Greetings, fellow Avilones. Get ready - here we go! The holiday/summer season is rapidly approaching, which means Avila Beach will soon be inundated with beachgoers and vacationers. We’ve already had a taste of the human tsunami coming our way, as was experienced during the April Easter school break, along with some unseasonably warm days early in the month. A friendly reminder from me to you that May 8th is Mother’s Day, and May 30th is Memorial Day. We can expect crowded beaches and lots of traffic over both weekends. And, as reported in the previous issue of this publication, we are set to welcome back the Avila Friday Farmer’s Market after its two-year pandemic-imposed hiatus. I imagine the opening day of May 6th will generate a rousing and enthusiastic crowd.
As time passes, and the world as we knew it continues to throw us curveballs, I find myself being more introspective and pensive than usual. The Ukraine/Russia conflict aside, I find myself stunned at the fundamental life changes our world is now experiencing. In comparison, it has been 20+ years since the 9/11 attack, and still the extreme security measures that affected the way we travel and the places we go remain intact. Most of us would agree that much of the fun of going from here to there has vanished. And now, due mostly to the pandemic, we are becoming a more reclusive society, reliant upon technology that keeps us tethered to our homes. Work from home, meal and grocery deliveries to our doorstep, Amazon shopping, movie streaming, Zoom gatherings, online learning – OMG! How many generations into the future are we away from having literally no in-person human contact?
For more of my “Negative Nelly” rantings, let’s talk about the global supply shortages and business staffing challenges that have driven up the cost of everything – groceries, cars, appliances, gasoline, airfare, dining out, etc. And have you been following the real estate market? For a mere pittance of about $1 million, you can score an 800 square foot two-bedroom, one bath, one-car garage Shell Beach home with no ocean views built in the 1950s. Yowzah! I am not just picking on our next-door neighbors to the south, because what’s happening in Avila is also beyond belief. Just last month a Pelican Point condo inside the San Luis Bay Estates went on the market for $995,000. A bidding war ensued, and within days the home sold for $1,500,000. I kid you not! What remains to be seen is if we are going to see the “bubble” burst across the board with prices returning to pre-pandemic levels, or if new thresholds are here for good.
Okay, how about some “Positive Paul” offerings? I am doing cartwheels over the fact that the “Foundation” Board of Trustees has resumed in-person meetings. We’ve had only one of those since January, 2020. Truth be told, I am “Zoomed-Out” and so happy to get back to the type of gatherings more conducive to fruitful dialogue and energetic interactions. Getting back to business as usual will require some doing, since I seem to have forgotten a bit these past two years. What was once repetitive and reflexive for me now requires more forethought. Now, how did I do that??? Coming up for our board is an important decision. Do we return to our former grant-making processes now that the local agencies and organizations we fund are getting back to business as usual? Or do we repeat yet again what occurred the past two years when the “Foundation” put a pause on our traditional grant-making process and simply rolled over recipient funding levels from what grantees received in the year 2020, and allowed these sums to be used for whatever was necessary to keep things afloat for the time being. I know that funding relief was helpful during a most difficult period, but It’s likely time to get back to past practices.
Here’s some news for those of you on the lookout for ways to distribute your charitable contributions. The US House of Representatives recently approved HR 2954, the "Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022," which could make significant changes to a popular charitable giving vehicle, the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD). A QCD is a direct transfer of funds from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and can be counted toward satisfying a donor’s required minimum distributions (RMDs) for the year, if certain rules are met. The proposed law as currently written could provide a boost to this popular giving option – including permitting the donor to use the distribution to create a charitable gift annuity. Consult with your CPA or Tax Attorney for details.
That’s it for now, fellow Avilones. See you at the beach!
As time passes, and the world as we knew it continues to throw us curveballs, I find myself being more introspective and pensive than usual. The Ukraine/Russia conflict aside, I find myself stunned at the fundamental life changes our world is now experiencing. In comparison, it has been 20+ years since the 9/11 attack, and still the extreme security measures that affected the way we travel and the places we go remain intact. Most of us would agree that much of the fun of going from here to there has vanished. And now, due mostly to the pandemic, we are becoming a more reclusive society, reliant upon technology that keeps us tethered to our homes. Work from home, meal and grocery deliveries to our doorstep, Amazon shopping, movie streaming, Zoom gatherings, online learning – OMG! How many generations into the future are we away from having literally no in-person human contact?
For more of my “Negative Nelly” rantings, let’s talk about the global supply shortages and business staffing challenges that have driven up the cost of everything – groceries, cars, appliances, gasoline, airfare, dining out, etc. And have you been following the real estate market? For a mere pittance of about $1 million, you can score an 800 square foot two-bedroom, one bath, one-car garage Shell Beach home with no ocean views built in the 1950s. Yowzah! I am not just picking on our next-door neighbors to the south, because what’s happening in Avila is also beyond belief. Just last month a Pelican Point condo inside the San Luis Bay Estates went on the market for $995,000. A bidding war ensued, and within days the home sold for $1,500,000. I kid you not! What remains to be seen is if we are going to see the “bubble” burst across the board with prices returning to pre-pandemic levels, or if new thresholds are here for good.
Okay, how about some “Positive Paul” offerings? I am doing cartwheels over the fact that the “Foundation” Board of Trustees has resumed in-person meetings. We’ve had only one of those since January, 2020. Truth be told, I am “Zoomed-Out” and so happy to get back to the type of gatherings more conducive to fruitful dialogue and energetic interactions. Getting back to business as usual will require some doing, since I seem to have forgotten a bit these past two years. What was once repetitive and reflexive for me now requires more forethought. Now, how did I do that??? Coming up for our board is an important decision. Do we return to our former grant-making processes now that the local agencies and organizations we fund are getting back to business as usual? Or do we repeat yet again what occurred the past two years when the “Foundation” put a pause on our traditional grant-making process and simply rolled over recipient funding levels from what grantees received in the year 2020, and allowed these sums to be used for whatever was necessary to keep things afloat for the time being. I know that funding relief was helpful during a most difficult period, but It’s likely time to get back to past practices.
Here’s some news for those of you on the lookout for ways to distribute your charitable contributions. The US House of Representatives recently approved HR 2954, the "Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022," which could make significant changes to a popular charitable giving vehicle, the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD). A QCD is a direct transfer of funds from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and can be counted toward satisfying a donor’s required minimum distributions (RMDs) for the year, if certain rules are met. The proposed law as currently written could provide a boost to this popular giving option – including permitting the donor to use the distribution to create a charitable gift annuity. Consult with your CPA or Tax Attorney for details.
That’s it for now, fellow Avilones. See you at the beach!
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