As a financial professional, you build your business on trust. Clients seek guidance on their most important life decisions, and that relationship is founded on more than just numbers. It's about connection.

What if you could deepen that connection, expand your reach and strengthen your team while making a tangible difference in your community?

Strategic community engagement offers a powerful way to do that. It's about aligning your firm's values with meaningful action.

The benefits go far beyond a simple tax deduction. When done right, giving back can boost brand recognition, drive referrals and foster a company culture that top talent wants to be a part of.

Let's explore how real advisers are turning community spirit into business growth.

Build your brand by building your community

In a crowded marketplace, a strong brand helps you stand out. Community involvement is an authentic way to show your firm's values.

Instead of just telling people about your causes, demonstrate them through action, creating a reputation that marketing dollars can't buy.

Just ask Rob Russell of Russell Total Wealth and Wellness. His Dayton, Ohio, firm decided to move beyond sporadic donations and focus its philanthropic efforts on four core pillars:

• Supporting military veterans and first responders
• Mentoring local youth
• Improving community health care
• Boosting Dayton's business reputation

By becoming a lead sponsor for such organizations as Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Russell name became highly visible at local events.

This strategic approach didn't just feel good; it helped elevate the firm's profile and showed the community who they were.

Turn authentic connections into client relationships

Many advisers find their best clients through referrals, which are built on trust. Community engagement is a natural way to build that trust on a wider scale.

When potential clients see you and your team volunteering or passionately supporting a local cause, they see you as more than just an adviser. They see you as a neighbor.

This is exactly what the team at Russell Total Wealth and Wellness experienced. The firm's deep community involvement led to referrals, including a client who likely would have never attended a traditional seminar. These clients were drawn to the firm's genuine commitment to the community.

David Brooks of Retire SMART found a similar path to connection, with a different method. His calls strategy involves re-engaging past prospects with timely, relevant information.

By reaching out with a thoughtful message tied to current events, he turns a cold lead into a warm conversation.

This approach, focused on personal connections, helped bring in a substantial number of assets in a single year. It proves that focusing on people first pays off.

Strengthen your culture and engage your team

A strong company culture is essential for attracting and retaining great employees. People want to work for a company with a purpose beyond the bottom line.

Involving your team in community initiatives can increase morale, foster teamwork and create a shared sense of pride.

Chad Slagle of Slagle Financial saw his employees become more engaged — and more grateful to work for a company with heart — by shifting to a service-oriented mission. Spurred to action by the death of a local police officer who left behind a wife and daughter, Chad founded Teaming Up for Good, his firm's philanthropic wing.

The initiative, which supports first responders, the military and children, gave his team a powerful cause to rally around. It transformed their workplace into a community of people making a difference together.

Create a legacy of lasting impact

While the business benefits are clear, the most profound outcome of community engagement is the positive change you create. By addressing local needs, you can help build a legacy that lasts.

Slagle's support for the Tyler Timmins Memorial Foundation, created in honor of the fallen officer, shows how a firm can help heal and strengthen its community in a time of need.

Similarly, Josh Bradley of Capital City Financial Partners hosted educational events with FBI agents to teach clients about elder fraud and cybersecurity. By providing this vital service, his firm became a trusted advocate for its community's most vulnerable members.

Actionable steps to get started

Ready to harness the power of giving? Here's how you can start:

Define your mission. Identify causes that align with your firm's values and resonate with your team. What are you passionate about?

Plan with purpose. Start small. You don't need a massive budget to make a difference. Choose one or two initiatives, and do them well.

Involve your team. Ask your employees what causes they value. Giving them a voice will increase buy-in and engagement.

Partner for impact: Collaborate with local nonprofits or community organizations. They have the expertise and infrastructure to help you make a real impact.

Share your story. Let your clients and community know what you're doing. Share updates in your newsletter, on social media or at client events. This inspires others and reinforces your brand's commitment.

Ultimately, integrating community engagement into your business model is a win-win. You'll build a stronger business, a more engaged team and a better community. It's a powerful reminder that doing good truly is good for business.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

The 2020s have been a transformative time for advisers. After the COVID-19 pandemic, recent years introduced an unprecedented explosion of new products, platforms, changing demographics and rising expectations from time-constrained, tech-savvy clients.

Despite these transformations, the core of successful financial advising remains unchanged: the human touch.

In my daily interactions with advisers, the overwhelming viewpoint is: In 2026 and beyond, advisers must harness the power of technology to enhance the personal, authentic connections that are the cornerstone of their role.

Advising — it runs in the family

As shown by our research, the financial advisory industry is no longer simply managing investments; it provides comprehensive financial guidance and support.

However, who receives that support and what they expect from their adviser is changing rapidly.

We're in the beginning stages of the biggest wealth transfer ever. This means new clients who differ widely from their parents and spouses in terms of risk tolerance and communication preferences.

Inheritors might not settle for simply working with their spouses' or parents' advisers. They might look elsewhere to assess their options, and a key differentiator is empathy.

This is a significant opportunity for advisers. They must:

• Adapt their human touch to better serve a younger and more diverse clientele
• Develop skills to understand and address the unique financial needs and concerns of these clients, ensuring that they feel supported and heard

We're already seeing advisers adjust their practices to account for future transitions through family-based planning. Engaging with an entire family to workshop solutions ensures all members approve of the financial strategy, building trust and fostering long-term relationships.

The most successful advisers in 2026 will be those who prioritize coaching and planning with families over transactional services to counteract the increasing complexity of clients' financial lives and the need for personalized, holistic advice.

Humans lead, and technology must follow

Technology remains a fundamental enabler of success for advisers, and the pace of change is accelerating. Great advisers use sophisticated tools to manage portfolios, account transitions and tax-loss harvesting.

As advisers have updated their practices to account for increased demand for personalized counsel, technology will evolve alongside them.

Generative AI is a prime example. Advisers can use generative AI to take notes and recap calls, allowing them to worry less about capturing next steps and instead focus on building rapport with clients.

They can also use generative AI to summarize market trends and advice quickly based on the acumen level of clients and how they like to receive information. In both cases, advancements in technology help advisers focus on the human side of advising.

Extreme investment product proliferation has led to an overwhelming number of options for advisers and their clients, and has indirectly influenced the subsequent rise of separately managed accounts (SMAs).

While SMAs allow clients to receive tailored solutions, it complicates an adviser's bird's-eye view of their entire portfolios.

As more funds become available and clients increasingly expect personalized and flexible support, advisers should leverage AI to examine which will be true value-adds.

For example, advisers should analyze what they're purchasing to confirm products are "true to label" and without "hidden" drawbacks, such as having a high expense ratio relative to the peer group average.

Though all investing is subject to risk, this extra analysis can help advisers feel confident they're giving their clients the best chance for investment success.

Advisers can also leverage tools and support from such asset managers as Vanguard to oversee ongoing portfolio management. Asset managers can help advisers achieve scalability with portfolio construction tools that can run on-demand diagnostics of portfolio risk and return drivers to create custom reports and action plans for clients.

By using AI and other tools to weed through new offerings and develop scalable solutions, advisers can more quickly make decisions, allowing them to spend more time on strategic planning, relationship management and prospecting, and less on administrative tasks.

The talent shortage is a 'right now' problem

McKinsey estimates that, by 2034, the financial services industry will face a shortage of about 100,000 advisers. As with the generational wealth transfer, this is a "right now" situation.

To account for and address shortages, firms, banks and home offices alike must rethink their practice management — both from a talent and a tool standpoint.

For example, we work with advisers who are experimenting with teaming to maximize resources and embrace efficiencies, while other advisers lean on diversified, managed model portfolios to free up time to take on new clients.

To attract and retain top talent, institutions must provide autonomy to advisers where possible. In this era of rapid innovation, it will be important to offer the freedom to choose from a broader universe of products.

Scalable, portfolio-based solutions can help advisers make their role more manageable and appealing.

Institutions can also offer training programs that focus on both technical skills and soft skills, such as communication and empathy, to help advisers connect with new prospects and existing clients.

The reality is that, even in the face of a talent shortage, expectations and demand aren't slowing down. The good news is that neither will the evolution of technology. By leaning into technology to streamline tasks and evolving practice management, advisers can stay ahead.

Conclusion

Next year will be defined by the seamless integration of innovative technology and the irreplaceable human touch.

By leveraging new technology to better provide coaching and planning and address the talent shortage, advisers can thrive in an increasingly competitive market.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Today's clients no longer want piecemeal financial help. They want a family office experience, even if they're not ultra-wealthy.

That means receiving investment guidance, tax filing and planning and estate planning all in one place. The old model of an adviser building a 60/40 portfolio or a CPA filing a return once a year no longer meets expectations.

Clients increasingly expect integrated investment, tax and estate planning support as part of holistic wealth management.

The technology options of the past — single-purpose, siloed solutions — do not deliver on this need. Tax software that doesn't integrate with financial plans or estate planning tools that operate in isolation only add friction and duplication of work.

Investments in tech and talent

Forward-thinking wealth management firms are investing in talent and technology to meet these demands. At the same time, CPAs are reshaping their roles by becoming financial advisers, affiliating tightly with advisers or being acquired outright.

While the largest CPA-affiliated wealth firms now oversee hundreds of billions in assets under management (AUM), the more telling trend is the rapid growth of integrated advisory models in which tax and wealth services are converging to meet client demand for year-round guidance.

Estate planning is evolving in the same way. Once a service reserved for ultra-high-net-worth families, estate planning access has been democratized by platforms such as Trust & Will, Vanilla and Wealth.com, which are using technology to rapidly build and update planning frameworks and documents.

Advisers understand the stakes: If clients need to go elsewhere for estate planning, the entire relationship is at risk.

With trillions set to transfer between generations over the coming decades, firms that integrate estate planning will be positioned to retain both assets and trust.

What advisers can do to keep up

For advisers, this shift means rethinking what "comprehensive" really looks like.

It's no longer enough to simply add services; data integration between these offerings is required to deliver truly holistic guidance.

Advisory firms need to start by mapping where their clients' financial, tax and estate data currently reside and then identify and address the friction points between systems and providers.

Building integrations between technology solutions enables important data sharing between tools and teams by allowing information to flow seamlessly between investment, tax and estate planning systems.

In fact, many advisers are embedding tax and estate planning platforms directly into onboarding workflows and client portals so that they become part of ongoing financial advisory conversations.

Even firms not equipped to hire in-house tax professionals and estate planners can integrate with these solutions to deliver tax and estate services that feel frictionless to clients.

Tech requirements

To truly deliver on the family office model, the adviser technology stack of the future must:

• Enable seamless data flow between financial plans, tax returns and estate documents
• Facilitate collaboration between clients, financial advisers, tax professionals and estate planners in one integrated environment
• Provide proactive insights, using automation and AI, to anticipate client needs and optimize decisions in real time

The most innovative firms have already recognized this shift and are moving quickly to make it real.

They are investing in building technology infrastructure that allows shared data without sacrificing privacy and building teams in which tax, legal and financial professionals work in coordination with one another.

Indeed, as technology and talent continue to converge, the family office experience will no longer be a privilege of the ultra-wealthy; it will become the new standard for comprehensive wealth management.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

To help you understand the trends surrounding AI and other new technologies and what we expect to happen in the future, our highly experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts. (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe.) You'll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest…

It’s a repeat of the 1990s heyday for information technology sellers. “AI is driving the strongest IT spending growth since 1996,” according to Stephen Minton, an analyst at tech market research firm IDC.

Global IT spending will jump 10% in 2026 compared with 2025, according to Gartner, a tech market research firm, pushing the IT market above $6 trillion. This comes after a very strong 2025.

Spending on AI data centers leads the way, with nearly 20% growth in the $500 billion data center market, an especially big windfall for Nvidia, the leading seller of AI chips. These “fantastically expensive” AI-optimized servers continue to sell as fast as they can be made, said John Lovelock, an analyst at Gartner, in a recent online presentation.

North America dominates global spending on AI servers for data centers, accounting for half of the total, according to Gartner. Giant AI builders such as Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are set to make up two-thirds of the spending as they race to improve their AI.

Top AI systems are seeing exploding sales, as businesses and governments shell out more money to access advanced AI tools from Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral AI, Databricks, Alibaba and others. Gartner expects a staggering 67% yearly spending growth rate on generative AI models through 2029.

Spending will be strong on cloud computing, software and IT services, too. Software sales are boosted by vendors hiking prices to account for new AI features, found in software used for analytics, sales, supply chain management and more. Software vendors feel intense pressure to introduce AI features. “It will be an extinction-level event for software not to have generative AI feature functionality in their product,” said Lovelock.

Smartphone and PC sales are in for solid growth as consumers and businesses seek out new AI-enabled models that can run AI software directly on the device. There are tailwinds beyond AI, such as an ongoing shift to cloud computing from local servers, especially by smaller companies. The expiration of support for Windows 10 by Microsoft also continues to spur companies to update PC fleets.

This level of spending is not sustainable forever, Minton noted in a recent online presentation of IDC’s forecast. But he also doesn’t see any signs of a bubble about to burst. However, there is a bit of circularity to current IT spending growth, as AI spending lifts the overall economy, which helps companies and boosts business sentiment. That drives business IT spending, including investments in AI.

Businesses express some anxiety about spending more on IT, but it’s not dinging budgets yet, with business tech spending poised to rise 10%. Many companies are starting to think of AI as a necessity to compete. Meanwhile, a lot of spending can’t be cut because it’s for must-have IT, such as cloud computing. Among the IT categories most immune to budget cuts: AI tools, software and security.

Next year is likely to be a big year for businesses racing to benefit from AI, so here’s some business advice: Have an AI policy that offers guidance to workers about what’s allowed and what’s not, and sets the rules for security and privacy. Break individual jobs into small tasks and see if AI can automate or augment a few of them.

Test and closely evaluate pilot projects. Encourage employees to test and use AI tools that the company approves. Consider sharing short video tutorials on best practices. Experiment with free AI chatbots and harness the AI tools in software already in use at your business. Many companies are initially focusing on business productivity. AI can save time by summarizing meetings, emails and reports. Or it can brainstorm or analyze data, allowing workers to make more efficient use of their time and effort.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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As financial advisers, you're focused on delivering exceptional advice to your clients. But let's face it: Compliance can sometimes feel like a roadblock rather than a resource.

However, when approached strategically, compliance can become a powerful ally in your practice — not just a box to check.

At Advisors Excel, we've learned that the key to making compliance work for everyone lies in collaboration. While our experience at AE Wealth Management provides a useful example, the principles we've developed while working closely with our advisers can apply to any financial firm.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

By fostering strong partnerships with your compliance teams, you can create an environment where compliance supports your initiatives, not stifles them.

Collaboration: The foundation of compliance success

Compliance isn't just a back-office function; it's a team effort. Financial advisers and compliance professionals need to work together to help ensure that regulatory requirements are met without disrupting the adviser-client relationship.

Open communication is the cornerstone of this collaboration. Regular compliance meetings, workshops and training sessions can help keep advisers informed about policy changes and regulatory updates.

Just as importantly, compliance professionals must ensure that advisers know exactly whom to contact when they have questions or need guidance.

Compliance teams also must be open to feedback from advisers, remembering that collaboration is a two-way street. Policies that are too complex or impractical can hinder advisers' ability to serve their clients effectively.

By inviting advisers to share their concerns and suggestions, compliance teams can create policies that are effective, realistic and user-friendly.

When advisers feel heard and supported, they're more likely to embrace compliance as a partner in their success rather than a hurdle to overcome.

Transparency: Building trust through openness

Trust is the bedrock of any successful relationship, and the adviser-compliance relationship is no exception. Transparency is essential to building that trust.

At AE, we prioritize transparency by openly sharing compliance policies, regulatory updates and even audit findings with our advisers. This openness helps advisers navigate the regulatory landscape with confidence and encourages them to proactively address potential compliance issues before they escalate.

Transparency also extends to our interactions with regulatory bodies. By maintaining clear and honest communication, we demonstrate our commitment to doing things the right way.

Advisers play a critical role in this process by adhering to documented procedures and upholding the firm's reputation for integrity.

Education: Empowering advisers to excel

The phrase "knowledge is power" may seem cliché, but this axiom is especially pertinent when it comes to compliance. Advisers who understand the "why" behind compliance requirements are better equipped to meet those standards and more inclined to integrate them into their daily practices.

Interested in more information for financial professionals? Sign up for Kiplinger’s new twice-monthly free newsletter, Adviser Angle.

That's why ongoing education is a priority. At AE, we develop training programs tailored to specific regulatory challenges advisers face. These programs help provide advisers with the knowledge and skills they need to stay compliant while focusing on what they do best: serving their clients.

When advisers feel confident in their understanding of compliance, they contribute to a culture of excellence and trust.

Moving forward together

The relationship between financial advisers and compliance teams doesn't have to be adversarial. By working together, prioritizing transparency and investing in education, we can turn compliance into a strategic advantage — one where everyone benefits.

Advisers feel supported, compliance teams thrive, and clients receive the high-quality service they deserve.

Whether you're part of a large RIA or an independent practice, these collaborative principles can help you navigate the complexities of financial regulation while building trust and driving results.

4883036 – 11/25

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Answer: Many people look forward to retiring because it typically means a break from the daily grind of work. But there’s a downside to not working — having too much free time.

If you’re starting to feel restless in retirement, you might be interested in starting a business — not necessarily for the money, but to have something meaningful to do with your time.

Let's be honest: Being a vintner sounds like a lot of fun.

If you’re 64 with $2.4 million, you might have enough money for a pretty comfortable lifestyle — especially if you have a nice Social Security check coming your way every month. Do you have enough to invest a good portion of your savings in a co-owned winery?

Clearly, there are some risks involved. Not only could taking $400,000 from your savings force you to change your broad withdrawal strategy, but you could conceivably lose all that money if your business fails.

You'll need to do some due diligence, of course. Wine making is a tough industry these days, according to Silicon Valley Bank, with only 16% of vintners saying their business was "very strong" or "rock solid" in 2024.

Some industry's headwinds might be hard to shake, as younger generations are drinking less, and U.S. wine consumption is declining due to health concerns.

That doesn’t mean investing in a winery is a poor choice, though.

Consider the benefits

While investing in a winery might be risky, Bruce Maginn, adviser at Solomon Financial, says there can be significant benefits.

“Co-owning a winery throughout retirement can have financial and personal benefits,” Maginn insists. “However, you’ll want to ensure the investment isn’t relied on for significant income.”

As Maginn explains, because the wine industry typically moves independently of traditional markets, any income your business generates could provide diversification for your portfolio.

More important, though, is the personal satisfaction you might get from owning and operating that business.

“Co-owning the winery can also give you a sense of purpose and fulfillment while enjoying retirement,” Maginn says. “It can help connect you to your community, create social engagement opportunities, and help keep you mentally active.”

Maginn also points out that a business such as a winery “could be used as a way to create a legacy for your children and grandchildren.”

Recognize and mitigate the risks

There’s no such thing as a risk-free investment, and a winery falls into that category. The risk in this situation, says Maginn, isn’t just losing your $400,000 investment. Rather, you could face additional expenses that eat into your savings even more, such as litigation, partnership disputes, and operational surprises. If you’re going to open that winery, you’ll need to factor these potential costs into your decision.

For this reason, Maginn suggests financing the $400,000 rather than pulling the money from savings.

“If you can borrow at a low percentage rate,” he says, “then the long-term math will likely work in your favor. You will likely have earned more interest than you paid to the lender.”

Adam Spiegelman, founder and wealth adviser at Spiegelman Wealth Management, agrees that the risks of owning a private business can be substantial.

"A winery is not a brokerage account," he says. "Once your money is in, it’s in. If your life changes, the market dries up, or you simply want out, it may be extremely difficult to get your capital back."

For this reason, borrowing may be a better choice than tying up your own money.

Spiegelman also warns that even if you're not relying on your business for retirement income, if it fails, it could have a huge impact on your life.

"If this goes poorly, it may affect mental health, family relationships, or retirement expectations," he says. "Pride and ego often get wrapped up in passion projects more than people realize."

All told, Spiegelman says, "Committing more than 5% [of a portfolio] to a single private winery would make most advisers nervous." In this case, a $400,000 investment represents almost 17% of a $2.4 million portfolio, making it "a very large concentration in a very risky corner of the investment universe."

Be honest about the why

Spiegelman says that in this situation, buying into the winery isn't necessarily the wrong choice. But be honest with yourself and, if applicable, your spouse or family, about why you're doing it.

"If someone loves wine, nature, hospitality or simply needs a post-career purpose, a winery can provide structure, social connection, intellectual challenge, and a reason to get out of the house," Spiegelman says. "But those positives don’t change the underlying risk."

Spiegelman suggests framing the decision as a consumption choice rather than an investment.

"If you treat it like buying a vacation home or a boat — something that may enrich your life but probably won’t enrich your net worth — the math becomes more honest," he says.

Maginn agrees.

“This opportunity could really enhance your retirement,” he insists. “If you approach the investment with a clear head, legal protection and a partner who shares your vision, then it can be a rewarding experience.”

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• Living Solely on Investment Income in Retirement: Can it Be Done?
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Because there are so few, when an exceptional restaurant gets into trouble or goes out of business, we feel a sense of loss and often wonder what happened.

It is just sad all the way around.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

That's what "Catherine" was trying to prevent when she emailed:

"Mr. Beaver, 'Patrick,' my husband, is a gifted chef, and we dreamed of a restaurant with a small, intimate space — just a few tables. Several months ago, we opened 'Patrick's Place,' and in no time, it became the town's favorite, where you had to book a week in advance.

"Friends and potential investors are trying to convince him to relocate to a space six times as large. But I warned, 'That was not our goal! You can't clone yourself. We can rent the vacant office next to us now, open a wall and have one-third more seating space. Unless you find someone with your skills who wants to come to this small town, by caving in to the pressure to expand, we will lose customers and go out of business!'

"My husband is stubborn but likes your column. Do you know something he can read that might keep us on course?"

Indeed, I do.

Path to trouble: Losing track of your North Star

Business consultants and authors Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach have written a compelling and accessible prescription for staying on track, Hone: How Purposeful Leaders Defy Drift, which is as applicable to Patrick's Place as it is to a corporation that employs thousands.

I had the most interesting Zoom interview with Tuff and Goldbach in which they defined "drift" as the deviation of a business from its intended path, its reason to exist and its elemental purpose, its North Star.

The best way to prevent drift is through "honing," which involves making continuous, purposeful adjustments to stay on track with your purpose, much like a chef hones a knife daily to maintain its sharp edge.

These authors have created an aha moment that explains how an enterprise of whatever size can slowly drift into hot water due to a lack of situational awareness.

During our interview, we discussed several of the threats to the survival of any business, no matter its size. Two issues the authors flagged for business owners:

No. 1: It's important to understand the danger of pressure to grow

Customers want consistency and predictability — it's what keeps them coming back. When companies, over time, change what they have been doing, sometimes the magic and the elemental purpose — their reason for existing — is washed away.

Pressure to grow — the temptation of greater profits — often leads to the business owner greatly expanding their footprint or establishing a second location. This can easily result in drifting off course and away from what made the business successful — its elemental purpose.

The risks include shutting down, being unable to pay suppliers and employees and facing lawsuits because, like Catherine's fear for Patrick, the owner was convinced that "bigger is better." They learn the hard way that bigger is not always better.

It is clear that Patrick is on a path that could see his restaurant drift in a direction that predictably could lead to failure, while his wife believes that gradually expanding would be more manageable — an example of honing.

No. 2: You need to keep an eye on the little things that can lead to drift

Forgetting about the needs of the people who are important to your business leads to drift. Pursuing growth or change that takes you away from your elemental purpose, resulting in a failure to uphold the standards you established in the beginning, is a path that can prove costly.

A business will rarely make a decision that is immediately destructive. More often, it's more of a gradual catastrophe because the owner ignored small things and didn't notice the impact they were having.

Then they wake up one day, and it seems that, all of a sudden, something has broken: Where are the customers?

Consider a fast-food restaurant or a chain coffee shop that offers more and more menu items that seem, at the time, to be valid. One day, the bosses realize that customers are waiting too long, and some are even walking away. Employees are unhappy, too.

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This would be a case of drift. The solution is to take a leap back in time to restore what the business was before things got out of hand.

What will lead to success?

The authors underscored that the path to success requires:

Having a clear sense of why your business exists from the points of view of your customers, employees and all the relevant stakeholders.

Asking yourself, "What do my people need to do in order to deliver on the business' purpose? Does our structure enable this to happen or interfere with it?"

Embracing curiosity — this is one of the most valuable tools in your toolbox. How can you improve? How can you make things better? Seeking ways to enhance employee engagement and customer relations should be your goal.

Hone took me back to high school when a classmate read a poem aloud, and everyone said, "That's exactly how I feel, but I could never put it into words this way!"

Tuff and Goldbach have put into words the things in business we've all looked at but maybe didn't see.

Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield, Calif., and welcomes comments and questions from readers, which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993, or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1@gmail.com. And be sure to visit dennisbeaver.com.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

As economists and investors try to weigh artificial intelligence’s role in the economy, and with stock market bubble fears on the rise, uncertainty over the fast-moving tech is running high. Taking a longer view than the day-to-day headlines, here are five forecasts to help make sense of what’s coming.

1. There will be a flurry of new AI services from leading AI firms in the next year or two to tap new revenue to cover rising costs. OpenAI, for example, recently launched an AI video social media app called Sora and a new web browser. AI companies will push harder into digital advertising and online shopping, both promising markets for their web search and AI chatbots.

2. Though free options are here to stay, AI price hikes are coming. Top tiers of service, which provide the highest-quality AI responses and much more usage, will see higher prices. Consumers and businesses will have to pay more for AI tools from Microsoft, OpenAI, Alphabet, Anthropic and others. Generative AI is being integrated into most software, from photo editing to sales tools, and prices are sure to rise.

3. AI companies will push harder to tap potentially lucrative new markets, such as education, government, medicine, energy, defense and finance. Education seems ripe for making a lot more revenue in the near term, as both colleges and K-12 schools adopt AI tech. However, note that there’s a lot of pressure to show that the tech pays off, such as by finding clear evidence that AI makes accurate medical diagnoses.

4. Market volatility is likely with bubble fears rising. Remember DeepSeek? Earlier this year, the Chinese AI company sparked a major sell-off of AI tech stocks, plus other stocks in the AI sphere. Some investors thought a new breakthrough meant AI companies wouldn’t need as many chips. That wasn’t true, but expect more DeepSeek moments, stemming from concerns related to tech advances or spending slowdowns that could crimp sales of chips and other hardware needed to support AI services.

5. Shortages of chips, energy, labor and more will slow down AI projects. The continuing shortages mean it’s very likely that some plans for data centers are delayed, as major players rush to find all the needed supplies, ranging from computer memory and storage to HVAC systems and electrical equipment. Meanwhile, there’s growing local opposition to building data centers, which is poised to get more intense. For those who fear that AI spending and development is unsustainable, these headwinds may provide some reassurance that the breakneck spending on data centers will slow down to a more sustainable pace.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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As independent advisers, we felt there was a gap in the industry — the essential support needed to truly thrive was missing. We spent countless nights huddled in my kitchen, mapping out a vision for a support system built by advisers for advisers. That vision became Advisors Excel.

Our journey from a basement office to an industry leader offers a blueprint not just for building a model independent marketing organization (IMO), but for building any successful advisory practice.

The principles we followed can be applied directly to your business, helping you create a practice that is resilient, client-focused and built for growth.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

These are the lessons we learned along the way.

Redefine your foundation: Think beyond the transaction

From day one, we knew that simply providing access to products was not enough. For an adviser, this is the equivalent of just managing a portfolio or selling a policy. While fundamental, it's the starting line, not the finish. True value lies in the comprehensive experience you create for your clients.

When we launched, we pooled our savings to build more than a distribution channel — we aimed to create a community of unrivaled partners.

Think about your own practice. Are you solely focused on the transaction, or are you building a client experience?

Consider what services you can layer on top of your core financial advice. This could include educational workshops, more comprehensive financial planning, strategic introductions to other professionals like CPAs and attorneys and even exciting interactive events that encourage clients to consider how they're spending their time, not just their money.

Your goal should be to become an indispensable part of your clients' financial lives.

Build your arsenal of support

Running a great practice requires you to be more than a great adviser. You're also a CEO, a marketer, a tech pro and a manager.

As we grew, we systematically built out services to help address the common operational hurdles that hold advisers back. You can apply the same mindset to your own business by identifying your weaknesses and strategically seeking support.

Solve complex problems. We created a dedicated case design unit because we knew advisers needed a resource for complex client situations. For you, this means building a network of specialists or mentors you can turn to.

Don't be afraid to collaborate with others to find the most ideal solutions for your clients. It demonstrates your commitment to their future.

Master your marketing. We launched a creative division to help advisers tell their stories and attract leads. Every adviser needs a marketing engine. What is your story? How are you communicating it?

Whether through a newsletter, podcast, local radio show or strong digital presence, you must find a way to connect with your ideal clients and articulate your value.

Embrace technology. We recognized the digital shift early and invested in platforms to improve efficiency and connectivity. What technology could streamline your operations?

A good CRM, financial planning software or automated marketing tools can free up your time, allowing you to focus on client-facing activities that generate revenue and deepen relationships.

The right tech isn't an expense — it's an investment in your capacity to grow.

By building out this back-office support — either in-house, through outsourcing or with a strategic partner like Advisors Excel — you can transform your practice from a one-person show into a scalable business.

Your mission is to clear away operational hurdles so you can focus on what you do best: serving clients.

Create your own community of excellence

Being an independent adviser can feel like a solitary journey, but it doesn't have to be. We made it a priority to bring advisers together for shared learning and relationship building through innovative trainings and world-class events.

The lesson for your practice is twofold: build a community for your clients and become an active member of a community for yourself.

Our first major event was a breakthrough. Seeing professionals share ideas and build friendships validated our vision.

Interested in more information for financial professionals? Sign up for Kiplinger's new twice-monthly free newsletter, Adviser Angle.

You can foster a similar sense of belonging for your clients through appreciation events, community engagement opportunities, educational seminars or client advisory boards. When clients feel like they are part of something bigger, their loyalty deepens.

Likewise, you need your own peer group. Seek out a study group, join an industry association or attend conferences.

Connecting with other successful advisers is not about finding competition. It's about finding inspiration, sharing best practices and pushing one another to be better. An environment where excellence is shared is one where everyone wins.

Your practice, your future

Looking back, our success came from sticking to a simple vision: to build the company we wish we'd had by adhering to our core principles and emphasizing core values.

For you, the call to action is to build the practice your ideal clients wish they had. Don't just be an adviser; be a partner in their success.

When you align your business model with their needs and provide the resources to help make their goals happen, the potential for your practice is limitless.

Cody Foster is co-founder of Advisors Excel in Topeka, Kansas. Advisors Excel has a mission to help "good financial advisors become great business owners so they can help people enjoy an amazing retirement." Since its founding in 2005, the company has grown from the three original founders to over 1,000 employees today, making them one of the largest employers in Topeka. 11/25-4883036

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

It’s not easy to make sense of the artificial intelligence arms race. Astronomical sums are being spent on building AI data centers, with circular financing deals stoking bubble fears. It’s not yet clear how AI big spenders will make a return on their massive investment.

At the same time, demand for AI continues to outstrip supply. AI revenue is starting to pour in, as adoption by consumers and businesses rises swiftly. Meanwhile, Big Tech companies have mountains of cash and profitable business lines.

What gives? Generative AI is a true breakthrough, but risks related to overspending are on the rise. Meanwhile, a very large portion of recent U.S. economic growth and stock market gains comes from this AI spending.

The major worry is that today’s vast spending on AI data centers is nowhere near economically sustainable. To meet the expected demand for data centers, it will require $500 billion in annual global capex spending on new data centers, according to an analysis by Bain & Company, the management consulting giant.

AI companies will have to find $2 trillion in new yearly revenue by 2030 to arrive at an economically sustainable model. There could be an $800 billion shortfall if firms don’t find new and better ways to boost sales. Don’t mistake Bain as pessimistic, though, says David Crawford, a partner at Bain and chairman of its global Technology, Media & Telecommunications practice.

“We actually believe those things will happen,” Crawford says of finding new revenue. “We're extremely bullish on this trend.” He calls generative AI more significant than anything he’s seen working at Bain for 25 years. “We’re in for an extraordinary period of innovation.”

Of course, there are plenty of others who see the growing chasm between AI spending and revenue as the telltale sign of a bubble forming. That includes many people who agree that AI is a breakthrough technology with huge potential but worry that the hype is outpacing reality.

To drill down on the looming economic challenges, look no further than OpenAI, where sales are surging, but costs are rising faster. OpenAI reportedly will see sales of roughly $10 billion in 2025, a huge feat, since ChatGPT launched in 2022. It aims to make $100 billion by 2029, but it has plans to spend hundreds of billions over the next few years.

The start-up has a complex web of deals that includes a five-year contract to buy $300 billion in computing power from Oracle, and a deal for Nvidia to invest $100 billion in OpenAI. Nvidia’s financing the purchase of its own chips, along with other circular financing deals, has stoked bubble fears. OpenAI also has tie-ups with AMD and Broadcom for chips. Amid the massive future outlays, OpenAI has a private valuation of $500 billion, more than Samsung, Johnson & Johnson or Costco. And Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and others keep spending heavily in an arms race that requires ever more computing power to build leading AI tech.

Consider a few of the major risks we see:

• A lack of rational analysis over spending, notably from some Big Tech leaders who truly believe breakthrough superintelligence is around the corner. They think underinvesting is a bigger risk than overspending.
• Funding the AI build-out is getting less transparent. Meta and others are starting to finance deals via special-purpose vehicles and other transactions that are more opaque than normal capital expenditures. That trend is sure to grow.
• AI chips need to be replaced every three to five years and account for 50% of the spending to build data centers. Even with Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Apollo and others lining up to finance deals, that replacement cycle requires much more AI revenue.

The capital that’s fueling AI’s ascent is money that can’t be put to other uses. And AI is swallowing up not just dollars, but human labor, including construction workers, electricians, HVAC specialists and IT pros needed to build data centers. Those trends drive up the cost of labor and supplies.

On the other hand, there are signs that this AI boom has staying power. Demand continues to outstrip supply for AI chips and AI computing power. OpenAI has 800 million users, showing how rapidly generative AI has been adopted. Revenue is growing swiftly, with generative AI set to reap $153 billion in revenue this year, according to a prediction by Morgan Stanley. That’s still far below capex spending, but up from zero in 2021.

Still, it’s hard to ignore the unfettered AI exuberance, including rising levels of FOMO (fear of missing out). Tech leaders, such as Jeff Bezos, even concede that some type of bubble is likely, but say it will pay off eventually. It’s hard to predict when AI excitement could cool or a pullback in spending could happen. For now, it looks like the pace of spending is set to continue for two years or more. That could unlock more opportunities with better AI tech, but also pose even more risks.

As overspending on AI occurs, one thing to keep a close eye on is AI revenue. Whole new major markets for AI are needed, beyond work software that merely boosts worker productivity.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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At airports, delays related to staffing issues surged 16% in October across major airlines, forcing an estimated 3.2 million passengers to face cancellations or long waits for delayed flights, according to reporting from Reuters.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) tracks on-time performance and causes of delays for dozens of major airlines. While the most recent available data only runs through July of this year, I took a look at the historical performance of major airlines to estimate which ones are most and least likely to leave you stranded.

To do that, I compared the track records of 10 major U.S. airlines: Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United. I looked at BTS data going back to the 2018-2019 government shutdown, the previous record holder for longest shutdown.

A major factor influencing whether your particular flight will take off on time is the airport you're flying out of. The shutdown has hit some airports harder than others. But, in addition to opting for an airport with the fewest delays, you can also opt for an airline that's most likely to get you where you're going on time.

Which airlines have the best (and worst) on time performance?

Overall, 2025 has been one of the worst for on-time performance across most major airlines, with the average on-time performance between January and July at 75.52%. That's down from just over 78% last year. The BTS hasn't even released data from the current shutdown yet, but almost all causes of delays were up in the first half of the year compared to 2024.

Still, some airlines managed to get more flights to their destination on time than others. If you want to increase your odds of departing on time, fly these airlines:

• Hawaiian: Hawaiian managed to get 82.5% of flights to their destination on time this year and has generally kept that score in the mid- to high-80s since 2019.
• Delta: While Delta's on-time performance sits at 77.55% for 2025, it's maintained above 80% since 2019, even during the height of the pandemic.
• Spirit: Among budget airlines, Spirit has been the most timely so far this year, with an on-time performance of 77.66%. For the most part, that number has been steadily climbing since the pandemic.

Which airlines should you avoid if you want to arrive on time? According to BTS data, these are the airlines least likely to depart on time:

• Frontier: In the first half of 2025, fewer than 69% of Frontier flights arrived on time. The most common reason for the delay was "aircraft arriving late." That suggests it's a chain reaction of one flight landing late, causing the next flight to take off behind schedule. Frontier's on-time performance has been consistently in the 60s since 2022. If you're taking advantage of the all-you-can-fly pass, make sure to book flights early in the morning to minimize the risk of delays.
• American: With an on-time performance of 71.86% in 2025, American Airlines has done better than Frontier, but it's still among the most delayed airlines this year. It's performance has been falling since the pandemic.
• JetBlue and Allegiant have also historically had subpar on-time performance stats, but both have slightly outperformed Frontier and American this year.

Which airlines are most affected by the air traffic control staffing shortages?

This question is a little trickier to answer. But one of the causes of delay tracked by the BTS is the National Aviation System (NAS) delay. This includes delays caused by airport operations and air traffic control, among other things.

While this statistic includes more than just air traffic control, there are some clear differences between major airlines in how many NAS delays they've reported over the years. So, another way to lower your risk of experiencing flight delays or cancellations is to avoid the airlines that may be more vulnerable to the impact of the government shutdown:

• Spirit: In the first half of 2025, 10.93% of the airline's delays were NAS-related. Looking back at previous years, that proportion is about the same and generally increasing since the pandemic.
• JetBlue: Coming in just behind Spirit is JetBlue with 9.55% of flight delays attributed to NAS. But this represents a sizeable jump over previous years when 7% to 8% of delays were NAS-related.
• Alaska and Frontier also reported above average NAS-related delays this year, but both were under 9%.

Want to increase your chances of arriving on time even further? In addition to avoiding the airlines above, opt for Hawaiian Airlines if you can. Hawaiian reported just 0.27% NAS-related delays this year and has generally kept that number well below 1% every year since 2019. No other airline comes close – though, Southwest is a distant second place on this measure.

Which airlines are most likely to cancel your flight?

Flight delays are bad enough, but sitting around at the airport only to find out your flight was canceled entirely is worse.

If you want to keep the risk of a canceled flight as low as possible, avoid these airlines:

• American: With a cancellation rate of 2.2%, American tops the list for most canceled flights in 2025 so far. That may not sound like a large number, but it's more than double the rate of some of its competitors and higher than the overall average cancellation rate of 1.72%. This is also par for the course for American, which has averaged a cancellation rate of about 2.5% since 2019.
• Frontier: Frontier isn't far behind American, with a 1.99% cancellation rate so far this year. And, that's actually an improvement over the airline's average of 2.34% since 2019.
• Allegiant, Southwest and JetBlue are also worth mentioning here. While all three have had below-average cancellation rates in 2025, their averages since 2019 are high. Allegiant's track record is the most erratic. In 2025, just 0.53% of flights have been cancelled, but its overall average since 2019 is 3.21%.

In addition to avoiding the airlines above, you have the best chance of avoiding a canceled flight on the following airlines:

• Hawaiian: So far this year, Hawaiian has cancelled just 0.89% of its flights. Outside of the pandemic, it's kept this number below 1% most years since 2019.
• Delta: Delta has a similarly low cancelation rate – just 1.05% in 2025 and averaging 1.31% since 2019. So, if you're flying somewhere that Hawaiian doesn't go, Delta is your best bet.
• Alaska and United also deserve honorable mentions. The former has higher cancellation rates than Hawaiian and Delta, but has consistently outperformed the overall average since 2019. United, on the other hand, has done well in the first half of 2025, with a cancellation rate of just 0.91%. But its historic average is just over 2%, which is better than the overall average of 2.36%, but not by much.

Hawaiian and Delta win by most measures

When you take all the stats together, Hawaiian and Delta are the airlines you can most likely depend on. They consistently have the fewest delays, fewest cancellations and appear to be the least impacted by air traffic control staffing shortages. On the flip side, Frontier consistently ranks near the bottom on most metrics. But JetBlue and American also might be more likely to keep you waiting at the airport.

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It provides a snapshot of a company's financial health at a particular point in time, typically at the end of the quarter. Tage Tracy, the author of How to Read a Financial Report, says investors who understand a balance sheet can more easily see where a company may be weaker than its management claims. And yet, says Tracy, "the balance sheet is often overlooked."

First things first. Why is it called a balance sheet? Because it lists a company's assets "balanced" against its liabilities plus its shareholders' equity — essentially, reflecting what the business has compared with how it was funded. The two sides always equal out.

There's a wealth of information to be gleaned for those who look closely. A quick peek at debt levels isn't enough. How much cash is there to offset the company's obligations? How does the debt compare with the company's earnings? How easy is it for the company to make the annual interest payments?

The answers to these questions (and more) can help you weed out the sickly from the healthy.

We'll tell you what matters most and how to find it or calculate it. We used data supplied by S&P Global Market Intelligence, but you can find corporate balance sheets and other financial statements on a number of websites, included as part of a company's earnings reports and on file at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Balance sheet and other data here are as of August 31, except where noted.

Total debt

A company's total debt includes not only bank loans and other debt but also leases for land, buildings and equipment, as well as other obligations. Net debt takes into account how much cash and liquid, cash-like investments the company is sitting on. After all, if they wanted to, executives could just make a withdrawal and pay off a chunk of what the company owes, right?

It can make a big difference. Consider Microsoft (MSFT): It had $112 billion in total debt as of June 30, but nearly $95 billion in cash and investments. Net debt was a much more palatable $17 billion.

If a company has more cash than total debt — as Alphabet (GOOG), Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL) do, by the tens of billions of dollars — net debt is actually a negative (and excellent) number.

Debt load or overload?

It's important to get an idea of how easy it is for a company to pay back its debt. That's where various debt-to-earnings metrics come in. (Earnings data come from the income statement, published with the balance sheet.)

Simply take the debt number — total or net — and divide it by profits for the past 12 months. The result tells you how many years of earnings it will take to pay back all the debt. "Needless to say, the higher that ratio is, the more financial risk is present in the company," Tracy says.

In many cases, analysts choose to divide by EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. They like this stripped-down number because it's a rough approximation of income generated strictly from the operations of the business. Though not an item on income statements, companies often calculate EBITDA for earnings presentations.

Caesars Entertainment (CZR), MGM Resorts International (MGM) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN) had net debt-to-EBITDA ratios that ranged from about 5.8 to 6.5 at the end of August. Another casino company, Las Vegas Sands (LVS), had a ratio just above 3, suggesting it has a more manageable debt load than its peers. The median number for all S&P 500 companies is 1.7.

Sometimes, analysts looking at industries that need to spend a lot on equipment subtract capital expenditures from profits. (Find cap-ex numbers in the cash-flow statement, published with other financial statements.) After all, money spent maintaining and building a business isn't available to pay off debt.

Railroad operator Norfolk Southern (NSC), for example, had a net-debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2.6. But net debt was 7.1 times the amount of EBITDA minus capital expenditures.

Interest-coverage ratio

Bigger is better for another ratio that measures a company's ability to handle borrowings. Dividing EBITDA by a company's annual interest expense (found on the income statement) is known as the interest-coverage ratio.

It can also be calculated with EBIT, or earnings before interest and taxes. The ratio gives a sense of how many years' worth of interest a company can pay with just one year of profits.

Looking again at casinos, we see that Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts recently had interest coverage ratios of 1.6 and 2.8 — the two smallest numbers among all consumer discretionary stocks in the S&P 500. This, together with the debt ratio numbers discussed above, suggests their balance sheets are strained.

Las Vegas Sands, which looked pretty good before, has an interest coverage ratio of 5.5 — better than its peers, but still below the 10.7 median number for all S&P 500 companies. MGM Resorts, however, can cover 10.8 years' worth of interest expense with its EBITDA, a much better situation than the debt ratio discussed above had implied.

The lesson: It pays to look through different lenses, and investors picking casino stocks or any other stock should use these numbers to dig deeper into the companies' businesses.

Debt vs equity

A ratio of debt to equity is calculated by dividing total debt by the amount of shareholders' equity, found near the bottom of the balance sheet. Shareholders' equity is an approximation of stockholders' stake in the company.

The debt-to-equity ratio says a lot about how much debt a company has chosen to use. And that, in turn, tells you how vulnerable it can be if its business turns bad or the economy goes south.

For instance, Kroger (KR) has received plaudits for standing up to grocery competition from Walmart (WMT) and Costco Wholesale (COST). But Kroger has borrowed a lot to stay competitive, reporting more than $25 billion in total debt, compared with less than $9 billion in equity on its balance sheet, for a ratio of 2.8 to 1.

Costco, by contrast, had about $8 billion in total debt and $27 billion in equity, for a ratio of 0.3. And you can't even calculate a debt-to-equity ratio when you figure in Costco's $14 billion in cash, which gives it negative net debt and puts it in even better shape.

Admittedly, poring over a balance sheet to parse a company's debt this finely takes a little extra work. But in corporate finances, just as in family finances, managing debt is of paramount importance.

Says Tracy: "If you remember the Great Recession from 2007 through 2009, the businesses that did not have a strong balance sheet were more susceptible to literally going out of business."

Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.

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But deciding which charities most deserve your dollars can be overwhelming. With so many worthy causes to consider, it pays to put some thought into which ones best align with your values and to research which organizations are likely to make the best use of your donations. Along with taking advantage of tax-savvy ways to give, such as contributing to a donor-advised fund or making qualified charitable distributions from an IRA, creating a budget and a schedule for giving throughout the year can help maximize your impact.

Below, we have guidance on setting up a solid giving strategy. And if you're looking for ideas for organizations where you can direct your donations, check out our list of some top-rated charities in a variety of categories.

Do some soul-searching

Start by narrowing down the types of causes you'd like to support, reflecting on the issues that matter to you most.

"I always suggest that people do a value exercise," says Colby Bircher, vice president of philanthropic strategies for donor-advised fund Fidelity Charitable. Consider bringing your children into the conversation, too. "If you want to engage the next generation in your philanthropy, you can all come up with collective shared values among the family to really help drive forth what's important to you and how you want to support that giving."

A few questions to consider: Which causes inspire you? Which populations or groups might you want to focus on, and where are they? What are you looking to accomplish with your support?

Once you've answered those questions, learn more about the issues that you care about and how charities can most effectively influence them. You might read research from foundations that specialize in an issue, attend events related to it or speak with experts, such as representatives from a charity that focuses on the issue.

Think about how you'd like a nonprofit to put your donations to work. You may want to help fund research — say, for treating Alzheimer's disease or ensuring clean drinking water. Or you may prefer to focus on organizations that advocate for policy change or that provide direct services, such as emergency aid following a disaster.

Another approach is to donate to efforts that tackle the root causes of a particular issue rather than the issue itself, says Theresa Schieber, vice president of advisory for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. This method of focusing on "systems change" may manifest as supporting education, economic opportunity and access to jobs as a means of tackling homelessness, for example, rather than developing more shelters and housing.

"A systems-change approach allows you to use a much bigger lens with a particular challenge," says Schieber.

Set your donation budget

While year's end is the high season for giving, you may want to contemplate a strategy for your charitable donations in 2026 and beyond, too. Spreading your donations throughout the year (say, on a monthly or quarterly basis) rather than waiting until the end of the year, when your budget may be squeezed by holiday expenses, can help ensure that you meet your giving goals.

A steady flow of donations during the year can be helpful for charities, too — especially causes that have faded from the headlines but still need ongoing support, from the wildfires that swept through Los Angeles early this year to the flooding that struck Texas Hill Country over the summer.

Plus, if you take the standard deduction on your tax return, you may have good reason to shift some of the contributions you'd ordinarily make by the end of this year to 2026, thanks to changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law over the summer. Starting in 2026, taxpayers who don't itemize can deduct up to $1,000 in charitable contributions, or up to $2,000 for married couples who file jointly. For the 2025 tax year, however, you don't get a deduction for charitable contributions if you don't itemize.

As you make a plan, consider setting short- and long-term goals for the amount of money you want donate and the frequency at which you'd like to give. You might plan to donate $250 per month over the next two years, for instance, and then aim to increase your monthly giving by 50%, to $375, for the two years following that. To maximize the impact of your donations, check whether your employer has a gift-matching program, which matches your donations dollar-for-dollar up to a specified limit.

Think about how you'll divvy up your donations, too. A good general guideline is the 80-20 rule, says Bircher, of Fidelity Charitable: "80% of your giving goes to an area that aligns well with your charitable mission, and 20% is reserved to giving more responsively."

In other words, you could set aside the bulk of your giving budget for your core strategy and a smaller portion for, say, donating to fundraisers that family members and friends ask you to support or providing aid after a natural disaster or when another sudden need arises.

Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.

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If you’re not sold on using AI to magically put yourself into videos to share with friends, OpenAI has a simple pitch: It’s a "blast."

"We first started playing with this 'upload yourself' feature several months ago on the Sora team, and we all had a blast with it," says OpenAI’s announcement.

That fun, addictive quality was highlighted in the example videos OpenAI shared: A man doing a backflip on a paddleboard, a person riding a horse on top of another horse and a figure skater performing a triple axle with a cat on her head, to name a few. When you use the new social app Sora, and you agree to upload your image and voice, that figure skater could be you.

Sora uses OpenAI’s powerful, and recently updated, AI video creation tool to turn simple text inputs, such as "a guy does a backflip," into highly produced videos with sound. The videos are both fantastical and shockingly realistic, with famous and nonfamous people.

Users can choose to add themselves and share their creations. The videos have watermarks and some guardrails, such as filtering content deemed harmful. But OpenAI is entering a minefield of trying to police certain content and figuring out where to draw the line, especially with teen users. Meanwhile, Sora-created videos are quickly showing up on other platforms.

Sora’s surging popularity will spur copycat apps from Meta, Google, xAI and others. And apps such as Facebook and Instagram will push more AI videos. Given OpenAI’s long-term pursuit of revenue, don’t be surprised if the company focuses on building Sora into a head-to-head competitor with Meta for users and advertising dollars.

Will people want to look at an endless newsfeed of AI videos? The answer is likely yes, at least for many. Just as TikTok caused U.S. social media giants to pivot away from images and text to short-form video, Sora is likely to spur an emphasis on AI-generated videos across the social media landscape.

The coming explosion of AI videos will rattle Washington. Expect Congress to quickly take up AI videos in hearings and new bills, focusing on fears of terrorist propaganda, violent media, privacy risks, harm to kids, misinformation and more. OpenAI’s strategy is to move fast, so it will be hard for lawmakers to keep up.

One glaring early issue is rampant copyright infringement, and it has Hollywood and other artists fuming. Early Sora videos have famous characters and celebrities, which prompted OpenAI to announce changes, but its fast-moving tactics are sure to invite lawsuits. Though OpenAI wants to negotiate with artists and media giants, it likely doesn’t fear lawsuits, especially ones that could settle some of the novel questions around AI videos and copyright.

Don’t expect any federal laws soon, but quick state action is a sure thing. Twenty states already have laws aimed at curbing deceptive uses of AI related to elections, according to the R Street Institute, a public policy think tank. However, regulating the wide-scale emergence of AI videos risks infringing on freedom of expression, so lawsuits over coming state policies are likely, too.

Beyond consumer fun, look for Sora to be a tool often used by advertisers, including small businesses. It gives marketers of all sizes a new way to create highly produced digital video ads and online content that will catch the attention of customers. There’s sure to be lots of viral AI video trends that brands look to capitalize on.

Meanwhile, the future may call for more closely vetting videos on the web as altered or made-up videos feature politicians, business leaders and other prominent people.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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As the government shutdown drags on, there’s no clear end in sight, as both parties continue to dig in their heels and talk past each other. As things stand now, the federal funding freeze could go on for a few more weeks, possibly into November.

Not all federal services have stopped, for now. Many agencies are open with skeleton crews. But services that are available now are at risk, as agencies exhaust their reserve funds. This possibility will become more likely as the Trump administration increases the number of furloughed federal employees. Many basic services remain operational.

Airports are open, as air traffic control and security workers are “essential” and must report to work, but without full pay. However, these workers are increasingly calling in sick, causing flight delays and long lines at security. Expect this to get worse. Flight cancellations are also possible in the future.

Passport processing continues, but wait times for new and renewed documents may grow longer. Some individual passport offices may be closed.

Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits will continue. However, expect delays in some services. SNAP and WIC, the low-income food aid programs, are still operating, though with reserve money dwindling, it’s uncertain for how long. If the shutdown lingers, the White House says it will use tariff revenue to fund WIC.

The National Park Service says its sites will be “as accessible as possible,” including park roads, lookouts, trails and open-air memorials. But some park sites may be closed, and services at those that are open may be limited or unavailable.

The U.S. Postal Service is still delivering mail and post offices remain open throughout the shutdown, as the service doesn’t depend on Congress for funding.

Amtrak isn’t immediately affected and trains are running as scheduled, though a prolonged shutdown could have a long-term impact on the rail service.

The Internal Revenue Service remains open, though with limited service. Tax obligations still apply, and the IRS hasn’t announced any deadline extensions. Student loan bills must be paid, and federal student financial aid will be distributed.

Agriculture Department food safety inspectors will remain on the job.

The Department of Veterans Affairs isn’t being hit as hard as many other agencies. Benefits checks will continue to be processed and delivered, and VA medical centers and outpatient clinics will remain open. But VA benefits regional offices are closed.

As the shutdown continues, federal services will increasingly be affected. Information isn’t easy to come by. Agencies have mostly stopped updating websites and social media accounts. Meanwhile, phone centers often aren’t being staffed. For questions, your congressional representative’s office may be the best bet.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

Read more

• What the Government Shutdown Means to Retirees
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Economic growth seems to be holding up OK. But the labor market is another story. You could even say that we’re in a jobs recession, with hiring down sharply and nearing the point of net job losses. What’s behind the slowdown, and does it portend an outright recession later?

Consider how much hiring has dropped this year. The rate of monthly job creation in the summer of 2024 averaged 89,000. Fast-forward to the summer of 2025 and it fell to just 29,000. More than half of all sectors and industries in the U.S. are seeing employment decline right now. The bulk of job gains now are in healthcare and hospitality. The hiring rate, meaning the number of new jobs as a percentage of total employment, is the lowest it has been since 2010, after the Great Recession.

Some of this decline was to be expected. The furious pace of hiring after the pandemic drop could never last. Tech companies, in particular, have shifted from hiring like mad to focusing efforts on developing artificial intelligence and using AI to automate work that used to require programmers.

But this is more than merely the cooling of a formerly hot jobs market. Businesses are largely avoiding hiring as they await clarity on trade policy. The federal government, a huge employer, has been shedding jobs this year as the White House has trimmed headcount. State governments are cutting back, too. Also, the labor force is shrinking amid the crackdown on illegal immigration.

And yet, there are positives propelling the economy, too. Although companies aren’t hiring for the most part, they also aren’t firing — layoffs remain low. The wealthy continue to spend freely, thanks in part to lofty asset values. Worker productivity, which had shown sluggish growth for years, has picked up recently, which suggests that companies can boost output, even without hiring much. The pro-growth features of the new tax law will start kicking in. It also headed off a scheduled rise in tax rates.

Add it up, and you get a picture of an economy balanced on a knife’s edge. It’s growing decently, but the factors underpinning that growth look fragile. A downturn in the stock market, for instance, could make affluent folks feel differently about spending so much. The massive capital investments being made in AI currently could end up being wasted if the tech doesn’t live up to its hype. A few large layoffs could tip slow job gains into outright losses, and spook consumers into spending less. (Watch the weekly initial unemployment claims for any signs of layoffs gaining steam.)

It wouldn’t take much going wrong to raise the specter of an actual recession, though it would likely be a mild one. Recessions aren’t inevitable, but they tend to hit when the economy is vulnerable to some new shock. Extra alertness is called for now.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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The banking industry is pushing for a legislative fix to the GENIUS Act, a law that established the first federal framework for stablecoins, a form of digital token that represents a fixed amount of a fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar. While the GENIUS Act prohibits stablecoin issuers from directly paying interest to holders, firms including Coinbase and Circle have circumvented this restriction by offering “rewards” programs. In these arrangements, customers lend their stablecoins to a cryptocurrency platform, which then generates yield for the customers. Banks argue this is functionally identical to interest, and are asking Congress to close what they call a dangerous regulatory loophole by explicitly banning firms from offering such rewards to customers.

Banks say these interest-bearing stablecoins pose a serious risk to the economy. They argue that, unlike bank deposits, which are protected by FDIC insurance, stablecoin holdings have no such government backstop, exposing consumers to greater risk. Banks also argue that a significant shift of funds away from traditional, insured deposits, which are the primary source of funding for bank lending, could reduce the availability of everything from home mortgages to small-business loans, slowing the broader economy. The Treasury Department has amplified this concern, estimating potential deposit outflows of up to $6.6 trillion if stablecoins are permitted to offer competitive yields. The crypto industry counters that this is fearmongering by the banking industry, claiming that allowing rewards simply introduces much-needed competition that will pressure banks to provide more competitive interest rates to customers who have earned little on their savings for over a decade.

At least for now, Congress is siding with the cryptocurrency industry. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle seem reluctant to pass a narrow fix for the GENIUS Act, fearing it could stifle innovation in a fast-growing sector. Some key Senate Banking Committee members have signaled they’re open to addressing the issue but prefer to do so within a more comprehensive crypto bill, such as the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Such a bill would establish rules for market structure, consumer protection and the roles of various regulators. Proponents of the comprehensive approach argue that a holistic framework is necessary to provide long-term clarity for the industry, rather than engaging in a legislative game of "whack-a-mole" with every new product. They believe that narrowly targeting rewards could stifle innovation and push digital asset companies offshore, undermining U.S. leadership in financial technology.

For now, the outcome of this fight is hard to predict, given that both sides are intensely lobbying lawmakers. The stakes are high for both sides, as banks aim to maintain their traditional role in taking deposits from customers and making loans to households and businesses, while stablecoin issuers seek to gain a foothold in the financial sector.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

Read more

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But for many people, having a seven-plus-figure net worth doesn't necessarily translate into feelings of financial security.

In fact, according to Northwestern Mutual's Planning & Progress Study, only one-third (32%) of American millionaires consider themselves "wealthy," and nearly half (48%) say their financial planning needs improvement.

This may seem like a paradox — despite having sufficient assets, high-net-worth (HNW) individuals often feel vulnerable.

The concern, however, is not so much about having enough money, but about managing it effectively and passing it along to the next generation efficiently and thoughtfully.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

This represents a huge opportunity for advisers interested in serving the HNW market.

But attracting and retaining HNW clients is no simple task. It requires a full complement of tools, services, expertise and skillsets to address these clients' sophisticated planning needs.

Whether an adviser is looking to bring in a new HNW client or support an existing one entering the HNW space, here are four actionable strategies they can implement to build that initial trust and deliver lasting value.

1. Elevate your capabilities

Wealthy clients have come to expect increasingly sophisticated financial planning solutions. They want an adviser who can offer a wide breadth of specialized skills and capabilities. Of course, they want a full suite of investment solutions — with access to alternative investments, separately managed accounts, direct indexing and more.

But they also want risk management, tax planning, business planning, family office services, legacy planning guidance, charitable giving advice and advanced banking capabilities.

These are nonnegotiable for many wealthy individuals today, and failing to deliver on them can be the difference between landing a client and losing their business.

But it's not enough for advisers to simply offer these products and services. They need to back it up with expertise to skillfully execute them. This is where continued education and advanced professional credentials become critical.

Obtaining designations like Certified Private Wealth Advisor® (CPWA®) and Tax Planning Certified Professional® (TPCP®), among others, not only deepen your subject matter expertise but instill confidence in HNW clients who seek that extra layer of credibility.

2. Deliver a comprehensive planning experience

It's not uncommon for HNW clients to work with multiple financial professionals — each managing a separate piece of their wealth puzzle. But this fragmented approach can be inefficient and deliver suboptimal results.

That's why more wealthy clients are seeking a one-stop-shop experience where all the different elements of their financial plans (investments, insurance, estate planning, etc.) are elegantly woven into one comprehensive strategy.

At the center of it all, they are looking for a trusted adviser to act as their financial quarterback — someone who understands the full scope of their financial lives and can serve as a point person to orchestrate a seamless, integrated plan.

To be successful in this market, aspiring HNW advisers need to clearly show how the different pieces of a comprehensive financial plan work together and help clients achieve their goals.

3. Build a strong, diversified team

To deliver the comprehensive planning experience HNW clients are looking for, you need to have the right team in place.

This means hiring talented people from diverse backgrounds — including highly credentialed investment professionals, experienced financial planners, tax and insurance experts and support players with top-notch soft skills.

The key is to build a strong, well-rounded team prepared to help clients with any situation that might arise in their lives — and do it with the level of white-glove service wealthy clients expect.

Some firms offer advisers access to specialized capabilities that reside within their corporate headquarters, which is a valuable benefit to advisers moving into the HNW space.

At Northwestern Mutual, for example, we have a dedicated team of sophisticated planners, as well as legal and tax professionals, advisers can tap for support when building bespoke plans to address HNW clients' complex goals and needs.

We also encourage advisers to participate in joint-work with their fellow advisers, where they can learn and work alongside national leaders who have more extensive experience serving the HNW market.

Advisers can also establish their own relationships with law firms, accounting firms and others to bring those specialized skills to clients and ensure there are no gaps in the planning experience.

Interested in more information for financial professionals? Sign up for Kiplinger’s new twice-monthly free newsletter, Adviser Angle.

The most successful advisers I see working with HNW clients have strong, diverse networks around them that complement and deepen their team's capabilities. Teams have even hired concierge leaders from the hospitality industry to ensure their HNW client experience provides the service clients expect.

Just be sure to remain in the role of team captain, aware of all that is happening, to deliver an efficient and tailored experience for the client.

4. Prioritize family wealth education

Eighty-four percent of HNW clients are interested in expanding their financial knowledge. Embrace your role as a teacher. Affluent families are increasingly saying the challenge isn't just managing money — it's preparing the next generation to inherit it.

That requires education and open conversations about how wealth is structured, how it aligns with the family's values and how to sustain it responsibly.

That's easier said than done. Money is the taboo topic in America. Many clients avoid conversations about finances with loved ones knowing, at times, they can be uncomfortable and emotional.

But generational wealth is not indefinite wealth. Most affluent families (70%) lose their accumulated wealth by the second generation, and the majority of millionaires say they are "self made." So, it's critical for HNW clients to involve their adult children and other heirs in planning conversations early and often.

More and more, we are seeing HNW clients place a premium on advisers who can help them navigate these difficult discussions. They highly value having a trusted partner with a deep understanding of their unique family dynamics, able to coach their families through both the technical and psychological aspects of financial planning.

By embracing this role, advisers have the unique opportunity to build trust and relationships that span generations.

Looking ahead

The wealth management industry is undergoing a profound transformation. Sophisticated planning strategies once reserved for ultra-high-net-worth individuals with $100 million or more in assets are now considered table stakes for clients with a tenth of that level of wealth.

At the same time, the advancement of digital tools has made these services more accessible for clients across all segments.

As the playing field levels, advisers are facing more competition than ever before in the HNW market. Our advisers have found great success in this environment by focusing on organic growth and forming deep relationships with clients of great potential before those clients grow into the highly competitive HNW market.

To stand out, advisers need to go beyond offering investment products and deliver a truly exceptional planning experience. HNW clients are looking for someone they can trust to understand their full financial picture, guide them through difficult decisions and help them leave a legacy that endures.

Advisers who meet the moment by delivering on this trust will ultimately win the client relationships that stand the test of time and be best positioned to not just compete, but thrive in the HNW market.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM) and its subsidiaries, including Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC), Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (Investment Brokerage Services), a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, and member of FINRA and SIPC, and Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company® (NMWMC) (Investment Advisory Services), a federal savings bank. NM and its subsidiaries are in Milwaukee, WI. Not all Northwestern Mutual representatives are advisors. Only those representatives with "Advisor" in their title or who otherwise disclose their status as an advisor of Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company (NMWMC) are credentialed as NMWMC representatives to provide advisory services.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Sales is the lifeblood of any business, and complacency can be its biggest threat. It's easy to do what we've always done, but to grow, we must commit to continuous improvement. Something as little as a 5% improvement in your conversion rate can lead to significant growth.

This isn't just about attracting new clients; it's about optimizing every interaction, from the first meeting to the follow-up touches.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

Refine your appointment skills

The first step to improving any sales process is to refine your client meetings. Every meeting is an opportunity to build trust and demonstrate value. This doesn't mean a complete overhaul; instead, look for opportunities to tweak your process. After all, small hinges can swing big doors.

Here are a few strategies to consider:

Research and prepare. Before every meeting, ensure you understand the prospective client's background, needs and preferences. Tailor your presentation to address these specifics.

Tools like Catchlight can give you more information, but so can looking up prospects on social media. In today's online world, learning more about your potential clients is easier than ever.

Master asking questions. This is an area where complacency can set in. You sit in so many similar meetings every day that it can be easy to stop listening as attentively as you should.

Many great resources are available to help you learn how to ask better questions and listen.

Offer a clear value proposition. Articulate your value proposition clearly and concisely. Clients should leave the meeting with a strong understanding of how your solutions can benefit them.

One adviser I interviewed earlier this year noted his first appointments include about 30 minutes of him clearly articulating to potential clients how his firm is different.

Enhance touchpoints between meetings

The touches between meetings are just as crucial as the meetings themselves. Consistent and meaningful follow-ups keep you top of mind and build stronger relationships.

Personalize communication. Use personalized emails and calls to check in and provide updates. Tailor your messages based on previous interactions to show you remember and care about each client.

There is so much technology to help you achieve this, from artificial intelligence tools like Zocks and ChatGPT to BombBomb videos.

Provide educational content. Share relevant articles, blogs or industry insights that might interest your clients. This positions you as a thought leader and adds value outside the sales context.

Interested in more information for financial professionals? Sign up for Kiplinger’s new twice-monthly free newsletter, Adviser Angle.

Show appreciation. Gestures like handwritten notes or small gifts can create a lasting impression and uniquely position you. Never underestimate the power of a handwritten note.

Embrace technology

Adopting the right tools to help personalize and automate at the same time can be powerful.

But one caution: Don't let technology be your excuse for not doing the basics. So often at Advisors Excel, I hear our team members complain that we don't have the best technology solution, when sometimes the answer can be to just pick up the phone and call someone.

Lead by example

As a leader, your commitment to improvement sets the tone for your entire team. Demonstrate the importance of refining the sales process by constantly looking for ways to enhance your skills and actively participating in training sessions.

Sandler Selling, which you can access yourself and also through Advisors Excel, would be a great learning opportunity for your team.

More than anything, don't ever miss an opportunity to look for ways you can adjust your process and get your entire team on board with this constant improvement. Periodically try at least two new things to keep from becoming complacent.

Remember, the small, consistent actions you take today can yield significant results in the future. Let's continue elevating our sales strategies to work toward a remarkable future.

You help people enjoy their retirement. What you do matters, so do it with excellence.

Advisors Excel's mission is simple yet profound: to help good advisers become great business owners while enabling their clients to enjoy the retirement of their dreams.

Advisors Excel has been recognized by various third parties, including Great Place to Work®, the Best of Topeka awards, and Fortune. These recognitions are based on factors such as employee surveys, workplace culture, and community voting, and are not related to the services provided by Advisors Excel or its representatives. Advisors Excel did not provide compensation to receive these recognitions; however, certain awards may have required a standard participation or application fee. Recognition by such publications or organizations should not be construed as a guarantee of future success.

Advisors Excel and its story have also been referenced in publications such as Success Magazine, Darren Hardy’s The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster, and Tony Robbins’ Money: Master the Game. These mentions are for informational purposes only and do not constitute endorsements of Advisors Excel’s services. 9/25 — 4809206

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

As strategies unravel and survival mode sets in, the true crisis isn't just financial — it's emotional. And it's a threat to the leadership structures for small businesses if left unmanaged.

In today's economic environment, small business leaders are carrying the weight of constant disruption; if left unattended, organizations risk more than profit loss — they risk leadership collapse.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

Recent data underscore this dynamic: While many small business owners remain cautiously optimistic about long-term prospects, policy uncertainty, workforce gaps and capital constraints are driving a surge in anxiety. This isn't just a resilience gap on paper — it's a leadership crisis brewing in plain sight.

Small business leaders are being asked to juggle a lot. Each day brings a new challenge, and policy uncertainty means they can sense looming danger ahead.

A recent Goldman Sachs survey of 10,000 small businesses unpacks this paradox: While many leaders remain optimistic about the long term, they harbor real hesitance about the immediate future.

Chief among their concerns is access to capital, with three-quarters of respondents citing tariffs and their ripple effects as significant sources of uncertainty.

The constant threat of the future creates a sense of quiet panic — something that can be ignored on a day-to-day basis, but can have long-term impacts as the emotional toll of the stress erodes both team and personal confidence.

For entrepreneurs, whose success generally depends on their ability to be decisive and reactive to their environment, living with this panic dulls their ability to react, leaving them weakened at a time when clarity is needed most.

This sort of decision fatigue has serious consequences: Leaders get burnt out, their teams lose confidence, and business performance tanks.

Recognizing this reality is the first step. Sustained leadership in uncertain times requires tending to both the business and the well-being of the people driving it, and just as businesses plan financial resilience for times of uncertainty, they need to plan for emotional resilience.

Emotional resilience for leaders depends on three key traits: awareness, authority and agility. This emotional power trifecta can help leaders develop more healthy coping strategies and systems of support.

Awareness

First, understand that you're not alone. The Goldman Sachs survey clearly demonstrates that anxiety during such times is both real and common. Talk to your peers, and you'll find many experiencing the same stress brought on by the relentless pressures of leadership.

You might believe you're hiding it well, but stress often reveals itself in ways you don't recognize.

The path to regaining control begins with humility, the willingness to acknowledge the emotions that might drain your capacity to lead with clarity and strength.

Suppressing these feelings only compounds the strain. By facing them openly, you create space to reset, steady yourself and lead from a place of resilience rather than depletion.

Looking for expert tips to grow and preserve your wealth? Sign up for Adviser Intel (formerly known as Building Wealth), our free, twice-weekly newsletter.

Your team looks to you for clarity and for the goals and strategies to guide them through turbulent times. They might carry the same doubts you feel, perhaps more intensely, because they often lack the broader perspective you hold.

It's essential to center yourself. When you're grounded, you can communicate with confidence and provide the direction your organization needs to navigate these unprecedented challenges.

Authority

Pause before you react. A leader weighed down by anxiety can't lead with confidence. Impulsive reactions might bring temporary relief, but grounded responses create lasting trust and clarity. Even if that pause is brief, use it deliberately as a moment of self-assessment.

Look inward. Try approaches that might feel unfamiliar at first, whether it's a breathing exercise, a mental reset or simply reframing the situation. These small acts of reflection will recenter you and give you the clarity to shift your perspective, allowing you to respond with calm, steady confidence rather than reactive urgency.

There are other coping mechanisms available, some straightforward, even obvious. Yet, the constant pressure to put out daily fires can blur your vision, keeping you locked in the urgent rather than the important.

That's why the first step is simple but powerful: Focus on what you can control. By reclaiming even a small measure of control, you create space for clarity and resilience to emerge.

This doesn't have to be complicated:

• Take 10 minutes to breathe and reset before significant conversations
• Carve out quiet time each week to reflect on priorities
• Lean on a trusted peer or mentor as a sounding board

By centering yourself in these small but intentional ways, you'll not only protect your leadership presence but also create the space to communicate a clear strategy, one your team can trust to carry them through turbulent times.

Leaders should take emotional regulation self-assessments to recognize early signs of stress or dysregulation before those emotions take hold. Awareness is the foundation for control.

Step back and reconnect with the bigger picture. It's easy to let daily urgencies shrink your vision, but authentic leadership requires reminding yourself — and those you lead — of the long-term mission. That broader perspective restores purpose and ensures that short-term stress does not overwhelm long-term strategy.

Agility

From there, practice becomes critical. Simple self-soothing techniques, such as deep breathing, journaling or even short mindfulness pauses, can recalibrate your nervous system and allow you to re-engage with clarity rather than tension.

These practices aren't indulgences; they're leadership essentials that anchor you in calm authority.

Equally important is how you connect with your team. Developing strong storytelling skills allows you to frame challenges in a way that feels both relatable and inspiring. Storytelling isn't just a communication skill — it's a leadership strategy.

In disruption, data informs, but a story inspires. When leaders communicate through a story rather than detached directives, teams see themselves in the narrative and find renewed motivation to push forward.

No leader is expected to have all the answers alone. Seeking resources on emotional regulation and resilience, whether through reading, professional development or peer networks, strengthens your toolkit while modeling humility and growth for those you lead.

Final thoughts

Leadership in turbulent times doesn't demand superhuman endurance — it requires human-centered clarity, resilience and connection.

Prioritizing emotional resilience doesn't dilute ambition; it empowers it. This is the essence of becoming a future-proofed leader — equipped to regulate emotions, stabilize teams and chart a path forward, no matter the storm.

By tending to your inner equilibrium — through self-assessment, small reflective pauses, peer support and storytelling — you strengthen not just your own leadership but also the collective resolve of your organization.

In uncertain times, leaders who recognize and regulate their emotional landscape will not only guide their teams through the present storm — they'll help shape what comes next.

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• How to Fail as a Leader

This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

In May 2025, 61% of midsize businesses and 59% of small businesses said tariffs would negatively affect them — up from 51% and 54% two months earlier, according to a survey by Bredin.

Concerns about operating costs are rising: 74% of midsize businesses and 72% of small businesses now say tariffs will increase their costs.

When tariffs were first announced, many small-business owners scrambled to make fast, high-stakes decisions. Some rushed to stockpile inventory before price hikes took effect. Others froze large orders to avoid overcommitting amid uncertainty and/or reevaluated suppliers.

Many began diversifying their supply chains, sourcing from new countries or vendors and reevaluating whether to manufacture in-house or continue outsourcing.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

These choices, often made under pressure, continue to evolve as businesses weigh cost, control and customer expectations in a volatile trade environment.

Beyond individual businesses

The ripple effects extend beyond individual businesses. As small firms scrambled to adjust, some began pulling back on capital investments, delaying equipment upgrades, hiring plans or expansion efforts.

Others, like at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, took the opportunity to innovate, jumping at a chance to outpace competitors.

For example, a New York-based wholesaler of high-end tableware sources 100% of its inventory from the EU. The company decided to accelerate purchases earlier in 2025 in anticipation of increased tariffs.

Due to the uncertainty of tariff levels, the company postponed pricing increases to its customers until tariff levels were better defined.

As a result, it had to absorb pressures on profit margins by postponing expansion plans and incremental hiring.

A Brooklyn-based terrarium business that sources a significant portion of its glass containers from China decided to import a larger quantity of supplies earlier in the year to secure inventory at current prices and to get ahead of increased tariffs.

Due to uncertainty around future tariffs, it postponed raising prices for customers until the situation became clearer.

The company absorbed cost pressures by reinvesting profits into inventory, anticipating that the tariffs on imported goods could significantly affect their prices.

By ordering a larger quantity of supplies in advance, they aimed to secure their inventory at current prices and avoid the immediate impact of the tariff changes.

Consumer confidence affected

Rising prices and uncertainty have started to weigh on consumer confidence, especially in discretionary retail. These broader shifts are reshaping not just how businesses operate, but how customers spend.

So, should small businesses absorb higher product costs, or pass them on to customers?

For business owners, here's what to keep in mind.

If absorbing the costs:

Steady prices protect customer loyalty, especially when shoppers are already feeling stretched. Conversely, sudden price jumps might drive customers to competitors.

This may be an opportunity to trim expenses behind the scenes — from renegotiating supplier contracts to cutting non-essentials — to maintain healthy profit margins. Some steps to consider:

• Cash-flow tools are more than just a helping hand. They'll show projections for different pricing options (both purchase and sales) in addition to helping consider whether financing might bridge the gap during a transitionary period.
• For some businesses, uncertainty is a force function for innovation. Be intentional with decision-making about sourcing, product mix, operations and even branding without disrupting the customer experience.

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Steps to consider if passing costs on to customers:

Signal transparency by communicating the "why" behind price changes — many customers understand the impact of global trade shifts. Trust between consumers and businesses (especially small businesses) is not to be underestimated.

Maintain healthy margins to ensure the business can continue investing in people, inventory and innovation. Saving money and keeping margins wide is not the only way to ensure business continuity.

Segment pricing strategies — some products or customer groups may be more tolerant of increases than others.

Reinforce value through service, quality or local sourcing to justify the higher price point.

As small businesses wrestle with whether to eat rising costs or raise prices, the ripple effects will shape what we pay, what's on the shelves and how confident business owners feel about the future.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Survival instincts have companies scrambling to shift their web strategies — perhaps ending the days of the open internet as we know it.

After decades of pursuing web-optimization strategies that encouraged high-volume content generation, many businesses are now feeling that their content-marketing strategies might be backfiring.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

Cut out of the deal

The high-value, high-authority content that used to promise better page rankings on Google, Bing or Brave has now been used to train the respective artificial intelligence models (Gemini, ChatGPT, Anthropic, etc.).

Businesses are feeling cut out of the deal — and their web traffic is evidence that those feelings aren't misguided.

Following the release of Google's Search Generative Experience two years ago, websites saw their web traffic dip by as much as 56%, according to Search Engine Land, while others reported figures as high as 60%.

Meanwhile, the number of news-related searches on ChatGPT grew by 212% in the last 18 months, according to a Similarweb report.

Without the incentive of web clicks and ad revenue to drive content creation, the foundation of the web as a free and open entity is called into question.

The websites, organizations, news outlets and businesses that have been creating the content and information that users seek have less reason to open the gates of their content to the AI models that seem to exploit them.

Taking a new look at web strategies

Companies that have seen a collapse of web traffic are re-evaluating their web strategy. How do they survive in a world in which AI use is both increasing and seemingly driving away their traffic?

Two things can be true at once:

• To opt out of the AI economy entirely would be disastrous for businesses
• Companies that freely feed the AI beast might be contributing to their own demise

It's a Catch-22. If companies firewall themselves off from AI, they miss out on the opportunity for AI to be aware of them and serve up their content and services.

If they do nothing, these large language models (LLMs) can continue to cannibalize their expertise without the companies seeing any upside.

The tension of this dynamic is likely to alter the structure and fundamental economics of the internet as we know it.

Given what we know about the internet, about capitalism and about how some of the major companies are handling this fallout, there are three content futures for which companies can start to prepare.

1. The microtransaction/compensation model

According to a CNBC report, while media companies such as The New York Times, Axios and Vanity Fair have been able to establish financial partnerships with AI companies that allow them to train and utilize their reporting for users, such partnerships aren't being offered to every content creator on the internet.

It's why a company such as Cloudflare recently announced it would block AI crawlers until the company was fairly compensated — a move that could turn AI into a microtransaction-dominated space, allowing companies to be paid every time their content is fed to a user.

2. The walled-garden internet

Alternatively, companies could choose to shut everything down, killing the oxygen that feeds LLMs to force paid interaction.

It's not a new concept: Industry groups have long used gated materials as a sales tool for their memberships.

By offering a sample of their content for free, companies might still be able to train AI, while capturing a more cost-effective audience in the process.

3. A winner-takes-all AI landscape

Finally, there's a simple winner-takes-all future, in which the AI platforms eliminate all ambiguity from their responses and offer only specific partner sites to their users.

It's a pay-for-play model that favors larger companies, and it's not dissimilar to the dynamic that's taken over Google search results in recent years.

The key for businesses to understand is that the AI future is still very much unfolding around us.

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As disconcerting as a collapse in web traffic might be, click-through rates and web visitors are no longer the indicators of success they once were. In most cases, a smaller number of users make up a larger portion of successful transactions for businesses.

What businesses can do

The old user numbers are gone. They're never coming back — and there's very little that business owners can do about that.

Instead, businesses should focus on controlling the things they can control and avoid falling into the trap of believing that any one AI web solution will be the definite right one or the only one.

The best AI business plan for the future is one that is nimble and unafraid of trying, failing, adapting and trying again.

Here's what business owners can do:

• Test specific queries and prompts across each LLM monthly and see how your business ranks. Tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs and others can help with this.
• Adjust your content between each benchmark to see what is helping and hurting. Remember not to base too much on any one instance, since AI does not provide the same answer every time.
• If/when you rank well, don't assume you always will. As we've learned with SEO, it is constantly evolving. Your No. 1 rank today doesn't promise a No. 1 rank tomorrow.
• Share and repurpose your content. Put it in front of people where they are, parse it out and share it across various channels — partners, social media, directories, etc. If you're part of an association or a chamber of commerce, those can be solid channels to publish to as well.

To reach customers without relying on search results, you can double down on the channels you own — your website, your email list, text messaging, streaming, events and direct interaction with your customers.

You have the opportunity to build direct relationships at a greater level of scale than ever before. Don't give that up to AI or other intermediary channels.

Beware of trend waves and hype bubbles

AI, like everything else today, is susceptible to trend waves and hype bubbles. As an example, consider the role of the "prompt engineer" — the supposed AI-proof job that we were told everyone would be hiring for two years ago. Now, those roles are essentially gone, if they ever existed.

It's the same thing today: 82% of companies are expected to adopt agentic AI in the next few years, according to a report by the Capgemini Research Instiutute, but that doesn't mean that every website should be reoriented to agentic standards.

Understanding what a fully optimized AI-future might look like should give businesses testing frameworks to bounce ideas off of. They could test what works and what doesn't — without missing out on what's happening right now.

Nothing is certain — preparing for multiple directions and having contingency plans will help businesses succeed regardless of what's ahead.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

As the smartphone industry battles tariffs and cost-conscious consumers, Apple’s new slate of iPhones figures to be a big hit.

Updated mobile software, computer chips and exterior design add up to the biggest iPhone upgrade in years. The new hardware will even catch the attention of those clinging to old models. “Apple’s 2025 product strategy is simple: Increase upgrade rates and shorten replacement cycles,” writes tech market research firm IDC in a note.

The superslim, $1,000 iPhone Air will win over many fans. The redesign is a precursor to Apple’s future foldable phone, set to launch as early as next year. Other models are the standard iPhone 17 (starting at $800) and the Pro and Pro Max (starting at $1,100 and $1,200). There are reports that early demand is very strong.

Apple has stumbled trying to launch useful artificial intelligence features, lagging competitors, such as Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta, when it comes to AI tools. The refreshed phone lineup sets Apple up for success down the road, with upgraded mobile chips that are specially designed for AI tasks right on the device.

“In designing its own chips, Apple is able to customize its specific devices for performance, power efficiency, and available features,” writes William Kerwin, an analyst at Morningstar, in a research note. “Its A-series chips for the iPhone integrate neural engines for AI capabilities like facial recognition and are optimized for power efficiency to deliver best-in-class battery life.”

Advanced hardware and a massive customer base make the iPhone a go-to device for developers creating AI apps. And as Apple catches up with AI, its deliberative approach could pay off by staying focused on privacy and security, plus everyday AI features that work well for most people.

One AI feature that Apple recently highlighted is real-time language translation with its AirPods earbuds. Apple Intelligence can also describe an image on the iPhone screen or in the camera lens, whether it’s a plant, a piece of clothing, a painting or anything in between.

Look for a big AI upgrade next year, when Apple plans a major revamp of its Siri voice assistant. The company may even partner with Google to use its Gemini AI model.

In the long term, the iPhone is expected to see solid growth in a mature smartphone market. Analysts at Morningstar expect 5% yearly growth for iPhone revenue through 2029. Admittedly, though, that is below the 10-year historical growth rate of 7%.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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The aggregate amount of wealth to be transferred is staggering, and the financial services industry has been positioning for this event for decades.

With as much as 90% of their net worth tied up in their appreciated business, successful entrepreneurs are archetypes for estate planning needs.

Wealth managers are already adept at coordinating with tax and estate professionals to help minimize their clients' tax burden — and it's this sort of high-touch team-leading effort that allows advisers to add value to a business owner before touching a dollar of their exit proceeds.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

Advising early to avoid losing clients

Advisers who are well-versed in working with business owners understand how important it is to begin advising on the client's business years in advance of a transaction — or risk losing them.

The minute a business sale closes, a throng of wealth managers will proposition the sellers. Friends, professional colleagues, even the private-equity firm that bought their business — everyone has a wealth manager contact they think the business owner should consult.

It's all too easy for the investment bank that set up the financing deal — to connect these business owners with its own wealth management practice.

Advisers need a plan

The challenge is that offering advice on a merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction often takes wealth managers out of their depth quickly. But with so many business-owning Baby Boomers set to retire, wealth advisers need a plan to ensure their business owner clients and prospects become and remain their best clients.

The good news is that to succeed with these clients doesn't require an adviser to become an M&A savant overnight.

More than anything, high-net-worth clients are seeking an increasingly personalized relationship with their wealth managers — which means managers have an opportunity to demonstrate their value by leaning in and knowing the right questions to ask.

As focused as wealth managers are on their clients' personal financial goals, they should also focus on their business goals.

Advisers need to know the details

While the wealth adviser understands how the timeline of a business sale is related to their clients' eventual retirement plan, most business sales don't play out exactly according to plan.

Businesses change hands for all kinds of reasons — they're outgrowing their founders' capabilities, acquisition multiples in their sector have become red hot or simply because the owner is burned out and wants to do something else.

Even more important is that as many as 50% of company sales are involuntary, driven by the same five D's that drive every other major decision in financial planning: divorce, death, disability, distress and disagreement.

That's why being engaged early — not just as an owner reaches retirement — is key; advisers can't be engaged in something they don't know is happening.

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Selling a business is no small task — it's a high-stakes process packed with decisions that can permanently shape an owner's net worth. They only get one shot at getting it right.

On top of that, they're juggling the emotional weight of keeping suppliers calm, reassuring customers, supporting employees and negotiating with potential buyers.

The truth is, no owner should have to navigate that alone — they need a trusted ally in their corner during this critical time.

Knowing who to introduce is key

To become that ally, wealth managers need to begin profiling and anticipating the needs of the entrepreneur years ahead of a potential exit. Teaming with and introducing the right corporate finance or M&A specialists is one way to deliver those solutions.

With their assistance, the wealth manager can develop a strong understanding of the business' operations, trends, productivity, capacities and goals.

It's these transformational business goals, such as acquisitions or recaps, that often require capital beyond the business's internal means. Businesses often raise capital multiple times before ever considering a sale.

Corporate finance professionals can help entrepreneurs understand market timing influences, terms and funding options.

Ultimately, the role of the corporate finance or M&A adviser, in a capital raise or business sale, will include managing a competitive process to find the ideal lender or investor, driving optimal terms and increasing the likelihood of closing within a defined period.

Without the right corporate adviser involved, business owners might not know or understand the full scope of deal options available to them — leaving them feeling dissatisfied or disheartened by the time the deal closes.

Delivering solutions and driving beneficial deal terms on behalf of their client will position wealth managers for long-term success.

A great financial adviser will work to bring in experts to provide answers and solutions to their business owner clients' most difficult problems and complex questions.

Ultimately, if a financial adviser wants to work with business owners, the strategy is simple:

• Plan for an estate
• Participate in growth
• Optimize the exit

The silver tsunami has created a monster wave that will last at least another decade — wealth managers need to work to catch it.

John Stewart is a registered representative of CV Securities LLC ("CVS"). CVS is a broker-dealer, and its primary business is referring business owners to investment banks and receiving referral fees for such introductions when a securities transaction closes. This arrangement may create potential conflicts of interest as CVS has a financial incentive to make such investment banking referrals. In certain situations, referring wealth management firms and other professional groups may receive a portion of the fee paid to CVS by the investment bank which may create additional conflicts of interest as those firms may have a financial incentive to make referrals of business owners to CVS. This article was prepared with editorial assistance from a third-party public relations firm compensated by CreoValo LLC. CreoValo is the parent company of CVS. CVS is a Member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information about CVS and its registered representatives, please visit FINRA BrokerCheck at www.finra.org/brokercheck. Mr. Stewart did not receive any compensation related to the preparation of this article.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Japan has entered a pivotal moment in its economic history, undertaking its most ambitious policy and structural reforms in a generation to escape from decades of stagnation. The nation’s post-war boom ended abruptly in the early 1990s, ushering in three "lost decades" of falling prices, anemic growth and a moribund stock market. Now, after a radical and long-waged battle against deflation, the frost is finally beginning to thaw.

For years, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) deployed an arsenal of unprecedented stimulus, culminating in a negative interest rate policy designed to shock the economy back to life. That experiment appears to have finally worked. Prices are rising meaningfully, and in a landmark policy shift in 2024, the central bank officially ended its era of extraordinary easing, confident that a virtuous cycle between wages and prices was at last taking hold. Savers and workers are feeling the effects, and with Japanese stocks recently hitting a 35-year high, a cautious optimism has returned. However, these efforts are pitted against the formidable and accelerating pressures of a profound demographic decline, heightened political uncertainty, and the complex risks associated with unwinding decades of monetary stimulus. The long-term outlook is one of modest but positive growth, a trajectory heavily dependent on deep-seated reforms gaining traction.

Japan's New Political Wrinkle

Adding a new layer of complexity is a sudden bout of political instability. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation on September 7, 2025, after his ruling coalition lost its majority in the July upper house elections. The ensuing leadership race injects significant policy uncertainty at a critical juncture. To secure cooperation from opposition parties, all of which favor fiscal expansion, the next government will likely adopt a more generous spending stance. This raises the risk of looser fiscal policy, creating upward pressure on long-term bond yields and complicating the BoJ’s carefully laid plans for further interest rate hikes.

The Twin Policy Challenges

This political turmoil compounds Japan's two monumental and deeply intertwined policy challenges: managing the world's largest public debt burden while simultaneously normalizing monetary policy.

Japan's gross government debt stands at a staggering 264% of GDP, the highest among developed nations. For decades, this has been manageable for two reasons: The vast majority is held by domestic investors, and the BoJ's ultra-low interest rates kept borrowing costs negligible. But as the BoJ pivots, that stability is no longer guaranteed. With interest rates rising, the cost to service this colossal debt will inevitably increase, creating a direct conflict between monetary and fiscal stability. According to Ministry of Finance estimates, a sustained 1 percentage point increase in interest rates could nearly double the government's interest payment expenses within a decade.

This creates a contradiction. The BoJ's very definition of success — achieving its 2% inflation target, which requires higher interest rates — is the primary threat to the Ministry of Finance's ability to sustainably manage the national debt.

The Demographic Drag

The most formidable constraint on Japan's long-term outlook is its demographic crisis. The country is not merely aging; it is a "super-aging" society, with nearly a third of its population over 65. Having peaked at 128.5 million in 2010, the population is projected to fall below 100 million by 2048.

This has severe economic consequences. The shrinking workforce is the primary cause of acute labor shortages, with one study projecting a shortfall of 11 million workers by 2040. This demographic drag acts as a powerful structural brake on growth. Yet, this shift has also created a bifurcated reality. While the overall economy is constrained, a powerful "silver market" of consumers aged 60 and over has emerged, accounting for an estimated ¥115 trillion in annual spending — a remarkable 48% of all personal consumption.

Japan's Quiet Revolution

In the face of these headwinds, a quiet revolution is taking hold in Japan’s corporate sector. For years, Japanese firms were notorious for hoarding cash and operating under convoluted governance structures that shielded management from accountability. This led to the so-called "Japan discount," where solvent companies persistently traded below their book value.

Spurred by a "name and shame" campaign from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, a profound cultural shift is underway. The exchange has pressured companies to improve capital efficiency and enhance corporate value, and firms are responding. In fiscal year 2024, share buybacks surged to a record ¥10 trillion, while dividend payouts reached ¥16 trillion, marking a decisive move away from unproductive cash hoarding.

This is one of three interconnected pillars of a national reform agenda. The second is a push to remake the rigid labor market through the "New Trinity" of reforms: reskilling workers, transitioning from seniority-based to job-based pay, and promoting labor mobility. The third pillar is a national mandate for digital transformation, driven by stark warnings of a "2025 digital cliff" — a scenario where failure to modernize legacy IT systems could result in massive annual economic losses.

Geopolitical Realignment

Geopolitically, Japan is repositioning itself amid escalating U.S.-China tensions. Alarmed by supply chain vulnerabilities revealed during the pandemic, Tokyo is pursuing a "China Plus One" strategy to de-risk its supply chains, using subsidies to encourage firms to move production back home or to friendly nations in Southeast Asia.

Simultaneously, Japan is deepening its alliance with the United States. In a trade deal agreed in July 2025, Japan avoided a threatened 25% U.S. tariff, with a new baseline of 15% set for most goods, including cars. In exchange, Japan committed to investing over half a trillion dollars in key U.S. sectors like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. While the deal reduces uncertainty, the outlook for Japanese exports remains fundamentally weak.

Ultimately, Japan's future will be the world’s first test case for whether an aging, highly indebted nation can innovate its way back to healthy and balanced economic growth.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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But a dive into generative AI's authority frameworks — the technical mechanisms and conceptual approaches that large language models (LLMs) use to determine the credibility of information and sources — suggests all that posting effort is more of a placebo for visibility-hungry marketers.

There's considerable evidence — including direct output from ChatGPT itself — that LinkedIn posts don't carry enough authority weight to land a company or an expert in an LLM's answers.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

Growing use of LinkedIn

The continuing steep growth of both users and revenue at LinkedIn provides evidence of business professionals pouring more time and energy into the social media platform. The Microsoft-owned site says that 1.8 million feed updates are viewed every minute on the platform.

That has caused a proliferation of low-cost services and AI-powered tools that will create LinkedIn content on a company's or executive's behalf.

Companies such as Manila-based MicroSourcing, for instance, will outsource LinkedIn posts for you using "dedicated Filipino teams," while other platforms, such as Hootsuite and Grammarly, will give you a free AI-powered tool to generate LinkedIn posts.

But while generating low-cost posts might provide comfort for anxious chief marketing officers, the authority frameworks of generative search engines don't reward or elevate posters based on volume.

These frameworks serve as a kind of information filter, seeking to pull out low-credibility sources and provide a kind of machine-vetting for the answers it provides.

AI models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT series and Google's Gemini evaluate content through five primary lenses:

Source reputation. The digital provenance of an article matters, so the authority attributed to a piece published in The New York Times, recent questions about political bias notwithstanding, will rank very highly, as will pieces published in academic or legal journals.

Most trade news outlets retain a high degree of authority, despite that industry's financial decline.

But LinkedIn, as a platform, sits low in this hierarchy because of its social media structure and high volume of self-promotional and AI-generated material — which authority frameworks, ironically, don't like one bit.

Semantic authority. Search engines assess the tone, precision and evidentiary quality of a piece. They like formal patterns of language that connote authority. LinkedIn posts lean toward conversational, promotional or vernacular language.

Citation networks. Authority frameworks rank content that's frequently cited by other authoritative sources very highly.

Think of Marc Andreessen's Software Eats the World essay, published in The Wall Street Journal in 2011, which has been cited and linked to repeatedly for more than a decade.

LinkedIn posts almost never generate this kind of downstream citation.

Content coherence. Engines evaluate whether the piece hangs together factually and analytically. It looks for focus and depth. Shallow or contradictory posts score poorly. Most LinkedIn posts aren't developed with that level of care, focus or thoroughness.

Temporal relevance. Timeliness matters, but only alongside the other factors. LinkedIn can deliver timely commentary, but it's not enough to offset the other weaknesses.

Even though some pre-2023 LinkedIn data was used by OpenAI to train ChatGPT, standard LinkedIn posts don't register highly enough on those five AI authority angles to move the visibility needle.

AI-generated posts unlikely to show up in AI search

If a LinkedIn post is AI-generated, as more than half of longer-form posts on the platform were shown to be in a recent study, the chances of it helping a firm show up in AI results are negligible.

This is why an aggressive stream of LinkedIn posts, however well-meaning, rarely improves individual or company visibility where it really matters: Inside the AI engines that are increasingly shaping commercial discovery.

It's a vexing problem, given that traditional search results differ so dramatically from the answers that AI presents.

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A quick search for any specific business-related term can quickly illustrate just how big the problem is.

For example, a standard Google search for "best non-Big Four accounting firm for quality of earnings work" returned about 300 results spread across 20 pages. That includes accounting firm websites, sponsored ads splashed across every results page and numerous "guide to best accounting firms" articles.

The same prompt given to ChatGPT returned the names of five firms, with a detailed description of why each made that shortlist. The five that did had a digital authority trail.

The 85,000 accounting firms that didn't make ChatGPT's list? They're invisible to the person making the inquiry.

What does this mean for experts?

A new kind of "publish or vanish" dynamic has arrived, paralleling the old "publish or perish" maxim in academia.

The best advice is to pour more focus and effort into work that can actually earn an authoritative, high-provenance publication rather than effecting a "spray and pray" strategy on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has important uses as a business directory and a tool for recruiting and networking.

But expecting it to be the engine of an AI visibility strategy is like training for the Olympics by walking around the block: It isn't harmful, but it isn't getting you any closer to gold either.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

The settlement is one of the largest in FTC history, with $1 billion going toward civil penalties and $1.5 billion going to Amazon customers.

The lawsuit centered on what the FTC described as "manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface designs" that "trick" consumers into joining Amazon Prime and make it difficult or confusing to cancel the automatically renewing membership program. As part of the settlement, Amazon denies any wrongdoing.

If you've ever accidentally joined Amazon Prime or enrolled without realizing that the membership would auto-renew indefinitely until you canceled, you might be entitled to a payout from this settlement. If you decided to cancel Amazon Prime only to find it confusing or complicated to actually do so, you might also qualify.

Here's what you need to know about the case itself and about the payouts that will be rolling out in the next few months.

What is the FTC lawsuit against Amazon about?

The original complaint (PDF) filed by the FTC in 2023 focuses on a two-part problem:

1. Amazon Prime is so easy to join that, according to the lawsuit, customers are accidentally enrolled without realizing it.
2. Once enrolled, the process to cancel Amazon Prime is unnecessarily confusing and complicated, according to the FTC complaint.

On the first point, the FTC describes multiple "enrollment flows" using vague language that doesn't make it clear that you're signing up for the shopping membership, let alone agreeing to let that membership auto-renew indefinitely until you cancel.

One example cited in the lawsuit was the shipping options page. At the top of the list of shipping options displaying different prices and speed options, the default selection was "FREE Same-Day Delivery with a free trial of Amazon Prime" or similar phrasing that would enroll you into Amazon Prime if you didn't actively change it to one of the other shipping options.

On the other end, the FTC alleged that the cancellation process was an unnecessarily complicated multistep process with repeated "save offers" that shoppers had to navigate through before they could finally end their Prime membership.

In Amazon's motion to dismiss the case, filed in 2023 a few months after that original complaint, the company denied the FTC's claims, arguing that the enrollment and cancellation processes for Amazon Prime "comply with current law" and that members who want to end their memberships are "given multiple simple mechanisms to cancel."

While the settlement is not an admission of guilt on the company's part, Amazon did agree to make its enrollment pages more transparent and its cancellation process more straightforward, along with the $2.5 billion in penalties and customer refunds.

How much does Amazon have to pay as part of the settlement?

As part of the agreement with the FTC, Amazon must pay $1 billion in civil penalties to the commission. It will also put $1.5 billion into a consumer fund used to provide refunds to eligible consumers.

Those eligibility requirements are discussed in more detail below. But payouts will be capped at $51 per eligible customer.

Payout levels will be tied to the number of Amazon Prime benefits you used while enrolled. That would include things such as taking advantage of free two-day shipping or watching a show on Amazon Prime Video.

Other key terms of the $2.5 billion Amazon Prime settlement

In addition to the $2.5 billion in penalties and consumer refunds, the court order also requires the company to agree to the following terms to make the Amazon Prime enrollment process more transparent and the cancellation process more straightforward:

• Amazon must use clear language (such as "join Prime") on sign-up pages, rather than potentially misleading language (such as "Yes, I want free 2-day shipping").
• If the membership automatically renews, that must be indicated on all sign-up pages along with the dates that charges and renewals will happen.
• Sign-up pages also need to clearly display the price and prominently display the decline option. That is, if you don't want to join Prime, the option to not join can't be a small link saying, "No thanks, I don't want free shipping."
• Amazon must get customers' informed consent before charging them for any good or service. Informed consent means you're aware of what you're signing up for, the fees involved, the auto-renewal feature and any other important terms.
• Canceling a membership or turning off the auto-renewal feature can't be "difficult, costly, confusing or time consuming."

Who is eligible for a payout in the $2.5 billion Amazon Prime settlement?

If you meet the criteria below, you're entitled to a full refund of the fees paid during the eligible subscription period, up to the $51 maximum:

• You enrolled in Amazon Prime from June 23, 2019, to June 23, 2025.
• You did so via a "challenged enrollment flow." That's one of the following four enrollment pages that were cited as deceptive by the FTC:
  • Universal Prime Decision page: The sign-up page where the buttons read something like "Yes, I want free shipping" or "No thanks, I don't want free shipping" even though clicking "Yes, I want free shipping" actually means you're signing up for Prime, not just agreeing to free shipping on that order.
  • Shipping Option Select page: This page typically showed up while you completed your order and includes different shipping options at different speeds and prices. The default, preselected option is usually something such as "FREE Same-Day Delivery with a free trial of Amazon Prime." Choosing that (or failing to change that default selection) would enroll you in Amazon Prime.
  • Prime Video enrollment flow: If you tried to sign up for a subscription to just Prime Video, only to realize you'd been enrolled in an Amazon Prime membership, you might be eligible for a claim in the settlement. That includes if you clicked on a "Watch with Prime" button under a movie or show you wanted to watch.
  • Single Page Checkout: This one looked similar to the "Universal Prime Decision" page, except that it was embedded in the checkout process such as the "shipping option select" page. Clicking on the button (which often displayed language like "Fast FREE Delivery" or "Try Prime FREE for 30 Days" would enroll you in the membership even if you didn't ultimately complete the checkout process. It was discontinued in 2022 following pressure from the FTC.
• After enrolling in Prime via one of these processes, you used no more than 10 Prime benefits in any given 12-month period that your subscription was active.
• You're also eligible to make a claim if you attempted to cancel your Prime subscription but were unsuccessful — even if you didn't originally sign up through one of the "challenged enrollment flows." That includes starting the cancellation process, but failing to complete it or starting it but inadvertently choosing one of the "save offers" such as "remind me later," "keep my benefits," "switch to monthly payments" or "pause membership."

How to get the Amazon Prime settlement refund

There are three groups of eligible consumers in this settlement, and payouts will go to customers in order of which group they fall under.

• The first group includes those who enrolled through one of the "challenged enrollment flows" above and used three or fewer Prime benefits during any 12-month period after enrollment. If you're in this first group, you don't need to do anything. Amazon will automatically send out your payment in the first round of payouts (see more on that below).
• The second group includes those who enrolled through one of the "challenged enrollment flows" above and used from three to 10 benefits during any 12-month period after enrollment. If you're in this group, you'll need to file a claim form that Amazon will send out. If you don't receive a form from the company, you'll also be able to find it on the settlement website once it's launched.
• The third group includes those who unsuccessfully attempted to cancel their Prime membership, regardless of how they enrolled. If you're in this group, you need to file a claim form. The same information applies as that mentioned for the second group.

If you're not sure which group you fall under, you can wait to see if you receive a payout in the first round. If you don't get a payout, you can file a claim to see if you're eligible once the claim forms go out.

When will you get your Amazon Prime refund?

The payout process began earlier this month, with the automatic payments going out to members of the first group above. This process will run from November 12 through December 24, according to the FTC.

The refund will come in the form of a PayPal or Venmo payment and you should accept the payment within 15 days of receipt. Check those accounts regularly throughout this automatic refund window.

If you miss the 15-day acceptance window, Amazon will mail a check to the default shipping address that was listed on your Amazon Prime subscription

For those in the second and third groups who aren't eligible for automatic payments, you should expect to receive a claim form from December 24 to January 23, the FTC told CBS News.

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That’s one reason passive income tends to benefit the ultra-wealthy in the long term. For the average investor, it usually means putting in time, money or both, and waiting years before returns become meaningful.

Take rental property, for example. Renovating or advertising for tenants can take months of effort. Once that’s done, the income might feel relatively hands-off, requiring a few hours of work each month. Still, as with any income source, it’s never guaranteed — despite what the latest TikTok influencer might suggest.

Dividend stocks and investment income

Receiving dividends is one of the best kinds of passive income because it doesn’t require any work once the money is invested.

When you buy a stock, you basically own a share of a company. As such, you might receive a dividend, which is part of a company’s profit that it doles out to shareholders. The more stocks you have, the more dividends you can potentially receive.

Keep in mind, these dividends are typically issued by established companies rather than start-ups, as they often have the ability to re-invest most or all their profits.

However, companies can decrease or halt dividends at any time. That’s why relying on them for a consistent income can be tricky.

Real estate and rental income

Real estate is another popular source of passive income. If you have a rental property, the money you receive from your tenants is passive. Unlike most mortgages, rent usually rises over time.

But you don’t have to buy a piece of property to take advantage of passive real estate income. Instead, you can invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), which buy shares in several different kinds of properties. For example, REITs are often invested in apartment buildings, as well as commercial and hospitality properties.

Buying a REIT has a fairly low barrier to entry, especially compared with owning a rental property. You can also sell your REIT investment at any point, making it much more liquid than rental property. You can also commit to different types of REITs at once, focusing either on individual mortgages or commercial properties.

Royalties, licensing and intellectual property

If you create an artistic or academic piece of intellectual property, you can receive royalties or licensing fees long after the work is done.

This can be one of the hardest ways to build a passive income stream though, because you need creativity and luck on your side. Writing a hit song or creating a patent-worthy product unfortunately isn’t possible for everyone.

Royalties and licensing fees can dip as your creation becomes less popular or relevant over time. This might be out of your control.

For example, in the 2010s, many bloggers made money from Amazon affiliate links when people clicked on and bought products. However, as Amazon cut affiliate percentages and Google changed their search algorithm, those bloggers saw their incomes eventually drop.

Business ownership and silent partnerships

Owning a business often demands more energy and financial commitment than almost any other type of work — but it can also deliver meaningful rewards. Once the business is running smoothly, you can hire employees to handle day-to-day operations while you continue to earn income.

That said, the early stages are rarely passive. Launching a business requires long hours, careful planning and a willingness to take on risk. Even established businesses need oversight to stay profitable, whether that means adapting to market changes or managing unexpected expenses.

Alternatively, you can invest in a business as a silent partner, sharing in the profits without being involved in operations. This approach typically requires more upfront capital than other passive income strategies, and there’s no guarantee you’ll recoup your investment. As with many passive income ideas, success often comes down to timing, preparation — and a little luck.

Why passive income fuels generational wealth

You’ve probably heard that one key to building wealth is having multiple income streams. Passive income can make this easier than juggling several jobs, but it still requires time and effort to set up. Think of it like saving for retirement — the results don’t appear overnight, and patience is essential.

If you’re starting with limited resources, dividend-paying stocks and REITs are often the most accessible options to begin building passive income.

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What are consumers doing with the most advanced artificial intelligence? Talking to chatbots, creating virtual characters and sprucing up photos, to name a few uses, according to a recent ranking of popular apps and websites by the venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz.

Tweaking a photo or building a virtual friend may seem frivolous, considering the potential for AI to spur scientific and medical breakthroughs, but tracking monthly users and visitors of generative AI apps and websites is key to understanding AI’s rise.

One major takeaway from the report is that people want general assistants. Popular AI chatbots from OpenAI, Google, xAI and Anthropic are among today’s most popular AI tools.

Top 5 Generative AI Web Products

1. ChatGPT
2. Gemini
3. Deepseek
4. Grok
5. Character.ai

Top 5 Generative AI Mobile Apps

1. ChatGPT
2. Gemini
3. AI Gallery
4. Doubao
5. Microsoft Edge

Source: The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps, Andreessen Horowitz

The biggest AI spenders need to make money from consumers to justify a mountain of capital investment. After the launch of OpenAI’s AI chatbot ChatGPT, there was talk of Google falling behind. But Google has swiftly gained ground, with popular AI tools Gemini, Google AI Studio, Google Labs and NotebookLM.

The rankings also show plenty of room for upstarts. Character.ai is among the popular apps for building a virtual companion, highlighting how many people want to create a character for roleplaying. Users can touch up selfies (another popular use) with Hypic and Peachy. Top apps to create and edit art, photos and videos include AI Gallery, Wink, YouCut, PixVerse and BeautyCam.

Then there’s writing assistance, coding assistance, language translation, web search and slideshow creation from tools such as QuillBot, Lovable, Papago, Perplexity and Gamma.

Note that China is gaining ground, with popular tools Quark, Doubao, Kimi and DeepSeek ranking highly. Quark is a general AI assistant owned by Chinese tech giant Alibaba.

Investors will closely watch these trends to see what apps can break through with consumers. And more importantly, which tools can bring in revenue.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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On paper, the numbers look strong — revenue is up, profits are respectable — but when tax season rolls around, it's like the wind gets knocked out of your sails. The success you've built suddenly feels diluted.

And that's the problem with how most business owners approach taxes. They treat them like a season instead of a strategy.

The reality is, if taxes are your single biggest expense — and for most business owners, they are — then ignoring them until April is not just inefficient … it's expensive.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

What I tell my clients is simple: The goal isn't just to pay taxes, it's to position yourself. It's not about beating the IRS. It's about understanding the system you're playing in and making the rules work for you, not against you.

Don't work harder: Plan better

Here's the truth: Wealthy individuals and successful companies aren't necessarily working harder than you. They're just thinking differently.

They look at taxes as a design opportunity. They ask better questions. They don't settle for the default approach. They coordinate strategy across their CPA, attorney and financial adviser so their tax plan doesn't just check boxes, it creates outcomes.

The deeper problem isn't just the taxes themselves — it's how business owners think about them. Too many believe tax planning is a once-a-year event, a box to check. File and forget. But that's not how the tax system works.

The tax code is a living, breathing system designed with incentives baked into it. And those incentives aren't hidden, they're just buried under years of bad advice, rushed decisions and a lack of integrated thinking.

Business owners are problem-solvers by nature. They innovate. They create. They take risks. But when it comes to their tax strategy, many are stuck in the status quo. And let's be honest: Tax season is not when strategy happens.

By the time April rolls around, the game is already over. You don't change outcomes by looking backward. You change them by planning forward. And that requires thinking differently, acting intentionally and seeing taxes not as a punishment, but as a system to navigate.

A good tax plan takes more than just a CPA

What makes this even more complicated is that most business owners don't know what they don't know. They assume their CPA is doing "all the things." But here's what most people miss — CPAs prepare tax returns. That's their job.

What they don't always do is proactively design tax strategies around your goals. That's a completely different discipline. And if there's no bridge between your adviser, your CPA and your long-term vision, the odds are high that opportunities are being missed.

Tax-saving options you may have overlooked

If you're not sure whether your CPA is helping with forward-thinking strategies, ask yourself whether there has been a conversation around any of the following possibilities:

Research & development (R&D) tax credits. Most people think R&D is just for tech giants or pharmaceutical companies, but it's not. If you're improving products, processes or software, you could qualify. These credits can offset wages, materials and more.

The "Augusta Rule" (Section 280A). Rent your personal residence to your business for up to 14 days a year and receive tax-free income, while your business deducts the expense. This is especially powerful for home-based business owners or those who host client events at home.

De minimis safe harbor election. This allows small businesses to immediately expense low-cost property purchases (such as equipment and furniture) instead of depreciating them over years. It simplifies accounting and maximizes deductions upfront.

Qualified business income (QBI) deduction (Section 199A). If you operate as a pass-through entity (LLC, S corporation, sole proprietor), you may qualify to deduct up to 20% of your business income — assuming you're under certain income thresholds or properly structured if you're not.

Bonus depreciation and Section 179 expensing. Accelerated depreciation options allow you to write off large purchases, such as vehicles, equipment and software — sometimes all in the first year. This can create immediate tax savings and boost cash flow.

Intangible drilling costs (IDCs). For those investing in oil and gas projects, a large portion of upfront costs can be written off entirely — even if the well doesn't produce. This is a high-leverage tax shelter for accredited investors looking to offset income.

Looking for expert tips to grow and preserve your wealth? Sign up for Adviser Intel (formerly known as Building Wealth), our free, twice-weekly newsletter.

Cost segregation studies. If you own commercial or investment real estate, a cost segregation study can reclassify parts of the building (e.g., electrical, HVAC) into shorter depreciation schedules — leading to significant early-year deductions.

Market value timing for Roth conversions (real estate). Converting a real estate asset from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA while the asset is under construction or undervalued can minimize taxes now and let appreciation grow tax-free long term.

BUILD Banking™ strategy (high-cash-value life insurance). Create your own "private banking" system using whole life insurance. The policy grows tax-deferred, allows tax-free access via policy loans and serves as an asset-protected reserve of liquidity for business needs or succession planning.

1031 exchanges (like-kind real estate swaps). Sell appreciated investment property and defer capital gains taxes by reinvesting in similar real estate. This keeps money working and avoids the tax drag from selling outright.

Opportunity zones. Reinvest capital gains into designated opportunity zone projects and defer, reduce or even eliminate future taxes — especially if held for 10-plus years. This opens the door for tax-advantaged real estate or business development.

These are a few of the most commonly overlooked strategies, but these aren't just about saving money. They're about creating margin — space between what you earn and what you lose to inefficiency. And for business owners, that margin is where opportunity lives.

It's not about how much you make …

There's a big disconnect between earning money and keeping it. Just because your business is profitable doesn't mean your personal financial life is efficient.

I've seen owners with seven-figure top lines who still feel like they're drowning when tax time rolls around — because they never took the time to build a cohesive plan that aligns income, taxes and long-term strategy.

Business owners deserve better than that. They deserve to operate from a position of control, not confusion. But that starts by acknowledging the problem: Tax planning, as most people approach it, is broken. It's disjointed, reactive and often disconnected from the bigger picture.

You don't need more hustle. You don't need more grind. You need a new framework for how you think about money, about taxes and about what's really possible when those things are aligned.

A comprehensive plan includes cash flow

You see, real tax strategy starts with how you think about your money. It's not just about deductions or credits. It's about building an ecosystem around your business that channels income efficiently, legally and with purpose.

That's how you create sustainable, tax-efficient wealth. That's how you scale your business and build a personal balance sheet that actually keeps up with your effort.

And here's the part most people miss: Your tax strategy is your cash flow strategy. When you're able to keep more of what you earn, you unlock the ability to reinvest in your business, secure your retirement, fund new ventures and live with more freedom.

That's what this is really about — control, flexibility and having options.

But none of that happens by accident. It starts with intention. With getting clear about what you want your money to do for you. With seeing tax planning as part of a bigger picture — not an afterthought, not a reaction but a proactive part of your financial design.

Now, I'm not a CPA, and I'm not your tax preparer. My job is to help you think differently. To bring ideas to the table that most people never hear because they're stuck in a system built for compliance, not optimization.

I work with business owners to help align their cash flow, their tax strategy and their personal goals so that all the pieces move in sync.

Because when they do? That's when you stop surviving and start scaling. That's when you stop asking, "How much am I going to owe?" and start asking, "How much can I keep working for me?"

Believe it or not, the IRS wants to reward you

The tax code wasn't written to punish business owners. It was written to reward them — for taking risks, creating jobs, innovating and reinvesting. But if you're not actively designing your strategy, you're likely leaving more money on the table than you realize.

All you need is a road map — a way of viewing your business and your money through a strategic lens, where every decision compounds into greater efficiency and more control.

That's exactly why I put together "The Cash Flow Guide" — to help business owners like you shift from reactive to proactive, from hoping to planning.

This is a practical resource designed to help you align income, eliminate inefficiencies and keep more of what you earn. Because earning more is great — but keeping more in a tax-efficient, sustainable way? That's a game-changer.

Download the Cash Flow Guide at BrianSkrobonja.com.

Securities offered only by duly registered individuals through Madison Avenue Securities, LLC. (MAS), Member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services offered only by duly registered individuals through Skrobonja Wealth Management (SWM), a registered investment advisor. Tax services offered only through Skrobonja Tax Consulting. MAS does not offer Build Banking or tax advice. Skrobonja Financial Group, LLC, Skrobonja Wealth Management, LLC, Skrobonja Insurance Services, LLC, Skrobonja Tax Consulting, and Build Banking are not affiliated with MAS.

Alternative investments may be subject to less regulation than other types of pooled investment vehicles. Alternative Investments may impose significant fees, including incentive fees that are based upon a percentage of the realized and unrealized gains and an individual's net returns may differ significantly from actual returns. Such fees may offset all or a significant portion of such Alternative Investment's trading profits.

Incorporating alternative investments into a portfolio presents the opportunity for significant losses including in some cases, losses which exceed the principal amount invested.

Also, some alternative investments have experienced periods of extreme volatility and in general, are not suitable for all investors. Asset allocation and diversification strategies do not ensure profit or protect against loss in declining markets.

BUILD Banking™ is a DBA of Skrobonja Insurance Services, LLC. Benefits and guarantees are based on the claims paying ability of the insurance company. Not FDIC insured. Results may vary.

Any descriptions involving life insurance policies and its use as an alternative form of financing or risk management techniques are provided for illustration purposes only, will not apply in all situations, may not be fully indicative of any present or future investments, and may be changed at the discretion of the insurance carrier, General Partner and/or Manager and are not intended to reflect guarantees on securities performance.

The term BUILD Banking™, private banking alternatives or specially designed life insurance contracts (SDLIC) are not meant to insinuate that the issuer is creating a real bank for its clients or communicating that life insurance companies are the same as traditional banking institutions. This material is educational in nature and should not be deemed as a solicitation of any specific product or service. BUILD Banking™ is offered by Skrobonja Insurance Services, LLC only and is not offered by Madison Avenue Securities, LLC. nor Skrobonja Wealth Management, LLC.

This content is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the particular needs of an individual's situation.

Skrobonja Financial Group, LLC, Skrobonja Insurance Services, LLC, Skrobonja Wealth Management, LLC are not permitted to offer and no statement made during this presentation shall constitute tax or legal advice. Our firms are not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Government or any governmental agency. The information and opinions contained herein provided by third parties have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed by Skrobonja Financial Group, LLC, Skrobonja Insurance Services, LLC, Skrobonja Wealth Management, LLC.

A Roth IRA Conversion is a taxable event.

The appearances in Kiplinger were obtained through a PR program. The columnist received assistance from a public relations firm in preparing this piece for submission to Kiplinger.com. Kiplinger was not compensated in any way.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Europe’s economy has struggled for years, going back to the fiscal crisis in Greece a decade ago and continuing through the pandemic, war and inflation. Debt continues to bedevil some countries, especially France, which is facing a budget crisis. But look further ahead and there is hope for the European Union’s economies.

The eurozone, the 20-nation currency area that uses the euro, grew at a pace of just 0.1% in the second quarter. More timely data shows that the euro area’s economy remains weak but has so far been able to avoid a contraction in the face of U.S. tariffs. While part of the weakness in recent months reflects payback from an increase in production by European exporters in anticipation of potential U.S. tariffs, underlying growth, including private consumption and investment, also remains sluggish. Higher tariffs are likely to dampen growth in the third quarter, as exporters adjust to the 15% across-the-board duty and as the EU reduces tariffs on U.S. industrial goods.

But growth is likely to pick up in coming quarters. The Purchasing Managers’ Index for the currency bloc and other economic data show steady improvement this year. Meanwhile, the forward-looking components of recent economic surveys point to a further pickup ahead.

Euro area countries engaged in aggressive fiscal cuts after the 2008 global financial crisis. Germany didn’t help matters by enshrining a debt brake in its constitution and limiting structural deficits to just 0.35% of GDP. European economies followed the same pattern during the 2014 euro area crisis, when some of the most heavily indebted countries, including Greece and Italy, went through painful austerity to cut their deficits.

Europe’s prolonged private-sector deleveraging has been another major impediment to growth in recent years because it weakened demand across countries as debt loads needed to be pared down. Weaker banks compounded Europe’s deleveraging woes. In the wake of the global financial crisis, non-performing loans went through the roof and the European Central Bank’s negative interest rates depressed the banking sector’s profitability. By 2013, banks’ return on equity had reached a low of 1%.

After years of painful economic adjustments, the EU is in better shape in important ways. The private sector is now faring much better. Outside of France, the sector’s debt load has fallen from a peak of 110% of GDP to 95%, the lowest level in 17 years. Households and corporations are flush with cash, and debt servicing ratios are healthy across Europe, except in France.

Similarly, European banks have now greatly rebuilt their balance sheets. Non-performing loans are no longer a threat, capital and liquidity ratios are robust and profitability has improved. Given that banks dominate European lending, accounting for about 70% of firms’ borrowing (compared with 25% in the U.S.), a healthier banking sector will help European growth improve and will support capital spending.

The succession of crises in recent years – the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and more recently trade tensions with the U.S. – has highlighted the need for more fiscal spending, both at the country and the EU level. Germany, the EU’s biggest economy, is spearheading the fiscal shift in Europe. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has lifted Germany’s debt brake and is embarking on a $1.2 trillion spending spree focused on defense and infrastructure that will boost the broader EU economy.

Meanwhile, political turmoil in France has forced French President Emmanuel Macron to appoint a fifth prime minister in less than two years, making investors question whether the country can find the political consensus to rein in its ballooning budget deficit. Nevertheless, contagion from France’s government bond market to the rest of the euro area will probably be muted and short-lived unless the crisis in France becomes much bigger.

Yields on long-dated German and French government bonds have risen to multiyear highs as investors weigh the impact of rising debt levels and political instability in France. The French, German and Italian 30-year bond yields rose to their highest levels since the euro area crisis. The rise in borrowing costs comes amid concerns that the plans for increased defense spending in Germany will cause public debt to rise at a time when the regional economy is still weak.

Further ahead, the EU has strongly committed to deepening integration and addressing fragmentation. Positive sentiment towards the common currency and the EU is at an all-time high among Europeans after the bloc demonstrated its benefits by its successful handling of the pandemic and energy crisis. The EU also continues its efforts towards a capital market union to make European capital markets deeper and more liquid.

That said, some risks remain for Europe. The political crisis in France could add a layer of uncertainty over the next year to a still-weak economy. Drafting and passing a 2026 budget will become even harder for the French government, delaying fiscal consolidation and potentially worsening France’s debt trajectory. The rise of populist parties fueled by voters’ anger after the recent era of sluggish growth and high immigration also threatens to slow down, or potentially even derail, the EU’s plans for further integration.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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It usually takes a while for small businesses to adopt new technology. Compared to larger firms, smalls have tighter budgets and fewer employees to roll out new tech to.

But AI is bucking the traditional wait-and-see approach.

Already, 58% of smalls use generative artificial intelligence, according to the 2025 Empowering Small Business Report, a recent survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That’s up from 40% in 2024, as more businesses harness AI chatbots, AI coding tools and image creation tools.

Most small businesses, defined in the survey as companies with fewer than 250 employees, believe their competitors are using AI or plan to do so soon. There are signs that AI adoption is helping businesses improve sales, keep customers, save money and otherwise enhance their operations.

AI use is sure to jump next year, too, as more AI tools become fully integrated into popular business software for marketing, payroll, accounting, inventory, sales, human resources and communications. Examples include QuickBooks, LinkedIn, Workday and Grammarly. Companies also tap the AI features built into search engines, such as Google and Perplexity, as well as AI tools from Facebook that make advertising on social media easier.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Businesses even report using AI to navigate tariffs, find lower-cost suppliers, process returns, fulfill last-minute delivery, prevent fraud and develop customer insights, according to the survey.

AI trial and error

So what’s stopping some companies from taking the plunge? Top concerns include quality, cost and legal issues of AI tools. That hesitation comes with risk, as other businesses plow ahead and potentially gain an advantage.

Unlike large firms, most small businesses aren’t building custom AI tools from scratch, and instead are using it in traditional software and free options, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Microsoft Office’s Copilot. And it’s not just office workers. Blue collar workers are increasingly using AI features in software designed for plumbers, electricians, painters and other tradespeople.

AI’s fast adoption is spurring small businesses to increasingly look for AI skills when hiring, and help current employees with AI training. “Nearly all (98%) small business AI users are working to upskill their employees,” according to the survey.

Still, it won’t be easy to find the best, most productive uses of AI. Strapped for time and money? Start by harnessing AI in software you have already purchased or try free tools. Don’t be surprised if some efforts fall short.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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The new game-changer is artificial intelligence (AI).

AI is the biggest business breakthrough in the last century. It's not theoretical. It's here, it's real, and it's evolving fast. So, let's lean into it to give us back something precious: time.

After years of advising startups, I can recognize a tipping point when it arrives. Right now, we're at one for time management, and AI is the key.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

Whether you're a founder buried in pitch decks, a product manager juggling road maps or a solo operator aiming to outperform, AI can lighten your load, sharpen your focus and let you channel your energy where it truly counts.

If AI could put time in a bottle …

Miles Davis once said, "Time isn't the main thing. It's the only thing." Time is your most limited resource. You can't create more of it or recruit it, but you can manage it better. And that's where AI comes in.

The trick isn't just using AI. It's understanding how it can amplify your efforts. Automate the mundane. Speed up research. Draft faster. Dive deeper into analysis.

Don't chase every shiny tool. Identify your bottlenecks and delegate them to AI. Real productivity is about achieving more by doing less of the unimportant stuff. This isn't about taking the easy road; it's about working smarter on a scale we've never seen before.

How AI made my life (and business) better

I'll be honest: Not long ago, I felt overwhelmed. As an entrepreneur, I lost control of my time the moment I launched my company. You think you'll be your own boss? Wrong. You trade one boss for many: clients, customers, vendors — you name it.

I became a slave to my calendar. Every Sunday night, I planned my week. Every morning, I tackled the day's emergencies. In between? Meeting. Call. Meeting. Call. Repeat.

That endless cycle left no room for the work that truly matters: reflection, vision, strategy, leadership. If I'm not doing those, who is? If I'm the CEO but also the dishwasher and the stamp-licker, where's the leadership? Where's the intentionality? Where's the time to build strategic partnerships or lead my team with clarity and purpose?

That's when "buying back my time" became vital, and where implementing AI made a difference.

It's a productivity powerhouse

Pop culture often reduces AI to a chatbot writing your kid's book report. However, let's elevate the conversation: AI is a powerful tool for productivity. It's how I escaped email ping-pong to schedule a 30-minute call. Ten emails to find a time? Not anymore.

AI manages my calendar with more efficiency and intelligence than most humans. That's not replacing someone's job — it's reallocating energy to higher-value work. My admin's time is better spent elsewhere, and so is mine.

Which tasks are made for AI, and which aren't

Here's the real secret: AI doesn't just take things off your plate; it lets you focus on the things only you can do. That's the litmus test I use now. If a task requires my voice, my experience, my leadership, then it's mine. If not? Automate it. Delegate it. Let it go.

We get bogged down in the weeds. We're chasing invoices, answering customer emails, fixing website issues and attending meetings that could have been handled via email.

Meanwhile, the big-picture work — the vision, the strategy, the partnerships that move the needle — waits. And waits. And sometimes never gets done.

If you don't reprioritize and refocus, you end up spending too much time in the business, and not nearly enough time on it. I see it all the time with the founders I advise how to make the shift, but I had to learn this the hard way.

The data doesn't lie. Most business owners spend only about 32% of their time working on the business, but when asked where they want to spend their time, they often say they want to spend more time working on the business.

Nearly three-quarters say strategic thinking, growth planning and leadership are what really matter. And they're right. That's where the magic happens. That's where culture is built. That's where value is created.

Don't leave money on the table

As entrepreneurs, we often miss opportunities when we fail to follow up. I've left money on the table because I never followed up after receiving an out-of-office reply.

AI can nudge me to reconnect, remind me when a contact changes jobs, and help me maintain relationships with personalized touchpoints. That's the kind of quiet, invisible value that compounds over time.

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But let's not fool ourselves: Not everything can or should be automated. The gut-check moments still matter. Human context and connections still matter.

Whether it's reviewing a sensitive post before it hits social media or rewriting a note that needs genuine empathy, we can't outsource the essence of who we are. That's our edge.

Time isn't something you spend; it's something you invest. That shift in mindset changes everything.

Invite AI to your next meeting

If you're trying to figure out where AI fits into all this, here's what I tell my team and clients: Start small and start smart. Use it where it makes a difference.

For us, it's not about shortening meetings; it's about making them more effective. People still talk too much. We're human.

But AI is invaluable after the meeting. It captures action items, summarizes key takeaways and flags deadlines I might have casually mentioned but otherwise forgotten.

That's where it buys me back time, not in the moment, but in the follow-through. And when I follow through, that builds trust.

The cost of not investing in your time? It's soul-sucking. You end up on the hamster wheel, busy but unproductive, constantly reactive and never quite getting to the work that moves your business forward. You disappoint yourself, your team and your clients. And eventually, it wears you down.

I measure my success differently now. I know I'm doing it right if I'm well-rested, I follow through, I'm not avoiding my calendar and I can sit down to dinner with my family instead of yelling, "Be right there!" from the other room. That's not just balance. That's integrity.

Want to shave 10 or 15 hours off your workweek?

So, if you're feeling overwhelmed, here's your starting point: Adopt one small AI tool — for meetings, for content drafting, for email management. Use it to free up time for your highest-value work — strategy, relationships and creative thinking.

Don't waste time figuring out if a meeting should be at 2 or 3. Focus on what that meeting is for. That's where the real ROI lives.

Here's the truth: Embracing AI isn't just about learning some shiny new tool. It's about rethinking how we value our time. As entrepreneurs, our calendar is our capital.

When we start delegating routine emails, scheduling, basic research and even first drafts, we unlock hours we didn't think we had.

I'm not talking theory here; I'm seeing it play out every week, five, 10, sometimes 15 hours handed back to people simply by being smart about where AI fits in.

But this only works if we're intentional. It's not about automating everything. It's about choosing what stays human and what doesn't need to be. That gives us back the space to lead, think, build and nurture the relationships that drive growth.

Three AI tools to consider

I asked ChatGPT what the best AI tools are for founders who want their time back. No fluff, no guru advice, just real tools that help with the chaos. Categorized by what they do, I picked three:

• Motion. Automatically plans your day by prioritizing tasks, meetings and deadlines.
• Notion AI. Combines tasks, docs and projects in one smart workspace.
• Zapier. Automates workflows between apps like Gmail, Slack and Airtable.

But you find your own.

The future isn't about grinding harder. It's about being sharper, more focused, more present. And AI? It's not the whole answer, but it's an incredible lever when used wisely.

Start small. Start smart. And start now.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Hawaii is slated to impose a so-called “green fee” tax next year, which will impact the nightly lodging charges for hotels and vacation rentals. The fee, designed to mitigate climate change in the Aloha State, could impact as many as 300,000 cruise ship passengers annually.

That’s because for the first time, the levies will also target cruise ships docking in Hawaii ports.

Opponents of the proposed 2026 Hawaii tourism tax argue that the additional charges could deter tourists from booking cruises to the islands. They suggest that visitors might choose alternative destinations for significant life events like weddings, family holidays, retirements, and honeymoons.

Before the tax kicks in, some opponents are taking legal action.

Cruise Lines International Association filed a complaint on Aug. 27, arguing that the climate impact fees imposed on cruise ships violate federal law in three ways — conflicting with the Tonnage Clause of the U.S. Constitution, freedom of speech protections, and federal navigation laws.

Meanwhile, the state counters that the “green tax” imposed on tourists' nightly lodging accommodations will fund necessary climate and conservation projects, which are “critical” to the health and safety of locals and visitors.

Here’s what you need to know about Hawaii’s planned tourism tax, and how it may impact your 2026 vacation.

What is Hawaii’s tourism tax?

Hawaii's new "green fee" tax, slated to take effect in 2026, expands the transient accommodations tax (TAT) charged on your nightly lodging at a hotel or vacation rental. For the first time, the levies will also target cruise ships that port in the Aloha State.

The tax, as reported by Kiplinger, aims to create a consistent funding source for conservation and rebuilding initiatives in Hawaii.

The measure (Act 96) was signed into law by Hawaii Gov. Josh Green this spring and raises the TAT by 0.75% to 11% beginning in 2026. In 2027, the fee is expected to increase again to 12%.

That’s not all, Hawaii’s four counties can add an extra tax on top of the state TAT. All of them have decided to add the maximum possible, which is another 3%. Overall, tourists could be charged a total tax of 14% per nightly accommodation next year.

According to the governor's office, the green fee is projected to generate $100 million annually. As mentioned, the measure will fund projects including environmental stewardship, climate and hazard resiliency, and sustainable tourism.

For more information: Hawaii Approves First-of-its-Kind ‘Green Fee’ for Tourists.

Cruise operators and local businesses challenge Hawaii tourism tax

A new lawsuit challenges Hawaii's expanded transient accommodations tax, with a major cruise industry group and local tourism businesses claiming the measure is unconstitutional.

Opponents of the tax seek to prevent the so-called “green fee” from taking effect in 2026.

The plaintiffs, led by Cruise Lines International Association, a global advocacy group representing most cruise lines, note the law would also authorize Hawaii counties to collect an additional 3% surcharge, bringing the total tourism tax to 14%.

• Gov. Green says the fee will translate to visitors paying an additional $3 per night on a $400 room stay in a Hawaii hotel, cruise ship, or other rental vacation lodging.
• You may want to keep that in mind if you’re planning to book a popular trip like the Hawaii Disney Cruise Line adventure for you and your loved ones next year.

One of the main concerns of those challenging Hawaii’s new green fee tax is that the new charge may “cause many potential visitors to vacation elsewhere.”

According to the lawsuit, the cruise industry brings in thousands of visitors to Hawaii each year, supporting thousands of local jobs and contributing to an annual economic growth of over $600 million.

The plaintiffs argue that the new tax could have a “devastating” impact on cruise ship operators and local businesses.

As reported first by the Associated Press, the plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction to declare Act 96’s cruise-related provisions unconstitutional and block its enactment on January 1, 2026.

If they are successful in blocking the measure, that could potentially save tourists a couple of hundred dollars in vacation taxes next year.

“No other State imposes comparable fees — and for good reason,” wrote attorneys representing the Cruise Lines International Association in a motion, the AP reported. They added that ports shouldn’t be used by states for their own “revenue-raising interests.”

The defendants, which include state and county finance officials and the Hawaii Department of Taxation, have yet to release a statement on the pending litigation.

For now, stay tuned for developments as we cover how this may impact your travel plans to the Aloha State next year.

Related

• Hawaii Tax Guide
• Key State Tax Changes to Know for 2025
• Hawaii Approves First-of-its-Kind ‘Green Fee’ for Tourists: What to Know

AI security tools can bolster defenses against phishing, deepfakes and other cyberattacks. But there’s a problem that’s getting worse: AI is making companies and individuals more vulnerable to new digital attacks.

“AI models are now being used to perform sophisticated cyberattacks, not just advise on how to carry them out,” says a recent threat report by leading AI company Anthropic. AI chatbots, such as Anthropic’s Claude, can help cybercriminals profile victims, analyze stolen data, steal credit card information and more. One case study showed an attacker targeting at least 17 organizations in health care, emergency services, government and religious institutions for ransomware attacks.

The AI tool helped automate the attacks, from reconnaissance to extortion demands. Anthropic banned the accounts when they were discovered and is now trying to preemptively detect such criminal activity. But that’s not much solace. “We expect attacks like this to become more common,” the report notes.

Meanwhile, the way a lot of businesses are using AI is increasing the risk. The rapid adoption of AI by businesses raises issues, since AI tools are often put in place with weak security settings, leaving the systems vulnerable to a breach. There’s also “shadow AI,” the tools used by workers that aren’t sanctioned by the company, which creates a hidden security risk. Many firms don’t have adequate policies to stop the practice.

The cost of a data breach has surged to more than $10 million in the U.S., on average, according to IBM’s recent Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025. The cat-and-mouse game is escalating. “While businesses scramble to adopt AI for competitive advantage, cybercriminals are just as rapidly incorporating these technologies into their attack arsenals,” writes Limor Kessem, cyber crisis global lead at IBM.

“Security incidents involving shadow AI accounted for 20% of breaches,” according to the report. Shoddy AI company policies, such as ignoring unsanctioned AI tools being used on company networks, significantly raise the cost of a data breach. Note that regulatory fines in the U.S. for data breaches are higher than in other countries, driving up the cost.

On the bright side, investing in AI for security led organizations to detect breaches much faster and save money, according to IBM. New policies can help mitigate the risk, such as oversight of shadow AI, having a solid data breach response plan and regular security training for workers.

A big focus should be on preventing phishing attacks, one of the top causes of data breaches. The attacks happen when fraudulent emails or other messages are used to trick someone into clicking on a malicious link or downloading a malicious file.

Businesses should also regularly take an inventory of all the software in use and ditch underused tools, which are susceptible to attacks. Other factors that help include encrypting data and using advanced threat monitoring tools.

But even detection tools are under threat. Cybercriminals’ use of AI tools “can adapt to defensive measures, like malware detection systems, in real time,” notes Anthropic.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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Take Jim O’Connell, a New Orleans-based newly minted charter boat captain for GetMyBoat.com, an Airbnb-like boat rental company that allows entrepreneurial boat owners to rent out or charter their vessels to customers.

"I’d been sailing for many years by the time I retired, and I had wanted to have a way I could supplement the maintenance costs of the boat," he says. "So I decided I would go get my captain's license and do sunset charters on Lake Pontchartrain."

O’Connell, who duly earned his U.S. Coast Guard Captain's license and began hosting sailing charters on his boat, says now he gets to meet people, earn money and enjoy being on the water.

"It’s a great option for many retirees who may own a boat but don't have a reason to go out on the water as much as they'd like," he notes. "By hosting charters, you have the opportunity to use your boat, meet new people and earn money in your retirement."

He's not alone.

According to Teamshares, an employee-owned business services company, 40% of small business owners are Baby Boomers. A separate study found that between 1996 and 2007, U.S. citizens aged between 55 and 64 had a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than those aged 20 to 34.

So what's giving older entrepreneurs the edge?

Benefits of age and experience

Having a successful career to lean on and learn from gives older business owners a big advantage.

“Our recent report on 'solopreneurship' shows that Americans aged 65-plus make up about 15% of all solopreneurs,” says Andrew Chamberlain, principal economist at Gusto, an online payroll, benefits and HR software platform for small and medium-sized businesses.

Chamberlain says Baby Boomer and Gen X solopreneurs — business owners with no employees — often launch businesses with higher starting salaries than younger founders.

"While solopreneurs in general see revenues grow from about $290,000 in year one to over $500,000 by year five, older founders tend to pay themselves more in the early years compared to Millennials and Gen Z (who often reinvest in growth)," he says.

"These experienced entrepreneurs may launch with stronger networks, existing client relationships, or initial credibility, advantages that often come with age and career history," Chamberlain says.

But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. Those who’ve launched businesses in retirement have real tales to tell, often covering the emotional side of the journey they took — and how they're thriving because of it.

Here are five retirees who started their own businesses and are loving the experience, regardless of their age.

Dawn LaFontaine, owner of Cat In the Box LLC, Ashland, Mass.

Dawn LaFontaine started her pet products business, Cat In the Box, when she was 59 years old.

"My husband had just lost a job he'd held for 15 years, and I'd applied for several jobs I was overqualified for and didn't even get asked back for a second interview," LaFontaine says. "I decided that I was going to have to take control over my own working future, even though I hadn’t been working, if I was going to have one."

LaFontaine says she’s never looked back.

"My products have been featured in the Boston Globe, Parade Magazine and Fox News, among many others, and are in boutique pet stores around the country and in Europe," she notes. "Last year's sales were up 84% and are on track to double this year."

Her advice for retirees thinking about starting a business in retirement is twofold:

"Just start," she says. "Don't wait for the perfect idea to come to you. It's more about execution than product, and you'll probably need to pivot at some point anyway."

She also advises older Americans to stop analyzing and start doing, but with a plan. "Start very small so you don't jeopardize your life savings," she adds. "It's possible to start a business on almost nothing."

Janice Costa, owner of Canine Camp Getaway, East Durham, N.Y.

Janice Costa turned a side gig into something much more profound when the global pandemic forced her into an early retirement.

"I’d been dabbling with the idea and I decided to grow it into a real business rather than either just retiring, or going back into the workforce," she recalls. "Essentially, I went from a hobby to an S-Corp running Canine Camp Getaway, a business that plans vacations for dogs and the people who love them."

After working nearly 27 years in a corporate job for a company that required long hours and changed hands every three to five years, Costa says she was, well, dog-tired.

"When the pandemic pretty much forced me into retirement, I had mixed feelings," she says. "I'd started doing an annual dog vacation years ago, largely because I traveled a lot with my job, and felt it was unfair to leave my dogs behind for vacation when I was gone so much already."

Costa turned that idea into Canine Camp Getaway, feeling people might share her desire to go on vacation without leaving their dogs behind. She was right on the money.

The idea was to create a vacation where people could meet like-minded dog lovers while enjoying dog sports, activities, classes, vet seminars, dog-friendly evening entertainment and dog-focused charitable initiatives.

"I revamped the structure to become an S-Corp, started using QuickBooks, and began advertising in earnest,” she says. “I began doing more with selling [branded] merchandise at my events, and I added a second location, with multiple vacations a year in both New York and Pennsylvania."

Today, Canine Camp Getaway brings together as many as 130 guests per event and, depending on the size of the gathering, it offers anywhere from six to 11 classes every hour of the day during vacations, with courses on agility, nose work, hiking, swimming, dock diving and barn hunting, among others.

"I not only get to work with dogs, which I love, but I get to feed my creative spirit, coming up with new classes, craft ideas and event themes," Costa says.

Michael McCaman, cofounder and chief strategy officer of Orion Therapeutics, Union Bridge, Md.

Michael McCaman worked in the biotech industry for 35 years, always as a team member and team leader, but never a project owner.

"I was doing consulting at the time and met a young man with an idea and a patent application that I felt I knew how to develop and apply to the new gene editing field," he says. "We talked and agreed to make a startup out of it."

The company, Orion Therapeutics, was founded to develop nanoparticles for delivering RNA, like Moderna or Pfizer's COVID vaccines. "The special lipids (fat molecules) used to make those vaccines are painfully expensive to access, so we thought we could be a disruptive force in the growing mRNA delivery field and offer a safer, cheaper lipid option," McCaman says.

McCaman felt his knowledge and network with the industry were sufficient to make a go of it. "I had the luxury of saying I do not need any salary (yet) since I had and still have consulting income," he says. "That made it a pure play of passion and curiosity for me, which is really nice and allows me to stay calm all the time."

Age played a part in the decision, too.

"To attempt something like this as a younger man with a family to raise would have taken a lot more confidence than I had at that time," he explains.

Karen Hastie, founder of the Chamber Perks App, Sudbury, Ontario

Karen Hastie launched her technology startup business at 60, an age when most retirees or people approaching retirement have a different mindset; primarily, they want to slow down. "I realized I didn't feel that way," Hastie says. "I didn't feel 'done' yet, despite being a small business owner for 30 years. I felt I had more to give, both to myself and my community."

As Hastie phrases it, she realized that her age was her strength.

"I wouldn't have to start this business to put food on the table, so I could bring more purpose and passion to it," she says. "Moreover, my wins and failures as an entrepreneur have taught me enough to do this with confidence. I didn't think I was crazy to be levelling up at 60. If anything, I felt ready for an exciting chapter of life."

Hastie’s business, Chamber Perks App, a Canada-based Chambers of Commerce services provider, is thriving. "We’re doing well, both in numbers and in the value it is creating for small businesses, local Chambers of Commerce and communities," she says.

Hastie advises entrepreneurial retirees to steer their own path and ignore the naysayers.

"Don't live your life meeting society's expectations, and this applies especially during retirement," she advises. "While you might feel intimidated by all the new skills out there, remember that your wealth of experience and knowledge is a unique strength that will take you farther than you can imagine."

Drew Parker, creator of The Complete Retirement Planner (TCRP), Seattle, Wash.

Before deciding to retire, Drew Parker knew that he needed a detailed financial plan to ensure the timing was right and that he was financially prepared.

"I couldn't find a planning tool that didn’t rely on misguided assumptions and generic benchmarks, and that didn't require a math degree or 75-page user’s manual," Parker says.

"I also learned that 75% to 80% of households had no written financial plan and had no idea how to create one."

Parker saw that knowledge gap as an opportunity to not only help himself, but others, too.

"Having experience building financial planning tools for a $5 billion company, I created a planning tool for individuals based on the same financial planning principles used by professional advisers."

He created The Complete Retirement Planner (TCRP) for less than $600, as well as starting a corporation, designing an e-commerce website and making TCRP available for everyone online.

Parker describes TCRP as "easy for anyone to use, with plenty of notes and explanations, so calculations can be followed/understood, and all the detail needed for a comprehensive financial plan."

"Sales were slow at first, but word spread and within a year we had customers in every state," he says. "TCRP has grown every year since, with new features being added."

Parker says that retirees shouldn’t hesitate to use their skills and experience to make a difference for others. "It’s a good idea to challenge yourself, and to have some fun," he says. "You can always 'build a better mousetrap' or provide a better service, as long as you are passionate about it."

Will there be roadblocks? Sure, Parker says. "But you can overcome them, as you have in the past."

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Investors can’t get enough of AI start-ups. A record $70 billion was doled out to generative AI companies by venture capital firms and other investors in the first half of 2025, according to a recent report by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The total was driven by two megadeals: OpenAI’s $40 billion funding round and Meta’s $14.8 billion minority stake in Scale AI.

The eye-popping total highlights the heated competition among leading AI firms and the big expectations investors have for future paydays.

The U.S. is by far the global leader, with nearly $40 billion invested over 728 deals in the second quarter, making up 84% of the global dollars, according to market research firm CB Insights. The median deal size is $4.6 million, a four-year high.

Much of the money is used for buying Nvidia-based computing power. Large players such as OpenAI, xAI and Europe’s Mistral AI are increasingly looking to build or expand their own data centers so they don’t have to rely on cloud computing from Amazon, Microsoft or other cloud vendors.

Look for more small players to get scooped up by leading tech giants and other large companies. Banks, consulting firms and other businesses want AI tech, too, and a quick way to get it is to buy a promising start-up.

AI is clearly flying high, so what could go wrong? “Competition in the space is expensive, and although revenue is increasing rapidly, losses are also mounting, requiring more investor funding,” notes S&P Global Market Intelligence’s report. Plus, investor skepticism is starting to emerge. “At the start of the third quarter in July, xAI secured $10 billion through debt and equity, but the company had to pay a steep interest rate on the debt.”

Expect plenty of start-ups to fail to gain traction and some to eventually go under. The hot market is also crowding out investment in anything that’s not AI-related, potentially spurring a glut of AI start-ups while disregarding other promising tech.

Still, some of the start-ups are already gaining serious traction. Others are sure to soar in the years ahead. The top tech deals in the second quarter were by Scale, xAI, Anduril, Thinking Machines Lab and Anysphere, according to CB Insights.

Anthropic, a leading AI company, is in talks to raise another $10 billion in funding, according to recent reports. Other firms scoring funding this year: Seekr Technologies, Snorkel AI, TensorWave, Decagon, Chainguard, Glean, Harvey, Cyera, Abridge, Ramp and Cyberhaven. The U.S. has an astounding 206 private AI firms valued at more than $1 billion, says CB Insights.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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Issues that undermine a business's financial health often go undiagnosed until owners consider their exit. The 2023 National State of Owner Readiness Report by the Exit Planning Institute reveals some critical areas where business owners tend to be unprepared, and the consequences could be dire.

The Kiplinger Building Wealth program handpicks financial advisers and business owners from around the world to share retirement, estate planning and tax strategies to preserve and grow your wealth. These experts, who never pay for inclusion on the site, include professional wealth managers, fiduciary financial planners, CPAs and lawyers. Most of them have certifications including CFP®, ChFC®, IAR, AIF®, CDFA® and more, and their stellar records can be checked through the SEC or FINRA.

Here are five key issues and steps to take to avoid the scary stuff before it's too late.

Business exit planning problems in a nutshell

1. Putting off estate planning

Just 30% of owners have a written estate plan, and only 24% have a current will.

Estate planning isn't sexy, but it can help support succession plans, preserve business and personal assets and spare your family from a nasty tax bill.

Without a proper estate plan, your business and personal assets are at risk, potentially leaving employees and family unprepared for the future.

Take action: Begin as soon as possible by consulting with estate planning professionals to create a comprehensive plan, including wills and trusts. Establish or update your estate plan to reflect changes in your business, personal life and tax laws.

Communicate your plan with family and key stakeholders to ensure everyone is aware of your intentions and prepared for the transition.

2. Delaying personal financial planning

Many business owners are hyper-focused on revenue and the daily challenges of running their business. But even a thriving business may not support long-term goals if your personal, business and family finances are out of sync.

About 42% of business owners lack a written personal financial plan prepared by a professional financial adviser. This is why we talk about putting personal, family and business financial planning on "parallel paths." All are essential to achieve a successful transition and post-exit goals.

Take action: To ensure your financial future aligns with your business exit strategy, partner with a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® (CFP®) — ideally one with Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) credentials — to build a comprehensive, personalized plan.

Clearly define your financial goals, from retirement and investments to lifestyle needs, and commit to regularly reviewing and adjusting your plan to stay on track amid changing market conditions.

3. Exiting without a plan

Just 42% of owners have a formal, written transition plan for their company. This is critical given that 49% of business owners want to exit within the next five years.

Without a formal exit plan, you may face significant challenges in achieving a smooth and successful transition.

Take action: To exit your business smoothly and successfully, work with your adviser to create a clear, detailed plan that outlines your goals, timeline and transition strategies.

Once your plan is in place, communicate it with key stakeholders and begin executing the necessary steps to achieve your desired outcome. Schedule regular reviews to keep your plan on track.

4. Dependence on business income

Research shows 70% of business owners need the income from their business to support their chosen lifestyle. This stat highlights your "wealth gap."

If you need $3 million to support your long-term post-exit lifestyle and you have $500,000 in personal assets and sell your business for $2 million, your wealth gap is $500,000. So, part of your exit plan will be how to close that wealth gap, starting now.

Many owners of small and midsized businesses rely heavily on their business as their primary — sometimes only — source of income.

Take action: To secure your financial future, focus on diversifying income streams now to reduce future reliance on business earnings. Continue building business value to maximize your net proceeds when it's time to exit.

At the same time, develop a financial plan that supports your long-term independence and lifestyle goals, ensuring you're not solely dependent on proceeds from your business sale or transition.

5. The 5 D's

In presentations to business owners, this portion of our program typically takes the oxygen out of the room. About 50% of business exits are involuntary, meaning owners don't proactively decide to exit.

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Instead, they are compelled to exit by one or more of the "5 D's": death, disability, divorce, distress or disagreement (with business partners).

Many owners don't like to consider that they won't be able to choose how and when they will exit the business. These discussions can be deeply uncomfortable, but it's far better to face the discomfort now than be unprepared for the 5 D's when they occur.

Take action: "Be prepared" is sound advice for business owners as well as Boy Scouts. To protect your business and family legacy from unforeseen events, build robust contingency plans that cover involuntary exit scenarios, such as illness, divorce or financial distress, through tools including insurance, buy-sell agreements and emergency funds.

Regularly review plans to keep them relevant and ensure they are clearly communicated.

Plan to exit fearlessly

The statistics are indeed scary, but they need not spell doom for your business. Instead, let them serve as a powerful motivator.

Now is the time to start understanding your business valuation, the steps to build business value and how you will fund your post-ownership phase.

To move forward with confidence, start with a business valuation and a personal financial audit. Then, build your exit strategy with a CEPA-certified adviser.

Content in this article is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. 2025-8650

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• Seven Essentials When Preparing to Sell Your Business

This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Amid the hype over AI, a practical question: When will the technology boost the economy the way its developers and promoters are promising? Is artificial intelligence going to unleash a surge in worker productivity, as epochal new tech has done in the past? Or is investor enthusiasm for it overdone?

In one sense, AI is already adding to GDP. Spending on AI hardware is astronomical, both for the costly, specialized chips that power AI and the related infrastructure to deliver the electricity that those chips devour. This spending raised GDP by 0.3% in the second quarter of this year. Even that doesn’t fully capture the size of this investment surge, since some capital outlays that tech firms are making don’t show up in the official GDP accounting method. Just look at the top five firms by AI investment: Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle. The increase in their AI-related capital expenditures over the past two years equals about 10% of GDP gains in the U.S. over that time period. Add the power plants, transmission lines and other infrastructure they need to run their data centers, and the outlay is even bigger.

There are also signs that businesses are gearing up for AI to make an impact on their operations. Company mentions of AI use for research tripled since Nov. 2022, when ChatGPT launched and turbocharged generative AI. 25% of job listings posted for IT professionals since the start of last year have asked for AI-related skills. The number of mobile AI app downloads hit 60 million this March. Internet searches related to AI have grown tenfold since OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT to the public. When it comes to whether AI will make workers more productive, the picture gets murkier. There are some early signs that it’s happening. Inflation-adjusted revenue per worker among S&P 500 companies has been rising since late 2022, following a 15-year period when it stayed flat.

It’s not clear why, but the overlap with advanced AI applications going mainstream is hard to ignore. But with so much money pouring into AI, there are reasons for skepticism. Much of the investment being made today could end up wasted. Many companies that are in vogue now figure to fail. It’s possible that AI computing power being rushed online could ultimately prove to be unneeded, akin to how fiber-optic cable networks got overbuilt in the 1990s. That capacity eventually got used as data consumption rose, but not before builders who spent too much on it went bankrupt. If the current AI data center boom fizzles, the pullback in spending could spark a mild recession, as the tech bust in 2001 did. Most major technological leaps take time to filter through the economy. AI does seem genuinely transformative. But the transformation may take many years.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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"I grew up in a family that still owns several small neighborhood hardware stores, started by my grandfather, so I know a lot about what it takes, but Leroy has no business experience at all.

"When I ask, 'Why?' he replies, 'I need to prove myself to your family.' Do you know someone who can share what it takes to start a business that is sure to fail? Thanks, 'Bea.'"

There is another way

My reader's email could not have arrived at a better time, as I was just about to interview David Whorton, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author of Another Way: Building Companies That Last … and Last … and Last.

Kiplinger's Adviser Intel, formerly known as Building Wealth, is a curated network of trusted financial professionals who share expert insights on wealth building and preservation. Contributors, including fiduciary financial planners, wealth managers, CEOs and attorneys, provide actionable advice about retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies and more. Experts are invited to contribute and do not pay to be included, so you can trust their advice is honest and valuable.

Whorton offers a refreshing approach to building a business that endures, also known as an evergreen business — the goal is to put people first. "There is another way to build a successful business than the current philosophy of 'bigger, faster is always better,'" he says.

He shares with us how to start a successful business by setting out the steps that can contribute to failure.

Failing to conduct a risk assessment

Don't leap first, figuring that you'll simply work out the details later.

Risk comes in four major buckets:

• Market
• Team
• Technology
• Financing

A would-be owner needs to ask themselves many questions related to these four buckets:

• Do you understand the market, the intended customer and their willingness to buy?
• What will be required from all the technologies your product or service will rely on to be differentiated?
• Where are you going to find the good people you will need on the team?
• Will you be able to build it from its own cash flow or need to raise outside capital? If outside, what is the likelihood of successfully raising the funds required?
• What does your product or service and the products or services associated with it cost? How will you provide service and support?

Not knowing the answers could inevitably lead to your business failing.

Quitting your job and having no income separate from your new business

Your job and current paycheck might provide you with a safety net. "If you can continue to bring in income while building your company, you will give yourself more time and much less anxiety," Whorton underscores.

Not thinking through the business model

Whorton cautions against relying on what you see in other, similar businesses. You need to think about what you want to achieve and resist using the industry-standard business model.

Consider which business model is best suited to your concept, your business and your funding strategy: For example, retail, franchise, third-party distribution, marketing-driven and direct-to-customer (internet) sales all have different benefits and cash requirements.

If you want to build an evergreen business — one that will endure — you'll want a business model that generates cash early and does not rely on outside equity or debt.

Falling into the 'if I build a great product or service, they will come' mentality

Ask: How am I going to get this product in front of my customers? Through stores, partners, a third party, field sales representatives or other sales or marketing programs?

Biting off more than you can chew from an emotional perspective

Are you psychologically able to deal with the people issues that arise in any business?

Being a founder can be a lonely and very stressful process for a number of years. There is a lot of uncertainty associated with establishing and running a business. For example, Whorton says, "You lose a major customer, half your revenue vanishes, and you think, 'Oh my gosh, if I don't have a strong balance sheet, I have to lay off people! I just can't do that!'"

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Ask yourself and the people who know you best: Am I ready for these challenges at this stage of my life?

Feeling threatened and therefore not hiring people who have more experience than you do

Whorton points out that you need to hire people who can help your business succeed. "Just because you get along on the local baseball league team does not translate into that person being a competent, honest sales representative. Hiring people whom you are just friendly with, but you know little about their character or capability, spells trouble."

Don't ignore red flags, such as "I know that he never stays employed at the same place for more than a year, but I really like him, and he has a lot of cool things to say about how he works." The fact that this person has not survived in one place for more than a year tells you that something's wrong, and you have to dig into it.

Remember that character counts. "When you get good people with great character, take care of them and let them shine," Whorton underscores.

Going into business because you feel it's expected of you, including joining a family business

Running a business is hard, so you should really want to do it.

You want to go into the business with the attitude, "This is my purpose in life — I want to have a team that is allied with my vision and values." A red flag is someone saying, "I've got this idea. Now, I'm not really in love with it, but it seems to have some traction, so I'm going to run with it."

An inspiring read

Whorton concluded our interview with these comments: "If you are starting a business, ideally, it is one that you want to dedicate the rest of your life to. That's the secret to evergreen companies that endure well over a hundred years.

"My advice to college students who are vaguely thinking about getting into business one day is to develop a curious mind and consider yourself to be a lifelong learner. Pursue a well-rounded education and discover the common denominators of prior and current business leaders — what helped them succeed?"

Reading Another Way was as inspiring as my interview with its author. Whorton's candor made me feel as if we'd known each other for years.

If you are thinking of opening your own shop, Whorton shows you the way to building that place on the planet you will love to return to every day.

Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield, Calif., and welcomes comments and questions from readers, which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993, or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1@gmail.com. And be sure to visit dennisbeaver.com.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Spirit Airlines has been in financial trouble since the pandemic. A recent report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has raised concerns among investors and travelers about the company's viability beyond the next 12 months.

Here's a breakdown the numbers, the potential impact to budget travel, and tips to save on airfare no matter what happens. That way, you can keep jet setting and sticking to your travel budget.

How much trouble is Spirit Airlines in?

The 2024 Spirit Airlines bankruptcy made the company's financial woes painfully obvious. Since then, Spirit has been working through a post-bankruptcy restructuring plan. However, after posting a $245.8 million net loss last quarter, the company is now filing for bankruptcy once again.

This lack of cash flow has caused "substantial doubt" about Spirit's future. Without a significant injection of capital, the airline could go out of business.

The company's tenuous financial position is already impacting airline employees and travelers. Pilots are being furloughed. Flight attendants are being advised to assess and shore up their finances in case their routes get reduced or canceled.

Spirit has also begun to pull back in select markets, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Dallas-Fort Worth. As this latest bankruptcy process moves forward, travelers can expect even more routes to be cut and potentially fewer flights on the remaining routes.

What a Spirit Airlines shutdown could mean for travelers

So, what happens if Spirit Airlines becomes defunct? For starters, you’d no longer be able to take advantage of the company's cost-conscious fares.

Even if you don't fly Spirit, you could expect flying to cost more across the board. Fewer airlines in the market mean less competition, resulting in higher prices. Spirit's existence in the industry forces other airlines to offer discounted seats. When the company enters a new market, competitors lower their fares significantly.

But with Spirit gone, that pressure goes away. We're already seeing fare hikes in markets that Spirit has withdrawn from. Additionally, the remaining airlines may reduce the number of basic economy seats on their flights, thereby increasing the average ticket price.

Industry experts warn that a merger with another airline would likely have the same effect. However, after the failed joining of Spirit and JetBlue under the Biden administration, it's unclear if a merger would be an option.

If airfare increases as expected, what would that mean for travel and tourism in general? Many people may get priced out of flying, limiting their travel options. Family-friendly destinations may experience a decline in visitors, potentially resulting in layoffs. The death of this budget-friendly airline could have a significant adverse ripple effect across the industry and the economy as a whole.

Why you shouldn’t panic about a potential Spirit Airlines shutdown

While things are looking pretty grim for Spirit, its demise isn't written in stone. Auditors required the airline to use the phrase "substantial doubt" in their recent SEC filing, but that substantial doubt only comes into play if the company stays on the same course.

The CEO assured guests that the latest bankruptcy is part of the company's overall effort to "ensure the long-term success" of Spirit Airlines. In addition to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Spirit is:

• Planning to sell planes, real estate and airport gates to raise funds
• Adding strategic new routes, such as Newark, NJ to Savannah, GA and Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Belize to serve travelers in higher-demand areas
• Installing extra legroom seats in their aircraft and implementing a new dress code to attract higher-paying customers

At this point, we'll have to wait and see if the airline's efforts pay off.

Ways to save money on air travel

If Spirit Airlines is your go-to for booking flights, you may be more concerned than most about the company's current precarious position. Fortunately, it's possible to get a good deal on travel for your next adventure, no matter which airline you use.

Here are some strategies to consider:

• Book at the last minute. Airlines may be willing to offer discounts soon before takeoff to avoid having empty seats.
• Be flexible with your travel dates or destination (if possible). Modifying your itinerary by a few days or flying into another nearby airport could mean a big difference in ticket price.
• Use price tracking tools, like Google Flights. You can also use it to set up price alerts.
• Use travel rewards credit card points or miles. If you've banked enough rewards, you may be able to take a free vacation.

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The best time to prepare for a board role isn't after you've stepped down. It's while you're still in the thick of your career, when your influence is high, your experience is current and your network is strong.

Active executives stand out

Today's boards aren't just looking for prestige or past titles. They want directors who bring a real-time perspective and relevant leadership experience.

The Kiplinger Building Wealth program handpicks financial advisers and business owners from around the world to share retirement, estate planning and tax strategies to preserve and grow your wealth. These experts, who never pay for inclusion on the site, include professional wealth managers, fiduciary financial planners, CPAs and lawyers. Most of them have certifications including CFP®, ChFC®, IAR, AIF®, CDFA® and more, and their stellar records can be checked through the SEC or FINRA.

Digital transformation, ESG (environmental, social and governance), cybersecurity, workforce strategy — these are dynamic, complex issues best understood by those still leading through them.

That means actively serving executives have a clear edge. Even without prior board experience, candidates who understand today's challenges and can articulate their value are well-positioned to stand out.

According to Spencer Stuart's S&P 500 New Director and Diversity Snapshot, about one-third (34%) of the class of 2024 are first-time directors — and 67% of them are still actively employed.

The message is clear: Boards are increasingly open to fresh perspectives from leaders who are in the trenches today, not just those who have stepped away.

If you wait until after retirement, you risk losing relevance. Boards often prefer candidates who are still engaged in the business world. Starting early, ideally two years before transitioning, keeps your momentum strong and your options open.

Preparation takes time

Here's where many leaders stumble: they assume board work will fall into place once they retire. In reality, finding a board seat takes time, often 12 to 18 months.

Differentiating yourself as a strong board candidate is more than updating a résumé. It includes refining your narrative, creating tailored materials and cultivating the right relationships.

Crafting a compelling professional narrative is a foundational step in preparing for board service, and it takes time. It becomes the foundation for your board bio, LinkedIn profile and even networking conversations, making it easier for others to advocate for you.

In a competitive landscape, your ability to articulate your value to a board with confidence and clarity can make all the difference.

Value for you and your company

Board service isn't just beneficial for the individual. It delivers real value back to the executive's organization. Serving on an external board sharpens strategic thinking, expands business perspective, and introduces new ideas and frameworks.

It can also raise your company's profile and strengthen its employer brand.

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Executives who serve on boards often return with fresh energy, broader insight, and greater loyalty to their teams and mission. It's a win-win for both the leader and the organization.

Growth at the top

By the time you've reached the executive ranks, development looks different and career movement slows down. You're not learning the basics; you're navigating complexity, driving transformation and mentoring others.

Board service can provide unique exposure and development. It challenges you in new ways, connects you with high-caliber peers and offers a broader lens on business. For leaders who want to keep growing, it's a smart and satisfying evolution.

A strategic bridge to what's next

Beyond growth, board roles create a natural bridge to your next chapter. Whether you envision a phased retirement, portfolio career or consulting work, having board experience already in motion opens doors.

And while no one can predict what their "next" will look like, starting early gives you the most control over how and when you shape it.

The case for now, not later

The most effective time to pursue board opportunities is before you step away from full-time leadership. Serving while you're still active brings immediate value: Sharper strategy, expanded influence and renewed purpose.

For many, it becomes a fulfilling second act that doesn't require stepping back — it means stepping forward in a new direction.

The bottom line? Board readiness isn't something to save for retirement. It's a strategic career move that's most powerful when you're still at the top of your game.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

This stance has business owners questioning whether a private equity buyout is a worthwhile option for their retirement and business succession plans.

But while private equity (PE) firms have slowed on the sell side, they're still buying, and owners who take a more proactive approach to preparing their businesses for sale might still be able to extract full value — whether they choose to sell to private equity or not.

The Kiplinger Building Wealth program handpicks financial advisers and business owners from around the world to share retirement, estate planning and tax strategies to preserve and grow your wealth. These experts, who never pay for inclusion on the site, include professional wealth managers, fiduciary financial planners, CPAs and lawyers. Most of them have certifications including CFP®, ChFC®, IAR, AIF®, CDFA® and more, and their stellar records can be checked through the SEC or FINRA.

An exit crisis

The U.S. is experiencing a so-called Silver Tsunami, a massive wave of retiring Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers who own over half of America's private businesses.

Many are looking to cash out and move on, but with the macroeconomic headwinds — high interest rates, consumer confidence dips, tariffs, etc. — uncertainty in the merger and acquisition (M&A) marketplace has many owners feeling less secure in their future.

While specific industries are faring better than others, such sectors as construction and manufacturing face huge generational gaps. The crop of younger talent ready to take the reins isn't there, and even in family-owned businesses, fewer children are interested in following in their parents' footsteps.

In these cases, a sale might be the only option, either as part of a strategic acquisition or to private equity.

However, strategic acquisitions are more vulnerable to capital markets; while private equity maintains access to reserves of deployable capital, higher interest rates tend to push private buyers out.

While private equity is now facing its own liquidity crisis, the market uncertainty hasn't been as impactful as many business owners feared. Deals are still getting done, focusing more on the sort of high-quality assets these small-business owners possess.

Despite a noisy market, the buyers are there — it is owners who need to craft a narrative that breaks through.

The 'favorable' conditions fantasy

Despite a positive market outlook coming into 2025, "favorable" conditions for M&A and equity markets have never fully materialized.

Those hoping for a return of low interest rates have been disappointed, and geopolitical conflicts have only emphasized this new reality: "Favorable" market conditions as we once knew them don't exist.

The noise surrounding the M&A market is distracting from the essential reality: While the number of private-equity-backed exits has slowed, the number of private equity acquisitions is holding steady.

What's more, the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) has extended capital gains and estate tax rates, which has not changed the impact on sellers.

The macroeconomic factors might not look like an ideal market, but the tax landscape and hunger of PE firms for strongly performing companies mean a lucrative sale is still possible — as long as owners are willing to put in the work and hire the right advisers to position their companies appropriately.

A carefully crafted data narrative

The first step for owners looking to exit is to ensure that their company exists outside their expertise; buyers aren't paid top dollar for a company whose value is tied up in the owner's talent. Proving this to a seller is where a carefully crafted data narrative becomes key.

For any buyer, but especially private equity, which lives on data, owners should be able to prove that their books are clean, costs are fully measured and profit margins and operations are in order.

As critical as this data narrative is to boosting a business's valuation, it also helps to defend it as buyers look to lower valuations. Owners need to get into the mindset of a buyer, which means having a strong grasp on market dynamics and their company's comparative scale, size and industry.

A manufacturing business in a mature or declining market, for example, will have a harder time making a successful sales pitch to private equity than one that has a future in an AI-dominated economy.

A company with a fully domesticated supply chain, meanwhile, will probably fare better with any seller than one that depends heavily on imports.

Business size matters

Then there's a simple matter of size: A manufacturer with $5 million to $10 million-plus EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) could be considered a "platform" purchase for private equity in many cases, with operations and systems that push its valuation to higher multiples.

A smaller business that's perhaps doing only $2 million to $3 million EBITDA will likely be considered only an "add-on" — something that gets attached to a platform and is less valuable on its own.

Understanding how their company will be valued in a portfolio matters for some owners, especially owner-founders who built their companies from the ground up.

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They want to know that their life's work will be valued and that buyers will take care of long-tenured team members. It's an emotional decision, and frankly, it gives owners power in these negotiations to take their time and do what feels right for themselves and their companies.

That's why having a strong narrative is so critical, ensuring that a buyer doesn't make erroneous assumptions about a business.

Taking a proactive approach to a sale opens the door for business owners, improving the odds of a successful exit, even during uncertain times.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Business Outlook: Economic impacts

When it comes to the economy, expect moderate growth. GDP figures should grow 1.6% in 2026, versus 1.7% in 2025. Manufacturing will continue to be sluggish, and consumer spending will slow a bit. But recession fears will fade into the background. Look for the Federal Reserve to cut its short-term interest rate by 2.0 points between September 2025 and the end of 2026, from 4.25% to 2.25%.

As the Fed cuts, other short-term rates will fall, too: Short-term consumer lending, home equity lines of credit and interest earned on Treasury bills. Long-term rates will likely rise a bit, with 10-year Treasury notes fluctuating around 4.5%. 30-year mortgage rates will be around 7% or a bit less. The unemployment rate will end 2026 at 4.5%, up slightly from 4.3% this year.

It’s likely inflation will stay stubborn, only getting down to 3.0% by the end of 2026, from 3.4% at the end of 2025. Tariffs will be more predictable next year, but businesses will still have to choose to absorb the cost or pass it on to customers. Tariffs will add about 15% to the cost of most imports, on average, this year; much more for some raw materials. 2026 tariffs are likely to target specific products or industries.

Corporate profits will rise 10% in 2026, a similar increase to 2025. Pay hikes figure to run 3.5%, similar to 2025, and close to the normal rate. Small businesses will see average wage hikes of 4.0%. Total benefit compensation will rise 3.8%, with an 8% rise in health insurance premiums. Prescription drugs are a big driver, with prices rising 3.4% and drug usage expanding. Spending on drugs will be up 8%, spurred by weight loss drugs, and gene and cell therapies.

Business Outlook: Energy costs

After easing this year, oil prices could dip a bit lower in 2026. As always, there is the risk of some sort of geopolitical crisis, likeliest in the Middle East, that could cause prices to spike. But barring that, the oil market seems well-supplied, while demand growth should be fairly modest. That suggests prices will trend lower.

Gasoline prices, which are down this year from 2024, could slip a bit more on average in 2026. Diesel will also hold fairly steady or possibly decline slightly. Natural gas tends to be volatile, but the overall trend should be up a bit. Gas prices were unusually low last year and have rebounded in 2025. Gas demand continues to grow, largely due to increasing electricity consumption, since natural gas is the top fuel for generating power in the U.S. Gas exports will also continue to rise. Unusually cold or mild weather could always cause gas prices to spike or crash. But otherwise, plan to pay 5%-10% more in 2026 than what you’re paying this year.

Budget more for electricity, too. Rates have been climbing swiftly as demand for power keeps soaring, especially from AI data centers. Figure on a 2%-4% increase for industrial and commercial customers compared with their rates this year.

Truck spot shipping rates will rise just 1% (excluding fuel surcharges), after a 2% rise in 2025, as manufacturing sees weak growth. Rail shipping costs will rise at about the same pace as wage growth, except that intermodal rates should continue easing as imports remain below normal. Ocean shipping rates will be back at low 2023 levels. Air cargo rates will ease, as volumes are set to decline.

Business Outlook: Payroll costs

Payroll taxes are rising, as the $176,100 wage base rises to about $183,600. For firms that pay pension premiums to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, there will be no change in rates, with the exception of inflation-related indexing for flat-rate premiums, which will hover around $111 per plan participant in 2026. Variable-rate premiums for underfunded plans will be $52 per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits (subject to a $747 or so per-participant ceiling).

2026 will be a bit of a mixed bag on insurance. Rates for commercial property insurance will decrease for the rest of 2025 and into 2026 because of intense competition among insurers for low-hazard risks. For those policies with favorable histories that are not heavily exposed to natural catastrophes, renewal rates should be flat or see up to a 15% decline. For those exposed to natural catastrophes, a rate hike of up to 10% is likely. For policies with recent losses, an average hike of up to 20%. Rates for primary casualty insurance, up 5%-10%. Umbrella and excess liability, up to a 20% increase. Companies renewing cyberinsurance policies should budget for an increase of up to 5%. For those with recent claims or incidents, a 10% hike. Companies can lower cyber premiums with bigger investments in digital security. Rates for directors and officers insurance will dip in 2026, similar to recent trends.

Legal costs for businesses will rise about 3%-5% next year, on average. Accounting costs for the typical company will rise up to 10% next year.

Business Outlook: Travel and transportation costs

Airfares will inch up slightly after a modest fall this year, as turbulence in prices during and after the pandemic has finally subsided. Production delays of new aircraft could squeeze airline capacity, thus a slight bump in ticket prices. Expect hotel room rates to rise just a bit — about 1% more than this year — though price hikes will vary depending on the type of room, hotel and location. Softening travel demand should keep rates in check.

Soccer’s World Cup tournament is being played in 16 North American cities, 11 of them in the U.S., from June 11 to July 19, 2026. Rooms near and around host cities will be extremely expensive and scarce.

Car rental rates will be slightly higher, as demand and supply equalize after years of market upheaval. Look for an average daily rate of just below $50, about a 2%-3% hike versus 2025. Vehicle availability has improved significantly.

Business Outlook: Property costs

Asking and effective rents for office space will rise at a quicker pace than the 2% or so rise for the rest of 2025. Vacancy rates will remain elevated. Newer, high-quality office space will likely see rent growth of about 3%-5%. Meanwhile, older properties are likely to see continued rent declines of 3%-4%. Asking rents for warehouses will likely pick up as new construction of warehouse space slows down significantly next year. Look for rents rising by about 2%-3%, after a modest decline of 1%-2% seen for the rest of this year. Rents for shopping centers will rise 1%-2%, on average, in 2026. Vacancy rates are low and retail tenants often have few suitable options.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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The White House wants to usher in a golden age of cryptocurrency and make the United States the “crypto capital of the world” by rolling back some regulatory enforcement and championing legislation that would broaden its accessibility and appeal.

The most telling feature of the Trump administration’s radical policy shift regarding crypto is the overturning of several policies put in place by the Biden administration that emphasized a cautious posture that sought to identify and mitigate the risk of cryptocurrencies. This was a stance that many in the cryptocurrency industry perceived as stifling for innovation, leading to the “Crypto Winter” of late 2022. At the heart of the White House’s new crypto framework is a comprehensive effort to resolve the persistent regulatory ambiguity that has defined the digital asset landscape in the U.S. for years.

The Trump policy strategy tackles reforming the cryptocurrency market by pushing for landmark legislation to create a permanent, clear market structure, coupled with an immediate executive mandate for federal regulators to provide more clarity to the industry.

A similar push to codify the regulation of digital assets is in the works in Congress. The first of these bills to become law, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, established a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Alongside the GENIUS Act, the House also recently passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. The CLARITY Act would establish a clear regulatory framework for digital assets, mainly by distinguishing cryptocurrencies as either commodities or securities. Meanwhile, the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act would ban the Federal Reserve from releasing a central bank digital currency without congressional approval.

These developments have set a clear regulatory path for stablecoins and crypto platforms, ushering in a new wave of institutional legitimacy and potentially widespread adoption of digital payments and finance in the U.S.

The GENIUS Act is the first major regulatory change that could trigger several significant shifts in the cryptocurrency industry, despite being limited to the regulation of stablecoins.

Stablecoins are a form of tokenized digital money using blockchain technology, the digital recordkeeping technology that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rely on. Their design aims to maintain a stable value, typically pegged one-to-one with conventional fiat currencies, most commonly the U.S. dollar. While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are volatile and trade as speculative assets, stablecoins are primarily used for payments, remittances, and liquidity in crypto trading and lending platforms.

So far, demand for stablecoins has largely been confined to the crypto industry. The GENIUS Act’s requirement for 100% backing of stablecoins with high-quality assets is projected to create a substantial new source of demand for U.S. Treasury securities and other safe assets. The scale of this demand, however, will depend on how quickly and widely stablecoins are adopted outside of the crypto industry.

Stablecoins offer merchants and consumers potential incentives over traditional money. Merchants could benefit from greater efficiency for payment settlement, particularly for cross-border transactions. For consumers, stablecoins work primarily as a non-interest-bearing store of value akin to store gift cards. While there are potential benefits to be unlocked by merchants from the likes of rewards programs for using stablecoins, similar programs for gift cards or credit payments are already available to consumers, so for now, consumers may not see a clear benefit to switching to stablecoins for payments.

Stablecoins could also pose some risks for banks, primarily as a new form of competition. Stablecoins will likely become direct competitors to other financial products like bank deposits and government money market funds. Banks, however, seem to be aware of this potential problem and many are working on launching their own stablecoins.

The establishment of a regulatory framework is helping move digital assets from the fringes of financial markets into the mainstream. This shift will attract new investors and will likely accelerate growth in the industry. That said, lack of understanding remains the primary reason most people don’t hold crypto. Most people still don’t feel knowledgeable about trading or using it.

Trust is another big hurdle for the widespread adoption of crypto, with many people still skeptical of an industry that has been plagued from the beginning with large-scale scams, fraud and stolen funds. As ownership of cryptocurrencies becomes more common, it is also important to remember that many risks remain, and fraud is still a big issue in the industry.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

Read more

• Would You Benefit From Investing in Cryptocurrency?
• The GENIUS, CLARITY, and Anti-CBDC Acts: What Bitcoin Investors Need to Know
• Is It Too Late to Invest in Bitcoin?
• The Best Bitcoin ETFs to Buy

Whether driven by rising living costs, a need for social engagement or just plain boredom, retirees are launching side hustles and finding new purpose, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down.

Roughly 13% of retired seniors ages 65 to 85 plan to return to work this year, according to a 2024 survey from ResumeBuilder.com, with 4% stating they are "very likely" to do so, and 9% indicating they are "somewhat likely."

And 20% of retirees are already working either part-time or full-time, according to a recent T. Rowe Price report called “Unretiring: Why recent retirees want to go back to work."

Thinking about a side hustle? The right tools and apps can make all the difference. Dive into the essential starter kit to launch your unretirement journey today.

Seven must-have tools and apps to kickstart your retirement side gig

Starting a side hustle in retirement doesn’t mean learning complex systems or spending your hard-earned cash on expensive setups. With the right tools and apps, you can leverage your skills and manage your time — all while keeping things simple and stress-free.

Nic Adams, co-founder and CEO at Orcus, makes a good point. “Some individuals overlook that older adults often feel intimidated by technology or overwhelmed by too many options. That’s why it's important to focus on using just one or two tools.

Additionally, outdated software poses a challenge, causing issues such as privacy and security risks, as well as reduced productivity. Keeping firewalls, antivirus software and similar tools updated can help alleviate seniors' concerns.”

Here are a few of the many tools and apps to get your retirement side hustle up and running.

1. Todoist

Before you start, it’s time to set some goals and get organized. Todoist can help. It’s a digital to-do list that can help manage your day to squeeze in an hour at the gym, power through your side hustle and still have time for yourself.

Cost: Todoist offers three pricing tiers: The Beginner plan is free, the Pro plan is $4 per month, and the Business plan is $6 per month (billed annually).

2. Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer

You have decades of expertise and practical knowledge, so turn your expertise into income using platforms such as Upwork, Fiverr and Freelancer (to name a few). After creating a profile, you’ll get connected with clients seeking your specific skill sets, such as consulting, writing, virtual assistance or tutoring.

Cost: These sites are free to join. Upwork charges a 10% service fee per project, while Fiverr takes 20% per gig, and Freelancer takes 10% of your total earnings.

Word of warning: Some listed jobs might be scams, so if a job is too good to be true, it probably is. Also, never pay anything up front, and double-check to ensure the company is legitimate by visiting its website and searching for reviews.

3. Rover and Wag

There are currently 63 million households that own a dog. Over the five years from 2019 to 2024, the number of independent and app-based dog walkers reached 1.8 million.

If you love animals and need an excuse to get outside and socialize, websites such as Rover and Wag are great places to start. You can set your availability, choose services such as dog walking or overnight pet sitting, and work in your local area.

Cost: It’s free to sign up, but Rover takes a 20% commission, and Wag takes 40%. Earn $100 to $200 per week, depending on your location and the number of hours you work.

4. Etsy and Shopify

Admit it. You’re pretty creative. The most popular places to sell your handmade or digital products, such as crafts, jewelry, knitting or writing, are on Etsy and Shopify (although there are others).

Etsy (both the app and website) is ideal for selling unique items, while Shopify allows you to create a personalized online store for a broader range of products.

Just to get an idea of your selling potential: 95.5 million active buyers shopped on Etsy in 2024. Both platforms are beginner-friendly, offering templates to set up your shop quickly.

Cost: Etsy charges 20 cents per listing and a 6.5% transaction fee. Shopify’s basic plan starts at $29/month. Start-up costs are minimal for digital products or items you already own.

5. Wyzant and Italki

Unfortunately, fewer than one in six American students receive tutoring of any kind, and fewer than one in 50 receive high-quality tutoring, according to Consumer Affairs. Fortunately, that means there is a need for experts like you.

If you have teaching experience or specialized knowledge, you can tutor students online via Wyzant or Italki. These platforms enable you to set your rates and schedule, making them ideal for retirees seeking flexible home-based work.

Cost: Free to join. Wyzant takes 25% of your first $3,000 earned annually, then 20%. Italki takes 15% per lesson.

6. TaskRabbit

Are you the handyman or woman who gets the call in the middle of the afternoon when your neighbor's pipe breaks, a bookshelf needs to be assembled or a close friend needs help cleaning their home? Put your brawn and mojo to the task with TaskRabbit.

Cost: You set your rates, which vary widely by task, location and experience. For example, in Atlanta in April 2025, cleaning rates ranged from $23.74 to $103.24 per hour.

Taskers (that’s you) pay a $25 registration fee and earn an average of $47 per hour, and you get to keep 100% of your hourly earnings, as well as 100% of any client tips.

7. DoorDash, Instacart, Uber & Lyft, Uber Eats

If you like to drive and meet people, then driving for DoorDash, Instacart, Uber Eats, Uber or Lyft might be the side gig you’re looking for.

Although each is a bit different — you might shop for and deliver groceries, or take someone to the airport — no prior experience is necessary, your schedule is flexible, and each opportunity offers low start-up costs (just a smartphone and a vehicle).

Cost: You get paid for completing a task. Many divers also receive tips, which are 100% yours to keep.

Lyft takes a 20% commission fee, and Uber takes 20% to 25% of each fare. Uber Eats pays $3 to $15 per delivery, DoorDash pays between $2 to $10-plus per delivery and Instacart charges no fees. You pay for gas and the wear and tear on your vehicle.

Tips for success

• Start small: Choose one service or product to avoid overwhelming yourself. Remember, you’re retired.
• Protect your benefits: If you're under full retirement age, keep your earnings below $23,400 per year to avoid Social Security reductions.
• Leverage your experience: Highlight your decades of expertise in your profiles or marketing to build trust with clients.
• Stay safe: Avoid scams by sticking to reputable platforms, such as those listed above. Never share personal financial details with unverified clients.
• Enjoy the journey: Pick a side hustle that aligns with your passions, whether it’s pets, teaching, driving or crafting. The goal of a side gig is to stay active, engaged and financially secure while having fun.

A side hustle can keep you happy in retirement

“The key to thriving in a side hustle is choosing tools that feel approachable and build your confidence," said Christina Muller, LCSW, Licensed Workplace Mental Health Expert and Strategist at R3 Continuum.

"That sense of momentum taps into something deeper: Our human need for purpose and alignment," she said. "When you feel productive, you're far more likely to be productive.”

Grab your laptop, pick a platform, and start building your unretirement adventure today.

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AI has huge potential for businesses. But companies aren’t tracking an emerging risk, and it’s one that can be mitigated.

The tech could harm company culture by lowering employee satisfaction, eroding needed skills, or even seeding resentment. In addition to tracking AI’s return on investment, cost savings and productivity gains, firms need to track how AI affects worker behavior.

“This is a very popular topic that we’re taking a lot of calls and queries about,” said Neil Osmond, an analyst at Gartner, a tech market research firm, in a recent presentation. AI is creating a new human-machine relationship that is unlike the adoption of past work technologies, such as PCs or the internet.

As AI chatbots become more humanlike, the tools will trigger human responses, from happiness to anger, as a real colleague would. The emotional response goes beyond fears of job loss to worries about losing parts of a job a worker loves. Rather than ROI, managers should keep tabs on how AI tools are helping employees feel more productive and engaged, said Osmond.

Work closely with affected employees and have them develop AI’s role and how the job will change. Don’t just provide Google’s Gemini, Microsoft Copilot or other AI tools to workers and hope for the best. Ask how AI is changing work and what workers like and don’t like about the shift.

As Osmond put it, “If AI is doing a portion of your job, and AI is better at it than you were, then what’s your new job?” said Osmond. Keep in mind that AI is not just about automating or augmenting. The new tools may do work that a company has never done. Reward workers for finding new moneymaking uses.

Using AI and losing skills

It’s important to keep tabs on human skills as AI handles more day-to-day tasks. For example, 75% of frontline cybersecurity teams will experience an erosion in skills by 2030 because of a dependency on AI, predicts Gartner. There are already worries that cybersecurity professionals will face an irreversible skills shortage due to generative AI taking over more tasks, noted Jeremy D'Hoinne, an analyst at Gartner, at a conference this summer.

Companies and managers must identify and cultivate must-have skills that can’t be lost with AI use, as skill erosion rears its head over the next few years. AI will sift through emails, summarize meetings or documents, create slideshows, draft legal briefs, write software, do economic analysis and perform other tasks. New and experienced workers may get rusty and institutional know-how may be lost. British law firm Clifford Chance, which is pushing AI adoption for its lawyers, is also tracking what skills atrophy, how it occurs and how to plan for it. More companies will do the same.

Consider how AI changes performance evaluations and career trajectories. For example, AI tools can make a new employee as productive as an experienced one, such as a new call center worker performing well with real-time AI responses. Or a new salesperson with an AI assistant that can answer and send emails and calls. Are all employees getting equal access to AI tools? When some get access and some don’t, that can create jealousy.

Humans make AI systems better

Focus on providing new AI skills to workers in short educational videos, brief email messages, infographics or social media-style content. For example, highlight a six-minute video that shows how to use AI to improve writing, a two-minute clip on doing research or a brief report on creating a slideshow. Share specific suggestions of a “prompt,” the specific language an employee should use to get the most out of an AI chatbot.

Avoid a vague push to use AI more. Instead, provide a steady stream of examples, especially ones that workers come across. Note that workers’ AI abilities vary widely. Time savings is one likely outcome. The time could be used for new tasks or learning. To keep employees satisfied, let them play a big part in the decision of how to use freed-up time.

Human knowledge remains critical and is key to continually making the AI systems better. For example, in cybersecurity, there needs to be human judgment to weed out security alerts that are false positives and improve the automated AI tools. Job postings may need updates to emphasize non-AI skills, especially for entry-level gigs. New college graduates will clearly have more experience with AI, but overreliance on it is a looming risk.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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The Kiplinger Letter has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

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The Kiplinger Letter has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

Congress just passed the biggest higher education policy update in two decades. The Republicans’ recent tax and spending law includes new caps on federal loans, new repayment plans and a sweeping accountability system. With most rules set to take effect next July, the Education Department and colleges need to act fast.

To try to lower college prices and student debt, an overhaul of federal student loans is coming. Federal student debt stands at $1.7 trillion, affecting about 43 million borrowers. Half of the debt comes from graduate loans, a big target of the law. Under the new policy, graduate students and parents of undergrads face new caps on yearly and total borrowing. (Limits on loans made directly to undergrads are unchanged.) A simplified loan repayment plan is on tap, which will reap about $270 billion in federal savings over a decade. Two repayment plans, a standard one with fixed payments and a new income-driven plan, spell higher monthly payments for many borrowers.

The new accountability system marks a huge shift. Schools will lose access to federal lending if graduates don’t earn more than nonattendees in the state. Advocates of the system say the goal is to push high-cost programs to reduce their prices. Undergrads will be measured against those with high school diplomas. Grad programs get measured against similarly situated adults without a graduate degree. 20% or more of associate degrees fail this test, per an analysis by Preston Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. That failure rate comes with a caveat: “Students in these programs are less likely to use loans to begin with,” writes Cooper. “Many will be able to continue operating even if they lose loan access.” Around 8% of all master’s degree programs fail the test (the failure rate is higher for master’s degrees at for-profits). But just 3% of bachelor’s degrees fail.

Among the other policy changes: A bigger endowment tax on wealthy schools of up to 8%, up from today’s top rate of 1.4%. Small colleges with fewer than 3,000 students are exempt, however. And Pell Grants are now available for very short work programs of eight to 15 weeks, a big win for community colleges. Pells also received an extra $10.5 billion in funding.

Schools are racing to adapt and alert students about financial aid changes, though much uncertainty remains. Revenue could take a hit if fewer students enroll, especially at schools that rely heavily on grad programs. Some programs will shrink or be cut, as schools at least consider lowering tuition in some cases.

Expect more business for private lenders, such as College Ave, SoFi, Sallie Mae and Ascent. For example, 40% of medical students borrow more than the law’s annual loan limit. Private loans make up 8% of overall student debt and that figure is sure to increase.

Delays are likely as the Education Department faces implementation struggles. The agency has cut half of its workforce so far and has a lengthy, complex to-do list with tight deadlines. Passing the bill is “just the tip of the iceberg,” says Sarah Sattelmeyer, an education policy analyst at New America. “An incredible amount of work is coming at the Education Department.” This includes issuing reams of rules and guidance about loans, starting the new accountability system, policing lending violations and much more.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration will continue to pressure institutions to change policies, including by withholding current or future federal research funds. Expect more investigations of antisemitism, diversity, foreign students and other issues.

All this change comes as schools face other financial headwinds. A sharp decline in foreign enrollment looms ahead. There’s a homegrown demographic challenge, as the college-age population shrinks in the coming years. Higher costs of everything from construction to insurance are stressing budgets. These trends, and the new policies, mean more schools will mull budget cuts, while also considering sharing resources with other schools or even mergers.

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