http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=172969,00.html

IRS has a good article on Savers' credit (good reminder...)

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I just had an epithany about how when this credit has been mentioned in the past (here, forums, real life discussions) as the genral concensus is usually, "no one can make that little and save" or something like that. (Well I have managed to and I wouldn't consider a $45k income, "little."

I was just thinking about that as I hesitated to post it, in terms of the recent reaming I got for making $30k out of school in the most expensive area out of the country. How combined with our measly $30k wages, dh and I made more than the average american household, just out of school. (Even though you can't buy a home for less than 1/2 mil and few understand how freaking daunting that is even with a six figure income. Was never able to reconcile those home prices to financially sound living; that is why we moved.).

So, um you can't have it both ways. $60k is insanely rich but $45k is insanely poor.

Which is it? LOL.

I guess I just right now realized the duality of it all, and the fact that you just can't win.

It also could be an apples to oranges comparison. $45k is a household average and the credit for singles is much less (can't have income more than $25k for single filers). So the single filers have to be a lot poorer than the married filers to qualify. Though in both situations often there is just one wage earner. On the flip side $60k probably sounds like a darn decent wage to most young single people, though it isn't that hard to attain with two wages. So maybe that is where the juxtaposition comes from. I have always said life was financially easier having a partner...

I think most of the time we are all comparing apples to oranges though, everyone's situation has its own nuances.