A family wants to add their daughter, a minor, to the title of their home. Because she is a minor, the daughter cannot own the home directly, but can own a piece of it through a trust, which can be set up through careful estate planning. A custodial account could be set up for the daughter as part of the family's estate planning.
Should you add your name to your parent's house as a joint tenant or whether the home should be provided for in the will as part of your parent's estate planning? Ilyce explains what would happen if you became a joint tenant, such as whether the IRS would levy a gift tax, as the make estate planning decisions. Ilyce outlines several options as far as estate planning, joint tenant ownership, and whether you should purchase the home from your parent and apply for your own mortgage.
An estate includes various timeshares. Unfortunately, there aren't any good ways to get rid of timeshares. You can go to the timeshare and try to find other owners of timeshares of the property who might be interested in purchasing yours.
Can you get a refund of property taxes if you overpaid due to your home being misclassified by your locality? It depends on where you live and how long it's been between your overpayment and when you bring it to the county's attention. Even if you can't get a refund of property taxes it may be some solace that you know you'll pay the correct amount going forward.
As hard as it is to believe, up to 50 percent of Chicagoans do not have bank accounts. But without a bank account, it's a lot harder to establish good credit, rent a car or even buy an airplane ticket.
Real estate IRAs let you use IRA cash to invest in real estate. With stock market returns down, there's been a surge of interest concerning using IRAs to invest in real estate. Some self-directed IRA accounts give the flexibility to invest in real estate.
Can a savings plan work too well? If fun isn't part of your financial plan, then your personal finance goals may lead to personal disaster. While it's a great idea to committing to saving money, it's important to leave room for the fun stuff, too.
When receiving property from family members, not through inheritance, make sure you are careful to structure the arrangement to avoid triggering the gift tax. One way to structure the deal would be to "purchase" the house. You purchase the house from her and she acts as the bank and finances 100 percent of the purchase. You would then pay her as if she were your mortgage lender (which she would be).
Defining your goals is an important tool for tweaking your personal finances. It gives you something to dream about at night, and something to work towards during the day. Saving money can be different at different stages of your life. Do you need to save for a mortgage? Student loans? Retirement? While it's always good to dream big, the truth is, most of us have the power to achieve almost all of our financial dreams. Getting there takes discipline and hard work, but it's more than doable.
The first step to saving money is to spend less, and that includes paying off your debt as quickly as possible. Choose the loan with the highest interest rate first and pay that off, then move to the next highest interest rate, and so on.
