A warm embrace on a cold winter's night. The smell of cinnamon, flickering candles in the window, and hands, young and old, joined around the table. There's nothing like being there in person for the holidays, and Mercedes-Benz wants to get you there safely. Come in now during the Holiday Love Celebration for great offers on vehicles you'll adore, now through January 2nd.

Learn more at mbusa.com/specialoffers. It's Friday, and after far too long, that means live Q&A. Welcome to Radical Personal Finance. My name is Joshua. I am your host. I'm the host of the show that's dedicated to providing you with the knowledge, skills, insight, and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now, while building a plan for financial freedom in ten years or less.

Welcome to a Friday Q&A show. It's been a while since I've been near the Internet, but today I have some Internet. And so we are back and able to record a live Q&A show. Every Friday when I can arrange the technology to have an Internet connection and sit down at my computer, I record a live Q&A show.

Sometimes these shows are filled, sometimes they're not, but they're open to patrons of the show, anybody who signs up at radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron and signs up to support the show there. That's where you get access to the call-in number and information. Every once in a while, every few months, I do a show that's open to the broader listening audience, but for the most part, if you would like to join for a Friday Q&A show, that's the way to do it.

Go to radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron. We begin today with Bill in New York. Bill, welcome to Radical Personal Finance. How can I serve you today, sir? Hi, Josh. Thanks for taking my call. My question for you is about health insurance. My father is 62 and is currently separating from his wife, and he's on her health insurance.

And so in the event that they do get divorced, I would like to be equipped to be able to help him deal with that when the time comes. So I was just kind of thinking that I would get your thoughts on that. Okay. Is your father employed? He's on Social Security.

Okay. Well, the good news is that the situation is a lot simpler than it once was after the Affordable Care Act. So back in previous days, there was a major concern about maintaining continuity of health insurance because of the possibility of getting denied for a new policy in the individual market.

So that's the good news. The bad news is that policies in the individual market are a lot more expensive than they once were, which is a real challenge because of the Affordable Care Act. So first, does your father have any significant medical conditions? Does he have a lot of medical bills?

He does. He has a few chronic health issues. Okay. So that if he has chronic health issues and he has medical bills, then that dramatically changes the nature of the importance of the health insurance. Is he living exclusively on a Social Security income? He is, yeah. Would he expect to receive an alimony payment from his wife if they were to divorce?

I don't believe so. Would he be owing an alimony payment? No, I don't believe so. So then his income is exclusively a Social Security payment from early retirement or disability? Well, currently it's early retirement. He's attempting to get disability in relation to the health conditions. Got it. So. Well, so first, his divorce would be a qualifying event.

So he would be able to use the appropriate time period and maintain coverage from one policy to another. So he will be able to get health insurance coverage. The cost of it will depend, will vary. Probably the best solution for him would be to apply for an individual policy on whatever health insurance exchange is there in your area and whatever is available that would best suit his needs, whichever plan would offer the most coverage from his physicians.

And in his case, because his income would be fairly low from Social Security early retirement, and with that being his exclusive income, he will qualify for a significant subsidy on his taxes. So that actual monthly premium should be all things considered relatively low. Has he priced any of that out?

I haven't. I did play with one calculator online and it made some comment about 8.5% of the income. Does that number sound right to you? Could be. So that there was a cap on the premium or something like that at 8.5%. Right. Right. I mean, it's not easy to live on Social Security disability only.

And so, yes, the formula will go based upon his income and it will adjust the premium and the balance of the premium will be picked up by his fellow taxpayers if he signs up for a health insurance policy on an exchange. Does your father have any assets, any significant assets?

They own a house together, but I'm not sure what the equity is. Other than that, he does not. Okay. And do you think that he does he is he going to go back to work? Is he going to get a job? What's he going to do about his income?

At this time, he's not going to go back to work. He had a recent hospitalization due to mental health issues. So it's not the timing is pretty bad for him to be going back to work. He will be moving in with me and renting a room for me for a low monthly rate.

Well, I think your best solution here is going to be to look at one of the individual policies on the exchange. That would be where I would start. And I think that if he's going to be able to be living with you and renting a room from you, I think that would be I think that would be that'll help enough with his expenses that he should be able to afford it out of his Social Security income.

And he may have to pull back on some other areas as well. Just kind of my big picture thing for you. Obviously, mental health can mean many different things. And I'm because I'm not close to the situation. I'm not qualified to opine, but that's never stopped me before. I would just say if you can do something to help him get some kind of work that he would be able to do so that he would feel productive, whether that's a basic job, something nearby, whether that's working to help a neighbor, whatever he you can look around and find that he would be able to do, whether he earns income or not, whether the income is very basic.

One of the most important things I think for men in that age bracket, especially if he's going through a divorce and he's and he's injured and all of these things happening, men need work. They need something that will help to give them meaning and purpose in their day to day life.

And so if you can look around and find some kind of work that he would be able to do, that I think could help. And that also has the potential of helping to solve this health insurance problem nicely. So you, of course, would be close enough to have the personal information of what he can do.

But if there's any possible way that you could help him to become gainfully employed and productively occupied with his day, so he's not just sitting around watching TV, I think that'll go a long way towards minimizing health problems and then maximizing income and maximizing opportunities for him to be able to qualify for a health insurance program until he gets to Medicare age.

Make sense? Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. My pleasure. We go next to the New York City. Well, Dave, welcome to Radical Personal Finance. How can I serve you, sir? Thank you, Joshua. I have two related questions. I am moving my family cross country from New York City to Utah, and so we're going to be buying a home.

The questions relate to tactically. What are your thoughts on mortgages? Fifteen versus 30 year fixed or adjustable rate. And then if you had thoughts about general financial planning or otherwise, when making a move of this nature. So what phase are you in the move? You've decided to move, but you haven't yet found a house or you have found a house and you decided you're definitely going to to buy it.

Where are you in that decision tree? Sure. Well, houses, houses, the contract should be signed tonight. So we are well along the way. It's it's pretty much a done deal. And we are the contract not signed, but the offer has been made. And the guidance is that it's coming back tonight and we're going to buy this house.

OK, so in that case, let me just give a couple of general pieces of suggestions that I think are good for most people to consider first when moving to a new place. If it's a new place that you're not deeply familiar with, I think it's generally best to move slowly to spend some time in different areas to rent for a part for a time.

Even if you're just renting in an Airbnb for a couple of months, of course, many people recommend renting in some place for a year so you can get a handle in the local neighborhoods. But even if it's a couple of months when you're traveling across the country, it's very hard to make knowledgeable decisions about which particular house to buy if you haven't spent a lot of time in the new location.

So this you're you're past this in your decision tree. But I would say the first thing is make sure that you look around and understand what you're doing. And for other listeners, it's generally best to pay a little bit more money so that you can make a more educated decision about what part of town you want to be in any place, any city, any country, place, any place in the world will vary from street to street.

And so there may be particular neighborhoods that from the other side of the country look great. But once you actually get there, you recognize, hey, these neighborhoods are not so great. And then you know that I'm going to make a change and move from there. So you are now you've made your decisions.

You move past that. But that's just for other people. The second big thing that I really like to consider and something that I think back about three or four years ago, I was not I wasn't paying as much attention to it as now. But one of the things that I've really come to appreciate is when you are moving, you have an opportunity to do a complete reset of your financial planning and you should pay careful attention to protecting your privacy.

One of the major new risks that I have come to appreciate deeply over the last couple of years is the fact that when you are moving, if you go in your moving process in the basic kind of mainstream approach, then forever and ever, anybody in the world who is looking for you will be able to find you.

And that's really problematic. In the old days, when you bought a house and you paid a you bought a house and you put a mortgage on it and you your deed was recorded down at the county courthouse. And if somebody were looking for you, they could come to your city.

They would look up, go to the county courthouse and they could figure out where you lived or you might be listed in the local in the local newspaper. Excuse me, not phone book, the local phone book. You would often be listed there. But in today's world, because all of that data is recorded online and it's all easily accessible.

Now, your personal data is available to anybody who is looking for you. And I think this is a unique new risk that faces people that didn't exist 20 years ago. And so I have adjusted my advice when working with clients and speaking to people. And I have come to the point where I think that when you are moving, one of the most important things you should do is make sure that your purchase of a house is done in a way that would help you to protect your privacy.

And this is especially important to those who are prominent in a community, those who are prominent in business, those who are prominent in politics. You need to work to protect the privacy of your house. So when you say I'm buying a house, one of the most important opportunities you have is to consummate that contract within an appropriately structured entity and not just put it into your own name.

If you put it into your own name, then anybody who wants to do a quick web search will be able to find all the information about you right there. So the best suggestions that I have on this, the people who are doing the best work on this is Michael Boesel and Justin Carroll.

Justin's been on this show, but they're doing a really great work on this over at their platform called the Complete Privacy and Security Podcast. They just published a new book called the Complete Privacy and Security Desk Reference Volume 2. And in that, they go through their suggestions for how to purchase a home and own it with some degree of privacy.

And they go through their suggestions, whether you have a mortgage or don't have a mortgage, whether to put it into a trust, whether to put it into some other type of entity. And I've been working to upgrade my own skills and knowledge in this area so that I could give better advice.

But for now, I would refer you to their work and make sure because when you're moving, you have an opportunity to protect your ownership. Even if you just simply put the house into just something as simple as a standard boilerplate living trust, but you do it from the beginning.

And so instead of it being saying Dave Smith, it says one as the owner of the house in wherever Utah, it's the 123 Main Street Living Trust in wherever Utah. That will go a long way towards protecting you. And if you have any position of prominence, if you have any position of public exposure, whether that's in the local community or international community, that's a big risk.

And the big risk is if you look around, the biggest thing that has grown in the past few years is what's called doxing attacks, where people will take your information. They'll publish it online because they disagree with something you said on Twitter politically or because you got an argument with somebody on a video game or something ridiculous or they misidentified you as marching in some political protest.

And the trouble is that if you don't make yourself a little bit difficult to find, you can quickly be subject to really unusual things. People get the police called on them. All of a sudden, you've got Child Protective Services on your door because I get an anonymous tip. I mean, they can make your life living hell just because you can be easily found.

So I recommend that to you that before you actually go through the process of finalizing your contracts, do some research and think about that because it's a unique opportunity to protect that information depending on how you actually buy the house. Next, with regard to financing, the use of financing will vary, of course, the different strategies that you'll take with what I just went over as far as how you choose to title the house will vary depending on your need for financing or your need for not financing.

So do you have, could you pay cash for the house? Do you definitely want to mortgage it? What are your personal thoughts on your personal situation with regard to the purchase of the home? Sure. I will need a mortgage. We'll be able to do somewhere between 20 and 30% down.

And our hope is to purchase this home. We have family who have moved to that area. And so the idea will be we'll live there for some period of time. And we've always had a possibility that ultimately begin using it as rental property and we'll move to another home.

So those are some of the things we've been kicking around, but we plan to live in this home for certainly five years or so. So you will have to run the numbers as far as what financing is available to you given your credit score, your credit profile, your income as well.

But in terms of the various debates that happen with regard to mortgages, I think there are compelling arguments in favor of variable rate mortgages. There are some situations in which they work really beautifully. But if you think, hey, we're going to be here and if the mortgage rates that you're quoted continue to be as low as I think they are today, then it's kind of hard to argue against just taking out a fixed rate mortgage right now.

So I think all of the for personal residents, I think all of the weight would be there on a fixed rate mortgage. I do think that depending on your cash situation, I think you should put down the minimum amount of cash on the property necessary in order to get the lowest expenses possible.

So first, of course, a higher down payment will get you usually a better rate and a better mortgage. And you also want to carefully run the cost on things like private mortgage insurance. And so if they want 20 percent down so you can avoid private mortgage insurance, you probably should go with 20 percent down.

But if you can get the very best rates and avoid private mortgage insurance by going with 20 percent down instead of 30 percent down, I think you should go with 20 percent down and keep your cash on the sidelines. And I see no reason to not simply take out the longest term fixed rate mortgage that they offer you and then marshal your cash on the side and then go ahead.

And if you want to pay it off in five years or 15 years, then go ahead and do that. I think the more flexibility you have and the more cash you have, the more options, especially at this point of where we are in or at least my personal guesses on where we are at the business cycle.

We're on the end of a significant boom that's gone on for a very long time. It's very hard for me to see how in the coming years we don't have significant corrections, recessions. I don't know what that would do to housing prices in Utah. I don't know what that does to mortgage rates.

I don't have any idea how that stuff works out. But I do know that I don't want at this point in the business cycle, I don't want my money tied up into illiquid assets that are big in value. I want maximum cash available so that as opportunities present themselves in the coming years, whenever we go into recession, whenever those opportunities start to come, then you have cash to move on them.

So I'd rather see you put the minimum down necessary and the longest term mortgage to keep your monthly commitment low, then five years from now, if you want to go ahead and move on and keep this one as a rental or whatever, you still have in place your financing under good terms that can continue and you have cash for those options.

If you could put down 100% payment and buy the house debt-free, then I think there are compelling reasons to consider that. But I've stripped out the middle zone in my thinking and I've said either one or the other. Put down the minimum necessary and keep your cash or pay cash.

Both of those are valuable, but the middle zone just doesn't help all that much. That makes a lot of sense. We've been thinking along the same lines. The rates are not at all-time lows, but seem pretty close. That's super useful and interesting stuff on the privacy. That's not something I had thought about or seen much in my diligence in this process, so that's really good to hear.

Thanks so much for your thoughts. Thanks for having me. Well, I think things have been changing and the importance has been coming online. And I think that when you can look back over months and months of public doxing attacks from the fringes of political fervor, I think that this type of concern has become increasingly important.

The problem with it is that it's really hard to do and it's hard to do well. For example, moving is if you want to protect your private information, basically if you're going to do it and you haven't done it in the past, you're going to have to move. Well, that's a really hard sale to make when you live in a house that you love and your family's been there for a long time.

It's a really hard sale to make to say we've got to move for this very ethereal risk that we can't really define or even predict. But if you are moving already, then you have an opportunity to set things up really well in the beginning. So I'm going to try to have Michael or Justin back on to talk about the second volume of their book.

I just finished reading it and it's very good. So I'll get them on as soon as I can. We go to John in Louisiana. John, welcome to the show. How can I serve you, sir? Hello, Joshua. I'd like to thank you for all the stuff that you put out.

It's been greatly helpful. A little background here. I'm active duty military and me and my wife, we purchased a home here in New Orleans about two years ago. And now we have orders moving us all the way to San Diego. But we know long term that New Orleans is where we're planning on retiring.

So the idea is to rent our current home for the next four to six years until I am able to retire. Just looking for some tips on what would be the best route about becoming a new landlord and how to go about the best way to set it up so that we're not screwing ourselves.

Have you ever been a landlord? No. And describe the house to me. What kind of house is it? What kind of neighborhood? What kind of land, etc.? So it's, I guess it would be out in the suburbs. It's north of New Orleans and Mandeville, across the lake. It's in a good neighborhood.

It's a three bed, two bath, walking distance to a high school, an elementary school. Safe area, part of town. Low crime rates. If you sold the house, how much do you think it would be worth in today's real estate market? About 210, 215 maybe. And what is the amount of debt that you owe on the property?

About 190. And is that a fixed rate mortgage, 30 year mortgage? Yeah, it was a VA loan, fixed rate, three and a quarter percent. Okay. If you rented it, do you have any guess as to what the rents would go for? Other rentals in the neighborhood range from low end of about $1,400 a month to the high end of $1,600 a month.

And I feel that our home would be on the higher side of that. Okay. If you were to rent it, how much is your monthly mortgage payment with your taxes and insurance included? It's $1,156. Okay. So, I guess let's start with kind of big picture first. Is it a good idea to become an absentee landlord by default?

I think in general, my answer is no. I can't think of any really compelling arguments that stand out to me as strong to say, "Well, when I have orders to move, I should just go ahead and keep a house because I already have it." One more question before I continue.

How much did you pay for the house? $196. Okay. So, you may have a little bit of gain, but most of that gain would be taken up even by listing the property. Okay. So, let me continue. I can't think of any compelling argument to say that it's a good idea to become a landlord by default.

Unless you have for a time planned to become a landlord or if this is part of your overall intention as far as, "I want to own a few houses as part of my financial plan," it just doesn't seem wise to me to become a landlord by default because of circumstances that are outside of your control.

You didn't choose to get ordered out to San Diego instead of New Orleans, and so it's this move that is being foisted upon you based upon your commitment to the military that is causing you to try to figure out, "What do I do with the house?" So, landlording can be a wonderful circumstance to be in.

I'm convinced that just simply owning simple rental houses has made more normal people wealthy than almost anything else. It's a beautiful mix of a business and an investment. It's a really wonderful opportunity, and I think it can work out really well to buy a house, live in it, and then move to another house and keep the house.

That can work out, but you need to have some desire to do it. The challenge is it's challenging to learn all that stuff from 3,000 miles away or perhaps 2,000 or 3,000 miles away. That's a long distance to be a landlord. It's much easier to move from a house on the north side of town over to a house on the west side of town and then drive across town and be a landlord.

There seems to be almost a personal question of, "Do I like being a landlord or not?" I don't know any way to predict that. People almost seem to have to go through it and decide if they like it or not. Now, in your case, you're planning to come back to the house, but it's really hard to believe that the house is so special that that's the only house that you could happily live in.

Is there something so unique about the house that you feel that if you come back to New Orleans in six years when you retire out of the military, that that's definitely the house you're going to want to live in? Not necessarily that house, but we know that we're coming back to New Orleans so that we could either have that to move into or as a continued rental property if it's working out.

Tell me about the New Orleans real estate market. Do you have a sense of where it is in the overall housing cycle? It's rebounded significantly. I guess it's hard to predict that, Joshua. Exactly. I don't think it's going to lose a lot of its value from its current rate.

I don't see that. Well, your crystal ball is as opaque as mine is, unfortunately. So let me just kind of lay out the arguments and you're going to have to choose. The fact that you have the house, I think, should be really discarded in your first analysis. One of the most useful tools of thinking that I constantly revert to is zero-based thinking.

And so the question is simply this. If I didn't already own this house, knowing what I now know about my future, if I had to do it over again, would I buy this house? So let me put that into specific terms for you and ask you the question. If you didn't already own this particular house in Louisiana, knowing what you now know, the idea being that you're going to go at least to San Diego for possibly the next six years, but at least the next few years, and that you anticipate returning to New Orleans, if you were going to do it all over again, knowing what you now know, would you go out today and buy the house again so that you would own it for the next six years with the plan of coming back in six years?

That's difficult. We were in a different scenario two years ago than what we are now, but I think yes. It's a great home, so I think yes. Okay. So that should be a very strong situation, a strong indicator of the right direction to move in. If you're looking at the house and you're looking at your situation, you're saying, "We think this house would really be ideal, and we think that even if we knew we were moving to San Diego, we would buy it," then there's something about it and your situation that's very compelling.

So I think it's probably dangerous. I think you would probably be happier having your options open to you. I think that as confident as you are that you probably want to return to Louisiana, six years can change a lot of things, and it's hard to know exactly where you're going to be in six years.

With this house, it doesn't sound to me like you got to steal on it, unless if you had some really compelling reason to know that the New Orleans real estate market is going to shoot up in the next six years and the house is going to double or triple in value, okay.

But if it were me, I think I would probably want the simplicity of not being an absentee landlord, especially for my first house. I would probably want the simplicity of simply being able to make a fresh decision six years from now and being able to choose a new house.

Whether it's this house or a house in this neighborhood, we can figure all that stuff out in six years. You'll probably be at a different phase of life. Perhaps your children will be at a different phase, et cetera. But if you say, "No, I think this is going to work out," I think we would, then that's of course your – there's nothing wrong with that.

I think the numbers can make it work if your net payment is $1,156 a month. And if you think you could rent for somewhere from $1,400 to $1,600 a month, that should give you a few hundred dollars a month of positive cash flow, which can start to accumulate. And what I would encourage you is make sure that you have substantial savings and make sure that you have – that you set money aside for the inevitable expenses.

And I would encourage you to work really hard at figuring out who would be a great tenant. Now, the thing I do like about this particular house is that it is a 3-2 in a suburban neighborhood that will probably appeal to a middle-class family. So in that case, I think that's a really ideal place to own and to rent.

So I would recommend to you two resources, both of which I have thought were really good. There are many good books on landlording. Well, I guess let me give you three. First, the BiggerPockets forum and community is really strong in this area. I'd recommend that you go on there and ask your question.

Set up an account. Ask your question. Ask some of those experienced real estate people who participate in BiggerPockets for their recommendations. And get some insight from them, they who have extensive experience in this type of situation and can guide you a little bit better. The best book on landlording that I have seen personally of all the books that I have looked at and read is by Lee Robinson.

It's called – Lee is spelled L-E-I-G-H Robinson, R-O-B-I-N-S-O-N. It's called Landlording, a Handy Manual for Scrupulous Landlords and Landladies Who Do It Themselves. That's really good. And also, I think that John Schaub's landlording materials and his landlording course that he sells are really good. He sells an online course for – a home study course for 150 bucks.

And if I were in your situation, I would absolutely spend 150 bucks and I would buy his landlording course. The reason especially that I would point you to John Schaub's home study course is this is the market that he focuses on exclusively. And what you want to do, especially being an absentee landlord, is you want to figure out how to get a really high quality tenant into the house.

And what you're looking for is a family who for whatever reason doesn't want to or can't buy a house, but not the kind of family that's a constant tenant that you're just going to – they're going to come in, say, for six months and then leave. Or you're going to be swapping them out every year.

The ideal situation for you would be to attract to your house a family who is going to stay there for the next six years, who's going to care for the property, and who is going to be low maintenance. And more than any other material that I'm aware of, that's what John Schaub does a really good job at.

So look up his course. His website is johnschaub.com. Look up his course on single-family landlording. And what I would try to do myself is I would try to do all of the landlording following the systems outlined by those two advisors and experts. And I would try to do that so I didn't have to hire a property management company.

Because although you could hire a property management company, it'll be challenging for you to find one that's going to do well, and that 10% will make a big difference in your cash flow. And so if you can find a good tenant and you can fill it well, I think you've got good potential of keeping a stable tenant in there.

And hopefully you'll be able to attract somebody that would stay for a few years. If I were you, I would be willing to cut my price a little bit to attract a very high quality and stable tenant who would take care of a lot of the little things. Because you don't want the hassle of having a tenant call you every time the toilet is clogged.

You want a tenant who is competent enough to unclog a toilet themselves. And Schaub has some really good techniques in setting up the lease where he teaches how to minimize, how to lower the rent a little bit, give some discounts for the tenants to take care of small things.

And being an absentee landlord from a long way away, those are the two best resources that I would suggest to you. All right. Thank you, Joshua. I appreciate that. I'll definitely look up those resources. Thank you. Absolutely. And enjoy your move across the country. I guess over the years, I used to be a very long-term thinker.

I used to have, and I still am, I still think of a lot of things. But what I've come to appreciate is no matter how well we know ourselves, circumstances have a way of changing and they change a lot. And I guess I remember for me, it was just, I learned it personally when my wife and I bought our first house.

I thought we were going to live there for 40 years. Well, we lived there for under three and I was just naive about, I thought my life was on one certain track and then things changed. And I've come to appreciate the value of not having a lot of encumbrance.

One of my listeners and friends, a listener of the show, his term that he dubs it, he calls it having a low-drag lifestyle. And I love that term. Some of these days I'm going to do an entire show on it just to that term. But living a low-drag lifestyle, I think is worth a lot.

So when you have a lot of physical property that you can't manage very well, it adds significant cost and stress to your life. And so unless there's a very compelling financial incentive that'll keep you motivated, frankly, I would rather have the low-drag lifestyle and invest my money elsewhere or figure out something else.

Versus having all kinds of real estate and real property scattered all over the country that keeps me up at night. Now, I do think that your property that you described is a really ideal candidate. And for that reason, I don't think you'd be stupid. I would just go based upon your gut on that zero-based thinking question.

All right, our last caller of the day, we've got a Peter in North Carolina. Peter, welcome to the show. How can I serve you today? Hi, Joshua. Thanks. I'm going to continue the streak of real estate questions. And this one is about purchasing a home. So my father-in-law intends to purchase a home near where my family lives.

And he wants the home to be owned by his daughter, my wife, so that upon his death, it passes to her directly and doesn't go into probate. And he doesn't want it to go into probate because he doesn't want it to be tied up and for there to be a significant amount of time that passes.

And he'll be living part of the year where he lives now. And part of the year when he's back home, we'll be renting the home that he buys near where my family lives. So he wants us to be able to manage it and for folks to continue to be able to rent if there's that period where it would otherwise be in probate.

So the way I looked at this was if they were to buy the house, in other words, if my wife and her father were to be both named on the deed, then does it work that the equity that's put into the house of purchase is considered by the IRS to be half from each party?

Meaning if he were to put in more equity and it's over the $14,000 or $28,000 per year gift limit, is it considered a taxable gift? So let me just answer that real quick and then I'll come back and I want to get some more detail so we can get a better solution because I don't like this particular solution, at least with my current, with what you've told me so far.

So first, there are two particular numbers to be aware of. The first is the annual exclusion amount. That's the number that you're referencing where any individual can give any other individual. Let's see, is it still for 2018, is it still $14,000? Let's just go with that. It's good enough.

But this number, the numbers change from year to year. So any individual can give any other individual up to the annual exclusion amount, which is about $14,000. And they can do that with no tax implications. There is no record of the transaction. There's nothing recorded. There's no tax incurred.

You can just simply, by law, give any other individual these numbers up to that, the $14,000. Now, that is independent of the other number, which is a lifetime gifting amount, which is basically about $5.5 million over which you get to the world of gift taxes. So the basic solution is if your father wants to give his daughter $100,000, he can just give her $100,000.

And there are no tax implications. It will only come into play down the road if at his death he has a significant estate. And if at that point in time, then you have to get into the world of filing gift tax returns or calculating what the lifetime exclusion amounts were of the total gifts that was given.

But that's probably completely irrelevant, and that's probably not at all meaningful, unless your father— That is irrelevant. Yeah. It's very relevant. His estate will not—his main assets will be houses. This woman is getting ready to buy the one he has now, and it's not a $5.5 million house. So that won't be a factor.

It might just be that I was considering it to be more complex than it is. It's just a matter of—okay, so let's walk through it. He buys the house now and puts his and his daughter's name on the deed, right? Yeah, so let me back up and get a few numbers.

And by the way, I just fact-checked myself. The 2018 annual exclusion amount is now $15,000 rather than $14,000, but not a big deal. Okay. And how much is the house—how much will the house cost that he's considering purchasing? Let's say $300,000. We're not looking at a particular house, but for the sake of conversation.

About $300,000. And does he intend to just pay for the house? Does he intend to finance the house? How does he intend— No, let's say he'd put $50,000 down and finance $250,000. Okay. And outside of this, does your father-in-law—does he have a lot of money? Is he independently wealthy?

Or will this house be a meaningful financial transaction for him? I think it'll be meaningful. He has an estate pension, and he's got a good—I think he owns his house outright in New England. It's probably worth close to a million. Yeah, I think that answers. Okay. And he wants to— I think he could—in other words, he could put more down.

I don't know how much he would intend to finance. I know that he would finance no more than 75%, but he could probably arrange to just buy the house. Okay, so the reason I'm asking the question is to try to get at the idea of what his intentions are.

And let me just describe kind of two different directions we could go. First, he could be looking at it and saying, "I want to give my daughter money, and I think it would be great to give her this house. I don't really care how much it's rented out. It's not a big deal, but I really want to help them and give them money." The second thing could be, "It would be nice to be able to go and have this second house, and I could make a little bit of money on the rental.

And then I'm just trying to make sure that when I die, I can avoid probate. But I can't afford to go ahead and just give her the house now. I can't afford to give her the money now." And so that would— Yeah, it's more the latter. Okay. Yeah, it's more the latter.

He knows that we don't need anything given to us. He's not trying to do that. He would like to have a home to spend the winter in, not in New England, and to be closer to us and his grandchildren. And potentially, they'd be here for medical care if he needs it significantly in the next couple decades.

Okay. So the first thing, I think he and you should carefully crunch the numbers and try to figure out how much is this house actually going to cost, how much is it actually going to be rented out, and is this really the best solution? Because I would rather do a seasonal Airbnb rental than own a second house and have to deal with that.

Now, if it's a compelling value, "Hey, we're going to buy the house. It's going to make us money." If you can make a compelling financial case for it, then I think that that'll work out well. But if it's going to be just an occasional thing, a lot of times, it's a very inefficient way to do it, to buy a big house that's going to incur a whole other set of expenses.

It's complicated and complex. It can be a headache. And if he wants to be near you or if he does that, there may be more efficient options to do that. It might be better to get an Airbnb for a couple months a year. It might be better to buy a nice travel trailer and put it near your house or do something like that.

Yeah. No, I like the options you're bringing up, and this is exactly what I would expect you to do. I thought through some of these. For more background, he actually has come down a couple of times and stayed two to three months at a time and done the sort of thing that you're talking about where through word of mouth, we know a friend who knows a friend and they're divorced and the woman travels for work and so there's an empty house.

He's done that. He's stayed in places like that for very cheap. But I get the sense that he wants a place that he doesn't have to take care of better than he would take care of his own because it's somebody else's house. He wants to just live comfortably. Good.

So you're a step ahead of me. All right. Let's go to ownership. So what I think, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't simply do this. He should buy the house. He should title it in a trust. Your father should own the entire house. He should finance the house himself.

And he should just simply make your wife the beneficiary of the trust. Just a standard living trust will do this. What every single, every single estate planning attorney in the world can draw up. He'll just establish a simple living trust. The house will be owned in that trust. And then when he dies, the trust will change the beneficiary.

The beneficiary of the trust will transfer from being him to being her. This will accomplish the goal of staying out of probate much more efficiently than trying to do a split ownership. And it will also accomplish a better tax efficient goal with the actual house. And the reason will be if your father in law buys the house now for $300,000.

And it sounds like he's not an old man. Capital gain is what you're going to say. Exactly. So the house goes up to $500,000. Now in the next 20 years, he pays off the mortgage. Then that house at his death, if it transfers, it'll receive two things. It'll receive the step up in basis.

And your wife will inherit the house at its fair market value at the date of death, which would be $500,000. Which would allow her to have the full $500,000 inheritance. Instead of if he puts her down as a co-owner of the house, even if he contributes all of the down payment, then she's going to own 50% of it.

And so she won't get that step up in basis in the exclusion of the capital gains from income taxes because she'll own the whole house. Plus it would then make it difficult where now your wife and her father now have a business relationship. And so he's bringing in a second owner that has to agree to changes, has to agree to things.

And there's just much more potential for conflict there in that situation. And then I think he should just pay you guys to manage it if that's what he wants to do. Better for him to just simply pay you a management fee. Yeah, that's what he wants to do. And have him just give a cash management fee.

And that'll be more useful, cleaner, better from a tax perspective. You'll avoid it because she'll receive it at his death and you avoid probate. I think it's simpler and more effective. Yeah. Now as additional support for that option, is it also that I'm oversimplifying how simple the transfer would be if they were co-owners of the house?

Is it a simple transfer if, OK, the deed is him and her, he dies, OK, it goes to her? Yeah, it is simple and it does work that way, yes. If they are joint owners, depending on what form of joint ownership they choose. But if they're joint owners and he dies, then she would automatically become, she's the owner.

Now you have to make sure that, what did we tend to say about the entireties? So you would want to make sure that she would become the whole of the property. But I think if I were talking to your dad, I would say you don't want to be in business with your daughter.

It's nice that you want to give her these things, but you don't need to unnecessarily entangle yourself with her. And if I were in business with her, I would say, or if I'm talking to her, I'd say you don't want to be in business with your dad. He's not going to be looking to you for advice.

So yes, you guys have this great relationship. But why take the risk of becoming legal co-owners of something when there's a much more elegant and simple way? Right, yeah, I get it. And so when he, the trust, the only asset in the trust is the house. And then when he dies, the house goes to my wife and then the trust dissolves.

Does your wife have siblings that would also be beneficiaries of his estate? For the sake of the conversation, let's say no. Well, it matters because first, if she has siblings or if he has other beneficiaries, then he would need to do one of two things. He would need to either establish a clearer estate plan for all of his assets or he would need to establish a clearer estate plan for all of his assets.

If your wife is simply the, the simplest way for him to avoid probate on all of his assets is simply for him to put all of his assets into a trust. Puts them all into a living trust, retitles all of his assets into that. And then when he dies, your wife will inherit all of those assets as the beneficiary of the trust.

Nothing will go to probate. Everything is done now. It's simple and the easiest way to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish. Now, if you have other beneficiaries and if it's important to him that your wife gets this house, but his other daughter is going to get the other house, then he'll have to specify that in the trust or possibly establish two separate trusts.

And it would be no problem for him just to maintain a trust for this property that's exclusive to him and your wife and then to do something separate with the other. And this is good, by the way, this is just, it's just good all around planning. So the obvious example that I would bring up is let's say that your father in law were sitting down with me.

I would say you should not make your daughter the owner of the house because what about the risk of your daughter getting divorced? If your daughter gets divorced, you probably don't want your son in law inheriting, you know, to get 50% of her interest in the house at the time of their divorce.

So if he just keeps everything in a trust and he keeps her as the beneficiary of the trust, then it's much simpler and he can protect his daughter and make sure that her interests are being cared for and he can do it without pre committing himself to something that 20 years from now may or may not be valid.

Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. Follow up questions? Anything? Is that clear? Yeah, no, that's clear. It seems like the obvious way to go. And I think your point is a real solid one about looping everything that he wants to do, not just with this house, but with this current house and to a trust so that if the main goal is to avoid probate, then that can be done easily with the trust.

How old is he? 76. So for a 76 year old with at least modest means, I would see no reason why any property should not be held in a trust. It's much simpler to go ahead and establish a trust, move the assets into it. And just for clarity, the type of trust that we are discussing is a revocable living trust.

And so the term revocable means he's not losing any control just because he is fully the owner of that trust. So he can change anything he wants. He could take your daughter off the benefit as beneficiary. He can put her on. He can change anything he wants. He can move property in or out of the trust at any time.

The only thing that this particular type of trust is doing that we're talking about is it's avoiding probate. It's making sure that he doesn't die owning a house that then has to go through probate. And so this is standard planning. And for a 76 year old with at least modest means, I see no reason why he should have anything titled in his name.

It should all be held within a trust. Okay. All right. Very good. Anything else? Good for today. I think you nailed it. Yeah. Congratulations. And by the way, you and he will have to talk about in terms of how you structure those payments as far as if you help him.

I would say that this is one of those ethical gray areas. So here is the reality. If you and he are sorry, you and your wife and he have some sort of official arrangement and contract for the fact that you are doing property management systems, property management work. Then, of course, he's going to have to pay you for that.

That'll be a business income for you. And that will be an expense for him. If, on the other hand, you're just simply doing something from time to time and he's giving you a gift. Well, he can give you a gift anytime he wants. And, of course, there are no income taxes for you.

But, of course, there is no deduction for him. So he'll need to look at that. You'll need to look at that and figure out what you do. As far as I'm concerned, that's probably one of those gray areas. Dads can give their daughters money anytime they want and daughters can help their dads with.

I think we're both of the, I think he and I and my wife were of the attitude that simplicity has a good deal of value. So even if he doesn't get a deduction, which is harder and harder to get a meaningful deduction these days with the increased limits. I think that he would probably do what it sounds like you're suggesting.

Which would be to just, if it's going to be 50 bucks a month, just go ahead and pay that in cash once a year and it's well under the limit. Yeah, absolutely. Well, great. Good to hear, Peter. And I'm glad to hear that your father-in-law is taking action and working hard on figuring out how to help you guys.

One of my just final things that I would make for him to think about. One of my frustrations with people thinking about their estates, especially parents, is parents so frequently think about their estate. And they miss giving to their children in the time of their children's life when it would be most valuable.

And so if he's making these choices for his own benefit, then I think it's really good. It's really wise for him to think it through and just consider, "Hey, I want to give my daughter this gift." That's fine. But if he's doing this for her, frequently I have found that parents think that what they're doing is the most helpful thing and they haven't actually talked to their children.

So if you are a parent of adult children, or you're a grandparent, don't just assume that your children want to inherit a house 20 years from now. That's nice. That's generous. That's great. But your children might rather you did something else. So, for example, they might be, and this probably doesn't apply to Peter's situation, but your children might rather you take the $40,000 that you were going to pay down on the house that you were going to buy.

And they might rather you say, "Listen, let's fix up the house you're already living in. And let me just go ahead and fund the construction of a garage out back that'll have a small apartment in it." And that might be helpful because your children, especially if they have children, you're a grandparent, your children might be in a phase of life where the money's tight and the space is tight.

And the inheritance when your children are 55 years old and their children have moved out is probably going to be less valuable to them than it is right now. I don't know how to solve this. Every situation is different. But I've just seen so many 55-year-olds inherit money. I'm like, "I don't need it now.

I needed it when I was 35, but I don't need it now." So make sure that you're talking with your children and that you're not just thinking, "Oh, I want to leave all my money behind at death." Make sure that you are thinking about it in advance and thinking, "What will my children really want and need?" So that's it for today's show.

I guess that would be my closing encouragement. The less you talk, the worse the solutions are. The more you talk, the better they are. So thank you all so much for listening to today's Q&A show. And I will be back with you very soon. Hey, Cricket customers. Max with Ads is included with your Cricket $60 unlimited plan at no additional cost.

Max is the streaming platform where you can watch Scoob, Meg 2 The Trench, The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection, and so much more. Just log in with your Cricket username and password to experience Max on all your favorite devices. We've never seen this before. Max, the one to watch for a good scream with Cricket.

Phone plans, streams, and standard definition. Programming subject to change. Fees, terms, and restrictions apply. See cricketwireless.com for details.