Things To Do In SW Florida

By Craig Joseph, NerdWallet

Holiday airfare is down, but Americans are planning to spend more than ever on holiday travel.

A September 2024 report by online travel agency Kayak shows domestic holiday airfare is at its lowest level in three years. Compared to last year, Christmas and New Year’s flight prices are down 9%, while Thanksgiving flight prices are down 6%.

Consumers feeling the pinch from inflation and dwindling personal savings rates may rejoice. However, lower airfare doesn’t mean people are spending less on travel.

An October 2024 survey by NerdWallet found that nearly half of American adults plan to spend money on flights and hotel stays during the 2024 holiday season (between November 21, 2024 and January 8, 2025). These holiday travelers plan to spend $2,330, on average, on these expenses — nearly a 20% increase over 2023’s average of $1,947.

That’s a big jump in holiday travel spending. So where are those extra dollars going?

Higher hotel prices

Holiday hotel prices are up 4% compared to 2023 — $353 per night vs. $338 per night in 2023 — according to data from Kayak. For shorter hotel stays, that small price increase may not make a huge dent in someone’s budget. But during the holidays, when people might be planning longer stays and multi-day celebrations, those differences can add up. read more

I worked 34 years before I retired, and I have been retired from full-time work for 29 years. I have made some good decisions and some not so good, and I hope you can learn from both. I will discuss what I believe were good decisions first.

1. When you look for full-time employment, see if you can find an employer that offers a defined-benefit plan. Although most employers no longer offer defined benefit plans, unions are now being more aggressive and are insisting on them. Since I retired at 58, I have received over $700,000 in pension payments from my defined-benefit plan.

2. If your employer offers a defined-contribution plan, such as a 401(k), always contribute at least as much as is necessary to obtain the maximum employer match. By making maximum contributions to my plan, and receiving a 50% match, when I retired at age 58 the account was worth several hundred thousand dollars, which I rolled over into an IRA account.

3. Whenever your yearly taxable income is lower than usual, convert your traditional, non-Roth retirement plan into a Roth account. Try to avoid pushing your taxable income into a higher marginal tax bracket. read more

By Rachel Christian, Bankrate.com (TNS)

If you’re retired or planning to retire soon, it’s important to have a plan for your retirement income. For most people, Social Security will play a significant role in this plan, so staying up to date on the latest benefits information is crucial.

The Social Security Administration recently announced several key changes to the program for 2025, including its annual cost of living adjustment (COLA). Here are some key changes to Social Security happening next year – and what you need to know.

Watch for these 5 changes to Social Security in 2024

More than 72.5 million people depend on one of Social Security’s benefit programs, so annual changes to the program and its payouts are always highly anticipated.

This year’s cost-of-living adjustment is lower than last year’s 3.2 percent increase. Still, any additional income is a welcome boost for beneficiaries who live on fixed incomes. (If you need help developing a plan for your retirement income, you may want to consider hiring a financial advisor.) read more

With its manufacturing practices under scrutiny, its machinists on strike and losses piling up, Boeing is said to be considering selling parts of its fabled space business. But few industry analysts think Boeing will put its extensive El Segundo, California, satellite operations on the table.

New Boeing Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said during a recent earnings call that the aerospace giant was considering shedding assets outside of the company’s core commercial aviation and defense businesses, adding that Boeing was better off “doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well.”

That could mean that Boeing sees no future for its troubled Starliner spacecraft, which was developed to service the International Space Station. The Arlington, Virginia, aerospace giant also has been trying to exit its United Launch Alliance joint launch venture with Lockheed Martin. Both programs face stiff competition from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which recently announced it was moving its headquarters from Hawthorne to Brownsville, Texas. read more

WASHINGTON — The breakthrough came last month, about 600 miles above Earth.

For the first time, the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency used lasers to more securely transmit data at light speed between military satellites, making it easier to track enemy missiles and if necessary shoot them down.

It was a milestone not only for the Pentagon. This was a defining moment for a certain up-and-coming military contractor that had built key parts of this new system: Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

SpaceX over the past year started to move in a big way into the business of building military and spy satellites, an industry that has long been dominated by major contractors like Raytheon and Northrop Grumman as well as smaller players like York Space Systems.

This shift comes as the Pentagon and U.S. spy agencies are preparing to spend billions of dollars to build a series of new constellations of low-Earth-orbit satellites, much of it in response to recent moves by China to build its own space-based military systems. read more