Defining Income Inequality In economic terms, income inequality is the disparity in how income is distributed among individuals, groups, populations, social classes, or countries. It is a major part of how we understand socioeconomic statuses—including how we identify the upper class, middle class, and working class. It’s impacted by many other forms of inequality, including wealth, political power, and social status. Income is a major factor in managing quality of life, as it serves as a means to access health care, education, housing, and more....

Splitting Commission With a Broker When the commission is split with a broker, the real estate agent takes a percentage of the total. Let’s say a house is sold and the gross commission on the property is $12,000. If the broker and agent agreed to a 50% and 50% split, they’d each get $6,000. The percentage split is an amount agreed to by the broker and the agent and usually reflects a number of services and the support the broker provides....

Annual fees are the amount you pay for the benefits that come with your credit card. Not all credit cards have these fees. Generally, the higher the annual fee, the more benefits the credit card provides. Which Credit Cards Have an Annual Fee? Not all credit cards have an annual fee. Cards that usually have an annual fee usually provide some extra benefit, such as: Reward cardsPremium credit cardsSecured credit cards...

As mortgage interest is paid in arrears, the seller will owe the buyer for interest “to or through” the closing date, as the buyer will be paying that interest on the next payment after closing. As with most prorations, we’ll need to know from the purchase agreement whether we’ll be prorating to or through closing. Let’s do a sample proration. A real estate investor is closing on a rental property on the 16th of July....

The world crude oil market is all about investor anticipation of supply and demand, and oil prices are very volatile and highly influenced by consumer and investor sentiment. As such, global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic can send shockwaves throughout the market. The Two Most Prevalent Grades of Crude Oil When it comes to physical oil, there are different grades. The most heavily traded grades are Brent North Sea crude (commonly known as “Brent crude”) and West Texas Intermediate (commonly known as “WTI”)....

Employee Stock Option Basics With an employee stock option plan, you are offered the right to buy a specific number of shares of company stock at a specified price called the “grant price” (also called the “exercise price” or “strike price”), within a specified number of years. Your options have a vesting date and an expiration date. You can’t exercise your options before the vesting date or after the expiration date....

The Prospective Plantings report is a tool for commodities traders when it comes to understanding data for corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton. The report includes other crops, as well as those not traded on the U.S. futures exchanges. The crops contained in the report are as follows: corn, all wheat winter wheat, durum wheat, spring wheat, oats, barley, flaxseed, cotton, rice by length of grain classes, all sorghum, sweet potatoes, dry edible beans, soybeans, sunflower, peanuts, canola, proso millet and sugarbeets....

There are both pros and cons to borrowing from your home equity, and there are a few ways to do it. Here’s a breakdown to help you decide if using your home equity to buy another house is a good idea for you. How To Use Home Equity To Buy a Home Homeowners have a few different options for tapping into their home equity to buy another home. Choosing the right one really depends on your financial situation and your goals....

The Rule of 72 is a simple way to estimate how long it will take your investment to double in size, assuming you reinvest dividends. It’s a helpful way to put the time value of money into perspective as you map your retirement and investing plans. How the Rule of 72 Works This rule is really very simple. The only thing you need to complete the Rule of 72 calculation is the annual rate of return on your investment....

International investors have access to hundreds of different exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), but there are relatively few income-focused options. Moreover, many international investors use either active strategies focused on exploiting short- to medium-term trends or passive strategies focused on long-term capital appreciation and diversification. These dynamics leave many income investors with few options outside of the United States. Vanguard’s New Funds Vanguard, one of the largest provider of mutual funds and the second largest provider of ETFs in the world, announced in March 2016 that it would launch international versions of its two most popular ETFs – the High Dividend Yield ETF (ARCA: VYM) and the Dividend Appreciation ETF (ARCA: VIG)....

Annual Payment Reports to Payees For the 2020 tax year, employers must provide employees with a Form W-2 by February 1, 2021. The same deadline applies for completing and providing the 1099-NEC. Both W-3 and 1096 summation forms are also due to the appropriate government agency by February 1, 2021, unless you file online. For 2020 payments reported in 2021, use Form 1099-NEC to report payments to non-employees. You must also give 1099-NEC forms to non-employees you paid $600 to in 2020....

If you want financial success in 2022, there are some real actions you can take to reach it. They all boil down to getting smarter about your spending, saving, and investment choices. 1. Create a Budget One of the simplest and most effective things you can do to get control of your finances is to know where your money goes. Understanding how and where you spend can be a powerful insight, and it can help you create realistic savings goals....

In the world of banking, brick and mortar banks are banks and credit unions with branches. Many of them also offer online banking services, but the online services are optional. That’s similar to retailers that offer storefronts for in-person shopping as well as websites that allow you to purchase the same goods online. An online-only “internet bank” is the opposite of a brick and mortar bank. There’s no way to visit a branch....

Understanding what counts as a business expense and whether one is tax-deductible can help you maximize your tax savings. Anyone with business income, from business owners to freelancers, can benefit. Here, we’ll review exactly what qualifies as a business expense and how to handle these costs as income deductions when filing your taxes. Definition and Examples of Business Expenses Business expenses are the costs businesses must pay to fund their operations....

10'000 Hours/Getty Images Many of the most highly sought-after skills today are soft skills pertaining to your ability to communicate and work with a team or hard skills focused on technology. These are the in-demand skills that make you a successful candidate for employment when you’re job hunting or seeking a promotion. What are Employability Skills? Employability skills are the core skills and traits needed in nearly every job. These are the general skills that make someone desirable to an organization....

Learn more about real estate teams, how they work, and whether you should work with one. The Basics of a Real Estate Team A real estate team is a group of real estate agents who work together and share commissions. Rather than working with one real estate agent, you’d work with the team as a whole. There are no set procedures that all real estate teams must follow, but team members almost invariably pitch in for each other and share the team spirit....

Most reverse mortgages are Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs), which are insured by the federal government and regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Proprietary reverse mortgages are private mortgages, not insured by the government, that are usually made to borrowers who need more than the HECM limit. Single-purpose reverse mortgages are for one specific expense. Let’s go over each type and how they work....

A data breach can also trigger third-party claims or lawsuits if it involves personally identifiable information such as social security numbers, health records, and credit card numbers. Businesses can protect themselves against the costs associated with data breaches by purchasing a cyber liability policy. Examples of cyber policies are The Hartford’s CyberChoice, Travelers’ CyberRisk. and Philadelphia’s Cyber Security product. What Is Cyber Liability Insurance? Cyber liability insurance covers financial losses that result from data breaches and other cyber events....

What Payroll Debit Cards Are Each pay period, these cards (which are issued by the employer) are automatically loaded with the employee’s paycheck. The cards can be used like debit cards; the employee can use the card to make purchases, receive cash back from purchases, and withdraw money from an ATM. Some cards even allow employees to pay bills directly with the card. Walmart, Taco Bell, Walgreens, and some McDonald’s franchises, for example, have begun offering payroll debit cards....

On top of that, hackers were able to access credit card information for 209,000 consumers and dispute documents (which contained additional personal information) for another 182,000 consumers. How Big Is the Equifax Data Breach? If we’re only looking at the numbers, the Equifax data breach isn’t the largest. The record for most consumers affected by a data breach goes to Yahoo, which had 500 million customers affected by a breach that occurred in 2014 and 1 billion customer records compromised in 2013....