About Jim Greene

The COVID-19 economy has brought on some pretty wild market fluctuations. Stocks collapsed during the early stages of the pandemic, then quickly recovered. Oil crashed, then soared. Commodity indexes surged as inflation took hold in 2021. Perhaps most glaring of all is the state of the U.S. real estate market. Prices are exploding, bidding wars […]

Closing costs are part of practically every real estate transaction. Buyers and sellers both incur them, and they apply on top of the property’s agreed-upon sale price. Under U.S. law, financial institutions must fully disclose all applicable closing costs to both buyers and sellers. Furthermore, both involved parties must agree to the costs before the […]

According to Seed Scientific, only about 30% to 40% of job-seekers who reach the interview stage end up receiving a job offer. Unfortunately, those raw numbers suggest that you have a 60% to 70% chance of not getting hired after your interview. However, it’s possible to slightly rig the game in your favor. Proper preparation […]

Many labor market experts believe COVID-19 will have a lasting if not permanent effect on the way people engage with employment. The huge shift toward remote work, which was sparked by the pandemic, is still going strong. Many companies, including multiple major players in the technology industry, have already integrated offsite work into their current […]

Inflation has been in the news a lot recently. The first months of 2021 saw inflation hit its highest rate since the financial crisis of 2008. Consumer prices shot up by an annualized rate of 5% in May 2021. That was followed closely on the heels of a 4.2% surge the previous month. Obviously, the […]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2020 Internet Crime Report reveals sobering statistics about the prevalence of online fraud. During that year, the FBI received nearly 800,000 complaints — a year-over-year increase of more than 300,000 cases. Complainants reported financial losses totaling a whopping $4.2 billion. The trends indicate sharp rises in online crime, with phishing, […]

According to the National Council on Aging, older adults suffer annual financial losses of about $3 billion to fraud schemes. These heartless crimes can devastate victims, who are often on meager fixed incomes and reliant on their savings. In most cases, the losses cannot be recovered. That often leaves victims in precarious financial situations. Unfortunately, […]

Buying a home is the biggest financial commitment most people ever make. It therefore demands careful consideration from every possible angle to know roughly how much it costs to build a house. Yet, many people ‒ and especially first-time buyers ‒ concentrate solely on the prebuilt and resale home markets. Doing so overlooks a potentially […]