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Tennessee was one of the first states to require a half-semester personal finance course for high school graduation.
Currently, 23 states, including Tennessee, guarantee at least one semester of personal finance in high school, but only eight states have fully implemented the requirement.
“The work is never done,” said Bill Parker, director of the Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission.

Caiaimage/chris Ryan | Istock | Getty Images

There has been a wave of financial literacy legislation nationwide as states push to get personal finance classes into public schools — and Tennessee was one of the first to enact a high school mandate.
Since 2013, Tennessee has required a half-semester personal finance course for high school graduation and was among the first three states to add the mandate, according to Jackie Morgan, outreach senior advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Nashville branch.   

“We were an early adopter,” said Morgan, who served as past president for Tennessee Jump$tart, an independent affiliate of the national Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, which championed the policy.
“We’ve been able to help serve as a model for other states,” she said, pointing to Tennessee Jump$tart’s national recognition in 2009.

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While financial literacy has long been a priority, the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a wave of state-level legislation nationwide, said Morgan, who also served on the board of the Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission.
In 2023, some 23.6% of U.S. public high school students were guaranteed to take a personal finance course, up from 16.9% in 2019, according to financial literacy nonprofit Next Gen Personal Finance’s 2023 annual report.
However, the majority of U.S. high school students can only take personal finance as an elective or part of another course, and access gaps exist along racial, socioeconomic and geographic lines, the same report found.

The ‘gold standard’ for financial literacy

Currently, there are 23 states, including Tennessee, guaranteeing at least one semester of personal finance before high school graduation, as of Nov. 28, according to tracking from Next Gen Personal Finance.
Tennessee is one of only eight states that has fully implemented what the organization considers the gold standard: a stand-alone half-semester course dedicated to personal finance. Some 15 others are in progress.    
However, Tennessee is one of the few states that requires both economics and personal finance courses, whereas other places may prioritize one over the other. “It’s kind of like having a left hand without the right hand,” Morgan said.
In 2022, some 25 states required an economics course for graduation, according to an annual survey from the Council for Economic Education.

‘The work is never done’

While Tennessee adopted the high school mandate earlier than most other states, there’s still room for improvement, advocates say.
“The work is never done,” said Bill Parker, director of the Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission, which aims to incorporate personal finance into schools “as early as possible.”
“When they get to that high school course, ideally, they’re in a position to hit the ground running with some more advanced concepts that they can apply to their own lives,” he said.

When they get to that high school course, ideally, they’re in a position to hit the ground running with some more advanced concepts that they can apply to their own lives.

Bill Parker
Director of the Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission

The Commission has outlined priorities in its five-year strategic plan, which has included thought leadership and state-level advocacy for expanded financial literacy programming. Numerous studies have highlighted the benefits of teaching children financial literacy at an early age.
“We’re glad to have so much support at the state level and so many passionate teachers,” Parker said. “It takes a special teacher to have the energy and enthusiasm to introduce financial literacy on top of all of the other things that they have going on.”

TUNE IN: The “Cities of Success” special featuring Nashville will air on CNBC on Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Over the past three decades, Nashville, Tennessee, has seen a flood of transplants moving from higher-cost cities.
In 2022, the Nashville metropolitan area grew by about 35,624 people, or roughly 98 new residents per day, according to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Research Center.  
However, nearly 80% of residents believe the city’s population is “growing too quickly,” according to a recent Vanderbilt University poll.

Nashville skyline at dusk.
John Greim | LightRocket | Getty Images

This story is part of CNBC’s new quarterly Cities of Success series, which explores cities that have been transformed into business hubs with an entrepreneurial spirit that has attracted capital, companies and workers.
Over the past 30 years, Nashville, Tennessee — a city known for country music — has seen a flood of transplants moving from higher-cost cities.

For new residents, “everybody has a different story,” said Jeff Hite, chief economic development officer of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Some new residents come for job opportunities, while others move for a better quality of life or a lower cost of living, including no state income tax, he said.

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While Nashville is known for music and entertainment, other top employers include health care, manufacturing and technology.
In 2022, the Nashville metropolitan area grew by about 35,624 people, or roughly 98 new residents per day, according to Census data compiled by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Research Center. 
Since 1990, the population has grown 81%, with more than two— million residents in the Nashville metropolitan area in 2022.

We see people moving from the same areas that we see companies having interest to relocate from — areas that are dense, expensive and highly regulated.

Chief economic development officer of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

“We see people moving from the same areas that we see companies having interest to relocate from — areas that are dense, expensive and highly regulated,” Hite said. 
Nashville was named one of the top 10 “homebuyer migration destinations” in a recent Redfin report. Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego and New York were the top origin cities for prospective transplants, according to search data between August 2023 and October 2023.

© Nina Dietzel | Moment | Getty Images

Downtown Nashville resident growth

The city’s primary tourism district has also seen an influx of new residents over the past 20 years, according to Tom Turner, president and CEO of the Nashville Downtown Partnership.
In 2003, there were roughly 1,900 residents living in downtown Nashville, which covers 2.4 square miles, and Turner expects it to reach about 23,000 residents within the next couple of years. 
Attracted to a “central location,” some 43% of downtown residents moved from out of state, survey data from the Nashville Downtown Partnership shows.

Cost of living, affordability are ‘major challenges’

While the Nashville area has seen staggering growth, affordability and quality of life are lingering concerns for many residents.
As of August 2023, a family needed to earn $124,095 per year to afford a median-price home worth $455,000 in the Nashville area, up 19% year over year, according to a Redfin analysis. 
That’s nearly $10,000 higher than the $114,627 income needed to buy a median-price U.S. home sold for about $420,000 in August 2023, the analysis showed.
“Cost of living and affordability are major challenges in this area,” Hite said, emphasizing the Chamber’s push for “high skill, high wage jobs” as more companies expand or relocate to the city.

Affordability has been a problem across the country, and we’ve certainly no exception.

Tom Turner
President and CEO of Nashville Downtown Partnership

Some 47% of Nashville residents said the city’s growth is “making their day-to-day life worse,” nearly double the percentage from 2017, according to a Vanderbilt University poll released in April 2023.
Nearly 80% of those surveyed believe the city’s population is “growing too quickly,” the poll found. Feelings about Nashville’s economy were split by income, with more negative views from residents earning less than $45,000 per year.
“Affordability has been a problem across the country, and we’re certainly no exception,” said Turner.
You can’t ignore rising housing prices and longer commutes, but “a lot of it is perspective,” he said. While long-time residents may have deeper concerns, transplants from high-cost markets may find Nashville “very affordable.”

TUNE IN: The “Cities of Success” special featuring Nashville will air on CNBC on Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

IBM is switching from a 401(k) match to a traditional defined benefit contribution.
Companies considering creating a similar plan would need to have a comparable structure to what IBM has built over the years.
Under the new plan, employees will get a guaranteed rate of return, but one that could be much lower than what they could get investing the money more aggressively.

Pedestrians walk in front of the IBM building in New York.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

IBM, which decades ago helped lead the shift from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, recently told U.S. employees it will be scrapping its 401(k) match in favor of funding what it calls a “retirement benefit account.”
Other companies may find it tricky to follow suit, experts say.

Starting next year, IBM will no longer provide a 5% match and a 1% automatic contribution into an employee’s 401(k). Instead, effective Jan. 1, the company will put 5% into the RBA, essentially a pension plan that will pay 6% interest through 2026. After that, the RBA will earn a rate equivalent to the 10-year U.S. Treasury Yield, with a 3% per year minimum through 2033. 
IBM says the change adds a stable and predictable benefit to employees and helps diversify their retirement portfolios.
“Under the plan, IBM bears 100 percent of the risk and must be prepared to pay the benefit at time of employee separation,” IBM said in a statement. 
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It’s unlikely to start a trend, however.

To make a similar move, experts say a company would have to already have a traditional defined benefit pension plan in place, and it would have to be overfunded and not be affiliated with a union.  
“Other companies may not have structure to pull off this type of change,” said Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute. “IBM was in a really good situation to do it.”

IBM change makes use of a $3.5 billion surplus

“Big Blue,” as IBM was once known, has a long history of changes to its retirement plans.
In 1984, it was among a wave of large companies that began offering 401(k) plans. By the 1990s, its pension plan was cut back, then closed to new participants in 2006 and frozen in 2008. Some employees opposed the change, filing a lawsuit. In 2005, IBM settled some claims and won on appeal for the rest. 
Last year, IBM transferred $16 billion worth of pension liabilities to insurance companies Prudential and MetLife. The company had a $3.5 billion surplus in its plan, according to the company’s annual report.

Restructuring the retirement plan gives IBM the ability to use those surplus pension assets to fund its match.
“What’s interesting about what IBM is doing is they’re thinking about maybe there’s a more efficient way to capture those assets,” said Jonathan Price, a senior vice president and the national retirement practice leader at Segal, an HR management consulting firm. “They’re taking a slightly more nuanced approach than what we might have seen a few years ago and what we still might see other employers choose to do in the future.”

What the change means for employees 

For employees, IBM’s change is a mixed bag. Even employees who are not contributing to the 401(k) plan will get a defined benefit and the option for a lifetime annuity payment. But younger employees and those who make significant contributions in the plan are likely to find the set returns will limit potential upside. 
“Six percent sounds nice for 2024-2026, but after that, yields could be as low as 3%,” said Brandon Gibson, a certified financial planner and founder of Gibson Wealth Management in Dallas. He says a 6% to 7% annual return is a reasonable goal that can be reached with a mix of equities and fixed income. 

CFP Jack Heintzelman, a financial adviser with Boston Wealth Strategies in Needham Heights, Massachusetts, says plan participants should consider the allocation of the rest of their 401(k) assets since the match is going into a highly conservative investment. 
“You could maybe take on a little bit more equity exposure, a little bit more ‘risk,’ because the company’s contribution is in a fixed income, bond-like investment,” said Heintzelman. He said this is a reminder for employees to look at their retirement portfolio to see how the investments meet their goals.
While the change may not provide a significant benefit, experts say it’s still better than nothing: There’s no legal obligation for an employer to offer a 401(k) plan or provide a match. 
“It’s a decision that the employer has the right to make,” said Segal’s Price.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Americans’ retirement confidence has been shaken.
Despite the advantages of a workplace retirement plan, most savers are missing out on all the benefits.
Experts say these are the most common mistakes workers make with their 401(k) plans.

A higher cost of living and growing savings shortfall has many Americans worried about their retirement security.
Those financial strains also make it harder for many workers to fund a retirement account. 

To that point, 41% don’t contribute any money at all to a 401(k) or employer-sponsored plan, according to a CNBC Your Money Survey conducted in August.
Even the majority of those that do contribute say they are not on track with their yearly 401(k) savings to retire comfortably.  
Despite the many advantages of a workplace plan, most savers are missing out, experts say. Here are three common mistakes workers often make when it comes to their 401(k) plans.

1. Missing out on the employer match

“It’s a fairly small subset of workers that are fully maximizing their employer-sponsored plans that allows them to build a bigger next egg,” said Joe Buhrmann, senior financial planning consultant at eMoney Advisor.
At the very least, workers should contribute enough to their workplace retirement plan to reap the benefits of the company match, if available.

Most 401(k) plans, 98%, make contributions to workers’ retirement savings, according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America.
Yet, roughly 22% of plan participants are not getting the full match, according to data from Fidelity, the nation’s largest 401(k) plan provider.
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“There are a lot of workers out there that aren’t even aware of what their company’s match is,” said Mike Shamrell, Fidelity’s vice president of thought leadership.
In fact, the average company match in a 401(k) plan was 4.7% of a worker’s salary in the third quarter of 2023, according to Fidelity, but can typically range between 3% and 6%.
To that end, couples with two employer savings plans could benefit from prioritizing the more generous employer’s 401(k) matching funds.

However, everyone should aim to contribute enough to get the full match, Shamrell added. Depending on your salary and the matching formula used, that could translate into thousands of extra dollars going toward your nest egg every year. “That’s the closest any of us are going to get to free money,” he said.
To get there, Shamrell advises savers to auto escalate contributions, which will steadily increase the amount you save each year. 
The IRS recently raised the contribution limits to retirement accounts for 2024, increasing the thresholds to $23,000 for 401(k) plans and $7,000 for IRAs.

2. Tapping funds when times are tough

Taking money out of a retirement account will forfeit the power of compound interest. Still, more retirement savers are withdrawing money from their 401(k) plans to stay afloat amid a prolonged period of high inflation, recent reports show.
In times of financial stress, most financial experts advise against raiding a 401(k).
However, if participants do need to access their 401(k) savings through a loan or withdrawal, workers often don’t know which move makes the most financial sense, Shamrell said.
“A lot of times those two get lumped together,” he said.
With a 401(k) loan, workers can borrow up to 50% of their account balance, or $50,000, whichever is less, without penalty as long as the money is repaid within five years. There may be other conditions as well, and if you’re laid off or find a new job, most employers will require your outstanding balance be repaid in a shorter time frame.
Otherwise, workers can take a withdrawal, but those under age 59½ generally would owe a 10% tax penalty.
In more extreme circumstances, savers may take a hardship distribution without incurring the 10% early withdrawal fee if there is evidence the money is being used to cover a qualified hardship, such as medical expenses, loss due to natural disasters or to buy a primary residence or prevent eviction or foreclosure.

Halfpoint Images | Moment | Getty Images

In some cases, a 401(k) loan may be preferable to other alternatives, said Fidelity’s Shamrell. 
“There are times where the loans may be a more valid direction, as opposed to putting that on your credit card,” he said.
In other situations, especially for cash-strapped consumers living paycheck to paycheck, it may even make more sense to cover the cost of an emergency all at once with a hardship withdrawal, he added, rather than tap a loan for which repayment then gets deducted from your take-home pay.  
Going forward, there is another option set to take effect in 2024 that will let savers make one withdrawal of up to $1,000 a year for personal or family emergency expenses. This measure is intended to provide a lifeline for those in immediate need. 

3. Taking a short-term view

Ultimately, the key to investing for the long haul is “making sure you have an appropriate asset allocation and contribute in good markets and bad markets,” Buhrmann said.
After some extreme market volatility, 401(k) account balances lost nearly one-quarter of their value in 2022. However, the average balance is now $107,700, up 11% from a year ago, according to Fidelity, underscoring the importance of staying the course.
Workers who have been in their plan for 15 years straight have a much higher average balance of $448,800, up from just $56,300 in 2008, Fidelity found.

Although each household has their own unique set of circumstances, some age-based guidelines can help savers stay on track during periods of uncertainty, Shamrell said.
“You should not be making changes to your 401(k) based on short-term market moves,” he cautioned. “You want to make sure you are not losing out on possible growth opportunities or, alternatively, exposing yourself to unnecessary risk.”
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The Inflation Reduction Act extended and enhanced a prior tax credit for home efficiency upgrades.
The Energy Efficient Home Improvement tax credit is worth 30% of a project’s cost, up to a dollar cap.
The tax break helps homeowners save money on the upgrades and on future heating and cooling bills.

Steve Smith | Tetra Images | Getty Images

Winter is almost here, meaning the year’s coldest temperatures aren’t far off.
But homeowners can take advantage of recently enacted tax breaks to help boost their home’s efficiency, thereby trapping more heat inside and better defending against winter’s chill — and saving them money in the process.

The Energy Efficient Home Improvement tax credit, offered by the Inflation Reduction Act, can help defray homeowners’ costs on such projects — such as installing energy-efficient insulation, windows, doors and electric heat pumps — while also likely reducing the size of future heating bills, experts said. It’s worth a maximum $3,200 a year.
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The average American spends $2,000 on energy bills each year, and $200 to $400 may be “going to waste” from drafts, air leaks around openings and outdated heating and cooling systems, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Home heating accounts for 45% of the average person’s energy use, and water heating for another 18%, the agency said.
“You want to minimize heat loss to the outside through walls, windows, drafts, etcetera, and supply the heat as efficiently as possible,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

Home efficiency upgrades can also reduce people’s planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, at a time when climate change is already fueling more extreme and financially costly weather events.

How the tax break works

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images

The Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in August 2022, extended and enhanced a prior tax credit available for home efficiency upgrades.
The tax credit is worth 30% of the cost of qualifying projects. There’s a dollar cap: Taxpayers may qualify for up to $3,200 a year, in aggregate. But their ability to do so depends on how many and which projects they undertake.
Certain upgrades carry distinct caps. For example, homeowners can get up to $500 a year for installing efficient exterior doors, $600 for exterior windows and skylights, plus $1,200 for insulation and air-sealing materials or systems. They can also get up to $150 for a home energy audit.
The combined tax break for these projects is capped at $1,200 a year.
Replacing single-pane windows with double-pane Energy Star-rated windows, for example, “is like plugging actual holes in your house,” said energy and climate policy expert Kara Saul-Rinaldi, president and CEO of AnnDyl Policy Group.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates homeowners can save 15% on heating and cooling costs, on average, by air sealing their homes and adding insulation in attics, floors over crawl spaces and basement rim joists.
Some projects carry a separate, $2,000 annual cap. They include: installing electric or natural gas heat pump water heaters, electric or natural gas heat pumps and biomass stoves and biomass boilers.
Altogether, taxpayers can get a maximum overall credit of $3,200 a year, if they combine projects worth up to $1,200 and $2,000. The IRS published a fact sheet that gives examples of the overall tax break consumers can expect for specific upgrades.  
The Energy Efficient Home Improvement credit is available through 2032. Homeowners can claim the maximum annual credit each year that they make eligible improvements, and there’s no lifetime dollar limit.
“People can look forward and plan,” Saul-Rinaldi said. “They may know they need insulation over their kid’s room, or need to upgrade their windows, or want to transition to cleaner fuel, but they can’t do it all today or this year.”

There are some caveats to claiming the credit

The installations must meet certain efficiency standards, as outlined by the IRS. Labor costs may not apply in certain cases, the IRS said.
Taxpayers can only benefit from the tax credit when they file their annual tax returns.
The tax credit is also nonrefundable, meaning households must have a tax liability to benefit. The IRS won’t issue a refund for any tax credit value that exceeds one’s tax liability. Excess value can’t be carried forward to benefit in future tax years.  

Taxpayers who want to claim a tax break on their 2023 tax returns — which most people will file early next year — have a short window to complete a qualifying project. They’d need to be finished by the end of December. Projects only qualify once they’re “placed in service” — essentially, once a project is installed and operational.
Homeowners can consider getting a home energy audit by the end of December, which would qualify for a tax break and help determine future efficiency projects, Saul-Rinaldi said. Then, homeowners can complete those projects and claim the tax break in future years.
They may also be able to pair the tax break with energy-efficiency rebate programs created by the Inflation Reduction Act and soon being rolled out by states, experts said.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Currently, 23 states, including Tennessee, guarantee at least one semester of personal finance before graduation, according to Next Gen Personal Finance.
Tennessee is one of eight states — along with Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia — that has fully implemented the requirement.

Michael Morrow
Courtesy: Michael Morrow

As Americans grapple with economic uncertainty, educators in Nashville, Tennessee, are preparing high school and middle school students with personal finance courses that many of their parents never had.
Currently, 23 states, including Tennessee, guarantee at least one semester of personal finance before high school graduation, according to Next Gen Personal Finance.

Tennessee is one of eight states — along with Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia — that has fully implemented the requirement.
“It’s been a joy and a delight,” said Michael Morrow, 46, who was recruited to bring financial literacy to Lead Southeast High School in Nashville and now trains other educators through Tennessee Jump$tart’s annual conference.

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While Morrow teaches money management topics like savings, credit and debt, he also covers charitable donations and other giving, which differs from some other schools.
“The concept of giving has been one of the main priorities,” said Morrow, who was one of the first teachers to receive Tennessee Jump$tart’s Excellence in Financial Education Educator of the Year award.
“It changes their life for the better because it tells them ‘it’s not always about me,'” he said.

The concept of giving has been one of the main priorities.

Michael Morrow
Educator at Lead Southeast High School

Over the years, Morrow has seen students meet financial goals, like saving to cover Christmas gifts for family or start a business. Those lessons have open spilled often to their parents, who have tapped him for credit or other money advice.
“We teach them these concepts and the power behind it,” he said. “It changes a lot of their mindsets for the better.”

‘I think it’s going to be life-changing for them’

Teresa Helms
Courtesy: Teresa Helms

While personal finance isn’t required for middle school students, Teresa Helms, 45, recently began teaching My Classroom Economy, a financial literacy program.
“I’m not the teacher you would expect to be doing this,” said Helms, who teaches fifth through eighth grade Spanish at Rose Park Middle School in Nashville. “But the students are very excited.”  
Since 2018, nearly 8,900 Tennessee students have used My Classroom Economy and more than two-thirds of teachers have reported a boost in students’ financial skills, according to the Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission’s 2022 annual report.    
The program integrates with any subject, allowing students to earn rewards, budget and spend money on items sold in her classroom’s store, Helms explained.
While her classes are still starting the program, she thinks it will impact students in ways they aren’t expecting, including future career interests. “I think it’s going to be life-changing for them,” Helms added.

‘The main thing I try to do is plant seeds’

Shelley Lott
Courtesy: Shelley Lott

Another award-winning educator, Shelly Lott, 60, brought financial literacy to Northeast Middle School in Clarksville, Tennessee, which is roughly 50 miles northwest of Nashville.
A former math teacher, Lott now leads Money Matters for Middle Schoolers, a course for sixth through eighth grade students, covering topics like savings, budgeting, income, behavioral finance, insurance and identity theft.  

The main thing I try to do is plant seeds, and eventually I’m hoping they get fertilized by more information.

Shelly Lott
Educator at Northeast Middle School

“The main thing I try to do is plant seeds, and eventually I’m hoping they get fertilized by more information,” said Lott, who also serves on the Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission’s Distinguished Educator Council.
Lott said the personal finance course provides real-world applications of what students learn in math classes. For example, learning discounts later helps when calculating percentages.
“I know they’re not going to master these skills in middle school,” she said. “But it’s part of a foundation that’s really important.”
TUNE IN: “Cities of Success” special featuring Nashville, Tennessee, will air on CNBC on Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. More

To learn more about the CNBC CFO Council, visit cnbccouncils.com/cfo-council/

Founding Members
CNBC CFO Council

Rogers, chair of Ariel Investments, expects the mega-cap tech stocks that outperformed this year are “priced for perfection.”
The investor is bullish on stocks tied to the housing sector.
Rogers is also finding opportunity in the media sector that has been battered this year from concerns around advertising.

Ariel Investments chair and chief investment officer John Rogers Jr.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

It’s time to look at value stocks as growth names will have a difficult 2024, according to Ariel Investments’ John Rogers.
“I think the top of growth stocks is coming,” Rogers told CNBC’s Scott Wapner at the CNBC CFO Council Summit in Washington, D.C. “I really, really do.”

In fact, Rogers, chair of Ariel Investments, expects the mega-cap tech stocks that outperformed this year are “priced for perfection,” and will likely face challenges heading into 2024.
Instead, the investor is bullish on value names as the gap in performance between growth and value widens. For example, the Russell 3000 Growth climbed roughly 34% this year, while the Russell 3000 Value is up more than 2%.
“It’s one of the largest gaps in the history of recorded history, I guess, looking at those indexes,” Rogers said. “So that gives me a lot of confidence that small value is going to be the place to be, and that growth stocks are gonna have a very difficult time as we go into next year.”
The value manager said growth stocks could continue to outperform in a falling interest rate environment. But he thinks the gap is so large between growth and value that there will be some big winners that could get overlooked by growth investors.
“I think there’s gonna be a real opportunity to pick up some of those orphans, really outperform as we go through ’24 and ’25, even with the tailwind that the growth stocks will have for the lower rates,” Rogers said.

The investor is bullish on stocks tied to the housing sector. Names include ADT, the home security company that is down 35% this year, and Mohawk Industries, the flooring company that is down 14%.
Rogers is also finding opportunity in the media sector that has been battered this year from concerns around advertising. He favors Paramount Global on the merit of its vast content library and portfolio of global brands, as well as a “mindset shift” among leadership there.
“We think the stock is worth over $40 a share,” Rogers said. “We think there’s a real opportunity here.”
Paramount shares, which are down 14% this year, closed at $14.41 on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, the investor likes Madison Square Garden Entertainment. He also said his team is more “bullish than ever” on cruise stocks such as Royal Caribbean, which has been “our sort of anchor stock” given the consumer appetite for experiences.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Your Money

While men are hopeful when it comes to money, women feel stress.
As men focus on retirement saving, women are focused on catching up.
To gain financial confidence, these are the steps experts recommend women take.

AleksandarNakic | E+ | Getty Images

Women have a complicated relationship with money.
That may start with how they feel about their finances. While men most commonly say they are “hopeful” when it comes to money, women’s No. 1 word for their financial feelings was “stress,” according to a 2023 Fidelity Investments survey.

“Women’s No. 1 source of stress is money,” Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest, an online investing platform for women, told CNBC in a recent interview.
“Women spend a week-plus [each] year worrying about money,” she said.

There are a few reasons why women’s financial concerns are more acute.
For starters, overall, women have 30 cents of wealth for every dollar white men have, Krawcheck said. Consequently, women’s top goal is to shore up the wealth they’re lacking, while their second priority is taking care of their families, she said.
In contrast, men’s No. 1 priority is saving for retirement.

Other factors hold women back financially, according to Cary Carbonaro, a certified financial planner and director of woman and wealth services at ACM Wealth.
A so-called “good daughter penalty” makes it so that care for the entire family often falls on her. When it comes time to retire, she often has less money than men, but with a longer life expectancy and higher health-care costs.

Start small: ‘You don’t have to do everything all at once’

It is possible for women to turn their emotions — and financial progress — around. A recent Ellevest survey found 86% of women say investing makes them feel powerful.
But those who do not take a proactive role in their financial lives face greater risks.
“I work with mainly women, and by the time they get to me, it’s usually because they’re in a crisis, like a death, a divorce, a disability,” Carbonaro said.
Improving women’s finances now — and avoiding a future calamity — does not have to be overwhelming.
A step-by-step approach works best, according to Stacy Francis, a certified financial planner and president and CEO of Francis Financial in New York. She is also a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.
“You don’t have to do everything all at once, because I’ll be honest, it can be overwhelming and intimidating,” Francis said.

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Here’s a look at more coverage in CNBC’s Women & Wealth special report, where we explore ways women can increase income, save and make the most of opportunities.

The first step is to aim to “get back to neutral,” Francis said. If you have credit card debt or high interest loans, paying them down with absolute passion and devotion should be your top goal, she said.
The next step is to establish an emergency fund worth three to six months of your monthly spending.
“That is the airbag, the safety net,” Francis said. “That’s going to protect you from having to use high interest, dangerous credit cards for some of these unexpected expenses.”
Once you have an ample emergency fund, it’s time to turn to long-term goals, Francis said. That includes saving for a house, ramping up your 401(k) plan deferral to at least get the employer match or funding another retirement account such as an individual retirement account.

Use the new year to reset

After you hit those goals, it’s “rinse and repeat,” Francis said, or continuously minding your debts, savings and long-term planning.
Ultimately, the goal is to put away 20% of what you earn. But it’s not easy to get there, admits Francis, who said it took her 10 years of gradually increasing her savings to reach that level.

But even ramping up savings by 1% or 2% per year is progress, she said.
As the year comes to a close, that brings a couple of opportunities for women to reset their financial circumstances.
Plan to ask for a raise at work in the new year where appropriate, Francis said.
Also revisit your expenses for 2023 by taking a look at your credit card and bank statements.
“Look at it without judgement,” Francis said, and see where you may be able to cut back to increase your debt pay down and savings rate.
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