More than a year after the Powerball jackpot last topped $1 billion, the prize has climbed back to that level ahead of Saturday night’s drawing at 10:59 p.m. ET.

After 39 drawings without a winner, the $1 billion prize ranks as the sixth-largest jackpot in the game’s history, according to the consortium that runs the lottery. The last $1 billion jackpot was claimed in April 2024, and the biggest since then was a $526.5 million win in March.

To claim the prize, you’ll need to beat odds of 1 in 292,201,338 and match all six numbers, including the red Powerball. Smaller prizes are also available, including $1 million for matching all five white balls without the Powerball.

Winners can choose between two payout options: the full jackpot spread out as annual payments over 30 years or a lump-sum cash option worth just under half the advertised prize.

No matter which option you select, the Internal Revenue Service takes a cut. Winnings are considered taxable income, so 24% is withheld immediately. But the windfall would almost certainly put you in the top 37% federal tax bracket, so expect to pay the rest when you file your 2025 tax return.

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On top of that, most states levy their own income taxes, ranging from 2.5% to 10.9%. Eight states don’t tax lottery winnings at all: California, Florida, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.

It’s worth noting that five states don’t participate in Powerball: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.

Based on a top federal rate of 37%, here’s what the total after-tax payout would look like in each state and Washington, D.C., for both the lump sum and the 30-year annuity, according to USAMega.com.

• Lump sum: $274,168,480
• Annuity: $606,289,380

• Lump sum: $267,825,080
• Annuity:  $592,289,400

• Lump sum: $285,495,980
• Annuity: $631,289,400

• Lump sum: $265,559,580
• Annuity: $587,289,390

• Lump sum: $253,824,290
• Annuity: $561,389,400

• Lump sum: $255,591,380
• Annuity: $565,289,400

• Lump sum: $285,495,980
• Annuity: $631,289,400

• Lump sum: $261,980,090
• Annuity: $579,389,400

• Lump sum: $259,691,935
• Annuity: $574,339,380

• Lump sum: $263,067,530
• Annuity: $581,789,400

• Lump sum: $271,902,980
• Annuity: $601,289,400

• Lump sum: $268,278,180
• Annuity: $593,289,390

• Lump sum: $259,669,280
• Annuity: $574,289,400

• Lump sum: $267,371,980
• Annuity: $591,289,380

• Lump sum: $271,902,980
• Annuity: $601,289,400

• Lump sum: $253,099,330
• Annuity: $559,789,380

• Lump sum: $242,451,480
• Annuity: $536,289,390

• Lump sum: $244,716,980
• Annuity: $541,289,400

• Lump sum: $266,239,230
• Annuity: $588,789,390

• Lump sum: $240,865,630
• Annuity: $532,789,380

• Lump sum: $265,559,580
• Annuity: $587,289,390

• Lump sum: $264,200,280
• Annuity: $584,289,390

• Lump sum: $258,763,080
• Annuity: $572,289,390

• Lump sum: $261,934,780
• Annuity: $579,289,380

• Lump sum: $285,495,980
• Annuity: $631,289,400

• Lump sum: $236,787,730
• Annuity: $523,789,380

• Lump sum: $258,763,080
• Annuity: $572,289,390

• Lump sum: $236,108,080
• Annuity: $522,289,380

• Lump sum: $266,239,230
• Annuity: $588,789,390

• Lump sum: $272,356,080
• Annuity: 602,289,390

• Lump sum: $271,336,605
• Annuity: $600,039,390

• Lump sum: $263,973,730
• Annuity: $583,789,380

• Lump sum: $240,639,080
• Annuity: $532,289,400

• Lump sum: $271,585,810
• Annuity: $600,589,380

• Lump sum: $258,355,290
• Annuity: $571,389,390

• Lump sum: $257,403,780
• Annuity: $569,289,390

• Lump sum: $285,495,980
• Annuity: $631,289,400

• Lump sum: $285,495,980
• Annuity: $631,289,400

• Lump sum: $285,495,980
• Annuity: $631,289,400

• Lump sum: $245,849,730
• Annuity: $543,789,390

• Lump sum: $259,442,730
• Annuity: $573,789,390

• Lump sum: $285,495,980
• Annuity: $631,289,400

• Lump sum: $236,787,730
• Annuity: $523,789,380

• Lump sum: $263,656,560
• Annuity: $583,089,390

• Lump sum: $250,833,830
• Annuity: $554,789,400

• Lump sum: $285,495,980
• Annuity: $631,289,400

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Emotional intelligence is the secret sauce to getting ahead, both at work and in life. Even if it doesn’t come naturally, having explicit conversations about feelings can help us understand each other. In fact, most of us are taught that the very first step we should take during a conflict is to tell people how they made us feel.

But as a social psychologist who’s spent years leveraging science to help people solve interpersonal conflicts, I know that emotional intelligence isn’t just about being good at expressing and reading emotions, it’s also about knowing when to talk about them. 

And sometimes the smartest thing we can do is to stop diving right in to tell someone how they made us feel. Here’s why.

We tend to skip the step where we talk about whether the event even happened. It feels silly and obvious. Of course Tom shut you down during that meeting, which made you feel disrespected. And Kate obviously singled you out by not inviting you to that party, which made you feel ostracized. 

But assuming a shared understanding of these events might be a bigger leap than you think it is. Maybe Tom noticed the group was still at an impasse with three minutes to go. If he didn’t interject, everyone would disperse with no decision made. And Kate left a lot of people out of her invite list, not just you.

In romantic relationships, it’s common for partners to disagree on whether something did or didn’t happen, and the degree of misalignment predicts outcomes like well-being and daily stress.

What to do

You might want an apology from Tom. But the best opening move in cases like these is to talk about the specific behavior, not how you feel about it. 

Try: “Here’s what my recall of events is. But what’s yours?” Make it clear you aren’t assuming that you have an accurate recall of what happened, and neither should the other person.

Focus on specifics. Include details that the other person might not be aware of. Perhaps Tom, who “shut you down,” was told by the boss before the meeting that if he didn’t get the team to decide, he would be replaced.  

It’s natural for us to assume we know why someone did something. During conflicts, those assumptions roll off the tongue. 

The problem is, those “because” statements often aren’t very specific, include character assassinations, or are just plain wrong.

They’re tied to how we feel about the other person: If we trust them, we go with positive explanations for bad behaviors. If we don’t trust them but we still like or love them, we choose negative explanations, but constrain them to the situation so they aren’t too damning. If we don’t trust or like them, we jump to the worst conclusions. 

What to do

Talk about why it happened. Try: “I made some assumptions about why you did what you did, but I’d love to hear your side.” Or: “I know I assumed you interrupted me because you don’t respect me. Can you help clarify why you did it?” 

Admitting you made an assumption goes a long way. So does being curious and making room for another explanation. It can be all sorts of things: 

• A preceding event like in the example above.
• A misperception of would be an effective strategy, like telling a joke meant to ease the tension in the room that felt offensive to you.
• A deeply held personal value you weren’t aware of, like, “I never would allow someone to talk in the last three minutes of a meeting; that’s sacred vote time” 

Resist the temptation to “prove” to your partner that the logic behind their “why” is flawed. That means avoiding “yeah but” statements, like, “Yeah but last week we were running out of time and you didn’t interrupt Mark.” You’re trying to resolve a conflict — not win it. 

Chances are, by the time you’ve gone through those first two steps, you have context, and you no longer feel the same emotions you wanted to lead with. 

What to do

Circle back to feelings later in the conversation. Try: “Now that we understand each other a bit more, how are you feeling about this?” 

By going through this process, you’ll make your relationships stronger. That’s what happens when we open up to people about what’s really going on in our heads — and get curious about what’s going on in theirs.

Tessa West is a social psychologist and professor at New York University. She has spent years leveraging science to help people solve interpersonal conflicts in the workplace. She’s the author of ”Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them″ and ”Job Therapy: Finding Work That Works for You.” She is an instructor in CNBC’s online course How to Change Careers and Be Happier at Work.

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You’ve probably heard that millennials are the first generation to be worse off than their parents, and it’s true. If life is a game of “Guitar Hero,” previous generations played in tutorial mode, and millennials and Gen Z are playing advanced on an old broken TV.

Older rich people aren’t entering the job market now. They’re not starting from scratch in today’s economy. And that makes a huge difference. 

So if you’ve ever felt like the deck is stacked against you, allow me — a former Wall Street trader, founder of Your Rich BFF, and the author of “Rich AF” who made my first million by age 27 — to validate that: It is, majorly. Things right now are way different (and way worse) than they used to be. Typical “money wisdom” just does not apply.

These are the tips you’ve seen online, read in old books, and heard from “financial gurus” (or from your parents). They need to die — because they are keeping us broke.

That’s infinitely easier said than done. 

If a person grew up in a blue-collar family in Appalachia and moved to a mid-size city after school to work at Dunder Mifflin, what exactly is their path to, say, working at Google? 

They don’t know anybody who does computer programming. They don’t live near a company where they can intern. Even if they got the degree or boot camp certification, how are they going to get their resume in the door? 

They’re not. Google is going to hire one of the zillion people in their current referral chain. This paper salesman is going to be reluctant to up and leave their family and friends and that cute receptionist at work just to get a “better job,” even if they could stand to earn more money.

Jobs aren’t just about paychecks. They’re cultural, they’re local, and they shape our identity. 

First of all: What cheaper place? Housing prices have jumped a ton. Even if you’re renting, higher overall prices for landlords mean higher rent payments for you. And that’s assuming you’re in good enough shape to pass the credit check, have a job with a paystub, and aren’t given the runaround by shady brokers. 

But most important of all is that homeownership has long been the bedrock of middle-class wealth-building, the most expensive investment a person makes and the one they count on to fund stability into retirement. Telling us to “find a cheaper place” is steering us away from a fundamental vehicle for amassing wealth.

Plus, changing where and with whom we live comes with an emotional and physical trade-off that sometimes we’re just not willing to make — nor should we be. 

Finally, who’s to say I don’t already have roommates? Literally only about one in 10 young people lives completely solo. The rest are bunking with roomies, partners, spouses, or — yes — parents: One in three adults aged 18-34 still lives at home.

Short-term small expenses aren’t keeping us from achieving our goals the way most financial gurus want you to think they are. 

You might think about buying a house or paying off your student loans and be like, “F it, I’m never going to afford all that stuff anyway, so I’m at least going to get myself a nice brunch once in a while,” which is a pretty valid response. 

But the reason so many expenses these days feel so much more out of reach than we’ve been taught they should be is because they are, thanks to inflation. This conniving force of darkness is pretty simple at a basic level. Inflation refers to the gradual increase in prices over time. 

The problem comes when inflation gets out of hand — when average prices go up faster than average wages are going up. Economists generally consider a rate of around 2% per year to be “healthy” and indicative of an economy that’s growing steadily. More than that, though, can be bad news — and lately, that’s just what’s been happening.

Um, false. So false. Falser than you even think. 

Back in 2010, a famous study concluded that people’s happiness increased in lockstep with their income — but only up around $75,000 per year. After that, it leveled off. 

People love to throw this factoid around. It essentially meant money could buy happiness because it provided basic necessities and stability, but also that billionaires weren’t much happier than the rest of us. 

Well, I hate to break it to you, but a newer study from 2021 found that the $75,000 figure is absolute bologna (even when adjusted for inflation). Turns out happiness continues to increase well past that threshold. 

But “just relax” ignores our lived reality. The years in which we’ve come of age have seen a slew of cataclysmic events that destabilize markets: 9/11, the Iraq War, the 2008 housing crisis, Brexit, COVID-19, the January 6 insurrection, the FTX fiasco, and the 2023 collapse of major regional and national banks, just to name a few.

Anyone born from the ’90s onward lived through collective trauma — economic and otherwise. Call us coddled, or sensitive snowflakes, or whatever. But what we’ve been taught about “how the market works” do not match with our lived reality of how the market actually works. 

It’s okay to feel a little spooked and unsure, and it’s okay to want to have money.

Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader-turned expert, educator, podcast host, and founder of Your Rich BFF. Her book, “Rich AF: The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life,” is a definitive guide to personal finance for the new generation. Follow her on TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Join Make It’s book club discussion! Request to join our LinkedIn group, drop your questions for the author in the comments of this post, and come chat with us and Tu on Wednesday, September 3, at 10 a.m. ET

From ”RICH AF: The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life″ by Vivian Tu, published by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright (c) 2023 by Vivian Tu.

Private colleges tend to be more expensive than public schools in the U.S., but they can also deliver a significant return on investment. 

Princeton University delivers the best ROI among private colleges in the U.S., according to The Princeton Review’s latest rankings. (The Princeton Review is not associated with Princeton University.) The publication considered financial aid, academic rigor and admissions selectivity, as well as overall costs after aid, to determine the colleges that deliver the best value.

For the 2025-26 academic year, tuition at Princeton comes with a sticker price of $65,210, according to the school’s website. But students receiving financial aid pay an average of just $10,555 a year, and go on to earn a median income of over $110,000 a year a decade after attending, according to the most recent data from the Department of Education.

By comparison, students at Georgia Institute of Technology, the public college with the best ROI per Princeton Review, pay a higher average net price of $13,289 and earn less, a median of $102,772. Many of the best-value public colleges have lower sticker and average net prices than the private schools, but earnings fall short of private school grads’ incomes.

Here are the 10 private colleges that deliver the best ROI, according to Princeton Review, along with tuition figures for the 2025-26 academic year, per the schools’ websites; average annual net prices and median earnings among students who received financial aid 10 years after attendance, according to Department of Education data.

1. Princeton University

• 2025-26 tuition: $65,210
• Average net price 2023-24: $10,555
• Median earnings: $110,066

2. California Institute of Technology

• 2025-26 tuition: $65,622
• Average net price 2023-24: $18,902
• Median earnings: $128,566

3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• 2025-26 tuition: $64,310
• Average net price 2023-24: $19,813
• Median earnings: $143,372

4. Harvey Mudd College

• 2025-26 tuition: $72,699
• Average net price 2023-24: $32,492
• Median earnings: $138,687

5. Stanford University

• 2025-26 tuition: $67,731
• Average net price 2023-24: $12,136
• Median earnings: $124,080

6. Columbia University

• 2025-26 tuition: $70,170
• Average net price 2023-24: $20,148
• Median earnings: $102,491

7. Williams College

• 2025-26 tuition: $72,170
• Average net price 2023-24: $14,852
• Median earnings: $88,665

8. Harvard College

• 2025-26 tuition: $59,320
• Average net price 2023-24: $16,816
• Median earnings: $101,817

9. Dartmouth College

• 2025-26 tuition: $69,207
• Average net price 2023-24: $28,619
• Median earnings: $97,434

10. Yale University

• 2025-26 tuition: $69,900
• Average net price 2023-24: $27,818
• Median earnings: $100,533

Private schools, especially those like Princeton with large endowments and a number of wealthy donors, often give a generous amount of financial aid. Princeton was the first U.S. college to institute a “no-loan” policy in 2001 where the school covers the cost of attendance for students who demonstrate financial need. 

Now, dozens of schools throughout the country have adopted similar policies to help students and families attend prestigious universities without the burden of student debt. And while a free education doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, it can certainly help deliver a strong ROI. 

For example, MIT meets 100% of demonstrated financial need for students, but doesn’t have an explicit no-loan policy. Beginning with the 2025-26 school year, families earning $200,000 a year or less will pay $0 for tuition and families earning $100,000 or less will have fees like housing and meals covered as well.

Harvard similarly covers all costs for students if their families earn $100,000 a year or less and tuition for families earning $200,000 or less. Families earning more than $200,000 may still get some financial aid, depending on their individual situation.

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Before Domynique Johnson got married in 2024, she came home from work, opened her laptop and spent two hours scouring the internet for white dresses every night. She repeated the routine for two months, just to finalize her wardrobe for her two-day bachelorette party, she says.

Shopping for her other wedding events, including her bridal shower, wedding ceremony in Hawaii and reception in Bali, took similar amounts of dedication. She wanted to have a different look for every single photographed event, she says.

The 32-year-old real estate consultant from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, spent nearly $18,000 on 15 unique white outfits during her time as a bride, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. 

“I felt an immense amount of pressure on what I needed to wear … This is my wedding, the moment I’ve been dreaming about,” Johnson says.  

For many brides, tying the knot is no longer a single-day, or single outfit, affair. It can be an entire multi-event season that spans months, sometimes years. Fueled by social media and the growing extravagance of weddings, brides with disposable income are hosting more events than ever — and buying more outfits as a result, experts and brides tell CNBC Make It.

Brides buy an average of 12 looks for wedding-related events, says David’s Bridal CEO Kelly Cook, up from eight outfits in 2021. Some brides wear little white dresses for their bridal showers and bachelorette parties, or even to go wedding dress shopping in.

The growing number of pre-wedding events, and the trend of buying a new outfit for each one, isn’t necessarily new, says bridal stylist Julie Sabatino, who has worked with high net worth clients since 2001. The concept of hosting multiple pre-wedding events has long been advertised on TV and in pop culture — but recently, the concept has become more of a norm thanks to social media.

Brides are now bombarded with wedding event-related content on Instagram and TikTok, giving them the inspiration to plan more elaborate celebrations with outfits and accessories that match the occasion, Cook says.

Even smaller events like engagements now require planners and vendors so the couple can be Instagram-ready, Brian A.M. Green, an Atlanta-based upscale event planner, told CNBC Make It in November 2024.

David’s Bridal is just one of the many companies to meet the increasing demand, launching a “Little White Dresses” page on its website in 2021, Cook says. The company also sells little white bikinis, little white sunglasses and little white tote bags. Other retailers offering similar items include Revolve and Anthropologie.

California-based bride Chiara Walsh spent nearly $4,000 on 16 bridal looks before her ceremony in June, including a $19 white powered wig off Amazon for a “Founding Fathers” theme night on her bachelorette. Wedding planning itself became an event: She bought a $168 blue Faherty dress to go shopping for her ceremony gown, she says.

“It was exciting, but I did feel like I needed something new for every single thing. If I already had a picture in it, I didn’t really want to wear it again,” says Walsh, 34.

Philadelphia-based bride Hailey McLaughlin, who got married in May, estimates she spent $800 buying outfits for her four-day bachelorette trip in Park City, Utah.

“For the bachelorette, I felt like I needed to be the best-dressed person in the room,” McLaughlin, 29, says. “Because of the location I picked, I had to get ski pants and coats and accessories and scarves.”

Weddings, generally, have gotten more lavish in just the last five years. The average U.S. wedding now costs $35,000, up from $19,000 in 2020, according to wedding-planning website The Knot. Some brides say they have to wear new, and sometimes more expensive outfits, to meet the expectations of their families and social media followers, and to match the extravagance of their weddings.

Johnson says her family and friends expected her to be “over the top,” and felt inclined to deliver. Walsh, who had been in several of her friends’ weddings before planning her own, says, “It more felt like, ‘Finally, it’s my turn to be a bride.’”

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An increase in destination weddings and bigger guest lists ups the ante, too. Even local weddings, which often include welcome parties and goodbye brunches, are now “treated as destination weddings because people come in from all over the place,” Sabatino says.

Walsh tied the knot just 20 miles south of her home in Ontario, California, but with family and friends flying in from all over the country, she says the celebration turned into a four-day event filled with dinners, brunches and a trip to Disneyland.

“It’s fun to [wear] something brand new that your friends haven’t seen, or your family hasn’t seen,” she says.

The need to wear something new doesn’t always come from the bride. If Abi Garapati had the wedding of her dreams, the New York-based business strategy and operations manager would have eloped in Japan, she says. Instead, her parents and in-laws started planning — and paying for — her wedding before she was even engaged, she says.

Garapati, 29, says she ultimately wore 11 outfits to cover both Indian traditions and her Western preferences, including a $350 Reformation dress and $700 Picchika lehenga.

“Typically, in Indian weddings, the parents will pay for the whole thing, and they’ll save up their entire lives for this big, elaborate [celebration],” says Garapati, who tied the knot last year. “I did have to have outfits, but either my mother-in-law or my mom would just get it for me.”

To reduce the number of little white dresses taking up closet space, some brides are opting to go with non-white looks they can re-wear in the future, and others are dying their dresses different colors after their wedding events, Cook says.

Johnson says she tried to look for dresses she could see herself wearing for other events in the future. But despite shopping with intention, she says it can be hard to re-wear white when most of the nice events she attends are other weddings.

″[Most of the outfits] are, unfortunately, in my closet,” says Johnson. “I’ve been trying to figure out when I’m going to wear them again. Maybe for our anniversary.”  

Sourcing secondhand looks is also increasingly popular, says Sabatino, who opened a New York-based storefront called The Jul Box in July to sell custom re-made vintage gowns. Many brides just want to feel like their looks to feel both unique and personal, no matter the trends, she says.

“They don’t want to look like every other bride on Instagram,” Sabatino says. “I think that opens the doors to possibilities that you can have in your closet for a long time.”

Last chance to save: Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work. Learn how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate. Sign up today with coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off the regular course price of $67 (plus tax). Offer valid July 22, 2025, through September 2, 2025.

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