Are you sure you can afford a second home?

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial advice, gathered from around the web:

Second-home considerations

Are you sure you can afford a second home? asked David Mount at The Washington Post. Many buyers underestimate the overall cost of ownership beyond the down payment and mortgage. "Rental properties in particular may need a high number of repairs." A good rule of thumb is to set aside 2 percent of the home's sale price for annual maintenance, including fixing and replacing appliances. If you don't want to answer 1 a.m. phone calls about leaks, you should also budget for a property manager. In calculating a property's potential value, "use a conservative growth rate and look at median home prices in the area over the past decade."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Safe investments, tricky math

Low interest rates on savings are pushing retirees to look for investments that offer both safety and above-average returns, said Darla Mercado at CNBC. Increasingly that means indexed annuities and indexed universal life insurance, but "take a minute before you write a check to your insurer." These complex financial instruments aren't for everybody. Both products are tied to the performance of a market index, but money isn't invested directly in the stock market. Instead, insurers use complex formulas to determine what investors have earned. As a result, an investor's account balance is shielded from market slumps, while still capturing at least some of the gains. However, neither can match the overall performance of stocks, despite marketing that says otherwise.

Donating from an IRA

"There are a lot of tax perks to be gained from giving your required minimum distributions from an IRA directly to a charity," said Kerri Anne Renzulli at Money. By directly transferring money from your IRA, you are able to credit that amount toward your account's annual required minimum distribution without increasing your adjusted gross income. It also lets you "reap a tax benefit for your generosity" even if you don't itemize your tax return. If you do itemize, however, "this may not be the best strategy for you." That's because tax-free transfers from your IRA to charity can't be deducted. "If that's your goal, take the withdrawal yourself, and then make the donation." You should also avoid directly transferring money to a private foundation or a donor-advised fund. Only gifts to public charities qualify for the tax-free treatment.