a year. Heck, if you only have a checking account you can put it in there; or keep it under a mattress if you’re so inclined (okay, I wouldn’t recommend the mattress).
I just don’t like loaning my money to the government interest free for a year. You may feel differently.