Australian Families Paying Up to $1.3 Million More to Live in Popular School Zones: Report
While these properties typically offer lower long-term capital growth compared to standard houses, they may offer a cost-effective alternative to paying private school fees.
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Trade Partners Grow Restless Waiting for Trump's Tariff Breaks
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Should I sell my vacation home that I dream of living in when I retire to pay off $50K in credit card debt?
Total credit card debt in the US stands at $1.18 trillion this year, with 4.3% of debt in delinquency, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. With these near record-high numbers, many Americans are feeling the pinch and want to find ways to dig themselves out. But should you allow your debt to disrupt your retirement plans? Don't miss Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 6 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan 'works every single time' to kill debt, get rich in America — and that 'anyone' can do it Let's look at the example of Gavin, a 40-year-old married man with two children. He bought a home in the Caribbean in 2019 with the goal of eventually making the house his retirement home. The house is worth $400,000 now, with a $120,000 mortgage balance. Unfortunately, the mortgage loan has a variable interest rate, which is currently at 10.5% with no possible options for refinancing. The home currently generates $700 per month in profit as a short-term rental, but makes less during off off-season and managing it is stressful. Worse, the neighborhood may soon prohibit short-term rentals in the area, so that would be the end of this revenue stream. Additionally, Gavin might also be on the hook for local property taxes and, as a foreign investor, other possible fees and taxes too. On top of this, the buyer is a renter in the US where he currently lives and he has $50,000 in credit card debt. Does it make sense for him to sell the vacation property to pay off what he owes? He's considering buying a home locally and using the rest of the money to invest, build up an emergency fund, or start a college fund for his kids. Selling the vacation home could be a great solution Selling the vacation home in this particular case seems like an easy answer. While it is currently generating a small profit, earning $8,400 per year on a $400,000 asset isn't a great return, especially given the hassle of being the host and the substantial interest he is paying on his mortgage. But losing the short-term rental income would be a major downside. Read more: Nervous about the stock market? Gain potential quarterly income through this $1B private real estate fund — even if you're not a millionaire. Aside from the poor ROI of the home, the interest on $50,000 in credit card debt that he currently has is an absolute financial killer, given that the average credit card interest rate is 21.16% as of May 2025. The $700 per month he is earning from his rental most likely is not even enough to cover the interest that his credit card debt accrues each month. With a home worth $400,000, and assuming closing costs are around 4% (the average is 2% to 5%), this homeowner would still end up with about $384,000 after paying for the transaction fees from the sale of the home. Now, since the home isn't his primary home, it's possible he could owe capital gains taxes if his profits exceeded $250,000 as a single person or $500,000 as a married joint filer. However, since Gavin is married and the home isn't netting in excess of $500,000, he'd likely be spared this tax. He may also need to pay additional sales taxes to the government of his host country. If he doesn't, he could pay off the $120,000 still remaining on the mortgage he owes, as well as his $50,000 in credit card debt and still walk away with around $214,000. That would be a good start to make a down payment on a home in the US for his family (in which he can retire), or to start investing for his future. He could save for his two kids to go to college, start an emergency fund and best of all, free up a lot of income by eliminating his credit card debt and the interest he would be paying on that into the future. In fact, if he uses the money wisely, he could not only set himself up for financial stability, but he could also choose to save to buy another retirement home down the road, when it makes more financial sense. Are there downsides to selling? While Gavin's circumstances make a strong case for selling the home, it's worth looking at whether there are any downsides to doing so, beyond losing the $700 in rental income. Since the home he owns doesn't have a great mortgage, isn't generating a big profit and there's no reason to believe it is a one-of-a-kind home, there's very little downside in cashing out now and using the proceeds to create some more financial stability. The only real risk would be that real estate values skyrocket in his chosen Caribbean retirement destination. This would either price him out of buying his dream retirement home later on or prevent him from earning more on the possible future sale of his vacation home. However, it's unlikely the ROI on Caribbean real estate would exceed the returns he'd get by investing in the stock market in the states or that the increase in the value would be worth paying the interest on the credit card debt and the mortgage combined. There are likely wiser ways to make that money work. So, if he's investing wisely over time, he should likely be able to buy a comparable home as a retiree if he wants to. He could also end up changing his retirement plans if he decides he'd rather stay in the US and be close to his potential grandchildren — and if that happens, it would have been a poor investment to pay for a house that's costly to keep only to end up not retiring there anyway. Selling now with the chance to rebuy later seems like a much better bet. In fact, all signs point to the fact that selling the home seems like the best move in this situation and it could be the start of a much more financially secure — and less stressful — future. What to read next Robert Kiyosaki warns of a 'Greater Depression' coming to the US — with millions of Americans going poor. But he says these 2 'easy-money' assets will bring in 'great wealth'. How to get in now Here are 5 simple ways to grow rich with real estate if you don't want to play landlord. And you can even start with as little as $10 Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead Here are 5 'must have' items that Americans (almost) always overpay for — and very quickly regret. How many are hurting you? Stay in the know. Join 200,000+ readers and get the best of Moneywise sent straight to your inbox every week for free. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Yahoo
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The US May Have Already Lost the AI Race to China Due to a Key Weakness
You might have heard of an "AI race" heating up between the US and China, a bitter rivalry between two global adversaries that could shape the direction of world history. At least, that's how some in the US feel. While China has repeatedly tried to establish a geopolitical friendship with the richest nation in the world, officials and pundits in the US have doubled down, reframing artificial intelligence as the 21st century's nuclear bomb. In the meantime, China may have gotten a massive lead — by actively investing in its power grid, while the United States' is quickly running out of capacity to power immensely power-hungry AI models. As Fortune reports, Americans who've had a look at China's technological development firsthand found that the two country's aren't even in the same league, given China's next-level power grid. "Energy is considered a solved problem," wrote Rui Ma, editor of the US publication Tech Buzz China. "Everywhere we went, people treated energy availability as a given," she continued. "This is a stark contrast to the US, where AI growth is increasingly tied to debates over data center power consumption and grid limitations." AI is a notoriously energy-intensive technology. The data centers powering large language models like ChatGPT are immense labyrinths of computer chips, which suck down resources like power and water in order to keep up with demand. As Fortune notes, this effectively makes electricity the key bottleneck for expanding AI infrastructure. That's caused some critical shortages in the US. Short on energy and hopped up on fantasies of an arms race, American companies are resorting to all kinds of bizarre strategies to get their juice. Elon Musk's xAI, for example, is running 35 portable methane gas generators in the parking lot of one of its main datacenters in Memphis, encircling nearby communities in a cloud of noxious smog. China has no such problems. In 2024, China was responsible for nearly 65 percent of the world's renewable energy construction, installing so many solar panels and wind turbines that it caused the country's CO2 emissions to drop for the first time — despite record-high demands for energy. Whether or not the US can catch up remains to be seen. President Donald Trump previously made an off-the-cuff remark about attaching coal power plants to data centers directly. It's an unfortunate conundrum in an age when energy demand in the US has never been higher. In the meantime, China keeps chugging along, seemingly unperturbed by any energy bottlenecks — and the Trump administration's posturing. More on AI: AI Datacenters Are Raising Nearby Residents' Electric Bills Solve the daily Crossword
