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President Biden’s ambitious American Families Plan is billed as “an investment in our kids, our families, and our economic future.” That investment comes to life in the form of programs designed to help families cover the basic expenses with which so many struggle, lowering health insurance premiums, and continuing the American Rescue Plan’s historic reductions in child poverty.

Part three of our four-part series on 2021 tax law changes is a topic that might not impact everyone, but if it does impact you, it’s important to understand what changes are in store. The topic at hand is proposed estate and gift taxes.

A few days ago, we kicked off our four-part series on tax law changes with a look at what’s in store — or at least what’s proposed — for your personal income taxes. Today, we shift financial gears to corporate taxes. (Future articles will look at the American Families Plan and estate and gift taxes.)

A new presidential administration often means a variety of new tax law changes. In this four-part series, we’ll offer a closer look at some of the tax law changes being proposed by President Joe Biden and the House Ways and Means Committee. The series will include a review of the American Families Plan, estate and gift tax changes, corporate tax changes, and today’s post — individual tax changes.

Your neighbor just bought a new 21-foot bass-fishing boat (and a new truck to tow it). Your sister just posted more pictures of her luxurious vacation to Barbados (for the fourth time this week). And your best friend just upgraded his man cave with not one, but FIVE vintage arcade games (including Donkey Kong). If you’re feeling a little jealous — and maybe even feeling the urge to run out and upgrade your own possessions to maintain the same social status — don’t worry, that’s normal.

The debate over whether to give kids an allowance is as old as the practice itself, but the benefits of giving kids an allowance are clear. Kids who get an allowance are more financially savvy later in life than those who don’t, and are less likely to abuse credit as adults.

Can money buy happiness? It’s difficult to answer that question, but we do know this: Money — the mismanagement of it and the lack of it — can cause stress.

As the worst of the pandemic gradually recedes, investors are statistics that will, on their face, seem outlandish. Year over year comparisons will be stunning in notional terms. Economic indicators will also post extraordinary readings. But, like most things, true understanding requires a deeper examination, which is an important prerequisite to making smart, impactful decisions.

In this first quarter of 2021, the weather has broken, vaccine delivery is accelerating and we are starting to feel a sense of freedom may just be over the horizon. Here’s a review of the first quarter of 2021 and an outlook of what’s to come:

Recently, the three national credit agencies — TransUnion, Experian and Equifax — said they will continue to provide free, weekly credit reports to consumers until April 20, 2022.

A balance transfer is a credit card transaction where you move your credit card balance from one card to another — typically a new one with a lower interest rate.

Taxpayers now have until May 17, 2021, to file and pay their taxes without penalties or interest. This is about a one-month extension beyond the traditional deadline of April 15.

As January closed there was some very unusual excitement in the stock markets. The price of shares of videogame reseller GameStop, which had languished for years near $5, suddenly began to rocket skyward, to $40, then $60, then $120, eventually cresting at well over $400 per share before coming back down to earth. This despite an absence of profitability.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently charged Robinhood Financial LLC for failure to fully disclose the firm’s receipt of payments from trading firms for routing customer orders to them.

The value for federal gift tax purposes of a gift of $100,000 in cash is $100,000, and the same is true for the value of $100,000 worth of publicly traded stock. Those are the easy cases. The hard cases concern assets that are harder to value, such as real estate or interests in a closely held business.