Economics

• Retail sales up 1.9% in September. (CNBC)

The unexpectedly big gain in spending comes after months of historically high savings as consumers retrenched due to the Covid-19 scare. The personal savings rate peaked at 33.6% in April and remained at 14.1% in August, the highest pre-pandemic rate since June 1975.

• (Ed Yardeni) took a closer look at the recovery by sector of the economy in his blog post dated October 9.
•  First-time unemployment claims of 898,000 back on the rise this past week. (CNN)

Investing

• I know nothing about gaming, but this looked like big gaming and investment news: Roblox filed with the SEC to go public, valuation may be $8 billion. (Business Insider)
• More bad news for Robinhood. This time it’s about hacked accounts. (Bloomberg) Brokerage accounts are for sale on the dark web, and Robinhood accounts are popular. (CNBC)

Paying for College/Higher Ed

• Student Loan Payments relief ends December 31. What do you need to know? (Forbes)
• This video explains how 529 plans work and demonstrates how much would have to be saved from birth to age 18 to save enough to pay for an Ivy League education. Even with the power of compounding, the numbers are staggering. (CNBC)
• The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center came out with a report this week showing enrollment drops at colleges and universities, including community colleges. It is filled with lots of data and graphics. For commentary and analysis, take your pick: (WSJ) (NYT) (Forbes).

Budgeting

• This is really more about spending than budgeting per se, but how do you compete against (record breaking) Amazon Prime Day (CNN)? By offering curbside pickup—every day. (CNBC)

Insurance

•  Fifteen million people lost employment related health insurance due to the pandemic. Here is some advice on how to replace it. (CNBC)

Retirement

• The annual updates to Social Security have been announced, and Investopedia sums them up for you.

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