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hexeater

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The conversations around taxation and gov finance in the USA are absolutely delulu. I'm in California. Not including sales and property taxes, high earners are paying over 50% in taxes. Whereas the overall expenditures are unsustainable and in many cases just not working anyway. Notable examples are that we are paying more in Interest than for military at the federal level, and we are burning cash on failed homeless policies without any hope of actual change. Any rational conversation has to cut spending.

I have twins, they share a room. they are 19 months old. They have been sleeping through the night since 10 months old. My technique is I put them to bed fully awake at the same time every night. They each get a half full bottle, and I say good night. Before I goto bed, I put another half full bottle in their cribs, and they find it on their own when they wake up. And then I see them in the morning. I had to let them cry it out for a few weeks, but now they just goto bed with no crying. In the morning they talk to each other until I go into the room.

I couldn't imagine doing it any other way. too exhausting for everybody. Being able to goto sleep on your own is a skill! And it's a self taught thing.

About 5 years ago, I asked a politician about housing. The assemblyman told me that housing is largely controlled at the local level and driven by local city politics. He explained that voters tend to be home owners and property owners. The conundrum then is how to make housing affordable without impacting long term investment of majority of voters. A politician or city council which actually moved the needle on housing would be putting themselves at risk of losing many votes, and thus their political careers.

I have gotten IRS penalties/interest due to my incorrectly reporting. I was confused about how to report RSU and Stock Option income, and then I was doubly confused about how to do quarterly filings.

I am REALLY trying to do this on my own without an accountant. I think I got it right with 2019, but I will find in a few week how far off I am when I try to file.

I'd say my interaction feels like the IRS is just painting by numbers - they are just running the numbers and checking if you filed correctly or not. If you did not and the number is significant, they send you a letter.