Things To Do In SW Florida

By Christine Benz of Morningstar for Associated Press

If you’re a do-it-yourself investor aiming to build a “no babysitter required” portfolio, here are the key steps to take.

Step 1: Find your portfolio’s true north

Give due consideration to your asset allocation. That decision will have the biggest impact on how your portfolio behaves in the future.

The tricky part about asset allocation, even a hands-off approach, is that the “right” asset allocation is often a moving target as retirement approaches.

Target-date funds elegantly address this issue by transitioning to a more conservative stance as the years go by. If you’re OK with an asset allocation that’s not necessarily customized to your particular situation, your quest for a low- or no-maintenance portfolio could begin and end with a good-quality target-date fund.

If you’d like to have more control over your asset allocation, think through your risk capacity and risk tolerance.

Target-date funds’ asset allocations can be a decent starting point when deciding how to allocate assets depending on life stage. You can also tailor your mix of aggressive and conservative investments, which is particularly valuable if you’re retired and actively spending from your portfolio. read more

When President Trump floated his 2026 budget for NASA, it slashed science funding by half; proposed the end of the Artemis program’s Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft and Gateway lunar station; and cut back support of the International Space Station.

While Congress will ultimately decide which programs get funded in the federal government’s budget, that may not happen for months. Instead of waiting, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, took aim at Trump’s tax and spending bill, which the president has been calling the “big, beautiful bill.”

Cruz spearheaded an amendment to shoehorn more than $10 billion into the legislation, also known as a reconciliation bill, to save some of those NASA targets. It also sets aside money to move retired Space Shuttle Discovery from its current home at the Smithsonian outside of Washington to Texas.

The bill was approved by the Senate and House this week and signed by Trump on July 4. The added funding falls outside of NASA’s annual budget and would be available for use over the next seven years. read more

By Tommy Tindall, NerdWallet

With Prime Day set for July 8-11 this year, you may be making a last-ditch effort to get good deals before prices go up.

Tariffs — and the rising prices that could come with them — are top-of-mind for many consumers, according to the Conference Board’s June Consumer Confidence Index.

But don’t panic buy.

“Power buy” instead, says Katherine Black, partner at global management consulting firm Kearney who leads food, drug and mass market retail.

By that, she means look at product categories that could go up, buy what makes sense for your needs and budget and use the sale to get ahead of upcoming spending cycles.

Here’s a short list of what to buy (and skip), some shopping tips and an idea of what a few of us Nerds are after this Prime Day.

Buy: Back-to-school tech

The Consumer Confidence report says buying plans for electronics are down, but you might want to rethink that.

A power move for Prime Day is to target discounts on back-to-school-related stuff early, says Black.

Your kids may not want notebooks and backpacks yet, but they’re probably down with getting a new laptop or Chromebook, if classes call for one. read more

For many years, restricting your equity investing to U.S. stocks exclusively made sense. Overall, the average return of a diversified portfolio of U.S. based stocks outperformed a similarly diversified portfolio of stocks from corporations outside the United States.

Over the past year, the opposite has been the case. And many investing experts from major financial institutions believe that U.S. investors should add mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that have diversified portfolios from corporations based outside the U.S. These experts believe U.S. stocks will be outperformed by international stocks.

In Barron’s recently, reporter Andrew Welsch wrote a comprehensive article, based on interviews with leading investment experts from many leading financial institutions such as Morningstar, that supports the conclusion that U.S. investors should consider adding international equities to their portfolio.

Personally, I have done so, and I intend to use dollar-cost averaging in order to increase the percentage of international equities in my stock portfolio. read more

After more than five years of serving Pepsi products, Carnival Cruise Lines is reuniting with the Coca-Cola Company to offer its soft drinks, zero-sugar offerings and sparkling flavored water starting later this summer.

Guests sailing from one of Carnival’s 13 U.S. homeports can soon enjoy Coca-Cola brands, which include the classic soda of the same name, Sprite, Fanta, Powerade, Topo Chico and Fairlife, among others.

“Carnival Cruise Line and Coca-Cola are two iconic brands that celebrate fun, family, friendship, food and fabulous memories,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, in a news release. “We are excited to welcome back Coca-Cola’s diverse lineup of beverages, which our guests love and which will enhance the food and beverage experience that is always part of a great cruise vacation on Carnival. Both our brands are built on bringing people together, making The Coca-Cola Company and Carnival Cruise Line a perfect partnership.”

The cruise line anticipates the new offerings will be fully integrated across its North American fleet by the end of September. Carnival’s Australian-based ships already serve Coca-Cola beverages. read more