Spread & Containment
Covid-19 and Women’s Finances: 4 Money Ideas.
Covid-19 has further deteriorated the status of women’s finances. Here are four money ideas for women to consider now.
In 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote, Over the next hundred years the investment process has been democra
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Covid-19 has further deteriorated the status of women’s finances. Here are four money ideas for women to consider now.
In 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote, Over the next hundred years the investment process has been democratized. It has never been more important to understand your financial picture.
Sharon Snow, Metropolitan Capital/RIA Advisors.
Nicole Bateman and Martha Ross penned an essay for Brookings.edu titled “Why has COVID-19 been especially harmful for working women?” In their eye-opening work, the authors outline the economic challenges for women before and during the pandemic.
Nearly half of working women (pre-pandemic), 46% – $28 million, worked in low-wage jobs with median earnings of less than eleven dollars an hour. A significant number support themselves and families with low-paying positions. Per the analysis, 50% are single parents, 63% are in prime working years (age 25-54), and 57% work full time year-round, indicating this isn’t a side gig.
A panel survey of 2,557 working parents between last Mother’s Day and Father’s Day revealed that one out of every four women who lost jobs during the pandemic did so due to a lack of childcare.
More significant job loss among women.
A later study by Pew’s Stateline posted in September 2020 discovered that mothers of children 12 years old and younger lost nearly 2.2 million jobs between February and August, a 12% drop. Fathers of small children saw a 4% drop of about 870,000 jobs.
Overall, the Labor Force Participation Rate for women has increased for most cohorts. The labor force for women 75 and older has skyrocketed – rising over 107% since 2000. The LFPR for men is up half as much.
Women continue to experience longevity risk (women live longer than men) and a lifetime of lower wages. As the customary stay-at-home parents, women earn lower Social Security retirement benefits and are more dependent on spousal and survivor benefits. Due to Covid-related economic conditions, these benefits are even more critical.
Covid-19 has created more worry among women.
The sixth annual Nationwide Advisor Authority study polled 2,500 women and men, including 1,768 financial professionals and 817 investors. Harris Poll conducted the online survey from May through June 2020.
Results showcased how Covid-19 further exacerbated women’s ongoing retirement angst. Women have less room for error in saving and investing. They are more concerned with risk mitigation than men. So, it wasn’t surprising to discover that 72% of females polled said the pandemic impacted how long they will be able to live off current savings.
Also, women are more receptive to guaranteed income solutions. Over 59% of women stated they would feel more secure with a portion of their portfolios invested in annuity structures that protect against market risks. It makes sense as outliving their nest eggs is a formidable concern.
The Tsunami for working women.
Sharon sent me a copy of The Washington Women’s Leadership Initiative January 2021 presentation titled The Tsunami For Working Women – Exploring the direct impact of COVID-19 on women in the workplace.
The results didn’t surprise me. However, the ongoing damage warrants dramatic improvement and requires widespread efforts. From corporate boardrooms to advisors to inside the psyche of females, change is imminent.
Women’s financial empowerment is a topic near and dear to my heart. I have a 22-year-old daughter raised to be financially independent. She’s embraced numbers so much she begins the graduate program at Emory for scientific mathematics in the spring.
As part of the Emory Scientific Computing Group, she’ll develop fast, reliable numerical algorithms required to solve complicated mathematical problems in a wide variety of applications.
We must not let our daughters, sisters, mothers, all women, be intimidated by numbers.
In light of the state of women’s finances, here are four survival tips to consider.
1. Embrace all that feels uncomfortable.
It may be uncomfortable to stray from a comfort zone; however, think of yourself from now on as ‘the lone survivor.’ With longevity, women must embrace and understand the ‘flow’ of their household finances. After her partner is gone, it’s essential for a woman not to feel financially ‘lost.’
Perhaps your husband handles the money chores. That’s fine, but no excuse to avoid engagement at least thirty minutes a week. Consider a money date, a financial update that includes a complete review of credit usage, savings, investment goals, and spending.
Academic studies show how women are better than men at risk management. So it’s up to them to make sure male partners can communicate spending, debt controls, and saving rates. As a couple, are you both investing in a balanced, risk-efficient manner? Is your spouse riskier than you prefer with your asset allocation?
Consider hiring on an hourly basis a Certified Financial Planner, a fiduciary, to help create a comprehensive financial plan. An objective planner will coach you through the red flags, validate good fiscal habits, and outline areas of improvement.
2. Remember these two words: Risk mitigation.
In the paper “Understanding the True Cost of Health Care in Retirement, ” Nick Halen, RICP, Kelli Faust, FSA, MAAA, and Todd Taylor, FSA outline two risks that increase spending variability in retirement: long-term care events and longevity or the probability of longer life expectancy.
Studies by The Metlife Mature Market Institute®, a center of expertise in aging, longevity, and the generations outline that U.S. women live extra-long lives and 8% longer than men on average. Women face a unique series of challenges such as aging solo and overall higher healthcare expenses resulting from living extended lives.
Listen up, women: With the strong possibility of outliving a partner, investment assets must live as long you do. Special attention needs to be paid to the life and long-term care insurance areas so that retirement assets are at less risk from early depletion.
Guaranteed income products should be a strong consideration for women.
Women should consider guaranteed income structures such as annuities to bolster Social Security spousal and survivor benefits. Men are overconfident. Heck, we think we’re going to live forever. Unfortunately, we hesitate to view outlier events that can affect non-working spouses!
Subsequently, the only path to understanding how much insurance is required to mitigate risks is holistic financial planning. I rarely understand how consumers arbitrarily opt to purchase annuities or insurance products without a laser-targeted plan that includes specific dollars allocated to insurance-related products.
3. Avoid Social Security benefits blunders.
The right method to claim Social Security can make or break a woman’s household, especially if she’s aging solo and relying primarily on survivor benefits (all too common). Women suffer greater retirement insecurity than men since, generally, they’re the ones who stay at home or have careers interrupted to raise children.
A stalled work history creates what I deem “a ZERO problem,” whereby a female’s Social Security statement reflects years of earning 0, resulting in lower lifetime benefits. Thus, a higher-wage earner must wait until age 70 to claim benefits to afford higher survivor benefits for a spouse.
Our team also suggests that the non-working spouse returns to the workforce and fill those zeroes with earned income. Several years ago, I helped a female client return to her career, and I’m happy to learn how her own Social Security benefits increased from $1,200 a month to close to $1,700. Tackling those zeroes makes a big difference in lifetime benefits.
Older adults believe women live to 83.7. In actuality, they will live to 89 years old. On average, men will live to be 87. More senior adults think men will live to be 81.6. Longer life expectancies warrant serious consideration to postponing Social Security until age 70, especially in the face of dwindling private pensions.
In other words, a guaranteed income is vital to the survivability of an investment portfolio. During periods of future low investment returns, the maximization of guaranteed income options can help retirees adjust or reduce portfolio withdrawals.
Waiting until 70 is a smart Social Security strategy.
If a future Social Security recipient waits until age 70, monthly payments can be 32 percent higher than the benefits earned at full retirement age. Currently, the full retirement age is 66 and 2 months for those born in 1955; for people born in 1960 or later, FRA is 67.
It’s essential to partner with a financial professional who understands the devastating impact of impetuous Social Security claiming decisions. RIA Certified Financial Planners® have prevented individuals from losing thousands of dollars in lifetime and survivor income benefits due to misinformation from brokers, friends with strong opinions, and understandable old misconceptions.
4. Take control now!
Although inadequate financial literacy crosses both genders, women tend to score less than men on several key metrics. Women do not as well understand investment basics, life insurance, company retirement plans, and IRAs. That’s according to The American College’s Women’s Retirement Literacy Report from January.
On a positive note, their 2020 survey found that more than 9 out of 10 women with partners or spouses equally share or lead financial household decision-making. Didn’t need to tell me that. I witness it daily. Younger generations of women are more engaged, and for that, I’m thankful. However, there’s still more work to do.
Stay tuned for our upcoming live webinar/lunch & learn about how women can make better Social Security decisions.
The post Covid-19 and Women’s Finances: 4 Money Ideas. appeared first on RIA.
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The Coming Of The Police State In America
The Coming Of The Police State In America
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,
The National Guard and the State Police are now…
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Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,
The National Guard and the State Police are now patrolling the New York City subway system in an attempt to do something about the explosion of crime. As part of this, there are bag checks and new surveillance of all passengers. No legislation, no debate, just an edict from the mayor.
Many citizens who rely on this system for transportation might welcome this. It’s a city of strict gun control, and no one knows for sure if they have the right to defend themselves. Merchants have been harassed and even arrested for trying to stop looting and pillaging in their own shops.
The message has been sent: Only the police can do this job. Whether they do it or not is another matter.
Things on the subway system have gotten crazy. If you know it well, you can manage to travel safely, but visitors to the city who take the wrong train at the wrong time are taking grave risks.
In actual fact, it’s guaranteed that this will only end in confiscating knives and other things that people carry in order to protect themselves while leaving the actual criminals even more free to prey on citizens.
The law-abiding will suffer and the criminals will grow more numerous. It will not end well.
When you step back from the details, what we have is the dawning of a genuine police state in the United States. It only starts in New York City. Where is the Guard going to be deployed next? Anywhere is possible.
If the crime is bad enough, citizens will welcome it. It must have been this way in most times and places that when the police state arrives, the people cheer.
We will all have our own stories of how this came to be. Some might begin with the passage of the Patriot Act and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security in 2001. Some will focus on gun control and the taking away of citizens’ rights to defend themselves.
My own version of events is closer in time. It began four years ago this month with lockdowns. That’s what shattered the capacity of civil society to function in the United States. Everything that has happened since follows like one domino tumbling after another.
It goes like this:
1) lockdown,
2) loss of moral compass and spreading of loneliness and nihilism,
3) rioting resulting from citizen frustration, 4) police absent because of ideological hectoring,
5) a rise in uncontrolled immigration/refugees,
6) an epidemic of ill health from substance abuse and otherwise,
7) businesses flee the city
8) cities fall into decay, and that results in
9) more surveillance and police state.
The 10th stage is the sacking of liberty and civilization itself.
It doesn’t fall out this way at every point in history, but this seems like a solid outline of what happened in this case. Four years is a very short period of time to see all of this unfold. But it is a fact that New York City was more-or-less civilized only four years ago. No one could have predicted that it would come to this so quickly.
But once the lockdowns happened, all bets were off. Here we had a policy that most directly trampled on all freedoms that we had taken for granted. Schools, businesses, and churches were slammed shut, with various levels of enforcement. The entire workforce was divided between essential and nonessential, and there was widespread confusion about who precisely was in charge of designating and enforcing this.
It felt like martial law at the time, as if all normal civilian law had been displaced by something else. That something had to do with public health, but there was clearly more going on, because suddenly our social media posts were censored and we were being asked to do things that made no sense, such as mask up for a virus that evaded mask protection and walk in only one direction in grocery aisles.
Vast amounts of the white-collar workforce stayed home—and their kids, too—until it became too much to bear. The city became a ghost town. Most U.S. cities were the same.
As the months of disaster rolled on, the captives were let out of their houses for the summer in order to protest racism but no other reason. As a way of excusing this, the same public health authorities said that racism was a virus as bad as COVID-19, so therefore it was permitted.
The protests had turned to riots in many cities, and the police were being defunded and discouraged to do anything about the problem. Citizens watched in horror as downtowns burned and drug-crazed freaks took over whole sections of cities. It was like every standard of decency had been zapped out of an entire swath of the population.
Meanwhile, large checks were arriving in people’s bank accounts, defying every normal economic expectation. How could people not be working and get their bank accounts more flush with cash than ever? There was a new law that didn’t even require that people pay rent. How weird was that? Even student loans didn’t need to be paid.
By the fall, recess from lockdown was over and everyone was told to go home again. But this time they had a job to do: They were supposed to vote. Not at the polling places, because going there would only spread germs, or so the media said. When the voting results finally came in, it was the absentee ballots that swung the election in favor of the opposition party that actually wanted more lockdowns and eventually pushed vaccine mandates on the whole population.
The new party in control took note of the large population movements out of cities and states that they controlled. This would have a large effect on voting patterns in the future. But they had a plan. They would open the borders to millions of people in the guise of caring for refugees. These new warm bodies would become voters in time and certainly count on the census when it came time to reapportion political power.
Meanwhile, the native population had begun to swim in ill health from substance abuse, widespread depression, and demoralization, plus vaccine injury. This increased dependency on the very institutions that had caused the problem in the first place: the medical/scientific establishment.
The rise of crime drove the small businesses out of the city. They had barely survived the lockdowns, but they certainly could not survive the crime epidemic. This undermined the tax base of the city and allowed the criminals to take further control.
The same cities became sanctuaries for the waves of migrants sacking the country, and partisan mayors actually used tax dollars to house these invaders in high-end hotels in the name of having compassion for the stranger. Citizens were pushed out to make way for rampaging migrant hordes, as incredible as this seems.
But with that, of course, crime rose ever further, inciting citizen anger and providing a pretext to bring in the police state in the form of the National Guard, now tasked with cracking down on crime in the transportation system.
What’s the next step? It’s probably already here: mass surveillance and censorship, plus ever-expanding police power. This will be accompanied by further population movements, as those with the means to do so flee the city and even the country and leave it for everyone else to suffer.
As I tell the story, all of this seems inevitable. It is not. It could have been stopped at any point. A wise and prudent political leadership could have admitted the error from the beginning and called on the country to rediscover freedom, decency, and the difference between right and wrong. But ego and pride stopped that from happening, and we are left with the consequences.
The government grows ever bigger and civil society ever less capable of managing itself in large urban centers. Disaster is unfolding in real time, mitigated only by a rising stock market and a financial system that has yet to fall apart completely.
Are we at the middle stages of total collapse, or at the point where the population and people in leadership positions wise up and decide to put an end to the downward slide? It’s hard to know. But this much we do know: There is a growing pocket of resistance out there that is fed up and refuses to sit by and watch this great country be sacked and taken over by everything it was set up to prevent.
Spread & Containment
Another beloved brewery files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
The beer industry has been devastated by covid, changing tastes, and maybe fallout from the Bud Light scandal.
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Before the covid pandemic, craft beer was having a moment. Most cities had multiple breweries and taprooms with some having so many that people put together the brewery version of a pub crawl.
It was a period where beer snobbery ruled the day and it was not uncommon to hear bar patrons discuss the makeup of the beer the beer they were drinking. This boom period always seemed destined for failure, or at least a retraction as many markets seemed to have more craft breweries than they could support.
Related: Fast-food chain closes more stores after Chapter 11 bankruptcy
The pandemic, however, hastened that downfall. Many of these local and regional craft breweries counted on in-person sales to drive their business.
And while many had local and regional distribution, selling through a third party comes with much lower margins. Direct sales drove their business and the pandemic forced many breweries to shut down their taprooms during the period where social distancing rules were in effect.
During those months the breweries still had rent and employees to pay while little money was coming in. That led to a number of popular beermakers including San Francisco's nationally-known Anchor Brewing as well as many regional favorites including Chicago’s Metropolitan Brewing, New Jersey’s Flying Fish, Denver’s Joyride Brewing, Tampa’s Zydeco Brew Werks, and Cleveland’s Terrestrial Brewing filing bankruptcy.
Some of these brands hope to survive, but others, including Anchor Brewing, fell into Chapter 7 liquidation. Now, another domino has fallen as a popular regional brewery has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Image source: Shutterstock
Covid is not the only reason for brewery bankruptcies
While covid deserves some of the blame for brewery failures, it's not the only reason why so many have filed for bankruptcy protection. Overall beer sales have fallen driven by younger people embracing non-alcoholic cocktails, and the rise in popularity of non-beer alcoholic offerings,
Beer sales have fallen to their lowest levels since 1999 and some industry analysts
"Sales declined by more than 5% in the first nine months of the year, dragged down not only by the backlash and boycotts against Anheuser-Busch-owned Bud Light but the changing habits of younger drinkers," according to data from Beer Marketer’s Insights published by the New York Post.
Bud Light parent Anheuser Busch InBev (BUD) faced massive boycotts after it partnered with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. It was a very small partnership but it led to a right-wing backlash spurred on by Kid Rock, who posted a video on social media where he chastised the company before shooting up cases of Bud Light with an automatic weapon.
Another brewery files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Gizmo Brew Works, which does business under the name Roth Brewing Company LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 8. In its filing, the company checked the box that indicates that its debts are less than $7.5 million and it chooses to proceed under Subchapter V of Chapter 11.
"Both small business and subchapter V cases are treated differently than a traditional chapter 11 case primarily due to accelerated deadlines and the speed with which the plan is confirmed," USCourts.gov explained.
Roth Brewing/Gizmo Brew Works shared that it has 50-99 creditors and assets $100,000 and $500,000. The filing noted that the company does expect to have funds available for unsecured creditors.
The popular brewery operates three taprooms and sells its beer to go at those locations.
"Join us at Gizmo Brew Works Craft Brewery and Taprooms located in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Find us for entertainment, live music, food trucks, beer specials, and most importantly, great-tasting craft beer by Gizmo Brew Works," the company shared on its website.
The company estimates that it has between $1 and $10 million in liabilities (a broad range as the bankruptcy form does not provide a space to be more specific).
Gizmo Brew Works/Roth Brewing did not share a reorganization or funding plan in its bankruptcy filing. An email request for comment sent through the company's contact page was not immediately returned.
bankruptcy pandemic social distancing
Spread & Containment
Revving up tourism: Formula One and other big events look set to drive growth in the hospitality industry
With big events drawing a growing share of of tourism dollars, F1 offers a potential glimpse of the travel industry’s future.
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In late 2023, I embarked on my first Formula One race experience, attending the first-ever Las Vegas Grand Prix. I had never been to an F1 race; my interest was sparked during the pandemic, largely through the Netflix series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive.”
But I wasn’t just attending as a fan. As the inaugural chair of the University of Florida’s department of tourism, hospitality and event management, I saw this as an opportunity. Big events and festivals represent a growing share of the tourism market – as an educator, I want to prepare future leaders to manage them.
And what better place to learn how to do that than in the stands of the Las Vegas Grand Prix?
The future of tourism is in events and experiences
Tourism is fun, but it’s also big business: In the U.S. alone, it’s a US$2.6 trillion industry employing 15 million people. And with travelers increasingly planning their trips around events rather than places, both industry leaders and academics are paying attention.
Event tourism is also key to many cities’ economic development strategies – think Chicago and its annual Lollapalooza music festival, which has been hosted in Grant Park since 2005. In 2023, Lollapalooza generated an estimated $422 million for the local economy and drew record-breaking crowds to the city’s hotels.
That’s why when Formula One announced it would be making a 10-year commitment to host races in Las Vegas, the region’s tourism agency was eager to spread the news. The 2023 grand prix eventually generated $100 million in tax revenue, the head of that agency later announced.
Why Formula One?
Formula One offers a prime example of the economic importance of event tourism. In 2022, Formula One generated about $2.6 billion in total revenues, according to the latest full-year data from its parent company. That’s up 20% from 2021 and 27% from 2019, the last pre-COVID year. A record 5.7 million fans attended Formula One races in 2022, up 36% from 2019.
This surge in interest can be attributed to expanded broadcasting rights, sponsorship deals and a growing global fan base. And, of course, the in-person events make a lot of money – the cheapest tickets to the Las Vegas Grand Prix were $500.
That’s why I think of Formula One as more than just a pastime: It’s emblematic of a major shift in the tourism industry that offers substantial job opportunities. And it takes more than drivers and pit crews to make Formula One run – it takes a diverse range of professionals in fields such as event management, marketing, engineering and beyond.
This rapid industry growth indicates an opportune moment for universities to adapt their hospitality and business curricula and prepare students for careers in this profitable field.
How hospitality and business programs should prepare students
To align with the evolving landscape of mega-events like Formula One races, hospitality schools should, I believe, integrate specialized training in event management, luxury hospitality and international business. Courses focusing on large-scale event planning, VIP client management and cross-cultural communication are essential.
Another area for curriculum enhancement is sustainability and innovation in hospitality. Formula One, like many other companies, has increased its emphasis on environmental responsibility in recent years. While some critics have been skeptical of this push, I think it makes sense. After all, the event tourism industry both contributes to climate change and is threatened by it. So, programs may consider incorporating courses in sustainable event management, eco-friendly hospitality practices and innovations in sustainable event and tourism.
Additionally, business programs may consider emphasizing strategic marketing, brand management and digital media strategies for F1 and for the larger event-tourism space. As both continue to evolve, understanding how to leverage digital platforms, engage global audiences and create compelling brand narratives becomes increasingly important.
Beyond hospitality and business, other disciplines such as material sciences, engineering and data analytics can also integrate F1 into their curricula. Given the younger generation’s growing interest in motor sports, embedding F1 case studies and projects in these programs can enhance student engagement and provide practical applications of theoretical concepts.
Racing into the future: Formula One today and tomorrow
F1 has boosted its outreach to younger audiences in recent years and has also acted to strengthen its presence in the U.S., a market with major potential for the sport. The 2023 Las Vegas race was a strategic move in this direction. These decisions, along with the continued growth of the sport’s fan base and sponsorship deals, underscore F1’s economic significance and future potential.
Looking ahead in 2024, Formula One seems ripe for further expansion. New races, continued advancements in broadcasting technology and evolving sponsorship models are expected to drive revenue growth. And Season 6 of “Drive to Survive” will be released on Feb. 23, 2024. We already know that was effective marketing – after all, it inspired me to check out the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
I’m more sure than ever that big events like this will play a major role in the future of tourism – a message I’ll be imparting to my students. And in my free time, I’m planning to enhance my quality of life in 2024 by synchronizing my vacations with the F1 calendar. After all, nothing says “relaxing getaway” quite like the roar of engines and excitement of the racetrack.
Rachel J.C. Fu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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