Investing

After a tough year for the stock and bond markets in 2022, some advisors are turning to alternative investments, according to a new survey.
Investors are drawn to diversification, lowering portfolio risk and boosting returns.
However, some of the trade-offs may include complexity, lack of liquidity and higher fees.

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After a tough year for the stock and bond markets in 2022, some advisors are turning to alternative investments, according to a new survey from the Financial Planning Association. 
Nearly 30% of advisors are actively investing in or seeking alternative investments, or “alternatives,” for clients, the findings show. These assets typically fall outside traditional investments in publicly traded stocks, bonds and cash.

Some investors are drawn to alternatives for diversification, lowering portfolio risk and boosting returns, said certified financial planner Ashton Lawrence, director at Mariner Wealth Advisors in Greenville, South Carolina.
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Indeed, “diversification” and “risk mitigation” were top objectives among advisors who recommend alternatives, according to the FPA survey.
However, there’s variation among risk and return, with many assets falling under the “alternatives” umbrella, including hedge funds, private equity, “real assets” such as real estate or commodities and prepackaged investments known as “structured products.”
“The big thing I harp on is conducting thorough due diligence,” Lawrence said, noting the importance of understanding the product, why you’re buying it and how it fits with the rest of your portfolio.

A ‘lack of liquidity’ and higher fees

While some advisors recommend alternatives, nearly 30% are “familiar” with them but are steering clear, the FPA survey found.
For many advisors, the biggest obstacle was the “lack of liquidity” with certain products, especially amid economic uncertainty and higher borrowing rates.

That risk isn’t understood well by many investors, explained Chris Mellone, a CFP and partner at VLP Financial Advisors in Vienna, Virginia. “It’s just really tough to get out of some of these funds.”
Fees and expenses were other challenges for alternatives, and those tend to be higher with certain products, according to Lawrence. “That’s nothing really to frown upon if the value is there and you can justify the expense,” he said.
“But if all you’re doing is paying for an expensive money market fund, I would say you’re probably better off trying to find another strategy,” Lawrence added.

Advisors may access private deals

While the FPA survey cites private equity as the top category of alternative assets, other advisors don’t believe it’s a good fit for clients.
“The best [private equity] deals are the ones that you’re never going to get access to,” and most clients can’t compete with the wealthiest investors, said Matthew McKay, a College Station, Texas-based CFP at Briaud Financial Advisors.

Alternatively, McKay’s firm focuses on “funds of funds,” where the firm acts as a general partner by investing on behalf of 100 clients in one deal.
“Collectively, we’re more than enough,” he said. “That’s where a lot of these retail folks are getting access to funds.” More

Covid-era Paycheck Protection Program fraud may have contributed to home price inflation in certain U.S. markets, research suggests.
“Fraud on this scale is enormously costly,” said Sam Kruger, co-author and assistant professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin.

Prospective buyers are welcomed by real estate agents at an open house in West Hempstead, New York on April 18, 2021.
Newsday LLC / Contributor

PPP loan fraud affected home prices

U.S. home prices rose by 24% between November 2019 and November 2021, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, driven by factors such as shifting demand and regional moves.

However, government aid may have also contributed to that growth, including higher rates of fraudulent PPP loans in certain areas, according to the new research.

This is a very specific type of stimulus that injected cash into certain areas, and it seems to have played a pretty significant role.

Sam Kruger
Assistant professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin

The paper found that certain markets had elevated rates of PPP loan fraud, and individuals who received fraudulent loans were more likely to have purchased property.
“This is a very specific type of stimulus that injected cash into certain areas, and it seems to have played a pretty significant role,” Kruger said.
ZIP codes with “high suspicious lending per capita” had home price growth that was 5.7% higher than ZIP codes in the same county with lower levels of fraud, the paper found. “This effect is large relative to other proposed factors explaining house price growth during the Covid period,” the authors wrote.

The findings were consistent after weighing factors such as land supply, previous home price growth, remote work access, population density, net migration, proximity to the central business district and prior rates of remote work.
“It’s not just that you’re stealing money from the government,” Kruger said. “There are potential distortions and spillover effects that are affecting other people in the community.” More

When it comes to retirement, many Americans have a big-dollar figure in mind for how much they will need.
What most people should strive for is the “mentality of feeling assured that you can spend money throughout retirement,” one expert said.
These tips can help determine what you will need.

Antonio Suarez Vega | Istock | Getty Images

When it comes to how much they will need to comfortably retire, Americans have a “magic number” in mind — $1.27 million, according to new research from Northwestern Mutual.
That’s up from $1.25 million last year, the financial services firm found, based on an online survey of 2,740 adults conducted between February and March.

Respondents in their 50s expected to need the most when they retire — more than $1.5 million, the survey found. For those in their 60s and 70s, who are close to or in retirement, those expectations dropped to less than $1 million.

It’s not surprising that expectations for retirement needs are getting higher amid higher inflation, said Alap Patel, a Chicago-based certified financial planner and wealth management advisor for Northwestern Mutual.
If you retire at 60 and live to 100, you have to worry about what costs will be over 40 years, he noted.
“It’s not just about your expenses, but it’s also the mentality of feeling assured that you can spend money throughout retirement,” Patel said.

Savings fall far short of retirement goals

Yet across all age groups, the amount respondents said they currently have saved toward retirement fell short of their million dollar-plus goals — with an average of just $89,300 set aside, a 3% increase from 2022.

Those closest to retirement had more saved, but not by much, with an average of $110,900 for those in their 50s, $112,500 for those in their 60s and $113,900 for those in their 70s.
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Older cohorts are not only adjusting down their expectations for how much they will need in retirement, they are also planning to work longer, the survey found.
Americans plan to work until age 65 on average, according to the results. That is up from 64 last year and 62.6 in 2021.
Baby boomers plan to work the longest, until age 71, the survey found. Gen Xers plan to work until 65, millennials until 63 and Gen Z until 60.

The biggest retirement worry was declining health, with 44%; followed closely by outliving savings, with 43%; and boredom, with 31%.
Another recent survey from research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates found the biggest worry for both retirement savers and retirees, with 58%, is outliving their money.
Many people can get lost in the numbers of what they should save.
“A lot of people get so overwhelmed that the number is so big that they have to save this much by this age,” said Winnie Sun, managing director and founding partner of Sun Group Wealth Partners in Irvine, California. She is a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.

Calculating your own retirement ‘magic number’

Rather than think about a big goal number for retirement, Patel said he urges clients to identify their income needs.
To get an idea of where your money is going, take a look at your credit card and bank statements.
By multiplying your estimated annual budget — for example, $100,000 — by a factor of 25, you may arrive at a generic lump sum you may need to cover your retirement years which, in this example, would be $2.5 million, Patel said.
By cutting your spending, you may also reduce the amount of money it will take to cover your retirement needs.
To help people start tackling those bigger goals, Sun said, she typically breaks them into “more bite-size chunks of activities that they can do.”
That may include a debit card or credit card fast for at least one month to better track their budget. “That will give them a sense of how much they’re spending,” Sun said.
Or instead it may include a savings challenge, like setting a goal for a certain amount of money to stash away in the next three months.
“If we put pressure to have them do it sooner, even when they think they’re not ready, it will help develop better patterns long term,” Sun said.

As you think about retirement, in an ideal world, you would have enough guaranteed zero risk income to cover your guaranteed expenses.

Alap Patel
wealth management advisor for Northwestern Mutual

Everyone typically has three types of expenses, Patel said. The first group includes mundane costs such as utilities, groceries and property taxes, that need to be paid regardless of what happens with your investments or in the economy.
“If the markets are down 30%, it doesn’t matter,” Patel said. “You have to pay your property taxes.”
The second category is discretionary expenses, such as going on vacation or eating out, that can be reduced in the event the economy pulls back. The third category is aspirational spending, such as paying for a trip for a big anniversary or a child’s wedding.
“As you think about retirement, in an ideal world, you would have enough guaranteed zero-risk income to cover your guaranteed expenses,” Patel said.

Social Security benefits may cover some of those monthly income needs. Respondents to Northwestern Mutual’s survey said they expect those benefits to cover 28% of their overall retirement funding. To find out how much you may receive, check your Social Security statement.
In addition, retirees may want to consider adding annuities, Patel said. If you and your spouse need $6,000 per month in income in retirement, and Social Security benefits provide $5,000, you may purchase an annuity to cover the remaining $1,000 per month, he said.
By having your monthly expenses covered with guaranteed income, you may be more comfortable taking more risk elsewhere in your portfolio, he said.
To get assurance your plan will work, it helps to talk with a trustworthy financial advisor. More

Overall, 57% of Americans now say they are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent report.
Workers last month saw their buying power improve for the first time in two years.
A year of high costs took a toll on household finances, according to a Federal Reserve Board report.

After leaning heavily on their paychecks as prices spiked over the last year, households are finally feeling some relief.
As of May, 57% of consumers said they were living paycheck to paycheck, down from 61% the month earlier, according to a new LendingClub report.

Workers last month saw their buying power improve for the first time in two years, as inflation eased off the pandemic-era peak.
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The consumer price index, which measures the average change in prices for consumer goods and services, declined to an annual rate of 4% in May after hitting 9.1% in June 2022, the highest level in four decades.
However, a year of high costs took a toll on household finances, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households report. The share of adults doing at least OK financially fell sharply in 2022, to the lowest level since 2016, the report found.
During that time, many consumers dipped into their savings, relied on credit cards or turned to personal loans for everyday expenses, a separate survey by LendingTree found.

High borrowing costs are stressing households

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Americans now owe nearly $1 trillion in credit card debt, a record high, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Interest rates on credit cards are also at historic levels, at more than 20%. Although much lower than a credit card, even personal loan rates are in the double digits.
“While these personal loans can help people extend their budget in the short term, the interest rates and other costs associated with them can keep people stuck in the cycle of debt,” said LendingTree’s chief credit analyst Matt Schulz.
Still today, 73% of consumers said higher prices have affected their ability to cover monthly expenses, including cell phone bills, utilities, auto insurance and cable and internet service, according to a report from Doxo on how Americans pay their bills.

Savings are a buffer against economic hardship

Having a cash cushion can prevent a financial catastrophe in the event of an unexpected expense or job loss. Yet, most Americans are uncomfortable with the level of money they have in a rainy-day fund, according to a recent Bankrate survey.
“Despite their best efforts to live within their means, consumers face unexpected expenses regularly that stress their budgets and impact their ability to meet their financial obligations, causing the financial health of many to remain fragile,” said Alia Dudum, LendingClub’s money expert.

Fewer than half of Americans have enough emergency savings to cover at least three months of expenses, which is the minimum amount most financial experts recommend. About 22% have no emergency savings at all, according to Bankrate.
“Aim to have six months’ worth of personal expenses set aside in risk-free securities or cash,” advised Reese Harper, a certified financial planner and CEO of financial planning software firm Elements.
To get there, save at least 10% of your income a month in an after-tax brokerage account or a high-yield savings account, he said, which will “boost your financial confidence and reduce stress.”
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Rows of cabinets containing lithium ion batteries supplied by Fluence, a Siemens and AES Company, are seen inside the AES Alamitos Battery Energy Storage System, which provides stored renewable energy to supply electricity during peak demand periods, in Long Beach, California on September 16, 2022. 
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

A transition toward renewable energy sources has helped propel growth in the utilities sector over the past decade, but investors need a keen eye to spot the best opportunities in the field.
TipRanks recognized the 10 best analysts in the utilities sector who delivered significant returns and edged past their peers through their recommendations. 

TipRanks leveraged its Experts Center tool to identify the analysts with high success rates. Then, it analyzed each recommendation by analysts in the utilities sector over the past 10 years. TipRanks’ algorithms calculated the statistical significance of each rating, the average return and the analysts’ overall success rate.

Top 10 analysts from the utilities sector 

The image below shows the most successful Wall Street analysts from the utilities sector. 

Arrows pointing outwards

1. Shelby Tucker — RBC Capital 

Shelby Tucker tops the list. Tucker has an overall success rate of 67%. His best rating has been on Fluence Energy (NASDAQ:FLNC), a provider of energy storage products and services. His buy call on FLNC stock from May 18, 2022 to May 18, 2023, generated a noteworthy return of 177.1%. 

2. Frederic Bastien — Raymond James

Frederic Bastien is second on the list, with a success rate of 62%. Bastien’s top recommendation is Black Diamond (TSE:BDI), a Canadian company that operates a portfolio of businesses focusing on modular buildings and temporary workforce housing solutions. The analyst generated a profit of 179.5% through his buy recommendation on BDI stock from May 7, 2020 to May 7, 2021. 

3. Benjamin Pham — BMO Capital

BMO Capital analyst Benjamin Pham ranks No. 3 on the list. Pham has a success rate of 68%. His best recommendation has been on AltaGas (TSE:ALA), a Canadian energy infrastructure company. The analyst generated a return of 113% through a buy recommendation on the stock from March 16, 2020 to March 16, 2021.

4. Mark Jarvi — CIBC

Mark Jarvi bags the fourth spot on the list. The analyst has a 70% overall success rate. Jarvi’s best recommendation has been on Pinnacle Renewable (TSE:PL), a Canadian producer of industrial wood pellets. Based on his buy recommendation, the analyst generated a profit of 161.7% from July 21, 2020 to July 21, 2021. Pinnacle was acquired by Drax Group in 2021.

5. Robert Catellier — CIBC 

Fifth-place analyst Robert Catellier has a success rate of 66%. His best recommendation is Keyera (TSE:KEY), a Canada-based integrated energy infrastructure company. Based on this pick, the analyst delivered a profit of 179.1% from March 18, 2020 to March 18, 2021.

6. Alberto Gandolfi — Goldman Sachs

Taking the sixth position is Alberto Gandolfi. The analyst sports a 64% success rate. Gandolfi’s top recommendation was for Orsted (OTCMKTS:DNNGY), a Danish company that develops and operates offshore and onshore wind and solar farms, energy storage facilities and renewable hydrogen and green fuels facilities. Through the buy call on Orsted stock, the analyst generated a return of 88.1% from March 23, 2020 to March 23, 2021. 

7. Nelson Ng — RBC Capital

RBC Capital analyst Nelson Ng is seventh on this list, with a success rate of 60%. The analyst’s best call has been a buy on the shares of Methanex (TSE:MX), a Canadian producer and supplier of methanol. The recommendation generated a return of 194.6% from May 7, 2020 to Jan. 4, 2021. 

8. Patrick Kenny — National Bank 

In the eighth position is Patrick Kenny of National Bank. Kenny has an overall success rate of 67%. The analyst’s top recommendation was for Secure Energy Services (TSE:SES), a Canadian environmental and energy infrastructure company. Through this buy call, the analyst generated a solid return of 323.5% from Oct. 26, 2020 to Oct. 26, 2021. 

9. Neil Kalton — Wells Fargo

Neil Kalton ranks ninth on the list. The analyst sports a 63% success rate. His top call was made on Orsted. The buy recommendation generated a return of 81.8% from Oct. 14, 2019 to Oct. 14, 2020. 

10. Julien Dumoulin-Smith — Bank of America Securities 

Julien Dumoulin-Smith has the 10th spot on the list, with a success rate of 57%. The analyst’s best call has been a buy on shares of Vivint Solar, which was later acquired by Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN), a provider of residential solar, battery storage and energy services. The recommendation generated a return of 547.5% from Sept. 30, 2019 to Sept. 30, 2020.

Bottom line 

Savvy investors can consider the recommendations of top analysts as they make informed investment decisions. We will return soon with the top 10 analysts of the past decade in the basic materials sector. More

New York tied with Singapore as the most expensive cities in the world in 2022, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Worldwide Cost of Living Index. London ranked 28th.
The cost of living in New York is higher than London. It would cost approximately $9,500 to maintain the same lifestyle as about $7,200 would get you in London, according to data collection project Numbeo.
Even though New York is more expensive, salaries tend to be higher than in London.

New York and London are some of the most desirable cities to live in due to the amount of job opportunities and the vibrant entertainment options — but residents are paying a premium.
New York tied with Singapore as the most expensive cities in the world in 2022, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Worldwide Cost of Living Index. London ranked 28th.

Lucy Wong is a native New Yorker who moved to London in February. She recently challenged herself to limit her weekly spending to $150, something she’s done while living in various cities around the world.
Tracking your spending “really makes you conscious of how much you’re spending,” Wong said. “I spent so much more money when I was in New York.”
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“New York is a lot more expensive than London,” said Lily Slater, who grew up in London and moved to New York for graduate school in 2017. “The appetite for price gouging I think is much stronger here.”
“There is much more of a sense of ‘what is the most I can possibly charge here?'”

One of those high-ticket items is rent. A one-bedroom close to the city center is around $3,700 in New York, according to cost-of-living data collection project Numbeo as of June 21, while a comparable apartment in London would cost roughly $2,600.
On top of a bigger rent payment, groceries are nearly 70% more expensive in New York, according to Numbeo.
“Every time I go to the grocery store, I am shocked at the prices,” Wong said. “When I check out, I’m like, in New York, this would be double.”

How earnings, taxes affect purchasing power

New York may be more expensive, but residents tend to make more money and are taxed less than Londoners. The average New Yorker earned a little less than $1,400 per week as of December whereas London’s average is about $970, according to the St. Louis Fed and the U.K. Office for National Statistics.
Because of this, local purchasing power in New York is about 23% higher than in London, Numbeo estimates.
“When I got my most recent job and I got a pretty big pay bump,” Slater said. “My dad, who lives in South London, was astonished [at] how much money I was going to be making.”
Slater’s dad soon realized her paycheck must not go very far after visiting New York.

“He and his girlfriend bought a coffee, and it cost $15 for just two coffees,” Slater said.
Despite the premium prices, people still want to live in both cities. New York was the top city readers dream of moving to, followed by London, according to a recent Time Out magazine survey.
“I was so excited to come to New York when I moved here, and I get it but I think that people don’t feel that way about London,” Slater said. “There’s something about New York where people are so obsessed with living here that they all put up with how gross it is and how hard it is and how expensive it is anyway.
“And I don’t feel like that’s true in London.”
Watch the video above to learn more about the cost of living in New York and London and why people choose to live in those cities if it’s so expensive. More

Grindr went public about seven months ago, a moment that was cheered as a step in the right direction for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the business and finance world.
Since then, the company has been adjusting to life as a publicly traded company and setting plans for the future.

Grindr at the NYSE, Nov. 18, 2022.
Source: NYSE

Just over half a year after Grindr’s debut, leadership of the dating and hook-up platform focused on LGBTQ+ men is settling into life as a public company and charting a roadmap for the future.
The stock initially surged after it went public through a merger with blank-check company Tiga in November, an event industry insiders said was a milestone for inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in finance. Shares, which now trade under the ticker GRND, are far from their first close at $36.50. For most of 2023, the stock has traded around $6 per share.

Since its Nov. 18 debut, Grindr has begun courting investors and making the necessary adjustments to be a public company, all the while making innovative plans for the future of the product. That journey has taken place amid a changing market with stocks rebounding off of 2022’s broad selloff.
It’s also taking place at a unique intersection between LGBTQ+ inclusion and the business world. Public companies such as Disney, Target and Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch Inbev have been criticized by a largely conservative base unhappy with actions aimed at inclusion of the community. This has also affected the performance of those stocks.

Seven months in the public market

In the seven months since Grindr representatives rang the opening bell, CEO George Arison has shifted his focus to matters relevant to a public company, such as hiring specialists versus generalists and raising liquidity.
He and company leaders have been attending bank conferences, boosting the company’s profile among the Wall Street set. Last month, Grindr leadership was at an event hosted by JPMorgan in Boston. Arison has been surprised by the amount of interest from investors when attending these conferences, noting one in March that had back-to-back meetings from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
To be sure, not all investors who meet with management wind up buying in. Arison noted that some banks have not been welcoming at conventions; he declined to share names. However, he thinks more are now accepting of a stock like Grindr — which unapologetically focuses on the LGBTQ+ community and embraces sex culture — than if the company went public even just a few years prior.

“I don’t think even 10 years ago, that would have been the case,” he said. “I think if you ask people, they would tell you, ‘Oh, nothing would have been different.’ But I think it would have been very different.”
Grindr’s stock has followed the typical technology story line but to a greater extreme. Shares are up about 20% in 2023. The stock dropped 54% in 2022 when accounting for the SPAC’s share price of roughly $10 prior to the merger. By comparison, Bumble and Match Group ended 2022 lower. In 2023, Match shares are about flat, while Bumble is down about 18%.

Stock chart icon

Grindr’s stock since going public

Grindr does not yet have any coverage from Wall Street firms, with its last earnings call consisting of questions from retail investors inquiring into topics such as if any board members use the app or if web-based competitors are a concern. The stock has attracted the attention of the Wall Street Bets Reddit page, which rose to fame in the investing world as it became a primary discussion forum for meme-stock action. A new competitor has also joined the field: Match Group launched its Archer dating app on June 1, focusing on gay, bisexual and queer men.
Some see an improving environment for dating apps as a whole, though Grindr leadership is quick to note the platform offers more than just that. Online dating penetration is still growing despite concerns the market was oversaturated, according to a Morgan Stanley report released earlier this month. The firm noted that demand is rising, with 65% of online daters planning to increase usage over the next year.
Arison said he’s confident the stock will perform well as long as the company stays on its path of innovation.
“The reality is that what I can control, and what my team can control, is, execute to a plan and exceed people’s expectations,” he said. “If we deliver that quarter after quarter after quarter, the stock’s gonna take care of itself.”

George Arison, CEO Grindr, at the NYSE, November 18, 2022.
Source: NYSE

Who’s standing behind the stock?

Slightly more than 6% of shares are available for public investors to buy and sell, according to FactSet. That means that most shares are held by institutions and major individual investors
The biggest institutional investor is 12 West Capital Management, which holds about 2.7% of total shares of the stock, a position worth $28 million. Prescott Investors, the next biggest institutional holder, recently shaved its position down to nearly a half of what it was and now holds a roughly $14 million stake, or 1.3% of the total.
Big names such as Vanguard, BlackRock and Charles Schwab also have small holdings, with each accounting for less than 0.2% of total shares. These institutional holders all either did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment or declined an interview, with many noting they do not discuss individual holdings as a matter of company policy.

The ‘Grindr’ app logo is seen amongst other dating apps on a mobile phone screen.
Getty Images

G. Raymond Zage, a Grindr board member who also leads Tiga, is the biggest single investor, with more than 45% of all shares. Board chair James Fu Bin Lu had the second largest position equating to around 22% of the total available.

A ‘gay super-app’

Grindr is also busy planning the future of the app. Arison called the product a “total open book” and said there’s the potential to be a “super-app” for the community it serves.
Arison has been pleased with the extensive free functionality to make it a social network and a community space. Grindr has about 13 million monthly active users, with representation worldwide, company data shows. The average user spends 58 minutes per day on the platform, as of the end of 2022.
“When people see the engagement levels on Grindr, which are out of this world, they are like ‘Wow, there’s no way you can be used as purely a dating product,’ because nobody … comes even close to this level of engagement,” he said.
But he also sees an opportunity to further monetize, with the amount of paying customers lower than peers. There were about 866,000 paying users in the first quarter, representing less than 7% of the total monthly users.
Arison said Grindr has an opportunity to grow in international markets: As other countries become more welcoming of LGBTQ+ people, this can encourage members of the community to feel safer on the app.
An advertisement-free offering is one idea for getting more paid users, though the company also sees the potential to get more focused advertising for companies that specifically want to reach LGBTQ+ people.
Another idea is to add a function that will allow users to “move” their profile to other locations and be found in different areas, which can appeal to regular travelers. Grindr also recently launched a web offering, which may offer more features at an additional cost in the future.

The LGBTQ social networking platform Grindr puts on a public show outside of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the company goes public following its merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Tiga Acquisition Corp. on November 18, 2022 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The company is also also interested in building out a part of the platform to focus more on dating, with the potential for artificial intelligence to play a role down the road.
But Arison noted that doesn’t mean the company will lean away from other uses of the app, such as for hook-ups or for information related to the community. He pointed to Grindr’s role in spreading information and resources around mpox last year as an example of how users go to the platform for other purposes aside from simply meeting other community members. This summer, the app is teaming up with the Pan American Health Organization to educate LGBTQ+ communities on mpox.
“We don’t hide that sex is at the core of the product. If you’re going to be an investor in Grindr, you need to realize that sex is a really big part of gay culture, and sex is a really big part of Grindr,” Arison said. “But there’s a lot more that’s going on in the app. I don’t think anything on that has changed, that’s just the reality for us.”
“We want to be the gay super-app,” he said. More

More than 7% of online platform economy workers received unemployment insurance in 2016, research finds.
Online platform jobs often serve as a second source of income, but participants did not increase their dependence on the gig.
“I really believe as a financial planner that you being an individual are your biggest asset,” said CFP Lazetta Braxton, co-founder and co-CEO of 2050 Wealth Partners.

Uber driver uses GPS navigation.
Jaden Urbi | CNBC

How laid-off workers use side gigs as a bridge

Workers who have a side hustle in the “online platform economy” — sites such as Airbnb, Etsy, Uber or TaskRabbit, for example, that help connect them with customers and facilitate payment — were more likely to have received unemployment than wage-only workers, according to a 2019 study of IRS data between 2009 and 2016.
Researchers noted that other studies have found that kind of gig work can help “smooth income around shocks like job loss.”
“It’s interesting that you’re finding people using the wide range of internet platform opportunities to just earn a little money on the side while they’re looking for a regular permanent job,” Houseman said.

How side hustles play into other layoff money moves

There are more ways you can protect yourself financially for an income disruption, such as slowly but surely saving at least three months’ worth of expenses.
Additionally, there are a few important money tasks to complete as soon as possible after a layoff. Make sure to apply for unemployment benefits, figure out your health care options and revisit your retirement plan. Examine your budget and assess whether a side hustle might help.
“Generally speaking, when it comes to a side gig, I really believe as a financial planner that you being an individual are your biggest asset,” said certified financial planner Lazetta Rainey Braxton, co-founder and co-CEO of 2050 Wealth Partners. Braxton is also a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.
If you believe you could succeed with the help of a side job, make sure to filter your search according to your skills and interests to increase the chances of a good fit. However, keep in mind that some of these additional jobs take time: Factor in startup costs, a rough timeframe of when you might get paid and how this may affect your unemployment benefits.
Leverage your skills in different ways to generate income in your primary and side gig in a sustainable and productive way, and use the additional income for goals, cushion accounts or emergency savings, Braxton said.
The key, she explained, is to “be clear on how you use your time, your capacity and be wise with what you generate from it.” More