9 August 2019 FT — Articles to Read

9 August 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Money, what are twenty five (25) reasons retiring is harder than it used to be?

 

Rule of Tree: Land use the key to climate – Pg. 1

  • Improved land use, including planting trees and reducing deforestation, …will be an integral part of limiting global warming to well below 2C…
  • Giving up meant and reducing food waste will also be key to global efforts to combat climate change

 

Philippines chops rates again as growth hits four-year low – Pg. 4

  • The Philippines’ central bank has cut rates for the second time this year, joining a wave of monetary easing across Asia in a bid to boost its flagging economy after growth slowed ot its lowest rate for more than four years
  • …trimmed its benchmark rate by 25bps to 4.25%, …
  • …growth in the south-east Asian country slowed unexpectedly to 5.5% year-on-year in the three months to June, the lowest reading since 2015 and down from 5.6% in the previous quarter
  • The central bank’s move comes after fresh evidence of a slowdown in price growth. Headline inflation fell to a two-year low of 2.4% in July ….down from 2.7% in the previous month

 

WeWork founder eyes IPO tax gain – Pg. 11

  • WeWork has turned to a complex corporate structure for its IPO that would give tax benefits to co-founder Adam Neumann and early investors in the office space provider…
  • The arrangement, known as an umbrella partnership corporation (Up-C), has grwoin in popularity this decade

 

US yield curve sends most serious warning of recession since 2007 – 17

  • The yield on the three-month US Treasury traded as much as 41.23 bps above that on the benchmark 10-year government bond on Wednesday – the widest gap since March 2007
  • Such an inversion of the yield curve – in which short-term yields are higher than longer term ones – has preceded every recession of the past half century

 

Answer: (1) We are living longer; (2) Education costs more; (3) Student debt has exploded; (4) Employer benefits have withered; (5) People do not know how to invest; (6) Social Security does not buy as much; (7) The Gig economy has hurt retirement savings; (8) Bond yields are low; (9) Divorce after 50 has increased; (10) Parents support their adult children; (11) Recurring expenses have increased; (12) Home ownership has been delayed; (13) Homes cost more; (14) The Big House trend caught on; (15) Health care is a bigger expense; (16) Long-term-care costs are increasing; (17) Lifestyle factors are expensive; (18) Salaries have not kept up with the cost of living; (19) Overall cost of living is higher; (20) People start contributing to retirement funds later in life; (21) People use outdated investment strategies; (22) Credit card debt has skyrocketed; (23) People make more job changes than in the past; (24) Many older Americans were not conditioned to save for retirement; (25) People are unsure how much they will need for retirement