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In “All The Presidents’ Money,” author Megan Gorman takes readers into a side of U.S. presidents that is often overlooked: how they were with their own money.
“Calvin Coolidge was incredibly frugal,” Gorman said, while “the biggest spender of them all was Thomas Jefferson.”

Thomas Jefferson, 1848/1879. Artist George Peter Alexander Healy.
Heritage Images | Hulton Fine Art Collection | Getty Images

Before becoming president, ‘they are just like us’

Arrows pointing outwards

Courtesy: Megan Gorman

Annie Nova: How much do presidents actually manage their own money? I imagine they outsource much of that strategizing and effort.
Megan Gorman: Well, up until most of them become president, they are just like us. They are managing their budgets and trying to grow assets. But what was striking in looking at their finances across different eras is that a lot of the same issues that we struggle with today, are ones that Americans have always struggled with.

The difference is that in many ways it is much harder today to achieve the American Dream. 
After all, Richard Nixon was able to go to college in 1930 for $230 a year. That’s around $8,000 in today’s dollars. And, in 1886, Grover Cleveland could buy a home on 26 and ¼ acres about three miles north of the White House for $21,500, the equivalent of $700,000 today.

‘Money caused and causes anxiety for everyone’

AN: Who was the most frugal president?
MG: Calvin Coolidge was incredibly frugal. He would have told you he was “thrifty.” Part of this comes from advice he received from his father growing up: that it was important to save and allow money to compound. Even when he was in the White House, the head housekeeper complained that he was always poking his head in to check on the cost of food being purchased.
The one that surprises most people was that John F. Kennedy was pretty frugal as well. Just because he came from money didn’t mean he wasn’t keeping an eye on the bottom line. Throughout his life, friends noted that he was “tight with a buck” and monitored costs.
AN: Was there a president who overspent?
MG: The biggest spender of them all was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had very nice taste, and that taste was enhanced from his time in France. If there was ever a dinner party you wanted to attend, it was Jefferson’s. Even up to the time he passed away, he was still trying to buy wine on credit.
Interestingly enough, given the debt he had when he was dying — more than $2 million in today’s numbers, he was clever in that he made sure in his estate plan that assets passed to his daughter and son-in-law could not be attached by creditors.

Megan Gorman, author of All The Presidents’ Money.
Photo: Marc Cartwright

AN: For whom did money cause the most anxiety?
MG: Money caused and causes anxiety for everyone. That being said, some handled it better than others. 
For instance, Ronald Reagan used budgeting as a mechanism to manage emotion when it came to money. This is no surprise given that he grew up in a financially unstable household with an alcoholic father. The Reagans would at times have to leave town in the middle of the night to get away from their landlord as they didn’t have the money to pay rent. As Reagan got older, he found that having a budget and sticking to it allowed him to manage his financial anxiety.

Early experiences informed money habits

AN: Who had the most financial struggles before becoming president?
MG: Harry Truman is one that easily comes to mind. Truman spent the first four decades of his life going through a lot of financial volatility. From his father losing all their money so he couldn’t go to college, to Truman having a series of unsuccessful business ventures including a zinc mine, an oil well and the famous haberdashery, he really struggled. 
But it wasn’t until he was in the presidency that he was able to save his salary along with a special stipend he received for two years that was tax-free. At the time of his death, he was worth $750,000, or $8 million today.

AN: How did a president’s childhood experiences impact their financial behavior?
MG: The best example would have to be Herbert Hoover.
Hoover’s story could have gone completely wrong for him. He lost both of his parents by the age of 9. He and his siblings are split up among different family members but they share the same financial guardian. So from an early age, Hoover is required to budget and submit his expenses to this guardian.
As he becomes a teenager, he takes on bookkeeping for his uncle’s business and really learns to be a “financial apprentice.” The budgeting and bookkeeping have such an impact on his financial skills that he becomes the treasurer of his class at Stanford. 
He just keeps building on his skill set again and again. That skill set would grow him great wealth — and allow him to do a lot of charitable work over his lifetime.

Money opps in post-presidential life

AN: Did presidents change their financial habits after their time in the White House?
MG: Before Gerald Ford left the White House in 1977, previous presidents went back to practicing law, wrote a book or died. But Ford changed that.
He built a substantial speaking career and served on corporate boards. At the time he did this, it was seen as a big risk. In fact, Carter made it clear when he left the presidency, he wasn’t going to take the same path as Ford.
Today post-presidential life has continued to evolve. Bill Clinton is still an in-demand speaker and the Obamas are building a media brand.

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Family caregiving had a “political moment” this election cycle, according to AARP.
President-elect Donald Trump touted a caregiver tax credit during his campaign.
Here’s what experts are saying about Trump’s proposal.

JGI/Tom Grill | Tetra images | Getty Images

At a recent campaign rally, President-elect Donald Trump promised new financial help for family caregivers.
“I will support a tax credit for family caregivers who take care of a parent or a loved one,” Trump said during an October speech at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“It’s about time that they were recognized, right?” he said. “They add so much to our country and are never spoken of ever, ever, ever, but they’re going to be spoken of now.”
Trump has not elaborated on the details of that tax credit, and his team did not respond to requests for comment. He has also promised other tax breaks, including eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits, tips and overtime and a deduction for auto loan interest payments.
“It definitely adds up to big net tax cut,” Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, said of the president-elect’s tax proposals.

Family caregiving has a ‘political moment’

Family caregiving had a “bit of a political moment” this election cycle, with both presidential candidates addressing the topic, Nancy LeaMond, chief advocacy and engagement officer at AARP, said during a webinar Monday hosted by the organization, which represents people ages 50 and up.
About 48 million Americans help take care of aging parents, spouses or other loved ones, according to AARP. And about 78% of those caregivers have paid for care-related expenses out of their own pockets. On average, that adds up to about $7,200 per year.

“This adds to the economic strain they feel and anxiety about their long-term financial security,” LeaMond said. “They’re cutting back on personal spending, dipping into their savings and reducing what they’re saving for their own retirement.”
A record number of Americans are expected to turn 65 in the coming years. However, the share of potential caregivers is projected to shrink versus the number of older adults who may need long-term care, according to AARP.

No one policy will be a ‘silver bullet,’ expert says

To enact a caregiver tax credit, Trump will need Congress’ support.
A bipartisan bill — the Credit for Caring Act — proposes a credit of up to $5,000 per tax year to help caregivers cover long-term care costs. Under the terms of the proposal, the credit would cover 30% of expenses exceeding $2,000. To be eligible, caregivers would need to have more than $7,500 in income and be paying for long-term care for a spouse or other dependent.
“We will urge new leadership in Congress and the White House to take it up and pass it,” LeaMond said.
Some states have already taken up the issue, she said. Oklahoma and Nebraska recently passed their own caregiver tax credits, while Maryland has created a caregiver expense grant program.
An October AARP survey found about 90% of Americans ages 50 and over support a federal tax credit for eligible family caregivers. Earlier this year, a national poll from Bipartisan Policy Center Action found 82% of registered voters support caregiver tax credits.
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The federal caregiving tax credit proposal provides a “key opportunity” to include family caregivers in upcoming federal tax policy discussions, said Jason Resendez, president and CEO at the National Alliance for Caregiving.
However, no one policy is going to be a “silver bullet” to alleviate the burden of caregiving, he said.
“We can’t lose sight of the bigger and larger-scale investments that we need,” Resendez said, including stronger home and community-based supports, paid family and medical leave and additional long-term services and supports.
As lawmakers consider tax policy proposals, they may adjust the parameters to limit how much Trump’s proposed tax breaks may cost, Watson said.
“Step one is to figure out amongst Congress what their tolerance is for any debt increase,” Watson said. More

Certain rules that reduce pensioners’ Social Security benefits have been in place for decades.
House lawmakers voted to approve a bill that would nix those rules.
Critics say more comprehensive Social Security reform should be prioritized instead.

Maskot | Getty Images

A bipartisan bill to change Social Security benefit rules for pensioners passed in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, with 327 lawmakers voting to support the measure.
Now, the proposal heads to the Senate, where the chamber’s version of the bill has 62 co-sponsors, “surpassing the majority needed to pass the bill on the U.S. Senate floor and send it to the president’s desk to be signed into law,” Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garret Graves, R-La., co-leaders of the bill, said in a joint statement.

The proposal — called the Social Security Fairness Act — would repeal rules that reduce Social Security benefits for individuals who receive pension benefits from state or local governments.
It would eliminate the windfall elimination provision, or WEP, that reduces Social Security benefits for individuals who worked in jobs where they did not pay Social Security payroll taxes and now receive pension or disability benefits from those employers. About 3% of all Social Security beneficiaries — about 2.1 million people — were affected by the WEP as of December 2023, according to the Congressional Research Service.
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The bill would also eliminate the government pension offset, or GPO, which reduces Social Security benefits for spouses, widows and widowers who also receive pension checks. As of December, about 1% of all Social Security beneficiaries — or 745,679 individuals — were affected by the GPO, according to the Congressional Research Service.
These rules, which have been in effect for decades, reduce the incomes of certain retired police officers, teachers, firefighters and other public servants, Graves said during a speech Tuesday on the House floor.

“This has been 40 years of treating people differently, discriminating against a certain set of workers,” Graves said.
“They’re not people that are overpaid; they’re not people that are underworked,” he said.

Supporters call bill a ‘step in the right direction’

The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare said the House vote on the Social Security Fairness Act is a “step in the right direction” and a “bipartisan victory for public sector employees and their families.”
“We have long advocated for the repeal of the WEP and GPO provisions, though we would have preferred that Congress take up the more comprehensive improvements in Rep. John Larson’s Social Security 2100 Act,” Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said in a statement.
Larson’s proposal, which has 188 House co-sponsors, would also repeal the WEP and GPO, while also implementing other temporary benefit increases. To help pay for those changes, it would require people with more than $400,000 in income to pay more Social Security payroll taxes.

On Tuesday, Larson voted against the Social Security Fairness Act, as well as another bill, the Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act. The latter bill would use a new formula for Social Security retirement and disability benefits for pensioners rather than eliminate the WEP. It would not change the GPO.
The bill, which was proposed by Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, failed when it was brought up for a vote.
“I could not vote for the bills on the floor tonight because they are not paid for and therefore put Americans’ hard-earned benefits at risk,” Larson said in a statement. “It would hurt most deeply the five million of our fellow Americans who receive below poverty checks, and almost half of all Social Security recipients who rely on their earned benefits for the majority of their income.”

Critics say the bill will weaken Social Security

The Social Security Fairness Act would add an estimated $196 billion to deficits over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated. It would also move Social Security’s trust fund depletion dates closer by an estimated six months, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
“The long-term solvency of Social Security is an issue that Congress must address,” Spanberger said on the House floor on Tuesday.
“But that is a separate issue from allowing Americans who did their part, who contributed their earnings, for them to retire with dignity,” she said.
However, critics say Social Security’s funding woes should be a priority for Congress now. The program’s actuaries project the trust fund used to pay retirement benefits may be depleted in 2033, at which point 79% of benefits will be payable.
“This is not the right policy,” said Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute. “It’s what special interests were pushing, and politicians are responsive to their demands.”

Though the alternative bill proposed by Arrington would not address the GPO, it would provide a “fairer formula” for the WEP, Boccia said. However, broader changes are needed to shore up the program’s finances.
“We should reform Social Security so that it provides basic income security to the most vulnerable Americans in old age without adding to the debt or tax burden that younger workers face,” Boccia said. More

Thirty percent of federal student loan borrowers say they’ve gone without food or medicine due to their monthly bills, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finds.
In addition to skipping necessities, 38% of people with federal student loans said they carried credit card debt that they wouldn’t have otherwise, the bureau found.
Around 44% of borrowers said their education debt delayed when they could by a home, and 26% said the debt pushed back when they’d start a family.
“It’s clear that many borrowers are struggling with repayment,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.

A student student sits in a lecture hall while class is being dismissed at the University of Texas at Austin on February 22, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Nearly a third, 30%, of federal student loan borrowers say they’ve gone without food or medicine because of their monthly bills.
That grim finding comes from a new survey by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, conducted between October 2023 and January 2024, and including more than 3,000 responses from people with an active or recently active student loan account.

The bureau sought to gauge more broadly how tens of millions with education debt fared when their bills resumed in September 2023 after the Covid-era pause on the payments expired.
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In addition to skipping necessities, 38% of borrowers said they carried credit card debt they wouldn’t have otherwise, the bureau found. Around 44% of borrowers said their education debt delayed when they could by a home, and 26% said the debt pushed back when they’d start a family.
“It’s clear that many borrowers are struggling with repayment,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement.
Outstanding education debt in the U.S. exceeds $1.6 trillion, according to a 2022 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Nearly 43 million people — or 1 in 6 adult Americans — carry student loans, the report said.

An end to Biden-era student loan aid

The CFPB report, released in the final months of President Joe Biden’s tenure, is likely aimed at making the case that the Biden administration’s relief measures for student loan borrowers were and continue to be needed.
Biden has forgiven more federal student loan debt than any other president.
Since he took office, the Education Department has canceled the student loans of roughly 5 million people, totaling more than $175 billion in relief. It has done so mostly by improving existing student loan relief programs that had long been plagued by problems.
Surveyed borrowers who have had their debt forgiven say they were able to make numerous positive changes in their lives, the CFPB report found. Nearly half, 45%, of those borrowers saved more than they could have otherwise. Another 9% of borrowers changed jobs or started a business, and 19% said they sought medical treatment after their debt was excused.
President-elect Donald Trump is a vocal critic of student loan forgiveness policies, calling them “vile” and “not even legal.” Experts anticipate Trump will abandon most of the Biden administration’s efforts to deliver deeper student loan cancellation.

Republicans have framed Biden’s student loan relief efforts as a handout to those who are already financially comfortable.
“Forgiving student debt is a massive windfall to the rich,” Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio, a Yale Law School graduate, wrote on X in April 2022.
“Republicans must fight this with every ounce of our energy and power,” he wrote.
However, the median household income for people who received student loan forgiveness was between $50,000 and $65,000, the CFPB found. For comparison, the median household income in the U.S. is more than $80,000.

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BlackRock has expanded its tokenized money market fund to include several more blockchains.
The announcement follows a weeklong rally in cryptocurrencies after Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election.

The BlackRock logo is pictured outside the company’s headquarters in the Manhattan borough of New York City on May 25, 2021.
Carlo Allegri | Reuters

BlackRock has expanded its tokenized money market fund to include several more blockchains.
The investment manager said Wednesday that its USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) is now available to investors on the Aptos; Arbitrum; Avalanche; OP Mainnet, formerly known as Optimism; and Polygon blockchains. It initially launched the fund on Ethereum in March.

The BUIDL fund, which BlackRock debuted two months after iShares Bitcoin Trust, its popular bitcoin exchange-traded fund, gives investors an opportunity to earn U.S. dollar yields through a blockchain-based vehicle. The idea of tokenizing “real world assets” such as gold, a key aspect of decentralized finance, or DeFi, has gained popularity among financial institutions that are cautious on crypto assets but keen on the underlying blockchain technology.
“There’s some irony in the fact that with … [iShares Bitcoin Trust], we took a crypto native investment exposure and we put it in a traditional finance wrapper … and with tokenization, we’re taking traditional finance investment exposure, and we’re putting it in a crypto native wrapper,” Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, said in March.
“That dichotomy will persist for a while,” he added at the time. “But eventually, we expect there will be some convergence that looks like the best of the old system and the best of this new technology fused into a next generation infrastructure set in finance.”
The BUIDL fund is tokenized by Securitize, a company BlackRock has invested in that specializes in the tokenization of real-world assets.
The announcement follows a weeklong rally in cryptocurrencies after Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election. Polygon’s token climbed 28%, according to Coin Metrics. On the campaign trail, Trump promised more supportive regulations for crypto projects and businesses, a reversal from Biden administration policy, in which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has largely regulated the industry through enforcement actions, hampering growth.
DeFi is one of the most popular sectors among crypto market participants but has suffered from the lack of regulatory clarity, with tokens of some DeFi projects being classified as securities in SEC lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase last year.

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Collectively, Americans owe a record $1.17 trillion on their credit cards, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Still, credit card delinquency rates improved in the most recent quarter, suggesting that “rising debt burdens remain manageable,” the New York Fed researchers said.

Collectively, Americans now owe a record $1.17 trillion on their credit cards, according to a new report on household debt from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Credit card balances rose by $24 billion in the third quarter of 2024 and are 8.1% higher than a year ago.

Despite that increase, credit card delinquency rates improved — with 8.8% of balances transitioning to delinquency over the last year, compared with 9.1% in the previous quarter, the New York Fed found. That change could “suggest that rising debt burdens remain manageable,” the New York Fed researchers said on a press call Wednesday.
“Overall, balance sheets look pretty good for households,” the researchers added.

Credit card debt has remained stable over the last two decades; however, in the years since the pandemic, households largely spent down their excess savings, which sparked a rebound in credit card balances. Consumer spending continues to remain strong, despite high borrowing costs.
But now, growth in credit card balances has slowed, a separate quarterly credit industry insights report from TransUnion also found.
The average balance per consumer stands at $6,329, rising only 4.8% year over year — compared with an 11.2% increase the year before and 12.4% the year before that, TransUnion found.

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In the last three months, 42% of Americans said their total debt hasn’t changed, while 28% of have seen their debt rise, according to another survey by Achieve, which helps consumers manage debt.
Of the latter group, most said the increase was due to the ongoing difficulty of making ends meet. Others cited general overspending and a lost job or reduced wages. Achieve polled 2,000 adults with one or more kinds of consumer debt in October.
“Across the board, unemployment is low and wages have risen, but those macroeconomic conditions aren’t felt equally across the population, especially for consumers who live in areas where the impact of inflation is the greatest,” Brad Stroh, Achieve’s co-founder and co-CEO, said in a statement. 

Credit card rates still top 20%

Meanwhile, credit cards have become one of the most expensive ways to borrow money.
Lower-income households, who had to stretch to cover price increases, have been hit especially hard after the Federal Reserve’s string of 11 interest rate hikes lifted the average credit card rate to more than 20% — near an all-time high.
Even as the Fed lowers its benchmark, the average credit card rate has barely budged.
For those with variable rate debt, such as credit cards, “it’s obviously going to help if rates come down,” the New York Fed researchers said.
However, “the borrowing amount is more important than the interest rate,” they added.

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The consumer price index rose by 2.6% in October 2024 versus a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. That’s up from 2.4% in September.
Gasoline prices declined and grocery inflation remains low. But CPI housing inflation remains stubbornly high. Other categories, such as auto insurance, remain elevated.
Some of President-elect Donald Trump’s policies are likely to be inflationary, if enacted, economists said.

A customer walks by a display of fresh eggs at a grocery store on Sept. 25, 2024 in San Anselmo, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Progress in the fight to tame pandemic-era inflation appears to have stalled out in October, despite lower prices at the gasoline pump and a moderation in other consumer staples such as groceries.
Meanwhile, economists think policies such as import tariffs floated by President-elect Donald Trump would likely — if enacted — exacerbate the inflation rate, which hasn’t yet declined to policymakers’ long-term target.

The consumer price index, a key inflation gauge, was up 2.6% in October versus a year ago — an increase from 2.4% in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. The reading was in line with economists’ expectations.

While that October uptick may seem like a setback, consumers can take solace that broad price pressures are continuing to ease, economists and policymakers said.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday said economic data points to inflation “continuing to come down on a bumpy path.”
“One or two really good data months or bad data months aren’t going to really change the pattern at this point,” Powell said during a press conference.

Stephen Brown, deputy chief North American economist at Capital Economics, echoed that sentiment: “The overall [inflation] trend is positive,” he said.

In fact, the pickup in the annual inflation rate is at least partly due to a statistical quirk: The monthly inflation rate in October 2023 was unusually low, making the October 2024 reading look relatively high by comparison, economists said.   

‘Lagged impacts’ create trouble spots

Inflation has pulled back significantly from its pandemic-era peak of 9.1% in June 2022.
However, there are still some trouble spots.
Auto insurance prices, for example, are up 14% since October 2023, according to CPI data.
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Vehicle insurance premiums face “upward pressure” largely due to a lag effect from earlier inflationary dynamics, Brown said.
For example, new and used vehicle prices began to surge in 2021 amid a shortage of semiconductor chips used to manufacture cars; because of that sticker shock, insurers’ cost to replace vehicles after a car accident is much higher, Brown said. Insurers also typically need approval from regulators to raise consumer premiums, a process that takes time, he said.
“Lagged impacts” are affecting other categories, too, making for overall slow progress on reining in inflation, Brown said.

Housing is the ‘major impediment’

Homes in Discovery Bay, California.
David Paul Morri | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Housing, the largest CPI category, is a key example of that lag.
Shelter inflation has throttled back painfully slowly, even as inflation in the national rental market has declined considerably, economists said.
“Market rents, newly signed leases, are experiencing very low inflation,” Powell said during the press conference.
Shelter inflation has taken a long time to adjust to that housing backdrop due to how federal statisticians compile the CPI index. In short, its slow adjustment up or down is by design.
“So that’s just a catch-up problem,” Powell said. “It’s not really reflecting current inflationary pressures.”
CPI shelter inflation heated up on a monthly basis in October, rising to 0.4% from 0.2% in September. Its annual inflation rate has declined to less than 5% from a peak of more than 8% in early 2023.
Shelter is “the continued major impediment to getting inflation all the way back,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s.
The Federal Reserve has a long-term annual inflation target of around 2%.

Where consumers saw some relief in October

Brandon Bell | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Consumers saw some relief at the grocery store and at the gas pump in October.
Inflation for groceries cooled on a monthly basis, to 0.1% from September to October, down from 0.4% the prior month. Grocery prices are up about 1% since October 2023.
They’re “very, very tame,” Zandi said.
That’s despite various supply-and-demand idiosyncrasies that are raising prices for certain food items, he said. For example, avian flu, which is lethal for chickens and other birds, has negatively affected egg supply and led prices to swell 30% in the past year; similarly, a poor orange crop has pushed up orange prices 7% annually.
The price for a gallon of gasoline fell 1% during the month, according to CPI data. Prices are down more than 12% in the past year.
“Gasoline prices are way down,” Zandi said. Average prices could fall further, to below $3 a gallon, he said. They were at $3.05 a gallon, on average, as of Nov. 11, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“We could get more relief there because global oil prices are soft,” Zandi said.
That weakness may be in anticipation of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed policies around China, said Zandi. Those may include tariffs of at least 60% on goods imported from China, which has a huge appetite for oil. If Trump’s policies were to negatively affect the Chinese economy, they’d also likely dampen China’s oil demand.

Trump policies thought to be inflationary

Trump has proposed broader tariffs, of perhaps 10% or 20% on all goods imported to the U.S. Additionally, he has announced plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and enact a package of tax cuts.
If put in place, such policies would likely stoke U.S. inflation, economists said.
“While we believe that inflation remains on a disinflationary trajectory, we now see the risks as clearly tilted to the upside,” Bank of America economists wrote in a note Monday. “These risks stem from potential policy changes rather than economic fundamentals.”
Placing an import tax on goods would likely lead U.S. companies to raise prices for those goods, for example, economists said. Fewer immigrants in the labor pool may push businesses to raise wages to attract applicants and retain workers, while tax cuts could put more money in consumers’ pockets and boost their spending.

“Indeed, we see pro-growth fiscal policy, tariffs, and tighter immigration as potential sources of upside inflation risk over the coming years if they are implemented,” Bank of America economists wrote.
The annual inflation would likely be around 2.1% by the end of 2025 absent Trump’s policies, said Brown of Capital Economics. If enacted, that figure would likely be around 3%, he said, as a “ballpark estimate.”
“The return of inflation to the 2% target may prove short-lived,” Brown wrote in a research note Wednesday.
However, much depends on how, when and if those policies are enacted, economists said. More

The Education Department said the full launch of the 2025-26 FAFSA is on track for December 1.
Here are a few steps you can take now to prepare.
For many families, financial aid is crucial when it comes to covering the cost of college.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid for 2025-26 will be available for all students and contributors on or before Dec. 1, the Education Department says.
Typically, students have access to the coming academic year’s form in October, but this year’s delayed release follows a “phased rollout” meant to address reported issues from the 2024-25 FAFSA cycle. Last year’s new, simplified form was plagued with problems at the outset, some of which are still outstanding.

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Although the extended testing period for the 2025-26 FAFSA is important, another delayed start “creates a compressed timeline for students and families to submit their financial information, which can lead to missed opportunities for aid,” Beth Maglione, interim president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a statement.

How to prepare for the 2025-26 FAFSA

“I would encourage families to start gathering their financial documents and information now, so they’re ready to apply as soon as the application becomes available,” Maglione said. “Taking these steps early will help ensure they don’t miss out on vital financial support for college.”
According to Maglione, there are five key moves that students and parents can make now to prepare for their application as soon as it becomes available. Here is her best advice:

Set up a studentaid.gov account: Before the new form opens, students and their parents (if the student is a dependent) can set up a username and password, commonly called the FSA ID, to access and complete the FAFSA electronically. 
Gather personal information: Students should have their Social Security number on hand (as should parents, if the student is a dependent, or student spouses, if applicable). However, if a student spouse, parent or stepparent does not have an SSN, they can still register for an FSA ID. The form may also ask for your driver’s license or state identification number. Non-citizens should have their Alien Registration number handy.
Federal tax information: Applicants will need tax information from the prior-prior tax year. In this case, that means students should have 2023 tax returns for the 2025-26 FAFSA.
Financial records: The FAFSA requires records of the student’s (and the parents’, if applicable) bank accounts, stocks, bonds, real estate (not including the family home) and other investments. Any records of untaxed income, such as child support or government benefits, should be documented as well.
List of schools: Finally, FAFSA applicants should have a list of schools the student is applying to or attending, which will need to be listed on the FAFSA application.

Why the FAFSA is so important

For many students, financial aid is crucial when it comes to covering the cost of college.

Higher education already costs more than most families can afford, and college costs are still rising. Tuition and fees plus room and board for a four-year private college averaged $58,600 in the 2024-25 school year, up from $56,390 a year earlier. At four-year, in-state public colleges, it was $24,920, up from $24,080, the College Board found.

The FAFSA serves as the gateway to all federal aid money, including federal student loans, work-study and especially grants — which have become the most crucial kind of assistance because they typically do not need to be repaid.
Submitting a FAFSA is also one of the best predictors of whether a high school senior will go on to college, according to the National College Attainment Network. Seniors who complete the FAFSA are 84% more likely to enroll in college directly after high school, according to an NCAN study of 2013 data. 

How FAFSA failures have impacted students

After last year’s FAFSA complications, it became clear how much financial aid weighed heavily on decisions about college. 
In part because of issues with the new form, the number of new first-year college students sank 5% this fall compared with last year, according to an analysis of early data by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The declines in first-year student enrollment were most significant at four-year colleges that serve low-income students, the report also found.
At four-year colleges where large shares of students receive Pell Grants, first-year student enrollment dropped more than 10%.
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