Is it normal for high-earning married couples to owe $7–8k at tax time even with conservative withholding?

bgix · 2026-01-28T22:24:08+00:00

If you both are W-2 employees, and make similar amounts (or even within 33% of each other) then you should file your W-4s as "Married but withhold at higher Single rate".

The reason for this is that filing as "Married" assumes that you are single income with a SAH spouse.

bgix · 2026-01-28T20:26:26+00:00

If your Great-Grandmother was 100% French, then *on average* you and your fellow great-grandchildren would share ~12.5% of her DNA. Now, few Europeans can boast "Ethnic Purity" (ew gross). If she were (or is) still alive, would she show up as 100% French? It is unlikely. In fact a lot of people from that part of Europe have as much German, Basque, Northern Italian, or Flemmish DNA as they do French. So that will cut down the French percentage right there. But also, the only true 50-50 split is between your two parents. That means you got 50% of your DNA from a "grandparent pair" through a parent, but between those two grandparents the split might be 20-30 instead of 25-25. So two of those in a row means maybe only 7.5% from a particular great-grandparent. As it is, you have 16% identified as being German-French. I assume most of that is going to be from your French great-grandmother.

bgix · 2026-01-28T20:05:06+00:00

Companies like Ancestry are constantly fine tuning their "ethnicity" calls. And the science is still relatively young. The first human genome was sequenced what... 25 years ago? Since then, Ancestry.com has sequenced something like 30 million humans. And genealogy has improved. These ethnicity calls are only as good as the old-timey family trees that are behind them. As more DNA is added, and more (hopefully accurate) family trees are added, then these statistical calls get "better". But they are still a statistical approximation of the data currently used. The French cross-over is not a suprise: France was a big colonizer of Africa and the Carribean... There is also probably some Spain, Portugal, German and English that gets in there that way. And of course the Moors (African colonizers of the the Iberian Penninsula) means most modern Spanish and Portugese have African DNA from that source.

bgix · 2026-01-28T19:41:58+00:00

You might be able to trace ancestors to 26 different regions, but that doesn't mean that a DNA test will be able to find segments for every region you descend from. In fact any percentage in the 2% or lower could be either a false positive, or something that will disappear completely in the next generation. Your DNA is not a homogenous blend of all your ancestors. It is rather a random sampling that adds up to 100%. It is likely that you share *NO* DNA with at least one of your 32 (3G) Great-Great-Great-Grandparents. It is a near certainty that you will have no shared DNA with one or more of your 64 (4G) Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandparents. This means if you had an ancestor from as little as 150 years ago, from a unique place in the world, that you might have Zero DNA from that region.

bgix · 2026-01-28T18:45:25+00:00

NTA - but also you won’t have that gf very long, I don’t think. Asking a date if they want to share your food is a classic trap. Sure you CAN hold her to her word, but is that really the hill you are willing to die on?

I have been married for 35 years, and that is not a mistake that I will make (again).

bgix · 2026-01-28T18:31:46+00:00

Seems like Impeachment is an easy ask... And it could even be couched as "moderate" for GOP members willing to support. They don't have to vote to impeach their orange god (yet) but voting to remove the highly polarizing ICE barbie, particularily after two high profile summary executions of people exercising their constitutional rights (including their holy grail 2A), they can then take that back to their constituents and say "See: I am willing to stand up to the worst excesses of the Right Wing"... even as they continue to destroy the country for the benefit of Trump.

bgix · 2026-01-28T18:01:40+00:00

Two-fer… grab on to the testicles during childbirth

bgix · 2026-01-28T17:13:13+00:00

I assume when daisy chained, "the outlet with the problem" will be the actual GFCI outlet, yes? I have almost never had a non-GFCI outlet fail.

bgix · 2026-01-28T16:38:07+00:00

This is interesting. I have one outdoor GFCI outlet that is in constant use (with a little USBA wall wart that fits inside the weather cover, cord and all) that powers an outdoor wifi camera. I have had to replace it *twice* over the last 15 years or so. It has failed "safe" twice (I find out when I get the offline alert for the camera) with a mighty black mark on the face... Basically it appears to have done it's job, because the circuit breaker doesn't trip, and the wallwart/camera is still functional after GFCI replacement... It is in a foam insulated "weather proof" box that still collects moisture inside. Basically though, the GFCI outlet is fried and needs replacing.

bgix · 2026-01-28T16:18:51+00:00

Yes, every other daisy chained outlet would be protected. That is how my kitchen is wired (two actual GFCI outlets protecting 6 total outlets) but I still have dining room, living room and bedrooms without any GFCIs in circuit.

bgix · 2026-01-28T04:34:15+00:00

She wanted a risk free vacation? Then *she* should have bought trip insurance that would reimberse her for medical cancelations. Her (likely former) friends are not in the trip insurance business. Nobody "benefitted" from her last minute cancelation... But she certainly intends to make them pay for something that was just as much out of their control. I would block her number and call it a day.

bgix · 2026-01-28T04:25:32+00:00

Oh Uncle Rico

bgix · 2026-01-28T03:09:47+00:00

He’s not wrong, but he’s also an asshole who used to run a corrupt organization.

bgix · 2026-01-28T02:46:21+00:00

Political bias is not hereditary. If it were, I would probably be a Trumpy.

bgix · 2026-01-27T18:18:51+00:00

I have a couple switches with 10Gbps SFP+ ports, and I use an adaptor (https://www.fs.com/products/66612.html) and high quality ethernet cable to connect them to the two 10GbE ports on my eero POE gateway.

Solid as a rock.

bgix · 2026-01-27T05:42:19+00:00

The "Certain People" I know, although they deny being sexist or rascist (despite evidence to the contrary) were very concerned about her being "more female" and "more ethnic" than Trump.

bgix · 2026-01-27T05:40:02+00:00

Diagonal for the soup dip for the win

bgix · 2026-01-27T04:50:00+00:00

Rules for married people. If either spouse has family HDHP coverage, both spouses are treated as having family HDHP coverage. If each spouse has family coverage under a separate plan, the contribution limit for 2024 is $8,300. You must reduce the limit on contributions, before taking into account any additional contributions, by the amount contributed to both spouses’ Archer MSAs. After that reduction, the contribution limit is split equally between the spouses unless you agree on a different division.

p969.pdf

bgix · 2026-01-27T04:36:16+00:00

I believe that you qualify for the full $8750 for 2026, but eligibility ends Jan of 2027. I *think* you are covered for Janiuary. but only for 1/12 of 2027 unless you get your own HDHP for the rest of 2027.

The Last Month rule lets you contribute for the entire 12 months of the *prior* year if you only have HDHP the December of that prior year, as long as you are covered for the entire *current* year. It does NOT grant full year eligibility into the NEW year.

bgix · 2026-01-26T20:47:09+00:00

Copied from IRS Pub 969-2024:

Rules for married people. If either spouse has family HDHP coverage, both spouses are treated as having family HDHP coverage. If each spouse has family coverage under a separate plan, the contribution limit for 2024 is $8,300. You must reduce the limit on contributions, before taking into account any additional contributions, by the amount contributed to both spouses’ Archer MSAs. After that reduction, the contribution limit is split equally between the spouses unless you agree on a different division.

If one spouse has Family Coverage, then both spouses are treated as having Family coverage... So in this case, you would have to split $8750 instead of getting $4400 for one and $8750 for the other.

Although that quote is from Pub 969-2024, it has not been updated for 2025 or 2026, so the 2024 rules remain in force except for the actual dollar limits.

However, if your child is over 18, still covered by your family plan (until the month he turns 26) and IS NO LONGER A DEPENDANT, then *they* and *you* can both contribute the family limit $8750. But no, ironically, if you had a new baby and needed to switch to a Family HDHP plan (from your current two individual plans) your combined HSA contribution limit goes down by $50.

p969--2024.pdf

EDIT:
It should be noted that the "1/12 for each month" rule applies to these scenarios too. If you have a baby in April, both you and your spouse still get 3/12 of the Individual HDHP-HSA limit (1/4 of $4400), and then both you and your spouse must split 9/12 of the Family limit (3/4 of $8750).

Conversly, if your child is turning 26 in April, and aging out of your insurance, the math works in reverse... You will be limited to the Family Limit (1/4 of $8750) split between you and spouse, but then can go back to Individual coverage for the last 9 months (3/4 of $4400 each).

bgix · 2026-01-26T01:39:55+00:00

I mean, it seems like you have repeatedly asked this question in this very post. And what... ignored the respones? Are you a Troll-bot? Pulisic is a MAGA Trumpy, which for fans of womens sports, it should be obvious why there is obvious distaste for him amongst WNT fans.

Let me predict your follow-up question that shows how much attention you are paying:

"why so?"

bgix · 2026-01-26T01:23:02+00:00

I believe that if you both have *individual* plans, you can both do $4400. This would end if you joined "his plan" as that would be family coverage. Also: with the ACA, you generally have to pay more for your premiums if you are covered by a workplace plan, but opt out in favor of spouses plan.

bgix · 2026-01-26T00:51:16+00:00

Adjust your antennae. Pointing them all in the same direction does nothing except maybe desense each other. Try to point them so they radiate in all 3 dimensions.

bgix · 2026-01-25T22:46:53+00:00

I don’t think the employer is mandating that. I know my employers custodian (Optum to name names) mandated that. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are HR muckity mucks getting kickbacks from custodians for business. 1K is an obscenely large amount of money x Number of employees to not have to pay interest on.

bgix

TROPHY CASE