Wealth Management News & Insights
Your Guide to Taxes for Parents, A.I. Is Changing How Silicon Valley Builds Start-Ups, 24 Movies and Series to Stream on Netflix Right Now
Primary Sources
- To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: This letter comes to you as part of Berkshire’s annual report. As a public company, we are required to periodically tell you many specific facts and figures. [Berkshire Hathway]
Financial Markets
- PayPal Needs Help From Its Oldest Friends—Consumers: In the crowded digital-payments business, PayPal’s biggest edge is its huge user base. [WSJ]
- Nvidia Is Far From Running Out of Road: New Blackwell chip is off to a roaring start, while hit to profit margins should be short-lived. [WSJ]
- Salesforce Shares Fall After Revenue Outlook Misses: Customer-relationship management company posted a higher profit and revenue for the fourth quarter. [WSJ]
- Businesses Are Betting on a Tax Cut Extension: The federal budget debate has big implications for the economy. Despite questions about the math, investors expect an extension of the 2017 tax cuts. [NYT]
Financial Planning
- Your Guide to Taxes for Parents: A cheat sheet for the many gifts that the tax code hands to parents. [WSJ]
Retirement Planning
- How Social Security Works After Retirement: Learn the claiming strategies that yield the highest income. [Investopedia]
The chart above shows how the share of spending by different income groups has changed since 1990. It reveals a significant increase in spending share among the top 10% of earners, who now account for half of all spending.
Business Strategy
- Warner Bros. Discovery Adds 6.4 Million Max Subscribers, Forecasts 150 Million Subs By End of 2026: Warner Bros. Discovery said Thursday it added 6.4 million global streaming subscribers in the fourth quarter for a total of 116.9 million subscribers. [CNBC]
- Apple’s $500 Billion U.S. Investment Is Mostly Already in the Books: Expansion plan in America is in line with company’s spending pattern and efforts to diversify manufacturing away from China. [WSJ]
- So Long, Party City, And Thanks For All the Balloons: Party City is sweeping away the confetti and turning off the lights. Two bankruptcy proceedings have failed to get the chain’s finances in order. [NPR]
- The Toughest Job in Fashion Is Top Designer for a Luxury Brand: High-end brands are churning through creative directors while trying to revive sales. [WSJ]
- A.I. Is Changing How Silicon Valley Builds Start-Ups: Tech start-ups typically raised huge sums to hire armies of workers and grow fast. Now artificial intelligence tools are making workers more productive and spurring tales of “tiny team” success. [NYT]
- Microsoft is Shutting Down Skype After a 21-Year Run. Here’s How it Lost Out to Video Call Rivals: Skype grew quickly in the 2000s and ended up in Microsoft’s hands in 2011. But Skype lost steam in the 2010s as people adopted smartphones. [CNBC]
- What Went Wrong At Walgreens Boots Alliance?: Transatlantic drugstore empire explores possible break-up after strategic mis-steps and industry-wide woes. [FT]
Life & Work
- 24 Movies and Series to Stream on Netflix Right Now: ‘American Primeval’ dramatizes a massacre in the Wild West, Wallace and Gromit make a winning return, an ‘American Manhunt’ documentary revisits the O.J. Simpson case, and much, much more. [WSJ]
- Your Resort’s ‘Perfect’ Beach Is a Lie: White sand, coconut palms, a gently sloping strand? That idea of tropical paradise is often manufactured. Resorts around the world are now embracing beaches in their more natural states. [NYT]
- Carmine’s Chicago Set to Reopen in May, After A 2-Year Rebuild: Italian restaurant Carmine’s Chicago is preparing to reopen this spring, after the Gold Coast building it inhabited for three decades was torn down and rebuilt. [Crain’s]
- For Years, It Was the NFL’s Most Miserable Team. Now, It’s a Model Franchise: The Washington Commanders were rated as the worst NFL team to play for in each of the last two years. But after an upturn in fortunes on the field, the franchise is also riding high in the latest poll of NFL players. [WSJ]
- How to Keep Hackers From Destroying Your Digital Life: A few digital hygiene measures can help secure accounts and passwords. [WSJ]