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Home > Should I work less to earn more?

Should I work less to earn more?

January 4th, 2009 at 08:51 pm

Well my grand notion that we would be getting a large tax refund has imploded. Thanks to my incompetance regarding tax law I was completely off. Sad.

It looks like we may break even or possibly even owe. This is painful!

The problem? We made too much money. So that basically means all that work I do is getting eaten up in taxes. It means that four day stretch of living on 4 or (if I'm lucky) 5 hours of sleep daily is worth very little. The stress is not worth it.

Now, by me saying we make too much is not to imply we are rich. We are not. We are buried in too much debt and we both love to spend money...hence the debt. However, we have made great strides these past few months to change our spending habits and reduce our debt. Could we make it with me working 3 days a week instead of four?

Yes.

Would we have less money to play with? Absolutely!

But, I hate the idea of working to just pay taxes. If I can spend more time at home with my kids then that is what I will do.

I have also wondered about investing more and if that would make a difference...I'm not sure it would.

I don't plan on cutting back just yet, if I do it will be late spring/early summer. I mentioned it to M. but we need to talk about it in more detail before arriving at a decision. The good thing about being a nurse is that I can easily pick up extra time if I need to.

Well, we had our big party last night and had to contend with three bad drunks. One threw up on our front porch and the other mooned everybody. I don'tlike to drink so I was completely sober. M. drank a little but wasn't drunk. It was a pretty good time I guess.

I am very sick today. Aches, pain, stuffy nose, fever and sore throat. Even tylenol and Ibuprofen is helping just barely. I am wearing a Breathe Right strip on my nose around the clock.

I just watched the Cavs lose by two points! The first game I watch all season and they lose! BOO!

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

8 Responses to “Should I work less to earn more?”

  1. fern Says:
    January 4th, 2009 at 09:02 pm 1231102930
    1231102930

    I don't think the extra day is worth it if you're sleep-deprived. It's not good for your health, and if you're tired when you do have family time, it affects everyone.

    Having to pay anything at tax time is a bummer. It's been many years since i got a refund, but that's becus of my freelance income.

    Only you can say what's best, but it sounds like you'd rather not do the extra work. I can't say i blame you, you can only do so much, but not if it really wears you down. It sounds like you are on track with paying off that credit card debt.

  2. thriftorama Says:
    January 4th, 2009 at 09:35 pm 1231104936
    1231104936

    I had this same realization a couple of years ago. When I plugged everything into a BAnkrate calculator it turns out we were losing $1200 a year thanks to taxes. I wasn't about to PAY to work and put up with all that frustration, so I quit, and frankly we haven't missed the money nearly as much as I thought we would. I freelance part time, and that doesn't bump us into a higher tax bracket.

  3. Koppur Says:
    January 4th, 2009 at 09:52 pm 1231105935
    1231105935

    Well, before I read the post, I'd say yes. And after the post, I still say yes. Why work to pay for the government? They certainly aren't helping us.

    Hope you feel better soon!

  4. disneysteve Says:
    January 4th, 2009 at 11:29 pm 1231111761
    1231111761

    How can all of the work be "eaten up in taxes"? Sure, earning more could put you in a higher tax bracket, but it is only the income over a certain amount that gets taxed at the higher rate, not your entire income. For 2008, for example, if you were married filing jointly, an income up to $65,100 was the 15% bracket. Any income earned above $65,100 put you in the 25% bracket, so for every dollar you earned beyond $65,100 you paid $.25 in taxes instead of $.15, but you still got to keep the other $.75 (minus state taxes which are another few percent). No matter what, most of the money still ends up in your pocket.

    Now one thing that could happen is you could earn enough to lose certain deductions and I suppose it is possible for that to cost you more than you are earning in extra income, so maybe that's what you are referring to.

  5. Ms. Pearl Says:
    January 5th, 2009 at 12:24 am 1231115090
    1231115090

    Disneysteve: I guess I just feel frustrated that I work so hard and then the end of the year I have to pay taxes. I 100% believe the more you earn the more you should pay but it hurts because of all our debts we are trying desperately to pay off. Also, I am so tired all the time that I am wondering if I should just cut back to keep my sanity!

  6. crazyliblady Says:
    January 5th, 2009 at 12:42 am 1231116149
    1231116149

    I would say to have someone really knowledgeable about taxes look over your tax receipts (medical expense receipts, childcare, charitable contributions, mortgage interest, etc.) to make sure you are getting all the deductions it is possible for you to get. My husband used to work as a tax consultant and was continually amazed by people who said they already filed their taxes with another company, but he was able to find even more deductions to the tune of thousands of dollars. Some of those people didn't know they could deduct mortgage interest or medical expenses, because the other company they went to did not tell them that. If you can get that kind of money back, you could use it to pay off more debt and achieve better stability for your family.

  7. monkeymama Says:
    January 5th, 2009 at 01:22 am 1231118531
    1231118531

    Yeah - people don't realize they can come out behind. At higher tax brackets you lose a LOT of deductions. IT's usually more when you factor daycare and the costs of working (in addition to the taxes). In that scenario my spouse could work full-time and bring home a whopping $10k. Whereas not working we have way more opportunities to save money and are in a lower tax bracket. We don't lose $30k (gross). we don't lose $10k. We may be $5k behind in the end. Well, you shouldn't work 40 hours a week to earn $5k/year. That's the thing. There's plenty of other ways to make $5k that don't take so much time. That is really the point people don't get about second incomes. You can come out about the same on a part-time second income sometimes.

    So yeah, I believe working too much could work against you. In addition, spouses with SAHP usually have more support, put forth more effort at their jobs, and get paid more anyway. Not always, but a lot of the times it can make a big difference.

  8. whitestripe Says:
    January 5th, 2009 at 07:47 am 1231141675
    1231141675

    this year (if you aren't already) try to research what you can claim as a tax deduction and claim it! the laws are prob different in australia than in the US, but I can claim electricity costs because I sometimes work from home. I can claim car expenses because i use my car to get the mail. i can claim any black shirt i buy because i am required to wear a black shirt to my second work. i can claim laundry liquid and fabric softener to wash those shirts, as well as the name-embroidered shirts for my first job, so can BF. BF can claim any tools he buys, and he can claim meals he buys when he is stuck finishing a floor. anything you are sure you can claim, do it, because most other people do. Smile

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