Retirement used to mean slowing down and stepping away from the professional world. Many people now find that staying active through entrepreneurship provides a fresh sense of purpose.
Starting a small company allows you to share your wisdom with a younger generation. It transforms free time into an opportunity for growth and excitement.
Turning Passions Into Profits
Many retirees have spent decades perfecting a craft or exploring a specific interest. Turning skills into a fulfilling and profitable venture is a natural next step for active seniors. The transition offers a way to monetize years of dedication and hard work.
Creating a business plan for a hobby allows for a low-stress entry into the market. You already understand the product or service better than most competitors. The deep knowledge serves as a strong foundation for long-term success.
Selling a handmade item or offering a specialized service brings a deep sense of accomplishment. You are no longer working for a boss or a corporate goal. Your success is tied directly to your own creativity and effort.
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Boosting Brain Power And Cognitive Health
Keeping the mind sharp is a priority for many as they age. Running a small company requires constant decision-making and strategic thinking that keeps the gears turning. Mental exercises are helpful for maintaining alertness.
A blog focused on senior living noted that the challenges of entrepreneurship require problem-solving and creativity, which helps the brain stay healthy. Navigating new technology or market trends forces the brain to adapt and grow. The mental stimulation is often more effective than passive hobbies.
Learning how to manage digital tools or social media accounts provides a modern edge. It connects you to current trends and keeps your skill set relevant. The constant flow of new information acts as a workout for your intellect.
Fighting Social Isolation
Social connections sometimes fade after leaving a traditional 9-to-5 job. Starting a business creates a new network of customers, suppliers, and fellow entrepreneurs. Daily interactions build a community that supports your well-being.
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A platform for online sellers stated that over a third of older adults felt lonely frequently in the past year. Engaging with the public through a storefront or online service helps bridge the gap. It provides a structured way to meet new people and share experiences.
Building relationships leads to a more active and colorful social life. You are no longer just a spectator in your community but an active participant. A sense of belonging is a powerful motivator for many older business owners.
Establishing New Financial Goals
Extra income provides a safety net for unexpected expenses or travel goals. While many start for the passion, the financial rewards are a significant benefit. Small businesses can generate steady cash flow without the pressure of a full-time career.
A finance-focused website mentioned that starting a company based on a hobby engages you in work that brings joy. The extra money can be used to fund a lifestyle that a fixed pension might not cover. It gives you the freedom to say yes to new adventures.
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Having a secondary revenue stream reduces the stress on retirement accounts. It allows your savings to last longer while you enjoy a higher standard of living. A peace of mind is useful during the golden years.
Leaving A Lasting Legacy
A business is something tangible that you can pass down to your family. It represents your values, work ethic, and the knowledge you have gathered over a lifetime. Legacy becomes a point of pride for future generations.
Teaching grandchildren the basics of commerce.
Creating a brand that reflects your personal history.
Establishing a local presence that helps the neighborhood.
Mentoring younger employees or family members keeps your influence alive. You are sharing more than just a company. You are sharing a way of life. The impact lasts far beyond the initial years of operation.
Seeing your ideas grow into a successful entity is deeply satisfying. It proves that age is just a number when it comes to innovation. Your brand becomes a symbol of your continued strength.
Mastering Modern Technology
Staying current with digital trends is a common goal for modern retirees. Launching an online shop or service requires learning about websites and digital communication. The journey keeps you connected to the modern world.
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Using software for accounting or inventory management simplifies the daily routine. Tools are designed to be user-friendly and efficient for owners of all ages. Mastering them provides a sense of achievement.
Engaging with customers through digital platforms opens up a global market. You are no longer limited to your immediate geographic area. The expansion provides endless possibilities for growth, and it keeps life interesting.
Maintaining A Flexible Schedule
One of the best parts of being your own boss is the freedom to choose your hours. You can work in the mornings and spend the afternoons at the golf course or with family. The balance is the key to a happy retirement.
Working from a home office or a favorite cafe.
Taking vacations whenever the mood strikes.
Choosing projects that truly interest you.
Small business owners in their 60s and 70s often prioritize quality of life over rapid expansion. This approach leads to a sustainable pace that prevents burnout. You have the power to say no to tasks that do not fit your vision.
The ability to work at your own speed ensures that the business remains a joy. It never has to feel like an overwhelming obligation. You remain the captain of your own ship.
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Contributing To The Local Economy
Small businesses are the backbone of most communities. By opening a local shop or offering a service, you are helping your neighborhood thrive. This contribution builds a sense of pride and connection.
Hiring local help or sourcing materials from nearby vendors keeps money within the community. It creates a cycle of support that benefits everyone involved. Your success becomes the community’s success.
Being a visible part of the local market allows you to influence the area in a positive way. You can sponsor local events or participate in town markets. Involvement makes the golden years feel truly impactful.
Embracing entrepreneurship after retirement is a bold and rewarding move. It offers a unique mix of mental stimulation, social connection, and financial gain.
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Your experience and wisdom are valuable assets in the modern marketplace. Leap and discover how a small business can brighten your future.
Cryptocurrency staking is a way for people to help maintain a blockchain network and potentially earn rewards for doing so. Staking plays a crucial role in how transactions
I’ve been researching companies in-depth for over a decade, from commodities like oil, natural gas, gold and copper to tech like Google or Nokia and many emerging market stocks, which I believe could help me provide useful content for readers. After writing my own blog for about 3 years, I decided to switch to a value investing-focused YouTube channel, where I researched hundreds of different companies so far. I would say my favorite type of company to cover are metals and mining stocks, but I am comfortable with several other industries, such as consumer discretionary/staples, REITs and utilities.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, but may initiate a beneficial Long position through a purchase of the stock, or the purchase of call options or similar derivatives in CUBE over the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Those who have been waiting for Randy Orton to turn heel, the term used for villains in the WWE, got what they have been waiting for.
On the March 13 edition of Friday Night SmackDown, Orton turned heel and viciously attacked Cody Rhodes.
Randy Orton Turns Heel
The heel turn took place during the contract signing between Orton and Rhodes. The two WWE superstars are set to compete in a match for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 42 next month.
While initially looking like they were to remain friends despite going against one another, Orton soon changed his tune and attacked Rhodes.
Orton hit his old friend with the steel steps at some point, busting the latter wide open. While officials came out to try and control the situation, Orton eventually had the opportunity to hit Rhodes with the steel chair while his head was lying against the steel steps.
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Will Orton Get His 15th World Championship?
Ever since it became clear that it would be Rhodes versus Orton for WrestleMania 42, fans have been speculating which of the two will turn heel.
Leading up to the March 13 edition of SmackDown, both characters have been faces, the term used for the good guys in wrestling.
It should be noted that despite the vicious attack, the live crowd was clearly behind Orton, chanting his name despite him clearly becoming the bad guy.
Should Orton win at WrestleMania 42, it will be his 15th world championship with WWE. He’s currently tied at 14 world title reigns with Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
Get ready for an exciting investment opportunity! Muthoot FinCorp is rolling out a bond issue, aiming to gather as much as ₹600 crore to bolster business expansion and fulfill corporate goals. With appealing yields and flexible tenure options, these bonds are perfect for retail investors looking to dive in before March 23.
The base issue size is ₹200 crore, with a greenshoe option to retain oversubscription of up to ₹400 crore, the company said. “This offering is intended to support onward lending and financing activities, repay/prepay interest and principal on existing debt, and meet general corporate needs,” the company said.
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The bonds are rated ‘AA-/positive’ by Crisil Ratings and ‘AA/stable’ by Brickwork Ratings India, indicating a high degree of safety for the timely servicing of financial obligations. Muthoot FinCorp, which is not publicly listed, had standalone assets under management of ₹48,122 crore at the end of December, up 63% from the same period a year earlier, driven largely by demand for gold loans.
KLA Corporation (KLAC) Analyst/Investor Day March 12, 2026 9:00 AM EDT
Company Participants
Bren Higgins – Executive VP & CFO Richard Wallace – President, CEO & Executive Director Ahmad Khan – President of Semiconductor Products & Customers Brian Lorig – Executive Vice President of KLA Global Services
Conference Call Participants
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Atif Malik – Citigroup Inc., Research Division Stacy Rasgon – Bernstein Institutional Services LLC, Research Division Joseph Quatrochi – Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division Christopher Caso – Wolfe Research, LLC Harlan Sur – JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division Sreekrishnan Sankarnarayanan – TD Cowen, Research Division Vivek Arya – BofA Securities, Research Division Christopher Muse – Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Research Division Shane Brett – Morgan Stanley, Research Division Yu Shi – Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division Melissa Weathers – Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Presentation
Unknown Attendee
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Please welcome KLA EVP, CFO and Global Operations, Bren Higgins.
Bren Higgins Executive VP & CFO
Good morning. Thank you for being here for our 2026 KLA Investor Day. It’s great to be back in New York. I’m going to make a few comments. First, I’m going to walk through the agenda overall. So I’ll make a few comments, and then I’ll transition to our President and CEO, Rick Wallace, who will talk about compounding sustainable outperformance of the company, where we’ve been and where we’re going, some of the dynamics that are driving the ecosystem and how that plays through to opportunities for KLA relevance.
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Ahmad Khan, who’s the President of our Semiconductor Products and Customers business, will then stand up and talk about process control in the AI era, some of the dynamics that are driving our business, how we’re collaborating and engaging with customers that drives our innovation model and ultimately, how we execute. And our strategy is to take advantage of what looks like a very exciting business environment moving forward.
As grain farmers prepare for spring planting, any optimism for the coming season is being tempered by the economic reality that they may face another money-losing year. This was looking to be the case even before the conflict began in Iran, which triggered a surge in fertilizer prices.
Input costs skyrocketed in 2022 after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war and remain elevated, while commodity prices sit under production costs. The American Farm Bureau says many row-crop farmers are looking at four or five straight years of operational losses, even after accounting for crop insurance payments and ad-hoc assistance.
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Philip Nelson, a fourth-generation farmer in LaSalle County, Illinois, who was recently elected as Illinois Farm Bureau president, says the profits farmers made when crop prices were high a few years ago have eroded and balance sheets are tight.
“If you adjust for inflation, we’ve got the same commodity prices we had in 1974, and at the same time, the input costs have quadrupled,” Nelson says.
Input costs aren’t the only issue clouding farmers’ outlooks for spring planting. Last year, the U.S. harvested a record corn crop of roughly 18 billion bushels, and that heavy supply continues to weigh on the market, says Sean Lusk, vice president, commercial hedging division for Walsh Trading. In addition, the outlook for soybeans remains mixed as farmers wait on the Trump administration to decide on a potential expansion of the biomass-based diesel program that could offset some of the lost export market share to China amid recent trade tensions.
In a challenging year, risk management tools and fine-tuning marketing plans take on added importance.
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Shifting Farmer Sentiment
The Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer weakened in December, reflecting farmers’ declining long-term outlook about U.S. soybean export prospects as competition from Brazil increases. More recently, the focus has shifted to tensions between current conditions and future expectations, with farmers more optimistic about the former than the latter.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service forecasts net farm income to fall by 2.6% year-over-year in inflation-adjusted terms. The decline is mitigated in part by the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program and the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program, USDA’s aid packages for farmers to offset losses because of the trade environment. However, the American Farm Bureau says most producers likely will still lose money.
University of Illinois agricultural researchers forecast crop prices to be marginally higher in 2026. As of early March, CME Group September 2026 Corn and Soybean futures are trading around $4.55 and $11.32 per bushel, respectively.
Price gains compared to last year will likely be offset by small increases in overall costs with yields at trend levels. Break-even prices to cover all costs without government support are in the $4.70-$4.90 range for corn and $10.80-$11.25 range for soybeans, close to or above current market prices and pricing opportunities for the 2026 crop.
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David Iserman, a fifth-generation farmer based in Streator, Illinois, is sanguine about the growing season, based on those figures. “We’re definitely either breaking even, if we’re lucky, or losing money,” he says.
Cost-Cutting Measures
Annual inputs, such as seed, fertilizer and chemicals, are higher than last year. Corn consumes more inputs than soybeans, and that may factor into what U.S. farmers plant this spring – though markets won’t know for sure until the 2026 Prospective Plantings report is released on March 31. However, many farmers typically still stick with a traditional 50/50 corn and soybean rotation for agronomic reasons, which is what Iserman and Nelson plan to do.
Both producers have experienced lean times before and are looking at ways to cut costs. Iserman says fertilizer is his number one cost. He practices no-till farming on his soybeans and strip-till for corn. In strip-till farming, producers till a narrow strip of soil for fertilizer on the corn, which minimizes loss.
Iserman may tweak how much he uses and is studying the cost, using software to gauge his returns on his fertilizer use.
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“We’re looking at all of our fertilizer inputs from the standpoint of not yield, but profit. For every dollar I put in, I want to get $1 back. I don’t care about winning a yield contest. I care about return,” he says.
Nelson also says he might cut back slightly on fertilizer use because he has built it up in the soil, giving him an option to cut costs.
Fertilizer Prices Stay High
Fertilizer remains the most volatile and significant non-land cost, often accounting for 20% to 30% of total production expenses, according to USDA data.
Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizer at StoneX, says prices remain significantly higher than a year ago. In early 2026, a barge of urea at the port of New Orleans traded around $450 per ton, compared to $389 per ton in early 2025. Nitrogen prices are also higher versus a year ago.
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Three global factors drive this inflation, Linville says. China, a major global supplier, has indicated it may not export urea until August 2026, removing millions of tons from the global market. In Europe, persistent high natural gas costs have limited nitrogen production to about 75% of normal since the second half of 2022 because of the Russia-Ukraine war. In the Middle East, the Strait of Hormuz is a critical choke point through which three of the top 10 urea exporters must ship their product. As of early March, the Strait of Hormuz is facing a blockade.
To better understand fertilizer costs, some farmers look at the corn-urea and soybean-urea ratio. These ratios position fertilizer costs within the context of crop costs, calculating how many bushels of grain are required to purchase one ton of nutrients.
A lower ratio signals a more favorable time to lock in costs. Currently, with low corn prices and high urea prices, the corn-urea ratio sits near 87 to 90 bushels per ton, a five-year high. To manage this, some farmers are using CME Group’s 10-Ton Urea U.S. Gulf futures contract. Launched last year, this tool allows individual producers to hedge their fertilizer risk in increments more suited to their actual field needs, and options can help limit price risk to the upside. While fertilizer costs were elevated in January, those levels now appear relatively attractive by comparison.
A Changing Approach
“Frankly speaking, we don’t sell all of our grain in one decision. We should be looking at doing the same thing with fertilizer,” Linville says.
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He notes that traditionally farmers have looked at their fertilizer purchases annually, but watching prices throughout the year may help them make smarter operational decisions.
Farmers interested in adding the fertilizer ratios as part of their risk management toolkit can start by talking to their local grain elevator, which may give them data stretching back a few years to help them plot trends, he says. With this information, farmers may be able to act on price changes and lock in better prices.
