That went remarkably well. The Federal Reserve released a hawk-tinged statement from its October FOMC meeting–and stocks bent but did not break.
Associated Press The S&P 500 dipped 0.1% to 1,982.30 today, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has slipped 0.2% to 16,974.31. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3% to 4,549.23.
Here’s what happened: As expected, the Fed ended its bond buying, but left the “considerable time” between the end of asset purchases and the first rate hike intact. A little more surprising: It painted an alnost rosy picture of the U.S. economy that all but ignored the market turmoil of the last month. The Fed called the risks to the job outlook and economy “nearly balanced,” spotted “solid job gains” and noted that the “underutilization of labor resources. is gradually diminishing.” CRT Capital’s David Ader takes it all in:
Bottom line is that this is a bit more optimistic than before with some enthusiasm for labor market and household spending. Inflation remains an issue and mentions energy and ‘other’ factors (presumably the dollar) and so that extends this concern a bit as does the idea of “Market-based measures of inflation compensation having declined (whatever that is). We look for extended period to disappear in Dec or very very soon so that’s moot point. Note that distant Fed fund futures are very little changed which makes sense.
ISI Group’s Dennis DeBusschere hopes the Fed is reading things right:
…although inflation is clearly front and center, they are for now talking about temporary influences, and they note that labor underutilization is gradually diminishing. Hope they are correct on inflation expectations being wrong and temporary influences keeping inflation low. Market could react very poorly to inflation exp being correct and influences being more than just temporary.
Making the market’s recent gains temporary, too.
The most common homeowner complaint is that the house is too small. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Big purchases often come with big expectations. 
) is set to trade ex-dividend on October 29. The automobile company offers a dividend yield of 3.54% based on Wednesday's closing price of $14.13 and the company's quarterly dividend payout of 12.5 cents. The stock is down 8% year-to-date. Dividend.com currently rates F as “Neutral” with a DARS™ rating of 3.4 stars out of 5 stars.
LJSphotography/Alamy The new post-Great Recession economy has taken its toll on retirees, as well as those of us looking forward to retirement in the near future. Unfortunately, there's something of a reality gap between what today's workers think about retirement and what actually happens in retirement. Here's a look at the perceptions and the realities. Today, many people plan to delay retirement. According to a 2013 survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute of 1,000 individuals age 25 and older, some 22 percent of workers said the age at which they expect to retire has increased. Respondents cited a poor economy and the inability to afford retirement as their main reasons for the delay. Almost 10 percent of workers said they'll never retire. At the same time, the number of people expecting to retire early, before age 65, is just about half of what it was 20 years ago. The gap: People retire sooner than they expect. Almost half of retirees surveyed reported that they retired sooner than they had planned. Those who retired early cited a number of reasons. A few retired because they could afford it. But many more cited a layoff, health issue or disability. Baby boomers feel younger than they really are. According to a 2012 AARP-sponsored poll of 1,852 registered voters, including 1,331 age 50 and older, health and longevity are not topics that often come up in conversation among baby boomers. Only about half of those nearing retirement said they had discussed the issues of poor health, disability and death with their spouse or doctor. And according to a 2009 Pew Research Center survey of nearly 3,000 adults, boomers felt at least 10 years younger than their actual age. They peg "old age" at somewhere above 75. The gap: The biggest reason for early retirement is an unexpected health issue. According to the EBRI survey, 55 percent of those who retired earlier than planned say they did so because of a health problem. An unforeseen illness can disrupt your retirement dreams and cause other complications. For example, if you think you'll work until age 75, you might not consider things like long-term health insurance. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, someone turning 65 today has almost a 70 percent chance of needing long-term care services. Today's workers plan to work part time in retirement. Almost three quarters of people now holding a job said they expect to work after they retire to supplement their income, according to the EBRI survey. Over half admitted that they are counting on income from a part-time job to be a significant source of income in their later years. The gap: Only about 25 percent of retirees report that they are actually working in retirement. The reality is that many retirees want to keep working part time for their old employer, but their old employer doesn't need their services. Or they want to find a consulting job, but discover that their experience is not relevant in the current marketplace. Many find that the majority of help-wanted opportunities are minimum-wage jobs in retail or hospitality, and they decide not to work after all. If you do want to work part time in retirement, the best time to find the job is before you retire. Workers are aware that they are left largely to their own devices to save for retirement. Multiple surveys have shown that workers have lost faith in Social Security, know that defined-benefit retirement plans are on the wane and that they should take advantage of various retirement accounts such as 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts. Major financial firms including Fidelity and Aon/Hewitt recommend saving up to 10 times your annual income, which along with Social Security should allow you to replace approximately 85 percent of your preretirement income. The gap: People fall far short of their savings targets. According to a 2013 study by the National Institute on Retirement Security, 45 percent of working-age households do not own any retirement account assets. And two-thirds of older households ages 55 to 64 have retirement savings of less than one time their annual income, which is far below what they need to maintain their standard of living. A little over a third of retirees say a pension provides a significant amount of their income. Still, some 70 percent of Americans credit Social Security for their main source of income, according to the EBRI survey. The solution. There is often a major difference between what people expect in retirement and what they actually get. As you go about planning your own retirement, pay attention to the gap -- the one that can be caused by a layoff, unexpected health issue or unfamiliar job market. And make plans to close that gap.
AP/Paul SancyaCadillac's 2014 Elmiraj concept car is expected to lend much of its style to the brand's new high-end CT6 sedan in 2015. General Motors' (GM) Cadillac brand has made a lot of news lately. GM is turning its old luxury brand into a standalone division, moving its headquarters to New York, and launching a new naming scheme for its models. If it seems like a lot of fuss over a brand that has fallen far behind the German luxury-car leaders, it is. But GM isn't just looking to recapture the romance of a bygone era when Cadillac's "Standard of the World" ad tagline really meant something. As crazy as it might seem, behind the scenes, there are big moves being made to turn Cadillac into a global luxury-car leader. Here's what GM has in mind. A New Future That Looks Back to the Best of Cadillac's Past For starters, forget everything you know about Cadillac. Forget the cushy seats and wire wheels and whitewall tires that marked Cadillacs of old, and forget the idea that Cadillacs are cars aimed at retired folks and nobody else. Forget all of that. But forget what Cadillac stood for once upon a time. Years ago -- like, 50 years ago -- Cadillac offered a uniquely brash, American take on real high-end luxury. Back then, Cadillacs were very expensive, but they were also bold, optimistic, and sophisticated -- the three "values" that Cadillac's marketing chief says the brand will now reclaim and build upon. Cadillac's global chief marketing officer, Uwe Ellinghaus, is a longtime BMW (BAMXF) executive who was hired by GM last year to help take the brand in a new direction. He told the Detroit News this week that the "Cadillac point of view" will become clear in a new ad campaign that will begin early next year -- starting when an all-new range-topping sedan is unveiled in January. But this isn't about copying the German brands, Ellinghaus says. As he told the Detroit News, "If you buy an Audi, Mercedes or BMW, you show that you fit into the premium luxury norm. This is the foreseeable car, the expected car in your neighborhood. Whereas with a Cadillac, it's more about ." [Emphasis added.] If that sounds like a big change for Cadillac, that's because it is. But it's driven by sound business reasons: A thriving luxury brand can be a huge source of profits for a global automaker, and GM CEO Mary Barra is pushing hard to increase GM's profit margins. Getting Cadillac to the point where it is taken seriously by BMW and Audi owners -- not just in the U.S., but also in China and eventually even in Europe -- could take years. But the process is already well underway. GM Has Given Cadillac's New Boss a Lot of Leeway Cadillac has a brand-new boss. Audi and Infiniti veteran Johan de Nysschen joined GM in August as Cadillac's president, and he has wasted no time laying out his vision for where Cadillac ought to go. For a while now, Cadillac has been struggling with an interesting problem. The brand's latest models, the CTS and ATS sedans and the new Escalade, really competitive with the best in the world. The all-new-for-2014 CTS sedan was Motor Trend's Car of the Year, and it has won numerous comparison tests against Mercedes-Benz's E-Class and BMW's 5-Series. But sales have been sluggish, and data shows that the new Cadillacs aren't getting consideration from BMW and Mercedes owners. That highlighted the problem: Having products that were on par with the German luxury leaders was only the first step -- now, Cadillac needs to fix its brand. That's where de Nysschen comes in. De Nysschen spent two decades at Audi, and he was a key part of that brand's efforts to separate its image from that of its corporate parent, Volkswagen Group (VLKAY), and elevate itself to the level of BMW and Mercedes. It's no surprise that he's drawing on Audi's playbook at Cadillac. The brand's planned move to New York isn't intended as an affront to Detroit, it's about creating a sense of separation -- so that Cadillac's people can focus intensely on , without distraction from the rest of General Motors. That laser-like focus is what's needed to succeed as a global luxury brand, he has said. More New Cadillacs Are Headed to Dealers. But Will Buyers Follow? Cadillac also needs a slew of new products, and they're coming. The next Cadillac, a high-end sedan that will slot above the CTS and XTS, will be revealed in January. It'll be called the CT6 and its styling is likely to draw on that of last year's stunning Cadillac Elmiraj concept car. Beyond that, there will be new crossover SUVs, new engines and high-tech features that will be exclusive to Cadillac -- and possibly an even bigger and grander sedan, de Nysschen has hinted. Of course, all of these new Cadillacs aren't just better-built and more luxurious than recent cars from the brand, they're more expensive. That has been a shock for some of Cadillac's longtime customers -- and for its dealers. Cadillac's dealers will have to adjust to selling fewer cars at higher prices -- and to providing the kind of service that Mercedes and BMW buyers expect. That, like everything else with Cadillac's move, will take time and money and patience. But de Nysschen's new bosses, Barra and GM president Dan Ammann, have made it clear that Cadillac will be given the time and money it needs to succeed. The rest? That's up to the market. When you get into that back office and start signing all the paperwork, the topic of extended warranties will come up pretty quickly. Ellie Kay, an author of 15 finance-related books, notes that such warranties are negotiable. "Before you sign on the dotted line, check out other sources of extended warranty pricing," she says, such as those provided by your bank or insurance company. "Then either use this lower price in the financial and insurance office for negotiation to get them to match the price, or buy it from the other source." A scenario from Kay during her last car purchase: "The dealer quoted me $4,200 for a three-year extended warranty for my 280SLK Roadster Mercedes that included a $250 deductible. USAA -- my insurance company -- gave me a three-year warranty for $3,200 with zero deductible. I've used the new warranty once already. The bill was $1,100 and I paid nothing because of the zero deductible." Bottom line: The default extended warranty is almost always the worst deal. 1. You'll get the dealer's extended warranty You may have a monthly payment figure in your head when shopping for a new car, but your interests are better served when you focus on the out-the-door price instead. "A sales rep can often trick you by offering a lower monthly payment, but [one that] will stretch out the terms of the loan," says David Bakke, a car buying expert at MoneyCrashers.com. You can reduce the overall cost of the car via negotiation and by skipping accessories and add-ons. "Things like navigation systems, rims, floor mats or car audio/entertainment systems can be purchased from a third party vendor, usually for less."