Markus Andrews

A traditional Independence Day barbecue for 10 people will cost $71.22 this year, on average, up 5% from 2023 and 30% from 2019, according to an American Farm Bureau Federation estimate.
Beef and lemonade prices have risen significantly. Those for chicken breast and potato salad are down.
Overall grocery inflation has fallen to a roughly pre-pandemic level.

Miodrag Ignjatovic | E+ | Getty Images

Americans firing up their grills for Fourth of July celebrations will likely pay more for some traditional barbecue staples this year.
That’s largely due to inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy and supply shocks related to specific foods such as beef and lemons, according to agricultural economists.

The average cookout for 10 people will cost $71.22 this year, up 5% from 2023 and up about 30% from five years ago, according to an American Farm Bureau Federation estimate.
The group analyzed prices for ground beef, chicken breast, pork chops, cheese, hamburger buns, homemade potato salad, potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, strawberries, pork and beans, and lemonade:

2 pounds of ground beef, $12.77 (+11% vs. 2023)
2 pounds of chicken breasts, $7.83 (-4%)
3 pounds of pork chops, $15.49 (+8%)
1 pound of cheese, $3.57 (+1%)
1 package of hamburger buns, $2.41 (+7%)
2½ pounds of homemade potato salad, $3.32 (-4%)
32 ounces of pork and beans, $2.49 (+2%)
16 ounces of potato chips, $4.90 (+8%)
13-ounce package of chocolate chip cookies, $3.99 (+2%)
½ gallon of ice cream, $5.65 (+7%)
2 pints of strawberries, $4.61 (+1%)
2½ quarts of lemonade, $4.19 (+12%)

Overall food inflation has fallen dramatically, though.
Grocery prices are rising at a rate of 1% a year — roughly their pre-pandemic pace — after having topped out at 13.5% in August 2022.
The worst of food inflation is “in the rearview mirror,” Wells Fargo agricultural economists wrote in a recent analysis of Fourth of July food prices.

While food generally won’t be cheaper at the grocery store, “you’re not seeing these huge jumps in prices you saw in the last year or two,” Courtney Schmidt, a sector manager at Wells Fargo’s Agri-Food Institute and report co-author, told CNBC.
That said, consumers have seen prices fall for some specific barbecue items such as chicken breast and potatoes, the Farm Bureau said.

Why beef and lemon prices are rising

An employee examines a side of beef inside a freezer at a butcher shop in Louisville, Kentucky, in August 2022. 
Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Ground beef and lemonade are the items for which Americans will see the biggest price increases for an Independence Day barbecue, according to Bernt Nelson, a Farm Bureau economist.
Two pounds of ground beef cost $12.77, on average, up 11% from 2023, according to the group’s analysis.
That’s largely due to low beef supply. The overall cattle inventory is the smallest it’s been in 73 years, and the amount of red meat in cold storage is at its lowest in more than two decades, according to the Farm Bureau.
“We had a really severe drought in 2022 that caused that reduction in supply,” Schmidt said. “It’s a long life cycle for cattle, so it takes time to rebuild that herd.”
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The average person would pay $2.16 for ingredients to prepare one quarter-pound hamburger with cheese, tomato and lettuce at home, according to a Wells Fargo analysis.
Meanwhile, 2½ quarts of lemonade cost an average $4.19, up 12%.
A citrus greening disease outbreak in California, the U.S.’ largest lemon producer, in late 2023 has pushed down supply, the Farm Bureau said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates lemon production will fall 16% in 2024.
Average lemon prices are up 13% from last year, while sugar prices rose 11% due partly to lower global production, the Farm Bureau said.
“Overall inflation has also contributed to the increased prices for foods like chips, burger buns and many others,” Nelson said.

Why chicken and potato prices are down

Adene Sanchez | E+ | Getty Images

A two-pound pack of chicken breast will cost $7.83, on average, down 4% from 2023 and 13% from a record high in 2022, per the Farm Bureau analysis. Chicken supplies have rebounded, according to USDA data, following a historic and deadly outbreak of bird flu in 2022.
Meat — including ground beef, pork chops and chicken breast — accounts for 50% of the total cost of an Independence Day barbecue, according to the Farm Bureau.
Potato salad will also be cheaper than in 2023, largely because of lower prices for its key ingredient. Two pounds of potatoes cost $1.53, down 17%, the Farm Bureau said. Crop production is recovering from weather-related shortfalls that had pushed prices to recent record highs, it said.

How to save money

Prices for dining out have increased more than groceries in the past year: Up 4% versus 1%, respectively, according to the consumer price index.
The average price of a quarter-pound burger at quick-service restaurants is $6.95, triple the cost of preparing one burger at home, Wells Fargo found. For a party of 10, party hosts would save $47.90 by cooking at home instead of buying a burger, it said.
“This is going to be another great year to break out your grill and cook the burger yourself at home,” Schmidt said.

That said, for those who require the convenience of dining out, many quick-service joints are offering value options for diners, she added.
Higher costs for aluminum have fed through to prices for 12-ounce drink cans, Schmidt said. She recommended considering a two-liter shareable bottle instead of individual aluminum cans. The price for a 12 oz. can of soda is up 4.8% over the past year, while that for two-liter bottles is down 6.5%, for example.
Consumers looking to save should also do a little online research, she said. Grocery stores often run Fourth of July deals; consumers can look up weekly ads and shop around for cost savings. More

The typical cost to sell a house in 2024 is $54,616, according to a new report by Clever Real Estate.
“When people think about selling their home, they’re thinking about how much money they’re going to make from their home sale, and not how much they’re going to spend,” said Jaime Dunaway-Seale, data writer at Clever Real Estate.

Vm | E+ | Getty Images

Buying a home and maintaining it is expensive, but selling it is costly, too, according to a new report.
It typically costs $54,616 to sell a house in 2024, according to a June 17 report from Clever Real Estate. Almost half of surveyed home sellers, or 42%, said their costs to sell were higher than expected, the report found.

“When people think about selling their home, they’re thinking about how much money they’re going to make from their home sale, and not how much they’re going to spend,” said Jaime Dunaway-Seale, data writer at Clever Real Estate.
“That cost does end up being very high and then they’re caught off guard and disappointed because that’s going to take a cut out of their profit,” Dunaway-Seale said.
In May, Clever Real Estate polled 1,014 Americans who sold a home between 2022 and 2024 about their attitudes related to the home-selling process. It also conducted an analysis of seller costs based on median real estate prices in May.
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About 39% of the total cost — $21,603 — is spent on real estate agent commissions, according to the report.

However, as a landmark case involving real estate agent commission fees will soon take effect, sellers will no longer be required to pick up the entire tab. If a seller decides not to pay the buyer’s real estate agent’s commission, it could “drop their cost by about $10,000,” Dunaway-Seale said.
Other typical expenses include doing some home repairs both ahead of the listing and in response to inspections, which Clever Real Estate estimates to cost $10,000; closing costs ($8,000); buyer concessions, or expenses the seller agrees to pay for the buyer to reduce upfront purchase costs, ($7,200); moving costs ($3,250); marketing and advertising costs ($2,300); and staging costs ($2,263).
But home sellers should focus on “maximizing the efficiency of the transaction,” and “not just trying to save on costs,” said Mark Hamrick, senior analyst at Bankrate. 
“Ultimately, [with] many of these fees, there’s no harm in trying to negotiate, and that includes real estate commissions,” Hamrick said.

‘There are plenty of costs involved’

Cost-constrained homebuyers in today’s housing market do not want to inherit homes in need of renovations, according to the Clever Real Estate report.
“There are plenty of costs involved,” said certified financial planner Kashif A. Ahmed, founder and president of American Private Wealth in Bedford, Massachusetts. “You might have to do some renovations to sell it.” 
If a buyer makes it as far as the home inspection process and sees issues in the house that were not noticeable during the initial walkthrough nor disclosed, they may have room to ask the seller to do the necessary repairs, Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, recently told CNBC.

That is especially true in housing markets where listed homes are lingering on the market for longer because it gives homebuyers “bargaining power,” according to Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow.
Sellers often incur pre- and post-listing repairs, improvements and renovations that can cost around $10,000, according to Clever Real Estate. 
“There may be a situation where a buyer might say, ‘Well, I want you to fix this before I buy it,’ and then you’re like, ‘Well, in the interest of getting rid of this place … I’ll spend the extra money,'” Ahmed said. 
But the highest expenses an owner will face when selling a home are the real estate agent commission fees, Ahmed said.

‘The rule change has not yet gone into effect’

A landmark case is poised to change the way homes are bought and sold in the U.S.
The National Association of Realtors in March agreed to a $418 million settlement in an antitrust lawsuit in which a federal jury found the organization and other real estate brokerages had conspired to artificially inflate agent commissions on the sale and purchase of real estate.
“We went ahead and included it [in the Clever Real Estate analysis] now because, as of right now, the rule change has not yet gone into effect,” said Dunaway-Seale.
A finalized NAR settlement takes effect in August, and there is a “much more defined notion that sellers are not responsible” for a buyer’s real estate agent commissions, said real estate attorney Claudia Cobreiro, the founder of Cobreiro Law in Coral Gables, Florida.

Commission rates have also been removed from the multiple listing system, or MLS, in some areas like Miami, she noted.
The new mandatory MLS policy changes will take effect on August 17, 2024, according to the NAR.
However, “that is the policy side of it,” she said. “The practical side of it is that we are still seeing the notion that Realtors are needed,” and most buyers might not have an extra $10,000 on top of closing costs and the down payment required for the purchase, Cobreiro said.
Dunaway-Seale agreed: “Sellers might not be obligated to pay the buyer’s agent commission, but a lot of them still might as just another incentive to bring buyers in.” 

Ways to reduce costs

A seller has to pay closing costs; everything else depends on the home seller’s priority, or how quickly they need to sell off the property, said Dunaway-Seale.
Here are some ways to cut or reduce expenses associated with selling a house:
1. Sell without a real estate agent: Homeowners could try to sell the house themselves and potentially drop real estate services altogether, said Dunaway-Seale.
“But they’re not going to sell for as much profit,” she said.
Among sellers who did not hire an agent, 59% did so to save money, Clever Real Estate found. But sellers who did work with an agent sold their house for about $34,000 more than those who did not, according to the report.

Keep in mind that going through the transaction without a real estate agent can pose a risk.
Signing the contract is the least of it. There are so many things that happen throughout the transaction that really require the expertise and the navigation by someone who understands the process, Cobreiro previously told CNBC.
“You’re talking about one of the most expensive and consequential transactions of a lifetime,” said Hamrick. “These fees can on the face of it look a bit daunting, but the good news is most people are not going into this where they’re going to essentially lose money on the transaction.”
2. Reduce concessions, staging and marketing costs: “If sellers don’t really care about selling their home quickly, they could possibly offer fewer concessions,” Dunaway-Seale said. Concessions are expenses the seller agrees to pay for to reduce a buyer’s upfront costs.
Lowering the budget for staging and marketing costs can also save on expenses because such tools help draw buyers in, she said.

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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will face off Thursday in the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election.
The biggest tax issue is expiring provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, of 2017 and how to pay for extensions.
More than 60% of tax filers could face increased taxes in 2026 if TCJA provisions sunset, according to the Tax Foundation.   

Joe Biden and Donald Trump 2024
Brendan Smialowski | Jon Cherry | Getty Images

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will face off Thursday in the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election — and the presumptive nominees could show voters where they stand on tax policy, experts say.
One key issue is the Republicans’ expiring tax breaks enacted via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or TCJA. Without action from Congress, several provisions will sunset after 2025, including lower federal income tax brackets, a boosted child tax credit and higher estate and gift tax exemptions, among others.

More than 60% of tax filers could face increased taxes in 2026 if TCJA provisions expire, according to the Tax Foundation.   
Andrew Lautz, associate director for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s economic policy program, said he’s looking for Biden and Trump to “move beyond some of the political rhetoric” to discuss how they plan to address next year’s TCJA expirations.
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Although both campaigns want to renew TCJA provisions for most Americans, questions remain about the cost of those extensions, particularly amid the federal budget deficit.
Fully extending TCJA provisions could add an estimated $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported in May.

Trump is a ‘wild card’ on tax policy 

After yearly budget proposals to Congress, there will be “very few surprises from the Biden tax agenda,” said Steve Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
“He repeats it every year, and he’s promised to pursue that which has not been enacted, which is most of it,” Rosenthal said.
Biden wants higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy and corporations to fund TCJA extensions for those making less than $400,000 only.

In his fiscal year 2025 budget, Biden called for increasing the top individual income tax rate on earnings above $400,000, bumping capital gains to regular income tax rates for households making more than $1 million and a 25% minimum tax on wealth exceeding $100 million.
However, the future of these proposals is unclear with control of Congress uncertain.
“Trump is the wild card,” Rosenthal said. “It’s hard to say how serious he is about some of these ideas he just throws out there.”
So far, Trump has said he aims to fully extend expiring TCJA provisions and has voiced support for tariffs, which are taxes levied on imported goods. Trump has also floated eliminating taxes on workers’ tips and an “all tariff policy” to get rid of the income tax.

The ‘economic reality’ of tariffs

The debate could also address Trump’s and Biden’s policies on tariffs, which both candidates have supported to varying degrees, according to Erica York, senior economist and research director at the Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy.

“We know the economic reality,” she said. “[Tariffs] cost American businesses. They create a disadvantage for our firms trying to compete across the globe because they increase input costs here.”
During his term, Trump added tariffs on China, Mexico, the European Union and others. Many of the tariffs on China have remained in place under the Biden administration. More

Asking rents for one- and two-bedroom apartments are up more than 10% in some large U.S. cities since June 2023, according to Zumper.
They include Syracuse, New York; Lincoln, Nebraska; Chicago; Buffalo, New York; Madison, Wisconsin; Rochester, New York; and New York City.
Meanwhile, prices fell by at least 5% in other major cities.
Rent inflation is guided by apartment supply and renter demand.

Tourists walk through a park in Chicago, on May 26, 2024.  
Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Many major U.S. cities have seen apartment prices soar in the past year, even as the typical American has seen pandemic-era rent inflation cool substantially.
For example, renters in Syracuse, New York, saw monthly rents for one- and two-bedroom apartments on the market jump the most relative to other big cities: by 29% and 25%, respectively, since June 2023, according to data in Zumper’s National Rent Report.

Zumper analyzed median asking rents for apartment listings in the largest 100 U.S. cities by population.
Rents have also risen by at least 10% for both one- and two-bedroom apartments in other major metros: Lincoln, Nebraska; Chicago; Buffalo, New York; Madison, Wisconsin; Rochester, New York; and New York City, according to Zumper.

Conversely, renters in other cities are seeing relief.
Asking rents for one-bedroom apartments have declined by at least 5% in Oakland, California; Memphis and Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cincinnati, Ohio; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Irving, Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; and Raleigh, Greensboro and Durham, North Carolina, according to the analysis.

By comparison, national prices overall for one- and two-bedroom apartments are up 1.5% and 2.1%, respectively, since June 2023, Zumper found.

New York is the most expensive metro for renters: The typical renter pays $4,300 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, it found.
By comparison, in Akron, Ohio, and Wichita, Kansas — which tied for the lowest big-city rents — renters pay $730 a month for a one-bedroom apartment.

What causes rent inflation

At a high level, rent inflation is guided by supply-and-demand dynamics, said Crystal Chen, an analyst who authored the Zumper analysis.
Basically, areas with fast-growing rents are seeing demand outstrip the supply of available apartments, while those with falling rents have seen their apartment inventories growing.
For example, the apartment vacancy rate in New York City recently dropped to 1.4%, a historic low dating to the 1960s, according to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The vacancy rate “nosedived” from 4.5% just two years ago, the agency said.
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“The data is clear, the demand to live in our city is far outpacing our ability to build housing,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement about the vacancy rate.
Swelling rents can present financial challenges for households.
In May, a typical renter would have spent almost 30% of their income on a new rental, according to Zillow.
While down from a recent peak near 31% in June 2022, it exceeds the roughly 28% that was common before the pandemic, according to Zillow data.

About 86% of New York City residents with the lowest income (less than $25,000 a year) are severely rent burdened, according to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. An increase in financial strain has caused “an alarming increase in missed rent payments and arrears” relative to 2021, it said.
High rents can have other cascading impacts.
For example, they may limit the ability of prospective homebuyers to save for a down payment, “keeping them on the sidelines of the housing market,” Fitch said in a global housing outlook.

Rent inflation has fallen substantially

Rent inflation plummeted in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Pretty much everyone” sheltered in place during the health crisis, and digital nomads who no longer had to work in a physical office left cities in favor of the suburbs and outdoor spaces, Chen said.

However, rents spiked through 2022 and into 2023 amid return-to-office policies and as people moved back to bigger cities, Chen said.
Annual rent inflation largely hovered between 3% and 4% the the years leading up to the pandemic, and peaked around 9% in early 2023, according to the consumer price index. It has gradually cooled since then, to about 5% in May, according to consumer price index data. More

Due to a backlog of 1.4 million unprocessed employee retention credit claims, the national taxpayer advocate is urging the IRS to expedite legitimate filings.
Enacted to support small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, the ERC is worth thousands per eligible employee.
But after a wave of “questionable claims,” the IRS stopped processing new ERC claims in September, and nearly all filings sent before the moratorium remain unworked.

Erin Collins, national taxpayer advocate at the Taxpayer Advocate Service, speaks at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., on May 19, 2021.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Many taxpayers are experiencing “long delays and uncertainty” amid a backlog of roughly 1.4 million pandemic-era small business tax credit claims, according to the national taxpayer advocate.
Enacted to support small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, the employee retention credit, or ERC, is worth thousands of dollars per eligible employee. After a wave of “questionable claims,” the IRS stopped processing new filings in September.

But prolonged processing delays by the IRS are “harming taxpayers with valid ERC claims,” as many have already waited a year or longer, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins wrote in her midyear report to Congress.
“It’s time for the IRS to be transparent on how and when it plans to move forward addressing these ERC claims,” she wrote.
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There was a backlog of nearly 666,000 unworked ERC claims before the September moratorium, and nearly all filings sent before the moratorium remain unprocessed, according to the report. Some 85% of pending ERC claims are more than 120 days old.
“The IRS is between the proverbial rock and a hard place when it comes to ERC claims,” Collins said in a statement.

Without a thorough review, improper ERC payments could cost tens of billions of dollars. But if the IRS denies ERC claims and further delays payments, “the very businesses for which Congress created the ERC will be harmed again,” she said.
In the coming weeks, Collins said she aims to work with IRS leadership to accelerate ERC processing of eligible claims, including several thousands of pending cases with the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

Her report comes less than one week since the IRS announced it would deny billions of dollars’ worth of “improper” ERC claims while prioritizing lower-risk filings.
“This is one of the most complex credits the IRS has administered, and we continue to ask taxpayers for patience as we unravel this complex process,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “Ultimately, this period will help us protect taxpayers against improper payouts that flooded the system and get checks to those truly eligible.”

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Around 8 million borrowers have signed up for SAVE, the new income-driven repayment plan.
Just days before millions of student loan borrowers expected to see their monthly bill drop by a half or more, two federal judges halted the Biden administration’s relief plan.
Borrowers can stay enrolled in the SAVE plan for now, but here’s what borrowers need to know.

U.S. President Joe Biden is joined by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona (L) as he announces new actions to protect borrowers after the Supreme Court struck down his student loan forgiveness plan in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on June 30, 2023 in Washington, DC. 
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Cody Gude was counting the seconds until July when his monthly student loan payment was scheduled to drop to $100 from $200.
The lower payment meant that he would no longer need to deliver groceries on Instacart in his spare time, on top of his work as a social media consultant.

“I could breathe,” the 35-year-old Tampa, Florida, resident said.
But then he saw headlines on Monday that major parts of the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan were on pause. Two federal judges in Kansas and Missouri temporarily halted the Biden administration’s new repayment plan until they rule on the cases.
The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to appeal the preliminary injunctions, but for now, millions of student loan borrowers are disappointed and angry that they won’t see the relief they expected in just a matter of days.
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There’s a great deal of confusion as well.

Gude’s student loan servicer, Nelnet, already updated his monthly bill to reflect the lower amount. (Under SAVE, many borrowers pay just 5% of their discretionary income toward their debt each month instead of the previous 10% requirement, and millions of borrowers have a $0 monthly payment.)
“So am I actually going to have that payment, or are they going to send me a letter saying, ‘Ha! We’re just kidding,'” Gude said. “Everyone is in the dark.”
Here’s what we know so far.

Why is the SAVE plan causing drama?

President Joe Biden last summer rolled out the SAVE plan, describing it as “the most affordable student loan plan ever.” So far, around 8 million borrowers have signed up for the new income-driven repayment plan, according to the White House.
Under IDR plans, borrowers pay a share of their discretionary income each month and receive forgiveness after a set period, typically 20 years or 25 years. SAVE replaced the U.S. Department of Education’s former REPAYE option, or Revised Pay As You Earn plan.
The SAVE plan has the most generous terms to date, which has led to the current controversy.
Instead of paying 10% of their discretionary income a month toward their undergraduate student debt under REPAYE, borrowers need to pay just 5%.
Those who earn less than $15 an hour have a $0 monthly bill, and borrowers with smaller balances are entitled to loan forgiveness in as little as 10 years.
“The SAVE plan is very generous to borrowers, almost like a grant after the fact,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

Due to the timeline of regulatory changes, the SAVE plan wasn’t scheduled to fully take effect until July 1, although some features were already available to borrowers.
By mid-April, 360,000 borrowers received $4.8 billion in debt relief under the plan, the Education Department reported.

What did the judges decide?

The federal judges responded to lawsuits against the SAVE plan filed earlier this year by Republican-led states, including Florida, Arkansas and Missouri.
The states argued that the Biden administration was overstepping its authority with SAVE, and essentially trying to find a roundabout way to forgive student debt after the Supreme Court blocked its sweeping plan last year.
The federal judge in Kansas, Daniel Crabtree, declined to unwind features of the SAVE plan already in effect “because plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate those provisions caused irreparable harm” since they’d brought the lawsuit “long after defendants already had implemented those aspects of the SAVE Plan.”

However, Crabtree agreed to halt the Education Department from implementing the SAVE provision that dramatically lowers borrowers’ monthly payments come July. Crabtree pointed out that the REPAYE plan, which SAVE replaced, “cost an estimated $15.4 billion.” The SAVE plan, meanwhile, is expected to cost $475 billion over the next decade.
“This difference — $475 billion versus $15.4 billion — expands agency authority to such an extent that it alters it,” Crabtree wrote. “So, the court concludes that the SAVE Plan represents ‘an enormous and transformative expansion in regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization.'”
Meanwhile in Missouri, Judge John Ross prevented the Biden administration from forgiving any more student debt under the SAVE program until he reaches a decision on the case. Ross agreed with the states that the relief plan would likely reduce the fees the government pays to the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, or Mohela, for servicing its federal student loans.
So, the key question is: How long can this legal case take?
“Months, I suspect, past [the] election,” said Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group for federal student loan servicers.
Buchanan assumes the cases will eventually reach the Supreme Court, “then they themselves wouldn’t even take it up until the October term, for a ruling much later.”

In the meantime, what do borrowers do?

Borrowers can stay enrolled in the SAVE plan for now, and many are still benefiting from lower bills already. (The judges didn’t pause the provision shielding a higher share of borrowers’ income from their payment calculation.)
Even if your servicer updated your monthly bill to what it was going to be before the preliminary injunctions, your required payment should soon revert back to its June level, experts say.
“The court’s ruling is not retroactive,” Kantrowitz added. “So, borrowers do not have to worry about the courts clawing back the forgiveness they have already received.”
Correction: Judge Ross agreed with the states that the relief plan would likely reduce the fees the government pays to the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, or Mohela, for servicing its federal student loans. An earlier version misstated the name of the agency.

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Prepare to feel the impact of “funflation” this summer.
Admission prices for sporting events, movies, theaters and concerts are up year over year.
Despite the rising cost, consumers are increasingly willing to go into debt for travel and entertainment, several studies show.

Taylor Swift fans queue outside Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland, on June 6, 2024. Her fans, known as Swifties, had made the superstar $200 million in Eras merchandise sales as of November 2023.
Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The price of ‘funflation’

Some ticket prices have surged in recent months, according to federal data.
Admission prices for sporting events jumped 21.7% in May 2024 from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index data. The category saw the highest annualized inflation rate out of the few hundred that make up the inflation gauge. Admission to movies, theaters, and concerts rose a relatively modest 3% on an annualized basis.
The CPI as a whole was up 3.3% in May from a year ago. The index gauges how fast prices are changing across the U.S. economy. It measures everything from haircuts to household appliances.

Why Americans go all out on entertainment

Despite rising costs, 38% of adults said they plan to take on more debt to travel, dine out and see live entertainment in the months ahead, according to a report by Bankrate.
Meanwhile, 27% of those surveyed said they would go into debt to travel this year, while 14% would dip into the red to dine out and another 13% would lean on credit to go to the theater, see a live sporting event or attend a concert — including the European leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, Bankrate found.

Taylor Swift performs on stage at Wembley Stadium in London on June 22, 2024.
Kevin Mazur | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

“There’s still a lot of demand for out-of-home entertainment,” Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate, recently told CNBC.
“Some of that reflects a ‘you only live once’ mentality that intensified during the pandemic, and some of that is because many economic indicators — including GDP growth and the unemployment rate — are in favorable shape,” Rossman said.
Younger adults, particularly Generation Z and millennials, were more likely to splurge on those discretionary purchases, Bankrate found.

Although an increased cost of living has made it particularly hard for those just starting out, young adults are taking a more relaxed approach to their long-term financial security, other research shows.
Nearly two out of five Gen Z and millennial travelers have spent up to $5,000 on tickets alone for destination live events, a recent study from Bread Financial found.
And many say it’s well worth it. Rather than cut expenses to boost savings, 73% of Gen Zers between the ages of 18 and 25 said they would ultimately rather have a better quality of life than extra money in the bank, according to another Prosperity Index report by Intuit. 
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