City Councilor Mark Ciommo (Allston/Brighton) and Mayor Walsh are proposing a measure that could save the average Boston homeowner $300 a year in property taxes, which the city says it can pay for thanks to the local construction and real-estate boom. Read more.

I get treated like Ebenezer Scrooge at holiday time. After all, there is no investment advisor in Boston’s Enchanted Village. But rather than admonish my readers to rein in spending, I’m recommending you treat yourself this season.

Casie Gillette stopped to look at the hawk outside somebody's front door on Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay today.

Adam, I hope you'll let me post a thank you to the students of the Boston Consevatory and of Berklee, who I'm assuming are jointly responsible for the chalk graffiti all over Boylston and Mass Ave, and to the Conservatory specifically for the quotations they posted all over their front windows. In a country I no longer feel I know, understand, or belong in, their messages of love, hope, and strength made me feel better and safer than I have felt in days. In my rush I wasn't able to take photos, but I would encourage everyone to go have a look. Hopefully it will lift others' weary spirits as it has mine.

I’ve always wanted to dispel the common investment myth that wealthy people have an automatic advantage in the stock market. So, I thought joining a Boston Brahmin social club would be the best way to explore this topic. Things did not turn out the way I expected, but the process reinforced some very basic life lessons along with investing realities.

WCVB reports the managers of an apartment building on A Street in Fort Point require tenants to have their dogs' DNA tested - so if maintenance workers find dog shit, they can test it and, if it matches a tenant's pet, they can be billed for the cleanup.

If only the building didn't have such a frickin' pretentious name: 315 on A. Because plain old 315 A St. just wasn't la-di-da enough.

Boston’s South Shore is home to two varieties of money mysteries. There’s a big, almost unsolvable whodunit. Then there are thousands of smaller cliffhangers easily solved if the gumshoes kept the legwork simple.

Many of the buildings sit on wooden pilings that only rot when exposed to dry conditions. The Beacon Hill Times reports on nascent concern in the area about the pilings.

Industries have a life cycle just like humans . Like a person’s childhood, teenage years, adulthood and golden years, industries have distinct life stages. A local example is the Nantucket whaling industry. Let’s review the lifecycle.

1659: Nantucket settled.

1752: Start up stage. Whaling voyages begin. The market for clean burning whale oil is small but growing. Industry profits are negative and large amounts of capital are required to build ships and train mariners.

1760-1789: Growth stage. In this stage capital requirements are still high, but sales grow rapidly and profits are positive.

The doorbell has an eerie echo tonight, as if it’s vocalizing your disdain for what is happening next. After years of procrastination you finally decided to meet with a financial planner. Retirement is on the horizon and you need to make the most of your savings.

As the clean-cut advisor crosses the threshold you notice his expensive designer clothing. With impeccable manners he makes eye contact as he firmly shakes your hand. Then, he even goes so far as to compliment the interior decorating of your humble home. That’s exactly the sing-song you expected and the rock in your stomach only grows.