Things To Do In SW Florida

Emma Nelson | Star Tribune (TNS)

Emily Franks and her husband were making enough money to get by but were still living paycheck to paycheck and struggling with debt.

After learning their church was hosting a financial literacy class, they decided to take action. Through several weeks, they learned to craft a budget and make it stick, using cash-filled envelopes as a budgeting system to plan and control expenses.

Fast-forward seven years, and Franks has built a career around “cash stuffing” as founder of the Aesthetic Dollar, a Twin Cities-based online store selling minimalist budgeting tools including envelopes, wallets and planners. Franks also posts regular YouTube videos — initially an accountability tool for her own budgeting efforts — with business updates, budgeting tips and calming overhead shots of her organizing piles of cash.

Similar videos have flooded the internet as cash stuffing — a familiar idea repackaged for the social media age — has gained traction with a new generation, even as digital currency has become the norm. read more

Andrew Dehan | Bankrate.com (TNS)

How would you feel to learn that every time you communicate with your lender, AI is also on the line, taking notes?

While that’s not happening with all lenders today, it could become a widespread practice in the future. Several major mortgage lenders have begun touting artificial intelligence as a tool to help make the mortgage process quicker and easier and to help them write more loans.

But how do we define AI? How can it help you in the mortgage process, and are there regulations put in place to protect you? To get the facts straight, we spoke with experts at some tech-focused mortgage companies.

The difference between generative AI and automation

Today, underwriting for most mortgages is largely automated, with lenders using tools like Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter. When it comes to talking about AI, it’s important to differentiate between more commonly used automation technologies and the latest craze of generative AI, spurred on by products like ChatGPT and DALL-E.

“I think a lot of people are using the AI term, but they’re not using actual generative AI,” says Brad Seibel, president of Sage Home Loans. Much of the technology driving things like online lending and fast preapprovals has been around for a while, according to Seibel. (Editor’s note: Sage is owned by Bankrate parent company Red Ventures.) read more

Royal Caribbean announced Friday it had chosen singer Meghan Trainor to be the godmother of its new Port Canaveral-based ship Utopia of the Seas.

Trainor, who this year is celebrating a decade since her hit “All About That Bass” came out, will be on board the ship during a preview sailing and naming ceremony later this month.

Royal also announced a contest to give away to 52 winners free sailings on the July 15 departure of Utopia on that three-night cruise that will visit Royal’s private island Perfect Day at Castaway Cay. Promotion of the contest, which runs through Sunday, can be found on Royal’s Instagram account at instagram.com/royalcaribbean.

Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas on its way to Port Canaveral

The sailing is the final shakedown cruise for the Oasis-class vessel before it begins regular three- and four-night voyages with paying customers beginning July 19.

Utopia of the Seas is the second largest cruise ship in the world, only trailing Royal’s new Icon of the Seas that debuted in Miami this year. read more

Autonomous technology used nowhere else in the nation is helping workers gather couches, washing machines and other trash totaling 400 tons annually along the 125 miles of Central Florida Expressway Authority roads.

The state agency, which operates a network of expressways in the region and charges drivers to use them, strives to provide motorists with safe, clean roadways in return for their tolls.

Achieving this is a challenge requiring CFX to spend over $130 million annually, according to Don Budnovich, director of maintenance.

Budnovich said that money is doled out for expenses such as contractors who drive roads daily; vehicles with so-called lane blades to push debris onto shoulders for safe removal; and technology that aims to help speed up repairs to damaged highways.

Last year, CFX began using a system of four dashcamlike devices called Route Reports secured to patrol vehicles that autonomously takes photos every 32 feet — while blurring faces and license plates. The photos feed into a database of changing road conditions in real time, with the agency receiving alerts to damage or debris. The technology created in England is used on many European roads but CFX is first to use it on American ones. read more