Starting conversations in a networking setting can be nerve-wracking and sometimes awkward. This is especially true if you are an introvert by nature and actively approaching and chatting up strangers drains …
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Samsung’s Galaxy S23 range delivers the most anticipated Android smartphones of the year, but international buyers are in for a shock when they see the prices. A new leak from Roland …
American Consumers are expected to forget their economic worries this Valentine’s Day and spend, spend, spend on their special other. And while Millennials might be set to be the biggest spenders, …
American Consumers are expected to forget their economic worries this Valentine’s Day and spend, spend, spend on their special other.
And while Millennials might be set to be the biggest spenders, for more careful lovers an engagement ring is on offer from one U.K. supermarket group for little more than a dollar.
In fact, shoppers are predicted to lay out $25.9 billion on Valentine’s Day this year, up from $23.9 billion in 2022 and one of the highest spending years on record, according to the annual survey of buying intentions released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
More than half (52%) of consumers surveyed said that they plan to celebrate and will spend an average of $192.80.
That’s up from $175.41 in 2022, and the second-highest figure since NRF and Prosper started tracking Valentine’s Day spending in 2004.
While spending on significant others and family members is in line with last year, many consumers are also looking to show appreciation for the other meaningful relationships in their lives. Of the $17 increase in per-person spending, $14 comes from gifts for pets, friends and co-workers, along with classmates or teachers.
“Valentine’s Day is a special occasion to shop for the people we care most about,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said of the findings. “This year, as consumers embrace spending on friends and loved ones, retailers are ready to help customers celebrate Valentine’s Day with memorable gifts at affordable prices.”
Those aged 35-to-44 plan to outspend other age groups, allocating $335.71 on average for gifts and other Valentine’s Day items, which is nearly $143 more than the average consumer celebrating the occassion.
So it seems we’ve found our loved up sweet spot!
Jewelry, including engagement rings, will likely be a top seller for Valentine’s Day. Photographer: … [+] Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Spending location is quite evenly spread and similar to recent years. The top shopping destination to purchase Valentine’s Day gifts is online (35%), just edging ahead of department stores (34%), discount stores (31%) — maybe best to keep that one quiet — and specialty stores (18%).
The top gifts include candy (57%), greeting cards (40%), flowers (37%), an evening out (32%), jewelry (21%), gift cards (20%) and apparel (19%).
Indeed, Americans plan to spend more than $5.5 billion on jewelry and nearly $4.4 billion on a special evening out. About one-third (32%) plan to give a gift of experience, up from 26% last year and the highest since NRF and Prosper started asking this question in 2017.
The $1.24 Engagement Ring
Perhaps for the harder hit amour, in the U.K., supermarket chain Asda — previously owned by Walmart WMT — has launched a $1.24 (that’s £1) engagement ring as part of its George Home collection, which is available to buy in its stores and online.
The silver-colored band comes with an imitation diamond jewel for shoppers on a budget, housed in a red, heart-shaped box as a gift in time for Valentine’s Day.
Asda’s initiative comes after U.K. discounter Poundland successfully grabbed the headlines in recent years for selling a £1 engagement ring called the ‘Bling Ring’.
On February 14 2020, Poundland said it sold around 40,000 engagement rings, almost doubling 2019’s sales.
“Men, in particular, are more likely to give a gift of experience compared with last year,” Prosper EVP of strategy Phil Rist said. “Another notable finding is more than half of consumers say they will take advantage of sales and promotions as they celebrate Valentine’s Day this year.”
Even among those who don’t plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day, 28% will still mark the occasion in some way, seeking non-Valentine’s gifts, treating themselves to something special or planning a get-together or evening out with single friends and family members.
The NRF conducted this survey of 7,616 U.S. adult consumers Jan. 3 through Jan. 11.
State-linked hackers in Russia and Iran have been targeting politicians, journalists and others in the UK and elsewhere through a ‘sophisticated’ spear-phishing campaign. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has …
State-linked hackers in Russia and Iran have been targeting politicians, journalists and others in the UK and elsewhere through a ‘sophisticated’ spear-phishing campaign.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has identified two hacking groups – Russia-based Seaborgium and Iran-based TA453 – as the culprits and has issued an alert warning those in defense organizations, the media and government against clicking on malicious links.
“These campaigns by threat actors based in Russia and Iran continue to ruthlessly pursue their targets in an attempt to steal online credentials and compromise potentially sensitive systems,” says NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester.
“We strongly encourage organizations and individuals to remain vigilant to potential approaches and follow the mitigation advice in the advisory to protect themselves online.”
While the two groups have been active for some time, they are believed to have stepped up their operations significantly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, targeting individuals in the US and elsewhere, as well as in the UK.
And they go to some trouble to do this, with the NCSC describing the campaign as particularly elaborate and sophisticated.
The groups research their targets in detail, identifying their contacts and then faking social media or networking profiles to impersonate respected experts, creating fake conference or event invitations, and faking approaches from journalists.
“Both Seaborgium and TA453 use webmail addresses from different providers (including Outlook, Gmail and Yahoo) in their initial approach, impersonating known contacts of the target or eminent names in the target’s field of interest or sector,” says the NCSC.
“The actors have also created malicious domains resembling legitimate organisations to appear authentic.”
The NCSC says that, unusually, it’s victims’ personal email accounts that are targeted, rather than their official work accounts. This, it says, not only bypasses any security controls but also means that the victim is less likely to be on their guard.
After developing a relationship with their target, the groups share malicious links, often in the form of a Zoom meeting URL. In one example, TA453 set up a Zoom call with the target to share the malicious URL in the chat bar during the call.
The victim’s credentials are then seized and used to log in to targets’ email accounts, where the hackers can access and steal emails and attachments from the victim’s inbox. They have also set-up mail-forwarding, allowing them to view ongoing correspondence, and have also been able to access mailing-list data and victim’s contacts lists.
This information is then used for follow-on targeting and further phishing activity.
The Seaborgium group – also known as Cold River and Callisto – was last year found to be targeting three nuclear research laboratories in the US, and was also accused of hacking and leaking emails from former director of MI6 Richard Dearlove.
Meanwhile, TA453, also known as Charming Kitten, has been accused of targeting US politicians and national infrastructure organizations.
“We strongly encourage targeted organisations and individuals to stay vigilant and take steps to secure online accounts,” the NCSC warns, telling people to be on their guard, and to use strong passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA).
Both Iran and Russia have denied any connection to the hacking groups.
Planning for a long retirement requires pre-retirees and retirees to thoughtfully consider many decisions that can significantly impact their financial security. One effective way to engage with these decisions is to …
Planning for a long retirement requires pre-retirees and retirees to thoughtfully consider many decisions that can significantly impact their financial security. One effective way to engage with these decisions is to answer thought-provoking questions, a technique shared in a recent report from the Stanford Center on Longevity that explored how pre-retirees and retirees can improve their retirement decisions.
The goal is to inspire you to investigate how you can answer these questions effectively and, along the way, identify solutions that can work for you. With this technique in mind, here are five questions to ask yourself, along with suggestions to help you start your explorations.
Question #1: What will you do when the stock market crashes?
If you’ll be retired for 20 years or more, it’s inevitable that you’ll need to survive a handful of stock market crashes. It’s a matter of when, not if, although nobody can reliably predict when the stock market will crash and when it will recover.
Suggestion: Explore strategies that will give you confidence to ride out stock market crashes without panicking and selling your investments at the bottom of the market. Develop sources of retirement income that won’t drop when the stock market drops. Examples include Social Security, pensions, annuities, bond ladders, withdrawals from reverse mortgages, and interest income from guaranteed investments. Try to cover most, if not all, of your basic living expenses with these protected sources of retirement income.
Hopefully your research and decisions will produce this answer to the above question: Don’t sell your investments, but carefully monitor your investments and adjust any of your spending that depends on your stock market investments.
Question #2: How will you pay for your medical bills?
Most people’s medical insurance changes significantly when you leave your employer’s health care plan and sign up for Medicare. Medicare has substantial deductibles and copayments, and it doesn’t pay for hearing aids, dental bills, and vision expenses.
Suggestion: Make thoughtful choices for Medicare and select either a Medicare Supplement Plan or a Medicare Advantage plan that pays for expenses that traditional Medicare doesn’t cover. Some of these plans might cover a portion of your expenses for hearing aids and vision expenses—part of your homework is to understand your plans to see if they do.
You may also want to buy a separate policy for dental expenses or budget to pay for those expenses out of pocket.
Question #3: Do you have a financial advocate who can help if you’re no longer able to manage your finances on your own?
As you age into your later years, you become more vulnerable to financial losses due to making mistakes or becoming a victim of fraud or exploitation.
Suggestion: Develop a plan to protect yourself and your family. Start by identifying someone you trust who can help you manage your finances when you need assistance, which is the first step in the Thinking Ahead Roadmap: A Guide to Keeping Your Money Safe as You Age. You’ll also want to organize your finances to make it easier for your financial advocate to assist you.
Question #4: If you’re married or have a life partner, what will happen when one of you passes away?
When you think about it, it’s inevitable that one of you will outlive the other, often for many years. Have you thought about whether the surviving spouse or partner will have enough money to continue to support themselves throughout the rest of their life?
Suggestion: Understand how your household’s retirement income and living expenses will change when one of you dies. In many situations, retirement income drops significantly but living expenses don’t change very much, which can cause the surviving spouse or partner to struggle. You’ll want to develop a plan for making sure the surviving spouse or partner will have enough income to cover their living expenses. For example, you’ll want to estimate the amount of retirement income the surviving spouse would receive from protected income sources mentioned previously in Question #1, as well as regular withdrawals from investments.
Question #5: What kind of work could you do for income?
Most retirees will have significantly lower income compared to their working years. As a result, many will need to supplement their retirement income by working for a period of years after they leave their full-time work.
Suggestion: Explore ways to make money that are enjoyable, provide valuable social contacts, and still allow plenty of time to enjoy your retirement. Most retirees don’t need to make nearly as much money as when they were working full time, so you can be creative with exploring work that can help you make ends meet.
Of course, there are many more questions you should be asking yourself regarding your retirement to ensure you have the retirement you’re hoping for. The above list can help you get started or help you refine plans that you’ve already made.
January 28th marks the 16th annual Data Protection Day, if you live in Europe. If you’re in the US, it’s the 14th annual Data Privacy Day. Slightly different names, but the …
January 28th marks the 16th annual Data Protection Day, if you live in Europe. If you’re in the US, it’s the 14th annual Data Privacy Day. Slightly different names, but the same day was officially adopted in both territories, for the same reason. Namely, to promote and recognize the growing importance to every individual, organization, and business of data protection – and privacy.
As the volume and variety of data that can be collected, stored, and analyzed has skyrocketed over the past decade-and-a-half, we’ve seen the issue given growing prominence. Both the European Union and individual states within the US (including California, Utah, Colorado, and Virginia) have created specific legislatures obliging businesses and organizations to protect the personal data they acquire.
When it comes to how we as individuals use and treat our own data and that of others, though, there are often fewer safeguards in place. And statistics around the number of us that are continuing to fall victim to social engineering, phishing, identity theft, and other scamming attempts suggest there’s room for improvement.
So here are five basic areas where all of us can ensure we are up-to-date with best practices, and have a basic understanding of the threats we may come up against. By keeping these in mind, anyone can help to reduce the chance of becoming a victim.
Adopt good password and authentication management practice
Hopefully, the days are long gone when it was customary to simply use something like a child’s name, our date of birth, or simply the word “password” as a password. Well, hopefully … but evidence suggests otherwise. According to password management specialists NordPass, the world’s most commonly used password in 2022 was still “password.” Second on the list is “123456”. Ho hum.
Once you know this, it probably isn’t surprising to learn that 81% of corporate hacking-related data breaches are down to poor passwords. This is why, basic as it sounds, understanding and rigorously sticking to rules of best-practice when managing your use of passwords and other authentication methods is the most important single step that everyone should take.
The simples rules here are:
Use strong passwords – at least 12 characters, 16 is even better! Mix letters, numbers, and special characters while trying as much as possible to avoid words found in a dictionary. Crucially, ensure that although they are unique and impossible for anyone else to guess, they are still memorable to you – this will reduce the risk of you writing them down.
Avoid reusing passwords – Particularly for different accounts that protect sensitive data. If a hacker accesses one, they will probably try and use the same password to access others.
Don’t share passwords with anyone – even if you trust them, there’s a chance they might write it down where someone else could find it.
Use a password manager – These simplify the process of creating secure passwords for any number of services, and despite the fact that several of them have themselves been successfully hacked, security experts still recommend using them for the security benefits they bring. This is essentially because anything can potentially be hacked, and as we’ve discussed, it usually happens because of unsafe passwords. As password managers effectively force you to stop using unsafe passwords, the risk of hackers gaining access to any of your accounts – including your password manager – is reduced across the board.
Use 2FA – Most importantly, because two-factor authentication (requiring another method personal to you, such as a phone number or email confirmation) successfully deflects up to 99.9% of attempts to gain unauthorized access.
Keep everything up-to-date
We all know how easy it is to postpone or knock back those offers to download software updates. Unfortunately, hackers do, too, and as those updates often contain security patches designed to defend against known exploits, they know that non-updated and out-of-date software, operating systems, and other installations offer some of the easiest picking out there.
These days, many devices and applications offer automatic updates, which are best kept enabled whenever possible. But operating system updates – that might make a device unusable for anything from a few minutes to a few hours as they are applied – often have to be manually launched after the download has been completed.
Systems and applications for which it is particularly important to ensure are always running the most up-to-date version include:
· Operating systems – updates generally include essential security fixes.
· Firmware updates – These affect the way that the device hardware itself runs. This is a particular cause for concern with internet-of-things (IoT) devices, which may not seem likely to contain much in the way of valuable data themselves (smart home appliances, for example) but could be used to gain access to other devices which do.
· Web browsers – often the first line of defense against threats that are launched from hostile websites.
· Anti-virus and anti-malware – ensuring these are updated means that they are aware of the latest threats and prepared to defend against them.
Read and understand data protection and privacy policies
No one bothers to read all of those several-page-long privacy and data protection statements that we have to agree to before we can access online services or use our new piece of software or hardware, do we? Well, if you want to take protecting your personal data seriously, then, unfortunately, it’s time to start doing so.
The good news is that legislation such as GDPR and the CCPA are making it harder for service providers to squirrel away clauses that surreptitiously give them permission to do unsavory things with your data. The bad news is that we can’t assume that many of them aren’t still going to try and get away with doing so.
We’ve all done it, sure. But if, even with everything we know today about the way data is collected, used, and sent around the world at the speed of light, we still blindly click “I agree” without making sure we know what we agree to, we’ve only got ourselves to blame for the consequences.
Use a VPN
A virtual private network (VPN) lets your device connect to the internet through a third-party server rather than directly and also encrypts all of the data that is sent or received. This gives your privacy a big boost by essentially ensuring that the services you are connecting to can never know who you are – all they can “see” is the address of the third-party server. In terms of online security and data protection, VPN technology is one of the most advanced and foolproof steps that anyone can take to ensure they are not exposing their private data to the world as they conduct business online. They are available in both free and paid-for versions. Security experts generally recommend choosing a paid-for service (they aren’t expensive) as they offer a higher level of security, are less likely to become unavailable due to high levels of use, and are available from a number of providers that have been independently audited to ensure that they are genuinely offering true privacy to their users.
Audit your privacy settings
Social networks and many other online services (such as cloud software providers) now almost universally offer comprehensive options for deciding how much of your own information you want to let escape into the wild. In the context of a social network, this includes details such as whether other users can find you by your email address or telephone number. Or, once they have found you, are they able to access other information that the network holds on you, such as data you have uploaded (pictures, videos, personal information, and so on) or data that it has generated, such as how you are using the network.
Chances are, if you’ve been using a site or service for a long time, as many of us have been doing now, you may have set these long ago and never bothered to go back and check them. Alternatively, they may all still be left on their default settings. Data Privacy Day (or Data Protection Day) is as good a day as any to pay an (at least) annual visit to the privacy settings section of your favorite social media account or suite of cloud productivity applications and ensure that other users can only see information about yourself that you’re happy broadcasting to the world.
The Biden administration released its promised game plan to “protect renters and promote rental affordability.” The accompanying White House Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights sounds good but doesn’t have …
According to government figures, 44 million households rent their homes. Most see the pressure they are under. People who own a home, if they bought before the fall of 2021 probably have a relatively low interest rate on their mortgage, likely have a long-term loan that makes that aspect of ownership stable and predictable in cost.
Renters have no such promise. One of the financial principles for those who invest in real estate is to raise rents over time, because that increases their annual income and also the ultimate value of the property. (By the way, while large corporations own about 45% of apartment units as of 2018, according to Pew Research, individuals and non-profits own the rest.)
Those rents keep going up, even if there is rent control which typically moderates the increases. But during the pandemic, they began to rise as if powered by a rocket. To get a sense of how things have changed, below is a graph of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as assembled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Growth of rent increases over time
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Although there was a slight downturn in part of the Great Recession, it has been an inexorable climb that sped up during the pandemic, as the increased steepness of the line shows. Also, it’s important to remember that every increase is on top of the previous high mark of rents. They get bigger and bigger.
Also getting larger every single year is the cost of living. Shelter costs are about a third of the Consumer Price Index, otherwise known as inflation, as the Brookings Institution, among others, notes. Rent has become a giant lever of pain for millions of people who often are in the worst position to bear up under it.
Rents have started to come down some, but nowhere near enough. The Biden administration’s program directs that the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will “collect information to identify practices that unfairly prevent applicants and tenants from accessing or staying in housing in order to inform enforcement and policy actions under each agency’s jurisdiction.”
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is to “launch a new public process to examine proposed actions promoting renter protections and limits on egregious rent increases for future investments” and “increase affordability in the multifamily rental market by establishing requirements that encourage the financing of multifamily loans that guarantee affordable housing.”
The Department of Justice will “inform potential guidance updates around anti-competitive information sharing, including in rental markets.” And the Department of Housing and Urban Development will “inform potential guidance updates around anti-competitive information sharing, including in rental markets.”
It all sounds noble, but none of this is going to help what is most needed in any sort of timely manner. The reason for the skyrocketing rents isn’t a simplistic cause of corporate ownership. According to Pew, as of 2018, corporates owned about 45% of apartment units, but individuals and non-profit organizations owned the rest. And while zoning is an issue in areas already with heavy development, it’s also not the big problem.
Instead, here are some of the multiple complex reasons why rents are high and are likely to remain so, even if they recede a bit:
The US chronically underbuilt houses and apartment units for years after the 2008 crash, for various reasons, mostly having to do with a lack of available financing and many in the development business who lost their shirts, weren’t able to get loans from a then fearful financial industry, and who found other ways to make a living.
A lot more apartment buildings have been built recently, and many more in the pipeline, but the cost of final product delivered private industry construction jumped about 35% between November 2019 and November 2022, so much of that has been for wealthier individuals, who can pay enough in rent to ensure the developers make a profit. It may not sound right, but building new housing depends heavily on private financing and someone making money.
There was the impact of long-low interest rates and then the flood of liquidity that the Fed pumped into the financial system when the pandemic crash happened. Lots of investors had a huge amount of capital in total to invest, apartment buildings were one of the types of real estate that were top choices for investment. Lots of money trying to get properties meant prices skyrocketed, which then demanded higher rents going forward to justify the investment and get the types of return investors wanted.
Most people don’t realize that a lot of landlords, typically the smaller ones who own most of the units, lost money during the pandemic with the eviction moratoriums and the funds that were supposed to help people stay in place but that often didn’t get to the landlords, so they started increasing rents to make up what they had lost.
Finally, demographics have been shifting for years, from older cities to the south and west where businesses went because of lower wages and regulation. The promise was jobs, but the number of rental units couldn’t keep up.
Things will eventually catch up, at least that’s the hope. There are a lot of apartment buildings of various sizes under construction. More supply, if there’s enough affordable units, should give people options, which will drive down prices. But that depends on whether the new units are ultimately in the right places.
Simply demanding major changes in the way everything works in housing is a rough equivalent of hopes and prayers after a mass shooting. No one’s best wishes or posturing matters, because it won’t change a thing.
The Biden administration released its promised game plan to “protect renters and promote rental affordability.” The accompanying White House Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights sounds good but hasn’t any …
According to government figures, 44 million households rent their homes. Most see the pressure they are under. People who own a home, if they bought before the fall of 2021 probably have a relatively low interest rate on their mortgage, likely have a long-term loan that makes that aspect of ownership stable and predictable in cost.
Renters have no such promise. One of the financial principles for those who invest in real estate is to raise rents over time, because that increases their annual income and also the ultimate value of the property. (By the way, while large corporations own about 45% of apartment units as of 2018, according to Pew Research, individuals and non-profits own the rest.)
Those rents keep going up, even if there is rent control which typically moderates the increases. But during the pandemic, they began to rise as if powered by a rocket. To get a sense of how things have changed, below is a graph of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as assembled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Growth of rent increases over time
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Although there was a slight downturn in part of the Great Recession, it has been an inexorable climb that sped up during the pandemic, as the increased steepness of the line shows. Also, it’s important to remember that every increase is on top of the previous high mark of rents. They get bigger and bigger.
Also getting larger every single year is the cost of living. Shelter costs are about a third of the Consumer Price Index, otherwise known as inflation, as the Brookings Institution, among others, notes. Rent has become a giant lever of pain for millions of people who often are in the worst position to bear up under it.
Rents have started to come down some, but nowhere near enough. The Biden administration’s program directs that the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will “collect information to identify practices that unfairly prevent applicants and tenants from accessing or staying in housing in order to inform enforcement and policy actions under each agency’s jurisdiction.”
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is to “launch a new public process to examine proposed actions promoting renter protections and limits on egregious rent increases for future investments” and “increase affordability in the multifamily rental market by establishing requirements that encourage the financing of multifamily loans that guarantee affordable housing.”
The Department of Justice will “inform potential guidance updates around anti-competitive information sharing, including in rental markets.” And the Department of Housing and Urban Development will “inform potential guidance updates around anti-competitive information sharing, including in rental markets.”
It all sounds noble, but none of this is going to help what is most needed in any sort of timely manner. The reason for the skyrocketing rents isn’t a simplistic cause of corporate ownership. According to Pew, as of 2018, corporates owned about 45% of apartment units, but individuals and non-profit organizations owned the rest. And while zoning is an issue in areas already with heavy development, it’s also not the big problem.
Instead, here are some of the multiple complex reasons why rents are high and are likely to remain so, even if they recede a bit:
· The US chronically underbuilt houses and apartment units for years after the 2008 crash, for various reasons, mostly having to do with a lack of available financing and many in the development business who lost their shirts, weren’t able to get loans from a then fearful financial industry, and who found other ways to make a living.
· A lot more apartment buildings have been built recently, and many more in the pipeline, but the cost of final product delivered private industry construction jumped about 35% between November 2019 and November 2022, so much of that has been for wealthier individuals, who can pay enough in rent to ensure the developers make a profit. It may not sound right, but building new housing depends heavily on private financing and someone making money.
· There was the impact of long-low interest rates and then the flood of liquidity that the Fed pumped into the financial system when the pandemic crash happened. Lots of investors had a huge amount of capital in total to invest, apartment buildings were one of the types of real estate that were top choices for investment. Lots of money trying to get properties meant prices skyrocketed, which then demanded higher rents going forward to justify the investment and get the types of return investors wanted.
· Most people don’t realize that a lot of landlords, typically the smaller ones who own most of the units, lost money during the pandemic with the eviction moratoriums and the funds that were supposed to help people stay in place but that often didn’t get to the landlords, so they started increasing rents to make up what they had lost.
· Finally, demographics have been shifting for years, from older cities to the south and west where businesses went because of lower wages and regulation. The promise was jobs, but the number of rental units couldn’t keep up.
Things will eventually catch up, at least that’s the hope. There are a lot of apartment buildings of various sizes under construction. More supply, if there’s enough affordable units, should give people options, which will drive down prices. But that depends on whether the new units are ultimately in the right places.
Simply demanding major changes in the way everything works in housing is a rough equivalent of hopes and prayers after a mass shooting. No one’s best wishes or posturing matters, because it won’t change a thing.
If you have dozens of tabs open on your browser that you cannot read any of the tab names, then you might need this relatively new (well, it started in 2013, …
If you have dozens of tabs open on your browser that you cannot read any of the tab names, then you might need this relatively new (well, it started in 2013, so not that new) bookmarking tool called Raindrop.io.
Raindrop.io is an elegant web bookmark manager and tool. The free version does most of what you need with unlimited bookmarks and highlights, across unlimited devices. Save images, articles, videos, and, of course, webpages. If you need a tiny bit more of something like a personal librarian on call at your personal library (no AI, sorry), then consider the Pro level at $28 per year. You can search everything you save, including PDFs.
Raindrop works straight on the web (operating as an app, but opens in a tab) and just about every platform or device has a dedicated app: iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. For browsers: Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge have robust extensions.
Raindrop.io vs Pocket vs Pinboard
Briefly, Pocket is the main competitor to Raindrop and a bit more ubiquitous in terms of brand name recognition. It offers many of the same features, but it’s premium version is $45 per year, so when I got back into trying to sort how to capture and store bookmarks and other reading items, I started using Raindrop.io because of the $28 per year price, but quickly fell in love with the organizing functionality of it.
Pinboard is another bookmarking service I still use a bit and like. It bills itself as social bookmarking for introverts and it has a look and feel that speaks to that. Super simple, streamlined, and goes the job. In fact, in my mind, the granddaddy, or grandmammy, of social bookmarking is, or was, Delicious, which was acquired by Pinboard, so hats off to them. It shows they get the community aspect of bookmarking and know how to serve users. It does not have a free level account, but the $22 per year is quite reasonable and if you stop using it you can still access all of your bookmarks for free. You just cannot add new ones.
Core Features of Raindrop.io
In a nutshell, nearly any app comes down to individual preference and how it fits into your workflow, how the design and user experience appeals to you, or not, and if it has the tools that make your life easier. Testing new apps is part of my work and I enjoy it. However, I try to work with an app for a period of time to see if it can help me get more work done, think more clearly, and manage the ever-increasing flow of information that hits all of us.
I found the user experience with Raindrop to be just a bit friendlier and faster. I liked the design and especially the ability to toggle to what they call the “Mood Board” and it displays sort of Tumblr-like stories, shows your bookmarks as magazine type covers (screenshot below). I can also just search and pull up a list for times when I have to drill down through thousands of bookmarks. You can see on the far right with a red #1 and orange highlights where I wrote a note to myself. I love that feature.
Screenshot of Raindrop.io “Mood Board” that allows you to see a more dynamic, visual view of your … [+] bookmarks.
TJ McCue Screenshot of Raindrop.io
I really liked that I could create a shareable bookmark board and grant access to a handful of people to show them a brainstorm of sites that helped me with a project.
Annotating highlights is superbly good. Highlighting saves what you highlighted on a webpage so that when you click the link to go back it shows you that same mark, helpful to reorient yourself as to why you saved it in the first place.
The best part to me and what I consider an annotation is to be able to write something about the bookmark — and you can drop into the description area and put info in the bookmark right at the top, in addition to the tagging and sorting options. Marked above in the Mood Board screenshot.
Raindrop.io is worth a try and might fit your needs for keeping track of the many places that you wander on the web. Give it a try and let me know in the comments or on social media what you think of it or other bookmarking or productivity tools. Keep organized out there.
What’s a paragraph worth in a thousand pages of Congressional legislation? Quite possibly, your ability to save thousands of dollars more in your company’s retirement plan. The news regarding SECURE 2.0 …
What’s a paragraph worth in a thousand pages of Congressional legislation? Quite possibly, your ability to save thousands of dollars more in your company’s retirement plan.
The news regarding SECURE 2.0 broke earlier this week from the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA) when a staffer at the American Retirement Association discovered a major glitch in the law’s wording. According to the NAPA post, the accidental elimination of a third subparagraph in one section of SECURE 2.0 “eliminated the ability to make ANY pre-tax catch-up contributions.”
While the law clearly intends to increase catch-up provisions for those nearing retirement, the plain language of the law doesn’t allow for this. Mistakes like this, however, happen all the time.
“Because of the complexity of the Internal Revenue Code, it is not surprising that there are technical glitches in drafting appropriate language to implement any proposed changes,” says Marcia S. Wagner of The Wagner Law Group in Boston. “Secure Act 2.0 of 2022 itself made technical changes to the SECURE Act, although those corrections were relatively minor in nature. The clear intention of the change was to require catch-up contributions for plan participants to be Roth contributions unless the plan participant’s FICA compensation was less than $145,000. However, as drafted, the statutory language precludes any catch-up contributions to be made in 2024, either pre-tax or Roth.”
It should be noted that this wording error does not prohibit you from making catch-up contributions to your tax-deferred IRA or your Roth IRA. It only pertains to corporate plans, like 401(k)s and more advanced types of IRAs. “The error will not affect most IRA holders, both traditional and Roth IRA, but it will apply to SIMPLE IRAs and SEPs, which are both types of individual retirement accounts,” says Wagner.
In the past, legislative errors like this have been fixed in a variety of ways. Since this mistake won’t have any material impact until the 2024 tax year, Congress and the IRS have some time to think about the best way to handle this. There are three possible responses to this particular technical glitch.
“The first and most straightforward would be for Congress to enact a technical correction to address this mistake,” says Wagner. “On the substance of the modification, there should be unanimous agreement because no member of Congress believed that they were voting to eliminate catch-up contributions in 2024. Technical corrections legislation is generally not enacted on an accelerated basis, although the potential magnitude of this error should result in a quick fix.”
Right now, Congress has more pressing issues than a tax law hiccup that won’t manifest itself for a year or so. Legislators are likely to focus on these. In the meantime, there may be another avenue to take.
“If Congress does not act, it is not clear whether IRS has the regulatory authority to interpret the statutory language to reflect what was intended, rather than what was drafted,” says Wagner. “IRS might rely on a rarely applied rule of statutory interpretation, that the plain, literal meaning of a statute should not be followed if it would lead to an absurd result or a result that could not possibly have been intended.”
Of course, because it’s uncertain whether the IRS will intervene, plan sponsors and participants have a third option.
“For the same reason, if neither Congress nor IRS takes action in 2023,” says Wagner, “many plan sponsors will follow the intended meaning of the law, in the reasonable assumption that even if the error was not fixed in 2023, the error will eventually be corrected.”
While this might sound reasonable for plan sponsors, third-party plan administrators may not be willing to risk exposing themselves to an unknown fiduciary liability by circumventing the law’s precise language, no matter how flawed.
“My problem is that any purported catch-up made in 2024 would actually be an excess deferral (as defined by law) and thus subject to the well-established correction process,” says Lawrence C. Starr, President of Qualified Plan Consultants, Inc. in West Springfield, Massachusetts. “How can I ignore that in preparing the annual administration of the plan? The client pays us to do their plan right; that means ‘in compliance with the law.’ If Congress hasn’t fixed the problem by 12/31/24, I will have a real problem just ‘ignoring it.’ If IRS were to issue some sort of relief ruling, I would most likely be comfortable following their guidance, but without that, we have a real problem with ‘ignoring’ catch-up amounts made during the year.”
It’s possible there is a fourth way, depending on how you interpret existing tax law not affected by SECURE 2.0.
“Technically, Section 1.414(v)-1 (Catch-up Contributions) states that any applicable plan can provide for catch-ups,” says David Levine, Principal and Co-Chair of Plan Sponsor Practice at the Groom Law Firm in Washington, DC. “The IRS can say that 414(v) is still in the code and that they will abide by that but hope to get some clarification from Congress.”
Wagner wonders if the IRS would be willing to be this aggressive. “I guess the IRS could use the argument, but probably wouldn’t, and would probably rely on normal statutory construction,” she says. “I do not believe the IRS can rely upon a regulation that is facially inconsistent with the text of the statute. A regulation that is inconsistent with a Code Section may not be formally modified until years after the statutory change, if at all. That said, if Congress does not take any action to address this glitch in 2023, the IRS may advance any argument that it can to avoid applying the plain meaning of the text. I can’t predict the arguments that IRS will advance if Congress takes no action in 2023; it is possible IRS would look to the existing catch-up contribution regulation, but I believe that existing rules of statutory construction provide the better argument—to wit, if Congress intended to eliminate catch-up contributions from the Code, it certainly could have done so in a far more straightforward manner; hence there was no intent to eliminate.”
Remember, this technical glitch does not change what you can do in 2023. It only affects 2024. Until then, here’s hoping rational heads will ultimately prevail in Washington.
You don’t need a mechanical keyboard, you say. You already have a perfectly fine keyboard. The one that came with your desktop computer or that’s attached to your laptop is perfectly …
You don’t need a mechanical keyboard, you say. You already have a perfectly fine keyboard. The one that came with your desktop computer or that’s attached to your laptop is perfectly fine.
But I’m here to tell you, as you clunk away on those minimalist, flat keys, it’s slowly sucking the productivity out of your fingertips, bit by bit.
There’s something about chunky, clacky keys that just hits differently. Mechanical switches don’t necessarily do anything different than the butterfly or membrane switches of official Apple keyboards, but they make you feel like you’re getting more done. There’s a decisiveness of action, a consistent drumming that says “I am getting shit done.”
Plus, there are benefits to moving away from Apple input hardware. As much as the company touts their keyboards, mice, and trackpads, they’re undeniably more interested in design and aesthetics than ergonomics or utility.
That’s why, before I even get a new Mac device, I start thinking about what keyboard I’m going to pair with it. Do I want to go with a full-sized keyboard with a number pad? Should I acquiesce to the times and go with one of the more popular compact keyboards? Do I need something wireless? What about switches? Should they be clicky or silent?
And here you thought the only thing you had to worry about was what the color.
To Click or Not to Click
When shopping for switches, pay attention to the color!
getty
Let’s start with the switches, since that’s the one thing that makes mechanical keyboards what they are and what most of them share in common.
Mechanical switches are just that, mechanical. They contain springs and internal mechanisms to vary how hard (or how much) you need to press the key for it to register and how loud of a click it makes (if it makes one at all). This differs from membrane and butterfly keyboards in which fully depressing the key is the only way for a press to register.
Mechanical keyboards are extremely popular with gamers because they can dial in exactly how sensitive their keys will be. More sensitive keys equals faster reaction time in games. But if you spend any amount of time during the day typing on your keyboard, you know that having to pound on the keys wears out your fingers. With mechanical switches you expend less effort for the same results.
There are a lot of different types of switches out there, from a lot of different manufacturers. It can get confusing. But the best peripheral makers will have a “testing kit” of sorts that lets you try out what they have available. Even if they don’t however, you can use this list to get a quick idea of what’s on offer:
Linear switches aren’t clicky at all and feel smooth when pressed
Tactile switches have some audible clicking and provide feedback you can feel when you press the key
Clicky switches are loud and provide considerable tactile feedback when pressed
Depending on where you’re using your keyboard and how quickly you type, you might want to avoid clickier switches (unless you want to be the person whose desk sounds like a machine gun battle).
So just what are you using these switches in? Here are a few of my favorites.
DROP Sense75
DROP Sense75
DROP
The DROP Sense75 is a great place to start your experimentation with mechanical keyboards for the Mac. It’s a stunning piece of hardware, with a weighty aluminum case, per-key LED lighting, RGB underglow, and a lovely rotary knob for volume.
The first thing you’ll notice when you pick up the Sense75 is that it’s satisfyingly hefty. If you want to make it even heavier, you can add an optional brass weight to the case. This is one keyboard that’s not going to shift around as you bang away.
It’s truly an enthusiast’s keyboard, outfitted with DROP’s Holy Panda X switch. This is the officially manufactured version of a fan-created switch that provides a unique sound and pleasant tactile experience. The original Holy Panda switch was the combination of two types of switches and resulted in a bit of stem wobble, leading to a less than ideal keypress experience. This new switch firms up the stem and provides crisp feedback with each press.
The keyboard frame is gasket-mounted with a special elastopolymer to reduce hollow, clacky sounds that can occur when you’re using clicky switches in a metallic case. The gasket also provides even feedback so that you’re not bottoming out constantly (if you’re a typist like me that loves nothing more than pounding as hard as they can on the keys).
The RGB is fully customizable, you can even change it for each key. You can dial in your preferences even more with QMK and VIA firmware support. Speaking of customization, the switches are hot-swappable. The sockets were specially chosen so as to eliminate bent pins (something that plagues even the most seasoned of keyboard customizers).
You can buy the Sense75 fully assembled with DROP’s custom switches and DCX keycaps starting at $349 or in barebones kits so that you can choose your own keycaps and switches for $100 less.
Das Keyboard Mac Tigr
MacTigr
Das Keyboard
But what if the small form factor is exactly why you don’t like the Apple Keyboard? Then this full-sized model from Das Keyboard should be your next stop.
The MacTigr is a full-sized, all metal, low-profile, mechanical keyboard with cherry switches, double-shot keycaps, and a two-port USB-C hub. Being from Das Keyboard, it retains that brand’s vaunted build quality and extras like a sleep button, media controls, and one of the most satisfying volume knobs I’ve experienced on a keyboard.
It’s a low-profile keyboard that uses Cherry switches with a low actuation force of 45 cN and a total travel of 3.2 mm. All that means the typing experience on the MacTigr is soft without being mushy, mechanical without being clicky. It doesn’t take much pressure at all to trigger each key.
The MacTigr is wired, so there’s no need to concern yourself over lag or latency. Plus the double-shot keycaps feel great under your fingertips and resist grease, so you won’t end up with a bunch of shiny home keys a few weeks after unboxing.
This isn’t a mechanical keyboard that you’re going to have to figure out where the keys are because it’s built for Windows. It’s Mac-forward with all the requisite keys, plus extras like an eject button (for those few souls who still have a media drive) and a sleep key that works so fast you’ll think you broke your computer.
It’s not a wafer-thin slab of aluminum like the Magic Keyboard, but still doesn’t have an overly thick profile. It’s nice for long periods of typing, since weird angles of thicker keyboards can put strain on your wrists. If you’re the type that enjoys having your keyboard tilted towards you, however, you’re out of luck. There are no feet on the bottom of the MacTigr. It’s just a nice, solid slab of a base.
I love the low-profile keycaps and the little extras like media controls and that silky-smooth volume knob. The two-port USB-C hub is appreciated as well. The MacTigr is a well-built, aesthetically pleasing, deeply functional full-sized mechanical keyboard. Check it out on the Das Keyboard website.
Keychron Q5
Keychron Q5 in Carbon Black
Keychron
Or maybe you’re looking for the best of both worlds. Something that has the functionality of a full sized keyboard with a number pad in the smallest amount of possible space. Something that’s gasket-mounted like the DROP Sense 75 but for a slightly less eye-watering price. Something wireless maybe?
The Keychron Q5 uses a, for now, rare 1800 layout. It has all the functionality of a full-sized keyboard with number pad, but is 96% the size of a standard keyboard. While there are a few ways to achieve this configuration, on the Kechron Q5, there’s considerably less room between the edge of the “standard” keys and the number pad, with the arrow keys occupying the natural gap between them at the foot of the keyboard. The spaces between the keys feel a little more compressed as well.
It all combines for a “cozy” typing experience. Not the finger-contorting 60% keyboards, but not the splayed full-sized keyboard experience either. It’s a more compact keyboard experience but with the full function of a numpad. Weighing in at over 5 lbs, the steel plate and 6063 aluminum (alloyed with magnesium and silicone) construction absolutely destroys the 8.5 oz. Magic Keyboard that came with your iMac. And I don’t mean that figuratively. Drop the Q5 on Apple’s svelte deck and you could probably crack it in half.
It makes for an extremely solid typing experience. No matter how much you thrash about, the keyboard will only move if you pick it up and move it. Plus the keyboard is gasket-mounted like the DROP Sense75 (though using slightly different materials). It makes for an extremely pleasant overall typing experience.
The Keychron Q5 is also extremely customizable. You can choose from black, silver, and navy blue cases and frames. All are striking, with double-shot PBT keycaps that sport an array of complementary colors. I especially like how the ESC and ENTER keys are red, yellow, or neon blue, providing a pop of contrasting color. You can select from Gateron G Pro switches in red, blue, or brown when you customize your build but if you want to change them out later, the Keychron Q5 switches are hot-swappable.
There’s also customizable south-facing RGB under every key. Since the included keycaps aren’t shine-through, the effect is a bit more subtle. You can tweak the color (and the functionality of the keyboard overall) with the VIA app. The app also lets you tweak the functionality of each key and the function of the knob in the corner. It’s mapped to volume by default but if having it be a physical zoom control is more useful to you, go ahead and make the switch.
Speaking of, there’s a handy switch on the back of the Keychron Q5 that lets you switch between default Windows and Mac layouts. The deck comes with Mac keycaps installed, but they’re easy to switch out for the included Windows caps.
On the Keychron.com site you can grab everything from a bare-bones Keychron Q5 with no keycaps or switches to a fully assembled deck. Fully assembled, with a knob, the Keychron Q5 will cost $205.
As with fishing, when it comes to investing there’s always the tale of the one that got away. Those, like so many of us, who have seen their portfolios has flounder …
As with fishing, when it comes to investing there’s always the tale of the one that got away. Those, like so many of us, who have seen their portfolios has flounder over the past year, will probably take no consolation in knowing that a surprising number of vintage-car investments beat the market—and did so handily—during 2022.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index may have dropped by 19.4% last year, but the statisticians at the collectible-car website Classic.com have identified a sizable list of desirable up-and-comers that appreciated in value by as much as 88% over the same period, based on auction data. While these include some of the usual sports car suspects from the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche, the list also includes many affordable and appreciating pickup trucks and SUVs for those looking to get some skin in the game without breaking the bank.
Among the most noteworthy vintage rides shooting up in value is the GMC Typhoon from the 1992 and 1993 model years. It borrowed the familiar muscle car formula from the 1960’s and 1970’s and fitted a turbocharged 4.3-liter V6 engine with 280 horsepower into a midsize two-door Jimmy SUV. It accelerated like no other people-mover of its era, able to reach 60 mph in a little over five seconds. Worth $21,262 last January it was estimated to be worth an average $33,734 by year’s end, which represents a healthy 59% jump in value.
The Typhoon’s pickup truck equivalent, the GMC Syclone from 1991 and 1992 likewise appears on the list, and it’s realized a 30% bump over the past year, gaining in value from $32,580 to $42,377.
Thise of a certain age may remember the two-door, two-seat Buick Reatta luxury coupe and convertible that debuted for the 1988 model year. Built at its own “craft center” in Lansing, MI, it’s noteworthy as being the first mass-produced vehicle to use a touch-screen display, and remains an affordable up-and-comer. Classic.com says 1998-1991 Reattas can be found, on average, selling for $10,903, which represents a 30% increase in value over the prior 12 months.
The hottest vintage rides from 2022 also includes a full-electric vehicle, the original Tesla Roadster, which was based on the Lotus Elise and produced between 2008 and 2012. A 375-volt electric motor produced the equivalent of 248 horsepower with up to a 244-mile range, which was unheard of at the time. Its vintage value increased by 26% last year from $86,950 to $109,050.
The most affordable, and in many ways unlikely, example on the rapid-appreciating vintage-car list is the redoubtable Chrysler TC by Maserati that was sold from 1989-1991. Built in partnership between the two automakers on both continents, it was essentially a two-door Chrysler coupe with a removable hardtop that proved to be too expensive to be profitable, especially given its low sales volume. A top-notch example is worth $7,482, which represents a 26% jump in value over the past year.
The biggest gainer dollar-wise last year was the already pricey Porsche Carrera GT from 2004-2006, which escaladed in value by a whopping $483,680 to break the seven-figure mark at $1,375,561.
But perhaps the biggest oddball among Classic.com’s list of the biggest gainers is the infamous Amphicar at 40th place. Debuting in 1961, this was a this was a tiny German-built car engineered to double as a watercraft. One could simply drive into a body of water and keep on going, thanks to dual outboard propellers. During his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson kept one at his Texas ranch, and as the story goes, loved to spook visitors by taking them for a ride in the Amphicar and pretending to lose control of the vehicle, veering off precipitously (or so the passenger thought) into a lake on the property.
We’re counting down the 40 collectible cars Classic.com identifies as increasing the most in value during 2022, noting the percentage of growth and both beginning and year-end values. You can find the complete list of 100 big gainers here.
As with stock picks, those who perform due diligence, can predict future trends, and/or are just plain lucky, can find true gems among generations of models, many of which may have since succumbed to depreciation and have been relegated to the scrap heap. One can assume that in-demand older vehicles that have been well-preserved or painstakingly restored will bring the most cash in a private sale or at a vintage vehicle auction, with low-mileage models, limited production variants, and those having a unique provenance likely to bring the highest rates of return.
Best Vintage Car Investments For 2022
Land Rover Defender 110 Hard Top, 1990-2016: +88% ($32,825-$61,791)
