What We’re Reading

$1 billion:

“Just think about it,” the luminary told me. “It’s nearly impossible to spend a billion dollars.” I laughed at the ridiculousness of this statement, but he went on, doing the math in front of me to make his point. “The most expensive Gulfstream jet in the world is $65 million; a couple of very fancy houses will cost you $20 million, $30 million total; many of the highest-end cars are only a few hundred thousand dollars each. You’ve done all that and you’ve still got around $900 million or so left to spend.” I responded, “Well, you could just give it away to people and organizations in need.” “Ahh, but you can’t,” the man said to me. “Are you just going to hand it to someone and hope they do the right thing with it? You have to build entire infrastructures to give the money away.” He went on to explain that you need to hire legions of people, often hundreds, including teams of lawyers and tax lawyers, finance experts, project managers, communications staffers, and so on, to manage the distribution of the money. “Just look atWarren Buffett.Rather than figure out how to give his money away, he just gave it to the Gates Foundation to do it for him.” Then, the man explained, there is the “problem” that your billions will only grow, often quicker than you can give them away, with interest and rising investments. “Being a billionaire is a lot harder than it looks,” the man said.

Fees:

[Realtory] Commission revenue – the cut that brokers collect for helping buy and sell homes – is on track to surge 16% in 2021, surpassing $100 billion for the first time.

Used cars:

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Time flies:

They say the “days go slow but the years fly,” and as I sit here stewing in my worries, I can’t help but reflect on just how fast my life is going.

My 20s were a blur. I met my wife and we got married. As we entered our 30s, we knew we wanted to start a family. After that period of time, it seems like someone pushed fast forward.

If I could map my life from the moment my son was born to its end and compress it into one 24-hour period, it would probably look like this.

Tuesday’s space flight:

At 18, Mr. Daemen will be the youngest person ever to go to space. At 82, Ms. Funk, who goes by Wally, will be the oldest.

Have a good weekend.