One of the most important sources of income that you will depend on when you are older will be Social Security. These benefits won’t run out and you can count on them increasing with inflation, this is because of the design of the retirement benefits program.

However, you may be shocked to hear that you do not always get to have all of your benefits. Actually, it depends on your earnings and where you live, both your state government and the federal government could take a portion of your money.

Will you need to give the federal government a cut of your benefits?

If you are single and your income is more than $25,000 or married with an income of $32,000 you could be one of them. If your income gets to this amount, you will be taxed on up to 50% of your benefits. 

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You could lose up to 85% of your benefits if your income reaches $34,000 as a single filer or $44,000 for married filers. 

The good thing is, all your income does not factor in when determining the “provisional income” that this threshold goes by. Provisional income is half of SS benefits added to all income that is taxable and some income that is non-taxable.

A large number of people will have income above these thresholds because these thresholds are not subject to increases due to inflation. Which means they will ultimately have to give up some of their retirement income to pay federal taxes.

What about your state government? 

You may also have to pay some of your benefits to your state government.

There are 37 states that don’t tax benefit checks, so if you live in one of those states you don’t have to worry about this. However, if you live in one of the other 13 states, you will have to find out what the standards are for when your benefits become taxable. The income limitations may be different in some states than the rules of the IRS, so you should check with your states revenue department if you live in one of these 13 locations:

• Rhode Island
• Connecticut
• Kansas
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• Utah
• Nebraska
• New Mexico
• North Dakota
• Colorado
• Montana
• Vermont
• West Virginia

It is highly probable that you would end up owing both federal and state taxes on SS benefits if you live in one of these states, so you could pay a hefty portion of your retirement income from Social Security to the government.

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The crypto Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) has a big problem: transaction speeds. The blockchain network has fewer transactions processed per second than the newer, smaller rival Cardano (CRYPTO:ADA). And this is just one of the reasons why Cardano has gained ground. Cardano is currently the sixth-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap. (ETH holds second place, after cryptocurrency leader Bitcoin.)

But Ethereum will not have transaction speed issues forever. An upgrade is in the works, with the rollout coming next year. Transaction speeds will soar. Energy use will decrease. And ETH will gain more efficiency overall. Now here’s the question: will this upgrade mean terrible news for Cardano? Let’s find out.

blockchain comparison

First, why should we even compare these blockchains with one another? Well, they do have a lot in common when it comes to their history. The co-founder of ETH, Charles Hoskinson, went on to build Cardano. And he believes Cardano is an improvement on cryptos before it. Hoskinson brought his experience to Cardano from Ethereum and had the goal of making his new project even better.

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So now let us take a look at the ETH upgrade. Basically, it will move the process of validation from the proof-of-work (PoW) method to what’s called the proof-of-stake (PoS) method. Proof-of-work involves complex computations to validate the transactions, which can take time and uses a large amount of energy. Proof-of-stake cuts down on both of these. It does not rely on computations. Instead, it depends on how an algorithm picks validators primarily based on the how many coins they have. Cardano already uses proof-of-stake.

By making the switch, ETH plans to move from around 30 transactions per second today to about 100,000. At first, that might surpass Cardano’s speed. Cardano can currently process about 250 transactions per second, but it will not be left behind. The blockchain is currently working on Hydra, a layer-two scaling project that can eventually let it reach up to 1 million TPS.

Being more efficient

I see the ETH upgrade as a pathway for the blockchain to generate more efficiency, and that should attract more investors and users. But I do not see it as a move that would take investors and users away from Cardano.

Here is why. Each of these platforms is still a work in progress. Which means one might temporarily beat the other by one particular measure. For instance, Cardano has faster speeds than Ethereum now. ETH may become quicker than Cardano until it’s Hydra launch. Investors and users may switch in and out of cryptocurrencies on a daily basis if they were to base their decisions on these elements.

Instead, it is best to look at each cryptocurrency’s ultimate plan and goal to get there. In the case of Cardano, the future is looking bright. Cardano’s Hydra will drive it to the forefront when it comes to efficiency and speed. Cardano’s dependence on peer review before releasing updates means less technical glitches in the future.

Of course, when ETH rolls out its upgrade, we might see a short-lived decline in Cardano. But I think the Cardano story is just beginning — and investors and users will want to stick around to see what comes next.

Author: Blake Ambrose

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Jay Leno’s adventures in collecting cars and “wrenching” on his own vehicle creations are the envy of fans and auto enthusiasts around the globe. He has a collection of around 160 motorcycles and 180 vehicles stands, all of them are stored in a huge car garage/workshop/museum in Burbank, California.

Onlookers have seen Leno riding around on the streets of LA in his classic Saab, Lamborghini Miura and a steam-powered car.

Leno loves classic-cars, and he is a huge fan of electric vehicles as well, and his Tesla (TSLA) Model S Plaid is his daily driver.

“It has been great,” Leno said about buying a Tesla. “I owned a regular [Model S] P90 before my Tesla— I owned that for seven years — that car never went to the dealership. It never did break. It was fine.”

Leno’s newest Tesla is the most expensive and fastest version of the Model S, which is the Plaid. “I own a Tesla Plaids. It’s the fastest accelerating car on the planet. Oh, and you are saving the planet also,” he said with a grin, later admitting he had purchased it for its performance.

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And in Leno’s eyes, it is that performance that helps make Tesla unique, and Tesla’s massive advancements in technology that make having an electric vehicle realistic.

“Tesla is about 8 to 10 years ahead of other companies in battery tech… For newer technology to succeed, it cannot be equal, it has got to be superior, and up until the last five years or so, electric vehicles did not quite have the range. However, they do now,” he stated.

In fact, Tesla’s rivals like Lucid are touting a 500 mile range for its Air sedan vehicle, and Rivian 300+ mile range for its RT1 pickup. Tesla is raising the ante when it comes to power density and efficiency of its own batteries as well, claiming its most recent 4680 batteries are about to be put into production.

Now even though Jay Leno is no Tesla ‘stan’, he is still a long time Tesla car owner. He actually knows the tech well, drawbacks and capabilities of EVs, but thinks Tesla and Musk have proven their software and engineering prowess. However, in the beginning, he was not so sure.

“You know, Elon Musk brought his roadster here back in 2007. It was only maybe one or two prototypes then, and he told me at that time, ‘we are building infrastructure, we are going to construct charging stations all over the highways.’ And I was going, yeah, that will happen,” Leno recalls.

But Leno said he was soon proven wrong, because Musk did manage to build that infrastructure he had discussed with Leno. Tesla recently said it now has about 30,000 Supercharger stalls around the world and has built superchargers in every state. Leno sees this as a value proposition for owners of Tesla cars and also Tesla investors who are attempting to justify a valuation of $1 trillion.

“I believe they do deserve a $1 trillion valuation because they are ahead by that much,” Leno said. “Everybody that’s doing it now is kind of copying what Tesla is doing, because if you remember before this, electric vehicles were nice, but they were too slow, and they were, ‘like big golf carts,’ that kind of thing.”

It is hard to believe that used to be the case. In fact, Jay Leno (briefly) broke the world record for the fastest quarter mile while driving a Tesla Plaid earlier in the year, finishing a pass of 9.247, just below the EV’s reported quarter-mile timing of 9.23 seconds.

The car, which is able to reach 0-60 mph in under 3 seconds, will likely throw out any notion of electric vehicles being big golf carts.

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Metaverse millionaire is a nice title, right? There are some investors who could become millionaires if the metaverse companies deliver on their potential.

Some metaverse are getting the most attention. Obviously, Meta Platforms, formerly named Facebook, could be the huge winner. The company is spending billions on its development efforts. Unity, Nvidia, and Roblox also are now staking their claims to this metaverse.

But there are a couple of less well-known companies that can be huge winners. Here are two under-the-radar metaverse companies that can make you a fortune.

1. Matterport

Some say the metaverse as one giant video game. However, another way to think of it is like a new 3D virtual world that is as real as the physical one. Matterport is one company that is helping to bring the physical world into the metaverse.

Matterport’s technology allows the formation of “digital twins” of physical spaces. Apartments, homes offices, boats, and more can be replicated virtually. So far, Matterport has 6.2 million areas under management — over 100 times the rest of the market.

Matterport estimates that its overall addressable market could reach $240 billion by focusing on these sorts of applications. But the firm’s opportunity can be even bigger by moving physical things into the metaverse.

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Matterport’s tech could be crucial in uploading real-world buildings to the metaverse. With Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeing the ability to teleport anywhere inside the metaverse, bringing the physical world into this metaverse seems to be crucial to his company’s efforts.

2. Immersion

Investors have not fared well with Immersion. The tech stock has fell by almost half so far this year. But the metaverse presents a big opportunity.

The company is a forward thinking pioneer in the creation of haptic technology, which gives touch feedback to users. It has over 1,700 issued or pending patents for its haptic tech.

Immersion’s business model is to license this technology to manufacturers. Customers include gaming-device makers, automotive suppliers, and mobile-device companies. Bosch, Apple, Google, Nintendo, Sony, Samsung, and many other firms use Immersion’s haptic tech.

The company’s current market cap is just around $200 million. Immersion might grow much larger if the new metaverse rises and serves as the next catalyst for their haptic-technology licensing sales.

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Dreams of a green Christmas for BTC have been dampened after a disappointing November close.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency finished Nov. at $57,005 — well short of what analysts was hoping for.

The market activity was punctuated after a sharp rejection from $59,000.

That came after the Fed chairman Jerome Powell recommended measures designed to help stimulate the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic might end even earlier than thought.

The central bank’s quantitative easing program — which involves creating new money and pumping it into the economy — has been a main factor in BTC’s rally over the past one and a half years.

But even as the new Omicron strain of COVID causes alarm, Powell points to high levels of inflation as the bigger issue of concern.

Inflation gauges price increases customers pay for services and goods— and although the Fed has long had a goal of 2% in place, Oct.’s reading came in at 6.2%.

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The Fed had previously tried to play down the recent spike as “transitory,” but Powell has now admitted that inflation might remain overheated until the second part of next year. He added:

“I think it is probably a great time to retire that word.”

While too much inflation could greatly reduce the spending power of the money in your pocket, it has helped increase demand for BTC. The cryptos fixed supply of 21 million means it has been regarded as a hedge against inflation for a while now — a store of value.

Dec. is going to be important for the markets and for the global economy.

Scientists are now rushing to learn more about the Omicron strain. The main questions include whether it is easier to transmit than previous variants of COVID-19, whether it could cause more severe illness, and whether it’s more resistant to vaccines. It might take weeks to get the answers.

Pres. Joe Biden has described Omicron as a “cause for concern, but not a cause for panic” — and stressed that lockdowns aren’t currently necessary. And while Powell stated the strain could bring fresh uncertainty, he does not think its effects on the economy will be “remotely comparable” to Covid did in March 2020.

The Fed will release updates to its policies two weeks from today, delivering confirmation on whether stimulus will be brought down faster, and possibly hinting on when interest rates could be increased. Both events might prove bearish for the cryptocurrency markets and stocks alike.

And this brings us back to BTC, where enthusiastic investors are hoping to emulate the dramatic price spikes that we saw in 2013 and 2017.

November’s close of $57,000 was less than the “worst-case scenario” expected by the popular cryptocurrency analyst PlanB, who had predicted Bitcoin would currently be valued at $98,000.

This came after his floor model had “nailed” the closing prices in Aug., Sept. and Oct. On Twitter, he wrote:

“No model is perfect, but this is a huge miss and the first in a decade!”

PlanB went on to openly question whether Nov.’s tepid performance was an outlier or a black swan — and stated he planned on giving his floor model “30 more days” to find out.

Brent Donnelly recently told the Reuters media agency:

“There should be more agnostics that focus on the fact we’re in a bad part of the cycle for cryptocurrency here — the corrections might be epic. Be positive you can survive the winter.”

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Both UiPath and Upstart Holdings have used artificial intelligence to support their businesses. With their great success and their huge market opportunities, purchasing these two artificial intelligence powerhouses before the end of the year would be a wise move.

1. Upstart redefines credit

Upstart redefines how banks use AI to determine the creditworthiness of a loan. Upstart gives banks a credit score that goes by thousands of data points to determine possible loan customers. Based on Upstart’s findings, 31 banks are lending, which has almost tripled this year.

Nearly all financial metric reports are growing by triple-digit percentages. Earnings in the third quarter went up by 250% from last year; trading volume exceeded $3.1 billion, increasing by 244%, and net income increased by 200% to $29 million.

Despite the company showing tremendous success, the stock price has dropped 46% from its previous highs. This could be a great buying opportunity. Upstart also forecasts an exemplary fourth quarter, with revenues of $260 million, 14% quarter-on-quarter and 225% year-over-year growth.

The company clearly expects tremendous growth that may continue into the upcoming quarters. With the addition of auto loans, Upstart is expecting to surpass $4.5 trillion.

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Upstart is a very new company, and if it can keep attracting new customers, amassing data, and improving its artificial intelligence model, it may continue growing for years to come.

2. UiPath: Taking Artificial intelligence mainstream

UiPath aims to completely automate companies with its robotic automation process. It could be used for many tasks from simple compliance to application building. These RPAs are saving businesses a lot of time. Alphabet and NASA are two of UiPath’s customers.

According to Gartner, the company is a leader in RPA, and that’s reflected in its finances. Quarterly revenues ending on July 31st were up 40% to $196 million and yearly recurring revenues were up 60% to $727 million. The total loss was close to $100 million, as the company is taking advantage of $30 billion opportunity by 2024.

In short, the business has realized less than 3% of all opportunities. As a market leader, UiPath is willing to spend now to create new products and attract new customers in order to profit from the growth of its industry. The company has doubled its R & D spending year-on-year with the goal of continuing to be a leader in this field and benefiting from it over the next five years.

Waiting to invest in UiPath could cost you, now is a great time to purchase the stock.

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Creating a dependable stream of retirement income is an important element of a person’s financial strategy. A retirement industry giant claims it now has a new product for its retirees to meet this crucial challenge.

Fidelity’s New Product

Fidelity said its Guaranteed Income Direct will let employers offer an instant income annuity to workers through an insurer that they can choose themselves. Fidelity will offer the digital tools through the employee benefit portal to help workers decide what the right amount of guaranteed income is for them, Fidelity stated in a media release announcing the new product.

Those who participate in the plan will have the ability to change any amount of their retirement savings into an income that will act like a “personal pension,” the firm said. People can convert their savings over regardless of whether it will be allocated to individual stocks, mutual funds or other assets.

Any money that isn’t converted into an annuity could stay in the workplace savings plan.

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“Making the Shift from saving for your retirement to living in retirement is a big transition, and one of the main challenges people face during this transition is how they are going to make sure they have enough income to pay for their essential bills,” Keri Dogan, senior member of retirement solutions at Fidelity, stated in the media release.

Fidelity claims the product will be made available for certain clients in the first half of next year before becoming available to more clients in the second half of the year.

Retirement Plan Annuities: A Growing Trend

Fidelity is the newest financial services business to add an income option to its retirement plans.

BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world, has put in a target date strategy that’s called LifePath Paycheck that lets retirement plan members purchase a lifetime income stream by using their retirement savings.

This increase of annuities involving retirement plans is made possible because of the SECURE Act, which is a comprehensive retirement bill that was signed into law in 2019. This law makes it easier for plan sponsors to incorporate annuities into their retirement plans by defining the types of ways in which a sponsor could satisfy their financial obligations when providing streams of guaranteed annuity to participants.

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In Sept., the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference was held in New York, where a number of Wall Street fund managers had met to discuss the cryptocurrency Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC), fintech, and other investments. Among the people who attended was Cathie Wood, and while she was onstage, she provided some impressive insights.

Specifically, the moderator Andrew Sorkin had asked her which crypto she would buy if she only had the option of choosing one. Wood dodged the question a little and decided to pick two of them, saying her company would invest 60% in Bitcoin and 40% in Ethereum. Of course, Kathie Wood has been a Bitcoin bull for a while now, and given the success she has had in the stock market, investors might want to take a closer look at both cryptos. But BTC, in particular, stands out.

Bitcoin: The king of cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin made its debut 12 years ago. Satoshi Nakamoto, the project’s pseudonymous creator, released a white paper back in 2009 that referred to BTC as a “peer-to-peer electronic money system,” highlighting the crypto’s ability to power online transactions without having to rely on intermediaries like card networks, banks or payment processors.

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How does that work? BTC is software built on what’s called blockchain technology, a decentralized database that presently runs across more than 15,000 computers globally, tracking account balances and recording transactions. To make that network secure, miners depend on a consensus mechanism known as proof of work (PoW), which means they use computing power to validate blocks and solve cryptographic puzzles of transactions. The blocks that have been validated are then added to the blockchain, and in return, crypto miners are awarded transaction fees (paid by the users) and block rewards (newly created currency). In other words, the combo of cryptography and blockchain eliminate the need for having to rely on financial institutions.

In addition to that, BTC’s source code requires the block reward to be cut in half every 210,000 blocks, which effectively limits the total amount of coins to 21 million. Similar to gold, BTC’s scarcity makes it valuable. In fact, BTC is often styled as digital gold, and it is more valuable than any other crypto. Those qualities — popularity and scarcity– form the core of the investment thesis.

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Three leading altcoins, Polkadot (CRYPTO:DOT), Algorand (CRYPTO:ALGO), and Tezos (CRYPTO:XTZ), were a few of the biggest winners in the cryptocurrency markets today.

So what

Today, most large-cap cryptos are up significantly, as well as risk assets like growth stocks, as investors debate how serious the omicron strain of the coronavirus could become. Capital looks to be flowing greatly into risk assets as of today.

Tezos is a self-amending blockchain that’s most popular for its established part in the security token industry and is among the largest winners in the altcoin industry today. It appears investors are finally factoring in the catalyst from Friday. Holiday sales took hold in the cryptocurrency space, amid concerns about the possibility of the new variant materializing after the holidays. However, there was news that was seemingly overlooked on Friday- that music non-fungible tokens, which includes those belonging to a member of Linkin Park, should be launched really soon on the Tezos network — which has provided yet another catalyst for investors that are bullish on what this crypto has to offer.

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Some big venture capital interest is tied to Algorand’s rally of the day. News that an ex-Citi banker has made Algorand one of its first partners for its $1.5 billion fund has pushed this token higher. This notable choice from a high-profile investor, as well as bullish commentary surrounding Algorand representing an “ideal shift” in the cryptocurrency world, has some investors excited.

Polkadot looks to be moving alongside larger cryptocurrency markets. However, some investors have said Polkadot’s parachain auctions might be driving the returns investors are seeing with Polkadot.

Now what

These three altcoins are special in the utility they offer its end users. However, it is clear that these few altcoins have a lot of momentum today.

Each of These tokens have erased their losses from this weekend and seem to be continuing a positive trend. For longer-term investors searching for altcoins with fresh support right now, Polkado, Algorand and Tezos look strong.

These three tokens seem to be top of mind for a lot of investors trying to buy the dip today.

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Tesla’s shares closed up 5% on Monday after Elon Musk released a memo to workers, urging them to focus on lowering costs, instead of rushing to get orders out last-minute to reach the company’s end of quarter sales targets.

In the memo released Friday, Musk wrote that he does not want the company to invest heavily on “overtime, temporary contractors and expedite fees just so that cars can arrive in Q4.”

“What has occurred historically is that we run like crazy at end of a quarter to push out more deliveries, but then deliveries fall massively during the first few weeks of the next quarter,” Musk stated. “In effect, we looked at over a six month period, we wouldn’t have delivered any extra cars but we would spend a lot of money and burned ourselves out while trying to accelerate deliveries in the end of each quarter.”

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Musk tweeted Monday afternoon that the end-of-quarter delivery rush will “still be really intense, just a little less than in the past.”

Tesla has recently had a hard time delivering new cars to customers in the United States in line with originally promised date ranges. That has led some Tesla customers to experience delays that have lasted months.

Even so, sales have grown this year for Tesla. Car deliveries, which are the closest approximation to sales, amounted to around 500,000 total last year.

Tesla is also reportedly making progress on its first European factory in Brandenburg, Germany, as reported by German auto news site Automobilwoche. Tesla intended to begin production of vehicles by early summer of this year in Germany, but factory construction had been delayed following a court order spurred by environmentalists who said their activity might harm hibernating lizards and snakes.

Last week, filings with the Texas Department of Regulation have shown the company is making progress on a new vehicle production factory in Austin, TX. The company is planning to invest more than $1 billion on the factory and plans to finish construction by the end of 2021.

Tesla also has plans to invest $188 million to expand its production capacity at its Shanghai factory, the state-backed Beijing Daily newspaper said late last week.

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