Investing

Increasing emergency savings is a top financial goal for many Americans heading into 2023, a new survey finds.
Here’s how to increase the cash you have set aside.

Xavier Lorenzo | Moment | Getty Images

When it comes to financial resolutions for 2023, there’s one goal at the top of many people’s lists: building an emergency fund.
A recent survey from Personal Capital found that 31% of respondents want to increase their emergency savings, topping other goals like purchasing a car, with 15%; saving to buy a home, 9%; or hosting a wedding, 8%.

Having savings set aside for unexpected expenses such as medical bills or car repairs can help people avoid high-interest debt and also stick to long-term goals like retirement savings.
In fact, not having an emergency fund may be one of the biggest financial mistakes you can make, personal finance expert Suze Orman recently said.
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“The majority of Americans, in my opinion, barely have the money today to pay for their everyday expenses,” Orman said.
Surveys consistently show individuals would have a hard time coming up with the cash to cover unforeseen expenses of $1,000 or even $400.

If you’re looking to ramp up your emergency savings in 2023, these tips can help you get started.

1. Reduce your monthly bills

Chances are big savings can be found by reassessing your day-to-day expenses, according to certified financial planner Ted Jenkin, CEO at Atlanta-based Oxygen Financial and a member of the CNBC FA Council.
Jenkin, who co-wrote a book called “The 21-Day Budget Cleanse,” recommends people take a detox-type approach to their household budgets.
That means looking at the 21 largest bills you have — if you have that many — and try to shop around or change them.

Take your bundled internet, phone and cable bill, for example. Ask your provider if there is an opportunity for a better package or rate. Also investigate the other options available through other companies.
“Most people really haven’t taken the time to see where they’re overspending and size up what the difference is,” Jenkin said.

2. Reassess your credit card habits

Prices were higher this holiday season, which prompted consumers who turned to credit cards to take on bigger amounts of debt, a LendingTree survey recently found.
That’s “troubling” now, as interest rates on those debts are poised to continue to climb, according to Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.

By simply asking for a lower interest rate, you may be able to pare back how much it takes to pay down those debts, LendingTree has found.
It may also help to seek better rates elsewhere — either through a 0% interest balance transfer credit card or a personal loan.
Also take stock of any rewards you’ve accumulated to see how you can turn them into extra funds, Jenkin said.
Many people have unused perks that they have not tapped into, such as points to help whittle down your credit card bill.
“It’s found money,” Jenkin said.

3. Look for higher rates on your cash

As interest rates climb, that’s good news for the money you stand to earn on your cash.
Online savings accounts and certificates of deposit, or CDs, are providing the highest interest rates in more than a decade.
If your emergency fund has less than the three to six months’ expenses typically recommended by experts, having quick access to your cash should be your first priority, according to Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
In that case, online savings accounts may work best. Even socking away a small amount of cash per week can add up over time, McBride said.

4. Sell what you aren’t using

Burke/triolo Productions | The Image Bank | Getty Images

If you haven’t used something in a year — aside from family heirlooms or holiday decorations — it’s time to sell it, Jenkin said.
If you haven’t worn a shirt in a year, for example, you can unload it on a website such as Poshmark. Electronics you’re not using can be sold on sites such as Decluttr or Facebook, Jenkin said.
“There are many, many apps and websites to basically sell your stuff,” Jenkin said.
If you’re not ready to part with an item forever — such as an extra car, for example — you may want to consider renting it out instead on a website like Turo.

5. Pick up a side hustle

Generating more money doesn’t have to stop at selling your things; you can also sell your skills, Jenkin said.
Websites like Fiverr will let you list your services so you can generate extra money.
“If you have a hustle, skill or talent, try to earn that extra income to build up a cash reserve,” Jenkin said.

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(An excerpt from the book, “Shut Up and Keep Talking: Lessons on Life and Investing from the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange,” by Bob Pisani.)
“No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.”—Daniel Kahneman, in Michael Lewis’ “The Undoing Project”

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2 days ago

If you had met Art Cashin on the street outside the New York Stock Exchange in 2019, you would have thought you were meeting a man one step removed from homelessness.
His suit would have been rumpled. His ties would have been 20 years old, knotted carelessly and skewed to one side. He would be wearing a dilapidated trench coat straight out of “Casablanca.” He would be slouching. He looked like he might have slept outside on the pavement.
But for 60 years, Art Cashin has been one of the most influential men on Wall Street. Head of floor trading for UBS, he is old-school Wall Street to the core: a market historian, a great drinker, but above all a raconteur — a teller of stories.
There’s a lot of great market historians — men and women who can tell you what moved when, where and why. Those types know what they’re talking about, but most don’t sound like they know what they’re talking about. They can’t explain what they know for a general audience.
Then there’s the opposite problem: the vast hoards of Wall Street bull——– that don’t know much, but sound like they know what they’re talking about.

Cashin is that rare exception: a man who knows what he was talking about, and sounds like he knows. He never went to college and had little use for academic theories. Holding forth at the bar on the seventh floor of the New York Stock Exchange with a glass of Dewar’s on the rocks in his hand, or at Bobby Vans steakhouse across the street (now closed), or any one of dozens of Wall Street watering holes he frequented with a coterie of friends and hangers-on he dubbed the “Friends of Fermentation,” Cashin would engage anyone in an analysis of what was going on in the markets and the economy, but disdained academic and scholarly digressions on why the market was behaving in a certain way or whether one trading style or another was more successful than others.
It wasn’t that he didn’t care: he cared very much. He just preferred a different style than academics.
He preferred to tell stories.

Tiffany, J.P. Morgan and the art of price discovery

For example, volumes have been written explaining the concept of “price discovery” — how anyone determines what the right price to pay for a stock should be. Scholarly papers have been written about supply and demand and the information available to buyers and sellers at the time of the transaction.
To explain price discovery, Cashin liked to tell the story of the time the jeweler Charles Lewis Tiffany tried to sell an expensive diamond stickpin to J.P. Morgan.
Tiffany, Cashin said, knew that Morgan loved diamond stickpins, which he used to put in his tie. One day he sent a man around to Morgan’s office with an envelope and a box wrapped in gift paper. Morgan opened the envelope, and in it was a message from Tiffany: “My dear Mr. Morgan, I know of your great fascination with diamond stickpins. Enclosed in this box is an absolutely exquisite example. Since it is so exquisite and unusual, its price is $5,000,” which, in those days, Cashin noted, was north of $150,000 in present dollars.
The note continued: “My man will leave the stickpin with you and will return to my office. He will come back tomorrow. If you choose to accept it, you may give him a check for $5,000. If you choose not to accept it, you may give him the box back with the diamond stickpin.”

Art Cashin speaking at the NYSE on Dec. 30th, 2022. 

He left, and the next day, Tiffany’s man came back to see Morgan. Morgan presented him with the box rewrapped in a new paper, along with a note, which said, “My dear Mr. Tiffany, as you’ve said, the stickpin was magnificent. However, the price seems a bit excessive. Instead of $5,000, enclosed you will find a check for $4,000. If you choose to accept that, you may send the pin back to me, and if not, you may keep the pin and tear up the check.”
The man returned to Tiffany, who read the note and saw the offer for $4,000. He knew he could still make money on the offer, but felt the pin was still worth the $5,000 he was asking.
He said to the man, “You may return the check to Mr. Morgan, and tell him I hope to do business with him in the future,” and left.
After a couple of minutes, Tiffany took the wrapping off the box, opened it up and found not the stickpin, but a check for $5,000 and a note that said, “Just checking the price.”

How do you tell a story about the stock market?

By the time I met him in 1997, he had been writing a daily column, Cashin’s Comments, for nearly twenty years that was estimated to reach 1.5 million to 2 million people a day. It invariably began with an analysis of an important event. (“On this date in 1918, the worldwide flu epidemic went into high gear in the U.S.”) Then, after a brief history lesson tied that event to the day’s market events. (“Pre-opening Wednesday morning, U.S. stock futures looked like they might be coming down with the flu. Several earnings reports were less than glowing and some of the outlooks were cloudy.”)
Cashin never took a course in literary theory, but he understood that some stories were far more persuasive than others, and that condensed narratives that had a clear storytelling arc were the most memorable and therefore a more effective way to convey information.

Bob Pisani’s book “Shut Up & Keep Talking”

For Cashin, storytelling is only partly about facts: a series of Post-it notes on the wall, each with a separate fact about something going on in the market that day, is not a story. It’s how you connect the facts and weave it into a narrative that makes it a story.
“I have been fortunate enough over the years to be able to look at very complicated situations or problems and be able to reduce them to understandable items by using a story or a parable,” he once said to me.
He not only uses stories, but he also anthropomorphizes the entire market: he routinely described the market as “in a tizzy,” or that traders were “circling the wagons” to defend a particularly important level of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Let’s get back to the story about J.P. Morgan, Tiffany, and price discovery. For Cashin, understanding what a stock was worth was not about a mathematical formula, it was about trying to understand what the other guy was willing to pay: “How can I, in a real estate transaction, in a stock transaction, whatever, delve into your mind and find out what will you really accept? You offer your house at three quarters of a million dollars. Is that really your price? How do I find out what the difference was? And Morgan, in his natural genius, figured out that he would offer the guy somewhat less, and if the guy took it, that was to Morgan’s advantage. And if the guy refused, then that was the price and he had to pay it.”

Art Cashin
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Cashin’s secret sauce was a natural gift for telling stories with a “dramatic arc,” that is, stories with rising action, a climax, falling action and a resolution. Even a story as short as the Tiffany one contains all these elements: the action rises when Tiffany’s man presents the stick pin to Morgan with a $5,000 asking price, and Morgan counters with a $4,000 offer. The climax occurs when Tiffany declines the counteroffer. The falling action occurs when he sends the courier back with the note. The resolution occurs when Tiffany opens the box and found not the stickpin but a check for $5,000 and a note that said, “Just checking the price.”
Cashin grasped that these kinds of stories pack more emotional resonance than those that don’t have them, and that’s why people remember them.

The Kennedy assassination

Cashin passionately believed that the market did indeed reflect all available information — even if some were able to come to different conclusions than others. And often when the market moved for reasons that were not obvious, Cashin would come up with some plausible but not obvious reason why.
“The truth is on that tape,” he told me. “Don’t just go for the obvious. If you’re good at this business, you gotta be Sherlock Holmes. The improbable, as long as it’s not the impossible, may turn out to be the true fact. And you will learn far more than you ever thought.”
As far as I knew, Cashin never said that to anyone but me. To everyone else, he told a story about a man who looked at the markets during a national disaster and read the tape in a very different way than everyone else.
It was Nov. 22, 1963 — the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

“I was upstairs,” Cashin told me, “And the market was selling off. And the guy who preceded me, the broker on the floor, Tommy McKinnon, called up. I was in the order room. And he said, ‘Is there anything on the tape about the president?’ And I said, ‘No. Why do you ask?’ And he said, ‘Merrill Lynch is all over the floor, selling. And I asked him why, and he said, ‘Something about the president.’
So I went back. And the news ticker, they would ring a bell for ordinary news, two for something that was special, and three for really dynamic news. And the bell rang three times. And I ran back about 15 feet to where the news ticker was. And the headline was, ‘Shots Reported Fired at President’s Motorcade in Dallas.’
And I ran back to call the floor of the Exchange to tell Tommy. And before he could pick up, the bell rang three times again. And it said, ‘President Rumored to Have Been Hit.’ And I went back to call him again. And again, the bell rang three times. And it said, ‘President’s Motorcade Diverted to Parkland Hospital in Dallas.’ And that’s when they shut the Exchange down.
The amazing thing, to me, was how did Merrill Lynch know before anything was on the news ticker? And it was a lesson to me in Wall Street. The story I was told, presidents didn’t travel much in 1963. The manager of the Merrill Lynch, Dallas branch said, ‘You guys go out and watch the parade. I’ll keep a skeleton crew here.’ They went out to watch the parade. A little while later, they all came in down in the dumps. And he said, ‘What’s the matter? You were supposed to watch the parade.’ And they said to him, ‘The parade got canceled.’ And he said, ‘What do you mean?’ And they were here. And the parade was way up there. And they heard the sirens go loud. And the parade turned right.
And this guy was a good manager. And he called the salesmen together. And he said, ‘Give me a good bullish reason to pull the president out of a parade.’ And nobody could think of one. And he said, ‘Give me a bearish reason.’ Nobody thinks, assassination. They were nowhere near there. They were ten blocks away. But they start thinking, nuclear catastrophe, natural disaster, blah, blah, blah. They find 100 reasons to sell. He said, ‘Begin to sell for the discretionary accounts. Start calling our clients. And tell them, ‘We think something bad happened at the parade.'”

For Art, that Merrill Lynch manager was the perfect marketplace Sherlock Holmes: Don’t just consider what you hear. Think beyond what happened.
Art’s preferred method of teaching was storytelling, but he wasn’t above resorting to simple blunt truths about the markets, and particularly about the way people behaved in the face of greed. He was a behavioral psychologist long before the word was coined.
He had seen his fellow humans panic time after time, selling stocks immediately without thinking, and cautioned against it: “It tells me that people have a tendency to overreact — and to not think things through carefully,” he once told me.
“Those who react immediately rarely do well,” he said. “Those who are somewhat suspect, they do much better.”
Bob Pisani is senior markets correspondent for CNBC. He has spent nearly three decades reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. In Shut Up and Keep Talking, Pisani shares stories about what he has learned about life and investing.

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The top prize has been growing since mid-October, when two tickets split a $502 million jackpot.
The chance of hitting the top prize is about one in 302.6 million.
If you beat those odds, there are some things you should do — and not do — right off the bat.

Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images

Winning $640 million wouldn’t be a bad way to close out the year.
That’s the Mega Millions jackpot amount for the next drawing, which is set for Friday night. The top prize has been growing since Oct. 14 when it was reset to $20 million after two tickets — sold in Florida and California — matched all six numbers to split a $502 million jackpot.

While the chance of a single ticket hitting the jackpot is tiny — about one in 302.6 million — it’s worth considering how you’d handle such a huge windfall. 
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“The stress level is pretty high,” said Susan Bradley, a certified financial planner and founder of the Sudden Money Institute in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. “And that can be pretty rough.
“Most lottery winners are sleep-deprived for a while.”
In other words, it’s not as simple as claiming your prize and going on with your life.

If you happen to find yourself holding the winning ticket, here’s what to do.

1. Breathe

There’s no need to rush over to lottery headquarters right away.
Depending on the state where you bought your ticket, you get anywhere from 60 or 90 days to a year to claim your prize.
You’ll also need some time to figure out how to handle the huge influx of money, according to CFP Janet Stanzak, founder and partner of Financial Empowerment in Burnsville, Minnesota.

2. Keep your ticket safe

It’s important to protect your ticket. Experts recommend taking a photo of yourself with the valuable slip of paper and then storing it in a safe place, such as a lockbox.
“Protect your ticket,” Bradley said. “People can lose tickets, and no ticket means no money.”
It’s also generally recommended that you sign the back of the ticket as proof that it belongs to you. However, before you do so, it’s worth making sure you know the rules for claiming your win in the state where the ticket was purchased.

Some states allow you to remain completely anonymous. But if you bought the ticket in a state that requires the winner’s name to be publicly shared, you may be able to avoid identifying yourself by claiming the prize in the name of a trust or other legal entity.

3. Tell as few people as possible

While you may want to share your good fortune, experts recommend keeping the information close. This means telling, perhaps, only immediate family or a trusted friend.
“You want to only tell someone who will hold your confidence and help you watch your back,” Bradley said.
News has a way of traveling, and long-lost friends or family — or scammers hoping to get in on the windfall — could appear on your doorstep.

4. Build a team of advisors

Winning such a large amount of money means having some pretty weighty financial decisions to make. This means it’s worthwhile having a team of professionals who can guide you. That group should include an experienced attorney, financial advisor, tax advisor and insurance expert.
Among the first big decisions you’ll face is whether to take the jackpot as a reduced lump sum or as an annuity paid in yearly installments over three decades. Either way, the IRS — and the state, if it taxes lottery wins — will take a slice before the windfall reaches you.
For this $640 million Mega Millions jackpot, the cash option — which most jackpot winners choose — is $328.3 million.

A required federal withholding of 24% would shave about $78.8 million off that amount, reducing it to $249.5 million. However, the top marginal rate at the federal level is 37%. In 2023 — when the winner presumably would claim the prize — that tax rate applies to income above $578,125 for single filers and $693,750 for married couples, which means you could expect to owe more to the IRS.
Nevertheless, the amount you’d end up with is more than most people see in a lifetime.
“Ask yourself what this means to you and the people you care about,” Bradley said.
Meanwhile, Powerball’s jackpot is $246 million ($128.5 million cash option) for its next drawing, which is set for Saturday night. The chance of a ticket winning the top prize is about one in 292 million.

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With the average interest rate on credit cards at historic highs, many people are being dinged with higher monthly charges than ever on on their balances.
As a result, they may be wondering if it’s a good idea to tap their retirement savings — specifically their 401(k) plan — to pay off the debt.

Malerapaso | Istock | Getty Images

1. Most people should avoid 401(k) withdrawals

Withdrawals from 401(k) accounts before age 59½ are subject to a 10% penalty and taxes. That means if you needed $15,000, you’d have to take out close to $24,000, after accounting for those charges, according to Fidelity.

Of course, any cash you pull from the account will also miss out on market gains. Stocks have produced an average annual return of more than 10% over the last 100 or so years.
All that “should combine to far outweigh the average credit card rate,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com.
There may be exceptions, however.

Stopping your 401(k) contributions for a while — or at least cutting back — and redirecting those funds to debt payoff might make sense.

Ted Rossman
industry analyst at CreditCards.com

For people over 59½ and in a low tax bracket, a 401(k) withdrawal to pay off credit card debt may make sense because they’d avoid the 10% penalty and not be subject to a huge levy, explains Allan Roth, a certified financial planner and the founder of Wealth Logic in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“Certainly, the math can make it worth it,” Roth said.
For most others, though, there are more appealing options than a withdrawal, Rossman said.

2. Suspending contributions means you’ll miss out on your company match

“Stopping your 401(k) contributions for a while — or at least cutting back — and redirecting those funds to debt payoff might make sense,” he said.
Still, that advice comes with an asterisk.
If your employer offers a company match, experts recommend you try to at least save up to whatever point that is, be it 3% or 5% of your paychecks.

“That’s free money that often doubles your return right there,” Rossman said.
A loan from your 401(k) plan is also usually preferable to a withdrawal, experts say.

3. 401(k) loans come with caveats, too

The interest rate on 401(k) loans is typically less than 5%, far less than the annual charge on most credit cards. The interest paid on the loan also goes back into your savings rather than to a bank.
“Using a 401(k) loan to pay off high-interest debt, like credit cards, could reduce the amount you pay in interest to lenders,” said Jessica Macdonald, head of editorial content at Fidelity Institutional.
Other benefits to a 401(k) loan, Macdonald said, are that they don’t require a credit check and they don’t show up as debt on your credit report.

Brand X Pictures | Stockbyte | Getty Images

But there are other factors to consider here, as well.
For one, you’ll have to be able to repay the loan within five years. You could also face consequences if you leave your job and fail to pay the loan back. In such cases, your loan would be deemed in default, and you’d be hit with taxes and that 10% withdrawal penalty on whatever you still owe. And, again, your money will miss out on market returns.
Anyone considering turning to their 401(k) to address credit card balances would also be wise to think about the behavioral reasons why they got into the debt in the first place, some experts say.
“If one takes out money to pay off their credit card debt and then buys more to build the debt back up again, it backfired,” Roth said.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia November 25, 2022. 
Alexander Shcherbak | Sputnik | Reuters

VanEck is liquidating its Russia-centric exchange-traded funds after the ongoing war in Europe has effectively severed the Russian market from Western investors.
Russia ETFs plunged after the country’s army invaded Ukraine. Moscow’s stock market was closed temporarily, and ongoing sanctions mean that major stocks like Gazprom still cannot be traded in the West, creating liquidity concerns for the funds.

VanEck’s Russia ETFs — the VanEck Russia ETF (RSX) and VanEck Russia Small-Cap ETF (RSXJ) — were effectively frozen after March 4.
“The Funds’ inability to buy, sell, and take or make delivery of Russian securities has made it impossible to manage the Funds consistent with their investment objectives. The Funds will not engage in any business or investment activities except for the purposes of winding up their affairs,” VanEck said in a release Wednesday evening.
The firm has suspended redemptions of the funds, pursuant to an order from the Securities and Exchange Commission, while it liquidates the positions. VanEck said it plans to distribute any proceeds from the liquidation to investors on roughly Jan. 12, 2023.
The RSX fund had more than $1.3 billion in assets under management at the beginning of 2022, according to FactSet.
VanEck’s move follows similar announcements by Franklin Templeton last week and BlackRock in August about their Russia ETFs.

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Egg prices jumped 49% in the past year, more than any other grocery category, according to the consumer price index.
Bird flu is the primary culprit, economists said. Millions of egg-laying hens died in 2022 as a result of the deadliest outbreak of avian flu in U.S. history.
Perhaps counterintuitively, chicken prices have been declining. Chickens raised for meat consumption aren’t as affected by bird flu, economists said.

D3sign | Moment | Getty Images

The surge in egg prices has stood out in a year when Americans saw their bills balloon across the grocery store.
Average egg prices jumped 49.1% in November compared with those a year earlier — the largest annual percentage increase among all grocery items in that period, according to the consumer price index, a barometer of inflation.

By comparison, the overarching “food at home” category was up 12%.
The increase is even more acute when measured by the cost of a dozen large, Grade A eggs, which more than doubled to $3.59 in November from $1.72 the year-earlier month, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Bird flu is largely to blame for rising egg prices

Those price dynamics are primarily due to the deadliest outbreak of bird flu in U.S. history, which has killed millions of egg-laying hens this year, according to economists.

“A lot of things are up since 2020,” Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in food economics, previously told CNBC. “But the recent spike is extraordinary in the shell-egg as well as egg-product markets.”
About 57.8 million birds have been affected by avian flu in 2022, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data as of Dec. 28. These figures include birds such as turkeys and ducks.

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Bird flu is relatively rare in the U.S. The last bout was in 2015, when 50.5 million birds — the previous record — were affected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The flu hadn’t emerged in at least a decade or two prior to that, Lapp said.
Here’s why this matters: Avian flu is “highly contagious,” the New Jersey Department of Agriculture said in October. It’s also extremely lethal: It kills 90% to 100% of chickens, often within 48 hours, according to the CDC.
Farmers generally must kill their remaining birds — not by choice but due to federal rules meant to prevent spread, Brian Moscogiuri, a global trade strategist at Eggs Unlimited, an egg supplier based in Irvine, California, previously told CNBC.

About 40 million egg-laying hens — “layers,” in industry shorthand — have died this year due to avian flu, Moscogiuri said. There were 375 million total layers in the U.S. as of Dec. 1, which is down 5% from last year, according to the USDA.
Egg quantity has declined in lockstep. About 8.9 billion eggs were produced in November, down from 9.7 billion in December 2021, according to USDA data issued Dec. 20.
“It’s a supply disruption, ‘act of God’ type stuff,” Moscogiuri said. He called the situation “unprecedented.”
“It’s kind of happenstance that inflation is going on [more broadly] during the same period,” he added.

Price pressures may be easing

Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bird flu typically arrives during the spring migration and disappears by the summer, experts said. But this year was different; the virus reemerged in September.
In October, the USDA revised its production forecast for table eggs downward for 2023 and the remainder of 2022 following “September detections” of bird flu.
That avian flu flare-up — and its associated death toll for egg-laying hens — is running headlong into peak demand. Consumers generally buy more eggs now for holiday baking, for example, experts said.
Consumer demand for eggs has also been buoyed by a pivot away from some higher-cost proteins amid broader food inflation, the USDA suggested in an October outlook report.
Egg prices jumped 2.3% just in the month of November, and by 10.1% in October, according to the CPI.

Elevated egg prices “could last into the first quarter of 2023,” Lapp said.
But price pressures appear to be easing, according to Moscogiuri. That’s partly a seasonal effect, as demand naturally lets up after the holidays. It’s also due to record egg prices somewhat dampening demand, he said.
“The market has now topped and spot prices are becoming increasingly negotiable,” Moscogiuri said. “As the spot price falls, the market will follow and we will likely see a 25%-30% correction from current all-time highs.
“This adjustment will likely take place over the next three weeks.” Any additional, large outbreaks of bird flu could disrupt this trend, he added.

Meanwhile, chicken prices have been falling

Flock of broiler chickens inside a poultry house.
Edwin Remsberg | The Image Bank | Getty Images

Perhaps counterintuitively, chicken prices have been declining in recent months, moving opposite those of eggs.
Chicken prices retreated in October and November, falling by 1.3% and 0.8%, respectively, according to CPI data.
Chickens raised for meat consumption — known as “broilers” — aren’t affected by avian flu to the same extent as the “layers.”
“It’s two totally different styles of production, two totally different breeds of bird,” Moscogiuri said.
The life cycle of a broiler is much shorter — anywhere from 5.5 weeks to nine weeks, from hatch to slaughter, according to Vencomatic Group, a poultry consulting firm.

That cycle can be upwards of 100 weeks for an egg-laying hen, Moscogiuri said. It can take about five to six months for layers just to reach full productivity, according to the USDA. The latter are therefore more susceptible to bird flu since farmers must keep them alive for longer, experts said.
Broiler quantity is also up, contributing to lower chicken prices at the grocery store.
For example, about 851 million broiler chicks hatched in October — up 5% from the prior year, the USDA said. The number in August (865 million) broke a monthly record, which had previously been set in March 2020.
Broiler “production” (measured by total pounds of meat) will rise 2% in 2023 relative to 2022, according to government data.
Despite the recent retreat, chicken prices are still up 12% compared with October 2021, according to the CPI. Higher prices for commodities such as corn and soybeans — the primary ingredients in chicken feed — have likely contributed to inflation for chicken, as well as eggs. Higher annual energy prices also factor into elevated costs for food distribution, for example.

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Despite these uncertain times for federal student loan borrowers, there are still some smart financial moves they can take now, experts say.
Those include making the most of the extra cash while the payments remain on hold and exploring refinancing options.

Creatas | Creatas | Getty Images

1. Make the most of extra cash

With headlines warning of a possible recession and layoffs picking up, experts recommend that you try to put away the money you’d usually put toward your student debt each month.
Certain banks and online savings accounts have been upping their interest rates, and it’s worth looking around for the best deal available. You’ll just want to make sure any account you put your savings in is FDIC insured, meaning up to $250,000 of your deposit is protected from loss.

And while interest rates on federal student loans are at zero, it’s also a good time to make progress paying down more expensive debt, experts say. The average interest rate on credit cards is currently more than 19%.

2. Consider making payments anyway

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If you have a healthy rainy day fund and no credit card debt, it may make sense to continue paying down your student loans even during the break, experts say.
There’s a big caveat here, however. If you’re enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan or pursuing public service loan forgiveness, you don’t want to continue paying your loans.
That’s because months during the government’s payment pause still count as qualifying payments for those programs, and since they both result in forgiveness after a certain amount of time, any cash you throw at your loans during this period just reduces the amount you’ll eventually get excused.

3. Review your options for when payments resume

Even though there’s some uncertainty around the date that federal student loan bills will pick up again, you want to be prepared for whenever they do.
You can compare how much your monthly bill would be under different repayment plans using one of the calculators at Studentaid.gov or Freestudentloanadvice.org.

If you’re unemployed or dealing with another financial hardship, you might want to put in a request for an economic hardship or unemployment deferment. Those are the ideal ways to postpone your federal student loan payments, because interest doesn’t accrue.
If you don’t qualify for either, though, you can use a forbearance to continue suspending your bills. Just keep in mind that with forbearance, interest will rack up and your balance will be larger — possibly much larger — when you resume paying.

4. Check if refinancing makes sense now

Higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz had previously recommended that federal student loan borrowers refrain from refinancing their debt with a private lender while the Biden administration deliberated on how to move forward with forgiveness. Refinanced student loans wouldn’t qualify for the federal relief.
Now that borrowers know how much in loan cancellation is on the table — if the president’s policy survives the Supreme Court — borrowers may want to consider the option, Kantrowitz said. With the Federal Reserve expected to continue raising interest rates, he added, you’re more likely to pick up a lower rate with a lender today than down the road.
Still, Kantrowitz added, it’s probably a small pool of borrowers for whom refinancing is wise.

Your rate doesn’t matter if you lose your job, have sudden medical expenses, can’t afford your payments and find that defaulting is your only option.

Betsy Mayotte
president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors

Those include borrowers who don’t qualify for the Biden administration’s forgiveness — the plan excludes anyone who earns more than $125,000 as an individual or $250,000 as a family — and those who owe more on their student loans than the administration plans to cancel, he said. The latter borrowers may want to look at refinancing the portion of their debt over the relief amounts, he added.
Still, borrowers should first understand the federal protections they’re giving up by refinancing, warns Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors.
For example, the U.S. Department of Education allows you to postpone your bills without interest accruing if you can prove economic hardship. The government also offers loan forgiveness programs for teachers and public servants.
“Your rate doesn’t matter if you lose your job, have sudden medical expenses, can’t afford your payments and find that defaulting is your only option,” said Mayotte in a previous interview about refinancing.

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Among the Medicare costs going up are deductibles and copays for Part A, which provides hospital coverage.
The standard premium and deductible for Part B (outpatient care) are lower next year, as are average premiums for Advantage Plans and Part D prescription drug coverage.
There also will be a monthly $35 cap on cost-sharing for insulin under Part D, and all recommended vaccines will come with no cost.

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For retirees, a new year means adjusting to changes in a variety of Medicare costs, including premiums, deductibles and copays.
For 2023, some of those costs will be higher than they were this year, while others are going down. Although each change doesn’t necessarily involve a huge dollar amount, experts advise considering how they may impact your health-care spending.

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“It’s important to always review the Medicare figures that are changing, so you can budget accordingly,” said Danielle Roberts, co-founder of insurance firm Boomer Benefits.
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Overall, your coverage choices impact how much you pay in premiums, deductibles and copays or coinsurance. And, of course, how often you use the health-care system can contribute to your costs.
Income also is a determining factor. Beneficiaries with limited income may qualify for Medicaid or other programs that help defray out-of-pocket costs. On the other hand, higher-income beneficiaries pay more for certain parts of coverage (more on that farther down).
Basic Medicare consists of Part A (hospital coverage) and Part B (outpatient care). Many beneficiaries stick with basic Medicare and often pair it with a standalone Part D plan. Some also purchase a supplement plan — aka “Medigap” — which picks up some of the costs that come with basic Medicare, such as coinsurance or copays.

Other beneficiaries — about 45% of Medicare’s 64.5 million enrollees — choose to get their Parts A and B benefits delivered through Advantage Plans, which are offered by private insurers.
Those plans usually include Part D (prescription drug coverage), as well as extras such as dental, hearing or vision. Unlike basic Medicare, they also come with out-of-pocket maximums.

Hospital stays will cost more under Part A

Most Medicare beneficiaries pay no premium for Part A because they have enough of a work history — at least 10 years — of paying into the system through payroll taxes to qualify for it premium-free.
If you don’t meet the minimum requirement, however, monthly premiums could be as much as $506 a month next year, depending on whether you’ve paid any taxes into the Medicare system at all. That maximum is up from $499 in 2022.
Regardless of whether you pay a premium, there are cost-sharing aspects that go with Part A.

For those who don’t have additional coverage beyond basic Medicare, the amount you’d pay when admitted to the hospital will be $1,600 next year, up from $1,556 in 2022. That covers the first 60 days of inpatient hospital care in a benefit period.
For the 61st through 90th days of a hospitalization, those beneficiaries will pay $400 per day, up from $389 in 2022, and then $800 daily for “lifetime reserve” days, up from $778.
It’s worth noting that Advantage Plans come with their own cost structures, which means the amount you pay while in the hospital depends on the specifics of the plan.

Part B premium and deductible will be lower

The standard Part B premium will be lower in 2023 — $164.90, down from $170.10 in 2022.
While a decrease in the premium is unusual, the Medicare program had a surplus this year due to lower-than-anticipated spending on Aduhelm, a new Alzheimer’s drug, as well as other Part B items and services, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
While most beneficiaries pay the standard premium, higher-income enrollees pay more due to income-related surcharges (see table below).

However, “they are calculated based on income two years prior,” said Elizabeth Gavino, founder of Lewin & Gavino and an independent broker and general agent for Medicare plans.
So for 2023, the determination would be based on your 2021 adjusted gross income. If your income has dropped since then, the Social Security Administration has a form you can fill out to request a reduction.
The deductible for Part B also is headed down. It will be $226 in 2023, down from $233 this year. Once you meet that deductible, you typically pay 20% of covered services. Keep in mind that beneficiaries in Advantage Plans might pay a different amount through copays, and Medigap policies either fully or partially cover that coinsurance.

Advantage Plan premiums tick down

Also, while Advantage Plan premiums vary among plans — the average for 2023 will be $18 monthly, down from $19.52 this year — any charge would be on top of your Part B premium. And, some of those options either have no monthly charge or will pay your Part B premium. (If you don’t like your Advantage Plan, you can switch or drop it in the first three months of the year.)
The maximum out-of-pocket limit for Advantage Plans will be $8,300 in 2023 for in-network services. For plans including out-of-network, that cap would be $12,450.

Part D has several cost changes that may make a difference

The average monthly premium for Part D coverage in 2023 will be an estimated $31.50, down slightly from $32.08 this year. And while not everyone pays a deductible for Part D — some plans don’t have one — the maximum it can be is $505 in 2023, up from $480.
Part D also comes with monthly income-related surcharges for higher-income beneficiaries.

Additionally, there are changes taking effect that will lower the cost of some drugs, due to the Inflation Reduction Act, which was enacted in August.
For starters, starting Jan. 1, there will be a monthly $35 cap on cost-sharing for insulin under Part D, and the deductible will not apply to the covered insulin product.
“Now many seniors won’t have to choose between groceries and their life-saving insulin,” Gavino said.
For beneficiaries who take insulin through a traditional pump — which falls under Part B — the benefit starts July 1.
Additionally, there will no longer be any cost-sharing for recommended inoculations under Part D beginning Jan. 1, including the shingles vaccine.

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