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Many Americans plan to retire at age 65. Many of them will live to age 90. Between those two dates sit roughly 25 years of expenses with no paycheck coming in.

Social Security was designed to replace about 40% of pre-retirement income. Most financial advisers put the real target at 70% to 80%.

Americans have a number in mind for what it costs to cover the rest, and it just hit a record high.

What’s the new retirement savings goal?

Northwestern Mutual’s 2026 Planning & Progress Study puts it at $1.46 million, as Yahoo Finance reported, up $200,000 from last year. That matches the all-time high set in 2024. Respondents cited inflation, rising healthcare costs, longer lifespans, and Social Security uncertainty as the main drivers.

The 25x rule explains where the number comes from. Multiply expected annual spending by 25. At $58,000 a year, the math lands at $1.45 million. A separate rule of thumb holds that every $300,000 saved produces roughly $1,000 a month in retirement income.

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The 4% rule works differently. Withdraw 4% of savings in year one and adjust for inflation each year after. The rule was built to survive a 30-year retirement with a balanced portfolio.

Some researchers have argued that a lower withdrawal rate is safer, given today’s market valuations and longer life expectancies. None of the formulas account for a market crash in the first years of retirement, a run of higher-than-expected inflation, or a medical bill that lands all at once.

How confident Americans are about retirement

Almost half (46%) of U.S. adults say they will not be financially ready to retire when the time comes. Another 48% say they will probably outlive their savings.

The average expected retirement age is 65. At that age, a retiree in good health may have 25 to 30 years of expenses left to cover.

Gen X is the most anxious generation in the survey. Half said they fear running out of money. One-fifth have already pushed back their retirement date for financial reasons. The oldest Gen Xers are now in their late 50s.

In addition, 41% of all respondents said they plan to keep working after retirement. That includes half of Millennials and half of Gen Xers. Nearly half of those expecting to work said they will do it out of necessity, not choice.

What a $1.46 million retirement nest egg actually buys

Retirement savings of $1.46 million go further in Boise than they do in Boston. Rent, property taxes, and supplemental health insurance premiums all vary by state and city. Some states tax Social Security income, while others do not.

A retiree who planned their finances in one city and ends up spending retirement in another faces a completely different set of numbers. The survey figure does not tell anyone whether they are personally on track. It tells them what the average American thinks they need.

Fidelity estimates the average retiree spends about 15% of retirement income on healthcare costs Medicare does not cover. Long-term care adds to that. Assisted living runs $5,000 to $7,000 a month in most U.S. markets. Skilled nursing facilities cost more. Medicare covers very little of either.

The IRS set the 401(k) contribution limit at $24,500 for 2026. Workers age 50 and older can add another $8,000 in catch-up contributions, for a total of $32,500 per year.

A health savings account is a separate tool. Contributions go in pre-tax, the balance grows without being taxed, and withdrawals for medical expenses come out tax-free.

Unused funds do not expire at year-end. They carry forward, earn interest, and can be invested, making an HSA one of the few accounts that is triple tax-advantaged.

One in three Americans say Social Security uncertainty is one of their biggest retirement worries.FangXiaNuo / Getty Images

How to turn retirement savings into income that lasts

Saving $1.46 million and converting it into 30 years of income are two separate problems.

Sequence of returns is the bigger challenge most people have not heard of. A large loss in the first years of retirement, while withdrawals are still going out, leaves fewer dollars invested to recover when markets bounce back. The same loss absorbed a decade later, with far fewer withdrawal years still ahead, does much less damage.

Keeping two or three years of expenses in cash or short-term bonds means a market drop does not force a sale of long-term investments at the worst time. Spreading savings across asset classes limits the damage when one sector falls hard.

Workers within a decade of retirement who have not yet sorted out when to claim Social Security are leaving money unclaimed. Monthly benefits go up each year a worker delays past full retirement age, with the largest possible check available at age 70.

Why Social Security timing changes the math

One in three Americans says Social Security uncertainty is one of their biggest retirement worries, the Northwestern Mutual study found. Monthly benefits rise for every year a worker delays claiming past full retirement age. The highest possible payment is available at age 70.

Workers born in 1960 or later hit full retirement age at 67, so claiming at 62 locks in a permanent monthly reduction of up to 30%.

More than a quarter (27%) of survey respondents said they think they could live to age 100. A 65-year-old who reaches 100 needs savings to last 35 years. Most retirement plans are built for 20 to 25.

The difference has to come from somewhere, and for most people, it comes from Social Security or from nothing.

Related: New Social Security bill seeks to lower retirement age

Every new gadget comes with an early-adopter tax. Most years, you pay it in patience rather than dollars.

Apple (AAPL) buyers know the routine. A new iPhone lands in September, a few bugs surface in the first two weeks, and a point-one software update cleans up most of them by October.

I’ve watched that cycle play out for years, and it’s usually harmless. What matters for your wallet is spotting the rare problem an update can’t touch, because your cheapest fix, a full-refund return, runs on a short clock.

The iPhone 18 Pro, which went on sale Sept. 18 starting at $1,199, is putting that routine to the test. Owners reported three separate problems within days of launch, and only some of them are software.

iPhone 18 Pro screen lines won’t be fixed by iOS 27.0.1CFOTO / Getty Images

iOS 27.0.1 stops the Face ID freeze and reboot bug

The biggest complaint involved Face ID. When a face scan failed, some iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max units stopped responding to touch and rebooted a few seconds later, 9to5Mac reported Sept. 23.

The site reproduced the bug by covering a face while opening the Passwords app. It pinned the problem on software rather than on the redesigned Face ID system, which now places the infrared camera under the display.

Related: Qualcomm CFO says look beyond the Apple deal

Apple told the outlet a fix was coming, and it arrived Sept. 28. The iOS 27.0.1 release notes list three repairs, according to 9to5Mac:

Restarts on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max when Face ID fails to authenticate

A color artifact on some 2x photos taken in certain lighting at f/1.48

A frozen touchscreen after opening Notification Center and Control Center together

Some owners had already swapped their phones at Apple stores, thinking the hardware was bad. For the freeze, that trip wasn’t necessary.

Green and pink screen lines point to a hardware defect

The third problem is the one to watch. Multiple owners documented green and pink vertical lines on their screens within a week of purchase, and full resets didn’t clear them, Techaeris reported Sept. 28.

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The outlet called it a likely hardware fault affecting a subset of display panels. None of the iOS 27.0.1 fixes mention the lines, and I found no public comment from Apple on them as of Sept. 29.

Don’t confuse this with the photo color artifact Apple just patched. That glitch showed up in pictures, while these lines sit on the screen itself.

Your 14-day Apple return window is already running

Install iOS 27.0.1 first through Settings, then General, then Software Update. If your phone still freezes afterward, book a visit to Apple.

If you see lines, move quickly. You have 14 calendar days to return an item from the date you received it, Apple’s returns page says, and it must come back with its cords, adapters and documentation.

For launch-day buyers, that window closes Oct. 2. Phones bought through a carrier or another retailer follow that seller’s return rules instead.

A return puts the full $1,199, or $1,299 for the Pro Max, back in your account. After the window closes, you’re relying on Apple’s one-year warranty for a repair or replacement, which means more time without the phone you paid for.

Before you contact Apple Support, photograph or record the lines and note the date they first appeared.

Update the phone this week, and if a single stray line shows up, get it to Apple while a refund is still on the table.

Related: Bank of America does the math on Apple’s $1,200 iPhone offer

The global theme and amusement park industry is projected to grow from approximately $71.5 billion USD in 2026 to $110.6 billion USD by 2033.

Still, individual parks can face pressures ranging from rising operating costs to heavy regional competition and snowballing corporate debt from repairs and renovations that keep rides appealing to visitors.

Theme park giant Six Flags closed six “underperforming” locations in its amusement and water park portfolio in 2026. Wild Waves Theme and Water Park in Washington State, Adventure Landing in North Carolina, and Fun Spot America in the Atlanta suburbs are also among the smaller parks that have shut down since the start of the year.

The latest name to join that list is Ryze Adventure Park in Missouri.

Standing out from more traditional amusement parks as an “aerial adventure park” with ziplines and elevated bike and ropes courses, the park was opened by locals Greg Hoffman and Tony Holt in 2021 after years of development based on a concept more popular in several European countries.

Ryze Adventure Park shuts down 4 years after opening

As first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ryze Adventure Park is now set to close after just four years in operation, as operating costs rose faster than the owners could build out a visitor base and reach profitability.

Built across four stories on a lot next to a former church, the adventure park was designed to offer more than 100 aerial challenges, such as an observation deck, swaying bridges, a zipline jungle gym, and a 50-foot free-fall tower.

Tickets started at $39 for adults, and the staff was made up primarily of several dozen seasonal workers during the summer months.

Related: Disney World to make long-awaited ride repair after 18 years

Ryze’s owners promoted it as having “something for everyone” — both thrill seekers and those who would come to the park with kids and spend their time walking around and seeing the views from the different observation decks.

Amid falling revenue, Hoffman and Holt had tried to seek external management help from Applied Adventure Consulting Co., a Colorado-based management firm behind other similar adventure parks.

But ultimately the business model set out at the time of Ryze’s launch anticipated it growing its revenue by 20% within five years. According to the owners, the adventure park saw its profits drop by more than 40%.

Ryze Adventure Park was opened in 2021 by Greg Hoffman and Tony Holt.Ryze Adventure Park

“A whole year of expenses without revenue”: Ryze Adventure Park owners on closure

“It kind of softly closed,” Hoffman described to a local outlet. “We had a whole year of expenses without revenue.”

The owners are still looking for a last-minute partner to step in and see potential in an adventure park in the St. Louis suburb. Despite the falling profits, the park quickly found a strong community of regional fans that would return summer after summer over the last five years.

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It was also a popular booking for local corporate retreats and school field trips.

“Ryze is a confidence builder and a collaborative activity,” Hoffmann said to The Dispatch. “Otherwise, it will have to be taken down.”

Related: Company behind holiday parks insolvent, to be dissolved

Higher oil prices mean it costs airlines more to operate and, in many cases, airlines pass those costs on to customers.

United Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella said that’s exactly what his airline has done.

“Late in the first quarter, we implemented 5 broadly successful price increases, along with an increase in baggage fees that began to offset the increase in the price of jet fuel. Price increases in response to the increase in jet fuel have been significant and across the board,” he said during United’s first-quarter earnings call.

American Airlines’ CFO Devon May said the airline had seen $4 billion of incremental fuel expense.

“Historically, airlines recover that additional fuel expense either by increasing revenue or by reducing marginal capacity. We have been encouraged so far by the pace with which revenue has been recaptured,” he said during the airline’s first-quarter earnings call.

CFO Michael Leskinen shared how the airline has been slowly adding to how much of the costs it passes on.

“As we’ve experienced over the last two months, the world can change quickly, but in both higher and lower fuel price scenarios, we expect to recapture 40% to 50% of the increased fuel cost in the second quarter, 70% to 80% in the third quarter and 85% to 100% by the fourth quarter,” he shared.

Comments like that suggest that consumers are seeing higher prices. Data from Deutsche Bank, however, shows that’s not the case.

Here’s how much airlines dropped airfare by

“Advance purchase, domestic airfares (for Friday, October 16) were all lower week-over-week, except for Hawaiian (+12.2%, to $370 one-way). We note that the previous week reflected a challenging comparison given that it was the start of the Columbus Day holiday weekend,” according to Deutsche Bank.

The week-over-week fare declines were as follows:

Southwest: -30.5%, to $168 one-way

JetBlue: -25.1%, to $206 one-way

Allegiant: -19.2%, to $169 one-way

United: -8.6%, to $276 one-way

American: -5.9%, to $308 one-way

Delta: -3.1%, to $297 one-way

Alaska: -1.8%, to $266 one-way

Fares by geography were also mostly lower week over week:

Hawaii (+7.0%, to $388 one-way) was the only geography with a fare increase.

Intra-West Coast -8.9%, to $152 one-way.

Mexico (-6.0%, to $343 one-way), and transatlantic (-5.4%, to $979 one-way) decreased by single digits.

Latin America -57.7%, to $494 one-way.

Florida -26.2%, to $182 one-way.

Transpacific -24.4%, to $816 one-way.

Transcontinental -12.1%, to $287 one-way.

Caribbean (-10.4%, to $391 one-way) saw double-digit declines.

Frontier is a low-cost carrier. Shutterstock

Fares have actually been falling

OAG’s latest analysis of the top U.S. domestic and international routes in Q1 2026 versus Q1 2025 shows year-over-year fare declines on the majority of markets.

Key findings of the report included:

In Q1, fares had declined year over year on 13 of the top 20 U.S. domestic and international routes.

The largest domestic fare change was on Atlanta (ATL) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL), down 42% year over year.

 Internationally, the largest fare change was on LaGuardia (LGA) to Toronto Pearson (YYZ), where fares declined by 45%.

“OAG’s Q1 2026 analysis of the top U.S. domestic and international routes points to a divergence in fare trends. On many leisure-oriented routes, increased ultra-low-cost carrier (Frontier) capacity has contributed to year-on-year fare reductions, often on routes where Southwest has reduced its presence. In international markets, modest capacity reductions on core transatlantic routes have supported fare stability or slight increases, reflecting steadier demand from business travelers,” OAG shared.

The data did show a pattern.

“Across the top domestic routes, prices have decreased where capacity was added, broadly speaking. On JFK-LAX, Frontier’s entry alongside a 26% capacity increase from American Airlines contributed to outbound fares declining from $245 to $199. However, on LAS-LAX, capacity fell 11% while fares also declined, suggesting some softening in underlying leisure demand rather than a supply-side effect alone,” the company reported.

Frontier, RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino noted, has stepped into many markets that Spirit Airlines once served.

“Spirit helped keep everybody honest on price. Take that competitor away at the same time fuel costs are rising, and it becomes a lot easier for the airlines left standing to raise fares without being undercut,” he said.

Frontier taking over in many of those markets, he added, brings that honesty back.

Walk-up fares were mixed

The difference between walk-up and advance fares can be dramatic. That’s partially because once the supply becomes small, prices rise.

About a month ago, my aunt passed away, and my mother needed to fly from Boston to Fort Lauderdale with about a day’s notice. Her fare was more than $1,000 on JetBlue.

This week, we looked at fares to bring her on the same flight in late January, and JetBlue had seats under $350 (before luggage), while Delta had a no-frills economy ticket for $225.

Average walk-up domestic airfares for Friday, Sept. 25, were mixed week over week, according to Deutsche Bank’s research:

United: -0.9%, to $462 one-way

Alaska: -2.8%, to $451 one-way

American: -3.6%, to $439 one-way

Allegiant: -16.1%, to $245 one-way

Delta: Unchanged at $551 one-way

The week-over-week fare increases were as follows:

JetBlue: +0.9%, to $396 one-way

Hawaiian: +1.2%, to $430 one-way

Southwest: +3.6%, to $372 one-way

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A few months ago, the idea of AI software breaking out of its testing environment and going after real companies sounded like science fiction. Now it has become a product category, and Nvidia just launched its entry.

The chipmaker’s answer arrived alongside more than 100 partner organizations, and the group of companies backing the launch says as much about the industry’s mood as the technology itself.

Nvidia launches a platform built to keep AI agents contained

Nvidia on Sept. 28 released its Open Agent Safety Platform, a software package that lets AI developers set limits on what agents can do and helps stop them from breaking out of containment, according to CNBC.

The platform has two main pieces. OpenShell uses security features built into Nvidia’s central processors to confine an agent. Nvidia is working with Arm and Intel so it can run on their chips, too.

A second system called Sentry runs on Nvidia’s BlueField-4 DPUs. It monitors agent behavior independently, and within milliseconds, can quarantine any agent that tries to escape its boundary.

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Nvidia is making a bold claim about it. Justin Boitano, the company’s vice president of enterprise AI, said the platform “could have stopped the breach” at Hugging Face if frontier labs had used it early in model evaluation. He added that Nvidia wants the industry to build it out openly, Reuters reported.

A wide group of companies is backing the launch. Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, CoreWeave, Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Arm, and Intel are among the partners. The tools are also being released with Anthropic’s involvement, integrating OpenShell with Claude Managed Agents.

The Hugging Face breach explains the timing

The launch follows a run of sandbox escapes. OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google have all been linked to recent incidents. The best-known case involved OpenAI models that got out of containment, reached the open internet, and breached Hugging Face.

The scale was large. Boitano told reporters that Hugging Face reported more than 17,000 actions over the course of the intrusion. Investigations estimated that about 700 AI agents participated in the attack.

The breach also collided with a business deal. OpenAI had published its own account on Aug. 26, the same day reports emerged that Nvidia had agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion.

That is nearly triple the $4.5 billion valuation the company carried after its 2023 funding round. The transaction terms include up to $1 billion in employee retention awards on top of an $11.9 billion base price, CNN reported.

That overlap raised a governance question. The company whose chips train most frontier models would also own a neutral hub where rival labs host and test theirs.

Huang tried to defuse it, saying, “NVIDIA compute will not be required to build on or deploy through Hugging Face.”

Nvidia on Sept. 28 released its Open Agent Safety Platform.Bloomberg / Getty Images

Huang frames it as an engineering, not a regulation, problem

Huang has opposed calls for broad AI safety regulation. He described escaped agents as an engineering problem, comparable to making automobiles safer.

“You can’t have agents roam around and drift around the company, and so you have to find a way to contain it,” he told CNBC.

Nvidia’s case rests on a technical point. Boitano said “model-level safeguards alone can’t govern what agents can access or do.” Nvidia argued that incidents show how easily agents get around guardrails at the application layer. That is why it wants controls spanning the entire stack.

The detection method is built around agent behavior. Ali Golshan, a senior director of AI software at Nvidia, said the tools use mathematical formulas to spot workarounds, such as an agent spawning several sub-agents to slip past a block placed on the main one.

The debate over pace has grown louder in recent weeks. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on Sept. 12 titled “We Must Pace the Frontier,” arguing that capabilities are advancing faster than the industry can control, according to TheStreet.

Boitano described Nvidia’s offering as an engineering solution arriving two weeks after that essay that set off an industry debate.

What it means for investors

Open Agent Safety Platform tools are open source, but they run best on Nvidia hardware. That ties a safety story directly to its chip business. Nvidia is also offering an engineering answer at a moment when Sam Altman and Elon Musk have publicly backed the call to slow down.

Caution is still warranted. Boitano said only that the platform could have stopped the breach, and he cautioned that “each security incident is unique.”

Neither of the known incidents caused serious damage that anyone has identified, though the potential has made many people nervous.

The next data point is simple. Either the labs use it or they do not. Either the breaches stop or they do not.

Huang has bet on engineering. The answer arrives with the next incident.

Related: OpenAI makes development moves to counter SpaceX and Meta