Markus Andrews

In Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s fictional short story, “Minimum Payment Due,” the main character is trapped in credit card debt and desperate for a way out.
But his shame and denial leave him unable to tell even his therapist how much he owes.
More than a third, or 38%, of Americans, have credit card debt, according to Bankrate.

J Studios | Digitalvision | Getty Images

In Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s fictional short story, “Minimum Payment Due,” the main character is trapped in credit card debt and desperate for a way out.
The fact that the experience is common — more than a third, or 38%, of adults in the U.S. have credit card debt, according to Bankrate — makes it no less scary for the narrator.

Collection agents won’t stop calling him. Meanwhile, he can’t even admit how much he owes to his therapist.
“He waited while I calculated the figure in my head, the various principals, the late fees, the penalties, the surcharges,” Sayrafiezadeh writes. “Then I did what everyone does when they are consumed with denial and shame: I rounded down and lowballed the figure. The lowball was still a lot.”
The narrator turns to self-help books, therapy and even a cult for advice, but he’s in too deep. No matter how much he directs toward the debt each month, it won’t go down.
Sayrafiezadeh is a fiction writer, memoirist and playwright who lives in New York City. CNBC interviewed Sayrafiezadeh this month about his story, which appeared in the New Yorker in November, and his choice to use fiction to explore credit card debt.
Annie Nova: You never tell us exactly how much the narrator owes in credit card debt. I’m curious, what was the point of that omission?

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh: It’s like with Jaws: You don’t want to show the monster too much. I thought it would be better for the reader to have to wonder about it, and to create a figure in their mind, rather than to give them a hard number.
AN: You do say the debt climbs from “four figures to five.” So we know that much. But that could be $10,000, and that could be $99,000.
SS: That’s exactly right.
AN: In the story, you mention that the compound interest is growing daily on his credit card debt. We get the feeling that the character will never be able to get out of this. It’s described in a really scary, vivid way. I wondered if credit card debt was something you’ve dealt with.
SS: I’m actually the opposite of this guy. I don’t even wait for my statement to pay it off. Knowing that I don’t owe anybody anything, there’s a pleasure for me in that.

AN: Did you do research on credit card debt for this story?
SS: No, I did not. I just put myself in the position of someone who was in this situation. I think I must just feel it. Maybe we all feel it, in a way. Even if you’re not in debt, it’s always there, hovering. What if I couldn’t pay my bills? Maybe something about 2008 when we had the Great Recession, and everybody was losing their homes. I don’t know. It just didn’t seem to be a hard stretch to imagine what it would be like to be this character.
AN: In the opening scenes of the story, the narrator gets a call. It turns out to be an old friend, but he’s convinced at first that it’s another call from a collection agent. Is the credit card debt so all-consuming for the narrator that he can’t see anything else?
SS: Yeah, absolutely. Everything he sees, he’s seeing through debt-colored glasses. Everything is his debt.

Nadia_bormotova | Istock | Getty Images

AN: The only person in the story that the narrator confides to about his debt is his therapist. But even to him, he lies, saying he owes less than he really does. Why can’t he tell the truth?
SS: There’s a certain amount of shame that he’s carrying around with it. Maybe there’s also some denial about it, as well. Saying the actual amount to the therapist would make it real, and that’s not something he can really face.
AN: I thought it was a really interesting detail that the narrator is a software engineer at a tech start-up. He’s in debt even though he presumably has a good, well-paying job. Why add these details about him?
SS: I wanted it to be about the algorithms that are operating on him, and on us, in our society. He says something about how the Tony Robbins book pops up in his Instagram feed. There are these algorithms that are targeting us with advertising that we’re susceptible to. But I wanted to also make him someone who is creating those kinds of algorithms, so that he’s a part of this cycle. I wanted to have the irony of him writing code, but also susceptible to the code that he writes.
AN: So how does this character find himself with so much credit card debt? Is it a spending problem?
SS: That’s a great question: Why is he in debt? The only thing he says is that he is susceptible. So that’s all he knows. And that’s not really an answer. But what it means is that he is vulnerable; he’s vulnerable to be preyed upon. The story really doesn’t get to the root causes of why he is operating the way he is. I wanted to have it be more of a mystery. He doesn’t know why he is who he is, why it’s come to all of this, with all of this debt.
AN: Do you think your story will make people feel a little less alone with their own debt?
SS: That would be great. I try to write about certain things that are troubling and that plague a solitary character. But yeah, the story could make someone feel like, Oh yeah, this is not just me. Maybe that’s how the story ends, with readers not feeling as alone. More

Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images

This year was a busy one for investors, especially in light of the U.S. presidential election, growing excitement around artificial intelligence and the continued focus on elevated interest rates.
While macro conditions are expected to improve in the new year, there are concerns about a possible U.S.-China trade war and lofty valuations could weigh on the stock market in 2025.

Nonetheless, top analysts continue to focus on stocks that can withstand near-term pressures and offer robust growth potential, backed by solid execution and fundamentals.
Here are three stocks favored by the Street’s top pros, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.
Salesforce
This week’s first pick is Salesforce (CRM), a customer relationship management platform. Earlier this month, the company issued solid guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 and highlighted the role of Agentforce, its suite of autonomous AI agents, in driving its transformation.
On Dec. 17, Salesforce announced the launch of Agentforce 2.0, the latest version of its flagship AI product with enhanced features. Reacting to the launch, Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz reiterated a buy rating on CRM stock with a price target of $425. The analyst called Agentforce 2.0, an “impressive innovation, with a clear step-up in value.”
Moskowitz noted some of the features of the advanced version, including improved workflow integration with Slack, Tableau and MuleSoft offerings, better reasoning and data retrieval competence, and an enhanced library of pre-built skills.

The analyst also highlighted the traction for Agentforce, with the company closing more than 1,000 paid deals, a steep climb up from the 200 plus deals by the end of fiscal Q3. Overall, Moskowitz thinks that Agentforce can be a “game-changing technology,” given its ability to significantly boost productivity for clients while fueling bookings and revenue growth.
Moskowitz continues to see Salesforce as a top pick and believes that it is well positioned to help its extensive clientele in process optimization and revenue management.
Moskowitz ranks No. 212 among more than 9,200 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 60% of the time, delivering an average return of 13.9%. (See Salesforce Stock Charts on TipRanks)
Booking Holdings
Another Mizuho analyst, James Lee, is bullish on Booking Holdings (BKNG), a provider of online travel and other services. Lee reaffirmed a buy rating on BKNG stock and boosted the price target to $6,000 from $5,400, reflecting higher growth-rate estimates and a favorable outlook.
Lee stated that a regional analysis by Mizuho revealed encouraging room night growth for fiscal 2025. Based on estimated growth rates for Europe, Asia, the U.S. and the rest of the world, Lee expects an 8.2% room night growth (over a percentage point higher than the consensus estimate).
The analyst expects BKNG’s fiscal 2025 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to rise by mid-teens, marking a faster growth rate than the revenue growth estimate of nearly 11%. In fact, considering buybacks, Lee expects fiscal 2025 earnings to increase by about 20%, which makes the stock’s valuation at 16 times FY26 EBITDA attractive at current levels.
Overall, Lee believes that BKNG deserves a premium valuation compared with its rivals based on its “sizable advantage in digital marketing, expanding offerings in alternative accommodations and other new product verticals, and a higher share in hotel bookings.”
Lee ranks No. 291 among more than 9,200 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 61% of the time, delivering an average return of 13.4%. (See Booking Holdings Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks)
DraftKings
Finally, there’s sports betting company DraftKings (DKNG). The company has mobile sports betting operations in 25 states and Washington, D.C. Its iGaming business is live in five U.S. states. The company’s Sportsbook and iGaming products are also available in Ontario, Canada.
In a research note on the 2025 outlook for the Gaming and Lodging space, JPMorgan analyst Joseph Greff named DraftKings as one of the top picks. The analyst reiterated a buy rating on DKNG stock and increased the price target to $53 from $47.
Greff views DraftKings “as the pure-play in the most attractive growth market in Gaming.” He expects DKNG to gain from tail winds in this space, including solid same-store sales and new growth opportunities.
Highlighting DraftKings’ lucrative revenue growth profile, the analyst talked about the company’s ability to capitalize on its scale and leading position in the U.S. online sports betting and iGaming space to deliver better margins, EBITDA and free cash flow, supported by efforts to control operating expenses.
Greff expects DraftKings to deliver revenue growth of 31% in 2025 and 13% in 2026. The analyst said that Wall Street’s 2026 revenue growth estimate of 17% plus seems very achievable, along with the possibility of a higher margin.
Finally, Greff noted DKNG’s “superior product capabilities, customer acquisition competencies, and scale that have allowed it to compete against new entrants like ESPN BET and Fanatics, much like it has successfully competed in the past with newer entrants.”
Greff ranks No. 987 among more than 9,200 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 51% of the time, delivering an average return of 7.6%. (See Draftkings Options Activity on TipRanks) More

At KIPP DC College Preparatory School, students study budgeting, savings, accounting, investing and managing risk, among other topics. 
Unlike many other high schools, the personal finance curriculum spans three years with a work-based learning component.
The goal, according to Shavar Jeffries, chief executive officer of the the non-profit KIPP Foundation, is “breaking cycles of poverty.”

Hill Street Studios | Getty Images

Keith Harris, a 17-year-old high school senior at KIPP DC College Preparatory, has studied accounting, investing and budgeting, among other basic lessons, like his English, history and math curriculum.
Harris is enrolled in his high school’s NAF Academy of Business, a rigorous three-year finance program with a work-based learning component. 

Because Harris, who lives with his aunt, received a full scholarship to college next fall, he’s also able to set some of his part-time earnings aside and invest those funds.
“Through the program I developed a lot of skills, such as managing my finances and investing in stocks,” Harris said. “It laid down a good foundation for me.”
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Unlike other one-semester high school personal finance courses across the country, more than 160 students enrolled in the KIPP DC College Preparatory’s NAF Academy of Business program study budgeting, saving, investing and managing risk, as well as other topics, right through graduation. Some receive NAFTrack certification, a credential that demonstrates a high standard of college and career readiness.
Many students also choose to enroll in the First Generation Investors program, where they can complete capstone projects while being tutored by students from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. 

Additionally, internship opportunities pair students with nearby employers, including Ernst & Young, the Navy Federal Credit Union and Verizon.
The program is paid for, in part, through federal and local funding and administered by the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education.

The goal of the program, according to Shavar Jeffries, chief executive officer of the the non-profit KIPP Foundation, is “breaking cycles of poverty.”
KIPP DC College Prep caters to an underserved population of teens, and yet 100% of the senior class are accepted into at least one college, Jeffries noted, which is largely consistent with last year’s numbers.
“Economic security has to be a key part of it,” Jeffries said. “We have too many young people who don’t have the knowledge base to make smart financial decisions. When we can add that value and students bring these lessons home, that is also very powerful.”
Donyae Vaughan, 18, a senior at KIPP DC College Prep, will graduate this spring with a number of financial classes under her belt, including Accounting 1 and 2. She also landed a summer internship at consulting firm Accenture.
“Most people my age don’t get to learn about this stuff,” she said. 
Vaughan, who has plans to attend dental school, said the coursework compliments what she has been taught at home. “My family is big on saving,” she said.
“Last year we learned a lot about investments, savings and stocks and how we can grow our money,” she said. “Every time I learn something new, I would go home and talk about it with my mom.”
Vaughan said she also learned about the merit of locking in a top-yielding certificate of deposit through the program.

A trend toward in-school finance classes

“The three years is a level of robust programming we don’t typically see,” said Raven Newberry, managing director of policy at the National Endowment for Financial Education.
As of 2024, about half of all states require or are in the process of requiring high school students to take at least one financial literacy course before they graduate, according to the latest data from Next Gen Personal Finance, a nonprofit focused on providing financial education to middle and high school students.
Although some schools and school districts have required students receive some financial education even without a state mandate, it is the schools that serve students from lower socio-economic backgrounds that tend to fall short in financial education offerings, according to Newberry.
“When a state requires it, that helps close that gap,” she said.

Financial literacy leads to financial wellbeing

In addition, a 2018 report by the Brookings Institution found that teenage financial literacy is positively correlated with asset accumulation and net worth by age 25.
Among adults, those with greater financial literacy find it easier to make ends meet in a typical month, are more likely to make loan payments in full and on time and less likely to be constrained by debt or be considered financially fragile.
They are also more likely to save and plan for retirement, according to data from the TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index based on research collected annually since 2017.
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Consumers are on track to set a spending record this month, according to forecasts.
Already, 36% of Americans went into debt this season, one recent report found.
Leaning on credit cards to purchase gifts will come at a high cost if those balances aren’t paid off quickly, experts say.

A woman shops at a Target store in Chicago on Nov. 26, 2024.
Kamil Krzaczynski | AFP | Getty Images

Heading into the holidays, many Americans were already saddled with record-breaking credit card debt. And yet, consumer spending is set to reach a fresh high this season. 
The National Retail Federation reported last week that spending between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 is “clearly on track” to reach a record, between $979.5 billion and $989 billion.

“Job and wage gains, modest inflation and a heathy balance sheet have led to solid holiday spending,” the NRF’s chief economist, Jack Kleinhenz, said in a statement.
But other reports show that many shoppers are increasingly leaning on credit cards to manage their holiday purchases.
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To that point, 36% of consumers have taken on debt this season, a recent report by LendingTree found. And those who dipped into the red racked up an average of $1,181, up from $1,028 in 2023, according to the survey of more than 2,000 adults.
“No one should be surprised that so many Americans took on debt this holiday season. Prices are still really high and that means that lots of Americans simply didn’t have any choice,” said Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief credit analyst.

“Inflation is still a big deal in this country, and it’s having a huge impact on people’s finances, including their holiday spending,” he said.

Credit card debt is at an all-time high

Heading into the peak holiday shopping season, credit card balances were already 8.1% higher than a year ago, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s report on household debt.
Further, 28% of credit card users had not paid off the gifts they bought last year, according to another holiday spending report by NerdWallet, which polled more than 1,700 adults in September.

In some cases, Americans’ willingness to spend is a sign of confidence, Schulz noted. “Some surely took on debt because they didn’t have any other choice, while others did so because they wanted to splurge a bit and weren’t concerned about paying a little extra interest in order to get what they or their loved one really wanted.”
However, credit cards continue to be one of the most expensive ways to borrow money. The average credit card rate is currently more than 20% — near an all-time high. Some retail card APRs are even higher.

The problem with credit cards

Of those with debt, 21% expect it’ll take five months or longer to pay it off, LendingTree also found. At that rate, sky-high interest charges will exact a heavy toll, according to Schulz.
“That means less money to put towards other big goals for the new year, such as growing an emergency fund or saving for college,” he said. “In more extreme cases, it may mean you’re less able to pay essential bills or keep food on the table. In either case, it’s a big deal.”

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This holiday season, 36% of Americans took on debt, with average balances of $1,181, according to LendingTree.
Less than half of the people who took on debt expected to do so.
To pay down those balances as quickly as possible, these expert tips can help.

Manonallard | E+ | Getty Images

Many Americans are capping off the holidays with new debt balances.
This season, 36% of American consumers took on holiday debt, according to a new survey from LendingTree.

Those who racked up balances this season took on an average of $1,181 in debt, up from $1,028 in 2023. However, that is still down from $1,549 in 2022, LendingTree found.
Less than half — 44% — of the people who took on debt expected to acquire those balances, a sign that this holiday season is still financially challenging for many people, according to Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
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Higher prices caused by inflation remain an issue for many individuals and families this holiday season, he said.
“Some of it is people just wanting to wrap up what’s been a difficult year by spreading a little joy, and maybe they ended up taking on a little bit of extra debt to do so,” Schulz said.

Those most likely to take on debt this season include parents of young children, with 48%; millennials ages 28 to 43, with 42%; and individuals who earn $30,000 to $49,999, with 39%, according to LendingTree.
Consumers who went into debt over the holidays run the risk of still carrying those balances when next year’s holiday season comes around. Almost half of Americans still have debt from last year’s holidays, WalletHub recently found.
Meanwhile, paying down debt is a top financial resolution for 2025, according to a recent Bankrate survey.
For those who want to get out of debt, it helps to get started as soon as possible, Schulz said.
Successfully knocking off those balances has its own reward in the way of freedom, said Laura Mattia, a certified financial planner and senior vice president at Wealth Enhancement Group in Sarasota, Florida, who works with clients at all levels of wealth.
“People love to be debt free,” Mattia said. “The idea of not owing anybody any money is extremely comforting.”

Negotiate your interest rates

For those who took on holiday debt, 42% said they are paying interest rates of 20% or higher, typically through credit cards or store cards, LendingTree found.
The good news is that it’s possible to get better interest rates — and therefore lower the total amount it takes to pay off your debt — by pursuing either a 0% balance transfer credit card or a debt consolidation loan.
“There’s really no better weapon against credit card debt than a 0% balance transfer credit card,” Schulz said.
Most offers provide either 12 or 15 months without accruing interest on the transferred balance, he said. However, a fee for transferring the balance may apply.

Pick a debt paydown strategy you can stick with

Those people in debt may want to pick from different strategies to tackle their balances.
That includes the avalanche method — which prioritizes high interest rate debts first — or the snowball method – which puts the smallest balances first.
“What really matters more is finding the one that works best for you and that will keep you motivated,” Schulz said.
Mattia said she often advises clients to start with the smallest balances first, so they immediately feel their situation improving.
“What deters people the most is when they feel like they’re not making progress and they give up,” Mattia said.

Try to increase your savings

While paying down debt balances may be the primary goal, it also helps to set aside some cash for emergencies.
That way, when an unexpected expense comes up — or next holiday season rolls around — you may not have to lean quite so much on credit cards, Schulz said.
“One of the best ways to break out of the cycle of debt that so many people find themselves in is to save while you’re paying down your debts,” Schulz said.
Still, it’s important to keep in mind that the best interest rates available on savings are around 5%, while credit cards are charging north of 20% and prioritize accordingly, Mattia said.

Celebrate small wins

In the aftermath of the holidays, give yourself grace if you spent more than you intended, said CFP Jesse Sell, managing principal at Prevail Financial Partners in Stillwater, Minnesota.
“It’s not terribly uncommon to kind of let otherwise good discipline go for a few weeks over the holidays,” Sell said.
As you work to pay down your overall debt, it helps to break it down into smaller goals that you can celebrate along the way, he said.
Once you hit a smaller milestone, celebrate that victory with a small reward.
Admittedly, paying down debt is not really fun, Sell said.
“Try to find ways to take some positives out of it and keep the momentum and focus going,” Sell said.   More

Retail traders sent almost $30 billion into Nvidia shares this year on balance, according to Vanda Research.
It’s the latest honor for the megacap tech stock, which has shown leadership within artificial intelligence that has dazzled both Wall Street and Main Street.
Net inflows for Nvidia have seen a nearly nine-fold jump from 2021, Vanda data shows.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, arrives for the Inaugural AI Insight Forum in the Russell Building on Capitol Hill on Sept. 13, 2023.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

As Michael MacGillivray saw artificial intelligence becoming more ubiquitous in everyday life, the 25-year-old wanted his investments to reflect that. It didn’t take long to figure out how he wanted to play the trend.
“Whenever you look at AI, it’s like, all the roads lead to Nvidia,” said MacGillivray, who’s spent thousands of dollars on shares this year from his home in Michigan. “It definitely was a great investment.”

MacGillivray’s purchases have contributed to the nearly $30 billion poured into Nvidia on balance by everyday investors this year, according to data from Vanda Research. That has made it the most-bought equity by retail traders on net in 2024, as of Dec. 17.
Nvidia has seen almost double the amount of net inflows from this group compared with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the broad benchmark for the U.S. stock market. It is also on pace to dethrone Tesla, the retail investor favorite that earned the most-bought title in 2023. (The firm calculates net flows for each security by subtracting its total outflows from inflows.)
“Nvidia turned out to be the one stock that kind of stole the show from Tesla because of impressive price gains,” said Marco Iachini, senior vice president at Vanda. “The performance speaks for itself.”

‘Up and up and up’

It’s the latest feather in the cap for Nvidia. The AI titan has enamored investors big and small for more than a year. The chipmaker gained admission to the highly regarded Dow Jones Industrial Average last month and is, by and far, the 30-stock index’s best performer of 2024.
Despite rocky trading in December, the “Magnificent Seven” stock is tracking to finish 2024 higher by more than 180%. That surge has propelled the stock into an elite group of companies with market caps that exceed $3 trillion. Nvidia is now the second-most valuable company in the U.S.

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Nvidia, year to date

Naturally, this push into Nvidia shares has resulted in the stock playing a larger role in the average investor’s holdings. Vanda data shows Nvidia has a weight of more than 10% in the typical mom-and-pop trader’s portfolio, up from just 5.5% at the start of 2024. It’s now the second largest holding of the average retail investor, sitting marginally behind Tesla.
Additionally, Nvidia’s retail inflows on net in 2024 are more than 885% larger than the amount seen just three years prior.
“Nvidia really stands out in terms of how quickly retail investors became such a big part of the ownership stake,” said Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, an investment bank. “The ascent was remarkable.”
One of those individual stockholders is Genevieve Khoury, a social media marketer. She first began buying shares in 2022 at the recommendation of her dad, who works in the technology sector. Khoury plans to sit on her shares until she can cash in the nest egg for a down payment on a home or other significant purchase.
“It kept going up and up and up,” said the Los Angeles-area resident. “I’m just holding it.”

‘Jaw dropping’

Inflows tended to spike this year around Nvidia’s earnings reports, according to Vanda’s Iachini. Retail investors also bought in during an early August dip, which coincided with a broader market sell-off.
To be sure, the stock has seen inflows cool to an extent as it lost some steam. D.A. Davidson’s Luria noted that shares were more expensive six months ago than in recent sessions.
Even as Nvidia continued beating Wall Street expectations for earnings, it wasn’t exceeding estimates by enough to continue the stock’s rapid price growth, Luria said. Now, he said the stock has come to more “balanced” and “reasonable” levels.
Despite this recent volatility, individual investors such as Prajeet Tripathy remain optimistic over the company’s leadership within AI and focus on innovation. “I think that it’s only going to keep rising exponentially,” said Tripathy, a recent college graduate.

Though investing is largely a digital activity, market participants’ love for Nvidia has spilled into the real world. Several gathered in New York City in late August for a well-documented watch party centered around Nvidia’s earnings report. This event came within months of the stock’s 10-to-1split, a move that’s typically done to incentivize retail investors.
While Nvidia’s retail ownership is substantial, this factor hasn’t pushed the price-to-earnings multiple higher in the same way that it has for Tesla and Palantir, Luria said. Still, Morningstar equity strategist Brian Colello said Nvidia has “fairly significant” volatility for a stock of its size, which can underscore the role retail traders can play in driving share prices.
“It’s jaw dropping at times that such a large company can have such a big move in the stock price on any given day,” Colello said.

What retail investors want next

2024 marks the second straight year that a single stock has eclipsed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust in net flows. However, sizable inflows to the ETF can assuage any concerns that investors are forgoing broad index funds deemed safe investments, according to Iachini. The past two years of high inflows into megcap tech names can instead reflect traders chasing the ongoing bull market, Iachini said.
Notwithstanding strong returns, Iachini said, Nvidia can be a surprising pick for the typical at-home investor. Despite Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s signature leather jacket, the company lacks a “God-like” personality that can garner retail investor attention, Iachini said. For an example, he pointed to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who made waves this year for his public backing of President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign.

Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, poses beside the company’s logo ahead of an interview with Reuters in the Alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland, on May 23, 2022.
Arnd Wiegmann | Reuters

Looking ahead, Palantir has gained traction among the retail crowd during the fourth quarter and could be a favorite in the new year, Iachini said. The software stock has been the ninth most-bought security on balance in 2024, beating Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft, per Vanda data.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp thanked small-scale investors during a video posted Sunday that was set against a snow-covered backdrop. “Exceedingly grateful to all of you individual investors who took the time and opportunity, and had the courage to look past conventional, rusty, crusty platitudes,” Karp said in the clip, while sporting reflective goggles and gripping ski poles.
Fittingly enough, Palantir was one recent pickup from Khoury, the social media marketer in California, on a friend’s advice. Khoury is hopeful for a Nvidia-like run, so she can retain bragging rights with acquaintances who believe they know more about investing than her. It’s going well so far: The stock has skyrocketed close to 380% in 2024, making it the best performer in the S&P 500 year-to-date.
“Multiple times in college, people would try and talk to me about it like I didn’t know what I was talking about,” said Khoury, who graduated this year with a degree in finance. “I’m like, sure, yeah, I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I do have Nvidia.”
“Probably,” she said, “my portfolio looks better than yours.”

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After this season’s peak holiday shopping days, retailers expect their return rate to be 17% higher, on average, than usual.
By the end of 2024, returns are expected to total $890 billion.
The growing amount of returned merchandise is a major problem for retailers, and comes at a high environmental cost.

After a strong start to the holiday season, consumer spending is on track to reach record levels this year. But many of those purchases will soon be returned.
December’s peak shopping days are closely followed by the busiest month for sending items back, which experts dub “Returnuary.”

This year, returns are expected to amount to 17% of all merchandise sales, totaling $890 billion in returned goods, according to a recent report by the National Retail Federation — up from a return rate of about 15% of total U.S. retail sales, or $743 billion in returned goods, in 2023.
Even though returns happen throughout the year, they are much more prevalent during the holiday season, the NRF also found. As shopping reaches a peak, retailers expect their return rate for the holidays to be 17% higher, on average, than usual.
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“Ideally, I hope there is a world in which you can reduce the percent of returns,” said Amena Ali, CEO of returns solution company Optoro, but “the problem is not going to abate any time soon.”

How returns became an $890 billion problem

With the explosion of online shopping during and since the pandemic, customers got increasingly comfortable with their buying and returning habits and more shoppers began ordering products they never intended to keep.

Nearly two-thirds of consumers now buy multiple sizes or colors, some of which they then send back, a practice known as “bracketing,” according to Happy Returns.
Even more — 69% — of shoppers admit to “wardrobing,” or buying an item for a specific event and returning it afterward, a separate report by Optoro found. That’s a 39% increase from 2023.
Largely because of these types of behaviors, 46% of consumers said they are returning goods multiple times a month — a 29% jump from last year, according to Optoro.
All of that back-and-forth comes at a hefty price.
“With behaviors like bracketing and rising return rates putting strain on traditional systems, retailers need to rethink reverse logistics,” David Sobie, Happy Returns’ co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.

What happens to returned goods

Processing a return costs retailers an average of 30% of an item’s original price, Optoro found. But returns aren’t just a problem for retailers’ bottom line.
Often returns do not end up back on the shelf, and that also causes issues for retailers struggling to enhance sustainability, according to Spencer Kieboom, founder and CEO of Pollen Returns, a return management company. 
Sending products back to be repackaged, restocked and resold — sometimes overseas — generates even more carbon emissions, assuming they can be put back in circulation.
In some cases, returned goods are sent straight to landfills, and only 54% of all packaging was recycled in 2018, the most recent data available, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Returns in 2023 created 8.4 billion pounds of landfill waste, according to Optoro.
That presents a major challenge for retailers, not only in terms of the lost revenue, but also in terms of the environmental impact of managing those returns, said Rachel Delacour, co-founder and CEO of Sweep, a sustainability data management firm. “At the end of the day, being sustainable is a business strategy.”

To that end, companies are doing what they can to keep returns in check.
In 2023, 81% of U.S. retailers rolled out stricter return policies, including shortening the return window and charging a return or restocking fee, according to another report from Happy Returns.
While restocking fees and shipping charges may help curb the amount of inventory that is sent back, retailers also said that improving the returns experience was a key goal for 2025.
Now 33% of retailers, including Amazon and Target, are allowing their customers to simply “keep it,” offering a refund without taking the product back.

For shoppers, return policies are key

Increasingly, return policies and expectations are an important predictor of consumer behavior, according to Happy Returns’ Sobie, particularly for Generation Z and millennials.
“Return policies are no longer just a post-purchase consideration — they’re shaping how younger generations shop from the start,” Sobie said.
Three-quarters, or 76%, of shoppers consider free returns a key factor in deciding where to spend their money, and 67% say a negative return experience would discourage them from shopping with a retailer again, the NRF found.
A survey of 1,500 adults by GoDaddy found that 77% of shoppers check the return policy before making a purchase.
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