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Retirement should feel liberating rather than terrifying. But when an egg-salad sandwich costs more than your first bicycle, the stock market is making like Tom Petty, and economists are bending themselves into pretzels to avoid saying the word recession, retirement can feel hazardous to your financial health. In a perfect world, everyone would retire into a robust economy. But since we live in this world, theres no way of knowing in advance if your timing is right. Retiring during a downturn may not be ideal, but there are several ways to manage it. Heres how you can survive and thrive if you retire when the market is tanking. Know your retirement risks There are two distinct risks facing you and your money if you retire during a down market. The first is a timing risk. Market downturns typically coincide with economic downturns, which often leads to wide-scale job loss. Workers approaching retirement tend to be in their peak earning years, which can make them vulnerable to cost-cutting layoffs. Getting laid off just before retirement can be a bit of a one-two punch, since you may need to fund a longer retirement than youd planned and your investments may have also taken a hit at the same time. The second potential risk is the possibility of cashing out some of your retirement portfolio while the market is down. If you have to access some of your retirement funds before the market recovers, you make any portfolio losses permanent. That leaves you with less money to live on now and less money invested that can continue to grow. Laugh in the face of risk Involuntary retirement and loss of principal may be nothing for a pre-retiree to sneeze at, but you can protect yourself from the vagaries of the market and your employment. These four strategies can help anyone who is contemplating retirement in the next few years: Keep a flexible retirement schedule In the movies, any police officer or international art thief who is only one day or one job away from retirement usually doesnt survive the final act. These poor sods teach us the folly of tempting fate by setting a specific retirement date in stonenot to mention the importance of hiding behind whichever coworker is the hero and who therefore has impenetrable plot armor. Even if youre not worried about getting clocked by a minor villain the day before you retire, your planned retirement date could run afoul of another danger: It has a decent chance of coinciding with a market correction. The stock market has a pattern of crashing approximately every seven to eight years, with periods in between of flat growth, minor but significant dips, and other market turbulence that has investors reaching for the Mylanta. Rather than setting a date on your calendar and treating it as sacrosanct, make your retirement plans flexible. If the market is iffy, consider working longer to give your portfolio time to recover. That might mean pushing back your last day or finding part-time or consulting work so you can avoid dipping into your nest egg. Rebalance early and often as you approach retirement Of course, not everyone has the ability to work past their planned retirement date. If youre laid off, forced to retire, or simply need to retire right now because someone is microwaving fish in the office kitchen on a daily basis, you may end up leaving work at a bad financial time. But the investment decisions you make in the years before you retire can help protect you and your money from bad timing. Specifically, as you get closer to your planned retirement, you will want to regularly rebalance your portfolio to reduce your exposure to market risk. When you rebalance, you shift money from one type of asset to another to better meet your investment goals. As you get closer to retirement, you may want to move money from some of your higher-risk/higher-return investments (such as stocks) into lower-risk assets (such as bonds) or even cash equivalents (such as Treasury bills). Pre-retirees may want to rebalance as often as every six months or so. There are two benefits to regular rebalancing in the years before you retire. The first is that it allows you to lock in gains when the market is doing well. If you move money from stocks to bonds or T-bills when the stock market is going gangbusters, you get to capture those gains and put them safely into a lower-risk asset. In addition, capturing your gains and putting them in cash equivalents means you will not need to pull from your ailing investments if you retire during a downturn. You can easily access the money set aside in the cash equivalents and give your long-term investments time to recover. Make friends with your emergency fund According to conventional financial advice, every single person should have an emergency fund filled with enough money to cover three to six months worth of living expenses. The thinking is that such a fund will ensure you can keep afloat if you lose your jobbut almost nobody actually has that kind of money sitting in a savings account. The five years before you retire are a great time to commit to building an emergency fund of that size. A three-to-six month financial cushion in an easily accessible account can help you bridge the gap between a badly timed retirement date and a market recovery. And even if the market is doing fine right when you retire, having that fund available can help you smooth over any financial difficulties you face during the transition. Wait to take Social Security It may sound counterintuitive, but one of the best things you can do if you retire into a market downturn is to hold off on taking your Social Security benefits. Even though Social Security is money that you can count on if the stock market is feeling funereal, most retirees are better off delaying benefits. Heres why: Your monthly benefits increase by approximately 8% per year that you delay benefits between age 62 and age 70. There is no investment that can offer a guaranteed 8% growth per year (plus cost of living adjustments) over an eight-year period. And remember that your benefits are guaranteed for life. Waiting as long as you can to take benefits will give you a larger monthly income stream foreveror at least until the day you go t the big Social Security office in the sky. Dont panic Involuntary retirement and locking in market losses are a retirees biggest risks, but you can mitigate both risks with some savvy planning. Keep your retirement plans flexible so you can take the time to wait out a market correction. Commit to a regular rebalancing of your portfolio to help reduce your exposure to risk, and build up your emergency fund so you can avoid dipping into your portfolio at the wrong time. Delay your Social Security benefits to get a higher benefit that lasts the rest of your life. Retiring during a market downturn is bad luckbut it doesnt have to be a personal financial crisis.
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E-Commerce
On March 14, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order that called for the dismantling of seven federal agencies to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law. They ranged from the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America, to the Minority Business Development Agency. The Institute of Museum and Library Services was also on the list. Congress created the IMLS in 1996 through the Museum and Library Services Act. The law merged the Institute of Museum Services, which was established in 1976, with the Library Programs Office of the Department of Education. By combining these two departments, Congress sought to create an overarching agency that could more cohesively and strategically support American museums and libraries. The agencys mission, programs, and funding have been reaffirmed through subsequent legislation, such as the Museum and Library Services Act of 2003. The Conversation U.S. interviewed Devon Akmon, who is the director of the MSU Museum at Michigan State University. He explained how the agency supports the nations cultural institutions and local communities, and what could be lost if the agency were dissolved. What does the Institute of Museum and Library Services do? The agency provides financial support to a wide array of cultural and educational institutions, including art, science and history museums, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens and historic sites. Libraries of all types public, academic, school and research also benefit from the agencys funding. Through grants, research and policy initiatives, the IMLS helps these institutions better serve their communities. Anne-Imelda Radice, right, former director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, inspects Denver city records and neighborhood histories in 2008. The volumes were digitized to make them more accessible to the public. [Photo: Brian Brainerd/The Denver Post/Getty Images] In the 2019 fiscal year, for example, the IMLS awarded funds to libraries in Nebraska to support economic development in 30 rural communities. The project created rotating innovation studios in local libraries and provided residents with tools, instructional materials and programming to foster entrepreneurship and creativity. More recently, IMLS awarded a grant to the Hands On Childrens Museum to develop a toolkit that museums across the country can use to support families with relatives who are in prison. For libraries, the IMLS might fund technology upgrades, such as virtual reality learning stations, AI-assisted research aids or digitization of rare books. The agency also pays for community programs that take place in libraries, from early childhood reading initiatives to workshops that help people land jobs. How has the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported your work at the MSU Museum? IMLS grants have played a vital role in enabling the MSU Museum to preserve, enhance and expand access to its collections. For example, weve used IMLS grants to develop high-quality audio aids for museum visitors who are blind or have poor vision. Recent funding has supported the digitization of over 2,000 vertebrate specimens, including rare and endangered species. Beyond financial support, the MSU Museum benefits from IMLS policy papers, professional training opportunities and resources developed through the National Leadership Grants for Museums program. Our staff members also contribute to national campaigns spearheaded by the IMLS, such as its Strategies for Countering Antisemitism & Hate initiative. Through these efforts, the IMLS, alongside the American Alliance of Museums, operate as cornerstones of learning and innovation within the museum field. Looking beyond Michigan State, what might be lost with its shuttering? The IMLS is more than a grantmaking entity it is the only federal agency dedicated to sustaining the entire museum and library ecosystem in the United States. Its funding has sustained museums, advanced digital preservation, expanded accessibility for low-income communities and fueled innovation in educational programming. In 2024 alone, the agency distributed $266.7 million through grants, research initiatives and policy development. For example, ExplorationWorks, a childrens museum in Helena, Montana, received $151,946 in 2024 from the IMLS to expand its early childhood programs that serve low-income and rural families. Without this support, many institutions will struggle to hire and retain qualified staff, leading to fewer exhibitions, stalled research and reduced educational outreach. The consequences would be particularly severe for small museums and rural museums, which lack the fundraising capacity of larger urban institutions. Theyre often the only sources of cultural and historical education in their regions, and their loss would create cultural voids that cannot easily be filled. Trumps executive order dictated that the Institute of Museum and Library Services and other agencies be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law. What is the applicable law in this case? Im not a lawyer. But my understanding is that the applicable law in this case primarily refers to the Museum and Library Services Act, which, as I noted earlier, was created in 1996 and has been reauthorized multiple times since then. Since the IMLS was created through this congressional legislation, it cannot simply be eliminated by an executive order. Congress would need to pass a law to repeal or defund it. Additionally, the Antideficiency Act prohibits federal agencies from operating without appropriated funding. If Congress were to defund the IMLS rather than repeal its authorizing statute, the agency would be force to cease operations due to a lack of money, even if the legal framework for its existence remained intact. Is there anything else youd like to add? Museums are among the most trusted institutions in the country. They are rare bipartisan beacons of credibility in an era of deep division. A 2021 American Alliance of Museums report found that 97% of Americans view museums as valuable educational assets, while 89% consider them trustworthy sources of information. A 2022 American Library Association survey revealed that 89% of voters and 92% of parents believe local public libraries have an important role to play in communities. More than just cultural repositories, museums and libraries bring together citizens and offer learning opportunities for everyday people. By presenting science and history through engaging, evidence-based storytelling, museums help bridge ideological divides and encourage informed discourse. People of all political stripes rely on libraries for free internet access, job searches and literacy programs. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is central to this work. The agency provides leadership, while funding programs and research that help museums and libraries expand their offerings to reach all Americans. Stripping this support would threaten the sustainability of these institutions and weaken their ability to serve as pillars of education, civic engagement, and truth. I see it as a disinvestment in an informed, connected, and resilient society. Devon Akmon is the director of the MSU Museum and CoLab Studio at Michigan State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
Would you share the pages of your journal with a bunch of strangers, because thats the idea behind social wellness app Exist. The new iOS social wellness app wants to turn journaling into a social experience. Originally designed with Gen Z in mind, Exist unexpectedly found its audience among middle-age users, with the average sign-up age landing at 40. Seeing this, the founders pivoted to focus on this group, creating a space for real, raw conversations about lifes challenges. Exist calls itself the edgier cousin of Calm and Headspace, but instead of solo meditation, it puts social journaling at the center of its mission. The app is built on the idea that healing happens best together, not alone. Users can track their moods daily, explore guided meditations, and engage in audio exercises, but the real draw is its community. In terms of its interface, Exist functions like a TikTok for mental health, offering a swipeable feed of videos and text-based public journal entries. Users can respond to daily prompts, share their thoughts, and interact through comments, creating a space for support and real conversations. The biggest feature that makes us different is the community side, cofounder Alicia Waldner told TechCrunch. Headspace and Calm proved that theres this audio-based market, but people still feel very alone in those experiences and in real life, people meditate and then they journal, but thats a solo experience. And what we did was make that a social experience. So instead of journaling all your thoughts and feelings at home and putting it underneath your bed at night, youre sharing it with the world, and people are commenting back. Exist also offers an AI-powered question feature designed to push users to dig deeper into their thoughts and feelings. This tool encourages a more reflective and thorough journaling experience. While the community and social journaling features are free, users looking for guided audios and meditations can unlock them with a $5.99/month subscription.
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E-Commerce
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