The IRS divides income into taxable and nontaxable categories. In general, income is taxable unless thereâs a law exempting it. As youâd expect, all taxable income must be included on your yearly income tax return. But hereâs the twist: Nontaxable income may also need to be listed on your return, too. Because anything tax-related is […]
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I just read Barbara Stanny’s “Secrets of Six-Figure Women.” I was happy to find that I share similar traits to the 150 women she interviewed. But there was a section that stood out to me, mostly because I didn’t expect it to stand out to me.
We previously reviewed Stanny’s book “Overcoming Underearing.” Guest reviewer Jeremy M. wrote:
“[Stanny] learned that the big difference between highly successful women and less successful women was how they valued themselves and what they were willing to do to get what they wanted.”
I mentioned in my last post that I read Barbara Stanny’s “Secrets of Six-Figure Women.” Stanny interviewed 150 women who earn more than $100,000 annually and sought to find what traits, experiences and motivators they shared in common.
Unlike most books, this one didn’t take me three months to finish. It’s a fast read, and I think that has a lot to do with how relatable it is. I’m not saying I fit the bill for every six-figure trait Stanny has outlined; but you can’t help but compare yourself to the high-earning women she’s interviewed.
Although the book is meant to empower women, I think much of Stanny’s research is every bit as helpful to men. Here are the strategies and milestones of high earners Stanny outlines in the book. Some of them hit home; others I questioned. Tell me what you think.
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Ideal Credit Union, which has six locations scattered across Minnesota, is the latest mortgage company to offer a no down payment mortgage. But theirs is a little different than the rest. Instead of pitching the portfolio loan product to those who can barely afford a mortgage payment, they seem to be targeting prospective home buyers… Read More »Ideal Credit Union Is Offering a Zero Down Mortgage with a Catch
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I’ve been a homeowner for 24 of the last 25 years. Based on this, you might think I’m an advocate of homeownership over renting. That’s not the case. The older I get, the more I appreciate there’s no correct answer in the perennial “is it better to rent or buy?” debate. Sometimes buying a home makes the most sense. Sometimes renting is the smarter choice.
In an editorial in the June 2007 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Knight Kiplinger wrote, “It often costs less to rent. The annual cost of owning a property, be it a house or a condo, is usually greater than the cost of renting, after taxes.” I agree.
Today, let’s look at a handful of ways to evaluate the rent versus buy decision from a financial perspective.
One way to tell whether it’s better to rent or buy is by calculating the price-to-rent ratio (or P/R ratio). This number gives you a rough idea whether homes in your area are fairly priced. Figuring a P/R ratio is simple. All you need to do is:
For example, say you find a $200,000 house for sale in a nice neighborhood. You find a similar house on the next block for rent for $1,000 per month (which works out to $12,000 per year). Dividing $200,000 by $12,000, you get a P/R ratio of 16.7. But what does this number mean?
Writing in The New York Times, David Leonhardt says, “A rent ratio above 20 means that the monthly costs of ownership well exceed the cost of renting.” That’s a little opaque, I know. Leonhardt is saying that the higher the P/R ratio, the more it makes sense to rent â and the less it makes sense to buy.
The normal P/R ratio range nationwide is between 10 and 14 (meaning it would cost between $1200 and $1600 to rent a $200,000 house). During the 1990s, just before the housing bubble, the national P/R ratio was usually between 14 and 15 (about $1100 to $1200 to rent a $200,000 house). During last decade’s housing bubble, national price-to-rent ratios rose to 22.73 (in 2005) then to 24.50 (in 2007) before the market collapsed. As most folks were rushing to buy homes, the numbers said they ought to be renting.
Based on this info, I’d argue that:
Nationwide numbers don’t tell the full story, of course. While the national price-to-rent ratio might be around 20, the actual numbers in your city could be very different.
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It was supposed to be an epic family vacation. Until it wasnât. Picture this: We had just moved into our temporary rental in Nashville, Tennessee, and we were so ready for a break. One cool thing we didnât realize at the time was the fact that our new school district has whatâs called âFall Break.â […]
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An individual preparing to file a federal tax return will want to think back on gifts given in the prior year. If a gift exceeds a certain threshold, the IRS wants it reported by Tax Day â but only extremely wealthy taxpayers will ever have to pay taxes on their lifetime of gifts. In 2022, […]
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