dsmWealth August 20, 2020

Adjustable desks like this one from Knoll have become increasingly popular, especially with so many people working from home because of the pandemic.

Outfitting Your Home Office for Comfort, Style

BY STEVE DINNEN

To be fair, the whole work-at-home thing started long before the pandemic. Once personal computers got reliable, and their use became widespread, telecommuting bounded out of nowhere and people started forgoing the office cubicle for some work time at home.

Enter COVID-19. Entire office buildings emptied overnight across the country and the more or less voluntary nature of telecommuting morphed into orders to stay at home—but keep working. Research from Stanford University in June estimated that 42% of the nation’s workforce is now working full time from home. And signs point to the staying at home for a good long while—into 2021 or even beyond.

But are those 42% comfortable? Have they just set up a card table in the guest bedroom and dragged in an extra chair from the dining room? Studies suggest otherwise--that many have upgraded the furniture, cabinetry and printer stands they have. But there is always room for improvement, which also suggests an opportunity for the office furniture industry to make some inroads that could be considerable given the size of the population involved in this shift.

Michelle Bonnema, sales and marketing manager at Saxton Inc., said her downtown Des Moines commercial interior design firm has fielded inquiries from firms and individuals that have expressed an interest in upgrading their home offices. No one has yet signed a deal, but she already has taken one personal step they can easily follow—installing an ergonomically attuned chair that will keep them comfortable for hours on end.

Kitting out your home office can be surprisingly affordable. In a review of chairs, done in July by CNN, it rated a $388 chair from Steelcase, the Series 1, as the best overall. It flexes with your body, helping you change postures while sitting. High marks also went to Herman Miller’s Aeron chair, at $1,395, and the Iowa-produced Ignition chair, from HON, at $309.

In the desk category, the Mayline Medina will give you 72 inches of desktop area to spread your stuff out, in gray, mocha or mahogany, at $449. The Ford Executive Modern has filing cabinets and a price tag of $1,748. The VariDesk Pro Plus is adjustable in height and comes in lengths of 30, 36 and 48 inches, with prices of $295 to $495; electric options cost more.

Soft white lighting from a desk lamp is always useful. One lamp that stood out is the Tao Tronics LED, which is dimmable and has seven brightness levels and a USB charging port. Seems like a deal at $39.99.

All these prices are online. Check locally with office furniture providers such as Saxton, Pigott (which is a Herman Miller dealer) or Storey Kenworthy. Saxton works with Knoll for furniture and accessories, and its website for working remotely has some ideas that may inspire you.

Researchers who polled full-time employees throughout the country recently found that working from home not only benefited them by eliminating their daily commutes, but it also increased productivity and led to healthier lifestyles. Proper furniture will help maintain this outcome.

Can You Deduct Your Home Office?

BY STEVE DINNEN

If you work from home, should the boss pay you for use of that space? Can you take a tax deduction for home office space?

After all, millions of Americans are now doing all the things they typically do at their workplace. If they happen to own the business, they can claim a tax deduction of some of the expense of that home, as long as they meet certain guidelines.

John Kendeigh, senior tax manager at CPA firm Tarbell & Co., said a home office must be used exclusively for that purpose. If there’s a bed in the room, then it’s not an office. The room also has to be an enclosed space, Kendeigh said.

There are records to keep to properly claim this deduction. Look for guidance in this IRS publication.

Employees have less leeway. An employer might agree to install some furniture, but in general no tax deduction can be claimed. There could be pressure to change that, as the home-is-work routine takes hold. The Swiss have already addressed that. Their Federal Court already ruled in favor of a part-time employee there who wanted reimbursement for space he set aside for home-mandated work. Now the company pays him about $150 a month as a rent offset.

COVID Delays Retirement Plans for Baby Boomers
BY ELIZABETH O'BRIEN FOR MONEY.COM

Nearly a quarter of baby boomers plan to postpone their retirement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey, and about the same number say the crisis has changed when they plan to claim their Social Security benefits.

Some 24% of those 56 and older say the pandemic has caused them to push back their planned retirement date, according to a survey conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of the Nationwide Retirement Institute. While 401(k) balances remain buoyant for now, the U.S. is mired in a recession: The official unemployment rate is 11.1%, up from 3.7% at this time last year, and the country’s real gross domestic product plunged at an annual rate of 32.9% in the second quarter. The bleak economic outlook probably won’t improve until a vaccine for the coronavirus is developed and distributed widely.

"There’s just a lot of uncertainty,” says Tina Ambrozy, senior vice president of strategic customer solutions at Nationwide.

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Pandemic Persuading Millennials to Move to Suburbs

BY DANIEL BORTZ FOR MSN.COM

City living treated Dylan Gray well. For two years, Gray, 26, rented an apartment in downtown Indianapolis with bars, restaurants and his office all in walking distance. But when the coronavirus pandemic required him to start working remotely, Gray set his sights on buying a home in Broad Ripple, a neighborhood with a suburban feel located 6 miles north of downtown.

“Once my ability to walk to work was no longer a factor, it made sense for me to buy a house, especially given how low rates are right now,” says Gray, a business analyst at Salesforce. He purchased a three-bedroom detached house for $230,000 last month, using a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 3.3% interest rate.

Before the pandemic, many Americans relished the perks of living in a big city. According to a 2016 Census Bureau report, about 8 in 10 Americans lived in urban areas. But COVID-19 has some urbanites reevaluating where they want to live—and the type of homes the want to live in. During the second quarter of this year, 51% of property views by urban residents of America’s 100 largest metros went to suburban properties, an all-time high since Realtor.com began tracking metro level search data in 2017.

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