Markus Andrews

In 2025, workers pay Social Security payroll taxes up to a $176,100 cap.
High earners with $1 million in gross annual wage income have already stopped paying into the program as of March 6.

A video protest sign on a truck paid for by the Patriotic Millionaires drives past a mansion owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as part of a federal tax filing day protest to demand he pay his fair share of taxes, in Washington, May 17, 2021.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Most workers can expect to see Social Security payroll taxes taken from their paychecks throughout the year.
But high earners with $1 million in gross annual wage income have already stopped paying into the program as of March 6, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

In 2025, workers are subject to payroll taxes on up to $176,100 in earnings. Workers pay a 6.2% Social Security payroll tax rate, which is matched by their employers, for a total of 12.4%.
Once high earners hit that $176,100 cap, they no longer contribute to the program for the rest of the year.
“Elon Musk has already reached that cap of $176,100 within the first few minutes of 2025 just on gross annual wage income,” said Emma Curchin, research assistant at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
That does not include the investment income he earns, which is not subject to Social Security payroll taxes, she said.
Approximately 6% of workers have earnings over the taxable maximum, according to the Social Security Administration.

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Ultimately, higher earners who contribute to the program up to the highest taxable earnings each year for most of their careers stand to receive the maximum retirement benefit.
In 2025, the maximum Social Security benefit for a worker retiring at full retirement age is $4,018 per month.
Meanwhile, the average monthly benefit for retired workers is $1,976 per month in 2025.

Congress could mull eliminating payroll tax cap

As Social Security’s trust funds face a looming insolvency date, some proposals have suggested eliminating or lifting the cap on earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax.
Last year, Social Security’s trustees projected the fund that the program relies on to pay retirement benefits may last until 2033. At that time, 79% of scheduled benefits will be payable.
To prevent those benefit shortfalls, Congress may consider a variety of tax increases or benefit cuts.

One recent survey found the most popular policy option would be to eliminate the payroll tax cap for earnings of more than $400,000, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance, AARP, the National Institute on Retirement Security and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The change would not provide additional benefits for higher earners who are affected.
The survey also found Americans would be open to higher taxes to ensure benefits either stay the same or increase.
“They’re willing to pay more, not to get extra benefits for themselves, but just to close the financing gap to prevent indiscriminate across the board benefit cuts,” Tyler Bond, research director for the National Institute on Retirement Security, previously told CNBC.com.
Another change survey respondents favored is reducing benefits for individuals with higher retirement incomes excluding Social Security. That would apply to individual retirees with $60,000 or more aside from Social Security per year and married couples with $120,000 or more per year.
“By scrapping the cap, the Social Security trust fund could be much more healthy and secure,” Curchin said.
But it’s not enough. To restore the program’s solvency, research has shown a combination of changes would be required. More

A spousal individual retirement account is a separate Roth or traditional IRA for a non-working spouse.
If you’re married and file jointly, you have until the federal tax deadline — April 15 for most taxpayers — to make 2024 IRA contributions for each spouse.
Your traditional IRA contributions could provide a tax break, depending on your income workplace retirement plan participation.

Peopleimages | Istock | Getty Images

If you’re married and in a single-income household, a lesser-known retirement strategy could boost your nest egg — and there’s still time to use it for 2024.
A spousal individual retirement account is a separate Roth or traditional IRA for the non-working spouse. With this strategy, two IRAs can be maxed out annually with enough income from the working spouse. The deadline for 2024 contributions is April 15.

“Spousal IRAs are a game changer for married couples looking to build retirement savings and manage their lifetime tax burden,” said certified financial planner Jim Davis, partner at Aspen Wealth Management in Fort Worth, Texas.
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For 2024, the IRA contribution limit is $7,000, plus an extra $1,000 catch-up contribution for investors age 50 and older. The caps are the same for 2025.
That means an older married couple with sufficient earned income could save up to $8,000 per IRA for 2024 before the April 15 tax deadline. They’ll have until next year’s tax due date for 2025 IRA contributions.
“For many, it’s a simple yet powerful step toward achieving long-term goals,” Davis said.

To qualify, you must file taxes jointly and your combined IRA contributions can’t exceed “taxable compensation” reported on your tax return, according to the IRS. The strategy could also work if one spouse is unemployed without enough 2024 earnings to contribute to an IRA on their own.
Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax dollars and offer future tax-free growth, but there’s an income limit. Traditional IRAs could provide an upfront tax break, depending on your income and workplace retirement plan participation.   

‘Leveling the playing field’

Another perk of spousal IRAs is the ability to create or boost retirement savings for spouses who don’t earn an income, said Michelle Petrowski, a CFP and founder of Phoenix-based financial firm Being in Abundance.
“This helps accrue retirement savings for the family CFO who may not be employed outside the home, or is currently underemployed,” she said.
In a divorce, it’s often easier to split retirement accounts when the non-earning spouse has assets in their name, noted Petrowski, who is also a certified divorce financial analyst. 
“This is a great way to acknowledge their unpaid economic contribution to the household,” she said. “It really helps with leveling the playing field in these conversations.” More

The Trump administration — with the help of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, which the president says is headed by Elon Musk — has fired tens of thousands of federal workers.
The scale of cuts will likely be flood the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) with claims and the program may struggle to make timely payments, according to The Century Foundation.

President Donald Trump listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Feb. 26, 2025.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Trump administration’s purge of federal staff may flood an unemployment benefits system ill-equipped to handle the deluge, triggering delays in aid for jobless workers, according to a new report.
The terminations of federal workers by the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency — headed up by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk — may ultimately stretch into the hundreds of thousands. That would amount to the largest mass layoff in U.S. history.

The scale of cuts would likely “overwhelm” the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program, the “rarely utilized and creaky” system most federal workers use to claim unemployment benefits, according to a report by The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.  
The result would likely be longer time frames to collect financial aid that’s meant to help workers stay afloat and prevent them from depleting savings as they look for new jobs, said Andrew Stettner, the group’s director of economy and jobs, who co-authored the analysis.
“We’re already hearing it’s taking a long time for people to get their benefits,” said Stettner, former director of unemployment insurance modernization at the U.S. Labor Department during the Biden administration. “And it will probably only get worse.”
The Department of Labor oversees the UCFE program, which is administered by state unemployment agencies.

Elon Musk holds a chainsaw reading “Long live freedom, damn it” during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 20, 2025. 
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images

More than 62,000 federal workers across 17 agencies lost their jobs in February alone, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm, reported Thursday. By comparison, there were 151 cuts in January and February last year, it said.

Employers have announced almost 222,000 job cuts so far in 2025, the highest year-to-date total since 2009, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said.
“The sudden surge of claims due to federal layoffs has some worrisome similarities to the pandemic, despite its much smaller scale,” according to the Century report.
States will have to process a “drastically greater” volume of claims for the UCFE program, it said.
The Labor Department didn’t return a request from CNBC for comment.

Federal unemployment program more ‘manual’

The UCFE program differs from the unemployment insurance system for private-sector workers — and has unique challenges.
The private-sector UI system is more automated, while that for federal workers requires more manual inputs that can significantly slow the process during times of high volume, Stettner said.
Specifically, private companies pass an employee’s earnings and employment records on a quarterly basis to the appropriate jurisdiction, Stettner said. (That jurisdiction may be a state, territory or the District of Columbia, depending on where the employee worked.)

These employment records are necessary to determine factors like eligibility and weekly payments if a worker claims jobless benefits.
However, the UCFE program isn’t as streamlined. After a worker applies, the state fills out a form and submits a request to the federal agency at which an employee worked, which then verifies the claim’s accuracy, Stettner said.
The federal system is generally “such a small program, it basically works by hand,” he said.
About 7,400 people were collecting federal unemployment benefits as of Feb. 15, up roughly 12% from the same time last year, according to Labor Department data issued Thursday. The number could easily climb to 10 or 20 times that amount, more than they system has ever fielded, Stettner said.
Additionally, the federal government may try to contest claims in certain situations, which could further slow the process, he added. For example, many probationary workers received termination letters saying they’d been fired for cause; while that characterization doesn’t generally prevent workers from getting benefits, the government may use it as a reason to dispute a benefits application, Stettner said.
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Federal workers may find themselves in a tough financial situation if they can’t access benefits quickly.
That’s because it may be difficult for workers to find new jobs, especially in regional labor markets most impacted by mass layoffs.
“Unfortunately, this labor market will not be conducive to a quick rebound — hiring rates are relatively low and uncertainty across the economy is likely to make businesses cautious about labor investments,” Elizabeth Renter, a senior economist at NerdWallet, wrote Thursday.

Road blocks for the Trump administration, DOGE

Even so, it’s unclear how many cuts will ultimately happen — or stick.
The Trump administration has hit recent road blocks in its attempts to cull federal jobs. For example, a federal judge in San Francisco last week said federal mass layoffs were likely illegal and directed the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to rescind directives ordering some agencies to fire probationary workers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelsey Helland argued for the government that OPM had asked, not ordered, agencies to lay off probationary workers.

“It appears the administration wants to cut even more workers, but an order to fire the roughly 200,000 probationary employees was blocked by a federal judge,” said Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “It remains to be seen how many more workers will lose their Federal Government roles.”
Additionally, the Merit Systems Protection Board, which handles federal worker disputes, temporarily reinstated about 6,000 workers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in their old positions effective Wednesday. More

The Education Department’s role working on federal student loan borrowers’ complaints is at risk after significant staff cuts under President Donald Trump, employees at the agency said.
The in-house team dedicated to helping borrowers with complaints concerning the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program no longer exists, a staffer said.
“We lost that expertise and the ability to answer complaints in a timely manner,” a staffer said.

An American flag and a U.S. Department of Education flag fly outside the US Department of Education building in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 1, 2025. 
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters

Federal student loan borrowers experiencing difficulties with their loans could find they have no recourse as President Donald Trump’s cuts to staff at the Department of Education are carried out, employees at the agency said.
Staffers at the Education Department tasked with fielding complaints from federal student loan holders and resolving their issues were let go in the recent job cuts, one employee told CNBC. At least eight of the fired staffers were working on a total of nearly 800 student loan borrower complaint cases, an employee said.

The remaining staff will likely have to take over these accounts. But, the employee said, “I have no idea when they’ll get reassigned.”
As a result, those borrowers “just have to continue to wait, and maybe they go into delinquency,” the staffer said.
Hundreds of thousands of people submit complaints to the Office of the Ombudsman at Federal Student Aid each year, according to a rough calculation by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
Trump is expected to sign an executive order calling on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to abolish the agency, a move that experts say would worsen the situation for borrowers. The Wall Street Journal first reported on that expected order.
As a department authorized by Congress, the department cannot be eliminated without congressional approval. But in the meantime, the Trump administration can slowly starve it by cutting resources.

There are roughly 42 million Americans who hold federal student loans, and the outstanding debt exceeds $1.6 trillion. Currently, around 9.2 million people — or roughly 43% of the nearly 22 million borrowers with payments due — are behind on their payments, according to a recent VantageScore report.
Federal student loan borrowers need assistance now more than ever, the Education Department staffers said. Collection activity is resuming for the first time in roughly five years after the expiration of pandemic-era relief, and a new repayment plan, called SAVE, that millions had enrolled in is now blocked by the courts.
“People will start having their wages or benefits garnished,” the staffer said. “If this happens erroneously, it would be extremely difficult to resolve that on your own.”
“Borrowers would be stuck having their money seized without a way to stop it,” they said.
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Borrowers who reach out the Education Department with questions or complaints are now less likely to get assistance, the staffers told CNBC.
Sources for this story requested anonymity because they feared retribution if they were named.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to questions from CNBC about the slowdown in student loan borrower assistance at the Education Department.
The in-house team dedicated to helping borrowers with complaints concerning the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program no longer exists, a staffer said.
As a result, remaining employees are unsure of where to direct borrowers who have issues with this program, the employee said. (PSLF is a popular way for public servants and those who work at nonprofits to get their debt canceled after 10 years of payments.)
“We lost that expertise and the ability to answer complaints in a timely manner,” the employee said.

Staffers say borrowers are already feeling the effect.
One employee told CNBC that they are currently helping a woman get her student debt discharged because of her disability, and that “every time we talk she’s terrified I won’t be there the next time.”
The employees said their work in complaint resolution has had huge impacts on people’s financial lives, and those efforts are now at risk.
They said they were able to get loans discharged for victims of identity theft, teachers and countless disabled borrowers.
Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center, criticized the moves at the Education Department.
“The ombudsman team was one of the first places to raise the alarm when there were systemic problems,” Yu said.
“The student loan system is broken, and right now there’s nowhere for borrowers to turn.”

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The U.S. is the top nation for the world’s wealthy, a recent report finds.
The number of multimillionaires worldwide jumped 4.4% in 2024, while the share of wealthy Americans with more than $10 million grew by 5.2%.

When it comes to the rise of multimillionaires, the United States is leading the charge, a new report found.
The number of high-net-worth individuals — or those with assets worth more than $10 million — rose 4.4% worldwide in 2024, to 2,341,378, but jumped 5.2% in North America, according to the annual Wealth Report by global real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

The U.S. is now home to almost 40% of the world’s super rich, the report estimates — nearly double the share that resides in China, the region with the next highest contingent of wealthy individuals.
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“While the global economy slowed through 2024, the resilience of the U.S. helped prop up investor confidence,” Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank, said in a statement. “The trends powering wealth creation, including growth in financial markets led by equity markets and the bitcoin run, continued through 2024.”
Over the year, positive market conditions helped boost investors’ bottom line. The S&P 500 stock index gained 23% in 2024. The tech-heavy Nasdaq grew about 29% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 12%.
“And despite geopolitical tensions, resilient global trade further contributed to growth,” Bailey said.

The rich are getting richer

After increasing 4.2% in 2024, the population of global citizens worth at least $100 million surpassed the 100,000 mark for the first time, Knight Frank also found.
Meanwhile, the total number of billionaires jumped nearly 8% last year, according to a separate report by Oxfam from January.
“We’ve reached a new era now, we are in the era of the billionaire,” Jenny Ricks, general secretary of the human rights group Fight Inequality Alliance, recently told CNBC. 

Roughly 204 new billionaires were minted in just 12 months, the Oxfam report found.
“Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated — by three times — but so too has their power,” Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International’s executive director, said in a statement after the report’s release.
The latest numbers also underscore a deepening divide between the world’s rich and poor. 
Despite the fact that America ranks first as the richest nation, 36.8 million Americans live in poverty, accounting for 11.1% of the total population, according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau. 
Many middle-class Americans are also showing signs of strain amid the escalating trade war and increased inflationary fears.

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Federal spending cuts to Medicaid would impact more than 80 million people who rely on the program.
It may also have negative effects on the economy, new research finds.

A “Save Medicaid” sign is affixed to the podium for the House Democrats’ press event to oppose the Republicans’ budget on the House steps of the Capitol on Tuesday, February 25, 2024. 
Bill Clark | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

House Republicans have called for about $880 billion in spending cuts over the next decade that may target Medicaid, a program that provides health care and other services to millions of Americans.
The budget resolution adopted by the chamber on Feb. 25 is aimed at implementing the cuts to help pay for renewing tax cuts expiring the end of this year. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is charged with finding the savings, and Medicaid is under its jurisdiction. Of note, the resolution doesn’t specifically single out Medicaid.

“It is very hard to imagine coming up with enough savings from what’s in their jurisdiction without a hefty cut to Medicaid, just given its size,” said Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Republicans including House Speaker Mike Johnson have said they do not plan to cut Medicaid, in keeping with President Donald Trump’s promise not to touch the program.
Neither the White House nor the Energy and Commerce Committee were immediately available for comment.
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Cuts to Medicaid would impact more than 80 million people who rely on the program for health insurance every month, including many individuals who are middle class, as well as older adults who use it for long-term care benefits, Bivens said.

Because the program is the largest federal program for alleviating poverty, cutbacks would increase hardships for already struggling families, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute.
Moreover, Medicaid cuts of that size would also make the U.S. more vulnerable to a recession, according to the research.

Cuts may have ‘noticeable effects’ on spending

Implementing Medicaid spending cuts to extend tax breaks from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would have “noticeable effects” on economywide spending, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Republicans and Democrats have opposing views on what the impact of extending those cuts may be. While Democrats say renewing the policy would benefit the wealthiest Americans, Republicans contend it could create a windfall for low- and middle-income Americans. Research from the Penn Wharton Budget Model and the Urban Institute has found high-income taxpayers would benefit most.
High-income households would likely save the additional money they see from any tax cuts, and therefore not result in meaningful spending, the EPI predicts.
In contrast, individuals who are affected by the Medicaid cuts would reduce their medical spending, such as by skipping doctors’ visits, the EPI report found. For people with less generous Medicaid coverage, higher out-of-pocket costs would limit their ability to spend in other areas.
A dollar cut to Medicaid generally has a much bigger macro effect than a dollar cut to taxes for high-income people, Bivens said. Because Medicaid beneficiaries are so income constrained, every extra dollar of funding that goes to Medicaid frees up money they can spend elsewhere, he said. Medicaid cuts curb their ability to spend.

An $880 billion cut to Medicaid would prompt a 0.5% drag on economic growth, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That could nudge the unemployment rate up by about 0.3 percentage point, and leave about 550,000 people involuntarily without jobs.
To counteract the slower economic growth, the Federal Reserve could lower interest rates from about 4.25% to around 2.5%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But that would limit the central bank’s ability to react to any other recessionary shocks that could come up.
Research from the Commonwealth Fund has found when Medicaid is expanded, additional federal funding can help promote stronger state economies. For states that implement expansions, that may boost state output, state gross products and personal incomes in those states, which also benefits the country at large, according to the research.

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The more than 9 million federal student loan borrowers, who are late on their bills, may see their credit scores tank by as much as 129 points, a new report finds.
Borrowers with past-due student loans and lower credit scores face higher borrowing costs across the board — from mortgages, car loans and credit cards, said certified financial planner Cathy Curtis.

Students walk through the University of Texas at Austin on February 22, 2024 in Austin, Texas. 
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

For the first time since the pandemic, becoming past-due on your student loan payments will hurt your credit again.
The more than 9 million borrowers who are late on their payments may see their credit scores tank by as much as 129 points as the U.S. Department of Education ramps up collection activity again, a new report by VantageScore finds. The credit score company analyzed U.S. Department of Education data.

Meanwhile, those who are paying their student loan bills on time will likely benefit from a rise in their credit scores by much as eight points, according to VantageScore.
Credit scores typically range from 300 to 850, with around 670 and higher considered good.
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It’s been a long time since federal student loan borrowers have needed to worry about the downsides of missed payments, which can also include the garnishment of wages and retirement benefits. That’s because collection activity was suspended during the the pandemic and for a while after. The relief period officially expired on Sept. 30, 2024.
“For the first time in five years, federal student loan delinquencies will start to reappear on credit files,” said Rikard Bandebo, chief economist at VantageScore, in a statement.

Here’s what student loan borrowers should know about their credit scores.

43% of borrowers with bills due were behind

Around 9.2 million people — 43% of the roughly 22 million borrowers with payments due — are behind on their payments, according to the VantageScore report.
The delinquencies will pop up on credit reports between now and May.
Those borrowers’ credit scores will likely take a hit, triggering a cascade of other financial consequences, said Cathy Curtis, a certified financial planner and the founder and CEO of Curtis Financial Planning in Oakland, California.
“Borrowers with past-due student loans and lower credit scores face higher borrowing costs across the board — from mortgages, car loans and credit cards,” said Curtis, a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council.
Federal student loan borrowers who’ve defaulted on their loans may also see their wages garnished starting in October of this year, according to a January memo from the U.S. Department of Education.

How to stay current on your student loans

Student loan borrowers struggling to make their payments have options, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
The borrowers can apply for an income-driven repayment plan, which will cap their monthly bill at a share of their discretionary income. Many borrowers end up with a zero monthly payment. As of now, the applications for IDR plans are unavailable while the Education Department makes sure its plans comply with a new court order. But you should be able to access one in the coming months.

Borrowers can also apply for a number of deferments or forbearances, which can pause your payments for a year or more.
Additionally if you’re already in default on your loans, you should consider rehabilitating or consolidating your debt, experts said.
Rehabilitating involves making “nine voluntary, reasonable and affordable monthly payments,” according to the Education Department. Those nine payments can be made over “a period of 10 consecutive months,” its web site notes.
Consolidation, meanwhile, may be available to those who “make three consecutive, voluntary, on-time, full monthly payments.” At that point, they can essentially repackage their debt into a new loan. (The online loan consolidation application is also temporary unavailable.)
If you don’t know who your loan servicer is, you can find out at Studentaid.gov.
Experts also recommend that you check your credit reports regularly for free at AnnualCreditReport.com to make sure all three credit rating companies — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — are showing your correct student loan balance and payment status. More

High costs for necessities, such as food and housing, have stretched consumer budgets. 
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. will create an affordability council to tackle rising prices.
In the meantime, here are key steps consumers can take even amid the escalating trade war to bring monthly expenses down.

President Donald Trump vowed to “make America affordable again” before a joint session of Congress Tuesday, but also noted that his steep new tariffs may cause some “disturbance.”
Tariffs on Canada and Mexico took effect the same day, and economists say the taxes are bound to raise prices for consumers — which is already fueling concern among households. 

Taken together, Trump’s tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico would cost the typical household more than $1,200 a year, according to a recent analysis by The Peterson Institute for International Economics. (That tally does not account for Trump’s order on Tuesday doubling the 10% tariff on Chinese imports.)
“As long as these tariffs are in place, Americans will be forced to pay higher prices on household goods,” David French, the National Retail Federation’s executive vice president of government relations, said in a statement.
To that end, the federal government plans to appoint an “affordability czar,” as well as create an affordability council, to address high prices in the U.S., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
“We are laser focused on this,” Bessent said.
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According to Bessent, the “affordability czar” will pick “five or eight areas where this administration can make a big difference for working class Americans.”
Among the likely contenders could be housing, car prices, groceries, electronics and appliances, all of which have notched significant price jumps in the last five years, data shows.

Higher prices weigh heavily on consumers

Even though inflation has eased in recent months, price increases have not moderated as much as the Federal Reserve has hoped. High costs for food and housing, especially, continue to stretch consumer budgets. 
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index sank in February — notching the largest monthly drop since August 2021 — as worries brewed about tariffs and rising inflation. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index similarly found that Americans largely fear that inflation will flare up again.
“Weak consumer perceptions and uncertainty from the lack of clarity regarding future government policies and regulations can significantly hinder business operations,” said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist at the National Retail Federation. “That, in turn, can cause a hesitation in consumer spending and make it difficult for companies to make investment and hiring decisions.”

How to hack monthly costs

To safeguard affordability, there are steps consumers can take even amid the escalating trade war and increased inflationary fears.
Consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch recommends “hacking waste from your monthly bills.”
Start with recurring expenses, she advised. Among her top strategies:

Negotiating rates with current providers by leveraging competitor deals or asking for promos.
Canceling unused subscriptions or slashing extra services in your current plans, such as “premium movie channels you don’t watch, or get rid of that extra cable box in the guest room,” she said.
Also, “bundle insurance policies or increase your insurance deductible for up to 20% savings on monthly premiums and get in the habit of unplugging unused gadgets for up to 10% savings on energy,” she said.

People shop for groceries in Monterey Park, California, on February 12, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images

Cutting back at the grocery store is another big opportunity to reduce your monthly expenses, Woroch said. “Start meal planning and don’t make it overly complicated.”
Woroch also advises looking for recipes that use similar ingredients to ensure all food purchases get consumed in a typical week.
“The less you waste, the less you will spend on groceries,” she said.
“I’d also suggest doing meal planning in reverse — this is when you create a meal plan based on what your grocery store has on sale,” she said. Then stick with your list when shopping. 
Further, cook in bulk and freeze single serving leftovers so you have something on hand to reheat to avoid pricey take-out orders.
Finally, put those purchases on a credit card that gives cash back across your major spending categories, such as groceries, gas or utilities.
“This covers most people’s top spending areas, and you can rake in a lot of free money,” Woroch said.
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