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Quiver Financial News

Quiver Financial News

Written by: Quiver Financial
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 Quiver Financial specializes in 401(k) management, wealth and investment management, retirement planning, and private equity services for individuals, families and businesses looking to maximize the five years before retirement. With over 20 years of experience the financial professionals at Quiver Financial go beyond Wall Streets outdated ”long term” way of thinking and help our clients navigate ”what just happened” to ”what is next.” We honor our fiduciary duty above all, and practice full disclosure, due-diligence, and client communication. We work in a collaborative atmosphere with our clients, with whom we reach mutual agreement on every phase of the financial planning and wealth management process. Quiver Financial is guided by a commitment to thoughtfulness, pragmatism, creativity and simplicity to help our clients achieve the financial freedom they desire.Copyright 2022 All rights reserved. Economics Personal Finance
Episodes
  • The eVTOL Industry: Opportunities and Challenges in Urban Air Mobility

    The eVTOL Industry: Opportunities and Challenges in Urban Air Mobility
    Jan 12 2026
    The electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) industry is an emerging sector focused on developing electric-powered aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing. These vehicles aim to provide efficient urban transportation solutions, potentially reducing commute times and offering an alternative to traditional ground transport. Compared to cars, eVTOLs could supplement or even replace cars in urban areas, helping to reduce traffic congestion, pollution, and travel times. Companies like Joby Aviation (JOBY) and Archer Aviation (ACHR) are among the key players working to advance this technology, with many companies creating new aircraft models, innovative energy solutions, and supporting infrastructure to advance the urban air mobility ecosystem. While the industry has attracted significant investment and attention, it faces substantial regulatory, technical, and societal challenges. This overview provides a balanced perspective on the eVTOL sector, its leading companies, their investors, and the risks involved. Important Note: Investments in the eVTOL industry, including companies like Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, carry significant risks, including the potential loss of principal. The industry is in an early stage, and there is no guarantee of commercial success or profitability. Investors should carefully consider their financial situation and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Table of Contents The eVTOL Industry: An Emerging MarketAdvanced Air Mobility SystemsKey Players: Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation Joby Aviation (JOBY)Archer Aviation (ACHR) Investor Interest in the eVTOL SectorAir Traffic ManagementChallenges Facing the eVTOL Industry Regulatory EnvironmentIndustry PerspectivesLooking Ahead Regional Insights and Case Studies The eVTOL Industry: An Emerging Market The eVTOL sector is developing aircraft designed to take off and land vertically, offering potential applications in urban air mobility (UAM), such as air taxis and airport shuttles. Industry analysts project the global eVTOL market could grow significantly over the next decade, though estimates vary widely and are subject to uncertainty due to the industry’s nascent stage. Recent key industry developments and innovations worldwide are contributing to the market’s growth. Market projections indicate strong expansion over the forecast period from 2024 to 2030. The technology aims to address urban congestion and provide environmentally friendly transport options, but significant hurdles remain, including regulatory approvals, technological development, and public acceptance. Urban air mobility solutions are gaining traction as cities seek alternatives to traditional transportation. The eVTOL industry requires substantial capital for research, development, testing, and certification. Companies in this space rely heavily on investor funding, as commercial operations are not yet fully established. While the sector presents opportunities for innovation, it is characterized by high financial and operational risks, and investors should be aware that not all companies may succeed. Advanced Air Mobility Systems Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) systems are ushering in a new era for urban air mobility (UAM), transforming how people and goods move within congested cities. By leveraging electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, AAM aims to deliver efficient, safe, and sustainable transportation solutions that address the growing demand for shorter travel times and reduced carbon emissions. Key players such as Joby Aviation and United Airlines are making significant investments in the development of advanced electric aircraft, focusing on innovations in battery technology and autonomous systems to enhance performance and safety. These advancements are enabling the creation of new products and services, such as air taxis and on-demand urban flights, that promise to reshape the transportation landscape in major cities. As the industry continues to gain traction, the focus remains on developing reliable, efficient, and environmentally friendly solutions that can scale to meet the needs of densely populated urban environments. The growth of AAM is expected to drive further investment and innovation, paving the way for a future where air taxis and electric aircraft become an integral part of urban transportation networks, offering passengers faster, cleaner, and more convenient travel options. Key Players: Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation Joby Aviation (JOBY) Joby Aviation, based in California, is developing an all-electric, piloted aircraft designed to carry four passengers and a pilot at speeds up to 200 mph with a range of approximately 150 miles. The company focuses on urban air mobility and has made progress toward regulatory milestones. Investors and Partnerships: Joby has secured funding and partnerships from several notable entities. Toyota Motor Corporation has invested over...
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    17 mins
  • The Perils of Painless Progress

    The Perils of Painless Progress
    Jan 5 2026
    How Eliminating Struggle Is Undermining Societal Resilience We are entering an era of engineered ease. Technology, medicine, and convenience culture are steadily stripping effort out of daily life. Drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic now allow people to lose dramatic amounts of weight with minimal change in diet or exercise. Their rapid adoption has become a cultural phenomenon, reshaping how we think about health and personal responsibility. At the same time, advanced AI promises a near-future where much human labor becomes optional, potentially ushering in universal basic income and a post-work society. These developments are widely celebrated as humanitarian triumphs: an end to obesity, an end to toil, an end to scarcity. But history, philosophy, and psychology converge on a darker warning: when a society removes the necessity of effort, it does not produce happier, healthier humans. It produces softer, more fragile ones. The traits that allow individuals and civilizations to survive and flourish — discipline, grit, resilience, purpose — are not innate gifts. They are forged in resistance. Remove the resistance and you remove the forging. Why Struggle Matters: Nietzsche, Taleb, and the Logic of Antifragility Friedrich Nietzsche saw this more than a century ago. The popular quote, “What does not kill me makes me stronger,” is only the surface. In Twilight of the Idols he goes further: “The discipline of suffering, of great suffering — do you not know that only this discipline has created all enhancements of man so far?” Nietzsche argued that cultures which minimize pain do not evolve higher types of human beings; they stagnate or regress. He criticized even the great traditions of Buddhism and Stoicism as attempts to dull suffering — and in dulling suffering, dull greatness. Nassim Nicholas Taleb updated the insight for the modern age in Antifragile. Some systems — muscles, economies, characters, civilizations — do not merely resist stress; they require it to grow. “Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire. The fragile wants tranquility, the antifragile grows from disorder.” A life engineered to avoid disorder does not become robust. It becomes fragile. History’s Warning: Prosperity and Decline History tells the same story at a civilizational scale. Edward Gibbon, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, repeatedly returns to the loss of martial virtue and civic discipline as Rome grew wealthy and comfortable. The legions that had conquered the world were gradually replaced by mercenaries; the citizens who once endured hardship for the republic became spectators demanding bread and circuses. “Prosperity ripened the principle of decay,” Gibbon wrote. The empire did not fall in a single cataclysm; it softened over centuries until it could no longer stand. The pattern repeats: The later Ming dynastyThe Ottoman Empire in declineThe French aristocracy before the RevolutionThe British upper class in the fin-de-siècle Again and again, when a society reaches the point where most discomfort can be outsourced or medicated away, the will to endure atrophies. For most of history, people relied on family, neighbors, and community for support with hardship and daily life — work, child-rearing, even finding a spouse. Those messy, demanding interactions built social skills, patience, and resilience. Today, many of these roles have been replaced by technological solutions and on-demand services, changing the environments in which we grow and adapt. Wegovy, Ozempic, and the Disappearing Crucible GLP-1 agonists like Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro are genuine medical breakthroughs for people with severe obesity or diabetes. Used appropriately, they can be life-saving. But their widespread use by non-obese or mildly overweight individuals represents something new: the pharmacological removal of one of life’s most universal crucibles — the struggle with appetite and body weight. For most of human history, maintaining a healthy weight required daily acts of self-control, planning, and physical effort. Those acts built character the way weightlifting builds muscle. Now the “muscle” is inserted by syringe. The weight loss is real.The character development is not. When the drug is stopped — and most users eventually stop, because lifelong weekly injections at $1,000+ per month are unsustainable for the majority — two-thirds of the weight typically returns within a year. Only those who can afford the drugs indefinitely can maintain the benefits, raising concerns about equity and access. The individual is left with the same habits, the same impulses, but often with less faith in their own capacity for self-mastery. The message absorbed isn’t “I am capable of hard things,” but “I require pharmaceutical assistance to be thin.” That message scales. Angela Duckworth’s research on grit — the combination of passion and perseverance that predicts life ...
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    16 mins
  • What the 2026 Social Security COLA Increase of 2.8% Means for Retirees and Retirement Income

    What the 2026 Social Security COLA Increase of 2.8% Means for Retirees and Retirement Income
    Dec 31 2025
    The Bottomline: The 2026 Social Security COLA provides an annual increase of 2.8%, lifting the average monthly payment for retirees by $56 to $2,071, but nearly 40% of this increase could be consumed by a $21.50 premium increase in Medicare Part B premiums to $206.50/month. For most retirees, the net monthly gain will be just ~$34.50 or less, falling short of rising healthcare and housing costs, as well as other higher costs, which continue to outpace the COLA. With the COLA formula lagging true retiree inflation, many beneficiaries may need to adjust withdrawal strategies and closely review Medicare plans to manage persistent real cost pressures. Headline Numbers The Social Security Administration has set the 2026 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) at 2.8%, effective with January payments for nearly 75 million Americans receiving Social Security and SSI. These annual COLAs are designed to adjust benefits for inflation.Average monthly benefit will rise by about $56 to approximately $2,071 for retirees. For aged couples (both beneficiaries), the average will increase to $3,208. These changes are influenced by average wages as part of the benefit calculation. Survivors’ benefits will see smaller dollar gains but similar percentage increases.The COLA is calculated based on third-quarter CPI-W inflation metrics from the prior year, compared to the same period in the current year, aiming to offset inflation’s impact on retiree purchasing power.In the table below, benefit changes are shown as both a percentage increase and a specific dollar amount for each category. Table: Impact of 2.8% COLA for 2026 Category Pre-COLA (2025) 2026 Benefit Dollar Amount Increase Notes Average Retired Worker $2,015 $2,071 $56 Net gain for retired workers reduced by Medicare Part B Retired Couple (both beneficiaries) $3,120 $3,208 $88 Both retired workers Survivor (Aged Widow/er) $1,877 $1,930 $53 Applies to retired workers’ survivors SSI Individual $967 $994 $27 Not limited to retired workers Medicare Part B (projected, 2026) $185 $206.50 $21.50 (↑11.6%) Offset against COLA for most retirees 2026 COLA in Context At 2.8%, the COLA is near the 20-year average (2.6%-3.1%), but when averaged over the last decade, COLAs have often lagged behind recent inflation rates and are sharply below healthcare and housing inflation, which have outpaced headline CPI.Medicare Part B premiums, typically deducted from Social Security, are projected to rise by 11.6% to $206.50/month, consuming anywhere from a third to half of the average retiree’s COLA before they see funds in their account, further straining budgets already impacted by higher costs.Lower-income retirees and those whose primary expenses are healthcare and housing will benefit least, as these cost categories are increasing much faster than both the COLA and general inflation indices, making it harder for Social Security pay to keep up with higher costs. Since benefits are calculated based on wages, many retirees find that their pay from the program does not fully cover essential expenses. Medicare and Retirement Income The Social Security Administration’s announcement of a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2026 brings both opportunities and challenges for retirees and those planning their financial future. This annual COLA, calculated using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is designed to help Social Security beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living. For many retirees, the COLA increase will be immediately felt in their Social Security benefits, but the impact is closely tied to changes in Medicare costs—particularly the standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B. As Medicare premiums rise, a significant portion of the COLA may be offset, especially for older adults who rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. The Senior Citizens League and other advocacy groups have noted that, despite the annual COLA, rising prices for healthcare and essential services continue to erode the real value of monthly payments. The Social Security Administration has also updated the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security tax, which will increase to $184,500 in 2026. This adjustment affects high-income earners, potentially increasing their future Social Security retirement benefits, but also raising their current tax obligations. For those receiving disability benefits, the trial work period threshold will rise to $1,210 per month, giving beneficiaries more flexibility to test their ability to work without immediately losing their benefits. Married couples filing jointly may see changes in their combined retirement income, which could influence their tax rate and overall financial planning. The COLA not only affects Social Security checks but can also have ripple effects on other sources...
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    13 mins
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