Raphael Stevens

Review workplace retirement plan contributions

Contribute to traditional or Roth accounts — or both

One decision is whether to put money pre-tax in a traditional 401(k) or workplace plan or contribute after-tax dollars in a Roth account. One rule of thumb to help guide that decision is your age and income, with younger people more likely to be in a lower tax bracket now than in later years.

“They may recommend you put all in a Roth, particularly if you are in a lower income tax bracket and the tax savings really isn’t important to you right now,” said Kamila Elliott, president of Grid 202 Partners and chair of CFP Board. “If you’re in a higher income bracket, perhaps having some pre-tax savings could be beneficial.”

Increase automatic contributions to accounts

Whether you’re putting new money into a traditional or Roth 401(k), experts advise reviewing your automatic contributions. Try to increase them by 1% to 2%, or at least enough to get your company’s matching contribution, even if you can’t fully fund the account. 

Do your best to get the employer match.

Kamila Elliott
president of Grid 202 Partners and chair of CFP Board

“For some people, $20,500 is a stretch,” Elliott said. “It’s a great goal to have but they can’t achieve it.”
If you can’t reach the maximum contribution limit, she said, “do your best to get the employer match — and then slowly work your way up.” 

Check out target date funds for simple rebalancing

Also, take the time to rebalance your portfolio, so you’re not taking on more, or less, risk that you want or need, financial advisors say. With the S&P 500 Index soaring nearly 27% in 2021, many investors may have a greater percentage of their retirement money in equities than they planned for to help meet their retirement goals. 
Young recommends initially investing in a target date fund that gradually shifts assets from stocks to bonds as you get closer to retirement or when you’ll need the money. “It adjusts for you and makes sure that the risk level is appropriate,” he said, adding target date funds are a “one-stop way to get invested and not have to worry about so much going forward.”

Evaluate options for old 401(k) money 

JGI/Jamie Grill

And for the job changers, if you still have 401(k) money with a former employer, you can leave the funds there, but you may want to consider rolling it into a 401(k) with a new employer or into an individual retirement account. Just don’t cash it out or you’ll face a potentially significant tax hit and pay a penalty, depending on your age, Young warns.
Also, for new contributions to traditional or Roth IRAs, you can put in up to $6,000 this year, same as last year. And, if you’re 50 or older, the maximum contribution is $7,000. If you didn’t make an IRA contribution in 2021, you have until the tax filing deadline in April to do that and have it count for last year.
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Sweetgreen is piloting a subscription service as New Year’s resolutions get into full swing.
Customers will be able to purchase a “Sweetpass” for $10, which can be used for a $3 credit once each day for 30 days.
Sweetgreen has leaned heavily into technology, which allows customers to personalize orders and reduce wait times inside its stores.

Sweetgreen is rolling out a subscription service pilot in January.
Courtesy: Sweetgreen

Sweetgreen is piloting a subscription service this month as New Year’s resolutions get into full swing.
Customers will be able to purchase a “Sweetpass” for $10 online, which will give them a $3 credit on qualifying orders. The pass can be used once per day for the 30 days it’s valid, the company said.

Known for its customized salads, Sweetgreen has leaned heavily into technology, which allows customers to personalize orders and reduce wait times inside its stores. As of the third quarter, the company said it had 1.35 million active customers online and in stores. However, its digital users make 46% more visits per quarter than in-person customers, the company said, and spend 21% more per order.
The Sweetpass will be available from Jan. 3 through Jan. 16 and is valid for 30 days after its purchase, with the pilot program expiring on Tuesday, Feb. 15. The offer is exclusive to delivery, pickup and orders made through the Sweetgreen app and website. It is not available on third-party delivery sites. 
The pilot project is getting teed up at the start of the year when many consumers resolve to start healthier routines. “Sweetpass” could also help engage new members and boost business with loyalty members.
“Customers are obviously excited to eat healthy and start the year with the kind of new habits and routines and things like that. We think that we can play a big piece of that,” said Daniel Shlossman, senior vice president of digital and growth at Sweetgreen.
While loyalty programs are not new to the company, this approach is more customized and less “one size fits all,” according to Shlossman.

“It is everything from targeted and personalized offers to digital challenges to subscription and membership, and how can we potentially play in that space,” Shlossman told CNBC in an interview. “We’re re-envisioning the future of loyalty at Sweetgreen and this is one step in that journey.”
Sweetgreen’s co-founder and CEO, Jonathan Neman, has said the company wants to “build the McDonald’s of our generation.” The company operates more than 140 restaurants across 13 states and Washington, with plans to double its restaurant footprint within the next five years. It went public in November 2021.

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Planet Fitness is seeing gym visits and membership growth hold up against the Covid omicron variant.
Instead, CEO Chris Rondeau told CNBC that people walking into Planet Fitness’ gyms are working out more than they have in the past.
U.S. gym visits for the month of October were down just 8% from 2019 pre-pandemic levels, according to tracking data from investment firm Jefferies.

Planet Fitness is seeing gym visits and membership growth hold up against the Covid omicron variant, according to the chain’s chief executive officer, Chris Rondeau.
“Before there was a vaccine, we did see a pullback on joins and workouts and cancellation spiking,” Rondeau said in an interview Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“During the delta variant and omicron, we’re not seeing that pullback. … We’re not seeing members slowing to come in. We’re not seeing joins slowing. We’re not seeing cancelations rising,” the CEO said.
Rondeau said that instead people walking into Planet Fitness’ gyms are working out more than they have in the past. Members feel more comfortable with the health and safety protocols put in place at fitness centers and are prioritizing fitness in their lives, he added.
U.S. gym visits for the month of October were down just 8% from 2019 pre-pandemic levels, according to tracking data from investment firm Jefferies. That’s ahead of an expected surge in sign-ups and visits that typically comes around the first of the year as consumers commit to healthy resolutions.

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“We saw some great, great momentum last year — we saw second- and third-quarter growth that we had never seen before,” Rondeau said. “Member workouts are just slightly down from 2019.”
Planet Fitness shares rose about 17% in 2021. Peloton, meantime, dropped 76%.

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Chipotle is launching plant-based chorizo nationwide for a limited time, starting Monday.
The option is the first meatless-protein item since the chain added tofu-based sofritas in 2014.
The food item, which was tested in Denver and Indianapolis, is certified vegan and contains 16 grams of protein per serving.

Chipotle Plant-Based Chorizo
Chipotle new plant-based chorizo.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is kicking off 2022 with a new menu item: meatless chorizo.
Plant-based chorizo is the company’s first new meatless protein option since it added tofu-based sofritas in 2014.

Starting Monday, customers nationwide can add the option for a limited time. The plant-based chorizo is made with pea protein, chipotle peppers, tomato paste, garlic, Spanish smoked paprika and olive oil.
The option is certified vegan and contains 16 grams of protein per serving. Chipotle tested plant-based chorizo in Denver and Indianapolis in August.
Under CEO Brian Niccol, who previously led Yum Brands’ Taco Bell, the company has accelerated adding new menu items through a process called “stage-gate testing.” The chain has been strategic with new releases, making many of them limited-time options to drive customer traffic to its restaurants and to keep the menu from becoming bloated.
The burrito chain hasn’t had the best luck with chorizo so far. It began offering the food item in 2016 but pulled it in favor of queso, saying at the time that chorizo only accounted for 3% of protein sales. It relaunched the meat as a limited-time offer in late 2018.
But Chipotle said the plant-based chorizo earned strong reviews from customers during its testing. It is being promoted as an addition to the Whole30 meal option, vegan and vegetarian bowls, which target consumers who adhere to certain diets. The lifestyle bowls are only available to order through the company app and website.
Shares of Chipotle climbed 26% in 2021, raising its market value to $49.4 billion. Strong digital sales growth and a handful of limited-time menu items lifted the stock, despite the broader restaurant industry’s setbacks due to the pandemic.

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A Guggenheim analyst said Nike’s already dominant market share should continue to grow as it keeps scaling online and innovates with new footwear and apparel products in the new year.
Near term, Nike has been hurt by global supply chain disruptions, he said, but the company should still be able to hit the financial targets it laid out last June.
Guggenheim also said it will be watching Nike’s engagement in the metaverse closely in 2022. The retailer bought virtual sneaker company RTFKT for an undisclosed amount in December.

A customer shops at the Nike store on December 21, 2021 in Miami Beach, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Nike shares rose about 1% in extended trading on Monday after Guggenheim named the retailer its “best idea” for 2022.
Analyst Robert Drbul said in a note to clients that Nike’s already dominant market share should continue to grow as it keeps scaling online and innovates with new footwear and apparel products in the new year.

Near term, Nike has been hurt by global supply chain disruptions, he said, but the company should still be able to hit the financial targets it laid out last June.
Nike has also seen momentum slow for its brand in China, which was a key point of weakness on the company’s latest earnings report.
Drbul said, however, that any concern regarding China “presents an opportunity for long-term investors as Nike continues to deliver and innovate products that connect with local consumers by promoting healthy lifestyle and other important societal themes.”
Guggenheim also said it will be closely watching Nike’s engagement in the metaverse in 2022. In December, the retailer announced it bought virtual sneaker company RTFKT for an undisclosed amount.
Nike shares are up almost 18% from a year earlier. Its market value is $263.8 billion.

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More than 13,000 U.S. flights were canceled from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day.
Airlines have blamed the disruptions on a combination of bad weather and omicron infections that sidelined staff.
Investors on Monday largely shrugged off the holiday disruptions.

Airline pilots walk through the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on December 27, 2021 in Arlington, Virginia.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

Airline investors appeared to shrug off thousands of U.S. flight cancellations over the holidays even as disruptions continued on Monday.
Carriers scrubbed more than 1,700 U.S. flights on Monday on top of more than 5,400 over the weekend, driven largely by severe winter weather that hobbled some of the country’s busiest airports. The disruptions were resolving, however, with about 250 flight cancellations set for Tuesday.

Over the holidays, carriers including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and JetBlue Airways said crews were increasingly out sick from the fast-spreading omicron variant of Covid. The Federal Aviation Administration also warned about delays as its staff increasingly tested positive for the coronavirus.
United, Spirit and Alaska are among the airlines offering crews extra pay to pick up trips.
From Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day, airlines canceled more than 13,000 flights, or 5.6% of schedules, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. That spiked to more than 12% of flights on Saturday as a winter storm hit the Midwest.
Airline shares, however, were higher in premarket trading, a sign investors are looking ahead to the rest of the year, when travel demand is expected to rise.
The cost of the disruptions isn’t yet clear. The holiday period was crucial for carriers whose executives expected some of the busiest days since the pandemic began.

The variant could present a “modest, near-term risk” for airlines due to staff quarantines and the potential that some customers delay trips, wrote Citigroup airline analyst Stephen Trent on Monday.
“Nevertheless, higher vaccination rates and emerging anti-viral treatments are just some of the factors that could make negative, knee-jerk stock price reactions to the emergence of future variants look increasingly unreasonable,” he said.
American, United and Alaska were each up close to 1% in premarket trading. Shares of Southwest Airlines, which canceled hundreds of weekend flights, were up 0.5%.
Delta kicks off the sector’s quarterly earnings reports on Jan. 13.

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2022 will be “the year of vaccination,” if last year had marked the year of the vaccine development, according to a leading expert.
Hopefully, 2022 will also mark the year when anti-Covid drugs will come to the fore, and make treatment more effective, Jerome Kim, director general of the International Vaccine Institute, told CNBC on Monday.
Kim also highlighted a “diagnostics gap” that countries need to be “much better at addressing.”

A COVID-19 vaccination card holder is handed out at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club on December 21, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images

If 2021 was the year of vaccine development, 2022 will be a year marked by vaccinations and booster shots, according to a leading expert.
“2022 will be the year of vaccination — either primary for people who haven’t been vaccinated, or booster vaccinations for those of us who have,” said Jerome Kim, director general of the International Vaccine Institute, an independent non-profit devoted to research on vaccines for poor countries.

Hopefully, it will also mark the year when anti-Covid drugs will come to the fore, and make treatment more effective, Kim told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday.
In late December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized two antiviral pills to treat Covid-19 for emergency use, marking a milestone in the battle against the coronavirus that has killed more than 5.4 million people worldwide since emerging in late 2019.
Pfizer’s Covid oral treatment pill, called Paxlovid, was the first oral antiviral drug to be cleared for emergency use in the U.S. Another was Merck’s antiviral pill — known as molnupiravir — which was approved for use in adults with mild to moderate Covid at risk of severe disease.

As 2021 drew to a close, the more-transmissible omicron variant emerged, and cases around the world have surged in recent weeks.
Last week, the caseload in the U.S. hit a record high. Nationwide daily new cases were at a record seven-day average of more than 265,000 as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. It surpassed the previous high mark of about 252,000 average daily cases set on Jan. 11 last year, the data showed.

In Asia, South Korea said Friday that it will extend restrictions after a surge in serious Covid infections.

Getting vaccines to those who need it

The key priority in 2022 is getting vaccines to people who need it — especially those in poorer countries who have limited access to them, Kim said.
“A really critical point to make — omicron is not the omega and we are going to see additional mutants and variants of concern, and hopefully we become more equitable in the use of vaccines,” he said.

“Increasingly, supply [of vaccines] will not be the issue. The issue will be: Who can get that vaccine into the arms of people who need the vaccination. That’s going to be the key for 2022, it’s getting people vaccinated,” Kim said, adding there’s a “significant number of people” in low income countries, who have not received a single vaccine dose.
About 58.3% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, but only 8.5% of people in low income countries have been inoculated with at least one dose, according to Our World in Data.

World must tackle ‘diagnostics gap’

Kim also highlighted a so-called “diagnostics gap” at the diagnosis stage of Covid-19.
“That implies that in lower income countries, they don’t do as many tests and they definitely don’t do as many sequences,” he said. Such genomic sequencing efforts of coronavirus case samples help track new variants.
He added that countries need to get “much better at addressing” such a divide.

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“It’s the sequencing of variants from all over the world that allow scientists to know if a new worrisome variant is emerging,” Kim said. “Getting on top of it as quickly as possible is key if we want to open up, because we know that air travel does fairly efficiently spread the coronavirus.”

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