Meta Platforms Inc.’s hiring spree for top-tier artificial-intelligence talent has one analyst questioning the company’s approach to competing in the AI race and wondering whether the moves bring near-term financial risk.

Late last month, Meta

META Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the Meta Superintelligence Labs, which he said would focus on developing advanced AI that can handle tasks at the same level as, or better than, humans. Earlier in the month, it was reported that Zuckerberg offered some talent, including those poached from OpenAI, $100 million pay packages to work on the team. The tech giant also invested $14 billion in data-labeling AI startup Scale AI and hired its founder and former CEO Alexandr Wang to head the new AI effort.

My brother treats my parents like his employees, telling them what to do and how to do it. When my mom inherited money from her family about four years ago, he convinced her to put the money into an account with a high interest rate. He also convinced her to put some in bitcoin. My mother is not an educated woman and just went along with it. 

The $100K bitcoin swindle

A few months later when she logged in to check her balance, the account was empty. My brother had transferred $100,000 into bitcoin BTCUSD without telling her. He had her passwords because he had helped to set up the account originally. She was furious and demanded her money back, but he convinced her to wait a few years. 

When I told my mom it was a good time to pull her money out of bitcoin, she confessed that my brother had put her money into his own bitcoin account. She acknowledges that he stole from her, but she refuses to do anything about it. She says that in the will, I will get $100,000 more, but I don’t care about that. 

My parents’ life revolves around him. Anytime my brother needs “help” they will drop everything and drive to California to help with his dogs or his daughter, who he has no time to raise. My parents just don’t want to fight with him, and so I don’t think they’ll ever bring up the bitcoin. They say they’re almost “even” now because my brother gave them his old cars. 

The ‘gift’ of used vehicles

Those cars were worth maybe $60,000 combined, but my parents had perfectly good cars to begin with. I tried to explain to them that a car is not cash; its value depreciates. I wouldn’t be so upset except that I worry that my parents don’t have enough for retirement. Also, my brother still hasn’t signed over the titles for the cars because he’s too “busy and stressed right now.”

Because he is so manipulative, I also worry about them getting older. I would like to have a power of attorney for them, but I think my brother could convince them to put him in charge. This is clearly a family issue more than a money issue, but I would still like to avoid any money problems if possible. My mom already doesn’t like to talk about it. 

I would like to suggest to my parents that instead of leaving their money to my brother and me, she could set up a trust for each of her three grandkids for college. Their house, which is paid off, is worth $550,000. They started retirement a year ago with $300,000 in cash (I don’t know if that was after my brother took $100,000) and they have Social Security and a 401(k). 

What should I do now?

Daughter/Sister

Related: My friend asked me to pay $1,600 for her son’s prom-night limo. Has the world gone mad?

Dear Daughter,

I agree with both you and your mother, even if your approaches may differ.

Your mom knows more than you probably realize. She knows your brother is a ne’er-do-well. But she still loves him. She knows that he stole $100,000 from her and invested it in a bitcoin account in his name only even though he was purporting to do her a favor. But she still loves him. She knows he will continue his shenanigans ad nauseum. But she still loves him.

The bar is obviously a lot higher for you, as you also know the cut of your brother’s jib, and you’ve been witnessing it for more years than you care to remember. You don’t like your brother and you don’t appreciate how he continues to exploit and cheat your parents. He is not your child, so you’re not as willing to let things slide. That’s also fair enough.

But your mother is older than you and she doesn’t want to get involved in a protracted legal drama with your brother and publicly humiliate him. I’m sure plenty of people are aware of how he operates, and he suffers the consequences of that. The risk to her mental health and the time it would take from her life is not worth the reward, if there was a reward.

What can she do?

The first thing she should do now is make sure all her passwords are changed on her accounts, and alert her bank to the risk of further embezzlement, so they can monitor her account. Banks have, for the most part, gotten wise to phishing scams and financial abuse, and take note when older people move to make large withdrawals from their accounts.

You could also suggest that your parents freeze their credit with the three major credit bureaus — Experian, TransUnion and Equifax — in case your brother decides to take out a loan in your parents’ names. If he is embarking on a new business venture, it wouldn’t do any harm to mark their cards that, given his track record, he may come calling should debtors come knocking on his door.

I support your endeavor to have a durable power of attorney for your parents so you can manage their affairs if they become incapacitated, along with a healthcare directive to make medical decisions for them. They can also consider options such as a do-not-resuscitate order, if they don’t wish to have life-sustaining measures taken if their heart stops or they stop breathing. These are all good questions to raise.

The cart and the horse

Your challenge, as many children of aging parents well know, is how far, how long and how hard to push for these protections. Your mother and father are already dealing with one willful child, and they may see more pressure — even from a responsible, loving and supportive daughter — as unwelcome. You can plant a seed, but you can’t get them to water it.

In the meantime, act as an invisible gatekeeper. If your brother plans to visit your parents, organize a trip for yourself at the same time. Make sure your parents’ mobile phones are secure and that they don’t leave passwords or important documents lying around. Make sure their will (and copies of it) are kept in a safe place, in addition to at their lawyer’s office.

Stay vigilant. If you suspect that your brother is engaging in elder abuse — emotional, physical, psychological or financial — you can report his actions to adult protective services, or call 911 and local law-enforcement authorities or your district attorney’s office. But even if you did report this $100,000 theft, it sounds like your mother would not press charges. 

Call and visit as often as you can. They will need oversight.

The National Careline offers, among other organizations, advice on next steps, including contacting the local council and reporting the issue to Adult Protective Services, District Attorney’s office, and/or to the police or Sheriff’s office. Find your local APS here. 

You can IdentityTheft.gov to report identity theft and get a recovery plan. It is managed by the Federal Trade Commission. You can also call 1-877-IDTHEFT (1-877-438-4338); Telecommunications device for the deaf: 1-866-653-4261.

The National Center on Elder Abuse, a government agency affiliated with the U.S. Administration on Aging, says 1 in 10 people over the age of 60 in the U.S. experienced some form of abuse in the prior year. Research lags new forms of financial abuse.

Related: My friend, 83, wants to add me to his bank account to pay his bills. What could go wrong?

You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions at qfottrell@marketwatch.com. 

Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.

The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.

Previous columns by Quentin Fottrell:

‘She acted as a mother to me growing up’: My stepmother remarried after my father died. How can I claim my inheritance?

‘My wife and I are very grateful’: Our son wants to pay off our mortgage before we retire. Will this backfire?

‘Is this ethical?’ I want to leave my home to my children from my first marriage — and not to my second husband.

By emailing your questions to The Moneyist or posting your dilemmas on The Moneyist Facebook group, you agree to have them published anonymously on MarketWatch.

By submitting your story to Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of MarketWatch, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms, including via third parties.

After months of anxiety over tariffs, inflation, Middle East tensions and so much more, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have scaled yet another wall of worry — mounting a strong comeback and returning to record territory for the first time in months.

See:

S&P 500 scores record high for first time in 4 months. What could push stocks higher from here?

Now, I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for the last decade. It’s one of the hardest jobs because the work is constant, there are no holidays or sick days, there are no colleagues or intellectual stimulation, and my parents are still scoffing at my life choices when they were the ones to push me to get married and have kids. I did find a man I love and who loves me and I’m so grateful for our two beautiful, healthy kids, but I still hear the criticisms, expectations and disappointments inside my head. Again, I find it odd that my parents would push me to get married and have kids without a plan for getting back to work.

Don’t miss: My wife and I have $7,000 in pensions, $140,000 in cash, plus Social Security. Can we afford to retire?

A professional crossroads

What now? Do I take a low-paying part-time job that allows me the freedom and flexibility to be there for my kids? Or do I put them in after-school programs that are a bit of a madhouse so that I can work a full-time job? Do I take courses and earn certificates and go for a six-figure position in the tech field? Or do I work at my kids’ school or in a municipal office? My husband makes a good living, which allows me to stay home and take care of the kids. We make a good team.  But I’m aware that if something happens to either of us, our family/kids would be in trouble.  So that is a good reason for me to at least try to make six figures. 

Is it possible to have a decent life making $40,000 a year in my 50s and 60s? Part of me wants to get a master’s degree in library science online and apply to work at local libraries. I’m not crazy about paying for a master’s at this time, only to end up with a job that pays at most $35 an hour. So I may only go that route if there are scholarships or such. So much of my head has been filled with thoughts of needing to be the best, the brightest, the wealthiest, and I’ve just come to the realization that that’s not where true happiness lies. But I’m also aware that I’ve been sheltered and did not have to live on $40,000 a year.  

What is the minimum needed to have a decent retirement? A fully paid off house, $1 million dollars spread out across 401(k), taxable brokerage, (Roth) IRAs and perhaps a part-time job with health benefits? I feel awful that we have nothing set aside for our kids’ college funds, but I am thinking that I could work at a college that provides tuition benefits to direct family members.  Is this a possibility? Just to make this scenario extra fun, my parents have tried offering me monetary gifts with conditions that would make me feel like I would be again under their control. I wonder if I’m being naive and stupid not to accept some of these gifts.

Stay-at-home Mom

Related: My job is offering me a payout. Should I take a $61,000 lump sum or $355 a month for life?

Dear Mom,

The last thing I want to do is give you homework, but I’m going to give you homework.

The first thing you can do is get a giant piece of paper and write all the things your parents did to disappoint you, annoy you, thwart you, undermine you, frustrate you and generally make you feel less than. Then buy a giant red marker and write in big letters over all of those complaints: “THEY DID THE BEST THEY COULD AT THE TIME.” And then burn it. They want to help you now. Maybe it’s a form of amends, or perhaps they believe they were good parents. They did what they did. They said what they said. They are who they are. They wanted to help you, but they didn’t have all the skills. There was no workbook, as you know, and what’s done is done. 

The second thing you can do is know that everyone has regrets, particularly financial ones, and it’s easy to have the decision-making skills of Mary Barra or Warren Buffett when you’re looking back with hindsight. When you’re done forgiving your parents for raising you, forgive yourself for all the twists and turns you wish you’d done differently. If it helps, get out a separate sheet of paper and write all the good decisions you’ve made in one column, with your regrets in another column, and do the same thing again. Take out that red pen and write: “I DID THE BEST I COULD AT THE TIME.” And burn it. Life is pretty good. You’ve gotten this far.

If you’re unsure about whether to go back to work full-time or part-time, ease back into it. If it suits you, good. If you get the urge to go back and join the rat race full-time with an eye on a six-figure salary in a job that gives you a renewed sense of purpose, fantastic. If it also helps you save more for retirement and put money aside for your children’s college education in tax-advantaged 529 plans, great. Perhaps it would allow you and your husband to pay off your mortgage earlier than planned. But there’s no right/wrong answer. Nobody will write, “I wish I spent more time at the office” on their gravestone.

Don’t miss: ‘I’m 68 and my 401(k) has dwindled to $82,000’: My husband committed financial infidelity and has $50,000 in credit-card debt. What now?

A tailor-made retirement

Here’s the headline: It’s OK to take the foot off the pedal when your children get a little older and you have more time to yourself. You’ve been working a 24/7 job raising your kids. Research shows that women take more time off from their careers than men and their lifetime income suffers as a result, as does their ability to rejoin the workforce at a similar level of seniority. Life, society and the workplace, as they’re currently structured, are not fair or equal. But you have a husband who works full time and earns a good living, so see a financial therapist or a psychologist and talk through your plans. You don’t have to put even more pressure on yourself.

If your gut tells you that a master’s in library science does not have the kind of reward that makes it worthwhile, don’t do it. But yes, it’s possible to have a comfortable life and retirement if you earn $40,000 a year. Millions of Americans do it, despite letters to this column from couples with millions of dollars who worry about retirement. Studies repeatedly warn Americans that they need $1 million or more, but the truth is you need enough to ensure that your expenses don’t exceed your income, have at least two years of a cash cushion for unexpected events, including medical complications — and long-term-care insurance doesn’t hurt.

What’s missing from my answer is women’s voices, so here are a few thoughts on your letter about returning to work from the Moneyist Facebook Group. “You’ll be providing a good role model for the kids, too. Since family life is a job in itself, don’t let the new job be too demanding, just pleasantly challenging,” one woman writes. “Start by taking a few classes at a local community college to get some idea of what you might like to pursue,” another adds. A former teacher says: “Although teaching wasn’t at the top of the pay scale, by 63 I was retired and debt-free with enough to live well and do a little traveling.”

The past is another country. The future is a travel agent’s window. Give yourself a break today.

Related: We’re living in ‘end times’ when you can’t retire on $1 million

You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions at qfottrell@marketwatch.com. Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.

The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.

More columns from Quentin Fottrell:
Most American weddings are a lot more extravagant than the nuptials of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

My husband will inherit $180K. I think we should invest the money. He wants to pay off his $168K mortgage. Who’s right?

I’m 51, earn $129K and have $165K in my 401(k). Can I afford to retire when my husband, 59, draws Social Security at 62?

By emailing your questions to The Moneyist or posting your dilemmas on The Moneyist Facebook group, you agree to have them published anonymously on MarketWatch.

By submitting your story to Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of MarketWatch, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms, including via third parties.

U.S. stock futures were powering higher on Friday as China confirmed details of a trade deal that will allow rare earth exports to the U.S., in a move that’s easing tensions between the two countries.

The exports of critical minerals, or rare earths, have been a longstanding irritant in the U.S.-China relationship. Last month, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that Beijing had

“restricted the flow of rare-earth magnets to us and other countries in the world.” The materials are used in a variety of products, including automobiles and cellphones.

Related: I’m 51, earn $129K and have $165K in my 401(k). Can I afford to retire when my husband, 59, draws Social Security at 62? 

Dear Planning,

Your letter is like a protein ball: tightly packed with healthy news.

The good news is that you’re not living from paycheck to paycheck, nor will you be in retirement, so this money, whether it comes in a lump sum or a monthly payment at the end of your tenure at your workplace, won’t make you or break you. You have done the one thing that millions of Americans dream of doing by reducing your debt so it will be effectively nonexistent by the time you retire.

Your savings, pension and nearly paid-off home will give you a lot of financial freedom in your 60s and beyond. For some people, $355 a month would mean the ability to put food on the table. For others, it’s merely the cost of a high-end gym in Manhattan. Put more bluntly, one person’s full stomach is another person’s toned abs. Given your savings and $2,400-per-month military pension, you probably belong to the latter category.

I’m assuming that if you opted for the monthly payments, you’d start getting them at age 65. If you were looking at a retirement where you needed every last penny and you were unwilling to take any risk, you would probably choose this option. But given your solid financial situation and risk tolerance, you would probably be better off taking the lump sum and investing it in the stock market. 

The toll of inflation

For your $61,000 to double in seven years, you would need to generate returns of 10% on your investment. That is the average annual return for the S&P 500 over 30 years. If you took that lump sum at age 65, you’d have roughly $122,000 at 72 and $244,000 at 79. If you left the company and got a lump sum now, at age 49, and you did achieve 10% returns, you’d be looking at similar rates of return in seven and 14 years’ time.

If you instead decided to take the $355 monthly payment, it would take more than 14 years for the monthly payments to reach $61,000, excluding interest. And of course, that payment would remain the same while inflation causes the cost of living to rise. So you’re really better off taking the lump sum when you leave the company and investing it, whether you do it now or at age 65. It’s a case of the tortoise (compounding) beating the hare (monthly income).

There are, of course, no guarantees. The market tends to go up over time, but it is unpredictable, as we have seen over the last 50 years. The S&P 500 SPX fell 18% in 2022, gained 26% in 2023 and rose another 25% in 2024. It took more than five years for the market to recover from the 2008 financial crisis, which was caused in part by predatory and subprime lending in the mortgage market and lax financial regulation.

Markets are unpredictable

In recent years, we’ve had a worldwide pandemic that sent stocks tumbling (although they returned to prepandemic levels 10 months later), a new administration that has cut a swath through the prior administration’s policies in under six months, charted a different course from all previous Republican and Democratic governments in modern times with its stance toward the postwar Western alliance, and introduced sweeping tariffs. 

The socioeconomic outlook is uncertain. Others would call it volatile. Investors are waiting to see what action, if any, Iran takes after the U.S. bombed that country’s nuclear sites over the weekend. There is a war in Ukraine and increasing instability in the Middle East, and economists continue to debate the effect of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on U.S. prices and the broader economy.

You’d have less ability to access your $61,000 if you rolled it into your IRA, but you can afford to let your money grow over time while resisting the temptation to pull your investment out when the going gets rough, as many people contemplated doing during the market turmoil in April. You can also afford to wait to collect your Social Security benefits until you reach the age of 70, thereby maximizing your benefits.

You’re looking at a bigger payday than a monthly gym membership.

Related: ‘It might be another Apple or Microsoft’: My wife invested $100K in one stock and it exploded 1,500%. Do we sell?

You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions at qfottrell@marketwatch.com. Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.

The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.

Previous columns by Quentin Fottrell:

My sister and her husband died within days of each other. Their banks won’t let me access their safe-deposit boxes. What now?

‘I’m 68 and my 401(k) has dwindled to $82,000’: My husband committed financial infidelity and has $50,000 in credit-card debt. What now?

I’m 75 and have a reverse mortgage. Should I pay it off with my $200K savings — and live off Social Security instead?

By emailing your questions to The Moneyist or posting your dilemmas on The Moneyist Facebook group, you agree to have them published anonymously on MarketWatch.

By submitting your story to Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of MarketWatch, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms, including via third parties.