[7heaven]

Me, at least til now....

Someone told me if you have a second mortgage on your primary residence, you can't take the deduction for the "second home"....? Ugh......

 

[ColoradoChip]

Me, at least til now....

Someone told me if you have a second mortgage on your primary residence, you can't take the deduction for the "second home"....? Ugh......

I don't believe that is the case. You might want to ask your CPA, but mine said that all three can be deducted.

 

[BoaterDan]

Me, at least til now....

Someone told me if you have a second mortgage on your primary residence, you can't take the deduction for the "second home"....? Ugh......

Just browsed the IRS publication and I see no such thing. The biggest impact of a second mortgage seems to be that the interest deduction on each home (primary or secondary) may be limited by the value of the home. If you got up to 125% LTV with a second mortgage and then the value of your house has dropped since then, you could have a problem deducting all the interest on that home, but it has nothing to do with whether you can deduct for two homes or not.

That's my interpretation of a quick reading, being neither an attorney or cpa.

 

[BoaterDan]

Me, at least til now....

Someone told me if you have a second mortgage on your primary residence, you can't take the deduction for the "second home"....? Ugh......

By the way, this is where amended tax returns are a beautiful thing. It's a surprisingly simple process - the form is essential a "redo" of the 1040, with special spots to designate the change from the originally filed version.

You could get money back for the past years when you weren't taking this deduction!

 

[7heaven]

I will take a look at the past two years; maybe I can pay for another trip!

 

[Junebug]

My wife and I are weird, we do not have any debt, we do not even have credit cards, we use a debit card or cash; so we have no Outback deduction to take.

If you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else!! Quote from Dave Ramsey

 

[BoaterDan]

Good for you JuneBug. Most people get tripped up on missing the brutal truth that a deduction never saves you as much as avoiding the thing in the first place - that is to say the deduction is never as big as the total cost. BTW, you even paid cash for your house?

For those of thus that financed these things, you certainly don't want to miss this deduction though.

 

[jcat67]

Good for you JuneBug. Most people get tripped up on missing the brutal truth that a deduction never saves you as much as avoiding the thing in the first place - that is to say the deduction is never as big as the total cost. BTW, you even paid cash for your house?

For those of thus that financed these things, you certainly don't want to miss this deduction though.

I am with you on this one. I also agree wth JuneBug, and am with her on points. We have no debt short of the mortgage ( and now a small outback loan), and this probably will only be a few more years, however. With Mortgage interest, day care for 3, 3 children for deductions, charitable giving, property taxes....and I am sure I am missing some other reasons, we still itemize so.....might as well get it while I can. Hopefully, by the time we get the house paid off, the outback will have been free and clear and we can use the mortgage money to save up for the outback upgrade in cash. Of course I am still gonna have my 9 year old mortgage (Drew), 5 year old mortgage (Delaney) and 1.5 year old morgage (Courtney) but I see more return for my money in them than anything else of value I have.

 

[Junebug]

No, we do have a small mortgage. We were not on the debt free lifestyle when we bought the house, but we have been making tripple payments for a few years now and the mortgage will die in 2.5 years! When we started this we had $80K in consumer debt, mostly student loans. We went completely crazy, came unglued even and paid the debt off in 18 months and WE ARE NEVER GOING BACK!!!! We lived on beans and rice during that time, but we became closer than ever, it actually tempered us, we worked this together, it was hard but worth it. We can make tripple payments on the mortgage now because we do not have any consumer debt (I should have been more clear earlier).

BTW...I now JuneBug sound like a screen name for a girl/lady, but I'm the 39 years old dad! :-0 My 5 years old little girl's middle name is Juen and she helped my pick out the screen name....I couldn't say no to her!!!!

 

[GarethsDad]

No, we do have a small mortgage. We were not on the debt free lifestyle when we bought the house, but we have been making tripple payments for a few years now and the mortgage will die in 2.5 years! When we started this we had $80K in consumer debt, mostly student loans. We went completely crazy, came unglued even and paid the debt off in 18 months and WE ARE NEVER GOING BACK!!!! We lived on beans and rice during that time, but we became closer than ever, it actually tempered us, we worked this together, it was hard but worth it. We can make tripple payments on the mortgage now because we do not have any consumer debt (I should have been more clear earlier).

BTW...I now JuneBug sound like a screen name for a girl/lady, but I'm the 39 years old dad! :-0 My 5 years old little girl's middle name is Juen and she helped my pick out the screen name....I couldn't say no to her!!!!

That also is my FIL nickname and he's in his 60's. His whole family calls him that. Story was that when he was a kid he swallowed a junebug. James

 

[garyb1st]

Of course I am still gonna have my 9 year old mortgage (Drew), 5 year old mortgage (Delaney) and 1.5 year old morgage (Courtney) but I see more return for my money in them than anything else of value I have.

Somehow those mortgages never get paid. In fact sometimes they grow. At least in numbers. One new daughter-in-law, one new son-in-law and one grand daughter.

Itemized deductions, $$$$
Standard deduction, $$$$
Personal exemptions, $$$$
Children, Priceless.

 

[Nathan]

No, we do have a small mortgage. We were not on the debt free lifestyle when we bought the house, but we have been making tripple payments for a few years now and the mortgage will die in 2.5 years! When we started this we had $80K in consumer debt, mostly student loans. We went completely crazy, came unglued even and paid the debt off in 18 months and WE ARE NEVER GOING BACK!!!! We lived on beans and rice during that time, but we became closer than ever, it actually tempered us, we worked this together, it was hard but worth it. We can make tripple payments on the mortgage now because we do not have any consumer debt (I should have been more clear earlier).

BTW...I now JuneBug sound like a screen name for a girl/lady, but I'm the 39 years old dad! :-0 My 5 years old little girl's middle name is Juen and she helped my pick out the screen name....I couldn't say no to her!!!!

Now that's impressive!!!

I thought we were doing good by not having credit card debt.

However, I suspect there are a lot of companies out there that don't approve of your choice of lifestyle. You should really spend more time watching commercials and buying EVERYTHING that is advertised!!!

 

[jcat67]

No, we do have a small mortgage. We were not on the debt free lifestyle when we bought the house, but we have been making tripple payments for a few years now and the mortgage will die in 2.5 years! When we started this we had $80K in consumer debt, mostly student loans. We went completely crazy, came unglued even and paid the debt off in 18 months and WE ARE NEVER GOING BACK!!!! We lived on beans and rice during that time, but we became closer than ever, it actually tempered us, we worked this together, it was hard but worth it. We can make tripple payments on the mortgage now because we do not have any consumer debt (I should have been more clear earlier).

BTW...I now JuneBug sound like a screen name for a girl/lady, but I'm the 39 years old dad! :-0 My 5 years old little girl's middle name is Juen and she helped my pick out the screen name....I couldn't say no to her!!!!

Now that's impressive!!!

I thought we were doing good by not having credit card debt.

However, I suspect there are a lot of companies out there that don't approve of your choice of lifestyle. You should really spend more time watching commercials and buying EVERYTHING that is advertised!!!

[/quote]

I know this thread is completely spinning out of control but....I love playing the cc games. I like JuneBug had some cc debt after our first year of marriage, (16 years ago) and after a couple of years decided it had to go and paid it off and never looked back. I do however like to take play the game of getting "X" credit card, making the first purchase to get the bonus 25K FF miles (enough for a coach seat free) and then use the card (paying off monthly) until the first "annual charge" comes, then cancel the card. I also use a Sony card to build points which have assisted Santa in purchasing a Playstation 2, a digital camera, and is on its way to another SLR digital. I don't think the companies mind too much about us folks who pay our bills (they still get the 5% charge to the retailer....who is of course passing that along in the price of product) because we are generally the exception and they are getting their interest out of many others.

Heck, I made a bit of cash back in the day when MCI and ATT were fighting for customers and would send you a check to switch.....and I bet I am not alone.

 

[having_fun]

If you want to limit the size of the government, the best thing you can do for this country is take as many deductions as possible!

 

[Junebug]

jcat67,
Be careful, when you play with snakes you will get bit! Dunn&Bradstreet did a study that shows that most people (not you of course spend at least 15-17% more on credit card purchases over cash! Most people do not experience the 'emotion' of the purchase with a credit card; trust me when you lay down a Ben Franklin to pay for dinner...it hurts a little inside!! And believe you me, when I wrote that 5 figure check for my new Outback....well...all i can say is OUCH!!! Anyway, i never heard a millionaire say, "hey, you know what did it for me..it was the Discover Cards cash back", or "hey, those frequent flyer miles put me over the top, now I'm wealthy!!!" No, stay away from credit cards....don't you wish you just had the funiture those credit cards companies and banks have in their lobbies!!! Wake-up folks...these guys spend billions of $$ trying to figure out how to make us use their products..debt IS the most heavily marketed product in the history of modern times!!!

 

[RvOwner]

Most of the people prefer to take the deductions until they pay the total amount so it all depends on the IRS regulations.

 

[RvOwner]

To avoid such taxes and other costs, I always prefer to rent out the campers whenever I needed. In this way I can experience various vehicles and sometimes the luxurious ones that I can not afford.

 

[RvOwner]

Full time RV lifestyle was a very good thing and avoided any housing expenses, but now the city laws are discouraging this lifestyle and a person cannot park it even in his own house parking. Certain new taxes are also imposed on them so it is really discouraging these days.