2022 by the numbers

[mellowtigger]

It's tax time again, so I'm updating my chart from previous years.  This year, I paid $118 to a corporation for the privilege of submitting my taxes to the U.S. and Minnesota governments.  It's quite the profitable corruption.  Republicans claim to want to simplify taxes, which I'm all for doing, but their plan is just another way to give rich people more riches. It won't actually help poor people, the same as their last proposal. Meanwhile, we continue the practice of targeting poor people instead of the rich for tax payments. Yes, I blame Democrats too. Both major parties serve neoliberal economics, which is hurting society.

My extra income this year is due to cashing out my stock market 401K "pension plan", thanks to being old enough to not take any extra penalties. Doing so allowed me to pay off my mortgage and greatly reduce my expenses during this period between jobs. I "gained" only about $3K extra income from the 401K after paying the mortgage, taxes, and penalties back in September. My actual wages (no pension) are listed in parentheses.

Year	IncomeUS$	Change	FederalTaxUS$	TaxChange	CreditScore	Mileage	MonthlyMileage	CO2MetricTons
2016	30,500		2,384
2017	33,800	+11%	3,048	+28%	720
2018	36,600	+8%	3,938	+29%	723
2019	37,451	+2%	2,839	-28%	730	128.3Kmi	428mi (overall)
2020	38,458	+3%	2,926	+3%	701	129.8Kmi	125mi (annual)
2021	39,374	+2%	3,020	+3%	703	130.8Kmi	83mi (annual)	5.93
2022	69,737 (20,185)	+177% (-49%)	8,108	+268%	750	131.4Kmi	50mi (annual) 324mi (overall)	5.99

Read my thoughts on the details of these numbers...

mileage: Over the 115 months that I owned my car, I drove an average of 324 miles (521km) per month. That's just 1/3 or less of the distance that the average American drives. The 50 miles per month that I drove in 2022 just isn't worth the cost of private vehicle ownership. We need better options for local travel/shopping in the metro, so transit doesn't require half a day of wait/commute delays.

credit: The credit score is still a useless figure. As always, it penalizes everyone who fails to feed the exponential economy (think: multilevel marketing exploitation) at the needed level. My paid-off mortgage penalizes me, because the "length of debt" is now down to only a few months for my credit card. The credit card is what raised my score so much, which I didn't have for years until I realized I was going to end my mortgage so I got one... for exactly this stupid reason.

carbon: I used this carbon calculator again. My carbon cost for electricity is zero, thanks to easily windsourcing my home power. My cost for gasoline is low, thanks to seldom driving anywhere. My biggest carbon expense is the 718 therms from natural gas for heating my house and water in 2022. I estimated all of the secondary expenses. I should start keeping a separate spreadsheet for my carbon footprint, since it requires so many data points.

wages: Since I survived 2022 on just over $20K of income, I'm pretty sure I can continue to do so. I might even have enough left over for needed house repairs (like those very drafty bedroom windows). I don't mind taking a job for less money than in recent years, just to keep going here in this house a while longer. I want more cherries and juneberries.