8.21.19 Southwest Airlines cancelling routes; MoviePass data breach; Series I savings bonds are a good place to stash cash.

The Clark Howard Podcast

The 737 Max remains grounded as Boeing struggles to find fixes. The FAA, having lost its credibility from lack of oversight of the Max, is now relying on the recommendations of a world panel, with no service date in sight. This affects travelers as airfares are higher because of this and Southwest, the largest operator of 737s in the world, is now discontinuing 20 unprofitable routes, moving those aircraft to Hawaiian routes. This has triggered great competitive deals from the west coast to Hawaii again, and higher fares in the markets Southwest is leaving.

The MoviePass database contains 160+ million records and has been breached. TechCrunch reports the database was not password protected. The guess is 60,000 records contained credit card data. Past subscribers need to watch activity on the cards they used with MoviePass. If you used a debit, the risk is great. Consider getting a new debit card number.

As the economy slows and interest rates go down, a rare saving opportunity has re-emerged; Series I Savings Bonds. When you buy bonds, you have to own them for at least a year and can hold them for up to 30 years, earning interest. With a slowing economy and interest rates headed down, Series I Savings Bonds are again a good place to stash cash. Series I Savings Bonds pay a .5% base rate + the rate of inflation, reset every 6 months, making the current rate 1.9% - not huge but as rates drop, you don’t have to worry about falling behind inflation, remaining ahead by half a point. You can purchase up to $10K in these bonds yearly, per person with a $50 minimum.

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