World Cup tickets: The qualifying rounds
Soccer’s biggest global tournament only comes around every four years, and for the 48 national teams that finally take the field in 2026 it will have been a long, long road — one that began back in September 2023 with the first qualifying rounds. Qualifying is still going on and doesn’t end until November.
The road is likewise long and arduous for fans who hope to see a game in person at the men’s World Cup, to be hosted jointly next year by North America, with games at 11 U.S. stadiums along with cities in Canada and Mexico. There hasn’t been a World Cup on U.S. soil since 1994 and American interest in the game has skyrocketed since then.
World Cup ticket interest has been bubbling since host sites were announced in 2022, and it spikes with every carefully planned announcement from tournament organizers FIFA, one of two rival governing agencies for world soccer.
Well, FIFA finally announced details of its ticket-selling process this week. And as someone who wouldn’t mind seeing a World Cup game in his hometown stadium, let me tell you this: It’s complicated.
Phase one: The Visa Presale Draw
First off, entering the draw doesn’t guarantee you tickets. Entering the draw gives you a chance to secure a future time slot during which you can attempt to buy tickets, but it’s always possible that everything you want is sold out by the time your turn comes. That is not necessarily great, but let’s be honest — unless you know somebody who knows somebody, this is probably the best chance you’ll get.
The draw opens Wednesday at 11 a.m. Eastern time and remains open until Friday, Sept. 19. Beginning Sept. 29, after a “randomized selection process,” successful entrants will be granted their ticket-buying appointment. For those entrants, ticket sales actually begin on Oct. 1. According to FIFA, tickets will be available for all 104 matches, including the final (to be held in New Jersey next July).
Keep in mind that group draws don’t happen until December, so you won’t know who’s playing in those group match games until then.
And good luck to all of us.
Apple fans, get ready for the new iPhone
The first iPhone was introduced in June 2007. All these years later, it remains the most popular smart phone in the United States, and is still the center of an annual frenzy of speculation in advance of new product announcements.
Apple will hold what it’s billed as an “Awe Dropping” event on Tuesday, at which it is expected to reveal its iPhone 17 lineup among other shiny new things (new Apple Watches, new AirPods, a next-generation AirTag).
Instead, we’ll just ask a practical question: When is it time to upgrade your iPhone?
Over time, iPhone users have been gradually holding onto their phones longer — nearly four years, on average — as new model releases become more evolutionary than revolutionary.
For common advice on when to upgrade, we scoured Reddit* (and yes, AI helped). Turns out the leading strategies tend to be conservative:
Many users say they upgrade every four to five years, as phones now are built to last that long, especially with a battery replacement.
Several commenters noted that year-to-year changes are now so incremental that changes are only noticeable from models that are three to four years old.
Some users say they optimize for trade-in value by upgrading every other year.
There are still power users who upgrade every year, because they need the new features for work or other specific uses.
But the prevailing sentiment, as summarized by one user: “Buy a phone when you need it, not when you want it.”
For the record, I’ve had my iPhone 13 for at least three years. And while I’m tempted by the latest phone upgrades rumored for iPhone17, I plan to hold onto my old phone for at least another year.
Caveat: Some analysts are predicting that the integration of AI features into smartphones will lead buyers to upgrade more often. The iPhone 17 is expected to include several AI enhancements.
The price of gold is rising and hit another record at the close of the week, touching $3,654 and change in midday trading on Friday. Gold closed out 2024 at $2,641 an ounce, meaning it has risen some 35% so far this year. The S&P 500 is up a little over 10% in that same span.
Gold prices are notoriously volatile, but observers foresee more gains in the year ahead. In June, financial services firm J.P. Morgan, citing “trade uncertainty and geopolitical risks,” predicted prices would rise toward $4,000 by the second quarter of 2026. Newer forecasts are setting sights even higher.
“Currently, we predict the price will reach $5,000 per ounce by the end of the first quarter of 2026,” according to Nigel Green, CEO of the deVere Group, another financial services giant. “The drivers are already in place and momentum is compounding.”
So what’s going on, in a nutshell? For one, gold often rises in times of economic uncertainty — like now, amid the current U.S. trade war and White House attacks on the Fed. Analysts at the deVere Group listed several factors at play in the current rise of gold.
Central banks are buying: In particular, China and India are buying gold at accelerated rates. According to the World Gold Council, central banks have bought up more than 1,000 metric tons of gold in each of the last three years, double the rate over the preceding decade.
Spices were once almost as rare and coveted as gold, and like gold their prices may soon be booming — just in time for pumpkin spice season.
Starbucks started the fall craze with the introduction of its pumpkin spice latte as a test in 2003, and now you can find a pumpkin spice variation on just about every food item you can name.
The traditional pumpkin spice blend includes cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice, all of which grow in tropical conditions. So we import them from places like spice powerhouse India, which is now subject to a 50% tariff.
ICYMI: 68 jobs get tax break for 2025
Do you get tipped on the job? Starting with the 2025 tax year, up to $25,000 in tipped income is tax-exempt for a whopping 68 occupations.
That list includes the usual suspects like housecleaners, servers, hair stylists and delivery drivers. But there are some surprising positions that made the cut like digital content creators, plumbers and electricians.
Here’s what else you may have missed this week:
Next week: Is inflation reigniting?
Sept 10: Producer Price Index (wholesale inflation), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — Producer price growth spiked last month, and while I anticipate we’ll see continued strong inflation here, it may not top the 0.9% month-over-month reading we saw in July’s data.
Sept.11: Consumer Price Index (consumer inflation), BLS — Core inflation exceeded the 3% mark last month, and we’re unlikely to see signs of relief in August’s data. That said, a large spike is unlikely and anything aside from that will fuel bets for a rate cut at the next Fed meeting.
* Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check on how long users keep their iPhones. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.
