Things To Do In SW Florida

James Royal, Ph.D. | (TNS) Bankrate.com

Social Security provides a significant number of retirement benefits, the biggest being a growing income stream that you can’t outlive. So you won’t face the danger that you’ll run out of money in your golden years when you aren’t working for a living. The downside is that for all but the most frugal Americans Social Security alone simply won’t be enough to retire on comfortably.

The Social Security Administration says the program should replace about 40% of your pre-retirement income. In short, you’ll need more income to maintain your standard of living. That’s why it’s absolutely vital to set up alternative income streams for retirement — here’s how.

Social Security won’t be enough — What to do instead

Despite such warnings, many Americans are woefully underprepared for retirement. According to various studies conducted by the Social Security Administration, between 20% and 25% of Americans aged 65 or older received at least 90% of their income from Social Security. With the average Social Security retirement check in December 2023 of $1,905, retirees have to pay Medicare premiums as well as other living expenses, which have been soaring in the last few years. It’s a tough road, even if you’re able to avoid taxes on your benefit. read more

By KEN SWEET (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration eased some of the restrictions on banking giant Wells Fargo, saying the bank has sufficiently fixed its toxic culture after years of scandals.

The news sent Wells Fargo’s stock up sharply Thursday as investors speculated that the bank, which has been kept under a tight leash by regulators for years, may be able to rebuild its reputation and start growing again. The bank’s shares closed up 7.2% to $52.04, its highest level since March 2022, in extremely active trading.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the regulator of big national banks like Wells Fargo, on Thursday terminated a consent order that had been in place since September 2016. The order required the bank to overhaul how it sold financial products to customers and provide additional consumer protections, as well as employee protections for whistleblowers.

That consent order was put into place after a series of newspaper and government investigations in 2016 found Wells Fargo to have a poisonous sales culture that pressured employees into selling multiple products to customers even though the products were not needed. Employees — who worked at “stores” not bank branches — were forced to open millions of unauthorized accounts. Customers had their identities stolen and their credit scores impacted. Of the millions of customers effected, a disproportionate number were non-English speaking Americans. read more

By Chanelle Bessette | NerdWallet

Whether it’s a 5% increase or a 20% bump, a pay raise at work is an opportunity to take charge of your financial priorities. A small raise might not seem like much when it’s broken down into a biweekly paycheck, but over time, that difference in income could provide a boost to your lifestyle or be put toward other financial goals.

Whether you decide to pay off debt, pad your safety net, invest, give back, improve your quality of life or treat yourself, a raise is a good time to think about the direction of your financial life.

Keep an eye on lifestyle creep

Many personal finance experts warn against “lifestyle creep,” which is when you begin to spend more as you earn more. Lifestyle creep can take the form of buying more conveniences — like ordering food in more often — or buying more expensive or higher-quality items, like sturdier hiking boots or a better brand of skin care products.

“If you get a raise and use it to buy a new car or a new home or go out every weekend, your rate of spending might surpass your new income,” says Mabel Nuñez, founder of the investing education site Girls on the Money. read more

Corra, a 2-month-old African elephant, skipped onto the savanna for the first time at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park on Thursday morning.

Within that first hour, she scampered alongside mom Nadirah, explored a log and interacted with her aunts and grandmother. She played with her food, a stack of hay, freshly fluffed by Walt Disney World cast members.

And she mostly ignored the tourists rolling by as part of the park’s Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction, even after one cried out “It’s a baby!”

Corra is a big baby, weighing in at 312 pounds, an increase from her 200 pounds when she was born at Animal Kingdom in December.

“She is very much a little kid,” said Dr. Scott Terrell, director of animal and science operations.

“They’re always a little clumsy with their trunk, and she tripped over her trunk and she stumbled in,” he said. “She loves to climb on things. … She loves to play with bubbles. The team will give her a bubble bath, and she loves to blow bubbles. She loves to play in the water. She loves to annoy her big sister Stella. read more

By ALEX VEIGA (AP Business Writer)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate rose this week to its highest level in 10 weeks, a setback for prospective homebuyers ahead of the spring homebuying season.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 6.77% from 6.64% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.32%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose this week, pushing the average rate to 6.12% from 5.90% last week. A year ago it averaged 5.51%, Freddie Mac said.

The increase in rates echoes moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing loans. Stronger-than-expected reports on inflation, the job market and the overall economy have stoked worries among bond investors that the Federal Reserve will wait longer before it begins cutting interest rates.

Hopes for such cuts amid signs that inflation has declined from its peak two summers ago has been a major reason the 10-year Treasury yield has mostly pulled back since October, when it climbed to its highest level since 2007. read more