Personal Finance News

Latest News About Personal Finance

Business

8 Books That Help Billionaire Elon Musk to Succeed in Life

Leave a Comment

Billionaire Elon Musk is well-known as a book lover. It’s said that he read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica at age nine and would pore through science fiction novels for more than 10 hours a day. No wonder his voracious reading habit plays a crucial role in his amazing success in life. Here are eight books that help Elon Musk to succeed in life:

  1. “Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down” by J.E. Gordon
  2. “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life” by Walter Isaacson
  3. “Einstein: His Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson
  4. “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” by Nick Bostrom
  5. “Merchants of Doubt” by Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes
  6. “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
  7. “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future” by Peter Thiel
  8. The “Foundation” trilogy by Isaac Asimov

Don’t Waste Your Money on Fitness and Health Apps

Leave a Comment

Fitness apps are getting more popular lately. So should you consider getting one of these apps? Don’t waste your money on fitness and health apps as scientists warn that these apps might be doing more harm than good because they don’t work but force people to focus on ambitious goals that they will never reach.

The Guardian reported: Greg Hager, professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University, said that in the absence of trials or scientific grounding it was impossible to say whether apps were having the intended effect. Hager cited the one-size-fits-all targets provided by some fitness trackers, such as the Fitbit, which sets users a goal of taking 10,000 steps a day. Hager claimed the 10,000 steps target dated back to a 1960s Japanese study that showed there were health benefits for men who burned at least 2,000 calories per week through exercise — roughly equivalent to 10,000 steps each day. An early pedometer was known as the manpo-kei, which means ‘10,000-step meter’ in Japanese. “But is that the right number for any of you in this room?” Hager asked. “Who knows. It’s just a number that’s now built into the apps.” “We have an incredible number of apps in the wild basically being downloaded by people who may or may not understand what they are actually telling them or what the context for that is,” he said. “Until we have evidence-based apps you could amplify issues. I mean, imagine everyone thinks they have to do 10,000 steps but you are not actually physically capable of doing that, you could actually cause harm or damage by doing so.” (theguardian.com)

No Big Boss: Swedish Company Eliminated CEO so Nobody is in Charge!

Leave a Comment

Katie Hope reported on BBC about the Swedish company where nobody is in charge:

Three years ago, Swedish software consultancy Crisp decided that the answer was no. The firm, which has about 40 staff, had already trialled various organisational structures, including the more common practice of having a single leader running the company. Crisp then tried changing its chief executive annually, based on a staff vote, but eventually decided collectively that no boss was needed. Yassal Sundman, a developer at the firm, explains: “We said, ‘what if we had nobody as our next CEO – what would that look like?’ And then we went through an exercise and listed down the things that the CEO does.” The staff decided that many of the chief executive’s responsibilities overlapped with those of the board, while other roles could be shared among other employees. “When we looked at it we had nothing left in the CEO column, and we said, ‘all right, why don’t we try it out?'” says Ms Sundman.

Yes! Free Meals Are Back on Delta Flights

Leave a Comment

In an effort to cut costs, many airline carriers eliminated free meals and increased baggage fees. However, soon Delta will bring back free in-flight meals to passengers in the main cabin on long flights. The free in-flight meals for economy class will start on March 1 on flights between New York City’s JFK airport and Los Angeles and San Francisco. More routes with free meals will be started on April 24 including Orlando, Seattle and others. Delta claims to be the only U.S. carrier to offer free meals on some transcontinental flights. The meals vary depending on flight times, and passengers will be able to choose from different offerings. For instance, morning fliers can choose from a breakfast sandwich, a breakfast medley or a fruit and cheese plate. Passengers flying during the day will be offered a mesquite-smoked turkey combo, a Mediterranean whole grain veggie wrap or fruit and cheese plate. “We are all about making our Main Cabin experience the best it can be for our customers and offering free, high quality meals is a big part of that experience,” said Allison Ausband, Delta’s senior vice president of in-flight service. (CNN Money)

Stock Markets Are Setting the Longest Record-Setting Streak in 25 Years

Leave a Comment

Stock markets are on brink of best win streak in a quarter century. U.S. stocks on Wednesday were looking at their longest record-setting streak in 25 years as the Dow industrials, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite all climbed. If all three indexes close higher on Wednesday, it will mark five consecutive days of all three setting record highs at the same time, the longest such streak of simultaneous records since a six-session string ended Jan. 3, 1992, according to Dow Jones data. (marketwatch.com)

Study Links Working Remotely to More Stress and Insomnia

Leave a Comment

Medical Xpress reported: “Working outside an office may spare you from commutes and interruptions by colleagues but it also makes you more vulnerable to unpaid overtime, stress and insomnia, the UN said Wednesday. A new report from the United Nations International Labour Organization studied the impacts of working remotely, with technological advances continuing to revolutionise conceptions of the workplace. Based on data taken from 15 countries, the ILO found that employees were more productive while outside of a conventional office but noted it also brought risks of ‘longer working hours, higher work intensity and work-home interference.’ The report drew distinctions between employees who regularly work at home, highly mobile people constantly working in different locations and those who split time between an office and another site. All three of those groups reported higher stress levels and more incidents of insomnia than those who always work at their employer’s premises. For example, 41 percent of highly mobile employees said they felt some degree of stress, a figure that was 25 percent for office workers. A full 42 percent of people who always work from home or from multiple locations reported suffering from insomnia, compared to 29 percent for people who work at their employer’s site.” (medicalxpress.com)

US Inflation Sees Biggest Monthly Gain in 4 Years

Leave a Comment

From AFP report on Yahoo News: US wholesale inflation continued its upward trend in January, recording its largest monthly gain in more than four years, according to data released Tuesday by the Labor Department. The Producer Price Index, which measures prices from the seller’s perspective, rose 0.6 percent in seasonally adjusted figures, which was the largest such gain since September 2012 and well above an analyst consensus forecast of 0.3 percent. Excluding food and energy, the index saw a monthly gain of 0.4 percent. Year over year, however, the figure was unchanged at 1.6 percent, unadjusted. “In short, fairly strong and not just because of energy,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a client note. (yahoo.com)

What Bill and Melinda Gates are Doing with Warren Buffett’s $30 billion Historic Gift

Leave a Comment

Bill and Melinda Gates describe Warren Buffett’s $30 billion donation a decade ago as “the biggest single gift anyone ever gave anybody for anything.” As reported on Geek Wire, Buffett’s unprecedented gift doubled the size of the Seattle-based Gates Foundation’s endowment — increasing its capacity to take on some of the world’s biggest challenges. “That’s an incredible thing,” said Bill Gates in an interview with GeekWire. “It really energized the foundation, and half of what we’ve gotten done in this last decade is because Warren trusted us.” So what have they done with Buffett’s billions? Some of the money has gone to the Gates Foundation’s work in education, agriculture, and financial services for the poor. But the bulk has gone to global health, supporting the Gates Foundation and its partners in areas such as vaccine distribution, access to contraceptives, and scientific research to help the world’s poorest people. (geekwire.com)

Apple Valued at $700 Billion as Shares Reached Their Highest Closing Level Ever

Leave a Comment

On Monday Apple’s shares closed at $133.29, valuing the company at $700 billion. Fox Business reported: “Apple Inc.’s shares reached their highest closing level ever Monday, as investors bet that the 10th-anniversary iPhone expected later this year will return the world’s most valuable company to renewed momentum after its worst stumble in years. The stock closed at $133.29, topping the prior record close of $133 set in February 2015. The all-time intraday trading high for Apple shares is $134.54, also reached in 2015. That puts Apple’s market value at about $700 billion, which is more than $120 billion ahead of the No. 2 company, Google parent Alphabet Inc.” (foxbusiness.com)

Google Engineers on Self-Driving Car Project Quit Working After Reaching Financial Independence

Leave a Comment

Engineers on Google’s self-driving car project were paid so much that they quit. With so much money and bonus throwing at these engineers to help retain dedicated workers in the short run, it has resulted in many employees leaving the company in the long run after they reach financial independence. The Verge reports: “Google has spent a lot of money on its self-driving car project, now spun off into a new entity called Waymo. Much of that money has gone to engineers and other staff, according a new report from Bloomberg. In order to keep self-driving staffers happy — and, presumably, from leaving the company for other firms doing similar work — Google backed the proverbial Brinks truck up to the self-driving department and unloaded. Bloomberg says that early staffers “had an unusual compensation system” that multiplied staffers salaries and bonuses based on the performance of the self-driving project. The payments accumulated as milestones were reached, even though Waymo remains years away from generating revenue. One staffer eventually ‘had a multiplier of 16 applied to bonuses and equity amassed over four years.’ The huge amounts of compensation worked — for a while. But eventually, it gave many staffers such financial security that they were willing to leave the cuddly confines of Google.”

Finland’s Universal Basic Income Is Useless and Unworkable

Leave a Comment

According to Finnish Trade Union Economist as reported on Bloomberg, “Finland’s basic income experiment is unworkable, uneconomical and ultimately useless. Plus, it will only encourage some people to work less.” The trade union argues this Universal Basic Income program would cost 5% of Finland’s entire gross domestic product, making it impossibly expensive. “The labor group says the results of the two-year pilot program will fail to sway its opposition to a welfare-policy idea that’s gaining traction among those looking for an alternative in the post-industrial age. ‘We think it takes social policy in the wrong direction,’ said Ilkka Kaukoranta, chief economist of the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions, which has nearly one million members. Since January, a group of unemployed Finns aged between 25 and 58 have been receiving a stipend of 560 euros ($600) per month. The amount isn’t means-tested and is paid regardless of whether the recipient finds a job, starts a business or returns to school… Advocates say it eliminates poverty traps and redistributes income while empowering the individual and reducing paperwork… While limited in scope (it’s conditional on the beneficiary having received some form of unemployment support in November 2016) and size (it’s based on a randomly-selected sample of 2,000 jobless people), the Finnish trial may help answer questions like: Does it work? Is it worth it? And the most fundamental of all: Does it incite laboriousness or laziness?” (bloomberg.com)

Bill Gates Set to Become the World’s First Trillionaire in 25 Years

Leave a Comment

With a fortune around $75 billion, Microsoft founder Bill Gates is already the world’s richest man. Together with the power of compounding, more money will create even more wealth. According to research by Oxfam, Bill Gates will be the world’s first trillionaire in 25 years as his total wealth grows at the expected market return of the ultra-rich portfolio. Despite giving money away, Gates’ fortune has risen 50 percent from $50 billion to $75 billion since he stepped down from working full-time at Microsoft in 2006. At the current rate, Gates is predicted to hit the trillion mark by the age of 86. “If you are already rich, you have to try hard not to keep getting a lot richer,” Oxfam notes. (oxfam.org)

Universal Basic Income for All is Coming?

Leave a Comment

If robots and machine intelligence threaten to render many white-collar jobs obsolete, then what will people do for money? Enter the concept of a ‘universal basic income’, a flat sum paid to all regardless of your existing wealth or ability to work. It is one of the rare ideas that has support from both the libertarian right — which favours tearing up the welfare state — and the left wing. In France, Benoit Hamon has emerged as the surprise Socialist candidate for April’s presidential election first round, on a radical programme that includes such an income — to be funded in part by a new tax on industrial robots. National or local governments in other countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, Scotland and Brazil are already evaluating how such a revenue might work in practice. Finland is furthest down the road. On January 1 it started a two-year trial to give 2,000 unemployed Finns a monthly unconditional payment of $590. At the least, advocates argue, a basic income could replace the thicket of unemployment benefits currently on offer in many advanced economies. (yahoo.com)

Comcast Is About to Sell You Cable TV Without the Cable Box

Leave a Comment

Soon some of subscribers can watch live TV without the cost of a cable box. Lucas Shaw reported on Bloomberg: “Comcast is making its Xfinity TV service available to subscribers with Roku set-top players via a new app, paving the way for customers of the nation’s largest cable provider to watch live programming without the cost or hassle of a cable box. Roku is the first set-stop box to offer the Xfinity TV service, Comcast said in a statement Tuesday. During a test period, subscribers will have to hang on to their cable devices. When the app formally rolls out later this year, they’ll be able sign up without renting a cable box. While Comcast expects the majority of its customers to opt for the typical setup, traditional pay-TV providers are trying to be more flexible about where and how people can watch TV given the popularity of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon and the boxes that offer them. Customers with Roku players will be able to watch live TV, browse on-demand libraries and record shows, just as they can with Comcast’s boxes. Those who use the Roku as their primary device instead of Comcast’s X1 device will receive a $2.50 monthly credit, the company said.”

Is there any way to get cable TV without the cable box?

You might wonder if there’s a way to just attaching the cable wire directly to the TV to see some channels. At the moment, you need a cable box for any live cable outlet in your home. Each additional cable box will cost extra monthly fee.

Once the new Xfinity TV service becomes available, you will be able to avoid paying the monthly for these extra cable boxes. Keep in mind that you still need some kind of streaming boxes such as Roku player to use with the new service.

Trump Pledges to Work with Big Pharma to Lower Drug Prices

Leave a Comment

Good news for consumers as President Trump pledges to work with Big Pharma to lower drug prices. His message to pharmaceutical company executives: bring your production back to the United States and the Trump administration will lower regulations for you. “So you have to get your companies back here. We have to make products … We have to get rid of a tremendous number of regulations,” Trump said. “I know you have some problems where you cannot even think about opening up new plants. You can’t get approval for the plant and then you can’t get approval to make the drugs.” Sanders and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, issued a joint statement shortly after the meeting saying they hope Trump “really” takes on the pharmaceutical industry. (cnn.com)