The memory-chip shortage has reached a tipping point, and Apple plans to raise prices on its products as a result.

In an exclusive interview with the

Wall Street Journal published Wednesday, Apple AAPL CEO Tim Cook said that price increases have become “unavoidable” as booming demand for artificial-intelligence data centers leads to sustained supply-chain disruptions for memory and storage solutions. Alphabet GOOGL GOOG, Amazon.com AMZN, Meta Platforms META and Microsoft MSFT are spending roughly $700 billion on AI this year. They’re placing massive orders for products from memory providers Micron MU, Samsung KR:005930 and SK Hynix KR:000660, completely buying out supply with massive prepaid contracts.

Shares of Alphabet slipped in Monday’s after-hours trading, after the cloud and internet giant announced an $80 million equity offering. This sends a message that the company would rather have shareholders fund its ambitious expansion of artificial-intelligence infrastructure than use cash on hand.

The equity raise includes an agreement reached to sell $10 billion worth of stock to Berkshire Hathaway

BRK.B — half in Class A common shares and half in Class C capital stock — in a private placement. Based on a MarketWatch analysis of the terms of the placement and recent ownership disclosures, that would increase the number of Alphabet shares Berkshire owns by about 49% to about 86.4 million shares, or 1.3% of the total shares outstanding.

“A hospital is no place to be sick,” pioneering Hollywood producer and film-studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn is credited with saying. Of course, if you need hospitalization, you go. And if you’re scheduling a surgical procedure, the No. 1 question you want to ask is, “Which day?”

Every year, 15 million Americans have some type of surgery, according to the American College of Surgeons. Many U.S. hospitals are crowded, and delays in getting a procedure and shortages of post-operation beds are common. Such setbacks are costly for hospitals, exhausting for doctors and nurses, and, for some patients, they’re deadly.

It did not go well. My husband has now blocked the card and will only unlock it for “approved” medical bills. I agreed with him helping until his son got on his feet, but now that he has a new lucrative job, is “clean” and has his own medical insurance, I think my husband should take his credit card back (his son has not used the card for a few months). 

Even if it’s blocked, I think it sends the wrong message. My husband is hesitant to ask for it back. He won’t rock the boat, and so he has done nothing.  

What is the best way to approach this with his son?  

The Stepmother

Related: ‘She acted as a mother to me growing up’: My stepmother remarried after my father died. How can I claim my inheritance?

Dear Stepmother,

Finally, a letter from a stepmother rather than about one. Hallelujah!

Whatever your stepson did, and you and your husband did as parents, has worked. I agree that it probably wasn’t the smartest decision to give somebody who was in active addiction a credit card and, from your letter, I gather he made purchases that were not medical-related. But your husband blocked the card, and your stepson found his way back to sobriety and good health.

Before your husband approaches the subject of the credit card, he will need to be comfortable with having that conversation. It’s not enough for you to want his son to return the card; your husband needs to be on board, too. The relationship between a parent and child, and the sense of responsibility, love and, yes, fear is very different from your more objective perspective.

Assuming your husband agrees, and only if he does, he should be as honest and transparent as possible. “I’m proud of you and everything you’ve achieved and, even though the card is nonoperational, I think you have reached a place in your recovery where we can have a ceremonial handing over of the card.”

However, I’m not necessarily in lockstep with your logic that your stepson having this credit card, blocked though it is, in his possession sends a message that he will bail him out again. You view it as a reminder that your husband was, as you see it, an enabler who mollycoddled his son. But he and his son may view it differently. 

If everything is going well, why drag up that past to humiliate or demean him by asking for this card back?

Perhaps the card symbolizes protection or an act of love for your stepson — that no matter how far his life had spiraled downward in those years, his father was there to pick him up and help him get back on the right track. It could also help ease your stepson’s anxieties. If he does lose his job, his father will be there in some form, financial or otherwise, to offer a helping hand.

Your stepson has a well-paid job. Don’t allow your resentment or ill will for his mother or father’s actions to affect your own judgment. If everything is going well, why drag up that past to humiliate or demean him by asking for this card back? It also signals a lack of trust and, given that the card is blocked, retrieving it seems like a pyrrhic victory.

For other parents in a similar situation: the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, offers advice on how to open dialogue with a loved one: “Identify an appropriate time and place. Express concerns, and be direct. Acknowledge their feelings and listen. Offer to help. Be patient.”

Obviously, if your stepson had run up thousands of dollars in credit-card debt, your husband would have been responsible. His credit score would risk taking a battering, not your stepson’s. Do I think it was a smart idea to give an adult child a credit card, whether he had a substance-misuse problem or not? No. But taking it back won’t undo that.

If you, or a family member, needs help with a mental or substance use disorder, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or TTY: 1-800-487-4889, or text your zip code to 435748 (HELP4U), or use SAMHSA’s Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator to get help. You can also find more resources and advice for families from SAMHSA here.

Here are other resources for people with family members who have addiction issues: The Center for Motivation and Change published this book, “Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change.” Dr. Robert Meyers, who has been working in the field of addiction for four decades, developed the CRAFT approach to encourage a family member to engage in treatment.

Related: My daughter no longer speaks to me or my husband, and mocked our family values. Do we cut her out of her $2 million inheritance?

You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions at qfottrell@marketwatch.com. 

Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.

The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.

Previous columns by Quentin Fottrell:

‘Is this ethical?’ I want to leave my home to my children from my first marriage — and not to my second husband.

I want to leave my home to my children from my first marriage — and not to my second husband. Is that wrong?

‘I am an only child’: My father left his $50 million estate to my stepmother in an irrevocable trust. I inherited $1 million. Is this reasonable?

By emailing your questions to The Moneyist or posting your dilemmas on The Moneyist Facebook group, you agree to have them published anonymously on MarketWatch.

By submitting your story to Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of MarketWatch, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms, including via third parties.

President Trump made no bones about his distaste for the U.S. Chips Act during his congressional address Tuesday night — raising questions in the semiconductor industry about the future of the program and the role some U.S. companies will play going forward.

Trump also

touted a recent agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. TSM TW:2330 in which the world’s largest chip-manufacturing company promised to invest $100 billion into building more factories in the U.S., in addition to $65 billion already planned. The latest agreement was not through any funding from the Chips Act, which funded $6.6 billion toward TSMC’s Arizona plants last November.

President Donald Trump vowed during his address to a joint session of Congress late Tuesday to boost U.S. production of critical minerals and rare earths, continuing his administration’s push to tap into mineral wealth.

Trump’s

speech to Congress came just days after an extraordinary White House clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The presidents met in the Oval Office on Friday in what was billed as a precursor to a deal that would include U.S. access to the war-torn European nation’s valuable natural resources. However, Zelensky left the White House with the deal unsigned after clashing with Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance in front of the world’s media.

I am receiving full Social Security ($3,507) and I purchased the home I had been renting for 12 years prior. My wife, 61, does not work due to health issues. She also has a pension of about $53,000 and a 401(k) of $47.000. She worked for the same two companies as I did.

My wife has not worked for the last 15 years. We do not have significant debt other than the outstanding mortgage on our house. What do you think is the best way to continue repairing the damage done in the past? 

Not Yet Retired 

Related: ‘Why am I so afraid to retire?’ I’m 60 and lost $1.2 million in a divorce. Can I rebuild my life?

Dear Not Yet,

Can we take a moment to focus on what you’ve done right? You’ve done so much right.

You kept working because you knew you had to build up your pension and stock-purchasing plan. You waited to claim your Social Security to get full benefits. You are married and, it seems, happily so. You bought a house and made progress on paying off the mortgage.

And let’s not overlook the biggest achievement of all. You made it to 69. Congratulations! That’s a gift and we should never take aging for granted, despite the fact that it comes with complications. Given that you’re still working, I assume you’re in relatively good health.

Given that you don’t have a massive 401(k) to fall back on, waiting to claim your Social Security was a huge plus, and something that you should give yourself credit for doing. If you had claimed it at 62, for example, you’d only get 70% of your full amount. 

You’ve done so much that is right.

Many people make mistakes with their 401(k). They don’t contribute enough, fail to take advantage of the annual $7,500 catch-up contributions after 50, don’t oversee their investment strategy, or don’t distinguish between a Roth 401(k) and a traditional 401(k).

Or they get into financial trouble elsewhere, such as credit-card or personal debt. Or, they may withdraw money from their 401(k) early — before the age of 59 ½ — meaning, in addition to paying tax on those withdrawals, they must pay a 10% penalty. They rob themselves of future growth.

You may not be where you want to be with your 401(k), but you’re not holding significant personal debt, and you will hopefully have a home that will be paid off in time. Plus, you’re not doing that badly compared with the average American with a 401(k) account.

The average 401(k) balance

The average 401(k) balance hovers at around $242,200 for baby boomers (born 1946–1964) and $182,100 for Generation X (born 1965–1980), according to Fidelity, and the average 401(k) retirement balance across all age groups is $127,100.

“Occasionally, retirement savings can also act as a source of emergency funds for non-retirees who face economic hardships,” this Federal Reserve report said. “Some non-retirees who may have a need for a reserve fund to ‘weather’ a hardship may not have retirement savings.”

Some 75% of non-retired adults had at least some retirement savings, but 25% had no retirement savings, the report added. “Among those with retirement savings, these savings were most frequently in defined contribution plans, such as a 401(k) or 403(b),” it said.

Pay off your mortgage and stay out of debt.

Citi Wealth C addressed this very question: what do you do if you only have around $100,000 for retirement? “The reality is that $100,000 in retirement savings is likely not enough to supplement Social Security for a lifetime,” it said.

“It may be adequate to serve as emergency funds for the various larger household expenses that may come up, such as car repairs, household maintenance, property taxes, etc., but there is little room for error,” the bank’s wealth management arm added. 

“There will likely not be much left over monthly for entertainment, travel, gifts or many of the other simple pleasures of life,” it said, citing the resurgence in inflation, particularly in food, electricity, heating, household goods and TV streaming services like Netflix NFLX and Hulu DIS .

The simple pleasures of life

I appreciate the overall message of prudence, but I don’t necessarily agree that you have to forego the simple pleasures of life which, in my mind, include cooking at home, enjoying books from the library, long walks, exercise and quality time with family and friends.

Citi Wealth does advise that a retiring household with $100,000 in savings will need to protect the money in safe havens such as high-yield savings accounts, money markets, short-term bank CDs and U.S. Treasury Bills. 

“These are low risk, liquid and earn a reasonable rate of interest today,” the bank added. “The interest earned, up to perhaps $4,000 to $5,000 per year, can be used to supplement monthly expenditures.” It does not recommend investing the money in mutual funds or stocks.

You can’t undo the past.

What do you do now? Keep enjoying life, pay off your mortgage, stay out of debt, try to put money aside for an emergency fund, stay on top of your doctor’s appointments and pay the copay rather than say, “It’s probably nothing,” if something does come up.

You can’t undo the past and, not to split hairs, we spend too much energy trying to repair the mistakes of the past. Without a DeLorean and a line tied to a clocktower, we’re out of luck. You can, however, build for your eventual retirement by doing what you’re doing.

You are financially stable and in a secure position to have a modest, happy retirement when the time comes. During the pandemic, I lived out of two suitcases for four months and realized just how little I actually needed in life. It was the biggest takeaway from that time.

Amidst all your looking back and planning for the future, don’t forget to enjoy the present.

Related: ‘My retirement is going to be a disaster’: I’m 59 and have $45,000 in my 401(k). I earn $72,000. Am I doomed?

You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions at qfottrell@marketwatch.com. 

Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.

By emailing your questions to The Moneyist or posting your dilemmas on The Moneyist Facebook group, you agree to have them published anonymously on MarketWatch.

By submitting your story to Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of MarketWatch, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms, including via third parties.

The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.

Previous columns by Quentin Fottrell:

‘Is this ethical?’ I want to leave my home to my children from my first marriage — and not to my second husband.

I’m 50, earn $172K a year and married, yet I’m still living paycheck-to-paycheck. My family want me to return home. What should I do?

‘I have nothing left for retirement’: My husband and I have 9 kids and $70K in student debt. How do we pay it off?