Recent Articles from Carol Hazard
Reality bites
Gen Xers are next in line for retirement, and most are far from being prepared financially for their golden years. They face a substantial shortfall of funds needed for retirement and the largest savings gap of any generation. “As the first generation to head into retirement largely without the safety net of a defined benefit […]
Out of balance
Kate Austin had a job waiting for her when she graduated last year from Christopher Newport University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. “I love it,” she says about her work as a tax associate at Keiter, a certified public accounting firm in Henrico County. Unlike two of her friends, who are still looking […]
Surge of credit card defaults ahead?
Americans owe an all-time high of nearly $1 trillion on their credit cards, setting the stage for a possible surge in consumer delinquencies and defaults. “There are nascent signs of trouble brewing,” investment firm Glenmede Trust Co. warned in an April research note. “An ever–larger share of credit balances have transitioned to early stages of […]
Staying the course
A tanking economy. Rampant inflation. Whiplash in the stock market. What’s an investor to do? Look for opportunities to rebalance portfolios but, in general, hang tight, wealth management professionals say. Or, as one adviser says, buckle up for a roller coaster ride. The economy is likely to worsen, experts say, and despite dickering among economists […]
Navigating metaverse investments
Investors itching to get in on the latest tech trend are zooming in on the metaverse — a presumed future virtual or mixed reality iteration of the internet in which users would navigate 3D environments for working, shopping, socializing and entertainment. By some estimates, the metaverse market could balloon to $5 trillion in annual revenue […]
Regional biz mentorship program jump-starts startups
Ruth Rau started her business as a hobby. Now, seven years later, her Winchester-based toy company — Mouse Loves Pig — is on track to generate revenue in six figures. The entrepreneur’s toys for babies and young children are sold in more than 250 stores in nine countries, and she’s partnered with a manufacturing company […]
Shenandoah University creating tech hub
Shenandoah University is connecting the future to the past. It’s renovating an armory on its main campus in Winchester where National Guard soldiers once trained before D-Day, turning it into a Hub for Innovators, Veterans and Entrepreneurs — the HIVE. “This building will be a game changer for economic development in the Northern Valley and […]
Frederick solar farms move forward
Frederick County is on the verge of seeing its first solar power farms. Three facilities are in the works, with another in the pipeline. That’s not to say Virginia’s northernmost county is exactly embracing fields of solar panels. “Solar farms change the character of the land from rolling fields and animals grazing in pastures to […]
Supersize means
Watch your nest egg, particularly if it is extra-large. As Congress scrambles to hike taxes on the wealthy and fund trillions of dollars in social spending, legislators see a potential goldmine in so-called mega individual retirement accounts. Mega IRAs, defined as individual retirement accounts containing at least $5 million, are being touted as a hot […]
SPAC-ulative finance
One of the hottest investment tools in the past year and a half has imploded. But don’t give up on special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs as these peculiar financial structures are called, industry experts say. Also called blank-check companies, SPACs are here to stay, but not necessarily at the high-flying levels of 2020 and […]