BUSINESS

Palantir (PLTR) stock staged a comeback, but holding onto those gains has been tough. Its stock was up 51% in August before losing nearly 11% through Sept. 10, leaving it down 6.7% for the year, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Still, veteran DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria sees plenty of reasons to look beyond that choppy trading.

For starters, Palantir’s business has grown faster than its stock suggests. Q2 sales surged 93%, with U.S. commercial sales rising 149%, giving investors enough evidence that demand is translating into substantial growth.

Palantir is also making its AI pitch a lot more concrete. Its expanded Nvidia (NVDA) partnership, as reported by Barron’s, puts its robust software to work within the chipmaker’s walled-garden-like supply chain. At the same time, a new Nebius (NBIS) agreement offers its customers greater control over computing infrastructure and models.

It begs the question for shareholders: How much room does the business have to grow?

Following Palantir’s AIPCon 11 conference, Luria bumped his stock price target while maintaining a Buy rating. His rationale points to a bigger role for Palantir as customers become increasingly demanding about how they deploy and control AI.

DA Davidson sees a bigger role for Palantir

DA Davidson’s Gill Luria raised his Palantir stock price target to $250 from $200, which implies nearly 50% upside from the stock’s reported Sept. 11 intraday price of $166.27.

The veteran analyst’s bullishness centers on customers becoming more sophisticated regarding AI. Meanwhile, businesses are becoming more selective about choosing their models, managing their data, and retaining control over how those tools operate.

That’s essentially the risk Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella talked about in a July 12 essay, writing that businesses “essentially pay for intelligence twice.”

More Palantir:

Palantir CEO admits AI would make him 20 times richer

Microsoft CEO adds fuel to Palantir CEO’s AI warning

Palantir CEO has a blunt verdict on OpenAI and Anthropic

Later, Palantir CEO Alex Karp escalated that warning, saying that businesses are paying model providers “to migrate your IP, your know-how, and your expertise to their model.” 

That said, Luria sees Palantir benefiting from that trend, effectively becoming the software layer that coordinates those choices. 

Its AIPCon 11 conference solidifies the firm’s view that the company has a stronger growth runway ahead.

In practical terms, that involves connecting AI to a company’s actual operations, with rules governing what information models can potentially access and what actions they can support.

The Nvidia deal offers a clear example.

The chipmakers’ supply-chain deployment layers Palantir’s software with Nemotron models to identify bottlenecks, consider alternatives, and guide materials allocation. Human experts retain the final decision-making control.

Over time, Palantir’s services could become much stickier as customers grow AI across their businesses. 

Replacing such a platform might become harder once several workflows depend on it. Moreover, DA Davidson believes institutional investors might increasingly recognize that they own too little Palantir. 

For perspective, Morgan Stanley raised its Palantir holdings by 5.65% to 34 million shares, while State Street added 2.86 million shares, taking its stake to 104.49 million, during the quarter ended June 30, 2026, Business Quant confirmed.

DA Davidson raises Palantir’s price target to $250 while maintaining Buy rating.MATT RAMEY / Getty Images

Nvidia gives Palantir a powerful proving ground

Another big piece of Luria’s bull case is Palantir’s work with Nvidia, where he believes that the companies are tackling major supply-chain challenges.

The appeal is pretty clear. The world’s largest AI chipmaker needs help coordinating the parts, suppliers, and production decisions behind its systems. Palantir has an opportunity to show its value within that process.

The scale is tremendous, with Nvidia saying that each Vera Rubin rack contains 1.3 million parts. A missing component could complicate production, which makes earlier detection of constraints incredibly valuable.

For investors, the opportunity goes beyond one specific customer. If Palantir can continue to demonstrate measurable improvements at Nvidia, that strengthens its sales pitch to manufacturers and other businesses that are managing similar complicated supply networks.

Palantir’s valuation leaves little room for error

The big question, though, is how much of Palantir’s success is already reflected in its share price.

According to Seeking Alpha, Palantir trades at 103.11 times forward adjusted earnings, compared to the sector median of 22.36. Also, its forward price-to-sales ratio is 48.68, compared with 3.34 for the sector.

For perspective, a fast-growing, highly profitable business reasonably deserves a substantial premium. However, paying nearly $49 for every dollar of expected annual revenue makes sustained exceptional performance critical to the investment case.

The historical comparison is telling as well. Palantir’s forward adjusted earnings multiple sits at around 18% below its five-year average, while its forward sales multiple is roughly 36% higher. It looks cheaper against earnings, yet remains expensive against sales.

That creates a specific risk where earnings growth might not translate into share-price gains. Hypothetically, a 20% earnings increase linked with a 25% valuation contraction might leave the stock about 10% lower.

Related: Bill Ackman bets AI will make this old-school business stronger

The film stars Alan Ritchson (‘Reacher’) and Owen Wilson (‘Loki’) as a mismatched duo on a life-or-death mission to delivery an organ to a terminally ill young girl.

A higher COLA is a sign that persistent inflation isn’t going anywhere.

One of the biggest fears in retirement is simple: What if I live longer than my money does?

Nobody knows how long they’ll live. We don’t know what the stock market will return over the next 20 or 30 years, what inflation will look like or whether we’ll face major unexpected expenses.

That means no retirement calculator or withdrawal rule can guarantee you’ll never run short. But you can dramatically reduce the risk.

The key is not relying on one perfect strategy. It’s building several layers of protection into your retirement plan so that if one thing goes wrong, you still have other ways to adjust.

1. Keep Your Fixed Expenses Under Control

Start with the expenses you have to pay every month, whether the stock market is up or down.

Housing costs.

Property taxes.

Insurance.

Utilities.

Food.

Car payments.

Debt payments.

The less money you absolutely have to spend each month, the easier it is to weather financial surprises.

Imagine two retirees who each normally spend $80,000 a year. One needs $75,000 just to cover basic expenses. The other needs $50,000 and spends another $30,000 on travel, restaurants and other extras.

They’re spending the same amount today, but the second retiree is in a much stronger position. If the market has a terrible year, that person can temporarily spend less without threatening the basics.

That’s one reason entering retirement with large mortgage, car or other debt payments can make your plan more fragile.

You don’t have to eliminate every fixed expense. But the more breathing room you create, the more choices you’ll have later.

2. If the Numbers Are Tight, Consider Working a Little Longer

Working another year or two can have a surprisingly large impact on your retirement plan.

You’re potentially:

Adding another year of retirement contributions.

Giving your existing investments another year to grow.

Reducing the number of years your portfolio has to support you.

Increasing your future Social Security benefit if you delay claiming.

Continuing to receive a paycheck rather than withdrawing from your investments.

You don’t necessarily have to continue working full-time, either. Part-time work can provide extra income while still giving you much more freedom.

For someone whose retirement plan is comfortably funded, working longer may not accomplish much financially.

But if your numbers are marginal, retiring at 67 instead of 65 could be one of the most powerful changes you can make.

3. Think Carefully Before Claiming Social Security Early

It’s tempting to think about Social Security as a break-even calculation:

“If I start collecting now, how old will I have to live before waiting would have paid off?”

There’s another way to think about it.

Social Security is one of the few sources of retirement income that can continue for the rest of your life and receives inflation adjustments.

That makes a larger monthly benefit especially valuable if you live into your 80s or 90s.

That doesn’t mean everyone should wait until age 70. Your health, marital status, financial resources and other circumstances matter.

But if your biggest fear is running out of money late in retirement, maximizing guaranteed lifetime income deserves serious consideration.

For married couples, this can be especially important for the higher earner because delaying may also increase the benefit available to the surviving spouse.

4. Don’t Put Your Retirement Spending on Autopilot

You’ve probably heard of the 4% rule.

The traditional version says that you withdraw 4% of your portfolio during the first year of retirement and then increase that dollar amount each year with inflation.

It’s a useful starting point. It isn’t a commandment.

Suppose you retire with $1 million and the stock market plunges during your first two years of retirement. Continuing to increase withdrawals as though nothing happened puts more pressure on the portfolio.

Instead, you might skip an inflation increase, postpone a major vacation or cut other discretionary spending for a year or two.

You don’t have to panic every time the market falls 10%. But you also shouldn’t blindly follow a withdrawal formula while ignoring what’s happening to your money. A flexible retirement plan is safer than a rigid one.

5. Keep Enough Safe Money to Avoid Selling Stocks in a Crash

One of the biggest dangers to a new retiree is a major bear market early in retirement. It’s called sequence-of-returns risk.

If the stock market falls sharply while you’re withdrawing money, you may have to sell investments at depressed prices. Those shares are then gone and can’t participate in the eventual recovery.

One way to reduce that risk is to keep several years of expected portfolio withdrawals in conservative investments.

That doesn’t mean several years of your total living expenses.

Suppose you spend $70,000 annually but receive $45,000 from Social Security and a pension. Your portfolio needs to provide $25,000. Five years of portfolio withdrawals would be about $125,000.

That money might be held in some combination of cash, money market funds, CDs or high-quality short-term bonds.

The purpose isn’t to earn the highest possible return. Your safe money is there to give your stocks time to recover.

6. Don’t Get So Conservative That Inflation Becomes the Bigger Risk

Being afraid of running out of money can lead retirees to make another mistake: moving almost everything into cash and bonds. That may protect you from stock market volatility, but it creates a different problem.

A 65-year-old could easily be investing for another 25 or 30 years. Over that kind of time period, inflation can dramatically increase the cost of groceries, insurance, health care, property taxes and almost everything else.

You still need growth.

Think of your retirement portfolio as having two jobs: You need safety for the money you’ll spend relatively soon and growth for the money you may not spend for decades.

Going too far in either direction creates risk.

7. Have a Backup Plan Before You Need One

A good retirement plan shouldn’t depend on everything going right.

Ask yourself what you would do if stocks performed poorly for a decade, inflation stayed high or you lived far longer than expected.

Your backup options might include:

Reducing discretionary spending.

Downsizing your home.

Using home equity later in life.

Working part-time during the earlier years of retirement.

Spending money that you originally hoped to leave to your heirs.

Converting part of your savings into guaranteed lifetime income.

That last option can include a simple immediate fixed annuity.

An annuity certainly isn’t necessary for everyone, and you should understand exactly what you’re buying before turning over a chunk of your savings to an insurance company. But the concept behind it is useful.

The more of your essential expenses that can be covered by reliable lifetime income, the less dependent your standard of living is on your investment portfolio.

You Don’t Need To Predict the Future

The goal isn’t to develop a retirement plan that correctly predicts what the next 30 years will look like. You can’t.

Instead, build a retirement that can survive a variety of different outcomes.

Keep your fixed expenses reasonable. Be thoughtful about Social Security. Start with a sensible withdrawal rate but remain flexible. Keep enough safe money that you don’t have to sell stocks during a crash, while maintaining enough growth investments to protect against inflation. And know what you’ll do if things don’t go according to plan.

No single step guarantees your money will last.

Put them together, however, and you’ve created something far more valuable than a prediction: a retirement plan with room for things to go wrong.
The post 7 Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Running Out of Money in Retirement appeared first on Clark Howard.

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Labor Day has come and gone, and if you missed the iconic holiday sales event, we’ve got good news: There are still plenty of deals worth shopping. One of the biggest reasons why so many retailers participate in Labor Day sales is that they need to clear out their summer stock to make room for fall and winter merchandise. But what about the inventory that doesn’t get sold? It goes on clearance. 

If you head over to Walmart’s clearance section, you’ll find deep discounts across departments, but the most significant savings will be in the summer-leaning categories, like the patio and garden clearance section. Since we’re at the end of the season, you’ll find some of the lowest prices of the year on these selections, with noteworthy deals for all your outdoor needs. From bestselling solar-powered lighting and top-rated lawn tools to trendy patio furniture and top-of-the-line barbecues, you can find it on clearance for less. If you’ve been in need of outdoor storage to keep all these must-haves organized, these clearance deals are also making it more affordable to invest in heavy-duty storage sheds. 

End-of-season deals offer better storage shed savings

Walmart has several storage shed styles on clearance as the warm seasons come to a close, so there’s no better time to invest in an outdoor storage shed for your yard. End-of-season deals are used to clear out merchandise, but there’s an additional reason for these lower prices. The majority of shoppers who need outdoor storage will likely have bought a shed at the start of summer or spring. As the demand decreases, so do prices, and for the bargain shoppers willing to exercise a bit of patience, you can get exceptional savings. 

One of Walmart’s best clearance storage shed deals is on the Pabimia 14-by-12-Foot Heavy-Duty Outdoor Storage Shed, which is 51% off. This massive shed with a 14-foot-long by 12-foot-wide frame has ample room for toolboxes, lawn equipment, and bulky patio furniture cushions. Normally retailing for $940, you can now score it for just $460. It’s constructed with galvanized steel, so it’s sturdy and durable, rain or shine. It even has double doors, allowing you to drive in the riding mower or easily move in an extra-large barbecue for winter through the wider door frame. For peace of mind, the doors are lockable, keeping your belongings safe and secure.

Pabimia 14-by-12-Foot Heavy-Duty Outdoor Storage Shed

Courtesy of Walmart

Check price at Walmart

Upgrade your outdoor space with a storage shed

An outdoor storage shed is an incredibly practical addition to any backyard. Instead of using that precious indoor space or limited garage space to store your gardening gear, grilling supplies, or sporting equipment, you can put it in the shed. Depending on the size of the shed, you can even fit bicycles and riding lawn mowers inside. With larger units, you can turn them into a dedicated workspace with a workbench at the center and power tools hanging along the walls. If you want to really get creative, you don’t even need to use these spacious sheds for storage and can transform them into a man cave or she-shed that’s perfect for hanging out.

There are tons of options when you begin your search for an outdoor storage shed. You can get tiny units that fit just your small hand tools, gardening accessories, and a bag of potting soil. You can also go to the opposite end of the spectrum and find gigantic storage sheds that would fit multiple vehicles inside. 

Size is one of the biggest considerations, because a shed has to fit inside your yard and be big enough to satisfy your storage needs, but there are many more features to consider. Material is a big one, with options for steel, plastic, and wood. Metal sheds will typically be the most durable, but plastic resin sheds will be easier to assemble. If you desire that classic shed style, a wooden shed will be your best option, but it will require more maintenance compared to the other materials. Once you’ve figured out the size and material of the shed you need, then you can look for additional features, like double, lockable doors and built-in ventilation. 

Storage shed clearance deals at Walmart

To help you on your quest for the perfect backyard storage shed, we’ve rounded up Walmart’s most impressive storage shed clearance deals, with selections up to 61% off their original price tags. We’ve included a range of sizes and styles, so you can find the outdoor storage option that best fits your needs.

Enyopro 6-by-4-Foot Outdoor Storage Shed

Courtesy of Walmart

Check price at Walmart

Pabimia 8-by-8-Foot Metal Outdoor Storage Shed

Courtesy of Walmart

Check price at Walmart

Asofer 5-by-3-Foot Outdoor Storage Shed

Courtesy of Walmart

Check price at Walmart

Lofka Wooden Outdoor Storage Cabinet

Courtesy of Walmart

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Asofer 5-by-3-Foot Resin Shed

Courtesy of Walmart

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Patiowell 10-by-12-Foot Metal Outdoor Storage Shed

Courtesy of Walmart

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Asofer 6-by-4-Foot Outdoor Storage Shed

Courtesy of Walmart

Check price at Walmart

TheStreet Shopping is your guide for shopping insights and advice. We look beyond the price tag to find the best value in home, tech, and wellness gear based on product features and real-world use. Read more about our Editorial Standards and How We Choose Our Shopping Deals.

Whether you learned good money habits from someone early in life or picked them up through the school of hard knocks, there may come a point when you want to pass that wisdom along to the young adults in your life. But where do you start?

Most financial advice for young adults starts with the power of compounding and a chart showing what $300 a month could become by age 67. That math is real — and powerful. But it isn’t where the story starts.

Most people who end up in good financial shape first master something much less exciting: They spend less than they earn and keep cash on hand for when things go wrong.

Everything else is built on that foundation.

What follows is written for the young adult in your life. Forward it, print it or read it together.

1. Live on Less Than You Make

Living on less than you make is one rule that everything else depends on.

If you spend everything that comes in, nothing else in this list is available to you. You can’t save, you can’t invest, you can’t absorb a surprise, and you can’t take a job risk that might pay off later. Every financial option you have in your 30s and 40s traces back to whether there’s a gap between what you earn and what you spend in your 20s.

The gap doesn’t have to be large at first, but it has to exist and be consistent.

2. Take the Employer Match Starting With Your Next Paycheck

If your employer offers a retirement plan with a matching contribution, contribute enough to get the full match, and do it before you’ve got anything else on this list figured out. The match is part of your pay. Passing it up while you get organized means giving up a guaranteed 50% or 100% return on those dollars. 

Check two details when you enroll. First, check the percentage you must contribute to earn the full match, which is sometimes higher than the plan’s default. Second, check the vesting schedule, which tells you how long you need to stay before the employer’s money is fully yours.

This takes an afternoon (or less) to set up and then runs on its own, which makes it the only item on this list you can finish. If your employer doesn’t offer a match, skip ahead.

3. Then Build an Emergency Fund Before You Invest Anything Else

Cars break down, medical bills arrive, pets get sick and jobs disappear. None of that is genuinely unexpected; it’s just unscheduled.

When one of those things happens and you have no cash set aside, the fallback is a credit card. That’s the moment a $1,200 transmission turns into a balance you carry for three years. High-interest credit card debt is the single hardest financial hole for a young person to climb out of, because at 20% or more in interest, nothing you could reasonably earn by investing is going to outrun what you’re paying. It follows people for years, and it costs them sleep and health along with money.

An emergency fund is what stands between you and that outcome. Keep it in a savings account you can access the same day, not in investments.

You don’t need six months of expenses on day one. Start with $1,000, build toward one month of expenses, then keep going until you have a cushion that could carry you through a layoff. Work at it the way you’d work at any goal that takes a couple of years.

If you consistently cannot set anything aside, the fix is often on the spending side. That’s an uncomfortable conclusion, and it’s a much more useful one than deciding you’ll start saving when you earn more.

4. Once the Fund Is There, Start Investing

Now the compounding math becomes yours to use, and your advantage isn’t money; it’s time.

Suppose you invest $300 a month from 22 until you’re 67. At an average annual return of 8%, you’d end up with roughly $1.6 million, and only about $162,000 of that would be money you put in. Everything else is growth stacked on growth. (That figure is in future dollars, so inflation will make it feel smaller by the time you get there.)

If it takes you until 25 to build the emergency fund, the same $300 a month lands you around $1.2 million instead. Those years cost you something real, but they cost you far less than one stretch of credit card debt would have. 

Build the foundation, then start, and don’t wait for a salary that feels impressive enough to begin.

5. Use a Roth While Your Tax Rate Is Low

With a Roth IRA or a Roth 401(k), you pay tax on the money now and owe nothing on it when you withdraw in retirement. That trade works best when your tax rate is low, which for most people means early in their career. The same dollars contributed at 24 and at 54 can be taxed very differently.

A growing number of employers also let the company match go into a Roth account, so it’s worth asking HR whether yours does. If you’re in the 12% federal bracket right now, the case for Roth is about as strong as it ever gets.

6. Automate It, Then Raise It With Every Raise

The best financial systems don’t depend on motivation. Have money pulled out of every paycheck into your retirement plan before it reaches your checking account, set up an automatic monthly transfer into an IRA or brokerage account, and do the same for savings. Once that’s running, you never have to decide each month whether you’re in the mood to save.

Then tie your savings rate to your income. Every time you get a raise, move your contribution up a point or two and keep the rest. A 5% raise still feels like a raise when one point of it goes to your future self. Do that consistently for 20 years and you end up at a serious savings rate without ever making a single painful change.

7. Keep Investing Simple, and Be Skeptical of Anything That Isn’t

You do not need to pick individual stocks to build wealth. A low-cost target date retirement fund, or a small set of broad-market index funds, will do the job for almost everyone. Own a diversified portfolio, keep the costs low, keep contributing and leave it alone for decades.

That simplicity is also your best defense against being sold something. Decades of future earnings make you a valuable customer, so at some point you’ll be pitched a complicated investment, insurance product or strategy. When it happens, ask what it costs, how the person recommending it gets paid, and whether you could accomplish the same goal with something simpler and cheaper. Complexity and sophistication are not the same thing, and boring investments have made far more people wealthy than clever ones.

Final Thoughts

You are going to make money mistakes. Everyone does. The good news is that when you’re young, you have something incredibly valuable on your side: time.

You don’t need to know everything about investing, predict what the stock market will do or find the next great investment. You need to get a few big things right.

Spend less than you earn. Take the employer match. Build enough savings that a bad month doesn’t become a financial crisis. Then invest consistently, keep your investments simple and inexpensive, take advantage of a Roth while your tax rate is low and increase your savings as your income grows.

Get those basics right, and over time you’ll build more than wealth. You’ll build financial breathing room.

You’ll be better able to handle a layoff without panicking, replace a transmission without putting it on a credit card, walk away from a terrible job, help someone you love or take advantage of an opportunity you didn’t see coming.

That’s ultimately what being in good financial shape buys you: not just a secure retirement someday, but more choices along the way.
The post Financial Advice for the Young Adult in Your Life appeared first on Clark Howard.

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