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It’s not always ‘a sexy thing’ to be a millionaire: Brandon Copeland

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Brandon Copeland

Copeland Media

Brandon Copeland is a former NFL linebacker turned coach. But the type of coaching he gravitates to isn’t in the realm of sports — it’s in personal finance.

The 33-year-old — who played for six teams across 10 seasons in the National Football League before retiring last year — started co-teaching a financial literacy course to undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, his alma mater, in 2019 while playing for the New York Jets.

The course, nicknamed “Life 101,” was inspired by his own experiences with money, according to “Professor Cope,” who is also a member of the CNBC Global Financial Wellness Advisory Board and co-founder of Athletes.org, the players’ association for college athletes.

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Now, the Orlando resident has written a new book, “Your Money Playbook,” that reads as a football coach’s blueprint to winning the financial “game.” It touches on topics like budgeting, paying down debt, saving, estate planning and starting a side hustle. (Just don’t call it a “side hustle,” as he explains in the book.)

CNBC reached Copeland by phone to discuss his journey into financial education, why becoming a millionaire “is not a sexy thing” and how it helps to think in terms of Chipotle burritos.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

‘Put the money to work for you’

Former NFL star Brandon Copeland on the importance of financial literacy

Fast forward to December 2016: My wife and I, we bought our first house, in New Jersey. When we bought that house I was in Detroit playing for the Lions. My wife was at the closing table and she called me and [asked], “Hey, does everything look right on this?” They e-mailed me the closing documents; it was 100 pages and I had no idea what I was looking at. I could see the purchase price was the price that we agreed to, but then I saw all these other titles and warranty deeds and this and that. And I’m like, “I have no idea if I’m getting screwed right now.” One of my biggest fears being an NFL player has always been, somebody’s taking advantage of me.

GI: What do you think is the most important takeaway from your book?

BC: The power of growth. That was the big discovery for me as I started to make money. I had no idea that existed as a kid. I always tell people, you either put the money to work for you or you go to work the rest of your life for money.

There’s a lot of folks who are afraid of the [stock] market. And I’m like, well, everyone’s an investor. If you have a dollar to your name, you’re an investor. If you take your money, you put it under your mattress, you do nothing with it, you put it in a safe in the house: That’s an investment decision. That’s a 0% return. If you take your money, you put it in a regular checking account, that’s a 0.01% return. You put it into a high-yield savings account, it’s a 4% to 5% return. The stock market, you put it in an index fund, the S&P 500, that may be an average 9% to 10% return.

All of those are investment decisions, you just have to choose wisely. [People] can put their money to work for them and get out of the “rat race” at some point.

‘That’s a lot of Chipotle burritos’

GI: For someone who is just starting out — let’s say they have been hesitant to invest their money in the market — how would you suggest they get started?

BC: I think the first thing you’ve got to do is download the [financial news] apps — the CNBCs of the world, the MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg — and turn on the notifications. Those notifications are starting to explain to you what is moving the market and why, and you’re starting to learn the language of money. Whether you choose to invest money or not, you’re at least starting to get comfortable with, “Oh, the market’s down today. Well, why?” I think that’s important to start to develop your stomach.

The other thing is, start to look at where [your] money is: What account your money is sitting in and how much is in those accounts. By doing that, you’re starting to look at your money from a 30,000-foot view. You can start to determine, “I have X amount of dollars over here in my traditional checking account. Maybe I can take some of that money and put it over into a high-yield savings account that is now giving me 4% interest on it annually. And by getting 4% interest on it annually, maybe that’s generating me $500 a year that I otherwise wouldn’t have had.” Now you’re starting to put yourself in the game of money. What is the limited amount of effort I can do and still be generating money on my behalf?

As a kid, if somebody said, “Hey, man, I’ll give you $500 to do nothing, to press two buttons,” you’d be like, “Sign me up!” I always break that down as, that’s a lot of Chipotle burritos, that’s a lot of dinners, that’s a lot of time with my family at the water park. By doing that, it makes it more of a priority for me to hurry up and make that investment decision.

Brandon Copeland

Copeland Media

GI: One of the first things that you encourage people to do in the book is say aloud to themselves, “I can be wealthy.” Why?

BC: In football, your money or your job can be taken away from you overnight or through an injury. A lot of times, as I was making money, I was always just kind of looking around the corner. Even to this day, I still think about it as if somebody can rip the rug out from under my feet. So I’m still sometimes in survival mode. I think that although you can be making money, there are still ways where you can have anxiety around money, your lifestyle and when you spend money — all those things.

Starting to have positive affirmations — “I deserve to be rich. I deserve to have money. I deserve to not be stressed about keeping the lights on. I can be wealthy. I can do this” — sometimes you’ve got to coach yourself on that. Because where else do you go get that positive affirmation that you can do it?

Doing those things over time not only reinforce positive connotations about yourself, but they also genuinely have a real effect on your mental wellness. It is really, really hard to walk out of the house and be a super productive human being in society when you don’t know if the doors will be locked or changed the next time you get there.  

Why being a millionaire ‘is not a sexy thing’

GI: You write in the book that the journey of financial empowerment will require people to confront their “inner money myths.What’s the most common myth around money that you hear?

BC: For lot of communities that I serve it’s, put your money in the bank.

GI: You mean keeping it in cash and not investing it?

BC: Exactly. I think it’s a myth because you put your money in the bank, and the bank goes out and invests your money: They invest it in other people’s projects, other people’s homes, and then get a rate of return on your money. Not to say banks are bad and saving is bad, [but] you’ve got to figure out at some point when can I get to the point where I can put my money to work for me?

I think that some of the myths are about whether wealth is for you or not. A lot of millionaires, it’s not a sexy thing. A lot of times you feel like you’ve got to go and create the next Instagram or Snapchat or TikTok in order to ever be wealthy, when really you’ve just got to make simple, consistent, disciplined decisions. That is the toughest thing in the world, to have delayed gratification or to subject yourself to delayed gratification.

I think a lot of times, we don’t prepare for the situation we will be in one day or could be in one day.

GI: How do you balance today versus tomorrow?

BC: I went to a school a couple weeks ago and [asked] the athletes there write out what they want their life to look like five years after graduation. By doing that and saying, “Hey, I want this with my life. I want it to look like this, and I want vacations to be like this,” now you can always look at what you’re actually doing and determine whether your current actions [are working toward] your future, the future things that you want for yourself.

I think a lot of us never spend the time write out what we actually want or to visualize what we actually want with life. And so you end up going to school, you go to college, and you’re there just to get a good job and make money, but you don’t really map out what that job is and what you like to do versus what you don’t like to do. You end up being just a pinball in life.

I literally put people in my life to help hold me accountable. The best way I’d say to balance between delayed gratification and enjoying where you are today is having those accountability buddies who can tell you straight up, “Hey, you’re slacking,” or “Hey, you’re doing a good job.” But you can also map out against your own goals and wants for yourself, and [ask], are my actions actually adding up to this? 

GI: You write in the book that carrying high-interest debt, like credit card debt, and simultaneously investing is like putting the heat on high during the winter in Green Bay, Wisconsin, while also keeping the windows wide open. Can you explain?

BC: Sometimes folks are putting money in the market to try to get 6%, 9%, 10%, 12%, whatever, when they may be making the minimum payment on their credit card or no payment at all, which would be even worse, and they’re paying 18% [as an interest rate].

You are automatically locking in a losing scenario for yourself that you’re not going to be able to outpace.

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Personal Finance

Your last chance to claim an IRS stimulus check is approaching

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Douglas Sacha | Moment | Getty Images

If you still haven’t filed your 2021 tax return and never received a pandemic-era IRS stimulus check, the deadline is April 15 because there’s a three-year window to claim refunds, according to the agency.

Filers who never got the 2021 stimulus payment of up to $1,400 could claim the recovery rebate credit on that year’s return.  

“If you didn’t get the stimulus, you’re running out of time,” said Syracuse University law professor Robert Nassau, director of the school’s low-income tax clinic. 

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The IRS in December announced plans to automatically send “special payments” of up to $1,400 to 1 million taxpayers who didn’t claim the 2021 recovery rebate credit on tax returns for that year.  

The agency said most payments were expected to arrive via direct deposit or paper check by late January 2025, based on the taxpayer’s 2023 tax return information.

In order to see if the IRS issued a stimulus payment, you can create an online account and view “tax records” under the “records and status” toolbar. 

“That’s the best place to look,” said Tommy Lucas, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo in Orlando, Florida.

Your IRS online account also shows if you filed a 2021 return, Lucas said. 

If you don’t submit your 2021 filing by April 15, you could also miss other tax breaks, such as the earned income tax credit, which can trigger a refund even without taxes owed, according to the IRS.  

Currently, there are more than $1 billion in unclaimed refunds for tax year 2021, the IRS estimated in early March. That represents more than 1.1 million taxpayers and a median unpaid refund of $781. These figures don’t include applicable credits, including the recovery rebate credit.

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You need ‘proof’ of filing by the deadline

While there are several free options for tax returns this season, some may not offer electronic filing for 2021 returns, Nassau warned. 

If you’re forced to mail your 2021 return, you should send the filing via certified mail for “proof” you sent it by the April 15 deadline, he said. 

“I’ve had situations where the IRS gets something after the filing [due] date, and they just reflexively say it’s too late,” Nassau said. “Spend the $5 and send it certified.”

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Disability advocates sue Social Security and DOGE to stop service cuts

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A Social Security Administration (SSA) office in Washington, DC, March 26, 2025. 

Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images

A group of disability advocates filed a federal lawsuit against the Social Security Administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency on Wednesday aimed at stopping cuts to the agency’s services.

Recent changes at the Social Security Administration under DOGE — including staff reductions, the elimination of certain offices and new requirements to seek in-person services — have made it more difficult for individuals with disabilities and older adults to access benefits, the lawsuit argues.

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The plaintiffs include the National Federation of the Blind, the American Association of People with Disabilities, Deaf Equality, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the Massachusetts Senior Action Council and individual beneficiaries.

“The defendants’ actions are an unprecedented and unconstitutional assault on Social Security benefits, concealed beneath the hollow pretense of bureaucratic ‘reform,'” the complaint states.

In nine weeks, the new administration has “upended” the agency with “sweeping and destabilizing policy changes,” the plaintiffs claim, that have shifted agency functions to local offices while slashing telephone services.

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“The result is a systematic dismantling of SSA’s core functions, leaving millions of beneficiaries without the essential benefits they are legally entitled to,” the lawsuit complaint states.

The “mass restructuring” of the agency is unlawful and violates the Rehabilitation Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the lawsuit argues. The changes also violate multiple constitutional provisions, including the First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances, according to the plaintiffs.

With 1.1 million disability claims pending, the recent actions could also be life threatening to individuals who are dying or going bankrupt while waiting for decisions, they allege.

The Social Security Administration did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

“President Trump has made it clear he is committed to making the federal government more efficient,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in an email statement. “He has the authority to manage agency restructuring and workforce reductions, and the administration’s actions are fully compliant with the law.”

Lawsuit alleges reform is ‘administrative vandalism’

People hold signs during a protest against cuts made by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to the Social Security Administration, in White Plains, New York, U.S., March 22, 2025. 

Nathan Layne | Reuters

The Social Security Administration sends monthly checks to around 73 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries.

DOGE, which is not an official government entity, has been tasked with cutting “waste, fraud and abuse” within the federal government. President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating DOGE on Jan. 20, the same day he was inaugurated.

Since then, the Social Security Administration has cut 7,000 employee positions and closed the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and the Office of Transformation. The Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity handled the agency’s equal employment opportunity and civil rights programs. The Office of Transformation was responsible for coordinating customer service-related initiatives like adding the ability to use digital signatures and electronic documents.

The Social Security Administration has also changed its identity proofing policies for claiming benefits and changing direct deposit information that is expected to require more individuals to visit the agency’s offices in person.

The agency has updated its policy, allowing individuals applying for Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicare, or Supplemental Security Income who cannot use a personal my Social Security account to complete their claim entirely over the telephone, starting April 14. 

The reforms amount to the dismantling of “core functions of SSA, abandoning millions of Americans to poverty and indignity,” according to the plaintiffs’ complaint.

“What the defendants frame as ‘reform’ is, in truth, administrative vandalism,” the lawsuit states.

Beneficiaries face long waits, overpayment issues

The plaintiffs include seven individuals whose experiences, including long customer service waits and, in some cases, demands to repay large sums to the Social Security Administration, are detailed in the complaint.

One plaintiff, Treva Olivero, who has been legally blind since birth, was informed in March 2024 that she had been overpaid Social Security disability insurance benefits for five or six years, prompting the agency to demand she repay more than $100,000, according to the complaint.

Olivero’s Medicaid coverage was also terminated soon after, which left her without income and health coverage. She has since been in an “ongoing struggle” to have her disability benefits reinstated, while also facing almost $80,000 in medical debt, according to the complaint.

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Another plaintiff, Merry Schoch, who received Social Security disability insurance for many years, returned to work to help pay for large medical bills after she was hit by a waste management truck in 2022. She reported her income to the Social Security Administration, and the agency made no changes to her benefit payments, according to the complaint.

Two years later, Schoch stopped working and reported her unemployment to the Social Security Administration. In August 2024, the agency then terminated her benefits and informed Schoch that she owed $30,000 for the disability benefit payments she received while working full time, according to the complaint.

Last September, Schoch was informed she could reapply for benefits. However, she has since struggled to get in touch with the agency over the phone, online and in person. 

Both Olivero and Schoch are members of the National Federation of the Blind, which is also a plaintiff.

The plaintiffs want the court to reverse the Social Security Administration’s recent reforms, including staff reductions, closures of certain offices and policies requiring in-person appointments.

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Amid trade turmoil, ‘you do not want to time the market’

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Pres. Trump unveils sweeping tariffs: Here's what to know

As President Donald Trump rolls out sweeping new tariffs on goods imported into the United States, Americans are growing increasingly pessimistic about their financial fate.

Consumers worry that the duties will cause inflation to flare up again, while investors fear that higher prices will mean lower profits and more pain for the battered stock market

As of Thursday morning, futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 1,200 points, or 2.8%. S&P 500 futures sank 3.4%, and Nasdaq-100 futures lost 4%.

But sharp drops — or sudden spikes — in the market are to be expected, according to Jean Chatzky, CEO of HerMoney.com and host of the podcast HerMoney with Jean Chatzky.

“With these volatile markets, you do not want to time the market,” she said of the old adage. “Timing the market doesn’t work — it’s time in the market.”

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Trade tensions, inflation and concerns about a possible recession have undermined consumer confidence across the board, several studies show.

Still, it’s normal for most Americans to feel unnerved during heightened volatility, Chatzky said.

“There’s very little doubt that consumers are feeling nervous, maybe more nervous than we’ve felt in quite some time,” she said.

Committing to setting money aside in a high-yield savings account, whether by scaling back on dining out or rideshare expenses, will help regain some financial control, Chatzky said.

Top-yielding online savings accounts currently pay 4.4%, on average, well beyond the savings account rates at some of the largest retail banks, which average just 0.41%.

“Taking action is the best way to feel more resilient,” she said.

It’s understandable why some may be hesitant to continue investing, however, when you are investing for the long term, a down market is an opportunity for dollar-cost averaging, which helps smooth out price fluctuations in the market, Chatzky said.

This is also a good time to check your investments to make sure you are still allocated properly and rebalance as needed, so you are not taking on more risk that you are comfortable with, she added.

Timing the market is a losing bet

Talk yourself down from making any sudden financial moves, Chatzky advised.

Trying to time the market is almost always a bad idea, other financial experts also say. That’s because it’s impossible to know when good and bad days will happen.

For example, the 10 best trading days by percentage gain for the S&P 500 over the past three decades all occurred during recessions, often in close proximity to the worst days, according to a Wells Fargo analysis published last year.

And, although stocks go up and down, the S&P 500 index has an average annualized return of around 10% over the past few decades.

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