$12,000/month * 12 = $144k/season at 46% taxes that's still $77k take home, add in $20k for the health insurance and that's still $57k/year in take home to live on.
I do feel sorry for the guy, but I find it hard to believe he couldn't somehow afford it.
@HockeyMountain: BUT...the baseball season is 9 months, so you need to take 36K off the original and start with 108,000 dollars. And please, show your work.
@This is my Star: There's no clarity to whether this is broken up annually (like teachers, who still get paid in the summer) or every 9 months. I'm not sure how they get paid.
I suspect if he were making $108k a year he wouldn't be in the 46% tax bracket.
@HockeyMountain: Here's the problems with the math though.
A.) He's not working year round. The minor league season is already either over or about to be.
B.) I'm not defending all his decisions, but I will say that, since it appears he's done, you have to consider the fact that his days or earning that kind of coin are over. So now he's looking at facing all these bills without the luxury of major or minor league contract. He's a 40 year old guy with a kid with a bad heart looking at a foreseeable future with no (or substantially lower) income. So yes, refusing the $20,000 plan was a bad choice last year, but next year he won't be able to afford that kind of plan anyways, and it seems like his kid's condition is one that is going to require even more operations.
@Torgo's Executive Powder: As I state above, I don't know how he gets paid (teachers only work 9 months but get paid all year), but even if he only worked for 6 months that's still $72k/year, plus he has 6 months where he could work somewhere else as well.
How is he in the 46% tax bracket if he's "only"making 72k/year?
You're right about how this is his last chance, but he also made $300k last season, probably more than that before all this, and knew his son had serious health problems. He should have saved a lot of that money just in case.
He also gets the $20 per diem, which adds a significant chunk of change to his pocket too.
This sounds like a case of really poor financial planning.
The guy made 300K last year. Supplemental COBRA for his kid would have cost him 20K - after a million dollars in surgeries - but he didn't get it because it was a "big hit." Now he's out of pocket for a surgery that will cost several times that because he gambled on getting called up to the majors at 38 so he could pick up some sweet free major league health care. The prick puts hundreds of thousands of dollars on red because he's cheap TWICE, loses, and I'm supposed to feel sorry for a guy making 12K a week? I'm supposed to feel bad that MLB and the Federal Government haven't conspired to pay for an aging, shitty ballplayer's kid's surgery? God, Jeff Pearlman can die in a fucking fire.
09/29/09
09/29/09
I do feel sorry for the guy, but I find it hard to believe he couldn't somehow afford it.
09/29/09
09/29/09
I suspect if he were making $108k a year he wouldn't be in the 46% tax bracket.
09/29/09
A.) He's not working year round. The minor league season is already either over or about to be.
B.) I'm not defending all his decisions, but I will say that, since it appears he's done, you have to consider the fact that his days or earning that kind of coin are over. So now he's looking at facing all these bills without the luxury of major or minor league contract. He's a 40 year old guy with a kid with a bad heart looking at a foreseeable future with no (or substantially lower) income. So yes, refusing the $20,000 plan was a bad choice last year, but next year he won't be able to afford that kind of plan anyways, and it seems like his kid's condition is one that is going to require even more operations.
09/29/09
How is he in the 46% tax bracket if he's "only"making 72k/year?
You're right about how this is his last chance, but he also made $300k last season, probably more than that before all this, and knew his son had serious health problems. He should have saved a lot of that money just in case.
He also gets the $20 per diem, which adds a significant chunk of change to his pocket too.
This sounds like a case of really poor financial planning.
09/29/09
The guy made 300K last year. Supplemental COBRA for his kid would have cost him 20K - after a million dollars in surgeries - but he didn't get it because it was a "big hit." Now he's out of pocket for a surgery that will cost several times that because he gambled on getting called up to the majors at 38 so he could pick up some sweet free major league health care. The prick puts hundreds of thousands of dollars on red because he's cheap TWICE, loses, and I'm supposed to feel sorry for a guy making 12K a week? I'm supposed to feel bad that MLB and the Federal Government haven't conspired to pay for an aging, shitty ballplayer's kid's surgery? God, Jeff Pearlman can die in a fucking fire.
/dick joke
09/29/09
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Seward's Folly Not a Lesson to One Idiot.
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