Roughly 60 percent of Americans tell pollsters the nation is on the wrong track. A majority say its best years are behind it. About three-quarters think today’s children will end up worse off than their parents. Asked a version of that same founding-ideals question from 1976, 77 percent now say the founders would be disappointed in what we’ve become.
What do you think?
The housing market has stalled, with sellers not finding buyers at current prices. There is a logjam, with sellers unwilling to lower prices after the steep run-up during the COVID pandemic. Buyers are being selective because not only do they have to pay a high price, but the financing is at levels above 6%.
Back in 1975, a typical home cost about 2.4 times as much as the average under-40 household earned in a year, a standard measure of housing affordability, according to a new report from Pew Research Center. By 2019, that price-to-income ratio had risen to 2.9. In 2024, it reached 3.5.
Dividing your number by your planned withdrawal amount is a good starting point if you’ve just begun thinking about retirement and evaluating whether your plan is on track—for example, if you’re 10 or so years from retirement. But if you’re getting closer, it’s worthwhile to create a more encompassing plan.
Interrupting compounding is a terrible way to build wealth. Things like timing the market, using leverage, making concentrated bets, and stock picking tend to end in disaster for the average investor swimming in waters too deep and treacherous for their skill level. Sometimes it takes a lot of energy not to work.
Nothing scares people in the financial independence community quite like the phrase “long-term care.” We picture a looming healthcare crisis that strips away our autonomy, forces us to rely on expensive in-home help, or lands us in a skilled nursing facility, completely draining the nest egg we spent decades building. But what if the reality isn’t nearly as brutal as the fear-mongering suggests?
Working hard won’t make you rich. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Even if you work hard and you don’t get rich, the work gives you something else. Something most people overlook because they’re too busy waiting for the paycheck. And it’s worth more than the money.
You just received an inheritance, and you may be thinking, “What do I do after receiving an inheritance?” Before you do anything, take a moment to understand your options, the tax consequences, how using it to pay down debt may affect you, and ideas for how to use the inheritance to strengthen your financial future.
A week in review: a disappointed service sector hoping to make more off the World Cup, a Paramount-Warner deal that is taking forever, and Sky Hynix’s debut.
America appears to be suffering from a fun shortage. For the industries supplying recreational amenities, this deficit is a business opportunity. But for everyone not positioned to profit from the trend, it’s a source of stress and frustration that’s been building for a while. It also has broad ramifications for the future of the economy, society and politics. It’s worth pondering whether the pursuit of happiness has become more difficult.
A study analyzing 236,000 responses to the American Time Use Survey found that the proportion of Americans who read for pleasure on any given day fell from 28 percent in 2004 to 16 percent in 2023. Gambling has become a more common leisure activity than reading a book: Last year, 57 percent of Americans placed a bet.
Upcoming Events
How Do You Actually Know a Real Estate Deal Is Good?
Most physicians who invest in real estate syndications never see the deal evaluation process. They get a pitch deck, a projected IRR, and a deadline. Then they wire money and hope the sponsor knows what they’re doing.
Realberry is doing something different on July 14th. Taylor Hazlett, Senior Director of Private Capital, is walking through the five filters Realberry has applied to every deal across 35 years of investing. Not the polished version of their process, the real one, including what makes them walk away from a deal that looks solid on paper.
That last part matters more than people admit. Knowing why a sponsor passes on a deal tells you far more about how they think than any highlight reel of their wins. Bad underwriting often hides inside attractive numbers, and the red flags aren’t always obvious unless you know what to look for.
The session also applies that evaluation process to two live deals currently in their pipeline: Avenue South Mixed-Use and Red Hawk Crossings. You’ll watch the filter get used, not just described.
Forty-five minutes, live Q&A at the end. If you’ve ever wired money into a syndication and trusted someone else’s judgment because you weren’t sure how to form your own, this is the kind of education that actually closes that gap.
Register now to hold your spot
