Americans drowning in debt, new Alzheimer's drugs, reformed scammer: Catch up on the day's stories
Editor's Note: CNN's 5 Things newsletter is your one-stop shop for the latest headlines and fascinating stories to start and end your busy day. Sign up here.
👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! Millions of people start their day with a morning cup of joe, but how much coffee is too much? A doctor explains what's safe for most people.
Here's what else you might have missed during your busy day:
1️⃣ Drowning in debt: Americans are finding it harder to pay off their debt — specifically for auto loans and credit cards. In some cases, they haven't been this overextended since the beginning of the Great Recession back in 2008 and 2009.
2️⃣ Reformed scammer: Convicted con artist Marwan Ouarab is an unlikely hero. He used to sell fake concert tickets. Now he helps save people from online predators. For many victims, he's their last hope of recovering stolen savings or cherished treasures.
3️⃣ New drugs: These medications for early Alzheimer's disease may allow people to live without help for up to 39 additional months, a new study estimates. However, experts urge caution. Consider the pros and cons.
4️⃣ Food for thought: Ancient humans living in Europe may have scooped out the brains of their dead enemies and eaten them, archaeologists say. Studies confirm that cannibalism was relatively common during that era 11,000-plus years ago.
5️⃣ 'Fun factor': Nerves were rarely an issue for tennis legend Steffi Graf during her career, when she won 22 grand slam singles titles. She's dealing with a different kind of pressure now — on the pickleball court and playing with her husband Andre Agassi.
🚆 Close call: Surveillance video captured the moment a driver jumped out of an SUV seconds before a train smashed into it in Layton, Utah. No one was hurt, but the car was totaled, and the train also suffered significant damage.
• Senate confirms RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary• Trump orders up a plan for more tariffs, even as inflation heats up• Acting US attorney in New York quits after being told to drop Eric Adams case
🚀 Blue Origin plans to lay off that percentage of its workforce — more than 1,000 employees — nearly a month after the company debuted its first orbital rocket.
🌌 Celestial giant: Astronomers spotted a monster radio jet in the distant universe that's twice the width of the Milky Way galaxy. The object formed when the universe was less than 10% of its current age of 13.8 billion years.
🌶️ No sweat: Lady Gaga took on the so-called 'wings of death' like a true rock star during an appearance on 'Hot Ones,' only responding with a giggle. She also reminisced about her early struggles to make it in the music industry.
💰 A list of the world's highest-paid athletes of 2024 was released. Which sport was not represented among the top 10?A. BoxingB. BasketballC. SoccerD. Football⬇️ Scroll down for the answer.
😍 Hot topics: Valentine's Day is nearly here, and what screams love more than nachos, Minecraft and pickles? We took a look at hundreds of Hallmark greeting cards, and those were some of the popular items featured. Here's what we learned.
🧠 Quiz answer: D. Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was the highest-paid athlete of 2024, and no football players made the top 10. Test your knowledge with CNN's weekly news quiz in tomorrow morning's 5 Things newsletter.📧 Check out all of CNN's newsletters.
5 Things PM is produced by CNN's Chris Good, Meghan Pryce and Kimberly Richardson.
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USA Today
21 minutes ago
- USA Today
Dump your spouse, not your assets: 7 tips for surviving 'gray divorce'
For a midlife man or woman trapped in a failing marriage, a 'gray divorce' can bring liberation. And financial ruin. A man can expect his standard of living to decline by 21% after a gray divorce. A woman's standard of living will plunge by 45%. Both partners see their wealth decline by half. Despite those perils, the divorce rate has doubled since 1990 for Americans over 55. Women are more likely to initiate a gray divorce, researchers say. They also tend to fare worse financially after the split. Here are seven tips for managing your finances in a gray divorce, from AARP and other expert sources. Don't expect the same lifestyle after a gray divorce In a divorce, spouses typically split their assets. After the breakup, however, don't expect your monthly expenses to go down by half. Each partner will now likely face separate housing payments, utility bills and insurance premiums. 'It's really starting over with basic financial planning 101,' said Michelle Crumm, a certified financial planner in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The lifestyle adjustment can be especially brutal for women, who often stay in the family home, but with a vastly diminished income. 'And they can't afford the house, and they can't afford the three pets that they have,' said Niv Persaud, a certified financial planner in Atlanta. Don't get hung up on the family home In a common gray divorce scenario, one partner keeps the home and gives up a trove of other assets to stay there. That can be a mistake, experts say. Homes aren't the same as money in the bank. They're costly to maintain. The partner who gets the home can wind up house poor. 'A lot of times, people want to stay in the family home for sentimental reasons,' said George Mannes, executive editor at AARP The Magazine. 'But it can be a trap.' Remember: You're still going to retire Retirement savings loom large in gray divorces. 'Generally speaking, what most people have is retirement accounts and equity in their home,' said Monica Dwyer, a certified financial planner in West Chester, Ohio. Just like the family home, retirement accounts 'tend to elicit strong emotions, particularly from the spouse whose name is on the account,' Diane Harris writes in an AARP report on gray divorce. In divorce, a couple's collective retirement savings may be redistributed into equitable shares, one for each partner. But how that works depends on where you live. In any of nine 'community property' states, the court splits the assets down the middle, according to Investopedia. In more numerous 'equitable distribution' states, the court divides the assets equitably, but not necessarily down the middle. Financial planners strongly recommend that divorcing couples complete a qualified domestic relations order, or QDRO. It's a legal document that spells out how retirement savings are divided. The form 'can be great,' Dwyer said, as a tool for dividing other assets in divorce. A spouse who receives funds under a QDRO generally doesn't pay a tax penalty for withdrawing them. Don't assume all assets are equal When divorcing spouses are deciding how to divvy up assets, a financial adviser can play a crucial role in divining what different assets are actually worth. For example: $500,000 in a bank account is more valuable than the same amount in a 401(k). Why? Because the retirement savings have not yet been taxed as income, and withdrawing them early can trigger a penalty. By the same token, $500,000 in a Roth IRA is worth 'a ton more' than the same amount in a traditional IRA, Crumm said: The Roth funds have already been taxed. Diamonds are forever. Alimony is not. Alimony is generally awarded in divorce to a spouse who earned less, to help them keep up the lifestyle they enjoyed during marriage. Alimony can be awarded more or less permanently, or until a spouse dies or remarries. But that arrangement is becoming far less common, AARP reports. While details vary from state to state, alimony 'is now typically designed to last just long enough for a lower-earning spouse to figure out how to become self-supporting,' Harris writes. Crumm, the Michigan financial planner, counsels her clients to save 'a good chunk' of their alimony payments. 'Alimony probably doesn't last forever,' she said. 'The person who's receiving the alimony is at a disadvantage if they aren't planning well. When that ends, it's a cliff.' Don't fight over prized possessions Many divorcing couples wage protracted feuds over cherished possessions: Keeping a favorite painting for yourself, or punishing your ex-spouse by taking it away. For a divorcing spouse who really wants to antagonize a sports fan, 'you go after the football tickets,' Crumm said. She has seen couples spar over seats at Michigan Wolverines games. When spouses can't agree on who gets what, the judge decides, and that scenario often doesn't end well. 'You're punishing yourself when you go to court, really,' Dwyer said. A better solution, she said, is to divide marital assets through mediation or 'collaborative law,' striving for a settlement outside of court. Get on with your life You aren't just divorcing your spouse: You're also divorcing yourself from their finances. Take care to remove a former spouse from your financial accounts, experts say. Change beneficiary designations on investment accounts and insurance policies to ensure your ex doesn't inherit your stuff by mistake. A divorcing spouse may need to rebuild their credit, especially if most accounts were in the ex's name. 'Be extra careful about credit cards that you have shared,' said Mannes of AARP. 'Make sure your spouse doesn't keep the account open.' It's also a good idea to monitor your credit report, Dwyer said, to make sure a former partner's history doesn't muddy your own. 'Your ex does have your Social Security number,' she said. 'If we're talking about somebody who had a problem with gambling, if we're talking about somebody who has a spending problem, then you want to lock everything down, split everything up.'
Fast Company
24 minutes ago
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This overlooked personal finance tip can help your loved ones
Thinking about your own death is not something most people enjoy doing. However, if you plan to pass on savings or assets, like a home, having a will is important in ensuring those items end up in the right hands. Still, according to a new survey, most Americans don't have a will. The data, which comes from a Western & Southern Financial Group survey of 1,007 U.S. adults, showed that only one in four Americans has a will. Understandably, the likelihood of having a will differs widely between generations. Baby boomers were the most prepared with nearly half (47%) having a will, while only 23% of millennials did and 20% of Gen Zers. But astonishingly, nearly a third (30%) of respondents have never even discussed end-of-life plans with their family at all. And, according to the research, that's highly problematic, because often, the death of a loved one can cause more than grief. It can cause financial distress. Over half of respondents (51%) said they struggled financially after a death of a loved one and 14% described those challenges as being significant. The number one reason most said they've never discussed financial plans is due to discomfort (54%). But that discomfort can lead to a lot of confusion. The data showed 38% of people were not confident in their understanding of their parents' finances. That was especially true when it came to financial arrangements between siblings. Fifty-five percent of Americans felt uninformed about how finances would be distributed with millennials and Gen Zers most in the dark (57% each). A staggering number of those surveyed—38% overall—had not done any preparation either for their own passing or the passing of a loved one. However, nearly half of Gen Zers said the same was true (49%). It makes sense that Gen Z may be the least financially prepared for death (given they're the youngest working generation), however, it could also be due to the broad fears, spanning the generations, that there won't be much leftover to pass on. A previous Western & Southern survey found that nearly half of Americans (49%) were not confident in their ability to retire—ever. Gen X was the most concerned (52%), followed by millennials (50%) then boomers (47%). But the youngest generation of workers, who have the most working years left, were not confident about retirement either: 41% of the group said they worry they may never retire. While there are many reasons why writing a will can be intimidating, there are plenty of online resources that can help. Writing a will does not require an attorney and online will writing services can cost between $0 and $300.
Business Insider
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- Business Insider
Meet the Gen Z HENRYs: They're making $565K on average but still renting
Earning six figures but living paycheck to paycheck — that's what it means to be a HENRY. As Gen Zers approach 30, a very small subset of the generation is aging into this acronym, which stands for high earners, not rich yet, and was coined by Fortune's Shawn Tully. With inflation biting extra hard during their young adult years, younger Americans increasingly think they need to earn more to achieve stability. In a 2024 Bankrate survey, Gen Zers said they'd need to make $200,000 a year to feel financially secure. At the same time, Gen Zers deal with " money dysmorphia," or an unrealistic perception of their own financial soundness and feeling stressed over money, largely due to social comparison and outdated ideas of what's affordable. Indeed, middle-income Americans have been living more like their lower-income counterparts, indicating that for Americans to feel middle-class, they actually need to be high-earning. To figure out who in Gen Z is actually earning above that threshold — and may exemplify the HENRY title — we delved into Census Bureau microdata from the Current Population Survey's 2024 Annual Social and Economic Supplement. We only looked at adult Gen Zers with a total income of $250,000 or more. Though Gen Z birth years span from 1997 to 2012, we only looked at those ages 18 to 27 in 2024. On average, these Gen Z HENRYs made just above $565,000 a year, compared to around $28,700 for all Gen Zers reflected in the microdata. They also skewed slightly more male than the wider Gen Z cohort. On average, Gen Z HENRYs were around 24 years old in 2024. They were also more likely to be married than their wider Gen Z cohort, and those marriages seem to be sticking so far — essentially 0% of Gen Z HENRYs were separated or divorced. Demographically, Gen Z HENRYs were also less likely to be white than their cohort peers, and more likely to be Asian or Pacific Islander. Gen Z HENRYs were also more likely to have a bachelor's degree or a master's degree and beyond, both of which can contribute to a wage premium. And HENRYs might have the entrepreneurial bug: They're more likely than the rest of Gen Z to be self-employed, although the vast majority held wage or salary roles in the private sector. Gen Z HENRYs were less likely to be homeowners than the wider Gen Z cohort, with 40% of HENRYs owning homes compared to around 53% of all Gen Zers. Conversely, HENRYs were more likely to be renters. However, homeowning HENRYs were more likely to live in more valuable properties — their estimated current property values were around $455,000 compared to around $441,000 for all of Gen Z. That tracks with a larger trend: Some high-earning Americans, especially younger ones, are opting for rent — it's increasingly become a better deal than maintaining and buying a home for many, and many higher-earners like the flexibility and amenities that come with a rental.
