IS YOUR CHILD BEING BULL I ED? CHANGE IN FRIENDS There are bound to be changes in friend groups throughout your child’s life, but that doesn’t mean parents shouldn’t take notice when this happens. When a child expresses disinterest in spending time with specific people, it could be a sign of bullying. Connecting with other parents who have children in the same circle could be a way to gauge the pulse of your child’s friend group. CONFIDENCE ISSUES Bullying has the potential to drop kids into a volatile cycle of confidence-killing self-talk. Bullying may produce external damage, but what goes on internally can be catastrophic for children. The continually progressing, technology-based environment our children live in nearly outpaces their ability to adjust and cope. Children often internalize their emotions, and when they are being bullied by someone online, their distress can be even harder to detect. The best way to be aware of how your children are feeling is to talk to them openly about their social interactions both online and offline. Summer is the perfect opportunity to discuss these issues with your child because they likely will be relaxed, comfortable, and out of school, where bullying often occurs. Then they can approach the new school year with confidence and self-worth. What parent doesn’t want that? Warning Signs You Can’t Ignore seen it used for luxury properties where buyers and sellers are more amenable to dealing with risk and volatility. In the future, however, it’s not hard to see it spreading to more corners of the real estate market. When it comes to selling, you can list your property with bitcoin as a payment option, but it’s not without particular concerns. Bitcoin fluctuates wildly, so you’ll need to constantly check the markets and update your pricing. Last December, a single bitcoin reached a peak value of $19,000. Today, that number is closer to $7,000. WILL BITCOIN TAKE OVER REAL ESTATE? The jury is still out on this one. Proponents, like Barbara Corcoran from “Shark Tank,” believe that cryptocurrency is the future of real estate transactions. Detractors say that it’s simply too volatile to ever be widely used. Whatever the future holds, if you are considering including crypto options in your next real estate transaction, you should speak to an experienced real estate attorney like those at Merlino & Gonzalez to make sure you go through the process correctly.
Somewhere along the line, our society accepted bullying as a social norm for children. “How can kids learn to cope with the real world if they can’t handle a bully?” is a common misguided justification. Kids who don’t meet the standards of what they are socially expected to be aren’t accepted among their peers. Rather, they are treated like emotional punching bags for anyone deemed more culturally acceptable. But the life of a child is truly a special force in this world, and just because someone differs from physical, social, or cultural normativity doesn’t give anyone the right to treat them poorly. Differences should be celebrated, and bullying needs to be eradicated. The best way we can start is by making an effort to notice bullying and put a stop to it. Here are three warning signs. HEADACHES AND STOMACH ACHES Anxiety is a complex emotion that tends to manifest itself in physical ways. If you notice your child has stress-related symptoms like headaches, ask them about their emotional well-being. An open-ended question like, “I’ve noticed you haven’t been feeling well a lot lately — can you tell me more about that?” will help open lines of communication. Even if you’re not plugged into the worlds of finance and technology, you’ve probably read a little bit about bitcoin recently. The cryptocurrency has risen from the ranks of an obscure, niche interest to a topic on everyone’s lips. Many companies, from accounting firms to retailers, have begun to accept bitcoin as a payment method. Real estate has also been affected by the trend. As of the time of writing, at least 140 properties listed in New York incorporate bitcoin in their listing information. With that in mind, there’s no better time than now to understand how the radical new currency will shape the real estate market in the coming years. WHAT IS BITCOIN? In the simplest terms, bitcoin is the most popular form of cryptocurrency. Unlike traditional currencies, cryptocurrencies are decentralized, meaning they don’t have to rely on a centralized banking authority for authentication. Instead, they use a technology called blockchain, which stores information across a vast peer-to-peer network. CAN I BUY OR SELL A HOME IN BITCOIN? The short answer is “yes, but ...” On the buyer’s side, you’ll have to find a seller willing to take cryptocurrency as payment. Thus far, we’ve mostly
CAN I BUY OR SELL A HOME WITH BITCOIN? Real Estate in the Age of Cryptocurrency
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