If you make less than $111,645 a year, Obama will put more money in your pocket if elected. If you make more (besides being a lucky s.o.b! haha...), then McCain is your man on this one. At least, that's what Smart Money Mag is saying this month.

What i like about this statement is that it is simple. It's saying "here's a # that you can base your presidential decision on" if you base your vote merely on the affects of your wallet. Sure it's all "in theory" (we don't know if either will, in fact, follow through with their ideas), but it does help get the core information out there - One nominee saves money for this group, and another potentially saves more for another group.

I'm all for this simplicity. Those of us with short memory spans, and/or political smarts, eat up these tidbits of information ;) To my credit, I actually did read the entire article on this, but i couldn't tell you for the life of me what the details were. My memory is horrible. I can, and will, however, remember that Obama will help those of us making under $100k. (yeah i know, i'm biased)

Here are some other interesting nuggets straight out of Smart Money (pg. 74):

MCCAIN on Taxes: Tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 lowered the top rates on income, dividends and capital gains; they're scheduled to expire in 2010. McCain originally opposed the cuts, but he now supports making them permanent.

OBAMA on Taxes: Middle-income families would get breaks tied to home ownership, college tuition and savings; some retirees would be exempt from income taxes. People with income of $250,000 or more would see their rates increase.

So am i going to vote for Barack on this alone? of course not. But it's no surprise to many of you that i will in fact vote for him, based on a number of variables. Unfortunately that'll have to wait for another time though, and another blog ;) I know what'll happen if we go down that route, and i'm sure as hell not ready for a cyber showdown here!

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Check out my other post on political donations not being deductible.

Labels: barack obama, politics, taxes

HAPPY Friday the 13th! If you're a superstitious one, you might enjoy this post. Turns out that while I was away, a LOT of horrible stuff happened, yet when I came back the world was happier! haha ... check it out for yourself ;)

This is what happens when J goes away:

• The stock market goes dooooooown, down, down.
• Floods carry away homes in the midwest :(
• And an elderly man gets hit by car, causing rage across the entire country!

And this is what happens when J comes back:

• There's piles of gifts and money on our tables. Sexy!
• A doorman wins $5 million scratch off lottery, and keeps job :)
  
• Obama wins the Democratic nominee! (sure this happened while away, but im counting it here. he he)

Is the world telling me somthing? haha ... we'll never know!

Labels: barack obama, lottery, politics, stock market

Man, thank goodness I didn't shell out those 10G's I was planning on sending to Obama! Haha...j/k, of course.

But seriously, i had no idea you couldn't write them off. I bet you used to be able to, but someone (or a bunch of someones) ruined it.

It's surely not the end of the world, and def. shouldn't be one of the top reasons to donate to a cause, but it did get me thinking. Esp. considering i was just about to donate for the first time ever to a campaign! (can you guess whose?) I would have just slapped it right into my "contributions" folder at home, an added it to next year's tax #'s.

I guess it's good that I subscribe to Money Magazine then ;) Their brief, and to the point, write up on this caught my eager eyes on my daily commute in this morning. It was titled, "Funding Your Candidate" (June, pg23) and shared 3 things to keep in mind:

1. You can give only so much
There are actually caps on how much you can donate - imagine that! Here are the limits each person can donate for 2008 (they are adjusted every 2 years for inflation):

• $2,300 per candidate, per primary
• $2,300 per candidate, per general election
• $28,500 to a national party
• $10,000 per state or local party
• $5,000 per political action committee (PAC)
• UNLIMITED donations to a 527 - some sort of candidate lobby group...maybe this is why i hear of people donating $100,000 here, $200,000 there?

2. Your info will go public
W-O-W, never saw that one coming! (i'm being serious there...although to some of you it will probably come across sarcastic. haha) Apparently there were some reforms after Watergate, and every time you make a contribution, you ALSO have to provide the following:

• your name
• your job
• your employer
• your address

Now, if your total donations are UNDER $200, then your info will just stay w/ the campaign. BUT, and a very interesting one indeed, if your contributions go OVER $200, your info then gets forwarded to the FEC, who then posts it on their website - FEC.gov !!! And then there is ANOTHER then, where it THEN gets picked up by sites like OpenSecrets.org, and FundRace.org who put them in searchable databases! Please excuse another one - W-O-W!

3. No Federal tax deductions for any contrib.
We already covered this one, but Money does a good job of pointing another option out for those deductible-hungry citizens. And that is to donate the said money to a charity that your candidate supports. This way, you help them out, the charity out, and yourself out ;)

So, what will i be doing with this new found information? I'm gonna donate directly to my man Obama. As I've mentioned, I've never once done so in my lifetime, and since my budget only allows for amounts UNDER $200, I won't have to get freaked out about my info all over the net

Labels: barack obama, charity, politics, taxes