Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial advice, gathered from around the web:
Getting annuities satisfaction
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Why the Dow still matters
The Dow Jones industrial average may be 123 years old and full of quirks, but it is "far from obsolete," said James Glassman at Kiplinger. I've long had a fondness for this strangely structured index. Unlike the Nasdaq or S&P 500, the Dow "weights its component stocks by price rather than by market capitalization," which could produce serious distortions in an index with only 30 stocks. Furthermore, the "Dow's membership criteria are, to say the least, vague" and generally revolve around reputation and track record. Decisions are made by "a committee of three representatives from S&P and two from The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Dow Jones." Despite this, the Dow's average annual return over the past 10 years has been a decent 14.1 percent. The S&P 500? 13.9 percent.
Shaking up corporate travel
A handful of startups want to "consumerize" corporate travel, said Alice Hancock at the Financial Times. Companies around the world spend some $1.3 trillion a year on travel, but the platforms that many businesses use to arrange those trips are archaic compared with regular consumer travel sites. Some travel startups are trying to change that. TripActions, which recently raised $250 million from investors, claims it can predict employees' travel preferences by using artificial intelligence to comb through their past bookings, and says its program can cut "the time spent booking the average business trip from an hour to six minutes." Another startup, Rocketrip, "encourages employees to book cheaper hotels and flights" by letting them share in the savings if their trip comes in below budget.
-
Should you add your child to your credit card?The Explainer You can make them an authorized user on your account in order to help them build credit
-
Cracker Barrel crackup: How the culture wars are upending corporate brandingIn the Spotlight Is it 'woke' to leave nostalgia behind?
-
'It's hard to discern what it actually means'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
The pros and cons of noncompete agreementsThe Explainer The FTC wants to ban companies from binding their employees with noncompete agreements. Who would this benefit, and who would it hurt?
-
What experts are saying about the economy's surprise contractionThe Explainer The sharpest opinions on the debate from around the web
-
The death of cities was greatly exaggeratedThe Explainer Why the pandemic predictions about urban flight were wrong
-
The housing crisis is hereThe Explainer As the pandemic takes its toll, renters face eviction even as buyers are bidding higher
-
How to be an ally to marginalized coworkersThe Explainer Show up for your colleagues by showing that you see them and their struggles
-
What the stock market knowsThe Explainer Publicly traded companies are going to wallop small businesses
-
Can the government save small businesses?The Explainer Many are fighting for a fair share of the coronavirus rescue package
-
How the oil crash could turn into a much bigger economic shockThe Explainer This could be a huge problem for the entire economy
