Thank-you all for all of the wonderful words that you had to say about me. I have loved it here for 6 years now almost & kind of hide out now & then when Dave is having his ups & downs b/c I think you might be tired of hearing about it. He was so kind to me today. We didn't have any money so we filled the car with gas & picked up our friends & took a road trip to Apollo Beach where the power plant is that the manatees stay at during the winter. It was such a surprise. He wouldn't say where we were going. Said friends picked up breakfast, lunch, & a t-shirt of the manatees. Much to my father's dismay, I forgot to take a camera. I have been so afraid that they would be completely extinct before I got over there to see them. We saw about 15. It was a lovely time. BJ~Have a safe trip. I know that you & Besh will have a great time together. Yesterday was the horse race over in Tampa. I wanted to be there so bad b/c they are going to have a horse racing in the KY Derby. Sun King is the name of the horse. Marci~Carrot cake is my dessert too. LOL Thanks for the beautiful gif. Gretchen & Tikanis~Great to see you posting. Gretchen~DS proposed around here & that was the last that I have seen of him in FL. LOL I have to go to TX if I want to see them. Shout out to everyone! Sending love your way & hoping that your spring started out as good as mine! (It was 79 degrees here!) Patti :)

Ah ha! I think I see where our misunderstanding lies. I see anything that is in the GROSS INCOME part of my paycheck as income. That is all taxed, except for what I may decide to put into a 401k, IRA, etc or into a tax-deferred saving plan for medical savings accounts or childcare accounts. So the gross income amount has my tax-deferred retirement savings and my tax-deferred health or childcare subtracted out. Then I pay income tax on what is left. Then they take out Social Security tax, and Medicare tax. You want the Social Security tax and the Medicare tax taken out, then the remaining income taxed. I, on the other hand, contend that the money you are using to pay your SS and Medicare tax IS income and is taxed like income. You disagree and think it should be treated like the tax-deferred savings for retirement, health care, and childcare. I still contend that these tax-deferred savings are a new development and have nothing to do with what money you pay your SS and Medicare tax on. Before about 1980, they never existed! The income tax was figured on your income, then you used part of that income to pay SS tax, Medicare tax, state income tax, sales tax, user fees, whatever. Actually, self-employed folks do not have the convenience of having SS and Medicare taxes taken out of our checks and must pay them ourselves. Employed folks get their employers to pay half of SS tax. I don't, I pay the whole amount of SS and Medicare taxes when I pay my taxes each year. I do get to deduct half of the SS and Medicare tax that I pay out of my income (so technically I do not have to pay income tax on the half of it that I pay for myself that others who have employers have paid for them. I pay $x extra in tax because I am self employed, and get all of 20% of that back by not paying taxes on it - but I am still out the other 80% that I had to pay - that employed folks had their employers pay for them.) Anyhow, we are paying income tax on our income, then using that income nanoseconds later to pay SS and Medicare taxes. And later to pay State and local taxes. And buy whatever else we buy. We do use our taxed income to pay for state income tax and to pay for real estate taxes. If you do the long form (most working-class folks do not earn enough to do so), you then can deduct these taxes from your income on Schedule A. Again, you are getting back maybe 15 - 30% of that money you paid in these taxes by deducting them from your income. Sales tax, building permits, licensing fees, all kinds of taxes do not get this special deductibility. So we are constantly paying taxes with money that we already paid income tax on. In a few special circumstances we may deduct these taxes from our income and thereby reclaim a portion of that money, but by no means are all taxes given this special treatment. Again, since fairness lies in the eye of the beholder, there is no way to construct a tax system that all would find fair. You don't like to pay taxes with money that was already taxed for income tax. Okay, I guess that this is as good a gripe as anyone has. As Albert Ellis, the great psychiatrist says, "Who said life is fair?"

I got only SSI because the judge ruled that my disability started more than 5 years after I quit working. I quit working in 1996. The judge ruled that my disability didn't start until 2002. So it was ruled that my disability had started more than 5 years after I last had a job. This 5 year limit made me inelegible for disability benifits. But I was still elegible for SSI. SSI is based on household income. So Cindy can only make a certain amount before my SSI check is reduced. SSI is a maximum of $521 per month. If Cindy makes over $600 in a month, then that amount is reduced for us. The $600 amount is derived from a formula that takes into account household expenses such as rent, utilities, child support, etc. They base each month's check on what household income was last year. Or what it is projected to be. And we have to periodically send in Cindy's paycheck stubs. If they estimate a month high, and Cindy's actual income is lower, they will make it up. This month, based on last years income, I only get a little over $300. But Cindy will still make under $600. So sometime in the next few months they will send us the difference between this month's check and $521. You SSI and disability checks are retroactive. The payments will be for the period of time from the day your disability started. So if it takes 2 years to go thru the process of applying, you will get the payments for all that time back to when you became disabled. If you get approved you will get a really big backpay check at the beginning. This will be the back pay. They split mine into two checks. If you used a lawyer to help with your claim, he can only charge up to 25% of the backpay. You will get a letter from SS telling you how much he can charge you. I was told it is very hard to get approved for a physical disability. The questions for them is "is there any job you can do". They consider if you can sit at a desk and work then you can get a job. The standard was even higher for when I applied to have my student loans discharged because of disability. They told me unless you are comatose you can forget it. I was denied and I am going to see what other options I have. Pooh Bear

I have another friend who lost her husband when she was 52. Her husband was retired, but I don't know if he was collecting or even had put into SS since he had his own business, and may have decided to pay himself in cash. Yes, I know it's breaking the law, but that's the possibility. When she inquired re: his SS, she was told she 'wasn't old enough', huh? I lost a first husband at 27 and was able to collect for myself as well as my children, so don't see age as being a prerequisite. I'm curious, is it because he didn't pay in, or is there another reason this could be the case?