Most people blow 70% of their money on 3 things — and cutting back could be the key to retiring much earlier

Retirement might seem light-years away, but if you get to your golden years with insufficient funds, it's guaranteed to be even further. Saving enough over a 40-year career to maintain your lifestyle in retirement is challenging. Grant Sabatier, a 30-something self-made millionaire who founded the finance blog Millennial Money, pointed out on his website that Americans on average spend 70% of their money on housing, transportation, and food (not including income taxes and Social Security).

How both middle-class and wealthy American families are sliding inexorably into the red

Not even a high six-figure salary is enough to keep New York City families out of the red. But spare a thought for the average American family, whose costs easily outpace the average income. A recent analysis from Sam Dogen at his personal finance website Financial Samurai showed how difficult it is for high earners to escape the rat race in New York City, one of the priciest places to live in the world. He analyzed a mock budget for an imaginary family of four in which the two 35-year-old breadwinners each make $250,000 a year. After factoring in taxes, 401(k)contributions, home and child care costs, the family was left with just $7,300 for the year — as if they were living “paycheck to paycheck.”

I Am a Millennial Who Just Went to Kmart for the First Time Ever and Couldn't Believe This Place

I, likely because I'm a millennial, had never been to a Sears Holdings Corp.-owned (SHLD) Kmart before. Until today. On Monday, July 3, I took a trip to a Kmart store in Brick, N.J., and I was amazed, for several reasons, that its doors were still open. The store was dingy, dirty and disorganized, far worse than the Sears store I recently visited that I thought was a horror show. Plus, the location was poorly stocked, despite the fact that I arrived around 9 a.m., only one hour after it opened. But, Monday's trip gave me yet another insight into why its parent, Sears, announced on Friday it is closing an additional 43 stores on top of the 265 locations, across both Sears and Kmart banners, it

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  Sears in Kenosha closing

  CBS 58 Milwaukee
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  Struggling Sears to close 43 more stores in an attempt to cut costs

  Daily Mail