It’s not often that you see an entire industry be disrupted in just one fell swoop, but that is precisely what has happened to the car industry. The electrification of enterprise fleets and consumer cars, and the desire by most nations to lower their carbon footprints and stop climate change quickly, mean that we are witnessing the start of what might be a multidecade car replacement cycle.

According to a survey that was conducted late last year, the avg. forecast of over 1,000 global auto leaders was for the global EV sales to be around 50% of all cars sold by year 2030. Meanwhile, a Nov. report calls for the electric vehicle industry to reach $957 billion in market value by year 2030, which is over four times its value at the end of year 2021.

Although investing in electric vehicle growth seems like a no-brainer buying opportunity, not all stocks that are associated with EVs will be winners. While I think one name should be bought now, there is one EV stock that you should avoid like the plague.

The first EV stock you should avoid: Rivian Automotive

At first glance, Rivian Automotive, which was one of the hottest public offerings in 2021, seems like it has the tools it needs to be successful. The company will provide three differentiated cars — the EDV electric van, the R1T pickup truck and the R1S SUV– with planned yearly capacity that ranges from 200,000 cars at its Illinois plant to around 400,000 at its Georgia factory.

Amazon has ordered around 100,000 EDVs from Rivian, which it had received in year 2019. The sheer size of that order has validated the company as a major player of interest in the electric vehicle space for years.

But the flipside of Rivian is that it is still very new. The company had made only 1,015 electric vehicles in 2021 and it had its IPO with zero trailing-1 year sales. It has missed an already very low production bar for year 2021, and will likely have to deal with similar supply chain issues affecting the whole industry. In other words, the company’s trajectory is bound to hit many speed bumps. It is par for the course when creating an EV company from scratch.

Making matters even worse, Rivian has found itself in some trouble after announcing, then having walked back (for people who ordered prior to March 1), a price increase of $12,000 it put on its quad-motor models. Increased material costs have forced automakers to increase prices. While Rivian was just following the other companies in the sector, a $12,000 price increase on cars that already have a price tag of $70,000 did not sit well with its customers. If the company isn’t careful, it might price customers out of purchasing its vehicles.

While Rivian might eventually grow into a company that is investment-worthy in the electric vehicle space, it has a small amount business that is valued at around $45 billion.

The EV stock you should buy: Nio

On the other end of that spectrum is Nio, which has checked all the right boxes and could be purchased hand over fist after its recent pullback.

However, the management team has really done a great job with its ability to increase production in an environment that has been challenging. Though the New Chinese Year held back its production in Feb., and supply chain problems curbed output in Jan., Nio managed to hit 10,000 deliveries in both Nov. and Dec. Management has also offered guidance indicating that the company could hit 50,000 monthly deliveries by the end of 2022. This would work out to a yearly run-rate of about 600,000 electric vehicles.

It’s expected that Nio will have recurring profitability in 2023, and the company is valued at just over seven times expected earnings each share in year 2024, it seems like a screaming buy.

Chances are, you will not need the same income during your retirement as you needed during your working years. That is because some of your expenses will likely decrease or even go away completely once you quit working.

Take retirement plan contributions, for instance. You will not need to make those while you’re in retirement because, well, you will be in retirement. And also, you may have a paid-off house in retirement, and that alone can amount to big savings.

But still, you should try to only take about a 20% to 30% cut in pay during retirement, because you will probably require around 70% to 80% of what your income was prior to retirement to live comfortably. But if you find yourself making this one mistake, you might end up with an even more substantial cut in pay on your hands.

Can you live on just 40% of your salary?

A lot of people are used to having to live frugally and plan to live frugally during retirement. But even so, you might find that you still require a big chunk of your prior earnings to stay at a decent standard of living.

If you retire on SS alone, though, the pay cut you will take could easily amount to around 60%. That is because Social Security benefits will only replace around 40% of the wages you earned while working if you earn an avg. income. And chances are, that is too big of a pay cut for anyone to manage.

While it is true that a few of your expenses may drop during retirement (like housing), some other living costs may increase. For one thing, not having a job will mean extra hours during the day that you need to fill, and it may cost a large amount of money keep you entertained. And if you would like to spend a some of that free time traveling, you will definitely need a big chunk of cash on standby.

Also, as you age, your health tends to, at the very least, need more attention. That might result in increased healthcare costs.

In fact, the costs of Medicare premium have increased a lot, so there is no reason to believe that trend will go away anytime soon. And that alone is good enough reason to not subject yourself to taking a 60% cut in pay as a senior.

A better plan

If the idea of you having to live on 40% of your prior earnings scares you, then there is a simple solution — save money so you have income that will supplement your SS benefits. If you sock away $500 each month in an 401(k) or IRA plan over a span of 30 years, and your invested savings deliver an avg. yearly 7% return (which is several percentage points under the stock market’s avg.), you will end up with about $567,000 to your name.

Of course, there are a few other ways could supplement your SS benefits, like having a part-time job as a senior or renting a section of your home out (a viable solution if you are not planning on downsizing). The key is to not having to rely on those benefits alone — not unless you are comfortable with the idea of taking a huge pay cut for life.

Which crypto do Ethereum (ETH) whales buy the most of? The answer, of course, is ETH itself. However, ETH whales are also betting on other cryptos.

Shiba Inu comes in ranked high on the list. In late Feb., ETH whales owned over $1.3 billion of the digital coin. Today, the figure currently sits at $1.5 billion.

But Shiba Inu is not at the top of the non-ETH list for these whales. Here is the crypto Ethereum whales are purchasing even more of.

The whales’ No. 2 favorite

As of March 4, ETH whales owned over $1.6 billion of FTX Token. The digital coin makes up almost 18% of the whales’ non-ETH holdings.

In one sense, it may be surprising that FTX coin is ETH whales’ No. 2 favorite coin after Ether. FTT is ranked only 26th among cryptos based on market capitalization. Shiba Inu comes in ranked much higher at number 14.

There are a lot of well-known and widely adopted cryptos with larger market caps than FTT. So why aren’t ETH whales scooping all of them up instead? There is a simple explanation.

Why FTX Token?

FTT is the native coin of the FTX cryptocurrency-trading exchange. This exchange has started to be very popular with the futures traders.

FTX is fourth among cryptocurrency exchanges based on its trading volume. FTX also comes in ranked at number 4 on CoinGecko’s ranking of cryptocurrency exchanges based on the proprietary trust score it has received. This score includes liquidity, web traffic, a cybersecurity evaluation, trading activity and more.

Any ETH whales who utilize the FTX exchange have many incentives to add to their current positions in FTT. The digital coin can be used as a type of collateral for positions in futures. The FTX exchange decreases futures fees for investors who hold a certain amount of FTT for a specified length of time. And traders who hold enough FTT could get rebates on 100 percent their over-the-counter investments on the FTX exchange.

But FTT is not completely joined with FTX. ETH whales might buy the digital coin on other exchanges as well. For instance, Binance (the top-ranked cryptocurrency exchange based on its trading volume) supports purchasing FTT with several other digital coins, including its own native coin called Binance.

Recently, many of great stocks were crushed as rate hike fears, inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a rotation toward the more conservative investments. Cathie Wood’s ETF, Ark Innovation– arguably the top fund of hypergrowth stocks — has decreased almost 40% this year.

However, that sell-off has also produced promising buying opportunities for traders who are able to stomach the short term volatility. Here are three hypergrowth stocks I would buy in this challenging market: Airbnb, Datadog and Cloudflare. Here is a bit more about the three hypergrowth tech stocks you should purchase in 2022.

1. Airbnb

Airbnb’s revenue fell 30% in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused travel around the globe to grind to a halt. But last year, its revenue skyrocketed 77% as those lockdown measures started to be relaxed. This year, analysts predict its revenue to increase 32% and break the streak of losses it has endured with a full-year of profit.

Airbnb’s business model is naturally protected from high inflation, for two main reasons: Tighter budgets will push guests toward the cheaper accommodations, while those needing extra income will encourage them to rent out their homes.

2. Datadog

Datadog’s cloud-based platform observes and monitors an organization’s servers, databases and apps in real time, then aggregates all of that data on its unified dashboards for IT professionals to look over. This streamlined technique makes it a lot easier to spot and fix tech issues.

Datadog’s revenue soared 66% in 2020, then grew around 70% last year as its total number of customers with over $1 million in yearly recurring revenue had more than doubled. It has also kept its dollar-based retention rate over 130% for 18 consecutive quarters. The company’s gross margins are continuing to hold steady and its net losses are dwindling.

Analysts think Datadog’s revenue will increase 49% to $1.5 billion in 2022, and the stock trades at around 30 times that estimate. That is a premium valuation, but it will be easily supported by Datadog’s excellent growth rates.

3. Cloudflare

As the Russian-Ukrainian war escalates, fears of internet disruptions and cyberattacks are increasing. Cloudflare’s platform addresses some of those fears with its content delivery network, which speeds up the delivery of digital media on websites and apps, and cybersecurity tools that protect websites from DDoS attacks.

Cloudflare was already seeing large growth prior to the war. Its revenue increased 50% in 2020 and 52% last year, and analysts believe its revenue will grow 42% to $931 million in 2022 as it ekes out a very small profit. The company has plenty of room to grow as businesses aggressively secure their websites and speed up the delivery of their digital content to visitors.

One of the best things about Social Security benefits is that you’re not tied down to just one filing age. Instead, you have several choices to select from when it comes to receiving benefits.

The youngest age you are able to claim Social Security benefits is at 62. But you should also know that you can’t get the full monthly benefit amount based on your earnings throughout your life until you are at full retirement age, which only kicks in at 66 to 67 years of age depending on what year you were born.

You also have the choice to delay your SS filing past FRA and get an increased monthly benefit for the rest of your life. For every year that you wait to file, up until you’re 70 years old, your benefits receive an 8% boost.

It is for this reason that waiting to file when you reach age 70 might hold some appeal. And for other beneficiaries, opting to wait on filing is smart choice. But you probably want to claim SS well before you reach the age of 70 if this specific scenario applies to you.

When you have earned the right to cut your SS benefits — but collect earlier

Many of us would like to think of ourselves having enough energy to enjoy our retirement at age 70 and beyond. But you will more likely be healthy enough to pursue different hobbies and travel while you’re in your early 60s than you would be in your late 60s. And so this might motivate you to claim Social Security sooner so you are able to use that money to fulfill your retirement goals that you have set.

Now the one thing that might be keeping you from signing up for SS early is seeing your Social Security benefits take that permanent hit. But if you have saved enough for retirement, you might be in a good enough financial position where a lower benefit will not hurt you that bad — so if getting Social Security benefits sooner will make it possible to do some of the things that you have always wanted to do, then it would pay to claim your Social Security benefits earlier rather than later.

Of course, if you don’t have a lot of money in your 401(k) or IRA plan, then you might need to take another approach to claiming SS benefits — especially because you will likely become more reliant on SS benefits to pay your bills during your retirement. But if you are reaching your early 60s while having $3 million saved, then you should not hesitate to claim SS benefits when you would like to — even if that would mean losing out on what might be a sizable boost.

Bear markets can occur because of a number of reasons, including slower economic activity, a tightening of monetary and fiscal policy, and a geopolitical crisis like Russia invading Ukraine. Regardless of the why, the common theme coming from bear markets is that traders look for security in the less risky assets and stocks.

Resiliency is more often measured by the degree to which a company’s profits and sales fall due to the factor or combination of many factors that can cause the bear market. To take it a little further, resiliency can be demonstrated by a company emerging more powerful from a bear market than it was going in.

Here are a few stocks that fit that description in relation to how they responded to the COVID pandemic and the aftermath of it.

1. Starbucks

Starbucks took a big hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. The business generates a large part of its revenue from people walking into its coffee shops. The forced closure of all their locations to help slow the spread of the Covid virus hurt its sales. That said, the company quickly adapted, permanently closing its downtown locations and providing parking lot pickup.

Its sales had fallen in 2020, but not as much as you might expect — 11.3% from just the year before. And the company emerged more robust than it has ever been in 2021. Operating and sales income of $4.6 billion and $29 billion were the highest they’ve been in the last ten years.

2. McDonald’s

Like Starbucks, McDonald’s suffered a decreased amount of sales when it closed thousands of its restaurants to in-person dining. McDonald’s management team also adapted well to the Covid pandemic, emphasizing its digital sales and securing partnerships with many third-party delivery services.

As a result of this, McDonald’s revenue rose by 21% in 2021, which had led to earnings of $5.25 per share, the highest in the past decade. Fortunately for the shareholders, the moves that McDonald’s made will likely pay off in the long term.

3. Alphabet

Alphabet’s slowdown at the onset of the pandemic was short-lived and demonstrated Alphabet’s importance. The parent of Google produces most of its revenue from its advertisers. Understandably, businesses cut ad spending at the beginning of the pandemic when the short term was uncertain. However, once it was certain that consumer spending would stay robust, companies ramped up their ad spending, and Alphabet benefited from this rebound.

Alphabet grew its sales by 41% during 2021, almost double its compound yearly growth rate over the last ten years. Profits followed as operating income grew from $41 billion in 2020 to $78.7 billion in 2021.

The last couple of weeks have had an information overload for investors on Wall Street. Fed speak, Critical economic data and geopolitical instability have all moved the stock market in a huge way.

But what you may not realize is that one of the most crucial data releases of the first quarter happened less than a few weeks ago.

Based on the newest round of 13F filings, it is pretty clear that some billionaires could not stop buying the following two supercharged growth stocks in the fourth quarter.

Nvidia

The first fast-paced business that reeled in the billionaire buyers in the fourth quarter is networking and graphics giant Nvidia.

Four high-profile fund managers have added to their positions this past quarter, including Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, David Siegel and John Overdeck’s Two Sigma Investments and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors. All of these billionaires respectively purchased around 2.81 million shares, over 854,000 shares, more than 788,000 shares, and almost 765,000 shares.

Why Nvidia? Almost every aspect of its company is growing quicker than anyone had predicted– including the company’s management team. Sales in gaming increased 37% in Q4, with data center revenue increasing an impressive 71%.

Pretty much the only downside in Nvidia’s Q4 operating results was the 14% decrease in automotive revenues. However, this sales decrease has more to do with the supply-chain problems that are impacting the entire auto sector than Nvidia doing something wrong.

There is also much excitement regarding Nvidia’s future role in the metaverse. Put simply, the metaverse is a representation of the next iteration of the internet, which will let users interact with their surroundings and other individuals in 3D virtual worlds. Not surprisingly though, Nvidia’s professional-visualization revenue has more than doubled in Q4. The metaverse will likely take a long time to develop, but it sports a multitrillion-dollar opportunity.

If Nvidia continues to handily outpace Wall Street’s expectations, the sky is the limit.

Block

A second company that has supercharged growth potential that billionaires purchased during Q4 is Block, the fintech stock that was first known as Square.

Four billionaires could not stop purchasing Block during quarter four. Those fund managers are Ken Griffin of Citadel Advisors, Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, Ole Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global Investors and Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management. These billionaires respectively purchased approximately 1.63 million shares in total.

What is noteworthy about the Block seller ecosystem is that it has become widely adopted by larger merchants. In Q4 of 2019, around 56% of all gross payment volume came from businesses with at least $125,000 in yearly GPV. By Q4 2021, this had increased to around 66% of gross payment volume. Since merchant fees mainly drive this segment, larger merchants often mean even more gross profits for Block.

With Block recently acquiring Afterpay, it is now able to create a closed-payment ecosystem between its Cash App and its seller ecosystem. In other words, Block still seems to be in the early stages of its growth.

Millions of seniors are relying on Social Security as their main source of retirement income. The chances are many future retired seniors will be very dependent on those benefits as well.

But Social Security has its share of money challenges that might have terrible consequences for the future and current retirees. And if lawmakers in Washington don’t intervene, the results might be downright catastrophic.

There is a serious shortfall in revenue at play

Social Security mainly relies on payroll taxes to stay alive. But soon, that income stream will shrink. That is because baby boomers will be exiting the workforce in large number, and the number of workers that are going into the labor force will not come close to replacing all the retired boomers.

Meanwhile, as all the baby boomers are retiring, they will likely start claiming the SS benefits that they are entitled to claim, putting a extreme strain on the Social Security’s resources. And after the SS program’s cash reserves are depleted, Social Security might have no choice but to have universal benefit cuts.

In their newest report, the SS Trustees have estimated that the Social Security program’s trust funds will be out of money by 2034. But we cannot rule out the possibility that it will come sooner than 2034 because of the pandemic.

First of all, there are a lot of people who were unemployed for a long time in 2020 and 2021, thereby limiting how much payroll tax went into Social Security. Furthermore, there is no way to know to what extent the Covid-19 pandemic will make seniors want to take early retirement.

On the other hand, the popularity of working from home might drive some of the older employees to work a little while longer than they had planned. However, the emotional toll of the pandemic could spark an early retirement trend.

All told, SS has a very real crisis to deal with.

It was impossible to predict these extreme affects that the COVID pandemic had on the United States economy. But Social Security’s financial woes started before the pandemic by a lot of years. And at this point, we are inching very close to the point when benefit cuts might become a real possibility.