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Ramit Sethi, financial influencer and author of “I Will Teach You to Be Rich,” has focused on common money mistakes on his social media accounts lately. The mistakes range from treating your primary home as an investment to signing up for expensive credit cards you rarely use.As a reporter who has covered personal finance for a decade, I appreciate that Sethi focuses on “money mistakes” that I’ve learned people often make, rather than beating a dead horse by telling followers to stop buying coffee.Recently, X user @chiugene tagged Sethi in a post, asking “@ramit how much money will I be throwing away buying a home?” Sethi responded to @chiugene’s post with the following:”When you buy, you’ll spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on irrecoverable costs like:InterestTransaction feesMaintenanceOpportunity costBut the real questions to ask are :How does the math work out for buying vs renting?What about the non-financial considersations?”I noticed Sethi didn’t confirm the user’s assumption that buying a house would be a huge financial mistake. However, he did offer insights to help determine whether buying could be a mistake in their situation.The up-front costs of buying a home vs. rentingThere are several financial differences between renting versus buying a house. The first might be the most obvious: the up-front costs, such as the down payment and closing costs.Some down payment requirements are high. For example, if you apply for a jumbo loan, the mortgage lender may require 20% down. But if you qualify for a VA or USDA loan, you don’t need to make a down payment. Plenty of conventional loans allow as little as 3% down, and a handful of lenders offer 1%-down home loans.Related: Financial influencer warns homeowners about this mistakeClosing costs can be a doozy, though — they were definitely a kick in the pants when I bought my first home. According to Freddie Mac, closing costs typically total 2% to 5% of the purchase price. On a $400,000 mortgage, that would come to $8,000 to $20,000.That’s a wide range, right? Thankfully, shopping around with three or four mortgage lenders can help you lower those costs. Every lender charges different closing costs, and you can compare fees between companies.The down payment and closing costs are short-term financial commitments, but homeowners should also consider the bigger picture.”If you buy wisely then the home you purchase should increase in value over time,” Melissa Cohn, regional vice president of William Raveis Mortgage, LLC, told TheStreet.  “You do have to consider the closing costs and … the [down payment] but that will hopefully get made up with the appreciation of the property,” Cohn continued.Other financial differences between renting and buyingDepending on the house you buy, your mortgage payment might be lower than what you currently spend on rent. Or it could be higher. But there’s a crucial difference between monthly rent and mortgage payments. Landlords have the right to raise your rent, and in general, rent payments increase over the years. If you get a fixed-rate home loan, your monthly mortgage payments toward the principal and interest remain steady over time. (Your property taxes and homeowners insurance costs could increase, though.) This provides security, making it easier to budget and plan for the future.More about homeownership and mortgages:Zillow, Realtor.com uncover best time to sell homeMortgage rates increase for 3 straight weeksFannie Mae predicts shifts in mortgage rates, housing marketThe third major financial difference between renting and buying is the cost of ongoing maintenance and repairs.Home maintenance is less expensive for renters than homeowners, because the landlord covers the costs. If you buy a house, it’s crucial to have a savings account or bucket specifically for repairs. This way, maintenance doesn’t eat into your cash flow.Cohn also pointed out that strategic repairs and renovations will increase your home’s value. A higher value could pay off when you sell, refinance, or get a home equity loan or home equity line of credit (HELOC).Non-financial considerations when buying a houseThe decision about whether to buy a house or continue renting doesn’t only center around money. Buying might otherwise make all the financial sense in the world, but if it doesn’t fit with your current lifestyle, you could still be “throwing away” money, as @chiugene put it in his question to Sethi.One non-financial consideration is whether you plan to stay in the same area for a long time. If you expect to move in a couple of years, buying a house probably won’t be worth the time commitment. (Plus, you could easily end up losing money when you sell.)Also, are you ready to be your own landlord? Some people prefer to have someone else take care of home repairs and maintenance for them.Are you itching to make your place feel more like a home? I remember during all those years of renting, there were rules about what kind of changes I could make to the apartment or house.”If you buy a home then you can renovate and make any changes that you want to the property,” Cohn said. “If you rent you are likely going to be very restricted in what you can do.”Once my husband and I bought a place, we painted my home office and replaced the front door. After a few years, my husband even built a better fence for the front yard. We would never have been able to make these moves in the places where we rented.Buying a home isn’t automatically a waste of money. But, as Sethi pointed out on X, there are crucial questions to ask yourself before deciding if it’s a good financial decision for you and your family.Related: Redfin reveals major shift in housing market

Apple (AAPL) stock has lost about 7% year to date, at the time of writing, Monday afternoon, March 23, according to Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 index (SPY) is down about 3.82% in the same period.The stock is lagging behind the S&P 500, which isn’t doing great either, and is not much of a surprise. Investors still expect an AI turnaround from Apple.The stock took a significant hit on February 12, dropping 5% due to reports of Siri delays and regulatory scrutiny of the company’s news app, as reported by CNBC.Of course, the stock took a hit, as did most of the stock market, due to the ongoing military operation in Iran.We have some good news today, and the stock market is slowly recovering thanks to President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is postponing strikes on Iran’s power plants, as reported by Yahoo Finance.Whether it is too early to celebrate is hard to tell, but I wrote about how the S&P 500 is pricing in this conflict and other issues in my article, “Bank of America reveals S&P 500 ‘cheat sheet’.” Read the article “Apple stock price swing with $143B record” by TheStreet’s Aparajita Chatterjee for a recap of Apple’s Q1 report.Bloomberg recently reported that the foldable iPhone will launch this fall.Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan and his team updated their opinion on Apple shares after consulting with their supply chain sources regarding the foldable iPhone launch.

MacBook Neo is sold out online until next month.Shutterstock

Bank of America lowers Apple price targetMohan wrote: “Our checks in Asia suggest that Apple will likely introduce its first foldable iPhone in 2026.”He said that he expects the device to have an inner screen of 7.7″ to 7.8″ and under 10mm thickness when folded. The team believes that the initial demand for the device will be strong, and the supply chain is gearing up for a range of outcomes from 10 million to 20 million units.More Tech Stocks:Morgan Stanley sets jaw-dropping Micron price target after eventNvidia’s China chip problem isn’t what most investors thinkQuantum Computing makes $110 million move nobody saw comingAnalysts noted that this is a much higher number of units than competing products. They said their supply chain sources indicate that Apple will launch the foldable and the Pro models (Pro/Pro Max) in the usual September time frame.Mohan said that the base model, Air, and the “e” models are expected to launch in the first half of 2027.He noted that this delayed launch creates a shift in units from the September and December to the March quarter and changes the seasonality, which is not yet reflected in the consensus. This will create a push out for fiscal year 2026, which will cause lower units and revenues.Analysts changed their EPS estimates for 2026, 2027, and 2028 to $8.36, $9.53, and $10.64 from $8.51, $9.77, and $10.86, respectively.In a research note shared with me, Mohan reiterated a buy rating for Apple stock and lowered the price target to $320 from $325, due to the “staggered” launch of base, Air, and “e” models and associated gross margin changes, based on a 32 multiple of his estimates for EPS in 2027 of $9.94.Analysts noted downside risks for Apple:Weaker iPhone cycle on consumer spending risk,Weaker near-term services trajectory,Gross profit dollars declining YoY next few quarters,iPads/Macs reverting to pre-COVID levels,Stronger dollar,Antitrust lawsuit,Potential trade conflicts, tariffs.Apple’s upside is:Stronger sales of Pro iPhone models,Potential new products (AR/VR) and services,Stronger than expected iPhone cycle,Tailwinds from lower memory costs,Faster than expected recovery in emerging markets.Are analysts pricing in MacBook Neo in their price target?Apple CEO Tim Cookposted on X on March 20:“Mac just had its best launch week ever for first-time Mac customers. We love seeing the enthusiasm!”This was his way of saying it is sold out. 9to5Mac reported that as of March 20, all eight MacBook Neo models are sold out online until next month.When MacBook Neo was announced, I wrote an in-depth analysis of the importance of that launch in my article “Apple’s latest product is a game-changer,” and I am not surprised that it is sold out.What surprised me was that there were almost no reactions from the analysts. Sure, there was Rosenblatt, which reiterated a Neutral rating for Apple stock and raised its price target to $268 from $267, as reported by Investing.I believe the weak analyst reaction is due to the expectation that gross margin on the MacBook Neo will be very low. But the purpose of that laptop is to get millions of new customers into the Apple ecosystem, and it will be successful in doing that.Related: History of Apple: Company timeline and facts

Following the fatal collision between an Air Canada Express passenger plane and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in the late hours of March 22, the family of Antoine Forest identified him as one of the two pilots killed aboard the flight.The Bombardier CRJ-900 plane departed from Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport (YUL) and had been given clearance to land at LaGuardia’s Runway 4. The air traffic controller, who was operating alone navigating both air and ground traffic for hours before the flight, also gave the fire truck permission to cross the same runway at approximately 11:37 p.m. Air traffic controller footage captured him desperately yelling at the truck to stop immediately after the collision.Photos that emerged from the scene show the nose of the plane and part of the fuselage completely mangled as the 41 passengers and other crew aboard the flight were evacuated with injuries of varying degrees of severity. Antoine Forest remembered as ‘always flying’A native of Coteau-du-Lac southwest of Montreal, Forest had been working as a first officer for Air Canada’s Jazz Aviation regional partner since 2022.Great aunt Jeannette Gagnier described him as a lifelong flying passionate who started learning to fly a small plane in rural Québec at the age of 16. At around that age, he moved closer to a larger city to improve his knowledge of English and raise his chances of becoming a pilot for a major North American airline. Forest began his career flying single-engine jets for regional airline Air Saguenay before progressing to larger planes for several carriers.Related: Family killed in Hudson River helicopter crash booked sightseeing tour of NYC“He was always taking courses and flying,” Gagnier, who Forest and his brother considered a grandmother, described to the Toronto Sun. “He never stopped. He flew his first plane when he was 16 years old.”A joint probe into the cause of the crash from both U.S. and Canadian investigators is currently ongoing but in a press briefing in the morning of March 23 Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia said that anyone driving through the runway area “always is in deference to the control tower.”In the recording from the tower, the air traffic controller is heard saying “we were dealing with an emergency earlier; I messed up.”

Antoine Forest was one of the two Air Canada pilots killed in the crash at LaGuardia Airport.Facebook

“A very bad day for me”: Memories and condolences pour in”It’s a very bad day for me,” Gagnier said in an interview from her home. The name of the captain killed has not yet been released by aviation authorities.Another colleague who worked with Forest at Exact Air prior to him moving over to Jazz Aviation said that he was “a pleasure” to work with while yet another described him as “a hard worker, very resourceful” who was always “ready to fix and fly his plane.”More Travel News:Airline to launch unusual new flight to Cayman Islands from the U.S.Iranian strike hits major airport, injuries reportedUnexpected country is most luxurious travel destination for 2026U.S. government issues sudden warning on Switzerland travelAir Canada President Michael Rousseau also called the collision “a very somber day at Air Canada” as tributes for the killed pilots from colleagues, fellow union members and the flying public continued to pour in throughout the day.Jazz Aviation President Doug Clarke also called March 22 “an incredibly difficult day for our airline, our employees, and most importantly, the families and loved ones of those affected by the accident involving flight 8646.”Related: LaGuardia Airport reopens one runway after fatal crash

Some restaurants earn their reputation over decades, building loyal followings across generations. Others, however, take a more unconventional path to prominence, leveraging pop culture, TV exposure, and digital-first audiences to accelerate their success.That was the case for two high-profile Los Angeles venues. Once considered must-visit destinations for reality TV fans, both establishments rose to international recognition through their association with hit TV franchises.Today, however, their story reflects the broader industry reality that in an uncertain economy and reduced consumer spending, visibility and brand recognition alone are no longer enough to sustain long-term success.TomTom and Pump hit the marketTomTom and Pump, located side-by-side on the Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood’s Rainbow District, have officially been listed for sale.The sale includes “substantially all operating assets, including intellectual property, social media platforms, FF&E, goodwill, and proprietary operational systems,” according to Urbanlime Real Estate and Zacuto Group, the commercial real estate agencies handling the sale.Financial terms remain confidential, with access restricted under a nondisclosure agreement (NDA). It is also unclear whether the listing will result in a full acquisition or a restructuring of ownership.Pump, which opened in 2014, closed its doors in July 2023, while TomTom, launched in 2018, continued to operate.Both venues are part of the hospitality portfolio of restaurateurs and reality TV star couple Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd, known for their roles on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Vanderpump Rules.” Their on-screen exposure transformed these restaurants into global fan destinations, attracting visitors eager to experience the TV hot spots.With more than 14.6 million viewers across recent “Vanderpump Rules” seasons and a combined social media following of more than 700,000, the brand has built significant cultural and digital influence.

TomTom and Pump restaurants are for sale.Araya Diaz/Getty Images

Strategic shift in the Vanderpump portfolioThe decision to sell TomTom and Pump follows a series of newer ventures. These include the opening of Wolf by Vanderpump in Scottsdale, Ariz., in December 2025 and continued expansion in Las Vegas, where The Vanderpump Hotel is in development and scheduled to open in May 2026.The portfolio shift may signal a strategic pivot toward higher-performing brands or more scalable markets. “Restaurant costs are up. Many restaurants close down. Four in the last week have closed down,” said Vanderpump in an episode of “Vanderpump Rules,” according to Bravo TV. “This is survival of the fittest.” Restaurants struggle with industry-wide pressuresThe challenges facing TomTom and Pump are far from isolated. Across the U.S., the restaurant industry is struggling with ongoing cost increases and shifting consumer behavior.Prices for food away from home increased 4% in the 12 months ending January 2026, according to recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.Over the past five years, food and labor costs for the average restaurant have each risen by about 35%, according to the National Restaurant Association.To offset those surges, menu prices climbed an average of 31% between February 2020 and April 2025, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.However, higher prices have coincided with a slowdown in customer traffic. In a National Restaurant Association survey, 60% of restaurant operators reported lower traffic in December 2025, up from 51% in November.James O’Reilly, a food industry executive with more than 15 years of experience in restaurant marketing, believes that pricing alone won’t fix restaurant traffic.”In strong economic environments, price increases have historically been tolerated by restaurant guests,” O’Reilly told FSR Magazine. “Over the past few years, that’s become far more difficult. While headline economic indicators have improved and financial markets have strengthened, many restaurant consumers, particularly in lower- and middle-income brackets, have not experienced the same relief.”Los Angeles restaurants face unique headwindsIn Los Angeles, these national challenges are amplified by local factors. According to a recent annual industry survey by the California Restaurant Association, nearly 85% restaurant operators in the city reported a decline in consumer traffic compared to the previous year.Increased competition with reduced consumer spending has significantly tightened margins, leaving many businesses struggling to maintain profitability.”You’ve got more restaurants and way less spending in restaurants, so the piece of the pie that everybody gets is much, much, much smaller,” said the California Restaurant Association’s Jot Condie to the Los Angeles Times. “With that in the background, it’s like every other issue that’s conspiring against restaurants in L.A. is more intense.”Recent federal immigration raids have also become major contributors to Los Angeles’ restaurant downturn. Immigrants comprise 66% of workers in L.A. County, and 79% of them are Latino, according to the Los Angeles Food Policy Council Executive Director Alba Velasquez.In neighborhoods where immigrant-run food businesses are prominent, recent ICE raids have caused revenue to drop by around of 85% at some businesses as vendors and customers stayed away in fear, according to Velasquez.Restaurant success is redefinedThe rise and now potential sale of TomTom and Pump show a broader shift in the restaurant industry. While media exposure and celebrity association can drive rapid growth, long-term sustainability increasingly depends on operational efficiency, cost management, and adaptability.In today’s environment, even the most recognizable brands must evolve to remain relevant.More Restaurant Business News:31-year-old Italian restaurant chain closing its final locations96-year-old grocery chain acquires 18 stores from rival Starbucks is closing more storesWendy’s targets new customer group amid mass U.S. store closuresTiming may not be coincidental. “Vanderpump Rules” recently rebooted with a brand-new cast, drawing just 290,000 live viewers for its December 2025 premiere, according to Nielsen data. This is an 80% drop from Season 11 and the lowest-rated live episode in the show’s history. The sharp decline in viewership suggests the cultural engine that once fueled destination traffic to these venues may be losing momentum.Related: Popular fast food chain warns of more closures in 2026