News From the Control Tower - 12/2/2021

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances.

This week’s reads include:

1.       Time, Money and Chicken Fat: A Guide to Inflation-Proof Gift-Giving

Prices are soaring for almost everything, but a few choice gifts are even cheaper than two years ago. Or show your love by going on your family’s annual “lard run.”

2.       Poor conditions and low pay for truckers helped fuel supply chain crisis

An inefficient system means truck drivers are forced to wait around until they’re needed, at no cost to the shipping companies.

3.       Workers Quit Jobs in Droves to Become Their Own Bosses

Seeking flexibility or escape from corporate bureaucracy, employees discover their inner entrepreneur

4.       Banking CEO: Overdrafts fees are 'the biggest pain point'

One digital bank is betting that eliminating a specific costly nuisance for consumers will boost the company's success. The country's five biggest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and US Bank — earned over 10% of their consumer and business banking revenue from deposit fees last year, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

5.       The Rules of Retirement Spending Are Changing

A longstanding strategy for funding our golden years is in doubt. We answer readers’ biggest questions about how much to withdraw from savings.

Bonus: How the World’s Foremost Maze-Maker Leads People Astray

Adrian Fisher has devoted the past four decades to bringing back mazes, long regarded as historical curiosities. He has created more than seven hundred—including one on a skyscraper in Dubai and another that’s now reproduced on Britain’s five-pound note.