Things To Do In SW Florida

By late spring, homebuying season is in full swing. And right when all the good listings start popping up, so does summer wanderlust — especially if you were cooped up all winter.

House hunting can be exhausting, especially in today’s competitive market. So if you need a vacation, are you throwing away your shot at success?

Karen Wilder, a real estate agent with Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty in Charlestown, Rhode Island, doesn’t think so.

“Sometimes, it can be the best thing for your search for you to just take a little time off,” she says.

If you want to travel and house-hunt at the same time, you have to plan ahead and consider your short- and long-term goals. Here’s how to balance the homebuying process with a much-needed summer getaway.

Weigh your priorities

First, gut-check your travel plans against FOMO: the fear of missing out. In a hot market, home shoppers need to act fast when a great house gets listed. Maybe you have a truly can’t-miss trip — say, your bestie’s destination wedding or a major work conference. But if you have the option to schedule your travel later, it might be worth it to wait. read more

Harnessing the body’s own cells to fight disease, long a medical dream, is finally a reality.

Now comes the bill.

Last month, Stanford became the first hospital in the nation to use a new $515,000 cell therapy to treat a patient with advanced melanoma. A related approach, costing $420,000 to $475,000, is offering hope to patients with lethal blood cancers.

Meanwhile, cells fixed by gene therapy can slow, even stop, the progression of intractable diseases like sickle cell or beta thalassemia — for the extraordinary price of $2.1 million to $4.25 million each.

This is the future of medicine, experts agree. But the cost of this new class of medical treatment is raising alarm about availability and affordability, even as its potential grows. It’s time to re-imagine our payment models, they said.

“Cell and gene therapies have the possibility to transform thousands of lives but only if we ensure sustainable access to them for all patients,” said Sarah Emond, president of the influential Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a Boston-based nonprofit that assesses the value of medicines. read more

By Margarette Burnette | NerdWallet

If your savings fund balance isn’t currently where you want it to be, don’t be discouraged. Having any amount saved for an emergency, no matter how small, means you’ve already taken the most important step to protecting yourself from a financial setback.

The next step is also important — maximize how much your money grows. Here’s how you can do it.

Put your funds in a high-yield account

Maximizing the interest you earn in emergency savings is crucial. These days, some of the best high-yield savings accounts have an annual percentage yield, or APY, of more than 5%. At that rate, you’d earn $5 in interest for every $100 deposited. That’s definitely having your money work for you.

A lot of people are earning far less interest on their savings. The national average savings rate is only 0.46% as of April 15, 2024, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. With that percentage, you earn less than 50 cents for every $100 in an account over the course of a year.

It is worth noting that savings rates can change at any time, so you’re not guaranteed to earn 5% forever. But you can capitalize on that high APY for as long as possible. And even when overall rates eventually dip, you’re still better off putting your money in a high-yield account. Those accounts tend to consistently offer better rates than their low-yield competition. read more