> Could someone please define "Fixed Income" is there someone out there
with
> broken income? The assumption is that you are saying you have a limited
> means to live with, so does Bill Gates (his limits are just a little
greater
> than ours).
Yeah-fixed income is when you're a senior who only gets $800 a month to live
on-and the average rent for a one bedroom is $900. And that $800 is before
tax and you Medicare deduction are taken out!-and the government checks on
your bank account so that if you have anything over that $800-they want to
know where you got it from, why you didn't tell them and you have to pay it
back! This holds true for those on SSI and SSDI. The cheats (the one's who
have thousands every month and live like kings) are the
exceptions-irregardless what you saw on 20/20 or Dateline. There are quite a
few legal citizens in this country whose incomes are limited in this way and
must make money under the table and hide it because the government thinks
that we can live on less than many people pay in rent. (And I have private
insurance! And they're the same way!) I can't even give examples of things I
know that (elderly and ill-and I do mean ill) people have done and ways
they've hidden a couple of extra hundred dollars, because of fear of what
might happen to them. (And we're not talking of luxury items here-but
refrigerator and car repair, paying doctors bills and prescription costs.)
I can tell you that I have a friend who is dying a long slow death-and
worked until a couple of years ago when it became apparent that he wasn't
going to be able to work much longer. He had bought a house several years
before, and had some small savings. When his physical condition started to
worsen, he did the research and found that he would have to sell the house
and couldn't have any savings at all. He knew that he wouldn't be able to
live much longer on his own and take care of his house, so he sold the house
and gave the money and his savings to his sister and brother in law to buy a
bigger home and move in with them. He applied for SSDI (and the forms are
not easy-and your doctor has to approve everything-not easy to cheat on
this-contrary to what the news magazines would have you believe). He was
approved the 4th time he applied. Started recieving a whole $900 a month.
(From a system he'd been paying very good money into for 30 years!) when
after a few months they decided to investigate him as to what happened to
the money from the sale of his house. Under the law, a home owner would have
to have sold within x number of months before applying-which he had. They
threatened to make him pay all that money over to the SS administration. And
stopped his $900 month checks. (Which meant he had to borrow money to make
his health insurance payments.) Many months later, he won his case. And
recieved the monthly payments in one lump sum retroactively (which meant
that a 40% income tax was taken out-as is the norm for a lump sum
payment-even if your tax bracket is actually only 10%). But, why should
someone who is horribly ill or someone who is elderly have to go through
something like this? And this is actually the norm? And you don't call this
a 'fixed income'?
And with the elderly, they are often afraid to fight the government back-or
just too frail. And they were brought up a bit differently, to have manners
and respect-and just don't feel that they can fight back.
Just pray that you never become old or ill in this country-cause then you
are dead meat! You'll find out then what 'limited income' really means.
But, I'm not bitter... ;-)
Laura G.
> Patrick Bowen
> whos government defined 'fixed income' is preparing to become a civilian
> defined fixed income of hopefully greater limits!!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Laura.G@141.com [mailto:Laura.G@141.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 1:11 PM
> To: David Massey; Jonathan Beaudoin
> Cc: N.A. Campiglia III; 'Spitfires'; [unknown]; Simmons, Reid W
> Subject: Re: gas prices - YIKES!
>
>
>
> If I were paying $1.51 -I wouldn't complain! But, I'm paying over $2.00!
And
> I'm on a fixed income and still have to make a health insurance
> payment-which takes a big chunk of my income. Maybe when the U.S. has
> unviversal health care and I don't have that payment to make too, I won;t
> complain!
>
> Let's not even go into the condition of the roads-which is part of what
the
> tax on gas is supposed to go to-and there's only 2 places with worse
> roads-Detroit and New Orleans. I'm starting to go out of my way to go home
> because the road I live on is so bad!
>
> Laura G.
>
> Vita brevis est: rapide agite, vigore strigate!
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Massey <105671.471@compuserve.com>
> To: Jonathan Beaudoin <jbdoin@sympatico.ca>
> Cc: N.A. Campiglia III <spitdrvr@camalott.com>; 'Spitfires'
> <Spitfires@autox.team.net>; [unknown] <Triumphs@autox.team.net>; Simmons,
> Reid W <reid.w.simmons@intel.com>; Laura Gharazeddine <Laura.G@141.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 7:28 AM
> Subject: Re: gas prices - YIKES!
>
>
> Message text written by Jonathan Beaudoin
> >I guess if I would pat only 1.51 per gallon I would be happy what do you
> say
> about 3.28 / gallon!! That what we pay right now here in Quebec Canada..
> 0.819 /
> liter. There must be someone somewhere that is getting very rich.
>
> Jonathan
> <
>
> Jonathan,
>
> Don't forget to do the currency excange. At about $.70 (US) per $1.00
> (CDN) that translates into $2.20/gal (US). Still higher but not as bad.
> Another way to look at it is we are paying $1.51 (US) which is about $2.10
> (CDN) /gal or $.57/litre.
>
> So we have nothing to complain about.
>
> Dave
>
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