Personal Finance
Chappell Roan was one of the 25 million uninsured Americans
Chappell Roan at the 67th GRAMMY Awards held at the Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 2, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Christopher Polk | Billboard | Getty Images
With a Grammy win for best new artist, Chappell Roan is at a career high. A few years ago, she was one of the millions of Americans without a job or health insurance.
“I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels, and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists, would offer a livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists,” she said at the Grammy awards show in Los Angeles on Feb. 2.
“When I got dropped, I had zero job experience under my belt. And like most people, I had a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and could not afford health insurance,” she said in her acceptance speech.
“If my label would have prioritized artists’ health, I could’ve been provided care by a company I was giving everything to. So, record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.”
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Roan, whose given name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, was released from her record label in 2020. That’s the same year a huge spike in unemployment resulted in an estimated 1.6 million to 3.3 million people losing coverage through their employers, according to the Health and Human Services Department.
At the time, coverage expansions put in place by the Affordable Care Act acted as a safety net for those experiencing coverage disruptions.
That government-backed aid significantly lowered the costs of coverage for people buying health insurance plans on the ACA marketplace. Those customers include anyone who doesn’t have access to a workplace plan, such as self-employed individuals like musicians, as well as students and the unemployed, among others.
‘Volatile’ income can make health coverage tricky
Chappell Roan accepts the Best New Artist award onstage during the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 2, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Winter | Getty Images
Gains in Medicaid and marketplace coverage have contributed to significant declines in the uninsured rate, according to KFF, a nonprofit formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“With the Affordable Care Act, there’s a health care safety net for artists who previously had none,” said Larry Levitt, KFF’s executive vice president for health policy. The ACA also guarantees insurance for pre-existing conditions and subsidizes premiums based on income, he said.
Yet, there can still be challenges for artists in getting health insurance if their recording labels don’t provide it, according to Levitt.
“If income is volatile, premiums can fluctuate and be unpredictable because subsidies are based on actual income for the year,” Levitt said. “So an artist who has no income for a period of time can be left with no viable health insurance options.”
“It makes it really hard, especially for starving artists,” said Carolyn McClanahan, a physician and certified financial planner based in Jacksonville, Florida.
‘A flaw in the industry at large’
Jeff Rabhan, the former chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, said in a guest column in The Hollywood Reporter that “Roan’s call for record labels to pay artists a livable wage and provide health care was noble — but also wildly misinformed.”
In the column, published Feb. 5, Rabhan said “if labels are responsible for artists’ wages, health care and overall well-being, where does it end and personal responsibility begin?”
“Should artists have better health-care options? Absolutely,” Rabhan said in the column. “Sounds like a union thing to me. Most independent managers don’t have insurance, either — it’s a flaw in the industry at large, not just on the label side.”
Since those in the music industry are often paid as independent contractors, that makes it more likely they will forgo coverage, according to McClanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners and a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.
“Unfortunately, many are not part of a union and are on their own in getting health insurance,” she said. “Sadly, many self-employed people don’t understand the Affordable Care Act and how to obtain insurance on their own.”
Even today, there are about 25 million uninsured Americans, KFF research shows.
“Most of the country is involved in [an] employer/employee relationship where the company is responsible for their wages, health care, and some care about your well-being. However, most artists don’t have this luxury and don’t understand they are basically running their own business,” McClanahan said.
“At least give them the tools.”
CNBC’s attempts to reach Roan for comment were not successful, but Roan responded to Rabhan on Instagram by saying she donated $25,000 to support “struggling dropped artists.”
Martin Barraud | Ojo Images | Getty Images
As U.S. home equity climbs, owners are more likely to face capital gains taxes from selling property. But a lesser-known tax strategy could help shrink your bill, experts say.
When selling your main home, there’s a special tax break that shields up to $250,000 of profits for single filers and $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. However, you need to meet certain rules.
An increasing number of home sellers are exceeding those thresholds, according to a 2024 report from real estate data firm CoreLogic. Nearly 8% of U.S. homes sold in 2023 exceeded the capital gains tax limit of $500,000 for married couples, up from about 3% in 2019, the report found.
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Those percentages were even higher in high-cost states like Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and and Washington, according to the CoreLogic report.
Exceeding the $250,000 and $500,000 exclusions is “becoming more common,” said Tommy Lucas, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo in Orlando, Florida.
Home sale profits above the $250,000 or $500,000 thresholds are subject to capital gains taxes of 0%, 15% or 20%, depending on your taxable income.
Increase your ‘basis’ to reduce profits
Many home sellers don’t realize they can reduce capital gains by increasing their “basis,” or the home’s original purchase price, according to Mark Baran, managing director at financial services firm CBIZ’s national tax office.
You can increase your basis by adding “capital improvements,” such as renovations, adding a new roof, exterior upgrades or replaced systems.
Your “adjusted basis” is generally the cost of buying your home plus any capital improvements made while you own the property.
“That adds up over time and can bring them fully within the [$250,000 or $500,000 capital gains] exclusion,” Baran said.
However, you cannot add home repairs and maintenance, such as fixing leaks, holes, cracks or replacing broken hardware, according to the IRS.
You also can reduce your home sale profit by adding fees and closing costs from the purchase and sale of the home, according to Lucas.
The IRS says some of these expenses could include:
- Title fees
- Charges for utility installation
- Legal and recording fees
- Surveys
- Transfer taxes
- Title insurance
- Balances owed by the seller
“Maybe that gets you an extra few thousand” to reduce the profit, Lucas added.
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the opening bell in New York City on Feb. 12, 2025.
Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images
Stock market investors enjoyed lofty annual returns over the past two years. However, 2025 may not offer a “three-peat,” investment analysts say.
The S&P 500 stock market index yielded a 23% return for investors in 2024 and 24% in 2023. (Those returns were 25% and 26%, respectively, with dividends.)
Three consecutive years of total returns of more than 20% for U.S. stocks is a historical rarity. It has only happened once — in the late 1990s — dating back to 1928, according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
“Do we expect an S&P 500 Index three-peat in 2025? In short, no,” Wren wrote in a market commentary Wednesday.
The U.S. stock market has delivered average annual returns of roughly 10% since 1926, according to Dimensional, an asset manager. After accounting for inflation, stocks have consistently returned an average 6.5% to 7% per year dating to about 1800, according to a McKinsey analysis.
“We have been spoiled as investors” the past two years, said Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management.
“Twenty-percent gains haven’t been the norm,” Cox said. “Twenty percent gains are the exception.”
What might ruin the party?
While history “isn’t gospel,” there are reasons to think the stock market may not perform as well in 2025, Cox said.
For one, there are many uncertainties that could negatively impact the stock market, including tariffs and a potential rebound in inflation, Wren said. A surge in bond yields might also pose a headwind, Wren wrote in a market commentary. (Higher yields could dampen demand for U.S. stocks.)
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Additionally, technology companies have been a major driver of S&P 500 returns in recent years but may not be poised for the same outperformance this year, Cox said.
Tech stocks suffered a rout in late January, for example, amid fears of a Chinese artificial intelligence startup called DeepSeek undercutting major U.S. players. Those stocks have largely recovered since then, however.
In all, a rosy backdrop of solid economic growth and consumer spending, coupled with relatively low unemployment, may push the S&P 500 up by about 12% in 2025, Wren wrote. That would be slightly better than the long-term historical average, he said.
“So do not be disappointed,” Wren wrote. “We think investors should be optimistic.”
However, investors shouldn’t let high expectations cloud judgment about market risks, Cox said.
The current environment is one in which investors should “prioritize portfolio balance” and long-term investors should ensure their portfolio is in line with their targets, she said.
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