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Certain luxury features may help sell your home for more money or faster than expected, according to new research from Zillow.
As homeowners stay in place after locking in low interest rate mortgages, they are focusing on improvements that bring more joy from their living spaces.
Certain renovations may bring more value than others when it comes time to sell.

A prospective home buyer is shown a home by a real estate agent in Coral Gables, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Today’s home sellers may be able to command higher prices due to recent increases.
Certain luxury features may help sell your home for more money or faster than expected, according to new research from Zillow.

“If you have these features in your home already, you should definitely flaunt them in your listing description,” said Amanda Pendleton, Zillow’s home trends expert. “That is going to set you ahead of the competition.”
The real estate website evaluated 271 design terms and features included in almost 2 million home sales in 2022. Those that came out on top may add up to about $17,400 on a typical U.S. home.
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Two chef-friendly features topped the list of those that helped sell homes for more — steam ovens, which helped push prices up 5.3% over similar homes without them, and pizza ovens, which increased prices by 3.7%.
Other features that rounded out the top 10 included professional appliances, which had price premiums of 3.6%; terrazzo, 2.6%; “she sheds,” 2.5%; soapstone, 2.5%; quartz, 2.4%; a modern farmhouse, 2.4%; hurricane or storm shutters, 2.3%; and mid-century design, 2.3%,

Zillow also looked at which features helped sell homes faster than expected.
Doorbell cameras topped that list, helping to sell homes 5.1 days faster. That was followed by soapstone, with a 3.8 day advantage; open shelving, 3.5; heat pumps, 3; fenced yards , 2.9; mid-century, 2.8; hardwood, 2.4; walkability, 2.4; shiplap walling or siding, 2.3; and gas furnaces, 2.3.

To be sure, homeowners should not necessarily add these features with the idea they will see sale premiums, Pendleton said.
Moreover, some more unique features — like she sheds, spaces dedicated specifically to female home dwellers and their hobbies — may make it so it takes a bit longer to find a buyer who appreciates the amenities.
However, the features are signals of perceived qualify a buyer associates with a nice home right now.
“These personalized features kind of add that wow factor to a home,” Pendleton said.

Emphasis on improvements that spark joy

The current housing market is “anything but traditional,” Pendleton notes.
For buyers, there’s not as many listings to choose from as homeowners do not want to give up their ultra-low interest rates, she noted.
“Homes that are well priced and well marketed are going to find a buyer very quickly today,” Pendleton said.
Existing homeowners are now more likely to be thinking of different ways to re-envision their space, according to Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.

Personalized features kind of add that wow factor to a home.

Amanda Pendleton
home trends expert at Zillow

“There are a lot of people who want to remodel because they are locked into low interest rates and have no intention of leaving their property,” Lautz said.
At the top of homeowners’ wish lists are ways to maximize the square footage of their home, Lautz said, such as basement remodels or attic or closet conversions. Adding home offices is also very popular as people continue to live hybrid lifestyles.
Some improvements also stand to provide a 100% or more return when a home is put on the market.
The top of that list includes hardwood floor refinishing, according to Lautz, which not only makes a home look more beautiful but also makes it more marketable.

“It brings a lot of joy, and it has a lot of bang for the buck when you go to sell your home,” Lautz said.
Putting in new wood flooring or upgrading the home’s insulation also tend to provide returns of 100% or more, she said.
Zillow’s research found certain features may actually hurt a home’s resale value. That includes tile countertops or laminate flooring or countertops. Walk-in closets may also negatively impact a home’s value, as buyers may prefer to use the space for other purposes. More

In Nicole Chung’s new memoir, “A Living Remedy,” she tells the story of watching her aging parents get sicker from illnesses they couldn’t afford to treat.
Chung blames the country’s broken health-care system for the fact that her father died at 67, and her mother at 68.

Nicole Chung
Source: Carletta Girma

In author Nicole Chung’s new memoir, “A Living Remedy,” she tells the story of watching both her parents die in the span of two years. It was all the more painful because of her mother and father’s inability to afford the medical treatments they needed.
Chung blames the country’s broken health-care system, at least in part, for the fact that her father died at 67, and her mother at 68. By the time her father finally sought help at a low-cost health clinic, a doctor told him that his kidneys had lost more than 90% of their function. “It is still hard for me not to think of my father’s death as a kind of negligent homicide, facilitated and sped by the state’s failure to fulfill its most basic responsibilities to him and others like him,” Chung writes.

She also chronicles how her parents’ illnesses could never be processed and grieved over for what they meant alone; they always set off financial setbacks and fears, too. While her parents’ health deteriorates, Chung tries to become a writer and take care of her own two daughters, but these efforts are often mixed with frustration that she can’t do more to help the people who raised her. She writes of the “hollow guilt of those who leave hardship behind, yet are unable to bring anyone else with them.”
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Chung’s story is likely to resonate with many. In 2022, a record-high share of Americans (38%) said they or a family member had delayed medical treatments because of costs, according to a Gallup poll.
I spoke with Chung about her grief and the state of American health care. (This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Annie Nova: Your parents experienced a lot of job insecurity. I’m curious, how much as a child did you understand what was going on for them?

Nicole Chung: It’s hard because, when you’re a child, you’re obviously not privy to financial discussions between your parents. It would not have been appropriate for them to put that on me at that age. But at the same time, definitely by the end of elementary school, I had become used to periods of them being unemployed, and I could really see the strain on their faces.
AN: The scenes of your father managing different pizza shops as he gets older are really upsetting because he’s often mistreated. Was retirement something they ever talked about? Or did they just know they wouldn’t be able to stop working?
NC: It was really difficult to plan for the future, in particular because my parents didn’t know when someone might lose a job, or when somebody would get sick. There wasn’t even an acknowledgment that my father wouldn’t be able to work in the service industry forever.
AN: So both your mother and father, because of worries around money, delayed going to doctors. How did this worsen their conditions?
NC: By the time my father finally got into a community health clinic and got the tests and care he needed, they said, ‘We should have seen you a year ago. Your kidneys have lost over 90% of their function.’ He knew he was getting sicker, but my parents just didn’t have a way to pay for the extensive care he needed.
AN: And with your mother?
NC: With my mother, it’s a little harder to pin down. I write in the book about her battle with cancer. By then, she was on Social Security and disability, and so she had adequate medical care. But when I was in high school, there was a period when we weren’t insured, and she had health problems. I wound up having to drive her to the hospital one night, and it turned out that she had endometriosis. She hadn’t been to a doctor in months. She never told me, ‘I didn’t go because we didn’t have insurance,’ but the fact is we didn’t. And it was partly because things had gotten so bad that the doctors weren’t actually able to remove everything, and that’s where her cancer grew many years later, and what ultimately killed her.
AN: This all happened relatively recently. Was it hard to write about it so soon?
NC: After my father died, I spent months trying to figure out why I was so enraged. Why wasn’t I just sad? Why was I so angry? And it’s the injustice of how he died, the fact that he died younger than he probably would have or needed to, because of years of precarity and lack of access to health care. It suddenly felt very important to talk about.

Arrows pointing outwards

AN: Going to the community health clinic was such a turning point for your father. I got the sense that you thought the entire health-care system should be more like these clinics.
NC: I think it was hard for my mother to accept that they needed to go to a free clinic. And, of course, it didn’t save him. But it prolonged his life. He was diagnosed with kidney failure and got on dialysis. He was approved for disability. There was all kinds of assistance, even a medical shuttle to bring him to his appointments. So that visit to the clinic unlocked all of these other services and support. That’s often not the case with how health care operates in this country. Instead, it’s hard to access and very expensive.

He knew he was getting sicker, but my parents just didn’t have a way to pay for the extensive care he needed.

Nicole Chung
author of “A Living Remedy”

AN: As you became more financially comfortable, did your parents ask you for help?
NC: I offered my parents what I could, but they were really hesitant to ask for anything because of where I was in my career and because I had two young kids. They knew I didn’t have very much money. And it was kind of devastating to realize that they weren’t asking because they had no expectations. And then, when my mother visited me, she would secretly leave cash behind. I would find it after they left. It was like she was trying to return everything I had given them.
AN: What impact do you hope your book will have on the health-care conversation in the U.S.?
NC: I wanted to write this book, in part, because I wanted to write about my grief. And it felt really important to say that so many people’s experiences of grief are informed by things like what my family went through. Most people who get sick and die in this country aren’t wealthy, because most people in this country aren’t wealthy. These things are going to continue to happen to so many of us at some point. How do we want to meet them as a society? One of the bigger questions that runs through the book is, ‘How do we want to take care of each other?’ More

The latest projections for Social Security and Medicare show two of the three major trust funds may be insolvent in the next decade.
Lawmakers may consider a host of changes to resolve those issues, from raising taxes, cutting benefits or both.
Experts weigh in on what changes would be on their wish lists.

AscentXmedia | E+ | Getty Images

Social Security and Medicare face an uncertain future, based on new annual reports from the programs’ trustees that were released last week.
“Insolvency is in the near horizon,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, during a panel hosted by the non-partisan, non-profit organization on Tuesday.

Two of the three major trust funds are projected to be insolvent in the next decade, he noted.
The Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, also known as Medicare Part A, is now projected to be insolvent in eight years, or 2031 – three years later than was reported last year.
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Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund — which covers benefits for retirees, their spouses and children, and survivors of deceased workers — will be able to pay full benefits until 2033. At that time, just 77% of benefits will be payable.
That is just 10 years from now, Goldwein noted, when today’s 57-year-olds reach normal retirement age and today’s youngest retirees turn 72.

“That’s mainly driven by the fact that we had an 8.7% cost of living adjustment,” Goldwein said. “The trustees were projecting less than half that.”
The Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund was a bright spot in the report, with 100% of benefits payable at least through the report’s projection period in 2097.

Yet Social Security’s two funds combined will be able to pay benefits until 2034, one year earlier than was projected last year. At that time, 80% of benefits will be payable.
That is, of course, unless Congress acts sooner.
Social Security’s woes largely come down to demographics. Since 2010, the program has been spending more on benefits than it has been bringing in from payroll tax revenues, Goldwein noted.
By 2030, all baby boomers will be age 65 or older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

We’re going way, way beyond a pure safety net program.

Andrew Biggs
senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

“While it’s good news that we have a couple of extra years for Medicare, overall the clock is ticking on all of these programs within a decade,” Goldwein said.
To be sure, the projections may change from year to year as the economy fluctuates.
Yet to fix the problem, the solution remains the same. Lawmakers will have to consider a host of changes, selecting from raising taxes, cutting benefits or a combination of both.
Experts were asked on Tuesday what changes they would prioritize. Here is what they suggested.

1. Reduce elderly poverty through Social Security

Social Security successfully lifts more people out of poverty than any other program in the U.S., research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has found.
The research finds 37.8% of adults 65 and over would have incomes below the official poverty line without Social Security benefits.
With Social Security benefits, 9% of older adults have incomes below the poverty line. That goes up to 11.4% when children under age 18 and adults ages 18 to 64 are included.
While the program helps lift 22.5 million people out of poverty, the protections could be better, noted Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

For the past 20 years, there has been one go-to minimum benefit proposal that includes a sliding scale based on years of work, Romig noted.
But reducing poverty through and outside of Social Security beyond a sliding scale minimum benefit may be a better approach, she said.
Notably, shoring up minimum benefits has been included in reform proposals on both sides of the congressional aisle.
“There is interest in this across the political spectrum,” Romig said.

2. Cap the maximum Social Security benefit

The maximum benefit for a single person retiring at normal retirement age this year is $43,000, based on the trustees report, noted Andrew Biggs, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
That is well above the poverty threshold of $21,000, he noted. Moreover, the maximum Social Security retirement benefit is two to three times higher than what countries like the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia pay.
“We’re going way, way beyond a pure safety net program,” Biggs said.
Congress may opt to cap the maximum benefit, which is projected to rise to $59,000 by 2030, Biggs suggested.
Those benefits are far beyond what anyone needs to stay out of poverty, he said. Such a change may be a “modest fix” that would reduce 10% to 15% of the program’s long-term funding gap, Biggs said.

3. Make Medicare spending more efficient

Owen Franken | Corbis Documentary | Getty Images

One of the factors that has helped reduce Medicare spending in recent years is the shift of hip and knee replacements from in-patient hospital procedures to outpatient and ambulatory settings, noted Joe Albanese, policy analyst at the Paragon Health Institute, a health policy research institute.
The development comes after regulatory restrictions that required those services to be provided in in patient settings were lifted, he noted.
“These are the types of flexibilities and innovations that we should be seeking throughout the Medicare program,” Albanese said.
The savings not only helps with Medicare Part A hospital insurance solvency, but also may contribute to the fiscal sustainability of the program as a whole, he said. More

Ramona Persaud is the portfolio manger of the Fidelity Equity-Income Fund (FEQIX). She’s a veteran of the asset manager, having been there since 2003.
The strategy held its own against the broader market, as Persaud’s value tilt and preference for dividend-paying stocks kept losses down.
Her inclination toward value strategies ties back to her childhood. “Value investing is like having a low budget and seeing how much you can buy,” she said.”

Ramona Persaud
Source: Fidelity

The broader market suffered in 2022 as the Federal Reserve embarked on its rate-hiking campaign. Amid the tumult, the Fidelity Equity-Income Fund (FEQIX) outperformed the broader market with a total return of -5.07% – the result of portfolio manager Ramona Persaud’s search for value and quality.
“It was such a hard year for everyone,” she said. “I do think last year was a good example of highlighting the process.”

The fund shone as the Nasdaq Composite – whose Big Tech components were routed by higher interest rates – cratered 33.1%, and the S&P 500 shed more than 19%.
“Value is proven out through data over time,” she said. “We didn’t truly see it in the last decade, but value over long periods of time is your best alpha factor.”
The fund posted 3-year trailing returns of 18.71%, through April 4, according to Morningstar. The fund’s 5-year and 10-year trailing returns were 9.27% and 9.13%, respectively.
“She is looking for stocks with low expectations baked into them,” Robby Greengold, strategist for Morningstar Research Services, said of Persaud’s approach.
“A lot of the companies she buys have relatively high or stable profits and strong free cash flow generation,” he added. “She thinks that a portfolio of companies that are inexpensive, high quality dividend paying stocks should outperform on a risk-adjusted basis.”

In search of a good deal

FEQIX’s allocation toward blue-chip names that pay dividends such as JPMorgan Chase and Johnson & Johnson, as well as Exxon Mobil – which benefited from higher energy prices last year – protected it from the most severe price declines in 2022.

Arrows pointing outwards

The market rout also presented plum buying opportunities for Persaud, who has an eye for quality names on sale.
She spotted good discounts in the consumer discretionary sector – particularly apparel and retailers that stumbled as their inventory piled up. Large cap, low beta health-care stocks also made for a solid opportunity. Cyclical tech also became interesting, but “none of the high-flying tech,” she said.
“When the market panics, you get this sweeping effect when everything gets sold off,” Persaud said. “There’s a lot of cyclical tech, things like semiconductors, that sold off really hard because of the fear around long duration. Those are extremely high-quality businesses.”

Part of the immigrant experience

Persaud’s focus on value and quality are more than just a management style. It’s a tendency that ties back to her childhood in New York City as the daughter of parents who emigrated from Guyana.
“When I thought about why I like low-expectation investing, it goes back to the frugality of the immigrant background: You have to make a lot of a little,” she said. “Value investing is like having a low budget and seeing how much you can buy – that’s how I grew up.”
At one point, Persaud, a self-described “math and science kid,” was on track to follow in her father’s footsteps and become an engineer. In particular, she wanted to work toward a PhD in environmental engineering. A part-time job at Morgan Stanley to help pay for books while she was attending the Polytechnic Institute of New York University — now NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering — introduced her to the world of capital markets.
At Morgan Stanley, she built systems to digitize the firm’s trade clearing operations and became hooked. “It was the pace of the capital markets business, even though it was a back office – the pace completely matched,” she said.
It was enough to sway Persaud into a life-changing decision: She had won a fellowship from the National Science Foundation to get her PhD, and she ultimately passed on it to pursue a career in finance.
“My dad wasn’t happy,” she said. “The National Science Foundation fellowship as a brown immigrant woman is a really big deal. We had only been in the country for less than 10 years, so he was like, ‘What are you doing?’ That was very heartbreaking for him.”
Persaud found a way to combine her love of research and the excitement of capital markets, this time deciding she’d make a move from the back office to become a research analyst. She earned her master of business administration at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, interned at T. Rowe Price and made her way to Fidelity – where she has been since 2003.
At Fidelity, Persaud manages an array of strategies aside from FEQIX, including the Fidelity Global Equity Income Fund (FGILX) and Fidelity Advisor Global Equity Income Fund (FBLYX). She also co-manages the sub-portfolio of the Fidelity Advisor Multi-Asset Income Fund (FWATX) and the equity sleeve of the Fidelity and Fidelity Advisor Strategic Dividend Income funds (FSDIX and FASDX).
Income is a common theme for the offerings – and that’s not an accident. The search for steady income is also a keystone of her style and her upbringing.
“I like to balance price return with income in order to dampen overall volatility because what I’m really looking for is risk-adjusted return,” she said. “In a way, that’s an extremely natural concept to me, because I do think it comes from the immigrant history of trying to do a lot with a little.” More

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Black families face barriers to wealth creation due to a system of inequities, which has resulted in a growing disparity in retirement savings, according to Thasunda Brown Duckett, president and CEO of TIAA, a Fortune 100 financial services organization.
To address the racial retirement gap and work toward building generational wealth for Black Americans, Duckett said access to a workplace retirement plan is not enough. “We have to make sure that everyone is participating.”

The disparity in wealth between Black and white households in the U.S. — referred to as the racial wealth gap — has paved the way for a significant retirement savings shortfall that is only growing, according to Thasunda Brown Duckett, president and CEO of TIAA.
“There is a real problem,” she said Tuesday in a conversation with CNBC senior personal finance correspondent Sharon Epperson during CNBC’s Equity and Opportunity summit. TIAA is a Fortune 100 financial services organization serving some 5 million workers in the academic, cultural, governmental, medical and research fields.

Many older Americans are concerned about their retirement security. However, Black households are at a greater risk of being unable to maintain their standard of living in retirement compared with their white counterparts, several studies show.

As part of its National Financial Literacy Month efforts, CNBC will be featuring stories throughout the month dedicated to helping people manage, grow and protect their money so they can truly live ambitiously.

According to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest Survey on Consumer Finances, 57% of white families had savings in retirement accounts, compared with only 35% of Black families and 26% of Hispanic families.
And while white families had, on average, a retirement account balance of $168,000, not including pensions, the average balances for Black and Hispanic families were $38,300 and $27,300, respectively.
“All Americans run the risk of running out of money, and as you look at minorities or women, that number is even more pronounced,” Duckett said.

How to overcome structural and systemic issues

For starters, fewer Black and Hispanic households have or use employer-sponsored retirement plans. About 64% of Hispanic workers, 53% of Black workers and 45% of Asian-American workers have no access to a workplace retirement plan at all, according to AARP. 

Tax breaks for retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts, may be further widening the gap, according to a separate analysis from the Tax Policy Center.  
All employers, including small business owners, must provide access to a workplace plan to make it easier to save, Duckett said, so employees are “taking the necessary steps to have a secure retirement, while managing the high-stress environment we are dealing with today.”

For those who are in business for themselves and don’t have a 401(k) or other workplace retirement plan, it’s important to use alternative savings tools such as an IRA, she said.
“We have to make sure that everyone is participating.”

Financial education is ‘critical’

To further address the racial retirement gap and work toward building generational wealth for Black Americans, Duckett said, financial literacy “absolutely is critical.”
“When you know better, you do better,” she added.
There is an important role for schools to play, she said, but a financial education should continue in the workplace.
And “it can’t stop there,” she added. “It’s not enough to just have it; it is our responsibility to make sure that our employees are engaging with the information in a way that they are taking action.”

Auto-enrollment and auto-escalation features can also help ensure all workers can take full advantage of matching contributions, when available, and stay on track with their long-term goals.
Finally, Duckett said, families should meet with a financial advisor to fine-tune their balance sheet so they are able to divert a portion of their salary every month to a separate rainy day fund. This will prevent having to tap retirement accounts in case of an unexpected financial shock or emergency expense.
“It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep,” she said.
Ultimately, that’s what will allow Black households to “transfer wealth, and not debt, to future generations,” Duckett said. More

Smart Tax Planning

You can’t claim the home office deduction as a full-time employee with W-2 earnings, but it may be possible with 1099 income as a contractor or self-employed worker.
To qualify, you must use your home office regularly and exclusively for work, and there are two ways to calculate the tax break, according to the IRS.

Eva-katalin | E+ | Getty Images

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who worked remotely — fully or partially — in 2022, you may be wondering about the home office deduction on your taxes.
While remote work has declined since the early days of the pandemic, nearly 30% of employees were telecommuting in January, according to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index.

However, many of those workers can’t claim the home office deduction, said Brad Sprong, national tax leader of KPMG Private Enterprise.

More from Smart Tax Planning:

Here’s a look at more tax-planning news.

Assess IRS guidelines for your workspace

Your workspace must meet certain IRS guidelines to qualify for the deduction, said Rob Burnette, CEO of the Outlook Financial Center.
Based on the square footage of a specific area in your home, you must use your “home office” exclusively for work, he said. And the IRS expects it to be the principal place for your business, used regularly. 
“It doesn’t need to be a room with four walls around it,” Sprong said, noting that it could be a designated 200 square feet in your home. But “it would be hard to argue that your kitchen table is exclusively for business,” he added.

Calculate the home office deduction 

There are two ways to calculate the home office deduction: the “simplified option” and the “regular method,” according to the IRS.  
The simplified option uses a standard deduction of $5 per square foot of the portion of your home used for business, capped at 300 square feet, or $1,500. 
The regular method, which is more complicated, uses the percentage of your home used for business, including actual expenses, such as part of your mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs and depreciation. The calculation happens on Form 8829. 

“The simplified method is my favorite way because most people don’t have the records or enough deductions to make the regular method work,” Burnette said. Typically, he calculates it both ways for new clients to see which option provides the bigger tax break.
Of course, some taxpayers may get a bigger tax break by using the regular method. “While it’s more cumbersome, it’s much more beneficial because the simplified option is capped at $1,500,” Sprong said.
But when using the regular method, it’s important to have documentation to show proof of your deductions. “If you’re drawn for audit, it’s an area of focus for the IRS,” he warned. More

Ask an Advisor

The life of a digital nomad looks even more attractive as return-to-office plans accelerate.
If you are ready to make the leap, here are some money moves to consider first, according to Sophia Bera Daigle, a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council.

On the heels of the Great Resignation, some workers are even more motivated to leave their job in search of a better work-life balance.
To that point, 56% of the workforce is likely to look for a new job in the year ahead, up from 51% in 2022, according to Bankrate’s 2023 job-seeker survey.

In addition to higher pay, workers said that more flexible hours and working remotely are now what’s most important to them.
“The nature of work is shifting for a lot more people,” said Sophia Bera Daigle, CEO and founder of Gen Y Planning, a financial planning firm for millennials.  

More from Ask an Advisor

Here are more FA Council perspectives on how to navigate this economy while building wealth.

Even among hybrid workers, many would prefer to spend more time working from home than they currently do, according to Bankrate.
Of those who are working from home some of the time, half say they’d like to do so all or most of the time. And roughly one third of those who are currently working from home most of the time said, if they had the choice, they’d like to work from home all the time.
Even before the pandemic, Bera Daigle, a certified financial planner and a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council, knew the daily grind wasn’t for her. After working at traditional financial planning firms since 2007, she quit to be free to work from wherever she wanted.

Despite fears of a recession, there are still plenty of opportunities out there for job seekers seeking a similar arrangement.
Workers have an edge in a cooling but strong job market, experts say, and that gives them the ability to push back on return-to-office mandates.

How to become a digital nomad

For many, the life of the digital nomad is the ultimate goal.
This lifestyle is becoming a lot more popular as the trend of remote working accelerates. The number of digital nomads in the U.S. increased 9% in just 12 months from 2021 to 2022, to a total of almost 17 million, according to the jobs platform MBO Partners.

If you’re contemplating a major career move so you have more location flexibility or don’t have to commute, there are a few things you need to do first, Bera Daigle said.
1. Pay down debt. Before leaving your current position, Bera Daigle recommends strengthening your financial standing by paying down debt, particularly high-interest credit card balances, to improve your monthly cash flow so you can set more money aside. 
2. Pump up savings. “Having emergency savings is really key,” she said.
Divert a portion of your salary every month to a separate savings account. Most financial experts recommend having at least three months’ worth of expenses set aside in an emergency fund or more if you are the sole breadwinner in your family.
3. Pad your retirement plan. If you have access to a 401(k) plan, “maximize contributions now because it could take a while to find a new job and you may not be eligible for a 401(k) right away,” Bera Daigle said.
Eventually, you may be able to roll the old 401(k) into your new workplace plan or an individual retirement account but there could be a waiting period of a few months — or even a year — before you’re able to participate.
4. Open a brokerage account. If you’ve met your short-term savings goals and your retirement contributions are on track, consider opening a taxable investment account to help bridge the gap, Bera Daigle advised. (Although brokerage accounts don’t have the same tax benefits as a workplace retirement plan, there are no income or contribution limits or restrictions on when funds can be withdrawn.)
For those new to investing on their own, start with an index fund that tracks the broader market, like the SPDR S&P 500 exchange-traded fund. Otherwise, mutual funds can be a great way to diversify your portfolio, although these may have higher minimum investments than ETFs.

Sophia Bera Daigle, CEO and founder of Gen Y Planning.

Even though Bera Daigle is now married with a young son and owns a home in Austin, Texas, she still values her ability to work from anywhere in the world.   
To afford extended trips as a family, Bera Daigle allocates money every month into “savings buckets” — a popular strategy for covering expenses such as travel and entertainment. She also leverages travel rewards and credit card points to save on airfare and hotel stays.
“If I’m not using my money to match my values to live a great life, then I’m doing it wrong,” she said. More

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More than $6 billion in scholarships are awarded to college students each year, according to an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
Applying for the awards can help students reduce their education debt.

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As families try figure out how to pay for their children’s college costs in the fall, scholarships are an important avenue to explore.
“Every dollar won in a scholarship could potentially eliminate a dollar borrowed for the student,” said Elaine Rubin, director of corporate communications at Edvisors.

More than $6 billion in scholarships are awarded to college students each year, according to an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
To begin, scholarships are gifts that don’t need to be repaid, and there are thousands of them offered. Some of the awards are based on merit while others are granted because of financial need.
Here’s what else you need to know.

Cast a wide net to find scholarships

Students can use free scholarship matching services to search for the awards, Kantrowitz said. Some of the services he recommends include Fastweb and the College Board’s Big Future.
“These websites match your background profile against a large database of scholarships, showing you only the ones for which you are eligible,” Kantrowitz said.

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Scholarship-listing books can also be helpful, he said: “You can find them in the jobs and careers section of your local public library or bookstore.”
(Make sure the book is not more than 1 or 2 years old, Kantrowitz cautioned, because many awards change or end.)
You can also try Googling for different scholarships, Kantrowitz said.
During your search, you’ll want to consider what sets you apart. For example, if you are the first person in your family to attend college, you might type in: “First-generation college student scholarships.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education, students also should ask both their high school counselor and the college’s financial aid office about scholarship opportunities.
The U.S. Department of Labor has a scholarship search database, too.
You should never have to pay to apply for scholarships, Kantrowitz warned: “If you have to pay money to get money, it’s probably a scam.”

Scholarships shouldn’t be ‘the entire plan’

According to calculations by Kantrowitz, around 1 in 8 college students has won a scholarship. The average award is around $4,200. Around 0.1% of undergraduate students received $25,000 or more in scholarships.
“Scholarships are part of the plan for paying for college, but not the entire plan,” Kantrowitz said.
Most families will still want to save for their children’s higher education, file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form, and be wise about not borrowing too much.
Some scholarships are huge, though.
For example, the Regeneron Science Talent Search has a top prize of $250,000 for young scientists. The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation offers $20,000 college scholarships for those “recognized for their capacity to lead and serve, as well as their commitment to making a significant impact on their schools and communities.”

Scholarships may reduce grants, trigger taxes

One thing to keep in mind when applying for the awards is that some colleges reduce their grants to a student if they receive one, Kantrowitz said. These so-called displacement policies are something to be on the lookout for as you weigh college offers — although some states have actually set limits on the practice.
And while many scholarships are renewable, you may be required to maintain a certain grade point average to remain eligible.
Kantrowitz recommends students search for scholarships every year. “Some scholarships are open to just high school seniors,” he said. “There are also some scholarships that are only open to students who are already enrolled in college.”

In addition, some scholarships may be taxable, Kantrowitz said. It all depends on what you use the money for.
The awards are shielded from taxation if they’re directed only at tuition and books. Amounts applied to room and board, transportation or other living expenses, meanwhile, can count as taxable income.
“They can also ask the scholarship provider for help,” Kantrowitz said. “Some will allow the student to defer their scholarship for a year to avoid needing to spend it on taxable expenses.” More