In December 2007, employment peaked and started to head south – for two long years. What followed: The loss of more than 8 million jobs, half the value of the Dow and the S&P 500, and trillions of dollars in retirement accounts and household wealth. Lives and businesses were ruined and whole neighborhoods emptied out, as banks took back homes bought on badly underwritten credit. A decade later, the American economy has recovered in many ways. Employers have been steadily adding jobs since early 2010, the stock market is booming and home prices have reached new all-time highs. But in…
Posts Tagged ‘advice’
Cybercrime Will Increase in 2018
Posted on December 05, 2017 by Laura Lam
If you think 2017 was a bad year for cyberattacks, just wait to see what happens in the coming years, one cybersecurity expert warns. “We’ve only seen the beginning,” said Dr. Eric Cole, CEO of Secure Anchor and former CTO of McAfee and Lockheed Martin. “Cybercrime is big business, it’s a very high-payoff, low-risk crime … we’ve seen nothing yet.” In 2016, U.S. financial losses stemming from cyberattacks totaled $1.33 billion, a 24% increase over the year prior, according to an FBI report. An Accenture study concluded that the number of hacks likely increased by more than 27% between 2016…
Americans Waiting for a Bigger Raise
Posted on November 17, 2017 by Laura Lam
The government said that average hourly earnings rose 2.4% over the past 12 months. That’s a slip from the 2.9% increase reported in September. It remains below the 3% to 3.5% range that many agree is normal in a truly healthy economy. The last time wages were up more than 3% year-over-year was in April 2009, just as the economy was emerging from the depths of the global banking crisis that fueled the Great Recession. Why have wages remained stagnant even though many other indicators of the job market and broader economy look healthy? Unemployment continues to drop. The housing…
Millennials are saving more for retirement
Posted on November 10, 2017 by Laura Lam
In the race to save for retirement, one group is doing surprisingly well: millennial parents. That’s according to a new NerdWallet survey, which found that 38% of millennial parents (ages 18-34) save more than 15% of their income for retirement. All told, millennial parents reported a median retirement savings rate of 10% of income, compared with 8% for Generation X parents (ages 35-54) and just 5% for baby boomer parents (ages 55+). Given the picture typically painted of this age group, you might be shouting “fake news” right now. There’s one caveat: The results include only those currently saving for…
Daylight Saving Time: Facts and Figures
Posted on November 03, 2017 by Laura Lam
Sunday, November 5, 2017, marks the end of Daylight Saving Time – a twice-a-year occurrence that we collectively partake in, changing our clocks forward an hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall. But why do we do this? What purpose does it serve? Is it really for the farmers? You might be surprised how many misconceptions there are surrounding this longstanding practice. Who came up with changing the clocks? The idea to change the clocks to save daylight was first proposed by English architect William Willett in 1907 when he published The Waste of Daylight. It is believed that Willett’s idea arose…
Best States for Halloween Candy
Posted on October 27, 2017 by Laura Lam
A recent analysis of Halloween candy purchases found that Oregon tops the list of best states to go trick-or-treating in based on how much money residents spend on candy, with 3 Musketeers as the favorite there. Trailing in second place is neighboring Washington – choosing 100 Grand bars as the top treat – but Oregonians spend on average $11.64 more per person on Halloween sweets. The top states and amounts spent per person on candy: Oregon ($40.29) Washington ($28.65) New Jersey ($24.36) Utah ($23.73) California ($19.72) New York ($19.08) Pennsylvania ($18.78) Illinois ($18.19) Virginia ($17.76) Wisconsin ($16.74). What state ranks…