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The Best Airline Credit Cards for Flights, Miles, and Rewards in 2022

Many major U.S. airlines have at least one branded credit card that rewards loyal customers. Learn about the best airline credit cards here.

Paypal Fee Change To 2.99%; Removes Ability To Send Free Personal-To-Business Transfers

Paypal changes Send Money fees from 2.90% to 2.99% (no fixed fee). They also remove the ability to Send Money as a friend between personal and business accounts

The Cost of Living in Florida in 2022

Take the guessing out of picking where to live in Florida. We compare costs of living just for you.

The post The Cost of Living in Florida in 2022 appeared first on The Rent. Blog : A Renter’s Guide for Tips & Advice.

Stock Market Today: S&P Surges to Fourth Gain in a Row

The S&P 500 matched its longest winning streak of the year Thursday as data continued to suggest that the Federal Reserve just might have some breathing room soon.

The Department of Labor reported that 234,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits during the week ending July 2 – 4,000 more claims than the previous week, and the highest such level in nearly six months.

  • SEE MORE What Is Digital Fashion, And Why Is It Important?

“It’s never a good thing to see layoffs, but the pressure on wages may have now peaked,” says Jamie Cox, managing partner for financial planner Harris Financial Group. “A few more weeks of these types of numbers and maybe, just maybe, financial conditions are tight enough to allow the Fed to throttle back on the scale of rate increases.”

A much stronger indicator of whether the U.S. central bank will do just that comes tomorrow morning, in the form of the June jobs report.

“The key for tomorrow’s jobs report is that it furthers the idea that we’ve hit ‘peak hawkishness’ with the Fed and ‘peak inflation,'” says Tom Essaye, editor of the Sevens Report. “If the jobs report reflects those two realities, it’ll likely spur a continued relief rally. If it implies the opposite, look for another painful decline.”

Also helping to drive stocks was data suggesting global supply-chain disruption might be easing. Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for independent broker-dealer LPL Financial, notes that New York Fed data showed that global supply chains were under less pressure in June compared to May.

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“The small improvement in supply chains will eventually filter through to improved consumer pricing,” says Roach, who adds that supply-chain effects take about four months to affect headline consumer prices.

Energy stocks (+3.6%) were the top sector Thursday, led by the likes of APA (APA, +7.8%) and Devon Energy (DVN, +5.2%). Data from the Energy Information Administration showed a recent snap-back in gasoline demand, helping U.S. crude oil futures rebound 4.3% to $102.73 per barrel.

  • SEE MORE The 15 Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2022

Technology stocks (+2.1%) also produced robust gains, largely on the back of the semiconductor industry. Just a few days after Micron (MU, +2.6%) warned that it expected demand for consumer-product components to wane, Samsung triggered a relief rally after saying it expected second-quarter revenues to improve by 22%; Qualcomm (QCOM, +5.8%), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, +5.2%) and Nvidia (NVDA, +4.8%) were among the beneficiaries.

The S&P 500 (+1.5% to 3,902) posted its fourth consecutive gain to equal its previous 2022-best streak during the end of January and beginning of February. The Nasdaq Composite (+2.3% to 11,621) also made it four in a row, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.1% to 31,384) strung together two days of black ink.

YCharts

Other news in the stock market today:

  • The small-cap Russell 2000 jumped 2.4% to 1,769.
  • Gold futures snapped their seven-day losing streak, adding 0.2% to settle at $1,739.70 an ounce.
  • Bitcoin rallied 7.3% to $21,780.17. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.) 
  • GameStop (GME) soared 15.1% after the video game retailer joined several other companies this year by announcing a stock split. The board-approved move will split GME stock in a 4-to-1 ratio – and will give stakeholders three additional shares for each one they own at the close on Monday, July 19. It will also lower GME stock’s price on a split-adjusted basis beginning on Friday, July 22. Based on today’s close at $135.12, shares would go for roughly $34 apiece.
  • Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE) shot up 12.1% after the space exploration company announced a partnership with Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing (BA, +2.7%), to develop two additional aircraft carriers, with the first expected to be ready to launch in 2025. Reagrdless, CFRA Research analyst Keith Snyder today initiated coverage on SPCE stock with a Sell rating. “While it will take a number of years to work through the current customer list, our Sell recommendation reflects our view that its main competitor, Blue Origin, has already begun commercial operations and offers tickets at a much lower cost compared to the $450k charged by SPCE per seat,” Snyder says. “In addition, companies like SpaceX could easily enter the space tourism market with its vastly superior and flight proven launch technology.”

Don’t Fall for These Debunked Myths

You know how you’ve heard that you should pay off your debt before you start investing? Well … that’s not necessarily true. Sometimes it pays to knock out your IOUs first, but depending on how high or low your interest rate on that debt is, investing might actually be a better use of your money.

  • SEE MORE The 12 Best ETFs to Battle a Bear Market

That’s just one example of several investing myths that are often touted as conventional wisdom.

Most of the time (but not always), the people who peddle these misconceptions don’t have ill intent – sometimes, they pick it up from other people they respect, and sometimes, things that used to be true have simply changed over time. All the same, these myths could result in financial decisions that aren’t right for you.

Today, we’d like to put some of these myths to bed. Read on as a group of financial experts review seven of the most common investing myths and explain why they don’t hold up.

Kyle Woodley was long AMD and NVDA as of this writing.

  • SEE MORE 10 Smart Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy

Stock Market Today: Stocks Finish Mixed After Boffo Jobs Report

A whopper of a June jobs report landed in Wall Street’s lap Friday morning, and it kept investors and traders guessing all session.

Anyone looking to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest employment situation for signs of a coming recession walked away mighty disappointed. The U.S. added 372,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, shattering consensus forecasts for 265,000. The unemployment rate held firm at 3.6% for the fourth consecutive month. And aggregate hours worked by private workers was up another 2.6% annualized during 2022’s second quarter, following 3.4% annualized growth in Q1.

  • SEE MORE The 12 Best ETFs to Battle a Bear Market

“You just don’t see that in a recession,” says Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Bank.

Indeed, Adams believes between that and average monthly payroll job growth of 457,000 during the first half of the year, “it would be no surprise to see the first quarter’s contraction in GDP revised to growth as statistical agencies get more complete information to measure the economy; GDP is hard to measure in real time and subject to many revisions.”

This good news for the U.S. economy got a more nuanced reaction from the stock market, as some experts think the Federal Reserve could continue an aggressive pace of interest-rate hikes if the economy has strength to bear them.

Jason Pride, chief investment officer of private wealth at wealth management firm Glenmede, says of the central bank’s dual mandate of full employment and low inflation: “For the time being, [full employment] appears intact, affording the Fed the flexibility to tackle its price stability goal head-on. While next week’s [consumer price index] print will be the next important indicator to watch, today’s jobs report likely gives the Fed headway for another 75-basis-point rate hike later this month.”

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Stocks swung between shallow losses and gains throughout the day before settling with mixed results. The Nasdaq Composite (+0.1% to 11,635) closed in the black for the fifth consecutive session. However, Friday marked the end of winning streaks for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.2% to 31,338) and S&P 500 (down marginally to 3,899).

YCharts

Other news in the stock market today:

  • The small-cap Russell 2000 was marginally lower to 1,768.
  • U.S. crude oil futures gained 2% to end at $104.79 per barrel, but still finished the week down more than 3%.
  • Gold futures edged up 0.2% to close at $1,742.30 an ounce. For the week, gold futures gave back more than 3%.
  • Bitcoin also finished with a tiny gain, of 0.1%, to $21,811.80. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.) 
  • Twitter (TWTR) fell 5.1% after a report in The Washington Post on Thursday suggested Tesla (TSLA, +2.5%) CEO Elon Musk’s plans to buy the social media platform for $44 billion could fall through. Citing people familiar with the matter, the article said Musk’s team has pulled back on talks with investors in recent weeks amid concerns over an unverified number of spam accounts on Twitter. “We believe the chances of a deal ultimately happening are currently at ~60% with a renegotiated bid at a lower price likely in the $42-$45 range due to the fake account issue,” says Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who has a Neutral (Hold) rating on TWTR stock. “There is still a ~35% chance Musk decides to walk away from the deal, try to pay the $1 billion breakup fee, and likely end up in a nasty court battle with Twitter’s Board for the coming months.” As for the current bid of $54.20 per TWTR share, Ives says that is “essentially out the window” at this point. 
  • Upstart Holdings (UPST) was one of the biggest decliners on the Street today, shedding 19.7% after the consumer lending firm last night lowered its second-quarter revenue guidance, now expecting sales to arrive around $228 million compared to its previous forecast of $295 million to $305 million. UPST also said its quarterly net loss will range from $27 million to $31 million, wider than its prior guidance for a loss of $4 million to $0 million. In a press release, Dave Girouard, co-founder and CEO of Upstart, pointed to “inflation and recession fears” that have driven interest rates up and put banks and capital markets on cautious footing.” Wedbush analyst David Chiaverini maintained an Underperform (Sell) rating on UPST stock. “The company has yet to operate through a true recession  which means its underwriting model has yet to be battle-tested,” the analyst says. “We fear that weakening delinquency and loss trends combined with macro- and geopolitical risks could lead to waning appetite from Upstart’s credit buyers and the securitization market.”

What Do Q2 Earnings Have in Store?

Coming up next week: the start of a pivotal second-quarter earnings season. The earnings calendar will kick off with reports from the likes of Delta Air Lines (DAL), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and UnitedHealth Group (UNH). And despite Friday’s encouraging employment news, a broader cadence of data pointing toward an eventual recession has some gloomy about the coming earnings season. 

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Lindsey Bell, chief markets and money strategist for Ally Invest, isn’t necessarily one of them.

“There are plenty of reasons to be cautiously optimistic heading into what could be a volatile Q2 earnings season,” she says. “Several companies have already cut profit outlooks while others have hinted at the broad economic backdrop being not so bad. With estimates having been reduced in some key sectors and stock prices down big from earlier this year, the bar might be low enough to spark a near-term rally.”

Cautious sentiment is often best met with prudent positioning. You ultimately want your portfolio to be able to harness any surprise upside without gambling on unproven stocks with lousy fundamentals.

One way to thread that needle can be found within the Dividend Aristocrats. A reminder: The Aristocrats are a group of 65 dividend stocks that have raised their annual payout in each of the past 25 years – at a minimum. But even within this subset of income-producing royalty, you can give yourself an even higher chance at success.

The 12 Dividend Aristocrats we’re featuring today don’t just have a fantastic dividend track record – they’re also trading at fire-sale prices and boasting higher yields than they historically do. Take a look.

This is Senior Investing Editor Kyle Woodley, letting you know it’s my final day with Kiplinger. I’m extremely grateful for getting to serve Kiplinger readers for the past few years, and I wish you both good health and good fortune.

  • SEE MORE The 22 Best ETFs to Buy for a Prosperous 2022

3 Ways to Get Future Lifetime Income with Annuities

Other than Social Security or pensions, an annuity is the only financial product that can guarantee lifetime income.

If you want to secure future income with an annuity, you have three main choices. Each can be appropriate for nonqualified (taxable) accounts as well as IRAs and Roth IRAs. Each has its pros and cons.

Option 1: A deferred income annuity offers simplicity and predictability but little flexibility

A deferred income annuity (DIA) is a promise by an insurer guaranteeing to pay a stream of income starting on a set future date. You typically pay a single premium for this contract.

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You may choose to take the income for a set period, such as 15 years, but most people take the lifetime option. You can buy either a single-life annuity or a joint-life annuity to cover both spouses. The popular optional cash-refund feature guarantees that in the event of your early death prior to the income start date, your premium payment will be refunded to your beneficiaries.

This is a straightforward plan. You know exactly what your income is going to be starting on the date you’ve chosen. The downside is that there’s little or no flexibility. In exchange for the future income, you’ve turned over your money to the insurer. You’re committed.

Option 2: A fixed indexed annuity with an income rider is flexible but complex and adds fees

Fixed indexed annuities offer buyers a chance to get a portion of the stock market’s gains while offering complete protection from loss. They credit interest based on the growth of a market index, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average or S&P 500. But, uniquely, you lose nothing in down years.

By adding a lifetime-income guarantee rider, you can guarantee future income. Since the starting date for income is not set when you buy the annuity, you retain flexibility.

Normally, when you convert an annuity into an income stream, (“annuitization”), its cash surrender value becomes zero. That’s not the case here. You still own the full unused value of your annuity.

This makes it sound like this option is “have your cake and eat it too.”  In a way it is, but there are downsides.

One of the biggest ones is cost. Most insurers charge around 1% annually of the assets in the annuity to add an income rider. So, your money will grow more slowly than without the rider.

The lifetime income amount is determined by the income account value and your gender and age at the time you start receiving payments. The income account value typically grows at a guaranteed annual compounded rate of 4% to 8%, so the longer you wait, the greater the income.

  • SEE MORE An Easy Way to Find How Much You Will Spend in Retirement

The income account value and cash value of your contract are separate. The income account value is used only to calculate your guaranteed income payments. It has no cash value and cannot be withdrawn. In contrast, the contract value can be withdrawn or passed to your heirs.

Another downside is fluctuating interest rates. If the market goes through a long bear cycle, you may earn nothing on your contract value for a number of years.

Option 3: Buying a fixed-rate annuity now and converting it to an immediate annuity later on offers flexibility and guaranteed growth, but future income varies.

This can be the best choice for people who want to keep control over their money for now, stay flexible and build more future income.

A fixed-rate deferred annuity (technically, a multi-year guarantee annuity, or MYGA) acts much like a bank certificate of deposit. You deposit a lump sum and get a guaranteed interest rate for a set period, usually two to 10 years.

You’ll know to the penny what your annuity will be worth (assuming no withdrawals), at the end of the term. Interest is tax-deferred as long as you reinvest it in the annuity.

Here’s how this strategy works.

Let’s say you plan to retire in five years. You buy a five-year fixed-rate annuity. Near the end of the five-year term, you can shop the market for the best deal on an immediate-income annuity. If you hold your annuity in a nonqualified account, you can swap it tax-free, via a 1035 exchange, for an immediate annuity.

An immediate annuity is pretty much identical to a DIA except that income payments begin right away. You won’t know exactly what your income will be because immediate annuity rates will have changed in the interim.

Here’s a scenario:

Joe Doe, age 60, deposits $150,000 in a five-year MYGA that pays an annual effective rate of 4.30%. Assuming he lets the interest accumulate, the annuity will be worth $185,145 at the end of the term.

He uses that sum to buy an immediate annuity. Based on today’s rates, with a joint-life policy for him and Mrs. Doe (also 60), the payout will be $964.50 per month for as long as either spouse is alive. (Of course, he might get a better or worse deal than what’s available today.)

If it’s a nonqualified annuity, $464.89 will be taxable income and $499.61 will be nontaxable return of premium. If it’s a standard IRA annuity, payments will be fully taxable. With a Roth IRA annuity, all the income will be completely tax-free.

But suppose five years from now Joe decides to keep working for two more years. He can roll over the proceeds tax-free into a two-year MYGA and delay buying the income annuity.

Of course, he can do whatever he wants with the money in his annuity. If Joe decides to use some or all of it to sail around the world or give to charity, it’s his choice.

Different types of annuities are powerful tools for nailing down future lifetime income. None of these three options is always best for everyone. It depends on your situation and preferences.

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Is the Stock Market Closed for the Fourth of July in 2022?

Through the sheer luck of the calendar, investors will be able to enjoy yet another long Fourth of July weekend away from their brokerage accounts. That’s because the stock market is closed on the Fourth of July; Independence Day falls smack-dab on Monday, July 4 this year.

Bond traders get a slightly sweeter deal. Not only are the bond markets closed completely on Monday, but they also shut down early Friday, July 1, calling it quits at 2 p.m.

  • SEE MORE The 15 Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2022

Regular trading hours for both the stock market and the bond market resume on Tuesday, July 5.

The following is a schedule of all stock market and bond market holidays for 2022. Please note that regular trading hours for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq Stock Market are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern on weekdays. The stock markets close at 1 p.m. on early-closure days; bond markets close early at 2 p.m.

2022 Market Holidays

Date Holiday NYSE Nasdaq Bond Markets*
Monday, Jan. 17 Martin Luther King Jr. Day Closed Closed Closed
Monday, Feb. 21 Presidents’ Day/Washington’s Birthday Closed Closed Closed
Thursday, April 14 Maundy Thursday Open Open Early close
(2 p.m.)
Friday, April 15 Good Friday Closed Closed Closed
Friday, May 27 Friday Before Memorial Day Open Open Early close
(2 p.m.)
Monday, May 30 Memorial Day Closed Closed Closed
Monday, June 20 Juneteenth National Independence Day (Observed) Closed Closed Closed
Friday, July 1 Friday Before Independence Day Open Open Early close
(2 p.m.)
Monday, July 4 Independence Day Closed Closed Closed
Monday, Sept. 5 Labor Day Closed Closed Closed
Monday, Oct. 10 Columbus Day Open Open Closed
Friday, Nov. 11 Veterans Day Open Open Closed
Thursday, Nov. 24 Thanksgiving Day Closed Closed Closed
Friday, Nov. 25 Day After Thanksgiving Early close
(1 p.m.)		 Early close
(1 p.m.)		 Early close
(2 p.m.)
Friday, Dec. 23 Christmas Eve (Observed) Open Open Early close
(2 p.m.)
Monday, Dec. 26 Christmas Day (Observed) Closed Closed Closed
Friday, Dec. 30 New Year’s Eve (Observed) Open Open Early close
(2 p.m.)

* This is the recommended bond market holiday schedule from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). This schedule is subject to change.

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Market Holiday Observances

When it comes to the stock and bond markets alike, if a holiday falls on a weekend, market closures are dictated by two rules:

  • If the holiday falls on a Saturday, the market will close on the preceding Friday.
  • If the holiday falls on a Sunday, the market will close on the subsequent Monday.

Stock and Bond Market Hours

The “core trading” stock market hours for the NYSE and Nasdaq are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. However, both exchanges offer premarket trading hours between 4 and 9:30 a.m., as well as late trading hours between 4 and 8 p.m.

Bond markets typically trade between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The stock markets close at 1 p.m. on early-closure days; bond markets close early at 2 p.m.

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Parent PLUS Loans vs Private Parent Student Loans for College

Paying for college is one of the biggest expenses a parent plans for, and it can seem overwhelming. At times, you might find yourself saving up for your kid’s future education while also trying to save for your own retirement, fund a house down payment, and pay off your own debt. With the average annual […]

The post Parent PLUS Loans vs Private Parent Student Loans for College appeared first on SoFi.

10 Best Part-Time Jobs With Health Insurance Benefits

You don’t have to settle for part-time work with zero benefits. Check out these companies that offer healthcare benefits to part-time staff.