A terrible time management idea

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

Cutting taxes on home sales

A new bipartisan bill would double the amount of money that homeowners can exclude from their taxes on the profits on the sale of their home, said Aarthi Swaminathan in MarketWatch. "Currently, the legislation only allows for single filers to exclude $250,000 in gains and $500,000 for joint filers," and those amounts have not changed in 26 years. Bill co-sponsors Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) said that the potential capital-gains tax bill has discouraged many owners whose homes have gone up in value by more than $500,000 from listing their properties. A study by the National Association of Realtors found that simply adjusting the capital-gains exclusion for inflation since 1997 would create "an increase in supply of between 159,000 and 344,000 homes nationwide."

A terrible time management idea

"Scary hour" is one of the worst new productivity trends, said Aytekin Tank in Fast Company. The term taking TikTok by storm refers to "an hour-long block where you only work on tasks you've been holding off." Proponents say carving out the time to refocus your attention wards off procrastination and anxiety. But this approach leads to putting off our most challenging tasks, and instead of making us feel energized and inspired, "'scary hour' only makes the dread worse." I recommend the opposite approach: "Prioritize completing your most pressing tasks first." I write my most timely tasks on a sticky note each morning, which helps "my overall motivation to get things done."

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

A gig-work win for Uber in Minnesota

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) vetoed ride-share legislation last week that would have increased pay and protections for gig drivers, said Tim Harlow and Rochelle Olson in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The bill, which passed Minnesota's Democrat-led state legislature, would have set minimum rates of $1.45 a mile and 34 cents per minute, as well as overall "pay guarantees indexed to inflation." Both Uber and Lyft objected furiously and threatened to pull out of Minnesota markets except the Twin Cities metro area if it passed. The threat succeeded: Walz, a fellow Democrat, bucked his colleagues despite "ride-share drivers lining the hallway outside the governor's Capitol office" urging him to sign it. Walz said he would establish "a commission to study driver wages and working conditions."

This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.