Things To Do In SW Florida

By Natalia Wolting

With its stunning mountain views, vibrant downtown, and thriving tech scene, Boulder, Colorado, has long been a poster child for remote-friendly living. But if Boulder’s skyrocketing housing costs or bustling pace give you pause, emerging communities across the U.S. offer similar perks. These towns combine affordability, quality of life, and incentives to attract remote workers eager to relocate, MakeMyMove reports.

Why Remote Workers Are Relocating in 2025

68% of full-time workers in the U.S. surveyed said they would be better off living in a different community from their current one. For remote workers, this can become a reality. Many remote professionals are seeking towns and cities that balance affordability, outdoor access, and vibrant local cultures. Whether you’re drawn by financial incentives, first-time homebuyer programs, or lifestyle opportunities — these communities might just be your Boulder 2.0.

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Home to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor offers a vibrant college-town atmosphere with a strong focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. With a plethora of museums, theaters, and a walkable downtown area, Ann Arbor provides a stimulating environment for remote workers. Additionally, the city is located near several beautiful lakes, offering ample opportunities for outdoor recreation. read more

By Samantha Lamas and Ryan Murphy of Morningstar

What are your top financial goals?

If your goals are hard to pin down, or seem to drift, you’re not alone.

Research suggests that, even when considering important goals, people tend to answer with whatever is top-of-mind, which may not always reflect their true, long-term goals.

It can be helpful to implement ready-made processes that help us be less of a stranger to ourselves and better understand our deeper motivations, rather than fixate on top-of-mind recollections.

3 key steps to better goals

We’ve used our research to inform a three-step process that can help investors more strategically identify their financial goals. This process forces investors to slow down and consider the topic holistically.

In practice, it provides the space and structure that people benefit from as they think deeply about what they want to do over the long term with their hard-earned resources. Here’s what the steps look like.

Step 1: Slow down

First, take out a notepad and write down your top three investing goals. read more

By KELVIN CHAN

LONDON (AP) — Smartphones are useful tools for everyday life, but they’re privy to nearly everything about you, including all the places you’ve been — if you let them.

When you use a map app to find the new restaurant your friend recommended, or your phone’s browser to check the price of something you saw while window shopping, you could be unwittingly allowing your phone to track your location and share that information with others.

Phones use various signals to find your location, including cell tower pings, Wi-Fi access points, Bluetooth and GPS.

Sometimes your phone needs to know your location to provide a useful service, like telling the Uber driver where to pick you up. But in other cases, there’s little justification for tracking your whereabouts, which then can be exploited by apps, ad services or even hackers.

“From fitness tracking to navigation, every location ping potentially reveals details about our routines and movements – which could be risky in the wrong hands,” said Darren Guccione, CEO of Keeper Security. “Users should turn on location tracking only when necessary, such as during navigation, emergencies or sharing updates with trusted contacts, and disable it immediately afterward.” read more

A milestone countdown begins for Epic Universe this week. We’re 100 days away from the opening of Orlando’s first new theme park in a generation.

It’s a fine time to reboot and enroll in Epic 101, a course that reviews what we know and what we don’t know about Universal Orlando’s expansion, which Mark Woodbury, CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences, has referred to as “the most technologically advanced park we’ve ever done.”

The park was announced at Orange County Convention Center in 2019. Universal has shared details along the way about its rides, shows and hotels, but burning questions remain.

When and where

Epic Universe is under construction between Sand Lake Road and Universal Boulevard, just north of the convention center. That’s about 2.5 miles southeast of Universal Orlando’s existing theme parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, as well as Volcano Bay water park and Universal CityWalk. Epic is on “the other side” of Interstate 4.

Universal will run buses between its original parks and hotels and the Epic area. There will be open-air parking available near Epic for visitors only going to the new park. read more

Who knew? A lot of Floridians, it turns out, would like some free government money to harden their homes.

Since the state’s My Safe Florida Home grant program was revived in 2022, about 29,000 homeowners have received up to $10,000 each to strengthen or replace their roofs or to install impact-resistant doors, windows or storm shutters.

But the application portal has been closed since July 17 of last year, leaving about 45,000 applicants on a waiting list after undergoing free windstorm mitigation inspections.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking the state Legislature to fund grants to clear that waiting list so fresh applicants can line up this year.

DeSantis’ 2025-26 budget request seeks $590 million in additional funding for the popular program. If approved, it would be the largest single-year outlay since the program was revived. Of the total, $480 million would be earmarked for homeowners on the waiting list and another $109 million would fund grants for 10,000 new applicants.

An annual recurring outlay of about $100 million would fund about 10,000 new grants each year. read more