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By Lauren Schwahn, NerdWallet

Amazon’s well-known Prime Day sale is back this summer, running July 8-11. As I look back on my previous years covering and shopping the deals, I’ve noticed a pattern:

There’s a lot of hype leading up to the sale, but I’m left feeling a bit dissatisfied when it’s over.

The problem isn’t always the deals themselves, but how I shop. I’ve let temptation and the fear of missing out get the better of me. And I know I’m not the only one.

So, I asked a couple of my fellow personal finance writers to join me in sharing our biggest Prime Day blunders.

What is your biggest Prime Day regret?

Cordless LED table lamp

Amanda Barroso: “It was cute for about an hour, then it lost its charge. The lamp was not on my list, but I had seen a lot of people in my social media feeds linking to similar products. I wish I returned it but I waited too late and missed the return window. So, now it’s sitting in a donate pile waiting to go to my local thrift store.”

Unplanned items

Lauren Schwahn: “Last year, I had my eye on a Yoto Mini audio player for my son’s upcoming birthday. I snagged a starter pack bundle for $63.99 (a $16 discount) on Prime Day. But I got caught up in browsing other deals. I added on $8 hair clips and a $17 pajama set that I didn’t really need. Spending an extra $25 wasn’t the worst-case scenario, but I could have put that money to better use elsewhere — especially considering one of the clips broke in my thick hair after maybe three uses.” read more

By ALAN SUDERMAN, AP Business Writer

President Donald Trump continues to expand his crypto-related offerings, this time with a planned exchange-traded fund tied to the prices of five popular cryptocurrencies.

Trump Media & Technology Group, a Florida company that operates the Truth Social media platform, announced Tuesday it had filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to launch the “Crypto Blue Chip ETF” later this year.

The proposed ETF would have 70% of its holdings in bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, 15% in ethereum, the second-most popular, and 8% in solana, a cryptocurrency popular in the meme coin community. The fund would hold 5% in the cryptocurrency developed by the company Ripple and 2% in the crypto created by the exchange Crypto.com, which will act as the ETF’s digital custodian.

Trump Media previously announced plans for a crypto ETF with just bitcoin and ethereum. It’s unclear if the company plans to move forward with that ETF offering. Trump Media did not immediately return a request for comment. read more

By The Associated Press

President Donald Trump sent letters to 14 countries Monday outlining higher tariffs they’ll face if they don’t make trade deals with the U.S. by Aug. 1.

In the letters, which were posted on Truth Social, Trump warned countries that they would face even higher tariffs if they retaliated by increasing their own import taxes.

Here’s a look at the countries that got tariff letters:

Myanmar

Tariff rate: 40%

Key exports to the U.S.: Clothing, leather goods, seafood

Response: Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government. said the government will follow up with negotiations.

Laos

Tariff rate: 40%

Key exports to the U.S.: Shoes with textile uppers, wood furniture, electronic components, optical fiber

Cambodia

Tariff rate: 36%

Key exports to the U.S.: Textiles, clothing, shoes, bicycles

Response: Cambodia’s chief negotiator, Sun Chanthol, said the country successfully got the tariff dropped from the 49% Trump announced in April to 36% and is ready to hold a new round of negotiations. He appealed to investors, especially factory owners, and the country’s nearly 1 million garment workers not to panic about the tariff rate announced Monday. read more

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Real estate investors are snapping up a bigger share of U.S. homes on the market as rising prices and stubbornly high borrowing costs freeze out many other would-be homebuyers.

Nearly 27% of all homes sold in the first three months of the year were bought by investors — the highest share in at least five years, according to a report by real estate data provider BatchData.

Between 2020 and 2023, the share of homes bought by investors averaged 18.5%.

All told, investors bought 265,000 homes in the January-March quarter, an increase of 1.2% from the same period a year earlier, the firm said.

Despite the modest annual increase, the rise in the share of investor home purchases is more a reflection of how much the housing market has slowed as traditional buyers face growing affordability constraints, according to BatchData.

The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump since early 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Home sales fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. read more

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, AP Business Writer

For the first time in almost 20 years, travelers may no longer be required to take off their shoes during security screenings at U.S. airports.

The Transportation Security Administration is looking to abandon the additional security step that has for years bedeviled anyone passing through U.S airports, according to media reports.

If implemented, it would put an end to a security screening mandate put in place almost 20 years ago, several years after “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s failed attempt to take down a flight from Paris to Miami in late 2001.

The travel newsletter Gate Access was first to report that the security screening change is coming. ABC News reported on an internal memo sent to TSA officers last week that states the new policy allows travelers to keep their shoes on during standard screenings at many U.S. airports, beginning Sunday. That would expand to all airports shortly.

The plan is for the change to occur at all U.S. airports soon, the memo said. read more