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Many retirees are still feeling the impact of higher prices.
Yet data points to a lower Social Security cost-of-living adjustment in 2025.
Here’s the most recent estimate based on the latest price movements.

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Retirees are still feeling the impact of higher prices.
Yet one buffer for the effects of inflation — the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, — may be lower next year.

As the rate of inflation moderates, the Social Security COLA for 2025 might be 3%, according to the latest estimate from Mary Johnson, an independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst.
That estimate is lower than the 3.2% boost to benefits that more than 66 million beneficiaries saw starting in January. It is also substantially lower than the record 8.7% COLA beneficiaries saw in 2023 and the 5.9% COLA that went into effect in 2022 in response to record-high inflation.

How the Social Security COLA is calculated

The annual adjustments are based on a subset of the Consumer Price Index, known as the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W.

Every year, the Social Security Administration compares the third quarter CPI-W data for that year with the third quarter of the previous year. If there is a percentage increase from one year to the next, that determines the COLA. However, if there is no increase, there is no COLA.
Because it is still very early in the year, the Social Security COLA estimate may be subject to change.

Why early COLA estimates for 2025 are lower

A look at the latest CPI-W data helps show why the increase is down from the record-high increases retirees recently saw.
The prices for certain categories saw a double-digit percentage decline compared with two years ago as of May. Fuel oil was down 35.3%; airline fares dropped 19.4%; and gasoline declined by 17.7%.

‘Undercounting real senior inflation’

Many retirees coped with inflation by making adjustments, such as cutting back on savings or dipping into existing assets, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
“They take a big hit to their future wealth by doing that,” Laura Quinby, senior research economist at the Center for Retirement Research, previously told CNBC.com.
The effects of Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustments vary for individuals based on their personal expenses and where they live, according to Quinby.
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Some experts argue the CPI-W is not a perfect measure for retiree spending. For example, while the CPI-W assumes older adults spend about 66% of their income on housing, food and medical costs, in reality about 75% of their income is devoted to those costs, according to Johnson.
“This disparity suggests that my COLA estimate, which is based on the CPI-W, may be undercounting real senior inflation by more than 10 percent,” Johnson said.
Nevertheless, the latest CPI-W shows where inflation is subsiding and rising — which may ultimately affect next year’s COLA. More

Many retirees don’t think about taxes until it’s time to withdraw funds from a pre-tax account, which can be a costly mistake, financial experts say.
However, you can reduce your lifetime tax burden by strategically receiving more income in lower-earning years to fill your “buckets” or federal tax brackets.
It’s also important to consider taxes during the accumulation phase by diversifying contributions across pretax, Roth and brokerage accounts.

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Many retirees don’t think about taxes until it’s time to withdraw funds from a pretax account, which can be a costly mistake, financial experts say.
Only 3 in 10 Americans have a plan to reduce taxes on retirement savings, according to a Northwestern Mutual study from January that polled roughly 4,600 U.S. adults.

However, the “bucket strategy” is one way to minimize that burden, according to certified financial planner Sean Lovison, founder of Purpose Built Financial Services in the Philadelphia metro area.  
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You can reduce your lifetime tax burden by strategically receiving more income in lower-earning years to fill your “buckets” or federal tax brackets, said Lovison, who is also a certified public accountant. 
For example, if you’re in the 12% tax bracket before collecting Social Security, that could be a chance for Roth individual retirement account conversions to save on taxes later, he said.
Roth conversions transfer pretax or nondeductible IRA money to a Roth IRA, which won’t incur levies on future withdrawals. The trade-off is upfront taxes on your converted balance.

You could reduce pretax balances by converting enough to put yourself in the 22% or 24% tax bracket. Otherwise, you could be in the 32%, 35% or 37% tax bracket once Social Security and required minimum distributions, or RMDs, kick in, Lovison said.
Secure 2.0 pushed the beginning date for RMDs to age 73 starting in 2023 and that age jumps to 75 in 2033. Meanwhile, pretax 401(k) and IRA balances are growing.
“That’s a real issue right now that people don’t really think about,” Lovison said.

Focus on taxes in the ‘accumulation phase’

Often, investors don’t think about taxes until they start making withdrawals from pretax retirement accounts, said CFP Judy Brown at SC&H Group in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore area. She is also a certified public accountant.
“They thought they had $1 million in their 401(k), but really it’s only $700,000 after taxes,” she said. “A lot of people see the value of tax planning when they get to that distribution.”
However, tax planning is key during the “accumulation phase,” as you’re growing your nest egg. Adding to pretax, Roth and brokerage accounts can provide “tax diversification,” Brown said.
Those accounts will provide “a lot of different levers to pull” to better manage your adjusted gross income in retirement, she added. More

The Biden administration’s new repayment plan for student loan borrowers — the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan — is facing legal challenges.
Here’s what relief borrowers can still expect.

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Millions of student loan borrowers were looking forward to a smaller monthly bill come July, until a legal challenge to the Biden administration’s new relief plan got in the way last week.
But on June 30, a federal appeals court gave the U.S. Department of Education the green light to implement a major provision of its new Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan.

The bottom line: As promised, most enrolled borrowers should still see their July bills come down.
Here are some answers to other questions borrowers might have.

Why is the SAVE plan being challenged?

President Joe Biden rolled out the SAVE plan in the summer of 2023, describing it as “the most affordable student loan plan ever.” SAVE replaced the Education Department’s former REPAYE option, or Revised Pay As You Earn plan.
So far, around 8 million borrowers have signed up for the new income-driven repayment, or IDR, plan, according to the White House.
Under IDR plans, borrowers’ monthly payments are set based on a share of their discretionary income. They receive forgiveness after a set period, typically 20 years or 25 years.

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The SAVE plan has the most generous terms to date, which has led to the current controversy.
Instead of paying 10% of their discretionary income a month toward their undergraduate student debt, as they did under REPAYE, borrowers need to pay just 5%.
Those who earn less than roughly $15 an hour have a $0 monthly bill, and borrowers with smaller balances are entitled to loan forgiveness on an expedited timeline — in as little as 10 years.
“The SAVE plan is very generous to borrowers, almost like a grant after the fact,” higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz said in a previous interview with CNBC.

Where do the lawsuits against SAVE stand?

Republican-backed states, including Florida, Arkansas and Missouri, filed lawsuits against the SAVE plan earlier this year.
The states argued that the Biden administration was overstepping its authority with SAVE, and essentially trying to find a roundabout way to forgive student debt after the Supreme Court blocked its sweeping plan last year. In response, two federal judges in Kansas and Missouri temporarily halted significant parts of the SAVE plan on June 24.
As a result, the Biden administration was prevented from forgiving debt on a faster timeline under the new income-driven repayment plan and from further reducing borrowers’ payments in July, as it planned to.

Those rulings came down days before payments were set to drop. As a result, the U.S. Department of Justice geared up to appeal the injunctions and the Education Department announced it would temporarily pause payments for many SAVE borrowers while the legal proceedings played out.
It has now decided the payments will continue. That’s due to the fact that the Biden administration’s appeal against one of the injunctions, which prevented it from lowering payments, was successful. The case has not been decided yet, but at least for now the Education Department can proceed with reducing borrowers’ bills.
Meanwhile, the second injunction against the SAVE plan regarding expedited loan forgiveness, which came down last week from a federal judge in Missouri, remains in effect.

What does this mean for me?

As a result of its successful appeal, the Biden administration is currently moving ahead with the SAVE plan provision that slashes borrowers’ monthly payments to 5% of their discretionary income. Many people will see their bill cut in half.

If your loan servicer already sent you a bill that reflects your lower payment, you should plan to pay that bill in July, the Education Department said.
If you were placed in a forbearance because your loan servicer is still calculating your new lower payment or anticipated bills would be temporarily paused during the legal drama, you should aim to make your first payment in August —and that bill should be reduced.
If you have a $0 monthly bill under SAVE — which some 4.5 million people do — you will continue to owe nothing and be considered up to date on your payments, the department said. More

Cash savings are getting the best guaranteed returns in years.
Yet stocks are also climbing to all-time highs.
Holding too much cash can preclude you from benefitting from those gains, experts say.

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It wasn’t long ago that investors earned practically 0% returns on cash.
As the Federal Reserve has kept interest rates high to combat high inflation, you can easily earn 5% annual percentage yields on savings accounts and other low-risk vehicles.

Some experts are now warning it’s possible to get too comfortable with those super-safe returns and miss out on bigger market returns.
“We’re too obsessed with cash,” Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management, wrote last week in a blog post.
An estimated $6 trillion in cash is parked in money market funds.
Industry research finds younger investors — those with the longest time horizon to absorb risk — are allocating the most to cash.
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More than half — 55% — of wealthy younger investors ages 21 to 43 ramped up their cash allocations in the past two years, compared to 46% of individuals ages 44 and up, recent research from Bank of America found.
While Bank of America focused on investors with at least $3 million in investable assets, trading and investment platform eToro earlier this year found younger investors are twice as likely as their parent’s generation to have increased their cash assets. The eToro survey polled 1,000 U.S. retail investors as part of a bigger pool of 10,000 in 13 countries, and respondents held at least one investment product.
“The bigger issue that not enough people are talking about is the fact that younger investors are over-allocating the cash because of the allure of the 5% savings rate,” Cox said in an interview with CNBC.com.
“Under-investing is a risk, and it’s one that I think more younger investors are susceptible to,” Cox said.

‘Day of reckoning’ for savers may be coming

Long term, a 5% return can fall short of the potential gains investors can earn in stocks. A more aggressive portfolio allocation to stocks may yield a 7% average annual rate of return. In some years that will be higher and in some lower.
The S&P 500 index may climb to 5,800 by the end of this year, bringing its total return to more than 20% for the year, Thomas Lee, managing partner at research firm Fundstrat Global Advisors, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.
That would follow a 24% return for the index in 2023, he noted, bringing the total for both years to around 50%. That would be “painful” for cash investors who missed out on those gains, as it would take them 10 years to achieve the same results, Lee explained.

“I think the end of this year is a little bit of a day of reckoning for those who have said, ‘Oh, I’m happy with my $6 trillion in cash earning 5%,’ when in reality, unless the economy is rolling into a recession, the expansion could continue for some time,” Lee said.
Not all experts are as optimistic, however.
The S&P 500 may fall more than 30% later this year if a recession hits, research firm BCA Research predicts.

How much cash savings you need

Of course, all investors should have some cash set aside, experts say. Financial advisors generally advise having at least three to six months’ worth of expenses in cash in case of an emergency.
Research often shows many Americans fall short of that goal. Americans have a median emergency savings of just $600, according to a recent survey from financial services company Empower.
Of Americans who do have cash savings, 67%, are still earning less than a 4% annual percentage yield, Bankrate recently found.
For goals one to two years away — or even three to five years away — it makes sense to allocate cash to make sure the money is there when you need it, according to Cox.
“But anything beyond five years, I would seriously consider putting that money into stocks or other more risky assets,” Cox said.

Market timing is ‘a fool’s errand’

Fear may be one reason why investors are tempted to sit on the sidelines in cash now.
But the risk of missing the market upside may be the bigger opportunity cost, experts say.
“Market timing is truly a fool’s errand, but lack of participation in the market is also foolish, particularly for long-term investors,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.

While there’s always the possibility the markets could continue to go up indefinitely or plunge 50%, those are the edge cases, Cox said.
“You could be waiting a long time for that pullback if you just sit in cash,” Cox said.
The biggest risk for investors now is missing another leg of this rally, she said.
The environment for cash savings may be poised to change, as the Federal Reserve has signaled plans to eventually start cutting interest rates as inflation subsides.
That may make a 5% return on cash a thing of the past. Savers may lock in five-year certificates of deposit at today’s rates, Hamrick said. But they should be aware that they will need to pay a penalty if they want to access that money sooner than five years, he said.
“Yields for CDs, high-yield savings accounts, money market accounts and the like will remain elevated,” Hamrick said. “Rates are likely to come down, but not fall like a rock, rather fall like a feather.”

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Bigger individual retirement account balances can cause tax issues for retirees or their children who inherit the assets, experts say.
The median IRA or self-employed Keogh balance was $87,000 in 2022, up from $81,144 in 2019, according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute report.
As pretax balances grow, retirees can expect larger required minimum distributions, which can trigger tax consequences like higher premiums for Medicare Part B and Part D.

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Individual retirement accounts are getting bigger — and it can cause tax issues for retirees or their children who inherit the assets, experts say.
The median IRA or self-employed Keogh balance was $87,000 in 2022, up from $81,144 in 2019, according to a June report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, which analyzed Federal Reserve data.

A separate Fidelity report found the average IRA balance was $127,745 during the first quarter of 2024, up 29% from 2014, based on an analysis of 45 million IRA, 401(k) and 403(b) accounts. 
While higher balances are typically a good thing, a bigger pretax IRA balance “can be a tax nightmare in retirement,” said certified financial planner Derek Williams with Veratis Advisors in Cary, North Carolina.
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The Employee Benefit Research Institute report found that more than 45% of IRA assets were in rollover IRAs, which are typically funded via past employer plans. Only about 17% of analyzed assets were in Roth IRAs, which don’t incur taxes on withdrawals.

Required minimum distributions can cause tax issues

Starting in 2023, most retirees need to begin required minimum distributions, or RMDs, by age 73, based on changes enacted by Secure 2.0. That age is extended to 75 starting in 2033. 
“Congress isn’t really helping people out,” said CFP Sean Lovison, founder of Purpose Built Financial Services in the Philadelphia metro area.  
By postponing required withdrawals, pretax balances will continue to grow, which can lead to larger RMDs later, he said.
For lower future taxes, some advisors recommend so-called Roth conversions, which transfer pretax or nondeductible IRA money to a Roth IRA. The strategy can be useful during lower-income years because there’s an upfront tax on the converted balance.

Pretax IRAs are ‘much less desirable’ to inherit 

Bigger IRA balances could also cause tax issues for adult children who inherit their parents’ accounts, experts say.
“Recent changes to tax law have made pretax IRAs a much less desirable asset to inherit,” said Williams with Veratis Advisors.
Before the Secure Act of 2019, heirs could stretch IRA withdrawals over their lifetime, which reduced yearly taxes. Now, certain heirs, including most adult children, have a 10-year window to empty inherited IRAs.
The death of a parent often coincides with an heir’s highest earning years and taxes could “eat away a tremendous amount of an inherited pretax account,” Williams said.

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As president, Trump called for the elimination of the Education Department’s debt relief programs, including the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness initiative, which benefits public employees such as members of the U.S. Armed Forces, first responders, public defenders, prosecutors and teachers.
He also wanted to slash the department’s budget, and his administration halted a regulation aimed at providing loan forgiveness to those defrauded by their schools.
Now, as he runs for president again, Trump seems poised to make even deeper cuts to financial aid programs for students.

Former President Donald Trump gives the keynote address at Turning Point Action’s “The People’s Convention” in Detroit, June 15, 2024.
Bill Pugliano | Getty Images

At a June 18 campaign rally in Racine, Wisconsin, former President Donald Trump slammed the Biden administration’s efforts to forgive student debt as “vile” and “not even legal.”
“The students aren’t buying it, by the way,” Trump said to a crowd of a couple of thousand people near Lake Michigan.

Trump also brought up the Supreme Court’s decision in 2023 to block President Joe Biden’s first attempt at broad student loan cancellation: “He got rebuked, and then he did it again.”
“It’s going to get rebuked again even more,” Trump said.
As president, Trump called for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education’s existing loan relief programs, including the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness initiative, which benefits public employees such as members of the U.S. Armed Forces, first responders, public defenders, prosecutors and teachers. He also wanted to slash the department’s budget, and his administration halted a regulation aimed at providing loan forgiveness to those defrauded by their schools.
Now, as he runs for president again, Trump seems poised to make even deeper cuts to financial aid programs for students. He has repeatedly attacked Biden’s loan relief policies, and he said in a campaign video in late 2023 that he wants to close the Education Department altogether.
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.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at Crotona Park in the Bronx borough of New York City, May 23, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Project 2025, a set of proposals developed by The Heritage Foundation from more than 100 conservative organizations, says that “student loans and grants should ultimately be restored to the private sector.” (Some conservatives argue that private companies would do a better job lending to students than the federal government.) The proposal also calls for reducing affordable repayment options for borrowers and ending the loan forgiveness offered under these plans after a certain period.
“Trump will undo President Biden’s student loan forgiveness proposals,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. “He will relax rules on for-profit colleges, as part of deregulation efforts, and propose cuts, including possibly defunding the U.S. Department of Education.”

In an email response, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, referred CNBC to resources, including Trump’s campaign website and a range of media articles, in which sources frame student loan forgiveness as a boon to high earners and those who attended elite colleges. Less than 1% of federal student borrowers attended Ivy League colleges, according to an estimate by Kantrowitz.
Cheung did not answer specific questions from CNBC about what Trump plans to do regarding student debt and education if he is elected president.

Efforts against student loan relief already in play

Members of Trump’s party, meanwhile, have already stymied many of Biden’s efforts to deliver student loan relief. Most recently, lawsuits by Republican-led states, including Florida, Arkansas and Missouri, resulted in two federal judges halting implementation of key parts of the president’s new repayment plan, which dramatically reduced many borrowers’ monthly payments.
The preliminary injunctions prevented the Biden administration from forgiving any more debt under the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan, and from further reducing enrolled borrowers’ payments in July, as it planned. On Sunday, however, a federal appeals court granted the Education Department’s request to stay one of those injunctions, allowing the department to move ahead with lowering loan bills for SAVE enrollees.
Cody Gude, a social media consultant in Tampa, Florida, said he expects if Trump wins it will become more difficult and expensive for him to pay back his student loan debt of about $34,000.
“With inflation and student loans restarting, it’s become a lot,” said Gude, 35.
Gude said he was upset that Florida joined the lawsuit against the SAVE plan. He said he was looking forward to his student loan bill decreasing in July so he wouldn’t have to deliver groceries through Instacart anymore in addition to his regular job.
“It hurts that my home state doesn’t want to help its own citizens,” Gude said.
He said he worries that if elected Trump would roll back financial relief options for young people, and that he plans to vote for Biden.

Bringing ‘free market forces’ to student lending

Many voters welcome Trump’s stance on student loan relief and question the fairness of forgiving the loans of those who have benefited from a higher education.
Just 15% of Republicans find student loan forgiveness important, compared with 58% of Democrats, according to a national poll from mid-May by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The Biden administration’s most recent student loan forgiveness proposal garnered a record number of public comments, with more than 148,000 people sharing their opinion.
“I call on the Biden administration to stop imposing an unjust burden on Americans who did not go to college or have paid off their student loan debt,” one person wrote.
Another commented: “I worked overtime and three part-time jobs when I pursued a graduate degree.”
“College is a personal choice that comes with many adult decisions,” the second person said. “It is not the federal government’s responsibility to pass those personal decisions off onto our country’s taxpayers.”
Elaine Parker, president of the Job Creators Network Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, said Biden was only forgiving student debt in an effort to buy votes.
“They don’t want to solve the problem,” Parker said. She said the root cause of the student loan crisis was skyrocketing college tuition.

Protesters from We The 45 Million project a message on the outside of the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington asking the department to cancel student debt, March 14, 2022.
Paul Morigi | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Parker said Congress needs to hold legislative hearings and bring in campus leaders to justify their tuition hikes, excessive administrative costs and degree programs that lack transparency on career outcomes.
She also said the private sector should play a bigger role in financing higher education.
“Why are the banks taken out of this?” Parker asked. “We’ve lost the free market forces in the college lending system.”

Concerns about Trump’s proposals

Higher education experts and consumer advocates expressed concern about the reforms floated by conservatives and Trump.
If the U.S. Department of Education were shut down, “there would be complete chaos,” Kantrowitz said.
Such a move would mean an end to Pell Grants, one of the biggest sources of financial aid available to college students, as well as federal student loans and work study opportunities, he said.
“K-12 education would be in disarray, too,” Kantrowitz added.
Meanwhile, transferring student lending from the government to private companies would only hurt consumers and worsen the crisis, said Aissa Canchola-Banez, political director at Protect Borrowers Action.
“Private lenders put their bottom line ahead of the needs of borrowers and that is a recipe for disaster,” Canchola-Banez said.

Kelly Lambers, of Cincinnati, said the issue of student loan debt will be top of mind for her in the November election. The social media strategist said her debt of around $97,000 makes it hard for her to cover her basic expenses.
She said the Biden administration’s SAVE plan brought her monthly bill on her federal student loans down to $31 from $100. She also pays $650 a month for her private student loans.
She said she plans to vote for Biden, in part because she believes she could lose that relief under Trump. More

Many Americans are paying to travel abroad to see a Taylor Swift concert. The Eras Tour is in multiple European cities this summer.
It’s part of a trend known as “passion tourism.”
Other recent or upcoming examples include travel for the Olympics in Paris, the total solar eclipse in North America, Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and the Euro Cup in Germany.

Taylor Swift performs on stage during The Eras Tour on June 28, 2024 in Dublin, Ireland. 
Charles Mcquillan/tas24 | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Taylor Swift’s European tour was top of mind for Nikita Rao when planning where to go for her family’s annual summer vacation.
Rao, her husband and two kids, who live in Bethesda, Maryland, headed overseas this past weekend: They have tickets to the pop star’s concert in Amsterdam on Thursday.

The family built a weeklong itinerary around The Eras Tour event, spending a few days in London before making their way to the Netherlands for the show. They would have likely visited the two cities at some point in the future, but the Swift concert accelerated their timeline, said Rao, 43, who also saw a performance in Cincinnati last year with her daughter.
“My view on it was, we should do this — London and Amsterdam — because she’ll be there,” Rao said. “If I can get tickets, that’ll just make the whole vacation amazing,” she said of her thought process.

Why Taylor Swift is unique to ‘passion tourism’

Taylor Swift fans gather outside Santiago Bernabéu Stadium for a concert in Madrid, Spain, on May 29, 2024. 
David Benito | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

It’s not just the Rao family.
Americans are flocking overseas to see Taylor Swift, perhaps the most prominent recent example of so-called “passion tourism,” according to travel experts.
Passion tourism revolves (unsurprisingly) around people’s passions. While place is also generally important, these trips are generally guided by personal interest, hobby or a cultural event, experts said.

This isn’t a new concept. In fact, there are many recent and upcoming examples: February’s annual Carnival festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; April’s total solar eclipse in North America; the 2024 Paris Olympics that start this month; and the ongoing UEFA European Football Championship (known as the Euro Cup) in Germany.
“Memorable events are driving travel trends, whether it is for concerts or sporting events,” Mastercard wrote recently in its annual travel trends report.
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However, what distinguishes Taylor Swift concerts in the realm of passion tourism is the broad interest and enthusiasm among Americans who want to travel abroad, according to travel agents.
“I’ve never seen this excitement to travel to go see an artist,” said Jessica Griscavage, a travel advisor and founder of Runway Travel.
The most recent example that might come close is a Spice Girls concert in the 1990s, she said.
Griscavage, who put together the Rao family’s itinerary, also assembled a separate Swift-centered trip to Paris for a daughter, mother and grandmother.    
More than half of Americans, 53%, identify as fans of Taylor Swift, according to a poll by Morning Consult. About 16% consider themselves “avid” fans.

“Beyoncé is big, too, but we don’t usually get requests like, ‘I have Beyoncé tickets for Europe and we want to build a trip around it,'” said Sofia Markovich, a travel advisor and founder of Sofia’s Travel.
She assembled trips for two U.S. clients who had tickets for Taylor Swift shows in England and Switzerland, respectively.
“Just as Grateful Dead fans were known to follow the band from city to city to be part of a unique community, Swifties — often with friends and family in tow — have made traveling to her concerts part of the experience,” Joshua Friedlander, vice president of research at the U.S. Travel Association, wrote recently about the so-called “Swift Lift.”

‘Inevitable’ that Swifties will travel to new places

About 15.9 million Americans traveled internationally in the first quarter of 2024, an all-time high, according to Mastercard’s travel report. Consumers are also spending for travel at record levels globally, it said.
Passion tourism generally provides an economic boost to host nations, experts said.
For example, spending by tourists at restaurants, bars and grocery stores during the 2024 Carnival in Rio was 156% above normal, Mastercard found. During the solar eclipse, hotel sales within the U.S. path of totality rose 71%, it said.

Spectators looking up at the solar eclipse at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 8, 2024. 
Nurphoto | Getty Images

About 1.2 million fans will see a Taylor Swift concert this summer across four cities in the United Kingdom (Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London), according to a recent Barclays analysis. Each fan will spend an average 848 British pounds (about $1,073) on tickets, travel, accommodation, outfits and other expenses, amounting to a total 997 million British pounds (about $1.3 billion), Barclays estimated.
Accommodation accounts for the largest outlay after tickets, followed by travel, according to the Barclays analysis.
Searches for Airbnb stays in European cities during Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour dates are up about 70% relative to the same period in 2023, according to a recent analysis.

Beyoncé is big, too, but we don’t usually get requests like, ‘I have Beyoncé tickets for Europe and we want to build a trip around it.’

Sofia Markovich
travel advisor

Rome and Paris are traditionally among Americans’ top destinations to visit abroad. However, it’s “inevitable” that Swift fans will end up in a city they may have previously overlooked, like Edinburgh, said Chris Nulty, global head of corporate communications and public affairs at Airbnb.
When tickets went on sale last year for Edinburgh concert dates, searches for lodging in the city by Americans jumped 500%, Nulty said.
A concert “combines the opportunity to travel somewhere incredible with the opportunity to see an artist they love,” he said.

The household economics of ticket sales are also likely playing a role, experts said. Some Swifties who were priced out of the U.S. market due to ticket expense may find it cheaper overall (or comparably priced) to buy a ticket and add on the associated travel expenses for a concert overseas.
“The resale tickets in Europe are much more reasonable than what they are in the U.S.,” said Griscavage, the travel advisor.
Additionally, “I think there’s something really exciting about seeing her in a non-U.S. city,” she added. “It’s a fun opportunity and people are willing to pay to see her.”

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Experts predicted that problems with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid would weigh heavily on enrollment and decisions between schools.
A recent study found that 76% of students said the financial aid amount awarded to them, and the overall financial aid process, was the top driver in their choice about where to go to college — and 44% said they’d switch their top choice school if offered just $5,000 more in aid.

In an already difficult year for college applicants, when it came down to picking a school, there was one factor that outweighed all others: financial aid.
Even in ordinary years, choosing a college largely hinges on the amount of financial aid offered and the breakdown among grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities and student loans.

In 2024, however, ongoing issues with the new federal financial-aid application have heightened the role of aid in college choices. Because of problems with the new form, financial aid award letters were delayed and some high school seniors had trouble applying for any aid at all.
More than three-quarters (76%) of students said the financial aid amount awarded to them, and the overall financial aid process, were the top drivers in their choice about where to go to college, according to a survey by Ellucian and EMI Research Solutions conducted in March.
That outpaces parental influence, location, campus culture and even the degree programs offered.
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“This year, we are just seeing such deep concerns around college costs, more than in the past couple of years,” said Robert Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review, which recently ranked colleges by how much financial aid is awarded. “There is a stress level that is palpable.”

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 $56,190 in the 2023-2024 school year; at four-year, in-state public colleges, it was $24,030 per year, according to College Board.

Experts predicted that problems with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid would weigh heavily on enrollment, although it was initially unclear how much it would play a role in decisions between schools.
Ellucian’s study found that 44% of the 1,500 students surveyed said they’d switch their top choice school if offered just $5,000 more in aid.
“It’s a surprisingly small amount when you look at the total cost,” Ellucian’s CEO, Laura Ipsen said of the difference that award money made on the decision-making process.

The FAFSA’s impact on decision-making

“It was not only about the financial aid piece, which is huge, but comparing different offers coming in at different times,” said Eric Greenberg, president of Greenberg Educational Group, a New York-based consulting firm. “It did have a big impact on the way people made decisions.”
In previous years, financial aid award letters were sent around the same time as admission letters, meaning students had several weeks to compare offers ahead of National College Decision Day, the deadline to decide on a college for most admitted students.

Because of the extensive delays this year, some students won’t get their final financial aid award letter until the end of August, by the U.S. Department of Education said in a recent update.
That could mean some students will start their fall semester before they get key information about how much that’s going to cost. It also marks “the first admission” by Education Department that the FAFSA won’t be fully functional until after the start of the 2024-25 award year, which began July 1, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. 
“Time is so critical when students are making decisions,” Ellucian’s Ipsen said.
“The sooner you can get an offer into students’ hands, the more likely they are to take it,” she said. And it’s not just about whether they will get to go to their top choice school, she added, but whether they go to college at all.

The FAFSA is still an obstacle

As of June 21, still only 45% of new high school graduates have completed the FAFSA, according to the National College Attainment Network. A year ago, that number stood at 52%.
Submitting a FAFSA is one of the best predictors of whether a high school senior will go on to college, the National College Attainment Network also found. Seniors who complete the FAFSA are 84% more likely to immediately enroll in college. 
The FAFSA serves as the gateway to all federal aid money, including loans, work study and grants, the latter of which are the most desirable kinds of assistance because they typically do not need to be repaid.
Greenberg advises the students he works with to explore other sources of merit-based aid, as much as possible.
“A lot of people assume that only the most elite students will get merit money, that’s not necessarily true at all,” he said. “We have students going to private colleges much more cheaply than they would state colleges.”
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