Guest Columnist

The second you realize this article is housing-related, like most people your first comment has to be "housing prices are crazy" followed by "I hear people in San Jose are paying over a million for a small two-bedroom home" followed again by "Housing pric

Age 70.5 is a milestone birthday in the United States. It’s also a birthday most people dread because Uncle Sam comes knocking, looking for you to pay taxes on retirement money that you’ve been diligently saving and deferring. If you are like most who reach this magical age, you probably factor in your anticipated required minimum distribution (“RMD”) that you must take from your various retirement accounts each year into your overall living expense needs. However, if you are one who truly doesn’t need the money to pay for everyday expenses, here are a couple of options for you to consider.

As we are writing this month’s article, the Dow Jones Industrial Average just crossed over 22,000 for the first time in history (Aug. 2, 2017). Year to date the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up approximately 11.4 percent while the S & P 500 is up approximately 10.61 percent (as of Aug. 1, Source: Morningstar).

The Federal Reserve was formed in 1913 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act. The law created an independent agency, the Board of Governors, and 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks throughout the country.

Sept. 15 marked 10 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The Financial Crisis of 2008 wiped out about 8.8 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and caused about $19 trillion in household wealth to evaporate. While the recession officially started in December 2007, we wanted to review a timeline of some key events and also look forward to the future.

According to reports from the Huffington Post, the number one New Year's Resolution is to lose weight. That's not surprising as they also report that about one in every three adults in this country is obese.

In 2016, total volume for Santa Cruz County (SCC) was $15.6B on 1,754 home sales, 200 townhome sales and 285 condo sales. The Median Home sales price was $785K. In 2017 (through Dec. 15), total SCC volume is $16.5B on 1,756 homes sales, 193 townhome sales and 277 condo sales. The Median Home sales price is now at $840K, a 7 percent increase year over year. So, number of sales is flat but sales revenues are up $1 billion in our county.

Last month we wrote about a couple of year-end money moves to make. Now that we’ve rung in the New Year, below are a couple of areas to look to fine-tune your financial life for 2018.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? How about “when I want to buy a home, who do I see first, the realtor or the loan officer? These are deep philosophical questions that require an astute examination of perception versus reality. The perception for years has been to walk into a real estate office and start the process of buying a home. The reality is doing it this way is like walking onto a car lot and walking right up to a salesman and asking if he would sell you a car.

Join us for the 2019 Business Showcase on Wednesday, Feb. 20 from 4-7 p.m. at the Seascape Golf Club in Aptos.