Many U.S. companies have expressed concern, or even anger, about the wide-ranging tariffs recently announced by President Donald Trump, which economists say threaten to increase their companies’ costs and result in higher prices for consumers.

The tariffs, and the back-and-forth nature of their rollout, has spurred “panic-buying” of a wide range of products that could face price surges in the coming months, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday that cited U.S. Commerce Department data.

The CEO of Back Market, an online marketplace for used and refurbished tech devices, says he’s witnessed the sales jump firsthand. Back Market saw its sales triple over a single week in the wake of Trump’s tariffs announcements, says Thibaud Hug de Larauze.

“Maybe some people rushed into [replacing their smartphones or computers] earlier, because they were afraid it’s going to cost so much more weeks from now,” Hug de Larauze, who also co-founded the company, says.

Most smartphones and computers are manufactured in China, which currently faces a 145% total tariff rate on goods imported to the United States. Trump issued a temporary exemption for those products on April 11, but subsequently announced plans to introduce specific tariffs targeting electronics that could take effect as soon as May.

Hug de Larauze’s takeaway from Back Market’s boom week: More Americans could start opting for used or refurbished devices, if Trump’s tariffs raise prices on new electronics for the foreseeable future. “This is a big opportunity to change the way American people consume this stuff, because the incentive has never been as high to avoid those tariffs,” he says.

Some analysts agree with Hug de Larauze’s observation. Prolonged tariffs could cause a “huge uptick” in short-term sales of used and refurbished devices, especially smartphones, says Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities global head of technology research.

Companies like Apple might need to increase their prices by hundreds of dollars per product — if not more — depending on the eventual electronics-specific tariffs, other analysts estimate.

Currently, enough Americans prioritize replacing their devices with brand-new ones that Back Market only sells about one-third of its stock in the U.S., says Hug de Larauze.

That ratio could flip once tariffs are implemented, he says: “What I’m expecting with the tariffs is that this is going to change [to] two-thirds being sold to U.S. customers, because there’s incentives, definitely, to save money when you already need a product.”

Of course, the timeline is unpredictable. Trump’s impending electronics tariffs could last for days, weeks or months — or never take effect at all.

Long-term, Ives suspects that the typical American consumer might settle for a used or refurbished device for now, but return to buying new tech once their wallets allow it.

“We believe 80% to 90% of consumers like buying a new smartphone [and] buying behavior is hard to change,” Ives says.

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This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

In 2008, during what would come to be known as the Great Recession, stories like Nicole Brewer’s were all too common.

At 27, she’d recently bought a condo on the South Side of Chicago with little money down and a loan that would likely stretch her mid-$30,000′s salary thin. Then the market research firm she worked for did layoffs, and she lost her job.

Amid a financial crisis, finding another one proved difficult. After collecting unemployment benefits for five of the allotted six months, Brewer, like many of her peers, was growing desperate.

“I remember I got scared and I was like, ‘OK, what are you going to do if your unemployment runs out? You don’t have a job,’” she tells CNBC Make It. “That’s when I started looking at opportunities. I said, ‘I’ll think outside the box, look at some teaching jobs abroad.’”

Brewer found a gig teaching English at a primary school South Korea, a move that would satisfy some wanderlust while she waited for the U.S. economy to bounce back.

But that’s where her story gets a little less common. After three years in Korea, Brewer took a college-level ESL job, this time in Nizwa, an ancient city in Oman about a 90-minute drive from Muscat, the nation’s capital. She’s been there ever since, living happily and traveling — and currently earning a salary of just over $40,000 a year, plus some side-hustle income.

“I have had such an incredible experience living here. I never even imagined that I would be here for 10-plus years, because I just felt comfortable here,” Brewer, 43, says. “My mental health has definitely been great here.”

A move abroad can be daunting — especially for someone in a precarious financial situation. But for Brewer, who’d moved to a new country with just two suitcases, things were surprisingly seamless.

“Fortunately at that time, being recruited to work for the education department in Korea, they helped set you up,” she says. That meant covering the cost of her flight and assigning her a liaison from her school who helped her find an apartment and transition into working life in Busan, a city of just over 3 million people.

Back home, things were still rough. The renter she’d found to take over payments on her Chicago condo lost his job too and soon fell behind. The bank foreclosed on the property.

That may have made life difficult for Brewer had she chosen to return to the States on her original timeline. But it didn’t take long for her to realize that expat life suited her.

Her home base in Korea, along with a modest cost of living, allowed her to see parts of the world she would have likely otherwise missed, including trips to India and the Philippines. “I was able to live comfortably and still travel a bit,” she says.

After three years, Brewer was looking for a change of pace, and initially thought she might like Dubai. While researching the region, she came across a posting for a job at a university in Oman. “After seeing that posting, I ended up researching on my own and I was like, ‘Wow, this is a very beautiful country,’” Brewer says.

She gave it a chance, boarding a plane in 2012, once again with two suitcases and plans to figure things out when she got there. Other than brief stints in Germany and South Africa to complete an accelerated masters program in international humanitarian aid, she’s stuck around.

Brewer’s main gig is still teaching English, a job which pays her about $3,400 a month, even when school is not in session. Over the years, she’s picked up some side hustles, too, as a freelance travel writer and part-time travel advisor. Those brought her an extra $3,400 in 2024.

Brewer is still an American citizen and pays income taxes in the U.S. And even though she doesn’t necessarily blend in with the locals — she doesn’t speak Arabic or practice Islam — her Yankee status comes with a certain level of respect. “I like to call it ‘passport privilege,’” she says.

Overall, she says, being a Black American woman doesn’t come with many of the burdens while living abroad as it might have back home. “I wouldn’t say that I deal with much or any racism, because I think it’s more so, you’re American — we take pride in having an American who loves living in Oman.”

Even though it took a while for Brewer to adjust to the conservative Omani lifestyle — and casual dating is still a struggle — she says she consistently feels welcomed by the Omani people.

“They welcome me. They say, ‘Oh, hello, sister,’ when I get in taxis. They call me sister like I’m one of them because I respect the culture,” she says. “It’s been very great. I wouldn’t have stayed as long as I had if it wasn’t a good life here.”

Despite the region’s reputation for opulence, Brewer’s day-to-day life in Oman is unostentatious and, by U.S. standards, inexpensive. Here’s how she spent her money in January 2025.

• Travel: $2,630 on flights and hotels for a trip to Bali, Indonesia
• Rent: $650
• Food: $348 on groceries and dining
• Cab fare: $277
• Discretionary: $133 on clothing, donations and various fees
• Health and wellness: $65 on spa treatment and prescriptions
• Netflix subscription: $15
• Phone: $10

Brewer’s two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment came fully furnished, and she pays 250 Omani rials — or roughly $650 — a month in rent, utilities included. She spends about $70 or $80 a week on groceries. Insurance, a major line item in most American workers’ budgets, is covered by her employer.

Living relatively modestly for most of the year allows Brewer to devote significant funds toward her life’s passion: travel. More than half her January spending went toward a trip to Bali during her school’s winter break.

She generally takes two or three big trips a year, and her location in the Middle East makes it easier to travel to some parts of the world than if she had stayed in the U.S. Trips to Namibia and the Seychelles, she says, are much more affordable with Oman has a home base.

“I’m able to travel to Europe, of course, as well, because it’s right there,” she says.

Even given her relatively low cost of living, traveling the world on a teacher’s salary means Brewer has had to put some financial goals on the back burner. Although her credit cards are paid off, she still carries about $24,600 in student debt from her time as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan.

And while she has about $22,000 invested across stocks and cryptocurrency, it’s hardly enough for her to feel like she’s on track for major financial milestones, like retirement.

“I do feel like sometimes maybe I beat myself up because I feel like I should have more in savings, considering how long I’ve been abroad,” Brewer says. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Maybe I could have not gone to this destination and have a little more money padded in my savings.’ But the reality is, I’m grateful for every trip that I have been on.”

In the coming years, Brewer hopes to ramp up her savings enough to fund a semi-retirement of sorts in Portugal.

“In the perfect scenario, I would have a hostel. It would be a place where I can live, as well as have additional rooms to be able to rent out and make an income from the property,” she says.

For now, though, she has no plans to leave what she says is a fulfilling and peaceful life in Oman.

“It’s not an easy life to be on the other side of the world from your family, especially when emergencies and family situations come up,” she says. “You have to take the good with the bad. But overall, I do have a peace of mind living here because it’s so safe and people are really kind-hearted.”

Conversions from OMR to USD were done using the Bank of Muscat’s conversion rate of 1 USD to 0.3877 OMR on Jan. 1, 2025. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

What’s your budget breakdown? Share your story with us for a chance to be featured in a future installment.

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From 1910 to 2001, the Liberty Crest Apartments were known as the Lorton Reformatory, a prison in Lorton, Virginia that housed inmates from Washington, D.C.

It is more widely known as the site where many suffragists were held after the Silent Sentinels pickets at the White House in 1917. And according to the Library of Congress, November 14, 1917 is known as the “Night of Terror” because of how the suffragist prisoners were mistreated at the prison.

The 2,324-acre property, which included a farm, shut down in 2001. The following year, Fairfax County bought the site for $4.2 million. Under the county’s ownership, the old prison and grounds became a park, a golf course, three schools, and an arts center.

In 2008, the county started working with the Alexander Company, a Wisconsin developer with a history of historic preservation and adaptive reuse. The developer set out to convert the campus into 165 apartments.

“The Lorton Reformatory was a good set of buildings to be converted into residential because it was a reform-era prison,” David Vos, a development project manager with the Alexander Company, tells CNBC Make It.

“So, unlike most prisons that tend to be large footprint dark buildings without very many windows, these actually had an abundance of light and had quite a bit of character to them, so they laid out very nicely for apartments.”

The Liberty Crest Apartments have 165 units — 44 of which are designated affordable, low-income housing. There are 84 one-bedroom and 81 two-bedroom apartments and monthly rent ranges from $1,372 to $2,700. Each apartment is equipped with an in-unit washer and dryer.

Renovations took almost two years and roughly $64 million to complete.

A majority of the project’s funding came from historic tax credits, bond financing, and low-income housing tax credits. Virginia Housing provided the first mortgage for the project and payments are about $125,000 a month.

The apartments opened in June 2017 and Vos says all the available units were leased in just a matter of months. The complex has been at full occupancy ever since.

“The reaction from the community varied quite a bit. A lot of people really felt it was important to preserve that history. However, there were people that really focused on the later years of the prison when prisoners were mistreated,” he says.

“But from our standpoint, we really felt that it’s important to preserve history so you can learn from the past so that you don’t make those mistakes again in the future.”

Some remnants of the old prison include signs telling visitors and inmates how to behave on the property.

“There’s a number of reminders as you walk around the campus that remind you of the fact that this used to be a reformatory or prison,” Vos says.

The name Liberty Crest Apartments is an homage to the property’s history: “The reason we chose Liberty for the name was we really felt that we were liberating these buildings from its more recent dark past.”

The old prison’s cafeteria was converted into a community space for residents. Other amenities include a yoga studio, gym, community pool, and two playgrounds.

There is also a field on campus with the original grandstand that was made by the prisoners themselves from bricks. Today, the space is used as an all-purpose area for the residents.

The Liberty Crest property also has a preschool, dental office, restaurants, and retail shops.

The apartments have been open for almost nine years now and construction on the property is mostly complete. Vos and the Alexander Company are currently focused on converting a power plant that sits on the site into 10 additional apartments. There are plans to transforming the former guard quarters, too.

“The community has very warmly embraced the Liberty project. Everyone’s very proud of what we did here and were very pleased with the results,” Vos says.

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Having $2 million saved for retirement can provide a strong cushion — but how long it lasts depends on where you live.

Retirement savings of $2 million, plus Social Security payments, could last anywhere from just 23 years in Hawaii to 72 years in West Virginia, according to a recent GOBankingRates analysis.

That’s largely due to differences in the cost of living across states, which is primarily driven by housing prices. In states with large urban centers like California, New York and Massachusetts, housing alone can cost $30,000 more per year than in less expensive areas, according to the data. As a result, retirees in those states need more savings to maintain their lifestyles.

The analysis looked at typical retiree expenses, including groceries, housing, transportation, utilities and health care, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023 Consumer Expenditure Survey. GOBankingRates adjusted those figures for each state using the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center’s cost-of-living index to offer a more realistic picture of retirement spending.

While $2 million is a high bar — only 1.8% of households have that much saved, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute — it covers more than 35 years of retirement in all but three states: Hawaii, Massachusetts and California.

That target isn’t far off from most people’s goals. Many consider roughly $1.5 million the “magic number” for retirement savings, according to a Northwestern Mutual survey of 4,588 Americans.

Here’s how long $2 million, plus average Social Security benefits, would last in each state, based on average annual expenses. States are listed in alphabetical order.

• Annual cost after Social Security: $30,207
• Years $2 million lasts: 66

• Annual cost after Social Security: $50,997
• Years $2 million lasts: 39

• Annual cost after Social Security: $44,628
• Years $2 million lasts: 45

• Annual cost after Social Security: $30,327
• Years $2 million lasts: 66

• Annual cost after Social Security: $63,795
• Years $2 million lasts: 31

• Annual cost after Social Security:$38,559
• Years $2 million lasts: 52

• Annual cost after Social Security: $43,967
• Years $2 million lasts: 45

• Annual cost after Social Security: $37,057
• Years $2 million lasts: 54

• Annual cost after Social Security: $38,379
• Years $2 million lasts: 52

• Annual cost after Social Security: $31,829
• Years $2 million lasts: 63

• Annual cost after Social Security: $87,770
• Years $2 million lasts: 23

• Annual cost after Social Security: $38,138
• Years $2 million lasts: 52

• Annual cost after Social Security: $34,233
• Years $2 million lasts: 58

• Annual cost after Social Security: $31,709
• Years $2 million lasts: 63

• Annual cost after Social Security: $31,168
• Years $2 million lasts: 64

• Annual cost after Social Security: $28,945
• Years $2 million lasts: 69

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,670
• Years $2 million lasts: 61

• Annual cost after Social Security: $33,031
• Years $2 million lasts: 61

• Annual cost after Social Security: $45,048
• Years $2 million lasts: 44

• Annual cost after Social Security: $36,276
• Years $2 million lasts: 55

• Annual cost after Social Security: $65,117
• Years $2 million lasts: 31

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,310
• Years $2 million lasts: 62

• Annual cost after Social Security: $34,113
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

• Annual cost after Social Security: $29,426
• Years $2 million lasts: 68

• Annual cost after Social Security: $30,327
• Years $2 million lasts: 66

• Annual cost after Social Security: $33,331
• Years $2 million lasts: 60

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,610
• Years $2 million lasts: 61

• Annual cost after Social Security: $36,997
• Years $2 million lasts: 54

• Annual cost after Social Security: $43,847
• Years $2 million lasts: 46

• Annual cost after Social Security: $45,829
• Years $2 million lasts: 44

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,670
• Years $2 million lasts: 61

• Annual cost after Social Security: $50,997
• Years $2 million lasts: 39

• Annual cost after Social Security: $35,495
• Years $2 million lasts: 56

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,190
• Years $2 million lasts: 62

• Annual cost after Social Security: $33,872
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

• Annual cost after Social Security: $29,666
• Years $2 million lasts: 67

• Annual cost after Social Security: $42,945
• Years $2 million lasts: 47

• Annual cost after Social Security: $33,872
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

• Annual cost after Social Security: $44,387
• Years $2 million lasts: 45

• Annual cost after Social Security: $34,052
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,310
• Years $2 million lasts: 62

• Annual cost after Social Security: $30,928
• Years $2 million lasts: 65

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,490
• Years $2 million lasts: 62

• Annual cost after Social Security: $42,645
• Years $2 million lasts: 47

• Annual cost after Social Security: $45,409
• Years $2 million lasts: 44

• Annual cost after Social Security: $37,237
• Years $2 million lasts: 54

• Annual cost after Social Security: $45,108
• Years $2 million lasts: 44

• Annual cost after Social Security: $27,803
• Years $2 million lasts: 72

• Annual cost after Social Security: $36,516
• Years $2 million lasts: 55

• Annual cost after Social Security: $34,173
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

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Putting off making end-of-life plans for your finances can lead to expensive legal battles, big tax bills and financial chaos for your family — even if you’re rich and famous. 

While it can be easy to assume that celebrities would have airtight estate plans, time and time again, Hollywood stars have made costly decisions that could have been easily avoided. 

The good news: Learning from these missteps can help you prevent catastrophes of your own, even if you don’t have $1 million in the bank. Here are three examples of what we can learn from celebrity estate plans.

Singer Aaron Carter, who passed away unexpectedly in 2022, did not have a will in place at the time of his death. This left the fate of Carter’s assets to the courts. At the time of his death, Carter had an 11-month-old son, Prince, and was engaged to be married.

Under California law, if an unmarried person with a child dies without a will, the courts designate the child as the sole heir. Because Carter’s son was not old enough to take possession of his estate, however, things got a little tricky.

“Because [Aaron Carter] did not have a will or a trust in place, the court had to appoint a fiduciary to handle the estate,” says Zach Wiegand, an attorney at Gold Leaf Estate Planning in Burnsville, Minnesota. “That may not have been the person he wanted watching over the money for his child.”

How you can do better: Have a basic will in place, even if you don’t think you need one. “It’s a good idea as a young person to have a will,” Weigand says.

This is especially important if you own property, have a child or want specific people to inherit your assets, such as a partner you’re not legally married to or younger relatives who you would prefer not receive a large sum of money on the day they turn 18.

If you would like to go the extra mile, working with an attorney to set up a trust is the gold standard, Weigand says. Unlike a will, which still requires probate court involvement, a trust can help keep the transfer of your assets and money out of the court system upon your death.

“It just makes it a lot smoother,” Weigand says.

NBA star Kobe Bryant’s story illustrates why it’s important to keep your estate plans up-to-date, said Eido Walny, an estate attorney and founder of Walny Legal Group in Milwaukee, in a 2023 webinar for CPAacademy.org.

Bryant passed away in 2020, less than a year after the birth of his daughter, Capri. But because he did not update his estate planning documents, Capri was not initially included as a beneficiary of his estate. Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, had to petition the California Probate Court after his death to modify the trust so that Capri could be added. 

“Kobe [Bryant] is a cautionary tale,” Walny said. “You need to make sure that as children are born, that they’re quickly included in your documents.” 

How you can do better: If you’ve had a major life event, such as a divorce or the birth of a child, it’s important to update your documents accordingly, experts say. That means revising your will or trust and updating the beneficiaries on retirement accounts, investment accounts and life insurance policies.

Estate planning documents are not “set it and forget it,” Walny said. Documents need to be updated as circumstances, estate planning laws and financial fortunes change.

“You never know which direction life is going to take you,” Walny said. “You may not have the time that you think to make those updates.”

Without considering tax consequences, a significant portion of the money you leave behind might become property of Uncle Sam soon after you pass away. The estate of “The Sopranos” actor James Gandolfini faced this issue. 

For the 2025 tax year, the federal government allows individuals to pass on up to $13.99 million tax-free after death. Any amount above this may be taxed up to 40%.

While Gandolfini had a will drawn up for his estimated $70 million estate, he did not appear to take advantage of tax-saving estate planning tools. Gandolfini’s will left large portions of his estate to relatives and friends after his untimely death in 2013, which triggered an estimated $30 million in federal and state estate taxes because his plans lacked tax saving protections, Walny said.

This type of situation can force family members to sell assets to cover tax liabilities and avoid legal trouble when an inheritance is passed down to them. “We need to plan for taxes,” Walny said, because it is ultimately the beneficiaries of an estate who will be responsible for paying them after your death.

How you can do better: To minimize taxes, strategies such as setting up trusts, reviewing your estate plan with a tax professional and updating beneficiary designations on retirement and investment accounts can make a big difference.

However, most people don’t owe estate taxes thanks to the high limit imposed by the IRS, says Lawrence Pon, a certified public accountant, certified financial planner and founder of Pon & Associates in Redwood City, California. You don’t have to worry about taxes on an estate unless the amount you would like to transfer exceeds $13.99 million as of 2025.

“This is a non-issue for most people,” Pon says.

But that doesn’t mean average families are off the hook. Pon says the more common estate tax issues involve inherited retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and IRAs, which can create tax burdens for beneficiaries. Pon recommends reviewing estate plans with a tax professional to understand the tax consequences of inheritances.

“Many times, we [can] recommended changes that result in more money to beneficiaries and lower tax bills,” he says.

Above all, t’s important to remember that estate planning is not only for celebrities, Walny said. Regular people can benefit from having plans in place, too.

“Everybody always thinks [estate planning] is for someone else — someone with more money, or someone who is from a different demographic, or someone who is older,” Walny said. “And nothing could be further from the truth.”

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