Things To Do In SW Florida

By Lane Gillespie, Bankrate.com

Katey Davern, a 46-year-old in St. Paul, Minnesota, has learned firsthand just how much paperwork is involved when planning someone’s last years.

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Davern, along with her three siblings, started planning for their elderly parents’ end-of-life needs about three years ago. As the parent of five children herself — three of whom are under 18 and still live at home — Davern is increasingly navigating two different financial worlds. In one, she’s helping her parents with end-of-life financial planning. In the other, she and her husband are managing their own immediate family’s spending, saving for their children’s college, contributing to their retirement accounts and adding to their health savings accounts (HSA). read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged up to more records on Thursday as technology stocks kept rising and as Wall Street kept ignoring the shutdown of the U.S. government.

The S&P 500 added 0.1% to its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 79 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.4%. Both also hit records.

Thursdays on Wall Street typically have investors reacting to the latest weekly tally of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits. But D.C.’s shutdown meant this week’s report on jobless claims has been delayed. An even more consequential report, Friday’s monthly tally of jobs created and destroyed across the economy, will likely also not arrive on schedule.

That increases uncertainty when much on Wall Street is riding on investors’ expectation that the job market is slowing by enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it leads to a recession. read more

By BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Six months after Elon Musk left the Trump administration to the great relief of Tesla investors worried about boycotts, the world’s richest man has announced some good news: Sales of Tesla cars are back.

Well, maybe.

The electrical vehicle maker run by Musk reported Thursday that car sales jumped 7% in the three months through September after plunging for most of the year as people turned off by his embrace of President Donald Trump and far right politicians in Europe balked at buying his cars.

But the jump comes with significant caveat: Tesla benefited from consumers taking advantage of a $7,500 tax credit before it expired on Sept. 30, a surge in buying that helped all EV makers.

In fact, many Tesla rivals saw sales jump more. Fellow EV maker Rivian Automotive reported a 32% increase.

Tesla stock rose sharply on the sales news, but then fell into losses as financial analysts expressed skepticism whether the new number signals a true turnaround given all the anti-Musk backlash. read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS

NEW YORK (AP) — As uncertainty deepens amid the U.S. government’s first shutdown in almost seven years, the gold frenzy continues to climb to new heights.

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The going price for New York spot gold hit a record $3,858.45 per troy ounce — the standard for measuring precious metals — as of market close Tuesday, ahead of the shutdown beginning overnight. And futures continued to climb on Wednesday, dancing with the $3,900 mark throughout the day.

Gold sales can rise sharply when anxious investors seek “safe havens” for parking their money. Before Wednesday, the asset — and other metals, like silver — have seen wider gains over the last year, particularly with President Donald Trump ‘s barrage of tariffs plunging much of the world into economic uncertainty. read more

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government shutdown that began Wednesday will deprive policymakers and investors of economic data vital to their decision-making at a time of unusual uncertainty about the direction of the U.S. economy.

The absence will be felt almost immediately, as the government’s monthly jobs report scheduled for release Friday will likely be delayed. A weekly report on the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits — a proxy for layoffs that is typically published on Thursdays — will also be postponed.

If the shutdown is short-lived, it won’t be very disruptive. But if the release of economic data is delayed for several weeks or longer, it could pose challenges, particularly for the Federal Reserve. The Fed is grappling with where to set a key interest rate at a time of conflicting signals, with inflation running above its 2% target and hiring nearly ground to a halt, driving the unemployment rate higher in August. read more