Even with a lower-than-expected inflation reading Thursday, the cost of everyday goods and services remains much higher than it was at the start of the decade.

Prices rose 2.7% over the past year, according to the consumer price index, which tracks changes in the cost of everyday items such as groceries, shelter, clothing, health care and transportation.

While that marks a sharper-than-expected slowdown from October’s 3% pace and brings inflation closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, it has remained above the Fed’s goal since March 2021.

The cumulative effect of those increases continues to strain household budgets, says Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist at BMO Harris Bank.

“We’re all comparing our grocery bills to what our money could buy in 2019 and not walking away with a warm and fuzzy feeling,” Anderson tells CNBC Make It.

Overall prices are up about 25% since January 2020, based on CPI data — more than double the roughly 10% cumulative inflation seen in the five years before that.

Wages have largely kept up with inflation since 2020 by most federal measures of income, according to a July 2025 report from Brookings. Still, not every worker has seen those gains, says Anderson.

“Wage gains tend to be higher for higher-skilled workers than lower-skilled workers, and in industries like financial services, information services and manufacturing sectors,” he says.

That uneven pattern may help explain why confidence remains weak, even with relatively low unemployment and steady overall wage growth.

Consumer sentiment — a closely watched measure of household confidence — is near historic lows, based on a monthly University of Michigan survey. The survey asks households how their finances compare with a year ago, whether they expect their finances to improve in the year ahead and whether now is a good time to make major purchases.

The latest index reading fell to 51 in November, a level last seen during the inflation surge of 2022, when the year-over-year inflation rate reached a peak of 9.1%.

Similarly, a recent Bankrate survey found that 32% of Americans expect their finances to worsen in 2026, the highest level of pessimism since the annual survey began in 2018. Inflation stood out as the top concern, cited by nearly two-thirds of respondents — far more often than income, debt or interest rates.

“The cost of living still feels like it’s rising for households who are now paying a lot more for food, electricity and housing than they were for several years before inflation shot up,” says Atsi Sheth, chief credit officer at Moody’s Ratings.

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There’s no one right way to retire early. Some people manage to sell a business for a huge sum while others build passive income streams that allow them to leave their 9-to-5.

Many adherents to the FIRE movement — short for financial independence, retire early — aim to save a large portion of their income in order to build a big enough investment portfolio to withdraw from in perpetuity.

If you’re hoping to follow that model, or even if you’re aiming for a traditional retirement, new research indicates that you may be able to withdraw more from your portfolio each year — or build a smaller stash overall — than previously thought.

For years, financial planners and early retirees alike have relied on the so-called “4% rule” as a guideline. The rule, which says it’s generally safe to withdraw 4% of a balanced portfolio annually, adjusted for inflation, for a 30-year retirement was first described in a 1994 paper published in the Journal of Financial Planning by financial advisor Bill Bengen.

Bengen’s new book expands on his original research and, as a result, adjusts the safe withdrawal rate upward. For those still planning to take out 4% of their portfolio in retirement, “I think they’re cheating themselves a little bit,” he tells CNBC Make It.

Bengen’s new default safe withdrawal rate for a 30-year retirement: 4.7%. And that number can go higher — even for early retirees — during periods of low to moderate inflation, he says.

Bengen arrived at his estimates through backward-looking data dating to 1926. Essentially, he says he wanted to find out what percentage of retirees’ portfolios could be taken out each year, historically, with no one in his data set running out of money.

Back in 1994, Bengen made a few assumptions. He assumed that historical investors had their savings in a tax-advantaged retirement account with 60% in U.S. large-company stocks and 40% in intermediate-term U.S. government bonds. He assumed the investor rebalanced to these allocations once per year. And he assumed that the investor would withdraw a certain percentage at the beginning of retirement and adjust the withdrawal for inflation, similar to the way Social Security does it, each following year.

Putting those assumptions to work, he found that an initial withdrawal rate of 4.1%, adjusted for inflation thereafter, would see no historical investor run out of money over the course of a 30-year retirement. Thus, the 4% rule was born.

Bengen made a few adjustments in his latest research to better reflect the asset mix that investors hold in retirement. He now assumes a portfolio with 55% in stocks, 45% in bonds and 5% in cash in the form of T-bills. Within that stock allocation, he includes large, midsize, small and micro-size company U.S. stocks, as well as some international exposure.

The result: Under the historical worst-case scenario (one with high inflation and an unfavorable stock market) the investor can safely withdrawal 4.7% in retirement without running out of money for 30 years. For a 50-year retirement, it’s closer to 4.2%.

You may be able to safely withdraw even more, depending on conditions in the economy and stock market at the time you retire, Bengen finds.

Your personal number may be higher, Bengen says, during periods when stocks aren’t too richly valued and when inflation is at low to moderate levels. But you’ll have to be vigilant — bear markets or periods of high inflation, especially at the outset of your retirement, could either force you to take more modest withdrawals or increase the risk that you’ll run out of money, Bengen says.

“My research shows that if you endure a substantial bear market early in retirement, it drives down your withdrawal rates, because it sucks a lot out of the portfolio at the same time that you’re drawing from it,” Bengen says.

The rate of inflation can also play a role in deciding how much to withdraw. Rapidly rising costs deplete the buying power of your savings, which, in turn, may force you to either withdraw more money or cut back on expenses — or both — in retirement, Bengen says.

No two investors’ withdrawal strategies will be exactly the same, and keeping tabs on these factors can be tricky, Bengen says. For those reasons, you’d be wise to discuss your retirement plans, early or otherwise, with a financial professional.

And no matter what type of retirement you’re planning for, it’s smart to err on the conservative side with your planning, Bengen says.

“You don’t know what the market or inflation could do. You don’t know how long you’ll live. [You] really don’t know what your expenses will be like 30 years from now,” he says.

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Between long office days, late dinners and endless to-dos, many working couples slip into a routine of coexisting instead of really connecting. The excuses feel valid: “We’re exhausted,” or, “We’ll catch up this weekend.” The problem is that they both end up missing the everyday moments that keep a relationship alive.

As a psychologist who studies couples and as a husband, I’ve found that people in the happiest, most resilient relationships treat their weeknights as opportunities that don’t go wasted.

Here are the seven things these couples consistently do before bedtime.

You can’t always expect your partner to walk through the door ready to cook, talk, or be cheerful. Healthy couples build in 15 to 30 minutes of guilt-free alone time for each partner — one decompresses while the other handles a light task, then they switch.

It’s not glamorous, but it’s a huge kindness. By protecting each other’s battery early in the evening, they preserve the bandwidth they’ll need to connect later on.

Some nights, even after a decompression session, you may still feel drained. Happy couples don’t force it. They start their evening together, but quietly: sitting on the balcony, lying side by side, taking a slow walk.

In psychological research, this is a form of co-regulation: the process of two people syncing up emotionally, allowing the emotions of the day to rise and fall until they feel like themselves again. A few minutes of shared quiet can reset your rhythm better than a forced conversation.

Not every weeknight has room for deep emotional check-ins. So the happiest couples keep it simple: each person shares one thing about their day, good or bad.

It could be venting some frustration, sharing a little win they had at the office or even just something funny that happened. No advice. No solutions. Just listening. This light, consistent sharing keeps them emotionally updated without draining what’s left of their workweek energy.

Even on nights when both partners want to zone out, they stick to one small shared ritual they never skip.

For most, it’s something ridiculously simple: eating dinner together without their phones, making a nightly cup of tea, or doing a word game together. The ritual becomes a daily anchor — something predictable, comforting, and theirs alone.

If I had to choose just one nightly habit to keep, this would be it. Research shows that partners who cuddle regularly report higher relationship satisfaction and commitment, even compared with couples who emphasize “quality time” together.

Cuddling triggers oxytocin (the bonding hormone) and lowers cortisol (the stress hormone). It’s the easiest, fastest biological boost your relationship can get.

Even the happiest couples feel the low-level resentment of uneven household work. That’s why they end the evening with 5 to 10 minutes of shared tidying, wiping counters, packing tomorrow’s lunches, loading the dishwasher.

The point isn’t actually about cleaning, but rather to prove that they’re committed to keeping things fair.

Instead of rehashing the day, heathy and happy couples look ahead. They share one small thing they’re looking forward to tomorrow, or even one small thing they’re dreading.

This is a brief, gentle way for working couples to stay in sync without needing to fully rehash the emotional weight of their day. You get a sense of what your partner might need tomorrow, whether it’s encouragement, space, or just a little extra support. And they get the same from you.

Mark Travers, PhD, is a psychologist who specializes in relationships. He holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the lead psychologist at Awake Therapy, a telehealth company that provides online psychotherapy, counseling, and coaching. He is also the curator of the popular mental health and wellness website, Therapytips.org.

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It’s never a good time to get laid off, but when Symone Austin got the dreaded email notice from HR in January, it was an especially tough time to lose her six-figure income.

Austin, 33, was less than a year into homeownership in North Carolina, which came with a $2,800 monthly mortgage and credit card debt she’d accumulated to furnish the space on her own.

As she worked through the feelings of shock and concern, Austin tells CNBC Make It she quickly got to work cutting her budget down to the basics. She estimates she spends $1,000 less per month now, compared with before the layoff.

First, Austin went through her expenses line by line to determine what wasn’t valuable to her that she could cut out entirely: entertainment, subscriptions, shopping just for fun.

With what was left, she drilled into how she could get the things she valued for cheaper or for free. For example, she swapped paid yoga classes for free videos online. She’s leaned into free or low-cost hobbies, like borrowing books from the library.

In some cases, she’s tapped into her network to get things at a discount. Austin has been a member at a local Pilates studio for a while and in 2024 started doing virtual assistant work for it; she’s built that relationship over time and now earns $300, plus free classes, for 10 hours of work per month with the studio.

Austin says her biggest money-saving tip is to change where you shop. Instead of defaulting to brand-name items, look for dupes or cheaper alternatives. “I used to shop at Sephora for beauty things, and now I’m an e.l.f. girl,” Austin says of the budget beauty brand.

She no longer buys in bulk and only gets what she needs, when she needs it.

She also recommends getting creative and shopping in places you’re not as familiar with. For example, Austin is now a regular at her local farmers market after she learned of a deal where she can buy a bag filled with produce for $25.

“This year, my brain has been rewired around how I see money,” Austin says. “Even when I do find a full-time job again, a lot of the habits that I’ve developed for saving money, I’m going to carry that into my next chapter in life.”

In October, Austin spent around $4,400 to cover her basics: housing, food, minimum payments on her credit cards and student loan balances, health insurance, a car repair and gas.

After being laid off in January, Austin’s final paycheck included payouts for accrued vacation time; she also received her last bonus and a small severance package.

She immediately filed for unemployment and qualified for 12 weeks of benefits, paid at $600 per week, for a total of $7,200 in jobless aid.

The bulk of Austin’s earnings this year have come from her YouTube channel, where she posted a now-viral video reacting to her layoff; the clip has racked up over 700,000 views on YouTube and 1.6 million on TikTok.

Her YouTube channel, Life and Numbers, has helped her bring in over $21,000 via ad revenue, sponsorships and brand deals, and another $3,000 for digital products like a job-search tracker and physical merch like sweatshirts.

Austin says her newfound income streams, as well as focused budgeting, mean she didn’t touch her $40,000 emergency fund for the majority of the year, and she hasn’t racked up any new credit card debt.

“I’ve learned that I’m a lot stronger than I thought I was,” Austin says. “Throughout the year, I’ve still felt a lot of anxiety, and sometimes depression, but I’m still here.”

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McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski has some career guidance to share, provided you have “thick skin.”

In a video he posted on Instagram on Dec. 10, titled “Tough Love with the McDonald’s CEO,” Kempczinski revealed the professional advice he would tell people “if I wasn’t afraid to hurt your feelings.”

That advice is, “Nobody cares about your career as much as you do,” he said.

Even if you have a great boss or mentor, it’s rare to have someone “who’s looking out for you, who’s going to make sure that you get that opportunity,” Kempczinski says.

Don’t wait for someone to shepherd you through your career, he says: “You’ve got to own it, you’ve got to make things happen for yourself.”

Bonnie Hammer, the former vice chairman of NBCUniversal, shared similar advice for young professionals in a May appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

In her view, Gen Z workers are “far less prepared” to hustle than previous generations, she said on “Squawk Box.”

“Their assumption is, ‘I went to college. I got a degree. I was always told once I graduated, I would then get a job. If I got really good grades, I’d get a great job.’ And that’s not what’s happening,” Hammer said.

Instead, young professionals have to “create the opportunities for themselves,” she said.

To get ahead, new grads should be “putting up their hand” and volunteering for “every opportunity that’s out there,” Hammer said.

The advice he still relies on

In another video he posted on Instagram earlier this month, Kempczinski shared a tip he received earlier in his career that he said he still follows today: “Be organized.”

Kempczinski prioritizes keeping his workspace neat, he said: “If you go into my inbox, I have a very clean inbox. My desk is pretty clean. I don’t have a lot of clutter on my computer,” he said.

Having a clean environment helps him stay focused “on the things that are most important,” he said.

Organizing consultant Marie Kondo also champions the benefits of a tidy workspace.

“When your office space is organized, it will result in increased efficiency because your use of time becomes much more productive,” she told CNBC Make It in 2017.

Being organized can create “real transformation in your career,” she said: “You’ll be much more comfortable in your office space and that contributes to your overall performance and your creativity.”

According to Barbara Corcoran, keeping an organized calendar is the secret to her success. Corcoran shared in 2024 that her method is to make a list of her top priorities and then “hammer them all out” in her calendar in advance.

She assigns each task on her list to a specific day: “I put all my household things that I want to accomplish on Tuesday morning, [and] I do all my organizational projects on Friday, because I’m looking forward to the next week and I can organize better,” she said.

This approach helps her keep track of her busy schedule and stay productive, she said.

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