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College is still worth the investment for most students

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In general, the economic benefits of a college education still far outweigh the high cost. However, college does not pay off for everyone, according to a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Many factors, including how much financial aid is offered and how much students have to pay out of pocket, as well as the choice of major, future earnings potential and how long it takes to graduate, determine the actual return on investment, the Fed researchers found. 

Overall, “majors providing technical training — that is, quantitative and analytical skills—earn the highest return, including engineering, math and computers,” the Fed researchers wrote in the blog post on April 16.

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“While expensive schools and on-campus living may seem to make college a risky bet, our estimates suggest that even a relatively high-cost college education tends to yield a healthy return for the typical graduate,” the Fed researchers said.

“Taking five or six years to complete a degree also still generally pays off. However, as many as a quarter of college graduates appear to end up in relatively low-paying jobs, and for them, a college degree may not be worth it, at least in terms of the economic payoff,” according to the Fed researchers.

‘College continues to get more expensive’

Meanwhile, studies consistently demonstrate that college costs continue to rise faster than the growth of financial aid. This means families and students are bearing a greater share of the financial burden of higher education. 

College tuition costs have indeed risen significantly, averaging a 5.6% annual increase since 1983, outpacing inflation and other household expenses. And families now shoulder 48% of college expenses with their income and investments, up from 38% a decade ago, according to a report by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

“College continues to get more expensive and even though we’ve made aid more accessible by making the FAFSA [The Free Application for Federal Student Aid] shorter and more digestible, it’s not enough,” said Tricia Scarlata, head of education savings at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. (The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid was meant to improve access by expanding aid eligibility.)

In fact, these days, more students are opting out. Both bachelor’s degree and associate degree earners fell for the third consecutive year in 2023-24, according to a recent report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

“Today’s students want shorter-term, lower-cost credentials that lead to faster employment opportunities,” Doug Shapiro, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s executive director said in a statement.

“It is certificate programs, not associates or bachelor’s degrees, that are drawing students into colleges today,” Shapiro added.

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Personal Finance

House GOP tax bill calls for $30,000 ‘SALT’ deduction cap

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Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) speaks during a House Committee on Ways and Means in the Longworth House Office Building on April 30, 2024 in Washington, D.C.

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House Republicans are calling for a higher limit on the deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT, as part of President Donald Trump‘s tax and spending package.

The House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax, released the full text of its portion of the bill on Monday afternoon. The SALT provision would raise the cap to $30,000 for those with a modified adjusted gross income of $400,000 or less.

However, the SALT deduction limit has been a sticking point in tax bill negotiations and the provision could still change significantly. The committee is scheduled to debate and vote on the legislation on Tuesday afternoon.    

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Enacted via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, of 2017, there’s a $10,000 limit on the federal deduction on state and local taxes, known as SALT, which will sunset after 2025 without action from Congress.

Currently, if you itemize tax breaks, you can’t deduct more than $10,000 in levies paid to state and local governments, including income and property taxes.

Raising the SALT cap has been a priority for certain lawmakers from high-tax states like California, New Jersey and New York. With a slim House Republican majority, those voices could impact negotiations.

While Trump enacted the $10,000 SALT cap in 2017, he reversed his position on the campaign trail last year, vowing to “get SALT back” if elected again. He has renewed calls for reform since being sworn into office.

Lawmakers have floated several updates, including a complete repeal, which seems unlikely with a tight budget and several competing priorities, experts say.

“It all has to come together in the context of the broader package,” but a higher SALT deduction limit could be possible, Garrett Watson, director of policy analysis at the Tax Foundation, told CNBC earlier this month.

Here’s who could be impacted.

How to claim the SALT deduction

When filing taxes, you choose the greater of the standard deduction or your itemized deductions, including SALT capped at $10,000, medical expenses above 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, charitable gifts and others.

Starting in 2018, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the standard deduction, and it adjusts for inflation yearly. For 2025, the standard deduction is $15,000 for single filers and $30,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Because of the high threshold, the vast majority of filers — roughly 90%, according to the latest IRS data — use the standard deduction and don’t benefit from itemized tax breaks.

Typically, itemized deductions increase with income, and higher earners tend to owe more in state income and property taxes, according to Watson.

Who benefits from a higher SALT limit

Generally, higher earners would benefit most from raising the SALT deduction limit, experts say.

For example, an earlier proposal, which would remove the “marriage penalty” in federal income taxes, involves increasing the cap on the SALT deduction for married couples filing jointly from $10,000 to $20,000.

That would offer almost all the tax break to households making more than $200,000 per year, according to a January analysis from the Tax Policy Center.

“If you raise the cap, the people who benefit the most are going to be upper-middle income,” said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

Watch CNBC's full interview with Senate Majority Leader John Thune

Of course, upper-middle income looks different depending on where you live, he said.

Forty of the top 50 U.S. congressional districts impacted by the SALT limit are in California, Illinois, New Jersey or New York, a Bipartisan Policy Center analysis from before 2022 redistricting found.

If lawmakers repealed the cap completely, households making $430,000 or more would see nearly three-quarters of the benefit, according to a separate Tax Policy Center analysis from September.

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After UK, China trade deals, tariff rate still highest since 1934: Yale

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A cargo ship moors at the container terminal berth of Lianyungang Port for loading and unloading containers in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, China, on May 9, 2025.

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The tariff rate the U.S. puts on imports remains higher than any point since the 1930s, despite trade deals struck with China and the United Kingdom in recent days, according to a Yale Budget Lab report issued Monday.

The total U.S. average effective tariff rate is 17.8% — the highest since 1934 — even after accounting for these policy changes, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

That’s equivalent to an increase of 15.4 percentage points from the average effective tariff rate before Trump’s second term, the report said.

Current tariff policies in effect are expected to cost the average household $2,800 over the “short run,” according to the report. It doesn’t specify a time frame.

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Consumers will likely alter their buying

Prior to the China and U.K. trade pacts, consumers faced an overall average effective tariff rate of 28%, the highest since 1901, the Yale Budget Lab estimated in a prior analysis on April 15.

The estimated decline from that average tariff rate “is almost entirely due to the lower rates on Chinese imports — the US-UK trade deal has minimal effects on average tariff rates,” its most recent report said.

Businesses and consumers are likely to change their purchase behavior to avoid the higher costs associated with tariffs, especially from China, according to economists.

After accounting for these substitution effects, the average effective tariff rate would be 16.4%, the highest since 1937, the Yale Budget Lab estimates.

The timing of that substitution is “highly uncertain,” it said.

“Some shifts are likely to happen quickly — within days or weeks — while others may take longer,” according to the report.

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Personal Finance

Fidelity technical issues kept some investors out of their accounts

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A Fidelity Investments branch.

Nicholas Pfosi | The Boston Globe | Getty Images

Limited ability to trade in a big market day

The brokerage’s login issue may have been a greater problem for day traders, institutional investors and options investors, or investors who want to buy at a certain price before the market jumps, said certified financial planner Lazetta Rainey Braxton, the founder and managing principal of The Real Wealth Coterie.

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Not having access to their brokerage accounts during big market swings can hurt their strategies because they are actively managing their portfolios, said Braxton, a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.

But for long-haul investors, a login glitch that lasts a few hours might not make a huge difference, she said.

“Most investors are not chasing the market,” Braxton said.

‘Remain calm’

Technical issues at brokerages have happened in the past. In August, customers of Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments were unable to trade in the middle of a steep market sell-off of global equities.

If a blip like this happens again, “it is important for investors to remain calm,” said Carolyn McClanahan, a certified financial planner and the founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida. She’s also a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.

While it can be a grievance at the moment, such technical difficulties are temporary — “these outages usually don’t last long,” said CFP Cathy Curtis, the founder and CEO of Curtis Financial Planning in Oakland, California.

And besides, “tech outages will not affect the value of investments,” said Curtis, a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council

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