Markus Andrews

President Joe Biden may try to forgive student debt again as early as next month, in a sweeping redo effort that could impact tens of millions of Americans.
The relief package is almost certain to face legal challenges.

President Joe Biden announces a new plan for federal student loan relief at Madison Area Technical College Truax Campus, in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 8, 2024.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Joe Biden may try to forgive student debt again as early as next month, in a sweeping redo effort that could impact tens of millions of Americans.
The Biden administration’s attempt to deliver the aid could come roughly 14 months after the Supreme Court blocked it from carrying out its first student loan forgiveness plan. Just hours after the justices announced their ruling in June 2023, Biden vowed to find a new way to reduce or eliminate people’s education debt.

Despite the Republican-led legal challenges that have so far stymied the president from implementing wide-scale student loan relief, his administration has still managed to cancel more of the debt than any other before it.
Mainly through fixes to long-troubled loan relief initiatives, the Biden administration has now approved nearly $169 billion in loan forgiveness for roughly 4.8 million people.
Its new plan is expected to reach at least 25 million more people.

Relief could come as soon as next month

4 groups of borrowers expected to qualify

With the hope that this aid package survives the inevitable next round of legal challenges, the Education Department revised its forgiveness plan to be more targeted than its first.
In its email to borrowers, the department lists four categories of eligibility. Those are:

Borrowers who owe more than they did at the start of repayment.
Those who entered repayment on their undergraduate loans on or before July 1, 2005, or, if they have graduate loans, on or before July 1, 2000.
People who are already eligible for student loan forgiveness under one of the government’s existing programs but just haven’t yet applied.
Students from “low-financial value” programs.

Republicans may try again to stop relief plan

For critics of broad student loan forgiveness, Biden’s new plan looks a lot like his first.
After Biden touted his revised relief program, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, wrote on X that the president “is trying to unabashedly eclipse the Constitution.”
“See you in court,” Bailey wrote.
Missouri was one of the six Republican-led states — along with Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina — to bring a lawsuit against Biden’s first sweeping debt relief effort.

The red states argued that the president overstepped his authority, and that debt cancellation would hurt the bottom lines of lenders. The six conservative Supreme Court justices agreed with them.
Once the Biden administration publishes its new student loan forgiveness plan in October, more legal challenges are inevitable, Kantrowitz said.
“Lawsuits seeking to block the final rule will follow soon after it is published,” he said.
A recent Supreme Court ruling could also make it harder for Biden’s revised plan to survive those broadsides.
The high court in late June overruled the so-called Chevron Doctrine, a 40-year-old precedent that required judges to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of disputed laws. The 6-3 ruling, which split the conservative-majority court along ideological lines, is expected to undermine the federal government’s regulatory power. More

“Rush” hour isn’t what it used to be.
Commuters are going in later and leaving earlier, according to traffic data.
With more flexible work arrangements, going to the office for only part of the day, or “coffee badging” is now common.

Afternoon commuters sit in traffic on southbound Interstate 5 near downtown San Diego on March 12, 2024.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images

“Rush” hour isn’t what it used to be.
As more commuters settle into flexible working arrangements, fewer workers are making early morning or early evening trips compared to pre-pandemic traffic patterns

The traditional American 9-to-5 has shifted to 10-to-4, according to the 2023 Global Traffic Scorecard released in June by INRIX Inc., a traffic-data analysis firm.

Midday trips are the new normal

“There is less of a morning commute, less of an evening commute and much more afternoon activity,” said Bob Pishue, a transportation analyst and author of the report. “This is more of the new normal.”
Now, there is a “midday rush hour,” the INRIX report found, with almost as many trips to and from the office being made at noon as there are at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Also, commuters have all but given up on public transportation. Ridership sank during the pandemic, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data shows, and never fully recovered.
The result is a surge in traffic congestion throughout the peak midday and evening hours, according to Pishue.

“Pre-Covid, the morning rush hour would be a peak and then the evening peak would be much larger,” he said, describing two apexes with a valley in between. “Now, there is no valley.”

Flexibility allows for ‘coffee badging’

“Employees have become accustomed to the flexibility of working from home and may only come to the office when absolutely necessary,” said David Satterwhite, CEO of Chronus, a software firm focused on improving employee engagement.
“That means they may jump out early to catch a train home, come in late or pop in for one meeting and then leave,” Satterwhite added.
Also known as “coffee badging,” the habit of only going to work for a few hours a day has become widely accepted, or at least tolerated, other recent reports show.
More than half — 58% — of hybrid employees admitted to checking in at the office and then promptly checking out, according to a separate 2023 survey by Owl Labs, a company that makes videoconferencing devices.
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“We used to call it the jacket-on-the-back-of-the-chair syndrome,” said Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice at London Business School.
Whether a company has a strict return-to-office mandate or some variation of a hybrid schedule, “organizations need to be clear about what the deal is,” she said. “An individual employee can decide whether they want the deal or not.”
However, because most people say they don’t want to come into the office because of the commute, coffee badging is the least successful type of compromise, Gratton added. “That is the worst of all worlds, they are still doing the commute but not putting in the hours at the office.”

Employee burnout shows

In part, workers are wrestling with employee burnout, and their level of commitment has taken a hit.
After mostly trending up for years, workplace engagement has flatlined.
Now, only one-third of full- and part-time employees said they are engaged in their work and workplace, while roughly 50% are not engaged, which can also be seen in the rise of “quiet quitting.” The rest, another 16%, are actively disengaged, according to a 2023 Gallup poll released earlier this year.
Not engaged or actively disengaged employees account for approximately $1.9 trillion in lost productivity nationwide, Gallup found.

These days, employees are more likely to consider work/life balance, flexible hours and mental health support over career progression, other reports also show. And fewer want to spend any more time at the office than they already do.
If the ability to work from home was taken away, 66% of workers would immediately start looking for a job that offered more flexibility, Owl Labs found — and a bulk of those employees, roughly 39%, would promptly quit.
“What we need to get to is a clearer description of how is it you are at your most productive, and that requires a senior team who are seeing this as an opportunity to redesign work and not simply responding to what happened during the pandemic,” Gratton said.
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With the Federal Reserve poised to start lowering interest rates, experts are divided as to whether the U.S. economy is in for a recession.
Retirees and near-retirees perhaps face the biggest risks if an economic downturn upends their financial plans.
Experts say there are certain questions to ask now to better safeguard your financial plan from the unexpected.

Ascentxmedia | E+ | Getty Images

With the Federal Reserve poised to start cutting interest rates, experts are divided on what’s ahead for the U.S. economy.
While some worry the economy could be in for a broad decline, or recession, others hope the central bank can effectively avoid a downturn and execute a “soft landing.”

For people who are in or near retirement, the stakes are particularly high when it comes to what happens next.
A recession or sudden market decline could upend the size of their retirement nest egg, planned retirement date or both.
Everyone approaching retirement should be asking themselves, “What’s my Plan B?” said Anne Lester, author of “Your Best Financial Life” and former head of retirement solutions at JPMorgan.

“Now is a great time to build some scenarios and start asking yourself that question, ‘What would I do?'” Lester said. “If you have a plan, you’re much less likely to panic and do something unwise.”
Research shows people who are approaching retirement are much more likely to panic when a downturn sets in, according to David Blanchett, managing director and head of retirement research at PGIM DC Solutions.

“Being proactive now is especially viable for older Americans for whom retirement is all of a sudden becoming very real,” Blanchett said.
To test your current retirement plan, asking some questions can help.

Is my portfolio allocated where it should be?

For retirees and near-retirees, a market decline can prompt what’s known as sequence of returns risk — where poor investment returns negatively impact how long retirement savings may last.
“If you are near the end of your career or just starting retirement and a recession hits, then you have much less time than you’d like for your portfolio to recover,” said Emerson Sprick, associate director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s economic policy program.
A market selloff can happen without the economy going into a recession, Lester said. And the economy can go into a recession without meaningful stock market declines.
Consequently, it helps to always be prepared for the markets — and your retirement nest egg — to take an unexpected big hit.  
The good news is that it’s rare for the markets to have a big correction — defined as a decline of 10% or more — and keep sinking, Lester said.
“It is very unlikely that we rerun 1929 again, where you have five or seven years of very bad returns in a row,” Lester said.
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Certain rules of thumb aim to help gauge how much you should have allocated to equities, such as subtracting your age from 120. (For example, if you’re 50 years old, you should have 70% of your portfolio in equities. If you’re 70, equities should comprise only 50% of investments.)
Yet it’s important to keep in mind that everyone’s financial situation — and ability to take risk — is different, based on their mix of assets, Blanchett said.
Now can be a great time to get ahead of certain risks.
“If you know, for example, if the portfolio goes down by 10% you’re going to move to cash, move to cash now before it’s going to do that,” Blanchett said.
Government bonds also provide opportunities to earn returns that weren’t available two or three years ago, he noted.
To avoid having to sell investments and lock in losses when the market declines, it helps to have a cash buffer you can turn to. For retirees and near retirees, having two to three years of spending in cash can be a solid approach, Lester said.

What are my sources of income?

Having income that’s guaranteed can help reduce the impact market fluctuations have on your portfolio.
For most retirees, Social Security provides steady monthly checks.
But if you claim at the earliest possible age — 62 — your retirement benefits will be permanently reduced. By waiting until full retirement age — typically 66 to 67, depending on date of birth — you will receive 100% of the benefits you’ve earned. And if you wait even longer — up to age 70 — you stand to increase your benefits by about 8% per year.
“Now more than ever, delaying claiming Social Security is just a spectacular thing to start with,” Blanchett said.
Individuals may also want to consider investing in an annuity, insurance products that also provide monthly income streams in exchange for an upfront lump sum payment paid to an insurance company.
“The higher interest rates are, the better the payment stream is off an annuity,” said Lester, who also serves as an education fellow for the Alliance for Lifetime Income, a nonprofit formed to educate consumers on annuities.
“Rates are likely to drop in the future, and lower interest rates are going to likely result in lower payouts for annuity,” Blanchett said. “So addressing this now vs. later will likely lead to more income, a higher return.”
Certain products like multi-year guaranteed annuities and other fixed annuities can provide guaranteed returns in a tax-advantaged way for older Americans, he said.
Before purchasing an annuity, consumers should do their due diligence as to whether a product fits their financial circumstances. Consulting a reputable licensed financial professional can help. More

The Walmart logo is seen at one of its stores in Miami on May 2, 2024.
Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

With the Federal Reserve expected to cut interest rates in September, dividend-paying stocks could be set to outperform.
That is because the dividend yields on these names will look more attractive compared to the returns offered by other income-generating assets, including bonds.

Given the vast universe of companies paying dividends, it could be difficult for investors to select the right stocks. Investors may want to consider top analysts’ recommendations as they select attractive dividend stocks with strong financials.
Here are three dividend stocks, highlighted by Wall Street’s top pros on TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.
EPR Properties
This week’s first dividend stock is EPR Properties (EPR), a real estate investment trust. It is focused on experiential properties such as movie theaters, amusement parks, eat-and-play centers and ski resorts. EPR offers a dividend yield of 7.3%.
RBC Capital analyst Michael Carroll recently upgraded his rating for EPR to buy from hold, and he raised the price target to $50 from $48. He thinks the company has successfully sailed through tough operating conditions, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the actors/writers strikes.
Carroll thinks EPR is in a better position to deliver favorable results, as the aforementioned headwinds are fading. “We expect the theatrical box office will reaccelerate in 2H24 and in 2025, driving higher percentage rents and strengthening the tenant base,” said the analyst.

Commenting on the concerns about EPR’s significant exposure to theaters, the analyst noted that management intends to bring down this exposure over time. He added that worries about AMC, one of the company’s key tenants, seem to be reducing to a certain extent, with AMC taking initiatives such as capital raises and debt refinancing.
Finally, Carroll highlighted that EPR’s high dividend yield is adequately protected by its nearly 70% adjusted funds from operations payout ratio and a solid balance sheet with a 5.2-times net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ratio. 
Carroll ranks No. 703 among more than 9,000 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 63% of the time, delivering an average return of 7.7%. See EPR Properties Ownership Structure on TipRanks.
Energy Transfer
The next dividend pick is Energy Transfer (ET), a limited partnership. The midstream energy company made a quarterly cash distribution of 32 cents per unit on Aug. 19, reflecting year-over-year growth of 3.2%. Energy Transfer has a dividend yield of 8%.
Reacting to ET’s Q2 results, Stifel analyst Selman Akyol said the company reported better-than-anticipated EBITDA and called out several growth opportunities, mainly in the company’s Permian to Gulf Coast value chain.
The sentiment about natural gas is upbeat, as it is expected to supply a major portion of the energy requirement of artificial intelligence data centers. Akyol highlighted that ET’s management thinks the company’s solid footprint can provide the natural gas needed to supply continued power to data centers.
Akyol pointed out that ET is also gaining from a rise in demand from utilities, mainly in Texas and Florida. These two states offer ET attractive growth prospects, given their potential data centers and a solid rise in their population.
“Energy Transfer is never short opportunities, and, while run rate capex could creep up, we continue to favor its positioning,” said Akyol. He reaffirmed a buy rating on ET stock with a price target of $19.
Akyol ranks No. 137 among more than 9,000 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 71% of the time, delivering an average return of 10.3%. See Energy Transfer Stock Charts on TipRanks.
Walmart
Big-box retailer Walmart (WMT) recently impressed investors with its upbeat results for the second quarter of fiscal 2025. The company also raised its full-year outlook to reflect strong performance in the first half of the year.
Walmart continues to reward shareholders with dividends and share repurchases. In the first half of fiscal 2025, the company paid more than $3 billion in dividends and repurchased shares worth $2.1 billion. Earlier this year, Walmart increased its dividend by 9% to 83 cents a share. This marked the 51st consecutive year of dividend hikes for the company.
Following the Q2 print, Baird analyst Peter Benedict reiterated a buy rating on Walmart and raised the price target to $82 from $70. He highlighted that the retailer gained market share despite a choppy macro backdrop, thanks to its persistent focus on value and convenience.
The analyst stated that Walmart’s second-quarter results clearly reflected the effect of its transformation efforts, “with ~70% of U.S. comp growth digitally driven and >50% of enterprise-wide [earnings before interest and taxes] growth coming from higher margin advertising/membership income streams.”
Benedict also highlighted the 10-basis-point sequential increase in Walmart’s trailing 12-month return on investment to 15.1%. This improvement was fueled by the company’s investments in areas such as automation and generative AI.
Benedict ranks No. 35 among more than 9,000 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 71% of the time, delivering an average return of 15.9%. See Walmart Stock Buybacks on TipRanks. More

Younger adults are showing a preference for the renting lifestyle, studies show, and not just because they are priced out of ownership.
From cars to clothes and homes, experts weigh in on when it makes sense to buy vs. rent.

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Owning isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.
For many reasons — including affordability — more Americans are choosing to rent everything from cars and apartments to clothing and furniture these days, according to a report by Intuit Credit Karma.

Far beyond the traditional tuxedo, the rental industry has expanded in recent years to include power tools, musical instruments, designer handbags, baby gear and even funeral caskets.
Now, 28% of adults routinely rent goods and services, Credit Karma found. However, when factoring in housing, that percentage jumps to 47%. 
The growing share of renters is largely due to higher prices, although some people simply prefer renting over buying, opting for a “rent-first” lifestyle, according to the survey, which polled more than 2,000 adults in June.
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Aside from affordability concerns, more than half — 58% — of those polled said they find value in renting, because it allows for more flexibility and is a way to avoid overconsumption, which has become an increasing concern among millennial and Gen Z adults. 

“Renting is a great option for many people,” said Carolyn McClanahan, a certified financial planner and founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida. However, it always pays to do the math, she advised.
“Some people do great renting clothes and, for special events, this can be good,” said McClanahan, who also is a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council. “However, if you know you have a lot of special events, a few really good [owned] pieces can last a long time.”
Clothing prices have been hard hit by inflation. Since July 2020, men’s and women’s apparel prices are up 15% and 13.3%, respectively, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index.

Meanwhile, It may not make as much sense to lease a car, McClanahan said, “as that ends up being higher costs long-term.”
Although monthly lease payments tend to be lower than car loan payments, financing a car with a new or used auto loan usually ends up costing less than a lease in the long run, especially for consumers who hold onto vehicles for years.
Additionally, car lease agreements often come with routine service included in the terms, but the downside is there are also mileage limits and potential charges for wear and tear.
More importantly, car buyers will benefit from owning the vehicle outright at the end of a loan term, and have built equity in the asset.

To buy or rent a house in today’s market

Since housing costs are the biggest expense for most people, it may make sense to rent, at least initially.
“Unless you are absolutely sure you are dedicated to being in a home for at least five years, you should definitely rent,” McClanahan said. “Only when you are settled with life, jobs and family is when it probably makes sense to buy a home.”
Because millennials are more likely to postpone marriage and starting a family, they are able to cast a wider net when looking for place to live, or relocate for a job, if necessary, which makes renting more worthwhile.
“This generation is different,” said Dottie Herman, vice chair at Douglas Elliman. “They believe in homeownership but now there is a choice.”
According to Herman, “it’s not quite as important to them to own a house. A lot of them say, ‘I’ll rent, and I’ll think about it.'”

Of course, some Americans, especially young adults, are renting because they must.
Higher mortgage rates and a shortage of houses on the market relative to buyer demand have kept home prices elevated and created an affordability crunch for would-be buyers. Sometimes renting is the only option available.
Close to three-fourths of would-be homeowners said affordability is their greatest obstacle, according to a report by Bankrate. Among younger adults, 50% said homeownership is only achievable for the wealthy, Credit Karma also found. 
Even though wealth creation has been concentrated amongst homeowners in recent years, often there is a pressure to buy, when it may not make financial sense, according to Michael Krowe, director of financial planning at Edelman Financial Engines.
“Don’t make a home purchase simply because you think it’s going to surge in value,” he said. “You might think your home is an investment — it’s not. Your home is a place to live.”
“Buy a home because you like the neighborhood, schools and proximity to friends and family,” Krowe said. There may be benefits to renting in this market, he added, particularly if it allows you to avoid stretching beyond your means.
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Retirees covered by Medicare Part D are set to see new relief from high prescription drug costs in 2025.
Annual out-of-pocket costs will be capped at $2,000 starting in January.
New research from the AARP estimates how much retirees may save.

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Retirees who are worried about the high costs of prescription drugs are set to get new relief starting in 2025.
Starting in January, Medicare drug plan enrollees will have their annual out-of-pocket drug costs capped at $2,000.

Between 2025 and 2029, on average, about 1.4 million participants in Medicare drug coverage (also known as Medicare Part D) who reach the new out-of-pocket cap will see an estimated annual savings of $1,000 or more, according to a new report from AARP.
More than 420,000 will see savings of more than $3,000 during that time.
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In 2025, average out-of-pocket spending will be roughly $1,100 for retirees who reach the out-of-pocket cap, down from about $2,600 without the changes, resulting in a 56% savings, according to AARP.
“That’s money that can be used instead to buy groceries and pay bills,” Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer at AARP, said during a Wednesday presentation on the research.

The new limits on prescription drug spending are due to changes enacted by Congress in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The legislation also gave Medicare the ability to negotiate certain prescription drug prices. Earlier this month, the Biden administration released the prices for the first 10 drugs that are part of those negotiations.
Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, many Medicare Part D participants were required to pay 5% of their prescription drug costs with no limit for expensive medications, even after surpassing a certain spending threshold and entering into what’s known as catastrophic coverage.

The burden of those high costs could lead to out-of-pocket expenses that could exceed $10,000 per year and prompted some retirees to avoid filling prescriptions or to skip doses, according to the AARP.
“This is about real people, parents, grandparents, friends, and neighbors who will finally see relief from high drug costs, and the fear that the price of their medications will spiral out of control,” LeaMond said.
In 2024, the Inflation Reduction Act prompted the elimination of the 5% coinsurance for the catastrophic coverage phase of Part D. That resulted in an out-of-pocket cap of about $3,300 for brand-name prescriptions, according to KFF.
In 2025, a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket Part D prescription spending will go into effect, and that limit will be adjusted annually.
That change set to take effect in 2025 will benefit an estimated 3.2 million individuals, or 8.4% of Medicare Part D enrollees, according to AARP. That is expected to increase to 4.1 million people, or 9.6% of Part D enrollees, by 2029. Almost 56 million beneficiaries currently have Medicare Part D coverage.
The 2022 law is already having a “significant impact” on Medicare beneficiaries, who don’t pay more than $35 per month for insulin and have access to certain free vaccines due to the enacted changes, LeaMond said. More

Anyone shopping for a new home has lost considerable purchasing power, largely due to rising prices and higher rates.
Now mortgage rates are coming down from recent highs and could fall further once the Fed lowers its benchmark, creating some breathing room for would-be buyers.
Experts give their best advice for navigating the housing market in the months ahead.

The Good Brigade | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Mortgage rates are falling

Mortgage rates have already started to come down from recent highs, largely due to the prospect of a Federal Reserve-induced economic slowdown. The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 6.35% on August 29 from 6.46% a week ago, the lowest mortgage rates have been in 15 months, according to Freddie Mac.

“Would-be homebuyers are likely going to get a much more attractive rate today than they would have just a few short months ago,” said Jacob Channel, senior economic analyst at LendingTree.
Still, many home shoppers are anchored to the fact that mortgage rates hit rock bottom only a few years earlier after the Fed slashed its benchmark interest rate to near zero, according to Dottie Herman, vice chair at Douglas Elliman.
“I’ve been in the business 30 years and I’ve never seen 2.5% to 3% in my lifetime, other than during the pandemic — I never saw those rates unless it was a government loan.”
Such “relativity bias” can stand in the way of opportunity, she added. “I bought a house when [the mortgage rate] was 15% and then I refinanced.”

Financing is key

For anyone considering buying now and refinancing later, it’s important to understand the rewards and the risks, as well as which type of mortgage to take out.
For starters, unless a buyer has the cash to pay for a house outright, most homebuyers need to finance the purchase of a home.
“Anytime you get into any loan, you need to be aware of the positives and also the potential risks that you may assume with that,” said Melissa Cohn, regional vice president of William Raveis Mortgage in New York.

A zero-down mortgage, also known as a no down payment mortgage, allows you to finance 100% of the cost of the home. Such loans can be appealing because you can essentially enter homeownership without a down payment.
But it may be good to think twice before taking such an offer up, experts say.
Banks and lenders are essentially offering two loans to cover the purchase of a house, Cohn said.
The first mortgage covers about 97% of the cost while the second loan completes the additional 3%, she explained.
And these loans often become due and payable if the home is sold or if the mortgage is refinanced at some point in the future, added Keith Gumbinger, mortgage expert and vice president of HSH.com.
Another loan that can be enticing are “buy now, refinance for free later” mortgages. However, you never truly escape closing costs, according to Cohn.
“You end up paying a higher rate because you’re basically financing your own closing costs,” Cohn said.
In other words, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
“No bank is ever going to give you a true no closing cost loan at the lowest possible rate. It just doesn’t exist,” Cohn said.
And buying with the goal of refinancing is always taking a gamble on mortgage rates, which comes with a certain amount of risk.

Is this the right time to buy a home?

“If you can afford a home, based on interest rates and the purchase price, buy now,” said Michael Krowe, director of financial planning at Edelman Financial Engines.
Even though recent declines in mortgage rates may gain steam as the Fed lowers its benchmark rate, lower mortgage rates could also boost homebuying demand, which would push prices higher.
“It might not make sense to delay the purchase if you can afford it today,” Krowe said.

What exactly will happen in the housing market “is up in the air” depending on how much mortgage rates decline in the latter half of the year and the level of supply, according to LendingTree’s Channel.
“Timing the market is virtually impossible,” he said. 
House hunters who are ready to purchase a home may benefit from refinancing later, but there are no guarantees. Holding out for a better rate also comes with the possibility of having to pay a higher purchase price.
Ultimately, “there’s no perfect time to buy,” according to Douglas Elliman’s Herman.
“If you want to buy a home, and you find something you like, get it,” she said.
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Warren Buffett walks the floor ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2024.
David A. Grogen | CNBC

Warren Buffett turned 94 on Friday and his sprawling, one-of-a-kind conglomerate has never been worth more than it is today.
Berkshire Hathaway became the first non-technology company to top a $1 trillion market capitalization this week. Berkshire Class A shares also topped $700,000 apiece for the first time ever.

Howard Marks, a great investor in his own right and friend of Buffett’s, credits three things that have allowed the ‘Oracle of Omaha’ to lead Berkshire to new heights, even at his advanced age.
“It’s been a matter of a well thought out strategy prosecuted for seven decades with discipline, consistency, and unusual insight,” said Marks, co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management. “Discipline and consistency are essential, but not sufficient. Without the unusual insight, he clearly wouldn’t be the greatest investor in history.”
“His record is a testament to the power of compounding at a very high rate for a very long period of time, uninterrupted. He never took a leave of absence,” Marks added.

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Berkshire Hathaway

In the midst of the Go-Go stock market of the 1960s, Buffett used an investment partnership he ran to buy what was then a failing New England textile company named Berkshire Hathaway. Today, his company is unrecognizable from what it once was, with businesses ranging from GEICO insurance to BNSF Railway, an equity portfolio worth over $300 billion and a monstrous $277 billion cash fortress.

Eye-popping returns

Generations of investors who study and imitate Buffett’s investing style have been wowed by his shrewd moves for decades. The Coca-Cola bet from the late 1980s made a lesson for patient value investing in strong brands with wide moats. Injecting a lifeline investment in Goldman Sachs in the depth of the financial crisis showed an opportunistic side during crises. Going all in on Apple in recent years spoke to his flexibility at adopting his value approach to a new age.

Buffett made headlines earlier this month by revealing he had dumped half of that Apple holding, ringing the bell a bit on an extremely lucrative trade. (While Apple is widely viewed as a growth stock, Buffett has long argued all investing is value investing — “You are putting out some money now to get more later on.”)
Decades of good returns snowballed and he has racked up an unparalleled track record. Berkshire shares have generated a 19.8% annualized gain from 1965 through 2023, nearly doubling the 10.2% return of the S&P 500. Cumulatively, the stock has gone up 4,384,748% since Buffett took over, compared to the S&P 500’s 31,223% return.
“He’s the most patient investor ever, which is a big reason for his success,” said Steve Check, founder of Check Capital Management with Berkshire as its biggest holding. “He can sit and sit and sit. Even at his age where there’s not that much time left to sit, he’ll still sit until he feels comfortable. I just think he’ll just keep doing as best he can right to the end.”
Buffett remains chairman and CEO of Berkshire, although Greg Abel, vice chairman of Berkshire’s non-insurance operations and Buffett’s designated successor, has taken on many responsibilities at the conglomerate. Earlier this year, Buffett said Abel, 62, will make all investing decisions when he’s gone.
Buffett and Marks
Oaktree’s Marks said Buffett reinforced concepts that are integral to his own approach. Like Buffett, he is indifferent to macro forecasting and market timing; he seeks value relentlessly, while sticking to his own circle of competence.

Howard Marks, co-chairman, Oaktree Capital.
Courtesy David A. Grogan | CNBC

“He doesn’t care about market timing and trading, but when other people get terrified, he marches in. We try to do the same thing,” Marks said.
Buffett, who at Columbia University studied under Benjamin Graham, has advised investors to view their stock holdings as small pieces of businesses. He believes volatility is a huge plus to the real investor as it offers an opportunity to take advantage of emotional selling.
Oaktree, with $193 billion in assets under management, has grown into one of the biggest alternative investments players in the world, specializing in distressed lending and bargain-hunting.
Marks, 78, has become a sharp, unequivocal contrarian voice in the investing world. His popular investment memos, which he started writing in 1990, are now viewed as required reading on Wall Street and even received a glowing endorsement from Buffett himself — “When I see memos from Howard Marks in my mail, they’re the first thing I open and read. I always learn something.”
The two were introduced in the aftermath of the Enron bankruptcy in the early 2000s. Marks revealed that Buffett ultimately motivated him to write his own book — The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor — over a decade ahead of his own schedule.
“He was very generous with his comments. I don’t think that book would have been written without his inspiration,” Marks said. “I had been planning to write a book when I retired. But with his encouragement, the book was published 13 years ago.”
Buffett’s trajectory and his ability to enjoy what he does into his 90s also struck a chord with Marks.
“He says that he skips to work in the morning. He tackles investing with gusto and joy,” Marks said. “I still haven’t retired, and I hope never to do so, following his example.”

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