Taxed a lot because spouse makes six figures.

[Anonymous]

Good Lord. Is this your husband? If so, the two of you need to spend more time talking and less time posting.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1105684.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your contract work requires you to pay self employment taxes. That rate has nothing to do with the income tax bracket. The self employment tax would normally be paid by your "employer", and since you are your employer, you have to pay that portion.

-signed a self employed contractor.

She’s not self-employed. She works at Starbucks.

My bad. I read "is a contractor". That's what I get for speed reading without coffee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My cousin's wife is doing this. It's insanity. Get a normal job and pay for daycare like the rest of us. Your marriage will thank you.

Why is it insane to work? People work these jobs because they are FLEXIBLE and need something to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, it’s good you are asking these questions. You have time to sort things out do you feel comfortable with your own financial security.

What is a good career path for you? Nursing? Medical assistant? Dental hygienist? Teaching? Your part time hours spent right now would be better off taking classes for certification towards a future professional career. Ideally you could start that job when your kids start school. Schools are desperate for substitutes right now. You could sign up as a lunch monitor or recess monitor and see if that’s a good fit for you.

The kids will be in school in a few short years. If you were able to get, say, a teaching assistant job by then with healthcare and retirement benefits you can really take control of your financial future. Your husband does make some conservative financial decisions and on the whole that’s better than the opposite, but you need to have your own backup plan for your future earning potential. Good luck.

Op here. I do get benefits with my job.now and we already have heath care with his work. The pay lower for teachers assistant and also fewer hours per day, so I need to work more days. Maybe depends on the district. At Starbucks, I make $16 and should get a raise to $17 soon because they do a raise after 60 days. My manager said I was doing great and going above and beyond.

But let’s think long term-do you want to manage a Starbucks store for ten years? Cover shifts that other employees have dropped? Work weekends and nights indefinitely? Starbucks is getting a lot out of you, trust me, they are a billion dollar company, they pay you no more than they have to. but you need to make sure you are getting something worthwhile. The teaching assistant job would probably come with a pension and would allow you to work the hours that your kids are in school and not have to pay for after care. Plus it would allow for growth, moving up into teaching or administration in a very family friendly occupation. You could pick up tutoring or barista work in the summers too. Taking a hit right now on your pay which is actually not that great is worthwhile if you are building up to future earnings.

She can switch hours once her kids are in school. She never said anything about managing it. Not everyone wants to work full-time. Maybe she doesn't want to be around kids all day and then come home to them.

Op here. I have considered the aide position. Is that what you mean? But my kids are 2 & 3. They will be in morning preschool in the fall, three days a week. At first, I wanted to work not because of money. It's because I am lonely as a stay at home mom. I always find a way to make a little money by doing online work, mostly one-time projects. My sister is a teacher, so she tells me a lot about it. She doesn't have kids and is older than me. She's not recommending it for me. I also work at the gym childcare only 7 hours a week spilt up into two days. There are a lot of mom's working with me at the gym childcare and at Starbucks, I have coworkers with kids. I think overall, it is helping my mental health to work part-time. When my kids are in school I will have more time to focus and see about another career. I do feel it would be very hard to balance a full-time career and motherhood. I am going against the norm in my culture by working. All the women here in the US from my background do not work. They don't know about their husbands' income. They don't worry about anything and a lot of them judge me for working at Starbucks. They look down on me; I know it. I walk to my job because it's so close to our house, and people from my community go to Starbucks, so it's easy for them to know where I work. Despite this I'm not going to let it worry me. It's better for my kids that I am mentally healthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, it’s good you are asking these questions. You have time to sort things out do you feel comfortable with your own financial security.

What is a good career path for you? Nursing? Medical assistant? Dental hygienist? Teaching? Your part time hours spent right now would be better off taking classes for certification towards a future professional career. Ideally you could start that job when your kids start school. Schools are desperate for substitutes right now. You could sign up as a lunch monitor or recess monitor and see if that’s a good fit for you.

The kids will be in school in a few short years. If you were able to get, say, a teaching assistant job by then with healthcare and retirement benefits you can really take control of your financial future. Your husband does make some conservative financial decisions and on the whole that’s better than the opposite, but you need to have your own backup plan for your future earning potential. Good luck.

Op here. I do get benefits with my job.now and we already have heath care with his work. The pay lower for teachers assistant and also fewer hours per day, so I need to work more days. Maybe depends on the district. At Starbucks, I make $16 and should get a raise to $17 soon because they do a raise after 60 days. My manager said I was doing great and going above and beyond.

But let’s think long term-do you want to manage a Starbucks store for ten years? Cover shifts that other employees have dropped? Work weekends and nights indefinitely? Starbucks is getting a lot out of you, trust me, they are a billion dollar company, they pay you no more than they have to. but you need to make sure you are getting something worthwhile. The teaching assistant job would probably come with a pension and would allow you to work the hours that your kids are in school and not have to pay for after care. Plus it would allow for growth, moving up into teaching or administration in a very family friendly occupation. You could pick up tutoring or barista work in the summers too. Taking a hit right now on your pay which is actually not that great is worthwhile if you are building up to future earnings.

She can switch hours once her kids are in school. She never said anything about managing it. Not everyone wants to work full-time. Maybe she doesn't want to be around kids all day and then come home to them.

Op here. I have considered the aide position. Is that what you mean? But my kids are 2 & 3. They will be in morning preschool in the fall, three days a week. At first, I wanted to work not because of money. It's because I am lonely as a stay at home mom. I always find a way to make a little money by doing online work, mostly one-time projects. My sister is a teacher, so she tells me a lot about it. She doesn't have kids and is older than me. She's not recommending it for me. I also work at the gym childcare only 7 hours a week spilt up into two days. There are a lot of mom's working with me at the gym childcare and at Starbucks, I have coworkers with kids. I think overall, it is helping my mental health to work part-time. When my kids are in school I will have more time to focus and see about another career. I do feel it would be very hard to balance a full-time career and motherhood. I am going against the norm in my culture by working. All the women here in the US from my background do not work. They don't know about their husbands' income. They don't worry about anything and a lot of them judge me for working at Starbucks. They look down on me; I know it. I walk to my job because it's so close to our house, and people from my community go to Starbucks, so it's easy for them to know where I work. Despite this I'm not going to let it worry me. It's better for my kids that I am mentally healthy.

Don't worry about the taxes, OP. It's great you are self-aware and know working is helping your mental health. We all need an outlet outside of being a parent, and if it gives you a little money, that's a bonus. Remember, working means you will get social security benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it is a marriage issue/ I think she needs a higher paying job. He is trying to pay off the mortgage and probably save for retirement which are usually seen as good adult things. Her job is not traditional hours and not much money so it doesn’t make sense at the limited hours she is working.

He is trying to say this and she is not getting it. It is hard being an adult sometimes.

She hasn't indicated any of this. It actually seems like he doesn't want her to work because of the taxes. People can't get high income positions just because someone else wants it. If it were important, he should have thought about that before he married her and before they had two kids. I think the op is trying to figure out if they have enough money for her to stay at home without working, and they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it is a marriage issue/ I think she needs a higher paying job. He is trying to pay off the mortgage and probably save for retirement which are usually seen as good adult things. Her job is not traditional hours and not much money so it doesn’t make sense at the limited hours she is working.

He is trying to say this and she is not getting it. It is hard being an adult sometimes.

She hasn't indicated any of this. It actually seems like he doesn't want her to work because of the taxes. People can't get high income positions just because someone else wants it. If it were important, he should have thought about that before he married her and before they had two kids. I think the op is trying to figure out if they have enough money for her to stay at home without working, and they do.

She works odd hours so she can be the primary parent. Really not hard to understand. You guys don't understand how hourly employees live. It's very common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can also usually request that they take out extra for your taxes in your paycheck (if you don't want to owe money later).

For your question "Is it worth it?". I guess you have to ask yourself if it's worth all of that time for an extra 10K. What would you be doing otherwise if you didn't work?

I work on the weekends and evenings, so it's time away from my kids, who are toddlers, and my husband. Because I get home so late, we sleep separately.

Why do you work then??

Unhappy marriage and home life is my guess. Husband is creepy and OP sounds clueless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to figure this out. Spouse makes 160k with a bonus. I would earn 15k. He's saying I would be taxed 35 percent, just like him. My work doesn't take it all out, so come tax season, we would owe the difference. My work takes out whatever is "normal." I'm not considered a contractor. Paying 5k in taxes seems excessive for my small salary. I don't see any of the 160k. My husband takes care of the mortgage and everything else, and he says there's not much left over. Does it ever make sense not to work in cases like these? I enjoy working but work full days hourly, three days a week so it is a lot of time for not a lot of money.

if you file together and have joint income then its taxed as a joint pot....? Each dollar over a certain amount is taxed at a higher percentage and you are taxed on AGI, not total income. Is he telling you that your 15k coming in is taxed at 35% in isolation because that's a dumb way of looking at it and I am not even sure the 35% is correct- although maybe he means combined with state?

Your combined income is taxed according to the following brackets if married filling joint:

$0 – $20,550 10%
$20,551 – $83,550 $2,055 + 12% of the amount over $20,550
$83,551 – $178,150 $9,615 + 22% of the amount over $83,550
$178,151 – $340,100 $30,427 + 24% of the amount over $178,150
$340,101 – $431,900 $69,295 + 32% of the amount over $340,100
$431,901 – $647,850 $98,671 + 35% of the amount over $431,900
$647,851 or more $174,253.50 + 37% of the amount over $647,850


So you could just as easily say your 15k being the first 15k is taxed at 0%.

Wow!
I am a very intelligent and educated person and I have no idea that this is how taxes are calculated. Good news is that my DH does, as he is the family CFO and a finance exec and our family CFO. What class is this - Personal finance, Economics, etc? I have a lot of time on my hands and would love to google and learn.

Seriously??? How do you not know this??? Clearly not as intelligent as you think you are, lady. I mean google "taxes" and this pops up immediately. but go on and keep letting Daddy do it all for you.

[Anonymous]

Op here. I spoke to my husband tonight and we logged into the mortgage website. I'm not sure how he managed it, but he already put $100k into the house and wants to pay it off in 7 years. He says we would pay 80k in interest instead of 500k if we pay it off in 7 years.

[Anonymous]

Just get a job that pays more than $13/hour. But you know that. You just don't want to work. That's why you get $13

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I spoke to my husband tonight and we logged into the mortgage website. I'm not sure how he managed it, but he already put $100k into the house and wants to pay it off in 7 years. He says we would pay 80k in interest instead of 500k if we pay it off in 7 years.

Okay cool but you still need to not feel bad about buying haircuts and food. He's a controlling ass, sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just get a job that pays more than $13/hour. But you know that. You just don't want to work. That's why you get $13

OP it seems like at this time of night you get a lot of anti-women, incel-like comments like this one. Ignore them.

[Anonymous]

It's not worth it to work on the weekends and at poor paying retail job OP, has nothing to do with taxes. Why don't you want to be with your family on the weekends? The kids will be going to school soon enough and you can work retail then, there will be plenty of jobs available during the week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just get a job that pays more than $13/hour. But you know that. You just don't want to work. That's why you get $13

OP it seems like at this time of night you get a lot of anti-women, incel-like comments like this one. Ignore them.

It's a valid comment. What grown woman is ok with $13/hour? My house cleaner gets $200-250 in 3 hours. Nannies are paid more. Starbucks baristas 1st day on the job. Can get certifications, like radiology tech or dental assistant or something. It's very strange to give up on working because "I only earn $15k." That's just being willfully dense. My husband hires teens who earn more.