Social Security Calculations February 27, 2011
Posted by lisawifemom in The Job Hunt.Tags: money, retirement, Social Security, Tax
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I have so many self-employed people around me, so I thought I’d share some information that I just received. First, I am not an expert nor am I trying to give expert advice, I am simply sharing what I’ve learned in the hopes of making someone else more aware. Of course, each person should make the call and find out details for themselves.
There has been a question recently in my circle about how social security is figured when you have not recently been paying in (self-employed not paying, or unemployed), and do they figure it on your highest 5 years of income (what someone had been told) or is it another way? Well, this is what we recently were told by SSA:
- if you worked at least 10 years total in your lifetime, you qualify to collect benefits
- from your entire work history, the discard your 5 consecutive worse years
- they take the remaining years and average them together to come up with the number they use to figure your benefits
So this mean if you have not been paying in SS, maybe you’ve been unemployed, or contract labor with too many write-offs, etc., those years of zeros are hurting your average number. I’ll give you an example: XYZ works in the corporate world, paying taxes, for 25 years; then become unemployed for 5 years; then starts consulting for 8 years, but never makes very much money so XYZ’s write-offs well out weigh the income and taxes are never owed at year-end. That is 13 years of zero taxes paid, 5 of which are thrown out, but those other 8 years of zeros are added to the 25 corporate years, bringing the average down.
As a side note, to qualify for disability you had to have worked, and paid in, 5 of the last 10 years.
Just thought this was some great information, especially for the entrepreneurs out there just starting out and trying to figure it all out.
Do you have some personal experience or knowledge that you can share on the subject? I’d love to become more educated, and of course don’t want wrong info being put out there, so please, feel free to add or correct. Thanks.
WOTC – Weeding out the Crap February 25, 2011
Posted by lisawifemom in Random Thoughts and Observations.Tags: change, hormones, life change, moms
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A group of moms sitting around discussing how we are changing with age, not all good, and how we’re dealing with it with regard to our families. It’s difficult, we have small children, we can’t take it out on them, yet we sometimes do, we’re human, it’s tough, and having others to commiserate with makes it a bit easier. During this conversation, the WOTC was created. Are you a part of this group?
Please leave a comment here instead of on Facebook, so we can all share. Thanks!
What’s up with boys and their violence? February 23, 2011
Posted by lisawifemom in It's All About the Twins.Tags: boys, Nerf, Toy weapon, violence
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I swear they come out of the womb making a gun with their fingers!! We worked so hard for over 4 years to keep any violent toys, games, programs, etc. out of our house; yet he still ran around pretending to shoot, wrestling, kicking, making his toys kill each other. Where do they get it??? I know school has some influence, but we’re at a small school with a strong non-violent policy.
Anyway, sometime after he turned 4 it started creeping into the shows his daddy would let him watch, and the movies they were now old enough to watch (supposedly). But I still kept it at a minimum and no weapon toys or games. However, this last Christmas, after he turned 5, my family decided they had waited long enough and bought him nerf guns. HE WAS IN HEAVEN! It was not really a dis-respectful thing on my family’s behalf, BTW, it was coming one way or another. His daddy believes you have to let boys be boys and has fought with him from the beginning.
At school his little BFF is also a lover of the fighting, so we had to finally realize, with the Director’s help, that these boys just need this type of expression. The school’s no hitting/kicking/fighting policy would have to be bent for these two boys, this is how they needed to express themselves and it obviously worked for them. They have this unspoken agreement, we observed, that this is ok, they will get hurt, and they don’t get mad at each other (much). In fact, often when one hurts the other, they both cry!
I notice the same patterns at the park, most of the boys just cannot play without pretending to have weapons, chasing, hitting, wrestling, etc. It’s just born into them, they are fighters.
I’m learning so much about men in having a son. And my daughter, this sure is toughening her up as well! My son will no longer play dolls, or baby with her, so if she wants a play companion at home, she must play his games. So now she runs around fighting, kicking, etc. Women are so much more flexible!!
Would love to hear from other mothers of sons. Does your son like to play-fight, use play weapons? If not, is it something you think you had to work on or was he just not born with the tendency?
