It’s not my intention to turn this blog into a political space or financial column.  However I’ve found out that almost no one I know realizes that, if nothing happens at the top, every single person in the US who has an income will have higher taxes withheld, and it’s not peanuts.  On the low end, you’ll see a 5% HIGHER withholding, if not higher, in addition to cuts to child tax credits and other write-offs that are reduced or eliminated.  One of my friends has said today that if she had known her family will have $240 less per month, then their shopping this month would have been lighter if not entirely cut.  A whole lot of my fiends are, right this minute, judging by the real-time conversing on a Facebook wall, trying to figure out how on earth the can cut their household budgets enough and still get by.  Most of my friends are college-educated people or very intelligent despite having no degree (I don’t have one), and have still been taken off guard.

Here is some information from Forbes about the increase.  

I am sharing this out of concern for how many people haven’t heard of this, and I am very concerned about how many people will get a nasty shock in their paychecks and not know how they’re going to make up for a shortage they weren’t expecting unless there are some last-minute changes in the next week.

Be prepared to have at least 5% of your gross pay less (if you have other deductions, this 5% will be a larger portion of your take-home pay) and hope for the best.

Now soon I hope to have more time to get back to blogging and finishing some critiques.  I’m so busy I forgot about a doctor’s appointment my daughter had this morning.  Whew.