Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 05, 2012

Now, it’s only one minute!

college, college, college, college…..and college again…….

Sadly, opening a savings account is really all you can do with that anymore.

I remember adverts from my childhood where parents gifted their kids savings certificates for their “happy future” and the kid grinned moronically. The people who invented those ad campaigns never were children, I assume.

Calvin in College? I would have pictured Calvin in the first grade until he’s 40.

and if you DO earn any interest – even a measly 1%, the IRAsswill tax it. Again – having taxed it when you earned and deposited it. Catch 22

$75.00 a semester when I started college. U of Wisconsin.

Calvin will either become a nerd who invents the “Next Big Thing”. Or he will end up at trade school with a big ol butt crack.

Click here: Peanuts (1951)

@Lovecraft: According to the IRS, you still have to pay income tax on your 14 cents of interest from your savings account. Banks aren’t required to send you a 1099 form if your interest is less than $10.00, but you are required to pay tax on all interest earnings, regardless whether or not you receive a 1099.If you are in the 15% tax bracket, this will only cost you an extra 2 cents in extra taxes. But if you are in the 28% bracket, it will cost you a whopping 4 cents extra.:>)

Hobbes: They get it from the living and the dead, don’t they?

Click here: Ziggy (2005)

Calvin couldn’t even get into college as a lab experiment.

I think the only way Calvin could get out of grade school is because the school needs the desk for someone else.

$5 would be below the minimum balance on a savings account. The bank would take the $5 as a service fee the first month. Then keep charging you $5 per month as punishment for having annoyed them with a low balance.

You said the key word, “punishment”. I made a mistake in my checkbook a couple of weeks ago, and a check that I wrote was NSF by 50 CENTS. Yes, 50 cents. The Credit Union charged me $28 dollars, and will not refund it. THAT, my friend, is punishment and greed all wrapped together. We’re slowly migrating to a prepaid card. I’m sick of being punished by companies I try to support.

Five bucks really doesn’t get you anything nowdays

It’s a paperweight, Calvin.

Calvin should be too proud to go to any college that will accept him. Apologies to Erma Bombeck.

Looks like the younger generations don’t agree with the older generations.

The couch has been recovered. Earlier this week it had vertical stripes.

When I graduated UCLA in late ’70’s there was no ‘tuition’ charge, only per credit fee amounting to under $1K per year (3 quarters). Now, ‘tuition’ is over a few thousand per quarter in addition to credit fees. Annual costs can reach over $10K for in-state students (excluding room & board). Still considered a competitive rate vis-a-vis private institutions & yet I cannot imagine how students are paying for their education in these times.

College? What a snob!

More imagination need Dad.

@bmonk: Yes, you can round to the nearest dollar, but you have to be careful. If you round one amount, you have to round all amounts. On the other hand, if two or more items are added together to make one line entry, you aren’t allowed to round the individual items — only the total. Some tax software does this incorrectly. For example, if you have multiple W2s for reporting income, the software may round each one individually before adding them together.

Dad has ‘no interest’ in Calvin’s savings!

I hope Calvin’s ‘change’ will be for the better, because up until now he has been ‘a no-account’, to ‘coin’ a phrase.

So…. let’s see…… If Lovecraft chooses to use the IRS’s rounding option, then there is a possibility that the extra 14 cents in income could just happen to cause the total rounded income to increase by one dollar, thereby increasing Lovecraft’s taxes by 15 cents or 28 cents (assuming 15% or 28% tax bracket).But this is statistically unlikely with interest income of only 14 cents. The odds of it causing the round-up problem are only about 1 in 7.So, my advice is to go with the odds and use the rounding approach. If you win, you save 2-4 cents, and save entering all of those pennies on every line of your tax form. If you lose, you pay 15-28 cents, but it’s very unlikely.Or, you could figure your taxes both ways, with and without rounding, to see which approach saves you the most pennies. But don’t do this on your computer, or you will spend more on the electricity.Of course, all of this assumes that you are not putting any monetary value on your time. This posting makes the same assumption, for those who are spending the time reading it.Anyway, that’s my 2-4 cents’ worth.:>)

@Hobbes: But if I round $0.14 to the NEAREST dollar, wouldn’t that make it zero?

Every so often Watterson gives you a glimpse of why Calvin turned out the way he did.

Reform School — yes!College — no!

;-)

@Lovecraft: You make a good point, if your only interest income is the 14 cents. But if you have any other source of interest income, then you are not allowed to round the 14 cents down. You have to add it to the other interest income first, and then round.In the latter case, my laborious previous posting will prove to be invaluable. But if you have no other source of interest income, then my laborious previous posting will prove to be irrelevant.If it turns out that the 14 cents is your entire adjusted gross income, then life becomes even more complicated.:>)

Calvin: You can hardly buy a Happy Meal at McDonalds for $5.00 these days.

@Dogsniff: I’ve been reading Ziggy in search of deeper meanings and profound insights. Still searching……

More like two seconds…

$5 won’t even get you a savings account. They’ll nickel and dime you with fees until it’s all gone.

lol i know!