Good morning. Building wealth takes patience. Losing it—or wasting it—can happen much faster. Today's stories explore both sides of that equation.
On The Money Today:
The retirement 'magic number' just jumped again — and nearly half of Americans don't think they'll reach it
A Missouri dad's coffee can strategy could turn into $500 million. Could it work for your family?
A nurse practitioner billed Medicare $906 million for hospice patients and spent it on a Ferrari and a Bulgari necklace
Let's get into it.
The amount Americans say they need to retire comfortably just hit a record high — up $200,000 from last year alone. Nearly half don't expect to be financially ready when the time comes, and almost as many think they'll outlive what they've saved. Where do you land?
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A Missouri father isn't just saving for college — he's hunting for stocks that could multiply a hundredfold over 30 years. The strategy traces back to a 1950s investor who ignored every sell signal and turned a $5,000 stake into $800,000. Here’s how to do the same.
Mariel Yukee ran four mobile wound clinics across the country. She also allegedly billed the government $906 million for treatments applied to wounds that had already healed — in some cases on patients who died within days of receiving them. Of that, $297 million was paid out before anyone noticed. The DOJ's largest healthcare fraud crackdown in history just caught up with her.
MONEY IQ
ALSO MAKING THE ROUNDS TODAY
RETIREMENT: The U.S. ranks No. 30 out of 52 countries for retirement security and here's how to copy the architecture of the nations that got it right
MANAGING MONEY: Most Americans feel financially stressed right now, but 5 signs suggest you may be doing far better than the average American
NEWS: A Florida man handed his $2,700 winning lottery ticket to a Walmart cashier and police say she pocketed it while he walked out the door
NEWS: Trump blamed vandals for the green and peeling $16M Reflecting Pool, but his own motorcade drove across the wet paint weeks earlier — and taxpayers are now covering the spiraling tab
MONEY IQ ANSWER: HOW DID YOU DO?
The answer is D) $8. Medicare numbers sell for as little as $8 on the dark web — yet that small price tag funds schemes worth hundreds of millions.
That's a wrap for today! Before you go, we'd love to know what you thought of today's newsletter. Hit REPLY if you have more to share — we read every one.
See you soon with another quick roundup of the financial news that matters.
