Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Me? Change? Give me a break !


I have been resting my bad leg for the four days because of a knee injury. Staying at home for so long has taken me back to my PSG Tech days. Sometimes, after bunking my classes, I will go back to my hostel room thinking of what to do. With no mood to work or sleep, I would watch funny videos, movies, play flash games and pass my time in the most inefficient way imaginable. Today, I realized that even though I have upgraded myself to youtube, facebook and twitter, the basic me has not changed a bit. After 10 years, I see myself wasting time to the max extent possible ignoring my duty of work..  Venkata - eppa da thirundha pora ?!


Venkat - knee injury (ligament tear)

Sunday, January 06, 2013

US - social security issue



Every pay check, the workers in USA contribute to the Social security fund. For the immigrants or employees living in US for a short term, this is a money going to a black-hole. There are no returns for the dollars that are paid as SS tax. Here are a couple of articles in NewYork times describing the issues, the second one giving a more visual representation.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/opinion/sunday/social-security-its-worse-than-you-think.html?smid=pl-share

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/06/sunday-review/social-securitys-flawed-forecasting.html?smid=pl-share

This has been one of the major issues / concerns in US. The promising solution to this problem is to raise the taxable income. Currently, as per the article, only $113,700 of the total income is subject to SS tax. Even if one earns $1 million as annual income, one will be paying SS tax only for $113,700. This may not completely solve the issue, but helps to stabilize the SS funds and not run into deficits.

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Welcome 2013


Happy new year. Hope 2013 brings more fun, excitement and prosperity to our lives.