Dear John: I make approximately $25,000 a year before taxes and I make another $10,000 from rental income.
My mortgage is $2,100 a month.
I got ObamaCare coverage last year, and I paid approximately $230 a month with some subsidies from New York state. That amount was already a stretch for me, as I don’t have much disposable income.
I tried to re-enroll for ObamaCare and, to my surprise, I was quoted almost $500 for the same plan with the same income.
I have spoken with the New York state officials repeatedly, and I even tried to appeal the amount.
Bottom line: ObamaCare people are telling me they don’t care about anything else but my income, as if I had zero other expenses. Truth be told, I literally have just about $5,000 a year of disposable income, of which they want me to pay 100 percent into ObamaCare — and I suppose I’m to live on air.
I despise the fact that I am being forced into buying what I don’t need and I can’t afford. I can’t apply for Medicare, because I make too much! And I can’t afford $500 a month.
Is there anyone on the federal level who can grant me at least the old rate? I am already facing tax penalties for not enrolling this year.
I hate it! M.S.
Dear M.S.: As you know, I called Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office and asked for an explanation as to why your price for health care had doubled even though you have the same income.
Only after I threatened it did the governor’s office get back to you. And even then it didn’t give you an answer.
So, basically, I didn’t help you one bit. Sorry.
But this nasty item I’m putting in my column does make me feel a lot better.
My basic conclusion is that New York state charges people what it feels like for health coverage and subsidizes anyone it likes.
Perhaps you should make an appointment with a proctologist from the ObamaCare plan. He’s an expert on the place from which Albany is pulling its prices.
Hope you don’t go broke.
Teacher learns the ropes of IRAs
Dear John: I am a teacher in a private school, and there is no pension plan as there is for the public schools.
I would like to start my own individual retirement account. I’m 29, and have a long while to go before I retire.
What would you recommend? A traditional, a Roth, or a combination of the two? I wasn’t planning on saving much — maybe $20 a paycheck.
The reason I am not planning to save any more is because of my student loan debt. I want to start paying it off, since I have almost $60,000 worth.
My second question is if you know a good place to start my IRA. Is there a good company/bank that I could start an IRA with that won’t have such extreme fees? Thanks so much for any advice. B.P.
Dear B.P.: I passed this question off to Victoria Fillet, a certified financial planner and president of Blueprint Financial Planning in Hoboken, NJ. “First, he should not wait to save for retirement until he pays off his loans,” says Fillet. “He needs to work on both at the same time.”
She gave some numbers.
“At his age, he should be saving 10 to 12 percent of his income, and the Roth IRA is the right choice,” she says. With Roth IRAs you pay the tax now and don’t have it deferred, as with traditional IRAs. So the earnings and dividends will grow tax free.
And — we don’t have to tell you this — saving early in life is better than not saving. If nothing else, it gives you the financial discipline you’ll need. But the numbers are also convincing.
“If you saved $100 a month for 10 years at 4 percent and did not contribute any additional monies — but left it there for 20 years — you would have approximately $32,258 after 30 years,” says Fillet. Your total contribution would be $12,000.
Of course, achieving a 4 percent return right now is pretty impossible. But it won’t always be.
The big problem, of course, is the student loan. Fillet says you might be able to do something about that.
“If he decides to teach in a low-income elementary or secondary school for five consecutive years, he may be able to have as much as $17,500 of subsidized or unsubsidized loans forgiven,” says Fillet.
Go to Teacher Loan Forgiveness (studentaid.ed.gov) to get details.
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