Taxable Estate

Ooooooh...political hot button topic. What's "fair" when it comes to passing wealth to your children or progeny in whatever form? Well, "fair" means different things to different people. "Wealth" for most means a very nice home with maybe 5 or 6 bedrooms, an acre or three for the kiddies to play. And maybe a second home on a golf course 100 miles away by the lake or the river or the ocean. And then maybe enough interest income to cover the costs of maintaining those two homes.

So...guess what. In Des Moines, you get the big main house, 9,000 square feet and 3 acres for a million bucks. And that cabin on the lake? Another 400 grand. And the cost to cover and maintain? At most, 100 grand a year for both. That's Des Moines, and/or most places in the middle part of the country.

Now consider the same thing in Silicon Valley. That 9,000-square-foot home in Palo Alto (decent, but not the most expensive area): $20 million. The second home at Pebble: $12 million. The cost for taxes and maintenance: a million bucks a year.

So the notion that we're one unified country, financially, is just...wrong. Things cost vastly different in different areas of the country. Yet we have one number that comprises what Washington D.C. (and idiot politicians) think is "wealth." That's your taxable estate, whether you like it or not.