Gizem Gecim/iStock via Getty Images Congratulations, you made it! It's been a popular topic this year among financial planners, a pinpointed 'optimal' retirement milestone. For those who have been saving diligently in US equities ( SPY )( QQQ )( IVV )( DIA ) over the past decade, hitting $2 million across all your liquid financial assets [those that can be easily turned into cash] is a rare feat, ...
Gizem Gecim/iStock via Getty Images Congratulations, you made it! It's been a popular topic this year among financial planners, a pinpointed 'optimal' retirement milestone. For those who have been saving diligently in US equities ( SPY )( QQQ )( IVV )( DIA ) over the past decade, hitting $2 million across all your liquid financial assets [those that can be easily turned into cash] is a rare feat, but likely more common here on Seeking Alpha than on other media platforms. This amount, when combined with Social Security, should not only make for a six-figure annual retirement income but also a nest egg that grows substantially. The majority of retirees in this category, using a 4-5% withdrawal rate, will end up with more by the end of retirement than they started with. From medium.com : This insight comes from retirement researcher Michael Kitces, someone who has studied historical market periods in unusual depth. To put it simply: Around two-thirds of retirees finish with double their starting wealth Roughly 96% end with at least the same amount they began with Only the harshest periods in history, the Great Depression and the 1970s- create the scenarios people are terrified of That's the truth. The 4% rule is very conservative and was designed for your portfolio to be sustained in even the worst of market crashes and the worst of inflationary economic environments. I won't argue that retirees can spend more, possibly much more than 4% of their nest egg in retirement, but 4% is meant to help a retiree sleep well at night. The best way to approach a more than 4% rate is to use guardrails. Give yourself a 10-20% raise in bull years and a 10-20% pay cut in bear years. This can be easy to visualize but hard to execute. That's why sticking to a consistent plan like starting with 4% and then bumping it up by the inflation rate each year can work more successfully. Being as systematic as possible leads to fewer mistakes. Tax planning becomes more important at this level If ...
A team of Chinese researchers has claimed a breakthrough in training robots in real-world home environments, tackling a long-standing data bottleneck in the field and potentially accelerating the adoption of robots at home. Kairos-HomeWorld was the world’s first unified framework capable of generating coherent, accurate and simulation-ready home environments using simple text prompts, according to...
A team of Chinese researchers has claimed a breakthrough in training robots in real-world home environments, tackling a long-standing data bottleneck in the field and potentially accelerating the adoption of robots at home. Kairos-HomeWorld was the world’s first unified framework capable of generating coherent, accurate and simulation-ready home environments using simple text prompts, according to researchers from Ace Robotics, a start-up backed by Hong Kong-listed artificial intelligence...
TSMC (TSM) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock's prospects.
TSMC (TSM) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock's prospects.
TSMC (TSM) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock's prospects.
TSMC (TSM) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock's prospects.
Coinbase Global (COIN) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock's prospects.
Coinbase Global (COIN) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock's prospects.
Nvidia (NVDA) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock's prospects.
Nvidia (NVDA) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock's prospects.
Zacks.com users have recently been watching SoundHound AI (SOUN) quite a bit. Thus, it is worth knowing the facts that could determine the stock's prospects.
Zacks.com users have recently been watching SoundHound AI (SOUN) quite a bit. Thus, it is worth knowing the facts that could determine the stock's prospects.
Welcome to Next Africa, a daily newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed. Sign up here to have it delivered to your email. In today’s edition, we look at the warning signs missed on the latest Ebola outbreak and: Dangote to double capacity at his Nigerian oil refinery Ghana’s central bank chief plays down cedi’s weakness The world’s top shipping analyst plans an 18-mont...
Welcome to Next Africa, a daily newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed. Sign up here to have it delivered to your email. In today’s edition, we look at the warning signs missed on the latest Ebola outbreak and: Dangote to double capacity at his Nigerian oil refinery Ghana’s central bank chief plays down cedi’s weakness The world’s top shipping analyst plans an 18-month Africa trip Missing the Signs Before Ebola arrived in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the warnings were already there. For more than a year, aid groups, humanitarian agencies and health officials had been describing a region under mounting strain. Conflict had displaced millions of people. Sexual violence was surging. Health facilities had closed or been damaged. Drug shortages were becoming routine. Malaria, measles, cholera and mpox were already stretching fragile health services. Hunger was rising to record levels. And access to clean water and sanitation remained critically low in many communities. Humanitarian funding was meanwhile shrinking and needs were growing faster than available resources, forcing cutbacks just as violence and displacement were driving demand in the opposite direction. Then the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola emerged. Our latest Businessweek story examines how the virus found fertile ground in one of the world’s most fragile and biodiverse regions. It surfaced around the gold-mining town of Mongbwalu , where years of insecurity had already made it difficult for health workers to reach communities, transport samples, track disease outbreaks and maintain basic medical services. The ecology of the region matters too. Population growth, displacement, mining, hunting and other pressures are bringing people into closer contact with wildlife, creating more opportunities for diseases such as Ebola and mpox to spill into human populations. That helps explain why this part of central Africa has repeatedly been at the front line of emerging infectious-d...
Just a cute little guy. Never underestimate the power that a cheap tablet holds over a kid under six. The Skylight Buddy is a device with one job: to be a cute little guy that helps your kid track routines and chores. It's $139.99, plus an optional subscription. And to my surprise, even though it offers a pretty limited set of features without the $39-per-year "Plus" features, it actually worked. ...
Just a cute little guy. Never underestimate the power that a cheap tablet holds over a kid under six. The Skylight Buddy is a device with one job: to be a cute little guy that helps your kid track routines and chores. It's $139.99, plus an optional subscription. And to my surprise, even though it offers a pretty limited set of features without the $39-per-year "Plus" features, it actually worked. Skylight recommends the Buddy for kids aged four up to 10. An adult has to set it up, naturally, which you do inside of the Skylight app. From there, you make a profile for your kid and assign it to the Buddy, which is strictly one-kid-per-device. That might be a non-sta … Read the full story at The Verge.
Industry Perspective: "Lithium batteries are the new oil." - Elon Musk, Tesla CEO (publicly reported statement regarding the strategic importance of battery materials). "Lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite are crucial to battery performance, ...
Industry Perspective: "Lithium batteries are the new oil." - Elon Musk, Tesla CEO (publicly reported statement regarding the strategic importance of battery materials). "Lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite are crucial to battery performance, ...
jamesbenet/iStock via Getty Images Introduction My worst call by far on Seeking Alpha has been on Micron ( MU ). So far, the market has thoroughly rejected the bear case I laid out in March. One difference I’ve come to appreciate between being an analyst vs. an investor is the difficulty of altering your opinions. When you publicly publish an analysis or opinion, there is a tendency to become more...
jamesbenet/iStock via Getty Images Introduction My worst call by far on Seeking Alpha has been on Micron ( MU ). So far, the market has thoroughly rejected the bear case I laid out in March. One difference I’ve come to appreciate between being an analyst vs. an investor is the difficulty of altering your opinions. When you publicly publish an analysis or opinion, there is a tendency to become more attached to it. Changing your mind can feel more like changing your identity than simply changing a viewpoint. This is actually quite a well-known phenomenon called belief perseverance. It’s the brain’s protection mechanism against cognitive discomfort. But to engage in good analysis, you have to do everything possible to avoid falling into this trap. So in this article I’m going to do my best to analyze Micron through a fresh lens. I want to start with where I thought there was fair criticism of my last article and how I’ve updated my mental model since then. Ultimately I conclude that there were some oversimplifications in my prior analysis, and I build a more rigorous valuation model for Micron shares that incorporates the most bullish assumptions as a plausible outcome. My probability-weighted price target is $492, while the bullish scenario implies a fair value per share of $939. Therefore, on that basis, I still rate Micron a “Sell”. How My View on Micron Has Updated I think it’s a fair critique that my prior article was overly dismissive of the “this time is different” thesis. I assumed the cyclicality of prior memory cycles would persist in part because historically it always has. However, this time is demonstrably different because of the difference between HBM and standard commodity DRAM. The big three HBM suppliers are also clearly showing greater restraint than they have in past cycles in order to prevent the kind of supply glut we’ve seen in the past. So we need to think of HBM as less of a commodity and more of a premium product. The distilled version of my t...
The market is starting to really heat up. The S&P 500 is up more thn 11% year to date, and it just celebrated the first hot initial public offering (IPO) of the year, Cerebras Systems . It's now gearing up for what is slated to be the largest IPO ever, with SpaceX coming out in less than two weeks, followed by Anthropic, which recently filed to go public, and OpenAI, which may happen shortly after...
The market is starting to really heat up. The S&P 500 is up more thn 11% year to date, and it just celebrated the first hot initial public offering (IPO) of the year, Cerebras Systems . It's now gearing up for what is slated to be the largest IPO ever, with SpaceX coming out in less than two weeks, followed by Anthropic, which recently filed to go public, and OpenAI, which may happen shortly after. It's an exciting time to be in the markets, but investors should tread carefully. With the market at new highs, is it a good time to invest in the Vanguard S&P 500 Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) (NYSEMKT: VOO) ? The S&P 500 isn't just reaching new highs all the time. It's also extremely expensive. The cyclical adjusted P/E ratio, or CAPE ratio, is close to 40, or near the second highest levels ever. The previous high was just before the dot-com crash in 2000, which was followed by three years of losses for the S&P 500. Continue reading
Demented NY Dems Erase "Mother" From State Law, Replace Her With "Gestating Parent" Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity , Latest nonsense targets family courts, custody, and parental rights Outrage is exploding after New York Democrats rammed through legislation that strips the words "mother" and "father" from key sections of state law and replaces them with cold, clinical inventions: "gestatin...
Demented NY Dems Erase "Mother" From State Law, Replace Her With "Gestating Parent" Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity , Latest nonsense targets family courts, custody, and parental rights Outrage is exploding after New York Democrats rammed through legislation that strips the words "mother" and "father" from key sections of state law and replaces them with cold, clinical inventions: "gestating parent" and "non-gestating parent." Yes, really. They're pushing for the erasure of biological motherhood and fatherhood in the name of activist ideology. The bill passed the Assembly months ago and cleared the Senate this week with minimal debate. It now sits on Governor Kathy Hochul's desk. If she signs it, the changes take effect November 1 and will rewrite references across family court proceedings, domestic relations, child support, custody determinations, and even education statutes. "Paternity" becomes "parentage." "Putative father" becomes "alleged parent." ? NOW: Outrage erupts as New York passes legislation to REMOVE the word "mother" and replace it with "gestating parent" WTF?!!? New York Democrats are total psychos. This is a war on women! pic.twitter.com/guNUkmNx6h - Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 4, 2026 Sponsors Sen. Luis Sepulveda and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin packaged the overhaul as a long-overdue update to parentage laws. The memo claims the new language simply aligns statutes with existing court rulings and accommodates surrogacy arrangements plus same-sex parenting. In practice, every traditional reference to mothers and fathers in these legal contexts gets replaced. The language is deliberately stripped of sex-based meaning. Motherhood is reduced to a temporary biological process. Fatherhood is defined by its absence from gestation. Democrats and allied lawyers argue the old terms were outdated the moment same-sex couples and surrogates entered family court in larger numbers. They insist the rewrite creates consistency and avoids confusion in compl...
jamesbenet/iStock via Getty Images Introduction My worst call by far on Seeking Alpha has been on Micron ( MU ). So far, the market has thoroughly rejected the bear case I laid out in March. One difference I’ve come to appreciate between being an analyst vs. an investor is the difficulty of altering your opinions. When you publicly publish an analysis or opinion, there is a tendency to become more...
jamesbenet/iStock via Getty Images Introduction My worst call by far on Seeking Alpha has been on Micron ( MU ). So far, the market has thoroughly rejected the bear case I laid out in March. One difference I’ve come to appreciate between being an analyst vs. an investor is the difficulty of altering your opinions. When you publicly publish an analysis or opinion, there is a tendency to become more attached to it. Changing your mind can feel more like changing your identity than simply changing a viewpoint. This is actually quite a well-known phenomenon called belief perseverance. It’s the brain’s protection mechanism against cognitive discomfort. But to engage in good analysis, you have to do everything possible to avoid falling into this trap. So in this article I’m going to do my best to analyze Micron through a fresh lens. I want to start with where I thought there was fair criticism of my last article and how I’ve updated my mental model since then. Ultimately I conclude that there were some oversimplifications in my prior analysis, and I build a more rigorous valuation model for Micron shares that incorporates the most bullish assumptions as a plausible outcome. My probability-weighted price target is $492, while the bullish scenario implies a fair value per share of $939. Therefore, on that basis, I still rate Micron a “Sell”. How My View on Micron Has Updated I think it’s a fair critique that my prior article was overly dismissive of the “this time is different” thesis. I assumed the cyclicality of prior memory cycles would persist in part because historically it always has. However, this time is demonstrably different because of the difference between HBM and standard commodity DRAM. The big three HBM suppliers are also clearly showing greater restraint than they have in past cycles in order to prevent the kind of supply glut we’ve seen in the past. So we need to think of HBM as less of a commodity and more of a premium product. The distilled version of my t...