Republicans Say the Darndest Things!

Wait…

moron…
moron…

WTH?!?!

Why can’t I type m o r a n???

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See that’s the thing. Those that are well off can usually game the system. Those who really need it though are the ones who tend to get blamed as lazy welfare queens milking the system.

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I don’t entirely disagree. But the point is, if the goal is to make it easier for middle class people to afford EVs then having a subsidy on all new EVs under $30,000 will be vastly simpler and more effective and probably cheaper than one on EVs under $55,000 purchased by people with AGIs under $150,000.

I was responding to a post about …

So I assumed a couple. Now you’re specifying a “family of five”. That does change the value of the EITC a lot.

Given this additional information, I agree with YT

Retiring at 40 with 3 kids and $2.5 million of financial assets has to be extremely rare.

(I can’t help pointing out that you’re quoting the maximum value of the EITC. If they earn enough to not qualify for Medicaid, do they really get the max EITC or something closer to a refund of their payroll taxes?)

I can believe that several people in media wanted a nice, big disaster for ratings purposes.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few individuals that welcome destruction that harms DeSantis politically, or at least creates an opportunity to tarnish his political reputation.

But thinking an entire industry is hoping for a disaster strictly because they don’t like a governor…that’s the kind of paranoia that I’m coming to expect from today’s GOP.

That’s an Easter egg here. I think @1695814 was the first to find it???

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I think there’s a disconnect in that because the tax rebate is the feds, and the mandates are at the state level. Perhaps CA will offer something for folks who can’t afford, say, a $26k Bolt or whatever. I’ll be curious to see if someone can crack the $20k mark for a decent EV in the next few years.

Ok, well the adults are the decision makers, but yes they do have 3 dependent children. The kids aren’t the ones managing the money though… the grown-ups are.

I didn’t verify your assertion that $24,000 is the minimum income to avoid Medicaid. But the max income for the max EITC certainly exceeds $24,000 for three OR two kids (although the max EITC for two kids is lower), so if your statement about Medicaid is accurate then it seems that there is a window where folks with multiple kids can be simultaneously rich enough to avoid Medicaid and poor enough to get the max EITC.

Based on what I know about their hobby jobs, $24,000 seems like it’s in the right ballpark for their combined income.

Yes, the entire FIRE system is about exploiting our current system to take advantage of benefits that were intended for others, like YT said.

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No, you can easily hate the player.

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That’s for a family of 2.
(FPL for 2) x 1.3 = $18,310 x 1.3 = $23,803.

With additional information …
(FPL for 5) x 1.3 = $32,470 x 1.3 = $42,211.

Slightly more than the minimum would be: $24k for two and $43k for five.

EITC for $43k for 2021 is $3,030. I can’t find a 2022 EITC table, but eyeballing factors it might be $3,300 this year.

I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or serious, but certainly taking advantage of Obamacare subsidies is part of it. I’m not sure about EITC. But a Google search of “health insurance FIRE” turned up several dozen articles and the few I clicked on all listed “get an ACA policy in retirement” as their top suggestion. :woman_shrugging:

Hmmm, well they have Obamacare for sure because they were quite concerned about it when Trump was elected. Maybe they’re pulling enough from retirement each year to get up to $42,212 or whatever that year’s cutoff is. They’re certainly not earning that much. Oldest kid is in college… if there’s a way to game it to not count the oldest for Obamacare and count the oldest for EITC they’re probably doing that. (Oldest might be getting health insurance through the school???)

But even if oldest counts across the board and they’re at $42,212 their EITC would be $3,572. Not terrible and way more than $510.

2022 tax & EITC tables here.

I’d never actually looked for data. I pulled this from the Financial Samurai guy, who claims it’s from LIMRA, I didn’t validate it. And it’s super high level, particularly for the older groups - could be a fair amount of disability in there, or people retiring with older spouses. And people who retire at 55 or 60 aren’t milking the ACA subsidy for nearly as long as the poster child FIRE folks who retire at 35.

At any rate, if this data is right… oh, it’s not. There are two ‘age 50-54’ groups. Crap. Let me see if there’s source data somewhere.

image

Lots of people retire in the 60-64 age range. The hard part is how many of them have finances arranged to live well while reporting low incomes. And, among those people, how many are explicitly getting under the ACA cliff.

But, Googling, it turns out the cliff doesn’t exist anymore. Eliminating it “temporarily” was part of a covid package, and it has now been eliminated through 2025.

ACA Premium Subsidy Cliff Turns Into a Slope Through 2025.

I would also suspect some/many of the age 60-64 retirees might be folks with govt benefits like Tricare coverage. Maybe a few of the old legacy jobs with retiree medical. And let’s face it, a lot of people retire with pretty low assets, so many people aren’t gaming the system to keep income low, they legit have low incomes.

I was more interested in the age 50 and under data. And despite the fact that they reported two age 50-54 buckets so you can’t really tell what the hell is going on in there, it seems reasonable to conclude that yeah, the cohort of people you read about on the internet retiring at 40 isn’t that large.

Another good Republican leaving their role in public service.

GOP continues its idealization of Russia in its campaign ads.

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Agree, that’s likely begot of privileged childhood/family. I know someone who was given I think $15,000/year to avoid estate taxes from a dying relative.

However, going FIRE in your early 40s is not ridiculous without children. Kids are a money pit. Worth it to many but a significant pitfall if you want to be independently wealthy.

@Lucy I don’t remember the best person to ping but this Republican thread has gone far off rails and belongs in Finance IMO.