The Daily Money: So long, city life

Good morning! It’s Daniel de Visé with your Daily Money.

For decades, young Americans formed the lifeblood of the nation’s largest cities. Now, Paul Davidson reports, they’re leaving big metro areas in droves and powering growth in small towns and rural areas.

Since the pandemic, cities with more than 1 million residents have lost adults aged 25 to 44, while towns with smaller populations have gained young people, after accounting for both those moving in and leaving, according to a University of Virginia analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Here's how it happened.

How hurricane season spawns 'climate refugees'

Images from Florida, battered by two once-in-a-generation storms in a matter of weeks, are prompting a reckoning by Americans across the country.

“Will Florida be completely unlivable/destroyed in the next few years?” one Reddit user wondered. And on October 7, the science writer Dave Levitan published an essay titled “At Some Point You Don’t Go Back.”

But for anyone wondering “why do they still live there?” a report from data analytics provider First Street offers some answers.

Here's Andrea Riquier's report.

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If you want to retire in comfort, investment firms and news headlines tell us, you may need $1 million in the bank.

Or maybe not. One prominent economist says you can retire for a lot less: $50,000 to $100,000 in total savings. He points to the experiences of actual retirees as evidence.

Most Americans retire with nowhere near $1 million in savings. The notion that we need that much money to fund a secure retirement arises from opinion polls, personal finance columns and two or three rules of thumb that suffuse the financial planning business.

About The Daily Money

Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer and financial news from USA TODAY, breaking down complex events, providing the TLDR version, and explaining how everything from Fed rate changes to bankruptcies impacts you.

Daniel de Visé covers personal finance for USA Today.