AD FOR U.S. SAVINGS BONDS.UNDATED.Bettmann Archive
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Thursday released inflation numbers for September. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose by 0.4% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, or 8.2% over the past 12 months before seasonal adjustment. The CPI numbers now allow us to calculate the inflation rate on I bonds that will take effect in November.
Using the month-by-month data, the new inflation rate will drop to approximately 6.47% starting next month. Keep in mind that we don’t yet know the fixed rate portion for November I bonds. The Treasury Department will release that information next month. The rate makes I bonds an excellent place to invest cash.
The projected 6.47% is a significant drop from the current 9.62% rate. At the same time, it’s still an excellent rate for a risk-free investment, particularly given the performance of both the stock and bond markets in 2022. And the lower rate beats some of the best interest rates on savings accounts and CDs. Still, there are several ways to lock in the 9.62% rate, even if you’ve already purchased I bonds this year.
If You Haven’t Bought $10,000 Of I Bonds This Year
For those who haven’t purchased I bonds this year, now is the time to do it. You can purchase up to $10,000 a year per person. If you make the purchase by October 28, 2022, you’ll receive the current 9.62% annualized rate for the first six months.
With Inflation Hot, Can Fed Stay The Course?
This confuses some folks. Even though the rate will change next month for new purchases, those who buy in October will first earn the annualized 9.62% for six months, and then the new November rate for six months.
Keep in mind two things about I bonds. First, you cannot cash them in for the first 12 months. Second, if you redeem an I bond within the first five years, you’ll forfeit 3 month’s worth of interest.
If You Have Purchased $10,000 Of I Bonds This Year
For those who have already purchased their limit in I bonds, there are still strategies available to buy even more.
First, those with trusts can buy I Bonds in the name of the trust. Many families have revocable living trusts, for example, which can purchase I Bonds subject to the $10,000 limit. In some cases, families may have more than one trust, thus increasing the limits they can purchase. You’ll find resources for trusts on the Treasury Direct website here.
Second, you can also purchase I bonds in the name of a business. The business can be a sole proprietor or an LLC. Even somebody with a side hustle can purchase I bonds.
Third, you can purchase I bonds as a gift. Parents or grandparents, for example, might purchase I bonds for their children or grandchildren. To purchase an I bond as a gift, you must know the recipients social security number, and the bonds are registered in the recipient’s name.
After an I bond is purchased as a gift, it remains in the buyer’s Treasury Direct account until transferred to the recipient. While it sits there, it earns interest and is subject to the same rules as any other I bond purchase. And the buyer can keep the I bond in their account for years before delivering it to the recipient’s Treasury Direct account.
As odd as that may seem, it actually presents a fourth strategy for maxing out the current 9.62% rate. Spouses, those with significant others, or perhaps close friends can buy each other a $10,000 I bond as a gift.
If purchased before the new rates take effect, the I bond will earn the annualized 9.62% rate for the first six months. There is one catch, however.
When the I bond is transferred to the recipient’s account, it counts toward the recipient’s annual limit. If they’ve already purchased $10,000 in I bonds this year, you would have to wait until next year to deliver the I bond. Given that it earns the higher return from the start, this shouldn’t present an issue.
In theory, one could purchase more than $10,000 in I bonds as a gift this month for the same person. Just keep in mind that one cannot deliver more than $10,000 a year in I bonds to the recipient, and that assumes they haven’t purchased I bonds on their own.
One final note. Treasury Direct made some updates to its site this month. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the update broke parts of the website. One part that isn’t working is the buying of I bonds as a gift. The hope is the website will get fixed before the 9.62% rate goes away.
Saving for retirement is all about investing, and no matter how you go about it, you’re going to end up paying taxes on what you save and earn. Taxes on capital gains can eat up a significant portion of your earnings each year.
When you’re building wealth and planning for retirement, it’s important to not leave any money on the table. That’s why it’s important to point out that a fiduciary financial advisor can help you optimize a tax strategy and identify savings opportunities to lower your tax liability.
An advisor can also help you manage assets and plan for retirement, so you can worry less about meeting your financial goals. According to a 2021 Fidelity study, financial advice can add between 1.5% and 4% to account growth over extended periods.1
Handing over a chunk of your profit can be painful. Thankfully, there are a few ways that you can reduce the amount of capital gains taxes you will pay after selling an asset.
Investing involves risk and no situation is the same. This is in no way intended as a personal recommendation and investment decisions are solely those of the reader.
1.
Choose Long-Term Investments
Capital gains can be classified as either short-term or long-term, each of which has its own tax rates.
Assets you have held for less than a year are considered short-term. When it comes to earning short-term gains, expect to be taxed at your ordinary tax rate. This can be as high as 37%, depending on your total taxable income.
If you want to avoid that, you should consider choosing long-term investments instead. By holding an investment for a year or more, you will qualify for long-term capital gains tax rates.
Most long-term capital gains will see a tax rate of no more than 15%, though certain assets (like coins and art) can be taxed at a rate up to 28%. Depending on your income, you may even qualify for capital gains tax rates as low as 0%.
2.
Take Advantage of Tax-Deferred Retirement Plans
Your retirement accounts likely make up a bulk of your savings and future assets. It’s wise to optimize these as best you can by utilizing tax-deferred (and tax-exempt) plans, to save yourself from added capital gains taxes.
When contributing to a tax-deferred retirement plan, such as a 401(k) or traditional IRA, you’ll receive a tax deduction on your contributions in the current tax year. This can save you money on your income taxes today, as well as help you save even more toward the future.
Your money will also continue to grow over time. When you’re finally ready to sell your investments and withdraw, any growth in the account is taxed at your ordinary income rate, rather than being subject to capital gains like other investment accounts.
A tax-exempt account, such as a Roth IRA, doesn’t offer any tax benefits today, but grows tax-free until retirement. When you’re ready to use the money, your funds (and growth) can also be withdrawn tax-free, helping you avoid capital gains yet again.
3.
Offset Your Gains
If you hold a number of different assets, you may be able to offset some of your gains with any applicable losses, allowing you to avoid a portion of your capital gains taxes.
For instance, if you have one investment that is down by $3,000 and another up by $5,000, selling both will help you reduce your gains. You would only be subject to capital gains taxes on the difference – or $2,000 – rather than the full $5,000 gain of the second investment.
Another offset strategy is tax-loss harvesting. With this method, you can carry over losses from one tax year into the next, to help offset future gains. Tax loss harvesting only applies if your losses in a given year exceed your total gains.
If you’re looking for a way to decrease your tax burden, we recommend finding a financial advisor. They can help you understand your options and look for ways to save money on your tax bill, make smart investments and plan for retirement.
If you need help finding a financial advisor, we created a free quiz to help Americans find and vet qualified financial advisors who serve their area.
This quiz asks you a few questions, then matches you with up to three fiduciary financial advisors. You can compare your advisor matches based on their specialty, pricing, and more. You even earn 3 free consultations with each of our matches, so you can compare them and be fully prepared to pick a financial advisor.
The hypothetical study discussed above assumes that professional financial advice can add between 1.5% and 4% to portfolio returns over the long term, depending on the time period and how returns are calculated and is based on the Fidelity Whitepaper “Why work with a financial advisor, November, 2021”. Please carefully review the methodologies employed in the Fidelity Whitepaper.
The value of professional investment advice is only an illustrative estimate and varies with each unique client’s individual circumstances and portfolio composition. Carefully consider your investment objectives, risk factors, and perform your own due diligence before choosing an investment adviser..1
Helping people make smart financial decisions
When you own an investment or other asset – such as real estate, land, a business or stocks, for example – and later sell that asset for a profit, you have realized capital gains. The tax that is then levied on the profit portion of your sale is called capital gains tax.
Depending on how your gains are classified, and your total taxable income for the year, your capital gains tax rate can vary. This percentage could be as low as 0% or as high as your ordinary tax rate. Consider consulting a financial advisor to determine how your gains will be classified so you can know what to expect when taxes are due. Click here to get matched with up to three advisors who serve your area.
A deep pool of debt with below-zero returns is increasingly betting on European bonds. In a matter of weeks, German 10-year bond yields fell to the most in July from flirting with zero for the first time in two years, going back to minus 0.46% since the start of 2020. That fall – which has propelled bond prices – has helped push negative-yield debt volumes in Europe to a near six-month high of 7.5 trillion euros ($8.9 trillion).
Traders were alerted by the inflation bet, which initially raised borrowing costs, but lost heights after major central banks insisted on continued support. At the same time, the spread of Covid-19 variants stoked demand for the safest government loans, reviving a business that dominated global markets last year amid the pandemic.
Strategists at HSBC Holdings plc and ABN AMRO Bank NV never shied away from their call for benchmark bond yields at minus 0.50% by the end of 2021, which has been in effect since the first half of last year. That will erase a large portion of this year’s 54-basis point trough-to-peak advance.
The European Central Bank said last month that current inflation is driven by temporary factors, and any change in stance would depend on hitting the new 2% inflation target.
HSBC’s forecast was “based on the assumption that there will be no rate hikes before the end of 2023,” said strategist Chris Atfield. “It is mostly market priced now, helped by the new ECB forward guidance.”
Money markets have quickly cut back on policy tightening after the ECB revised guidance on interest rates, saying it would not react immediately if price hikes exceed that target for a “transient” period.
According to swap contracts, in July, traders wiped out 20 basis points more from rate-increasing bets. This is the biggest decrease in nearly two years, and they suggest they expect the ECB deposit rate to be below zero in five years.
HSBC’s Attfield said that “the new forward guidance criteria for rate hikes since 2008 will not have been met at any point,” highlighting the challenging task facing the ECB as it seeks to open up record monetary stimulus.
The euro area pulled out of recession in the second quarter, and headline inflation climbed to 2.2% last month. According to Mayva Cousin of Businesshala Economics, while rising pressures could push the annual CPI rate to more than 3% in the coming months, the increase will prove to be temporary and inflation is expected to decline sharply in early 2022.
According to a Businesshala survey, strategists see the German 10-year yield as low as minus 0.14% by the end of the year, down from minus 0.035% nearly a month ago. ABN AMRO strategist Flortje Merten sees a drop to minus 0.5%, given the balance between rate expectations and the state of the euro-regional economy.
“Further rate hikes and more optimistic sentiment would be two opposing factors and could keep Bund yields around these low levels,” Merton said.
This week
The Bank of England will meet with investors on Thursday to discuss the possibility of a split vote on bond purchases, given recent sharp remarks by some members of the Monetary Policy Committee.
European sovereign supplies should remain moderate at around 17.5 billion euros, according to Commerzbank, with auctions in Germany, Austria, France and Spain.
Historically, people give the government their money, instead of spending it, with the promise of being paid back, with interest. Now, governments are essentially getting paid to borrow money, as people become increasingly desperate for a safe haven for their wealth. The cycle becomes self fulfilling as negative rates raise further concerns about the economy.
“Bonds are supposed to pay the owner of capital something to pry the money out of their hands. But no … ” said co-founder of DataTrek, Nicholas Colas. Central banks often lower interest rates to grow the money supply in the economy, fuel demand and provide growth momentum. Other key drivers for monetary policy easing are weakening domestic outlooks, falling annual growth rates, low inflation and weakening business and consumer confidence. And in Europe’s case, make up for the lack of a coordinated fiscal response.
Another reason for negative yielding debt worldwide could be that institutional investors, like pension funds, are forced to keep buying bonds because of liquidity requirements. PIMCO’s global economic advisor Joachin Fels said there are also secular factors like demographics and technology that drive rates lower.
“Rising life expectancy increases desired saving while new technologies are capital-saving and are becoming cheaper – and thus reduce ex ante demand for investment. The resulting savings glut tends to push the “natural” rate of interest lower and lower,” said Fels.
For someone who played sports throughout the majority of her life, I admit I was never good at portion control or exercising for weight loss. My teammates were extremely lean while I looked — as my brother would say — chonky.
I didn’t have the best relationship with my body so I wanted to slim down and feel better about it, but I couldn’t find anything in the U.S that I felt like I could realistically accomplish. To be honest, the fitness culture in this country scares me. I knew I didn’t want to drink Kombucha every day or attend expensive SoulCycle classes for the rest of my life.
When I lived in Japan for a couple of years, I was shocked by the not-so-intense fitness culture. None of my peers went to the gym, drank protein smoothies, or ate granola bars for meals. Throughout my time learning about their culture, I realized that the health culture in Japan gravitates towards prevention rather than cure, which is different from the US philosophy.
Rather than overworking the body to compensate for the overconsumption of high-calorie food, Japanese people eat balanced meals and walk miles for commute every day. Not many people go to the gym or buy expensive products to sustain their healthy lifestyle because their daily routine is already healthy.
I’m going to introduce 4 Japanese dieting tricks I’ve picked up while living with my family in Japan for a few years. These were all so easy to implement in my day-to-day routine, and they’ve helped me lose 20 pounds in a year without doing anything rigorous that my peers in the U.S were doing. I also believe these tricks will be helpful for those who can’t exercise due to physical injuries or those who find themselves constantly thinking: “I never have time in my day to do something more.”
1. Relax in a half-body bath every other day
A half-body bath may sound silly, but it’s essentially taking a bath while immersing only half of our bodies. The key is to take a relatively longer and warmer bath, which helps speed up our metabolism. The recommended bath time is typically 20~30 minutes — anything longer than that can burden your body and have counter effects.
A long bath of 20~30 minutes is a similar concept to a spa, which is also a large part of Eastern culture. A longer bath usually makes me start sweating after 5~10 minutes into the process, and similar to a spa, it can start to feel uncomfortable. To make this easier, I take my phone or a book to read to the bathtub so the 30 minutes don’t feel too distressing. Taking a half-body bath has become my favorite part of the day when I get to relax and spend time alone.
Americans tend to prefer showering over bathing, but the opposite is true in Japan. I used to shower every day, but I switched to bathing a few times a week and showering the other days. The trick is to take a bath in 100~106 degrees Fahrenheit water as opposed to the 92-degree bath that is recommended in the U.S.
I immerse half of my body until the water level sits right below my chest. A full-body bath in hot water feels constricting on my lungs and heart, but a half-body bath is comfortable enough to take for half an hour, if not less.
If the temperature goes down during the duration of the bath, I like to add some more hot water to bring the temperature back up to the stated range. Japanese bathtubs typically come with a thermometer that allows me to easily set the water temperature. In the U.S where this isn’t the case, I fill up the bath then add hot or cold water to adjust the temperature.
You may ask, why is this a common dieting technique in Japan? Well, taking a half-body bath makes it easier to stay in the bath longer while the hot temperature of the water heats up the body and accelerates the calorie-burning process. The total calories burned per bath are not high enough to be effective for weight loss on their own, but doing it consistently (like every other day of the week) will speed up the metabolism, improve the skin, and get rid of bloatedness. I’ve found it a great way to detox my body and experienced gradual weight loss after a couple of weeks of consistently trying out this method.
When I first started taking half-body baths, all the sweating made me feel uncomfortable and dehydrated. Drinking lots of water before doing this is important to stay hydrated and avoid passing out in the bathtub!
2. Replace rice or spaghetti with konjac
I learned this trick from my Japanese mom who highly encouraged me to eat konjac, also called yam cake. She herself lost over 15 pounds from integrating konjac in two of her meals per day, which she started doing as she could not exercise due to her asthma. This diet has boosted her confidence as she started to feel self-conscious of her stomach that came with age. To this day, my 52-year-old mom is often mistaken to be in her early 40’s, and she attributes it entirely to her konjac diet.
Konjac tastes pretty much like nothing or just a little bit salty, so it’s easy to cook konjac with pretty much anything as a substitute for rice or wheat noodles and it’ll take on the flavor of whatever you cook with.
When I cook rice, I mix the rice grains with konjac and cook it together in a rice cooker. This has helped me easily integrate konjac into my daily diet. Another option would be to buy konjac rice, which is konjac noodles in the form of rice. Konjac rice is made of 97% water and 3% fiber, bringing down my daily carb consumption.
Konjac is also a great alternative to wheat noodles, which are high in carbohydrates and eventually get converted to sugar in the body. My personal favorite is Shirataki noodles containing very low carbs and are rich in glucomannan fiber. Glucomannan is recognized as an effective solution for patients with diabetes or high cholesterol.
Konjac is widely used in the Eastern world for weight loss and cholesterol management. The reason is that it is rich in water-soluble fiber that helps lower sugar levels. Konjac also tends to expand in the stomach, slow down the speed at which the digestive system empties, and keep me fuller for longer. This is similar to the feeling of eating vegetables as they also tend to help us gain the satisfaction of feeling full while also not increasing sugar and calorie intake. Konjac is inexpensive too ($1.69 for 255 grams), which means I can skip out on all the expensive Sweetgreen meals.
3. Chew your food more, almost excessively
This trick is most effective for people who tend to binge eat or struggle with portion control. Chewing a lot helps the feeling of “full” last longer.
Chewing food promotes digestion in a timely manner. If we swallow our food without chewing it properly, there are two side effects: 1) The stomach has a difficult time digesting food, and 2) The saliva cannot break down the food. Saliva has amylase and lipase that help break down food and, on top of that, has an antibacterial effect. Chewing food almost excessively lets our saliva do its job, which can be extremely powerful.
In addition, chewing alone releases histamine to the brain that tricks it into thinking that we’re full. It’s a simple mind trick, but I found myself eating smaller portions when I remind myself to keep chewing. The trick is to chew at least 30 times for each bite of food, alternating between chewing on the right and left sides of your mouth. We tend to have a “favorite” side to chew on, but chewing with only one side is tougher on your jaw and is said to cause an imbalanced body.
In Japan, it’s a common understanding that there are two types of bodies: 1) a healthy body that can lose weight, and 2) an imbalanced body that is more resistant to weight loss. The first step to weight loss is building a body that can easily lose weight. To do this, Japanese people speed up their metabolism by taking half-body baths and chewing at least 30 times.
4. Eat vegetables first
This is ingrained in Japanese culture, in which your favorite aunties will insist that you eat your vegetables before consuming other foods. Japanese meals traditionally come in a healthy balance of grains, protein, and vegetables, and Japanese people always start tackling their vegetables before indulging in the protein and grains.
This trick is partially psychological, as eating vegetables first makes us feel fuller before eating other foods. Again, this helped me a lot with portion control. Vegetables also have a lot of fiber, which is known to help with digestion.
That’s not why Japanese people eat vegetables first, though. They actually eat vegetables first because they say there is a strong correlation between insulin and weight loss. My Japanese mom explained it to me like this:
When the body absorbs sugar from the food that we eat, the sugar level spikes up. Then the sugar that we consume gets converted into energy, helping us get tasks done and go about our day-to-day. Then our pancreas releases insulin into our bodies.
Insulin plays a role in bringing down sugar levels and turning the sugar that hasn’t been converted to energy, into fat. In other words, if the sugar level spikes too quickly and too much insulin is released, it becomes easier for our bodies to build up fat. That’s why when we eat rice, bread, or snacks when we’re on an empty stomach, our sugar levels rise up too quickly and an abundance of insulin is pushed out into our bodies.
This trick works because eating vegetables on an empty stomach, before eating other foods, prevents the sugar level from spiking up and insulin from being mass released. Japanese people say that eating vegetables first helps create a body that is more resistant to weight gain.
Some find it easier to lose weight while others find it more difficult. This was an interesting argument to me because I never thought about how people have different body types. While there are multiple explanations for this, Japanese people say that our habits dictate whether we have a body that is “easy to lose weight” versus the opposite.
Doing yoga, having a good posture, and walking often— these Eastern health habits all play a part in building a body that can lose weight.
What really surprised me the most was that these habits were common sense to people living in Japan. None of my friends or colleagues went to the gym — in fact, none of them carved out a time in their day to become skinny. They all ate healthily, walked a few miles per day, and remembered these simple tricks to maintain their health and wellness.
I didn’t see drastic results in the short term because I wasn’t forcing my body to go through drastic changes. But I trusted the process, focused on consistency, and I feel like I have a much better relationship with my body now.
I think of food and exercise as a way to treat and show love to my body. Eating protein-rich food and drinking lots of water make my body happy. If I start out with a mile and gradually work my way up to 5 miles, my body feels great after the run. I don’t want to make my body go through drastic changes and stress it out too much because it’s the one and only vessel for our soul. So let’s start small and make long-lasting effects through these 4 tricks:
Take a half-body bath a few times a week to speed up metabolism.
Replace carbs with konjac to lower sugar intake.
Chew every bite at least 30 times to make sure the saliva is doing its work.
Eat vegetables first to become resistant to weight gain.
Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: washoku) is based on rice with miso soup and other dishes; there is an emphasis on seasonal ingredients. Side dishes often consist of fish, pickled vegetables, and vegetables cooked in broth.
Seafood is common, often grilled, but also served raw as sashimi or in sushi. Seafood and vegetables are also deep-fried in a light batter, as tempura. Apart from rice, a staple includes noodles, such as soba and udon. Japan also has many simmered dishes such as fish products in broth called oden, or beef in sukiyaki and nikujaga.
Historically influenced by Chinese cuisine, Japanese cuisine has also opened up to influence from Western cuisines in the modern era. Dishes inspired by foreign food—in particular Chinese food—like ramen and gyōza, as well as foods like spaghetti, curry, and hamburgers, have been adapted to Japanese tastes and ingredients.
Traditionally, the Japanese shunned meat because of Buddhism, but with the modernization of Japan in the 1880s, meat-based dishes such as tonkatsu and yakiniku have become common. Japanese cuisine, particularly sushi and ramen, has become popular throughout the world.
In 2011, Japan overtook France to become the country with the most 3-starred Michelin restaurants; as of 2018, the capital Tokyo has maintained the title of the city with the most 3-starred restaurants in the world. In 2013, Japanese cuisine was added to the Unesco intangible heritage list.
That’s a little reductive but essentially the message put out today by Mark Zuckerberg. Writing on his personal Facebook page, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook won’t take a cut of any earnings that influencers earn on its platform through a growing number of Facebook products until 2023—and when it does start, its fees will be “less than the 30% that Apple and others take.” In addition, Zuckerberg said Facebook would shortly release a helpful little dashboard for influencers to (ostensibly) better manage their earnings and see which companies take a portion of their income.
Complicating matters is the fact that many other rival companies—TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, to name only a few—are working on similar things. As well as the fact that Facbeook and Instagram spent many years largely ignoring the influencers on its platforms, while those rivals did a better job at cultivating them and introducing opportunities to earn money off their newfound fame, making those sites a more diserable destination.
To help Facebook stand out, Zuckerberg is willing to do something the others probably aren’t: Let creators earn money on the site without taking a portion of those dollars. Those smaller companies are likely going to be more eager to show investors that these new creator-focused products generate money.
Facebook, by contrast, has the enviable position of . . . not really needing the money. It earned a $9.5 billion profit alone last year and has over $60 billion just in cash. Keeping creators happy and earning money on Facebook keeps them from running off to other sites, taking Facebook users with them. Users have been—and will continue to be—the real moneymakers for Facebook, the people who look at the ads that do make up the majority of the company’s revenue.
The second factor in all this is the burgeoning grudge match between Facebook and Apple—and between Apple and other parts of Big Tech. Apple recently introduced changes to its operating system that will make it harder for Facebook to earn money off ads, part of a larger disagreement between Facebook and Apple over data privacy on the internet.
For its part in the war, Facebook will be doing things like Monday’s announcement: finding ways to paint Apple’s policies as stifling to small businesses on the Web. (Facebook’s timing was blantantly conspicuous, Zuckerberg’s post coming a few hours before Apple begins its much-watched annual developers’ conference.)
Of course, other companies are taking the opportunity to do the same thing to Apple. Less than a month ago, a trial concluded between Apple and Fornite-maker Epic Games over Apple’s allegedly monopolistic grip on large swaths of the internet, a fight also first sparked over fees and a disagreement over who should earn what.
I’m a senior editor at Forbes, where I cover social media, creators and internet culture. In the past, I’ve edited across Forbes magazine and Forbes.com.
It’s a bit simplistic, but it’s the message Mark Zuckerberg is conveying today. Writing on his non-public Facebook page, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will not take any reduction in the profits influencers make on its platform through a number in Facebook product development until 2023, and when it starts, its fees will be “less than the 30% that Apple and others take. In addition, Zuckerberg said Facebook would soon launch a useful little panel so influencers can (apparently) better manage their profits and see which corporations take part in their profits.
The stakes are high here. For starters, Zuckerberg has placed some of Facebook’s hopes for long-term expansion on creators and announced a series of new projects over the next year to inspire influencers to create audiences on Facebook products. Among other things, Facebook. plans to implement audio features with subscription plans, introduce a marketplace where brands and influencers can connect, and launch a subscription newsletter service, Newsletter.
To complicate matters, many other rival corporations (TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, to name a few) are running similar things, as well as the fact that Facbeook and Instagram have spent many years largely ignoring influencers on their platforms, while rivals have done more of a job cultivating them and introducing opportunities to make money through their newfound fame. , making those sites a more disadvantageous destination.