A real estate commission of around 5% to 6% has been the standard for so long that almost no one thinks about it anymore—until, that is, one is selling a home. Then, the joy of realizing that one’s home has appreciated in value and will sell at a tidy profit is often tempered by the realization that, “Hey, my agent is going to earn a heap of money, only because the real estate market is hot!” So it’s interesting news…
The idea that real estate is a solid long-term investment is not a new one. And despite a major dip in the real estate market about ten years back, the market has recently picked up enough that many prospective home buyers have forgotten that it can go anywhere but up, up, up, in value. But here’s a factoid that seems less tied to tradition: Wanting to buy a home not only to live in (preferably shielded by the rest of…
Tucked within the 2019 State of the Union address, amidst Trump’s calls for a wall and pronouncements of a southern border crisis, was the following phrase: “I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally.” That’s news to anyone who follows the (real) news. Contraction of legal immigration has been the administration’s stated priority from the start. In 2017, Trump announced plans to cut legal immigration by half. In…
Any day now, Americans preparing their Forms 1040 are going to either learn or come face to face with a certain cold truth: their charitable deductions do them no good, tax-wise. (Unless they’re super rich, that is, but the super-rich don’t even prepare their own 1040s; their accountants will figure out the value of their gifts to nonprofit organizations.) It’s not that the charitable deduction is gone. The reason for this change is the doubling of the standard deduction that…
On January 9, 2019, Jeff Bezos tweeted that he and his wife MacKenzie were divorcing after a “long period of loving exploration and trial separation.” Since then, the internet has been buzzing with related stories and speculation about how they’ll divide their massive fortune. Despite all the news, we don’t have many legal details yet—neither spouse has filed a divorce petition, and it’s unlikely the case will proceed in a public courthouse, with divorce filings available to the press. Divorces…