Markus Andrews

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright made clear this week they want to make it as easy as possible to drill on federal land and waters.
Burgum said he views companies developing resources on federal lands as “customers” who are contributing to the national “balance sheet.”
“You’re the customer,” the interior secretary told oil, gas and mining executives at a conference in Houston.

HOUSTON — The officials leading President Donald Trump’s energy agenda made clear to oil, gas and mining executives this week that they have an ally in Washington who intends to make it as easy as possible for them to drill in federal lands and waters.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told executives gathered for the world’s largest energy conference that the Trump administration does not view climate change as an existential threat. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said rising global temperatures are simply a byproduct of developing the country’s national resources to support economic growth and national security.

Burgum leads Trump’s recently established National Energy Dominance Council and Wright serves as his deputy on the interagency body tasked with boosting production. Burgum was effusive in his praise of the oil and gas industry during remarks delivered at CERAWeek by S&P Global conference.
“I’m going to share two words that I do not think that you have heard from a federal official in the Biden administration during the last four years. And those two words are thank you,” said Burgum, who previously served as governor of North Dakota, a state that produces 1.2 million barrels of oil per day.
Burgum leaned on his experience as software company executive to lay out his view of the interior department’s role. The department under his leadership views the companies developing resources on federal lands as “customers” who are contributing revenue to the nation’s “balance sheet,” Burgum said.
“If someone was sending me revenue, they weren’t the enemy. They were the customer,” Burgum said. The administration loves anyone who wants to harvest timber, mine for critical minerals, graze cattle, or produce oil and gas on federals, the interior secretary said.
Royalties sent from lease agreements on federal land will help the U.S. pay down its national debt and balance the budget, Burgum said. “You’re the customer,” the interior secretary told the executives.

The value of nation’s abundant natural resources far outweighs its $36 trillion in debt, Burgum said. If financial markets understood the value of America’s natural resources, the 10-year long-term interest rate would come down, Burgum claimed.
“The interest rates right now are one of the biggest expenses we have as a country,” Burgum said. “So one of the things that we have to do is unleash America’s balance sheet, and President Trump is helping us do that,” he said.
Burgum slammed the Biden administration’s focus on climate change as an “ideology.” He said the Trump administration views Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon and China winning the artificial intelligence race as the two existential threats facing the U.S. rather than global warming. Wright said Biden had a “myopic” and “quasi religious” belief in reducing emissions that hurt consumers.
Burgum and Wright dismissed policies that support a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, arguing that wind and solar won’t be able to meet rising energy demand in the coming years from artificial intelligence and re-industrialization.
“There is simply no physical way that wind, solar and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas. I haven’t even mentioned oil or coal yet,” Wright said at the conference. Wright previously served as CEO of oilfield services company Liberty Energy and a board member at nuclear startup Oklo.

Oil execs see allies in Washington

Oil executives are enthusiastic about the change of administrations in Washington, returning the praise they received from Trump’s energy team during the week.
ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said Wright and Burgum “understand the business,” describing them as the best energy team the U.S. has seen in decades. TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said he was “impressed by the quality of our counterparts.” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said the industry is “seeing some reality come back to the conversation.”
“For years, my message has been, we need a balanced conversation about affordability, reliability and the environment, and focusing only on climate leads us to ignore the first two,” Wright said.

The executives all referred to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, following Trump’s executive order to rename the body of water. The president issued an order on his first day to repeal Biden’s ban on offshore drilling in 625 million acres of U.S. coastal waters.
BP CEO Murray Auchincloss briefly slipped before correcting himself when discussing how generative AI is helping with exploration: “We started doing this in the Gulf of Mexico, uh America, and we spread that to other nations as well.”
But Trump’s calls to “drill, baby, drill” are running up against market reality. The CEOs of Chevron and Conoco said U.S. oil production will likely plateau in the coming years after hitting new records under the Biden administration.
“Chasing growth for growth’s sake has not proven to be particularly successful for our industry,” Wirth said. “At some point, you’ve grown enough that you should start to move towards a plateau, and you should generate more free cash flow, rather than just more barrels.”
Lance sees U.S. oil production plateauing later this decade and then slowly declining.
“Maybe it’s time to go back to exploring the Gulf of America,” Pouyanné said. “The new administration is opening the Gulf. It has been slowed down after the Macondo drama,” he said, referring the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest in the history of marine drilling operations.
U.S. oil producers are scheduled to meet with Trump next week, industry lobby group American Petroleum Institute said in statement. More

Piotr Swaat | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Company: Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (CTSH)

Business: Cognizant Technology Solutions engineers modern businesses. Its services include artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology services and solutions, consulting, application development, systems integration, quality engineering and assurance. Its segments include Health Sciences (HS), Financial Services (FS), Products and Resources (P&R), and Communications, Media and Technology (CMT). The HS segment consists of health-care providers and payers, as well as life sciences companies. The FS segment includes banking, capital markets, payments and insurance companies. The P&R segment includes manufacturers, automakers, retailers, consumer goods companies, and travel and hospitality companies, as well as businesses providing logistics, energy and utility services. The CMT segment includes global communications, media and entertainment, education, information services and technology companies.
Stock Market Value: $39.13B ($79.12 per share)

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Cognizant Technology Solutions shares in the past year

Activist: Mantle Ridge LP

Ownership: ~2.4%
Average Cost: n/a
Activist Commentary: Mantle Ridge was launched by Paul Hilal, a veteran activist who was a former senior partner at Pershing Square. Hilal is an incredibly experienced activist investor with a unique mix of analytical abilities, communication skills and likability that you rarely see in the activist world. Mantle Ridge is very selective with its investments. While many activists look for three to four good ideas a year, Mantle Ridge looks for one good idea every three to four years. Hilal’s approach has generally been to constructively engage with the company, amicably get the required level of board representation for the given situation, bring in the right senior management team and then decide how to best optimize the portfolio of assets. Hilal played a leading role in several Pershing Square investments including Air Products, Ceridian and Canadian Pacific.

What’s happening

Mantle Ridge has taken a more than $1 billion position in Cognizant Technology Solutions.

Behind the scenes

Cognizant (CTSH) is a global IT services company specializing in digital transformation, consulting, and outsourcing solutions. The industry is highly concentrated, an oligopoly with Cognizant competing against major players such as Accenture, Infosys and Capgemini. These firms derive their durable profitability and growth from designing, implementing, maintaining and evolving technology solutions for their corporate clients. Cognizant was established more than 30 years ago with Kumar Mahadeva as a co-founding CEO. Mahadeva was a brilliant businessman who keenly identified the opportunity that laid ahead. Prioritizing industry-beating pricing and accelerated growth, he believed that this would help attract and retain the best talent in an industry in which attrition is perhaps the biggest risk. Under the leadership of Mahadeva and his successors, including Francisco D’Souza, Cognizant was massively successful, becoming one of the largest players in the industry, growing over 35,000% from its IPO in 1998 to the end of D’Souza’s tenure as CEO in 2019.

In 2019, DeSouza was succeeded as CEO by Brian Humphries, the former CEO of Vodafone. This was the first Cognizant CEO and the only CEO among its peers who was not an industry insider. Moreover, his leadership style was a poor cultural fit for the company, focusing too much on reducing costs and being characterized as aggressive in a people-oriented environment. Additionally, as an industry outsider, he simply lacked the expertise to push major contracts over the finish line relative to peers who could bring in a respected industry CEO to close big deals. As a result, over the course of Humphries tenure, there was increasing attrition in Cognizant’s workforce, spiking to 600 basis points above its peer average and was concentrated in key growth-oriented roles in long-tenured on and offshore delivery and sales. This was completely counter to Mahadeva’s original insight that minimizing employee churn, especially client-facing personnel, was the key to sustaining long-term growth. Integration processes are very long, expensive, and clients demand continuity. High employee churn disrupts sales cycles, weakens client trust, and makes it difficult to retain and attract new clients, setting off a negative flywheel of declining bookings and shrinking margins. As a result, Cognizant slipped from a best-in-class player in organic growth (compound annual growth rate of over 10%, firmly in the top quartile) to an industry laggard. By 2022, the company’s organic growth was trailing peers by up to 900bps. This inevitably led to a negative total shareholder return during Humphries’ tenure as CEO of -7% versus 70% and 115% for peers Accenture and Infosys, respectively.
In the second half of 2022, Mantle Ridge began buying the stock which was trading in the high-50s to low-60s. Shortly after on Jan. 12, 2023, Cognizant announced a major reorganization. CEO Brian Humphries would be replaced by former Infosys president Ravi Kumar and chairman Michael Patsalos-Fox would be replaced by director Stephen Rohleder, a former executive of Accenture. Mantle Ridge has been very respectful of the events transpiring at the company and has not made any public comments regarding these changes. However, as somebody who has intimately followed every activist campaign for the past 20 years, we can tell you two things: (i) activists engage with fewer than 4% of public companies each year and (ii) significantly fewer companies announce a change in CEO and chairman at the same time. We are not saying that Mantle Ridge was the cause of these changes, but the odds of these two things happening contemporaneously in a vacuum are astronomically low and we expect that the board at the very least heard the footsteps.  
Since the elevation of Kumar and Rohleder, performance at Cognizant has been night and day. Returning to those three indicators of success, first, Cognizant has delivered a total shareholder return of over 30%, outpacing Infosys and Accenture, which are in the low 20s. Attrition has been reduced and, in fact, 13,000 employees who had left the company have returned since this new team took over. It’s quite a strong signal of a shifting tide, and confidence in the company has been restored for some of its most important stakeholders. In addition, from previously underperforming growth by 900bps, in 2024 the deficit has been all but eliminated to 100bps, posting a deficit of just 30bps in Q4 24 after several consecutive months of recovery. Management has signaled that, going forward, they expect to be in the winners’ circle (top quartile) again. Lastly, earnings before interest and taxes margins have also expanded and exceeded targets the past two years, up from 15.1% in 2023 to 15.4% in 2024, this doesn’t even account for the additional 30bps of underlying margin expansion adjusted out due to a recent acquisition.
One would think that between replacing the CEO, chairman and CFO with respected industry insiders and these drastically improved results, it would result in a rerating of Cognizant’s stock, yet the company continues to trade at a significant discount to peers. Cognizant trades at a total enterprise value per employee of $119,000 while peers trade at nearly twice that. In addition, despite having nearly identical revenue generation, Infosys’ enterprise value is nearly double that of Cognizant. Furthermore, despite clear signs of continuous closure of the organic growth gap with peers and management’s confidence in the future, outyear consensus still projects the spread between Cognizant and its peers widening. This is a company that after several years of underperformance has finally corrected its issues, but which the Street is not yet ready to trust.
Mantle Ridge is known for taking large board representation at their portfolio companies, often a majority, and replacing the CEO. None of that is happening here. This is a strong signal that Mantle Ridge likes the new CEO and is supportive of the actions that the board is taking. While we could not identify any direct relationships between Hilal and current board or senior management members, he is very well connected in many industries, and we would doubt there is more than one degree of separation between him and many of the key players here. Activists coming into underperforming stocks and taking action is generally a strong sign of potential future shareholder value. What may be an even stronger sign is an activist coming into a stock and not having to act. That is what we see here, and we have the comfort of the existence of the activist in case things start to go off track. Mantle Ridge has had a position (likely through non-13F reporting derivatives) in the company since 2022, and it is first being made public now, just before Cognizant’s investor day on March 25th. We do not think this is a coincidence. It is a signal to the company to educate the investors at investor week with what Mantle Ridge sees and the company knows: Growth, margins and attrition are all going in the right direction. Mantle Ridge’s stake will undoubtedly pique the interest of the market and increase turnout for the analyst day. It should signal to the Street that this is a company deserving of a revised outlook to adjust for the positive management and performance trends that have been percolating for several quarters now. Looking at EBIT/employee and price-to-earnings, there could be between 35% and 45% upside to the company’s current valuation if management can continue the march toward the winner’s circle.
Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments. More

Asked where they keep their cash at home, about 10% of respondents store it in a safe, making it the most popular place.
Other spots are less conventional. About 6% hide their cash in a secret compartment such as “a drawer that has a fake side that you can’t see,” said Yuval Shuminer, Piere’s founder and CEO.
Here’s what to know about keeping cash at home, and where to put your money instead.

Patty_c | E+ | Getty Images

While having some cash on hand can be helpful in an emergency, it’s important to consider where you keep it. Some people stash it in inconspicuous places around the house, a habit that experts say can lead to trouble down the line.
The typical person has roughly $544 in cash and valuables like coins, banknotes, and bullion at home, according to a new survey from financial management app Piere. The site surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults in late January and early February.

Asked where they keep their cash at home, about 10% of respondents store it in a safe, making it the most popular place.
Other spots are less conventional. About 6% hide their cash in a secret compartment such as “a drawer that has a fake side that you can’t see,” said Yuval Shuminer, Piere’s founder and CEO.
Another 6% of respondents said they keep the money either under or in a bed, mattress or pillow, while 5% keep the cash in a freezer or refrigerator. Smaller shares of those surveyed said they keep money in an ornament, vase, or urn (4%), or under floorboards or a carpet (3%). 
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Times of economic uncertainty can lead people to hold more cash, said Shannon Martin, a licensed insurance agent and content writer for Bankrate.

But don’t overdo it, experts say.
Storing cash at home doesn’t give you the same protections as you get with an account at an insured financial institution. You also risk losing out on potential gains from high-yield interest or stock market returns, said Piere’s Shuminer. 

Risks with hiding cash around the house

Having too much cash around the house can expose you to a number of issues. For one: Your home insurance policy might not protect the entire amount.
Items like cash tend to fall under a subcategory called special limits, said Bankrate’s Martin. This means that the covered value is capped at a certain amount, which can depend on your insurer, she said. 
Most home insurance policies will have a $200 coverage sublimit to replace cash, coins and precious metals, Bankrate found.
Some insurers offer higher limits. You could also ask your insurance agent about an endorsement to increase the coverage, but then you would have to prove that you have a high amount of money in your house, Martin said. 
“If you’re trying to put in the claim for $10,000 of cash that you have stuffed in your mattress, there’s probably a lot of questions around that,” she said.

Money deposited in an account that is protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will be safer.
“If you keep it in a bank, the bank has insurance,” Martin said. “If something happens to your cash at home, you only have whatever’s listed on your policy.”
This can make money that’s lost or stolen difficult to replace, even in the face of natural disasters.  
If your home is impacted by a hazard like a fire and you have large sums of cash scattered in your house, “you’ve got this cash that’s now gone up in smoke, potentially,” said certified financial planner Lee Baker, the founder, owner and president of Claris Financial Advisors in Atlanta. He’s also a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council.

Where to keep your cash instead

Don’t shy away from having some cash at home.
“I’ve been in a hurricane where power was out for a very long time and the ATMs don’t work,” said Carolyn McClanahan, a CFP and the founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida.
At that point, “cash is king,” said McClanahan, who’s also a CNBC FA Council member.
Baker agreed: “Having enough cash to get you through a day, perhaps two, actually makes sense.”
Instead of hiding your savings in drawers, bookcases and secret compartments, here are three other places to keep your money:

1. A high-yield savings account

Experts say that you want to have enough money in your checking account to pay for a month’s worth of bills. Keep anything more than that in a savings account, and ideally, a high-yield savings account.
As of March, some of the top high-yield savings accounts offer an average 4.20% APY versus a 0.6% APY, according to Bankrate.
“It’s just money that they’re leaving on the table,” Shuminer said.

2. Investment accounts

Money for mid- and long-term goals is generally better invested because inflation erodes the value of your savings. While the market can be volatile in the short term, over a long timeline, investment returns will generally outpace inflation, McClanahan said.
“Cash does not outpace inflation,” McClanahan said.
While the market’s recent volatility can be intimidating, experts generally recommend investors focus on their long-term goals.
“You might be leaving thousands of dollars that you could be earning over the course of the next year just by not having it sitting in the right places,” Shuminer said.

3. A ‘personal financial bag’

For emergencies, have enough money to tide you over for a day or two in a “personal financial bag” at home that you can simply grab in the case of fire or other emergencies, Baker said.
Consider keeping that bag in a water- and fireproof safe, said Bankrate’s Martin. If something happens, you may still be able to go in and get the money, she said.
Whether you have a safe or opt for another location, keep the money in one spot in your house and make sure everybody in your family or household knows where it is, Baker said.
“I would not encourage emergency money being in too many different places,” Baker said. “In the time of an emergency, things need to be simple.” More

Your pre-tax individual retirement account is subject to future income taxes on withdrawals, depending on your tax bracket.
However, the funds could offer some “dry powder” — pre-tax money in retirement accounts that can be strategically withdrawn for planning opportunities, said certified public accountant Jeff Levine.

Songsak Rohprasit | Moment | Getty Images

When saving for retirement, it’s easy to funnel money into a pre-tax 401(k) plan or individual retirement account without planning for future taxes. Those pre-tax funds, however, can be handy in some cases, experts say.
Often, investors roll pre-tax 401(k) accounts into traditional IRAs, and the withdrawals in retirement trigger regular income taxes, depending on your tax bracket. 

“Your IRA is an IOU to the IRS,” certified public accountant Ed Slott said during a session last week at the Horizons retirement planning conference in Coronado, California.  
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With uncertain future tax rates, Slott pushes for savings in after-tax Roth accounts, which won’t incur taxes in retirement. He also likes to use Roth conversions.
Roth conversions move pretax or nondeductible IRA funds to a Roth IRA, which can kick-start tax-free growth after an upfront tax bill. 
However, there are scenarios where keeping some money in your pre-tax IRA makes sense, Slott said. 

Certified public accountant Jeff Levine agreed. He told CNBC he prefers some “dry powder” — pre-tax money in retirement accounts that can be strategically withdrawn for planning opportunities.
By comparison, “you’ve already paid your tax bill” with after-tax Roth accounts, he said.

Medical deduction for long-term care

One tax planning opportunity is for retirees expecting long-term care expenses, experts say.
A 2022 research brief from the Department of Health and Human Services found 56% of Americans turning 65 that year will develop a condition that requires long-term care services.
Whether it’s in-home health aids or assisted living facilities, long-term care expenses are rising, according to Genworth’s annual survey. 
But the medical expense deduction could help offset those costs, according to Levine. For 2025, you can claim the tax break for expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income for the year.

If you itemize tax breaks, the deduction reduces the amount of your income subject to tax. That means part of the medical expense deduction could be lost if your income is too low.
“You wipe it out,” Levine said.
But that issue could be solved with a large pre-tax IRA withdrawal in the year of high long-term care expenses, which boosts your adjusted gross income for that year, he said.

Tax break for charitable giving

There’s another tax planning opportunity for investors with pre-tax IRAs who want to give to charity, Slott said.
Slott was referring to qualified charitable distributions, or QCDs, which are direct transfers from an individual retirement account to a non-profit organization. You must be age 70½ or older to qualify for a QCD.
While there’s no tax deduction for a QCD, the transfer is excluded from your income, meaning it won’t boost your adjusted gross income.  
If you want to leave assets to charity and adult children after death, pre-tax IRAs are less attractive for your heirs because they must follow the “10-year rule,” and empty accounts within 10 years of the original owner’s death. More

The Federal Reserve is likely to hold interest rates steady at the end of its two-day meeting on March 19.
While high interest rates have put pressure on households, some borrowing costs are starting to ease, potentially providing relief for consumers with credit card debt or considering a home or auto purchase. 
Here’s a look at where those rates stand.

The Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady at the end of its two-day meeting next week, despite some encouraging news on inflation. 
Although inflation receded last month, an escalating trade war threatens to cause prices to rise on a wide range of consumer goods going forward.

“This is likely just the beginning with tariffs on Europe and universal ones to follow suit over the coming weeks,” Andrzej Skiba, head of U.S. fixed income at RBC Global Asset Management, said in an email. “This will be inflationary, and the Fed won’t likely be able to cut rates in this environment.”
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The federal funds rate sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending, but also affects many of the borrowing and savings rates Americans see every day.
“Consumers are stretched and stressed,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
Once the federal funds rate comes down, consumers may see their borrowing costs decrease across a variety of consumer debt such as auto loans, credit cards and mortgages, making it cheaper to borrow money. 

But even with the Fed on the sidelines for now, households could see some relief. Already, rates for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards are edging lower. Still, these rates remain relatively elevated compared to recent highs, with credit card APRs down only slightly from an all-time record. 
Here’s a look at where consumer borrowing costs stand.

Mortgages

Although 15- and 30-year mortgage rates are fixed, and largely tied to Treasury yields and the economy, rates have been trending lower for weeks.
Worries about a possible recession and increased uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariff plans have soured consumers’ outlook and dragged down rates, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
“The good news is that even though the Fed has taken its foot off the gas when it comes to rate cuts, mortgage rates have fallen,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is now 6.77%, down from 7.04% at the beginning of the year, according to Bankrate.

Credit cards

Most credit cards have a variable rate, so there’s a direct connection to the Fed’s benchmark.
But even though the central bank held rates at the last few meetings, the average annual percentage rate has moved lower too — it’s currently, down to 20.09%, from 20.27% at the start of the year, thanks to the lingering effects of last year’s rate cuts. 

“March was the sixth straight monthly decline, but the decreases have slowed as Fed rate cuts get further back in the rearview mirror,” Schulz said of credit card APRs.
In the meantime, credit card debt continues to be a pain point for consumers struggling to keep up with high prices. Revolving debt, which mostly includes credit card balances, is up 8.2% year over year, while nonrevolving debt, such as auto loans and student loans, is 3% higher, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest consumer credit report.

Auto loans

Although auto loan rates are fixed, those payments continue to grow because car prices are rising, in addition to pressure from trade policy uncertainty.
“That’s troubling news for potential car buyers, who are already beset on all sides by high rates and high prices and also face the possibility of tariffs pushing car costs even higher,” Schulz said.
However, auto loan rates have also backed down from recent highs. The average rate on a five-year new car loan is now 7.42%, down from 7.53% in January, according to Bankrate.

Student loans

Federal student loan rates are fixed, as well, so most borrowers are somewhat shielded from Fed moves and recent economic turmoil.
Undergraduate students who took out direct federal student loans for the 2024-25 academic year are paying 6.53%, up from 5.50% in 2023-24. Interest rates for the upcoming school year will be based in part on the May auction of the 10-year Treasury note.
Private student loans tend to have a variable rate tied to the prime, Treasury bill or another rate index.

Savings

On the upside, top-yielding online savings accounts have offered the best returns in more than a decade and currently pay 4.4%, on average, according to Bankrate.
While the Fed holds rates steady, “savings rates really haven’t changed all that much, that’s the good news,” said Bankrate’s McBride. “Savings rates are still at attractive levels and the top yields are still well in excess of inflation.”
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Many members of the U.S. armed forces qualify for special tax breaks that aren’t available to other Americans.
Some of the key benefits include state residency flexibility, tax-exempt allowances, combat pay and more.

Bethany Petrik | Moment | Getty Images

Keep your state residency

Members of the military often move frequently, but many families save on state taxes via a special federal law, experts say.

Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, state income tax is based on your “state of legal residence” during active duty, regardless of where you’re stationed. If eligible, it’s possible to keep that residency through your military career.
“Military members tend to have residency in states without an income tax,” such as Florida, Texas or Washington, said CFP Curtis Sheldon, who is also an enrolled agent at C.L. Sheldon and Company in Alexandria, Va. The firm specializes in working with active and retired military members. 

Tax-exempt ‘allowances’

Another unique benefit for service members is tax-exempt “allowances,” Sheldon said.
Generally, pay is taxable, whereas most allowances — such as funds for housing and food — are tax-exempt, he explained.
“They don’t get reported anywhere on the tax return,” and these items don’t show up on Form W-2, he said. “It’s something you have to keep track of yourself.”

Combat zone income tax exclusion

‘Stop the clock’ on capital gains 

When selling a primary residence, many homeowners can exclude a portion of profits from capital gains taxes. 
Generally, the limit is $250,000 for single filers or $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. But you must meet the “use test” by living in the home for two of the last five years before the sale.
That rule is suspended for members of the armed forces, Sheldon said: “You get to stop the clock.”
That means it’s still possible to qualify for the tax break, even without meeting the two-year use test, if you lived elsewhere while on “qualified official extended duty,” according to the IRS. 
JOIN the CNBC CFP® Circle for Mission: Money Management on April 1. This exclusive virtual roundtable, held in partnership with The Association of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs, will focus on how to best manage money effectively. Get your free ticket today! More

As the Trump administration seeks to overhaul federal programs, that has prompted new focus on Social Security’s future.
Some experts say privatizing the program could help provide better returns.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink speaks during the New York Times DealBook Summit Nov. 30, 2022 in New York City. 
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash federal government spending has ignited a new debate about the future of Social Security.
One idea that has been brought up before — privatizing the now public program — is getting new attention.

At the BlackRock retirement summit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, CEO Larry Fink said he supports more individual ownership in Social Security, though he said he would not necessarily use the term privatizing because it has toxic connotations.
“The problem we have now, we have a plan called Social Security that doesn’t grow with the economy,” Fink said.
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Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system — today’s payroll tax contributions generally fund benefits for current retirees and other beneficiaries.
Any leftover money that is not used to either pay benefits or fund the program’s administrative costs is put into the program’s trust funds. That money is invested in special Treasury bonds that earn a market rate of interest and which are guaranteed by the U.S. government, according to the Social Security Administration.

Privatizing the program could provide a way to invest money on behalf of individual workers that potentially earns a higher return, according to supporters of the idea.
“If we create a plan that every American can grow with our economy, they’re going to feel more attached to our economy,” Fink said.

‘Real battle’ brewing over Social Security’s future

Opponents say that change could interfere with the safety and predictability of Social Security’s benefit payments.
“There’s a lot of people out there in the private sector that say, ‘You give me $2.7 trillion and let me invest that, and I can turn you a lot better, greater dividend around than the Treasury bills can,'” Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said in an interview with CNBC.com at his Capitol Hill office on Tuesday.
While investing more aggressively provides the possibility for better returns, it also opens up the risk of poor performance and losses.
In 2008, the stock market dropped along with many people’s 401(k) plans, Larson said. Yet Social Security never missed a payment, he said.
Americans now face a decision as to whether they want capitalism or the government to guarantee their retirement, Larson said.
Larson believes the Trump administration’s goal is to privatize Social Security. When asked for comment, the White House referred CNBC to a new fact sheet issued this week affirming, “President Trump will always protect Social Security, Medicare.” That document does not mention privatizing the program.

House Ways and Means lawmakers on Wednesday voted to block a full House vote on a resolution of inquiry that Larson proposed to require disclosure of so-called Department of Government Efficiency activity at the Social Security Administration. At the hearing, Larson said he is concerned the Trump administration could try to privatize the program.
“We, I think, are in real battle here, and it’s really, in many respects, not unlike the battle that Roosevelt faced initially,” Larson told CNBC.com on Tuesday.

Privatizing Social Security has been considered before

The Social Security Act that created the program was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935.
The idea of privatizing the program was proposed in 2005 by President George W. Bush.
Had those efforts been successful, Americans would have seen their retirement money increase four-fold, based on the returns of the S&P 500 index over that time, Fink said.
“I think more Americans would be a little more hopeful today with their retirement savings than just getting that bond payment,” Fink said.
Had Bush’s proposals gone through, Americans “probably would have been” better off today, said Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who served as associate director of Bush’s White House National Economic Council in 2005.
But the question now as to whether to invest Americans’ retirement money in government bonds or equities is misguided, Biggs said.
If someone has not saved money for retirement, the dilemma of where to invest is not relevant since they do not have the funds, he said. The same is true of the federal government, which currently does not have a significant surplus for the pay-as-you-go program.

Moreover, if Social Security transitions to personalized accounts, there would also need to be extra money available to fund the transition costs to keep benefits going to current retirees, he said.
“It’s a question of saving more,” Biggs said.
Generally, Social Security reform discussions focus on making changes to improve the current system — raising taxes, cutting benefits or a combination of both.
Larson has a proposal to improve Social Security’s solvency by raising taxes on the wealthy while implementing benefit increases.
Yet it remains to be seen whether Republicans, who generally oppose tax increases, and Democrats, who do not want benefit cuts, can reach a bipartisan compromise.
Starting reform discussions based on the program’s current structure is limiting, Biggs said.
“We really do have a failure of imagination on Social Security reform,” Biggs said. “I think what Larry Fink is saying is, ‘Let’s think big on it.’ I think he’s absolutely correct on that point.” More

Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its termination of more than 1,300 Education Department staffers.
“The lay-offs are an effective dismantling of the Department,” the state AGs wrote.
As an agency authorized by Congress, the Education Department cannot be eliminated without congressional approval.

A security guard walks past the U.S. Department of Education headquarters in Washington, D.C., March 12, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters

A group of Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Thursday over its moves to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and its termination of nearly half the agency’s staff.
Attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia filed the legal challenge in response to the administration’s dismissal of more than 1,300 workers at the department.

“The lay-offs are an effective dismantling of the Department,” the state AGs wrote.
“[The] Department’s authority to administer [Reductions in Force] does not override Congress’s exclusive authority to abolish executive agencies or to discontinue their functions,” they added.
As an agency authorized by Congress, the Education Department cannot be eliminated without congressional approval. But in the meantime, the Trump administration can slowly starve it by cutting resources.
The defendants named in the lawsuit are President Donald Trump, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and the U.S. Department of Education.
“President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American public to return education authority to the states,” said Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for Communications at the U.S. Department of Education.

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On Tuesday, McMahon said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that efforts to dismantle the agency are “proceeding as expeditiously as possible.”
The Education Department manages the country’s more than $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio, provides funding for schools and ensures civil rights.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. More