Comments | papergreen: praise the lord and pass the welfare benefits.

papergreen

praise the lord and pass the welfare benefits.

Mar 16, 2007 15:43

apparently my taxable income this year comes to a whopping $5140the plus side of living on so little is that my tax refund will be an amount more than sufficient to cover a month's living expenses ( Read more... )

Comments 9

jdtnirvana March 16 2007, 20:24:17 UTC

holy crap. I'm freakin impressed. Not only that you can live on that little in NYC, but you can survive. Wow. My jaws on the floor in amazement.

papergreen March 16 2007, 20:40:23 UTC

thanks. i'll admit i got a strange feeling of pride and, well, righteousness when i saw the actual figure.

i am also kind of impressed with myself for living on that amount of money. and enjoying it.

i mean, there are things i would like to have (replacements for my broken external harddrive and stolen ipod and a month in mexico, if you're counting, mom)...but i'm really very happy with the way i live.

i feel justified in my belief that the point of LIFE is not work, i.e. selling your time to someone else purely to make money regardless of what YOU want to do with it!

robarchangel March 16 2007, 21:41:48 UTC

i'm pretty sure you qualify for food stamps, and you should also be eligible for free or super-low cost health care. here's a link to medicaid info, for which you pobbly qualify with your income- http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicaidGenInfo/Downloads/MedicaidAtAGlance2005.pdf

also look here: http://www.ins.state.ny.us/website2/hny/english/hny.htm

worth spending time researching with all those hours you don't spend slaving your life away :-)

papergreen March 16 2007, 23:48:01 UTC

i've actually looked into some of this before, and the reality is that $15,000 a year, for one person with no dependents and no serious medical condition, is still 150% of the federal poverty rate. basically, in order to receive most forms of government assistance, you have to be living on an amount of money that is truly unlivable ( ... )

robarchangel March 17 2007, 00:34:56 UTC

yeah, i'm familiar with the poverty line calculations. since in 1950 or maybe 1978 or some other year a generation or two ago, the average american spent about a quarter of their income on food, they calculate the bare minimum 'bread basket' amount and multiply it by four ( ... )

sorry if that was misleading... papergreen March 17 2007, 01:34:22 UTC

my TOTAL income was just under $15,000. my "taxable" income, as calulated on my tax forms, was $5140.

the taxable income, as i understand it, is the "adjusted gross income" minus the $8,450 they have you subtract if no one can claim you as a dependent.

unless i'm doing this wrong...but i've looked the form over several times, and that's what it seems to be saying.
i'm still pretty new at all this.

Thread 7