🐤 Buyer's market

Markets: The big news this week on Wall Street — and every other street across America — is tomorrow’s election. But that’s not the only factor that will influence the direction of stock prices over the next several days. For starters, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will offer remarks about interest rate changes on Thursday. And earnings season continues, with reports expected this week from several Big Tech and Big Pharma firms.

Too close to call: Election Day is tomorrow, and the latest presidential polls aren’t giving Americans much of a prediction about the outcome. Although Democrat Kamala Harris holds a razor-thin advantage over Republican Donald Trump nationally, the winner will almost certainly be decided by voters in swing states where pollsters say the race is essentially a dead heat. And the polls themselves have received a bit more scrutiny recently as critics express concerns that the methods being used might not accurately reflect voters’ opinions.

Season in review: We’re deep into the college football season, and Week 10 proved there was still plenty of excitement to be seen between bitter rivals and championship contenders. Ohio State won a spirited game against Penn State by showcasing its defense, South Carolina defeated Texas A&M, and Miami conquered Duke, rewriting predictions about how the rest of the season will play out. Losses by Iowa State and Pitt means there are only five NCAA Division I FBS teams (Oregon, BYU, Miami, Army, and Indiana) still undefeated.

Ford’s fortunes: In an uncertain economy, stock market fluctuations are common. But one of the “Big Three” U.S. automotive giants seems to have figured out a way to please investors while giving today’s drivers what they want. The automotive industry was once dominated by companies that could provide value, reliability, and/or performance. These days, technology is one of the top priorities of car buyers. And Ford has responded to that demand with a range of driver assistance and other digital features, prompting a significant boost to its 2024 profits.

Calm before the storm: For several years, experts have been predicting some sort of crisis in response to various economic factors … but in the short term, analysts have generally painted a fairly rosy picture. That could soon be changing, warns long-time Wall Street insider Bill Blain. He believes that inflation will continue to be a sore spot for consumers even as various other issues — like lower-than-expected rate cuts, supply chain interruptions, and the national debt — could combine to push stock prices down as much as 12% over the next 12 months.

Although purchasing a house has always been a major decision with significant financial consequences, many people now believe the prospect of becoming a homeowner is out of reach. Rising real estate prices and elevated mortgage rates are partially to blame for that trend, but so is the sheer complexity that now surrounds the typical home sale.

That’s why a fintech entrepreneur with a track record of success decided to launch his latest startup company, Further.

Exploring the mission

Kevin Bennett, who co-founded the auto loan refinancing company Caribou in 2016, decided last year to take on a new project. Based on his own experiences and stories he had heard about the difficulties of other prospective homebuyers, he set out to create an innovative platform that will help guide users around the pitfalls and hurdles that can derail such a purchase.

“A generation ago, our parents bought a $200,000 home with a 20% mortgage, and it was very straightforward,” he explained. “There was one kind of mortgage, and that’s what you did and it’s just more complicated.”

Identifying the tools

Bennett believes Further will help eliminate some of the confusion surrounding this process with a proprietary suite of tools, including:

• Mortgage calculations: This important feature provides a breakdown of expected mortgage payments and other costs to show users what they can actually afford.
• Personalized insight: Users can access trusted advice on various topics related to home buying, including when to buy and what type of mortgage to pursue.
• Simple explanations: Unlike the confusing language used by many in the industry, Further seeks to make the process more transparent by using clear terms.

Bennett hopes consumers find that his platform “gives them confidence, puts them at ease, and lets them focus on … that dream of being a homeowner.”

For generations of workers, the possibility of being promoted served as a motivating factor. But the employment market has changed a lot in recent years, and the promise of a fancy new title simply isn’t enough to convince many employees to stick around.

Where things went wrong

Promotions have long been synonymous with more responsibility, greater prestige, and increased compensation. According to a new poll, however, more than two-fifths of American workers surveyed said they weren’t interested in climbing the corporate ladder with their current employer.

But before you label them as unmotivated or even lazy, it’s important to dig deeper into the reasons given by those who said they would turn down a promotion.

In recent years — and particularly in the post-COVID era — Americans in general have been far more focused on securing a personally rewarding and fulfilling position rather than pursuing a pipeline to the corner office.

Ambition isn’t dead, the pollsters found, but it does look quite a bit different than it did in generations past.

What workers want now

Many of today’s workers have made it clear that they are looking to reduce stress and boost harmony between their professional and personal lives. That’s why the promise of a promotion has lost its luster for so many in the workforce.

The three primary reasons given for turning down a chance for career advancement were:

• Reducing burnout: More than 3 in 4 employees say they occasionally feel burned out at work — and for 28%, it’s a frequent or constant feeling.
• Boosting balance: Finding a job that maximizes flexibility and provides plenty of time for life outside of work has become a priority for many workers.
• Calculating value: Nearly 2 in 5 employers admit offering promotions without any extra compensation, which is a deal-breaker for many employees.

Whether you’re a teacher, tutor, or parent who wants to help the kids in your life learn to write, the best approach might be to eschew some of the most popular methods used in most public schools.

Mastering the process

The reason so many students struggle to excel in writing is that it encompasses a number of skills, each of which must be executed correctly in order to achieve the desired result. The most obvious among them are legibility, punctuation, grammar, and expressing ideas.

Traditional education has sought to tackle these skills separately, but a relatively new concept known as the copybook method attempts to combine multiple necessary components into one exercise.

The step-by-step strategy is simple enough:

• The instructor reads the student a brief, age-appropriate passage
• The student responds to a series of questions about the content
• The instructor reads that summary aloud and writes it down
• The student copies those sentences with the instructor’s supervision

Proponents of the copybook method say it addresses all of the fundamental skills involved in writing without burdening students with the frustrating aspects of some other common lesson plans.

Getting the best results

The steps might be straightforward, but there are a few details educators should remember in order to maximize the payoff.

For starters, keeping all lessons to about 10 minutes will help prevent kids from getting bored or restless, meaning they’ll be more likely to have a positive experience and get the most out of the exercise.

Professionals also urge parents and teachers to avoid the urge to limit repetitive assignments. While adults find such tasks monotonous, repetition is key for kids learning how to write.

Perhaps most importantly, remember to give kids an opportunity to express their imagination and be creative when showing off their newfound skills.