Month: May 2022

Always changing with the seasons, Dunkin’ has just dropped its latest menu revamp! The change-up sees winter-leaning flavors like Oreo Hot Chocolate, Irish Creme Swirl, and Mint Hot Chocolate ditched in favor of the Mango Pineapple Refresher, Cake Batter Latte, Butter Pecan Iced Coffee, and Sunrise Batch Iced Coffee. To pair with its lighter and brighter flavor run, Dunkin is also introducing a few new snacks including the Tomato Pesto Grilled Cheese and corn-bread versions of their donut and Munchkins.

That’s a pretty big overhaul of the menu and we’re sure the people at Dunkin’ are hoping you try everything, but let’s be real, some of these are bound to be flops. No fast food brand plays a perfect game, even Popeyes stumbles sometimes. So we decided to roll up to the Dunkin’ drive-thru — during literally the worst time we could’ve possibly picked, why did I think picking up Dunkin’ in the AM would be fast? — and ordered the entire spring menu, so that you don’t have to.

Dunkin’s new spring menu will be available for a few months until the chain decides to replace it with whatever it has planned for summer. Here is hoping we get a return of that Arnold Palmer Coolatta! For now, let’s talk about the good and the bad of Dunkin’s new spring offerings. Staring with the bad…

Cornbread Donuts

Tasting Notes:

Cornbread donuts are a great idea, in theory. Cornbread is delicious, and so are donuts, so presumably, a donut made from cornbread should also be delicious, right?

Wrong! The earthy, slightly sour, subtly sweet flavors of cornbread are a bit better suited to savory dishes than sweet treats. Cornbread pairs best with butter, comes alive when fried or filled with jalapeño peppers, and who doesn’t love a good corn dog or cheese on a stick? But as a sweet treat, with sugary icing drizzled all over it? It’s too much of a good thing. The sweet corny quality of cornbread tastes downright nauseating when paired with frosting and a sugar glaze.

The Bottom Line:

It sounds like a good idea, but it’s way too sweet to be enjoyable and isn’t worth satiating your curiosity over. Especially because a better form factor exists (we’ll get to it).

Butter Pecan Coffee

Tasting Notes:

I ordered the Butter Pecan Iced Coffee without cream or milk, just Dunkin’s coffee, and two pumps of the Butter Pecan syrup to get the best sense of just what this seasonal flavor has to offer. Nutty pecan notes mingle over a brown sugar body with subtle vanilla top notes.

It’s good, but kind of comes across as a slight variation on Dunkin’s caramel coffee.

The Bottom Line:

It’s good but tastes totally inessential, there is a reason this flavor only comes out every spring and hasn’t earned a spot on the permanent menu.

Cake Batter Latte

Tasting Notes:

The Cake Batter latte combines Dunkin’s espresso with a cake batter syrup, and a generous mocha drizzle over rainbow sprinkled whipped cream. Whipped cream that will last you about 10 minutes before it melts into your drink like mine did.

As someone who prefers more balanced lattes where sweetness acts as an accompaniment to the bitter and natural flavors of espresso, I’m not at all the target audience for this drink.

Having said that, it’s kind of hard to hate this thing. Is it sickeningly sweet? Absolutely, but if you’re ordering something called the “Cake Batter Latte’ from Dunkin’… isn’t that kind of what you’re signing up for? On that front, this drink absolutely delivers.

The espresso notes are completely overpowered by the sweet cake batter syrup, and when paired with the whipped cream and sprinkles, this drink ends up tasting more like a liquefied cupcake than a proper latte. But it still works because of the espresso, the subtle traces of bitterness reign the flavor in from getting too overwhelming.

The Bottom Line:

If you like your lattes to taste sweet and creamy to the point that you can’t taste the coffee, then this drink is absolutely for you.

Cornbread Munchkins

Tasting Notes:

Munchkins are Dunkin’s version of the donut hole (both horrible names for a snack, just call ’em ‘lil dough balls’) and feature the same sugary glaze found on their donuts so I fully expected to dislike these about as much as the donut versions, if not more. But the flavors are much better balanced here. The ratio of sugary glaze to cornbread is different here, the earthy corn notes take prominence over the sweetness, making this a lot more palatable.

The Bottom Line:

If the idea of a cornbread donut appeals to you, order the Munchkins over an actual donut — it’s a better form factor for flavors of cornbread to really shine.

Sunrise Batch Iced Coffee

Tasting Notes:

I tried to order my Sunrise Batch Iced Coffee black to get a better sense of what makes this roast different from Dunkin’s stock roast, but I ended up receiving a drink with cream and sugar which muddled the flavors a bit. That made it a bit harder to pick out the real flavors of the Sunrise, but what I can taste is that the roast is a lot lighter here. Dunkin’s regular coffee leans toward the darker end of the roast spectrum, this is much more medium-bodied and balanced. It’s a lot less bitter to the tongue, which means you can go easier on the sweeteners or just drink it black.

The Bottom Line:

A more balanced medium-bodied roast than Dunkin’s stock brew.

Tomato Pesto Grilled Cheese

Tasting Notes:

As soon as I read that this Tomato Pesto Grilled Cheese was made using nut-free pesto, I was skeptical. Pine nuts are a staple ingredient of pesto, not including them is like making teriyaki sauce without mirin and ginger. Sure you could do that, but it’s always going to taste like something is missing. But I have to say, this sandwich is… pretty damn good. The build consists of white cheddar, grilled sourdough, oven-roasted tomatoes, and the nut-free pesto.

For the most part, that nut-free pesto tastes like pesto. It isn’t nearly as complex in vegetal, grassy, and aromatic notes as a quality pesto made with good EVOO (and pine nuts!), and the texture is a bit mushier than it’s supposed to be and lacks texture, but the flavor is in the ballpark of any decent pesto. I have less of a problem with the pesto and more of a problem with the sourdough.

Dunkin’s sourdough is spongy and soft, and even when it’s grilled it doesn’t really ever get crispy. This is probably because it’s loaded with preservatives to keep it shelf-stable for longer. Some crunch would go a long way in making this sandwich better though because when the flavors in this sandwich come together, it really works. I just wish they took a few extra steps to make for a better end product.

The Bottom Line:

Good bread and a better pesto recipe away from being a truly great fast food sandwich. As it is, it dunks on all of the sandwiches on the Starbucks menu.

Mango Pineapple Refresher

Tasting Notes:

The Mango Pineapple Refresher, with its radioactive glow, looks more like something you’d find on Taco Bell’s menu than Dunkin’s but don’t sleep on the Refresher line. Dunkin’s steadily growing lineup of tea-based sweet drinks slaps, and the Mango Pineapple is the best flavor yet. Dunkin’s refreshers combine sweet fruit flavors with a green tea base, offering a subtle caffeinated buzz with a more delicate and natural flavor than Dunkin’s more decadent coffee offerings.

Sweet tropical fruity notes hover over the floral and vegetal qualities of green tea, for a drink that is refreshing without being boring. While it looks candy-sweet, this has a much more subtle sweetness to it than something like a mango Snapple of Arizona Iced Tea. Having it in a cup full of ice just makes it all the more refreshing.

The Bottom Line:

This is perfect for those warmer days when the idea of drinking coffee just isn’t the vibe. It still offers that caffeinated kick (albeit a lot more chill) but tastes more refreshing. If you love tea-based drinks, you’re going to love this. It’s a great introduction to Dunkin’s very-good Refreshers line.

Find your nearest Dunkin’ here.

Massive inflation, a workforce still hobbled by the pandemic, stagnating wages, a widening wealth gap, and the prospect of having to pay student loans again come September — things are a little shaky right now for anyone but the super-rich. If you’re just entering or exiting college, the financial reality may feel downright frightening. Maybe even, “I might as well drop all my savings on red in Vegas”-level frightening (I could win… it can happen right…RIGHT?!).

We get all that. But before you dig yourself into an even deeper hole by betting it all away, know that there are in fact time-tested financial strategies out there that can help you survive and even thrive. Yes, even in this economy. They aren’t sexy, cool, or even particularly fun, but they are necessary if you want to get closer to living that life you envisioned for yourself before you entered the real world and realized how much everything costs.

To help you better manage your dollars and figure out smart and sensible ways to navigate our economic realities, we reached out to financial expert, Sharon Epperson. Epperson is a Senior Personal Finance Correspondent at CNBC and the creator of Money 101, an 8-week newsletter that teaches you all the basics of financial literacy. We hit her up about everything from budgeting, to dealing with student loans, wage bargaining, strategizing to become a homeowner, and whether or not you should listen to your parents and finally look into what a Roth IRA actually is.

Let’s dive in!

What hope is there in the face of what feels like a system stacked against the interests of a younger generation and their pursuit of what has classically been defined as the “American Dream,” but is now pretty basically defined as job security, home security, et cetera?

In short, we know the cards are stacked up against us. What can we do about it?

That’s so interesting. I think many people, as they’re starting out in their careers, believe that the cards are stacked against them, whether they are living in 1993, when I was starting my career, or whether they’re in 2022. I think the reality is that the cards are rarely stacked in anyone’s favor. And I say that as a woman of color because that’s my perspective. So, I’ve never thought that the cards, as a woman of color, are stacked in my favor, even though I’m a college graduate, I have a master’s degree, and I went to Ivy League schools, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that now every door is going to be open. What it requires people to do as they’re starting out is to make sure that their clear on what their goals are.

What do they want to achieve professionally? What do they want to achieve financially? What values do they hold dear that they are not willing to budge on as they make sure that these goals become reality? I think that that needs to be the focus first and foremost, to really think about what you want your life to be and what you want your financial life to be. And then from there, work on how you can get there.

I think in terms of making sure that the cards aren’t stacked against you so much, is that you have to really research and make sure you understand as well as you can, the ways that you can achieve what you want to do financially. As you’re starting out in your career, as you’re trying to make sure that you can afford rent, that you can afford the transportation costs, that you can afford everything that goes into living your adult life, what are you doing to make sure that if there’s a curveball and something else changes, how are you going to be able to then pivot to something else?

What kind of cushion are you going to have to fall back on if that happens? That’s why I think it’s so important to think about what you’re spending and take a hard look at what you’re spending. Many people can’t figure out, have no idea, and could never give you a number on how much money they spend every month to live their life. That’s essential. As essential as it is to get a job, it’s essential to know where that money’s going. So, knowing that, knowing what your net worth is. You know what your worth is because you know what your goals are, you know what you want to achieve, and you know what values you hold dear, that are going to make sure that inform your choices, in terms of what you’re doing professionally.

But then, you also need to kind of know, very practically, where do you stand? How much debt do you have? How much money do you have coming in? What are your assets? What are your liabilities? What is your net worth? People get scared with the amount of debt they may have, whether it’s student loan debt, credit card debt, or they have a property, they have some type of mortgage or something. They’re like, “I don’t have net worth, it’s negative.” But you got to know what the number is, whether it’s positive or negative, and know how to turn it around to the positive number you want it to be. So, I think that’s one of the key places to start, in terms of knowing where you stand financially, and then knowing where you want to go and how to get there.

I do wonder though when you talk about the life or the financial life that you want and how to get there, does that mean college is our only option? Should people be putting more time and stock into trade schools? Are there any other paths aside from the typical/traditional path?

The entrepreneurial spirit has always been there in many, many people, and the difficulty has been being able to find access to capital to take advantage of it. And that’s still an issue for many people, particularly for people of color. But I think that it’s important to look at various ways to have an income. So, that can be getting a traditional job, that can be in starting your own, that can be in investing, and trying to see the growth that you can from your investments.

There are many ways to do it, and I think it’s really important to pursue all of them.

We briefly touched on student loans and I was wondering what tools or strategies are there out there to help people lessen the load and impact that taking student loans can have, the way that it kind of anchors progresses. If you take student loans, does that automatically mean you’re less likely to be a homeowner?

So, statistics will show that having student loan debt definitely impacts when people purchase a home and if they purchase a home. Taking out student loans does not preclude you from achieving any of the financial goals that you have if you’re able to figure out a way to pay those loans back while trying to achieve those goals. So, again, it starts out at the earliest stages. Are you taking out student loans that reflect what the possible return on that investment will be in terms of the job that you could get when you get out of school? Are you coming up with a plan while you have these loans, if there’s anything that you can start to pay back a little bit along the way, even while you’re getting your education? And then, when you graduate and you have student loans, how are you thinking about what is your strategy for being able to pay them back?

Are you looking at the various ways to do this, whether it’s an income-driven repayment plan, whether it is working out some type of perhaps even personal loan that you’re getting from parents, or family members to help you pay down some of the debt, and then you pay them back. There are various scenarios that people work on, but I think the idea that there’s ‘no way I’m ever going to get a house, I have student loan debt.’ No, get a great job or make a great job that would provide income for you to be able to pay back your student loans and pursue whatever your goals are.

I think that ties a little bit into budgeting, which is something that you mentioned earlier. So, I wonder, how do people start to begin to budget sensibly? What kind of tools, and strategies should we be using? What should we look at to make sure that we do know where our money is going, and why having that kind of visual is so important to be better at budgeting?

I’m so glad you brought up visual because I want to go back super old school. I absolutely think that you need to know where every dollar’s going, where every dime is going of your money over the course of a month. Just try to track it and see where it’s going. Because I think, again, a lot of folks don’t know where it is going and you’re paying with PayPal, Venmo, Digital, Apple Pay, not the same way that you necessarily would get a receipt way back when.

So, there are different ways to track this. You can use an app that might help you with your budgeting, like Mint, or there are many different… I’m not even going to suggest one over the other because there are so many budgeting apps that are out there that can possibly help you. But writing it down, even if it’s on your own spreadsheet, maybe it is still pen and paper, to see exactly where that money is going, I think is super, super helpful.

Just take a month to do that so that you know where your money’s going. I think that’s where you start to just see where it’s going now and where should it be going? The budget strategy that I like to use is called the 60% Solution. There’s another rule, some say 50/30/20 … That’s not my favorite because living in New York, it’s got to be 60% once I tell you where that money’s going.

60% of your gross income goes to committed expenses and taxes. So, taxes take out a big chunk if you live in the New York area. Committed expenses are your housing, any bills that you have to pay every month, your student loan bills, when those start again, and your credit card bills that you have to pay. Anything you have to pay every single month goes into that pie.

Then the other 40% is broken down this way, 20% goes to long-term savings. So, that could be a retirement plan. That could be some type of investment that you want to make with money that you don’t need for at least five to 10 years because this 20% is money that you should be investing, not money that should be just sitting there in a savings account. Another 10% though, should be just sitting in a savings account. This is your short-term savings. This is that rainy day’s fund, the ‘you can take it and shove it fund,’ whatever you want to call it. But something happens and you need that money, that is where that money goes. So, 10% of your money goes there.

And then 10% is to do whatever you want with. That’s your fun money. That’s your discretion money. Do whatever you want, your vacations, your ways of just making yourself feel great, doing whatever you want to do. That’s where that money comes from. Now, trying to stick to the 60% solution has not been easy for me over the many years that I’ve been trying to do it, but it gives me a goal. It gives me a goal of where to go. And sometimes I’m not saving 20% for the long-term. I need to get a new car, or something’s broken in my house, but that gives me goals.

I think having that strategy or finding another one that you think you could adhere to at least for some period of time is really, really important. And when I stray, at least I know where to go back to.

I was looking at some statistics and I found that 50% of older millennials aren’t homeowners until the age of 35. That follows a decreasing trend from as high as 70% in the 1940s. And I imagine that gap will keep growing for the younger millennials and the Zoomer generation. So, aside from budgeting, what are some real strategies people can start in their late teens, or early 20s if they hope to be a homeowner one day?

One thing I did, I think, and this again, is if you have a job and you’re getting a regular paycheck, but you can do this if you’re freelancing, working on your own, have your own business and you can create these accounts, but if you have a job and you’re getting your regular paycheck and you’re having it direct deposited, understand that it doesn’t just have to go to your checking account.
When we talk about people living paycheck-to-paycheck, it’s because all the money that they’re getting is going into this checking account. Many employers will allow you to put your money into multiple accounts. So, not even just checking and savings, it could be checking and three different accounts and those accounts have different goals.

When I was saving to buy my house and I was around the same age of the people that are the statistics that you’re talking about, when my husband and I bought our first home, what you need to do is create that house fund so that the money from your paycheck goes straight into that fund early on. You may have an idea of the type of home you want. Understand what type of down payment you’re going to need to make that happen. Also, as you’re building the money to have that down payment, that could also be like your mortgage payment. So, you’re paying rent now perhaps, or maybe you’re living at home, but you are going to eventually have to be paying a monthly mortgage. Start paying that mortgage now.

How do you do that? You create an account to have the amount of money that is perhaps above the rent that you’re paying now, or if you’re able to live from home, the whole mortgage payment, put that every month in a special account, that’s your house account. That’s your house fund. Before you’ve even decided really where you’d like to live or exactly the type of house, but you have an idea of what the housing prices are going to be like. So, that is kind of the discipline and the strategy that it takes to eventually buy a home.

I get asked a lot now, with rising interest rates and the way that the markets are going and the housing market’s going, “Should I buy a house?” That’s not how you think about it. Do you have the money for a down payment? Do you know that you could make the monthly mortgage payment? Until you’ve tried it, you don’t know. So, try it and see if you can handle it. And then you’ll know if you’re ready to buy a house. Not just because mortgage rates are at a certain place, not just because the house that you think you want is going for well over asking, you’re afraid you won’t get it when you’re ready to have it. No. You need to be ready for you financially to be able to afford that home. And there’s no way for you to know for sure unless you do a trial run.

You mentioned the idea of living paycheck-to-paycheck briefly. So, I wonder, is there any number, when you’re talking about these different accounts, these different funds that you should have for yourself, is there any amount that’s too small? Because sometimes your bills and your rent do leave you with a very small amount of leftover income, or of the money that you made from that paycheck. So, I just wonder, if you’re not making that much money, is this something you can still be doing? Is this something that everybody can do at every income level?

You definitely should still be doing this. I remember right before I bought my house, a financial advisor telling me that… I just felt so stretched. I was like, “The cash flow, there’s nothing flowing here. There’s no flow.” And he said, “Everyone’s stretched to buy their first home. Everyone has to stretch.” That was not exactly the best advice because I stretched and I had no furniture for over a year. One of my friends came over and said it looked like I lived in a gymnasium. I didn’t have a humongous house. I just had no money for furniture. I was just trying to pay the mortgage.

So, I think if I had to do it again, I would’ve thought about not just how much it costs for the mortgage, but how much it costs for furnishing the home or making sure the lawn looked right, and what I wanted to take on myself. So, no, there’s no amount that’s too small when it comes to what you have to save. What has to change is the mindset. Not that you are giving up on your goals, but you may have to change them from what you originally thought.

I always wanted to have a house like the one I grew up in, right? Or maybe better than the one I grew up in, but that takes time because the house that I remember growing up in was not the first house my parents had, was not the first house that my mom or dad lived in, or first apartment. It takes time to get there. I think that kind of understanding, it’s hard because you also do see other people that don’t necessarily take the time, don’t have the discipline. And it appears, and I use that word, “appears,” that they’re able to do all of this. And how are they able to do all of this? Because it appears that they can, but you don’t know what’s under that hood. You don’t know what their financial life really looks like.

What would you say to young people who want to be homeowners, but still live in a city? Is that a hopeless idea that we should abandon, or is that something that you can make work?

To become a homeowner in the city, in a major city, in an expensive city? Can you do that? That’s what you’re asking?

Not possible?

No, I don’t want to say that, because that’s not true. But again, you may have to change and adapt to what you can afford in that city. So, if you want a lot of space, you may not get that in the city for the amount of money that you have. But if you’re willing to have a limited amount of space, but live close to your job, or close to your friends, or close to where you want to socialize, or for whatever reason that you want to be in the city, then it’s worth it.

You have to look at what the cost is for you to give that up, and not just the financial cost, but what is the social cost? What is your mental health cost? Are you the type of person that likes to commute? If you’re not, then you need to be in a city or close to where you need to go, but know that it may not be the space that you wanted or the exact type of home that you wanted.

Because of the inflation that we’re all experiencing. What should we be doing right now with our money to maximize our livelihoods? How do you balance the strain of inflation with wages that aren’t increasing fast enough?

First thing, do you have any subscriptions that you have, do you look at your credit card bill with a fine-tooth comb every time you see it? And if you don’t, because who wants to, start, so that you can see where the money is going. And you may find that in 2020, in April or March, or the summer, you signed up for all this stuff because you’re like, “I can’t go out. I’m going to do this, I’ll get this delivered. Then I’ll sign up for this streaming service, and I’ll do this one.”

And now, the weather’s nice, people are going out more and you don’t have time for any of those things. So, why are you still paying for them? Find out what you can cut. That’s the first thing. So, that’s one thing that you can cut out right away. I told this to a colleague last week, he cut $60 a month from his budget, just right off the top.

Then the next thing you need to do, I don’t buy anything that’s not on sale or with a coupon. That includes, and I’m not ashamed of this, if I have to get the last drink at 6:45 for the Friday night that I’m out with my friends, I’ll go there at 6:45, my drink will have already been poured at half price. And you can come at 7:30 if you’d like. Or a blouse, or everything, anything. The way that I do this when I’m doing the basic essentials, like shopping for groceries, I look at the unit price. I don’t just look at the sale price, because sometimes the sale price may seem like it’s more but if I look at the unit price, which is how much it is for each ounce, it might be less.

If you do online grocery shopping, it’s so much easier to do that. Coupons, whether it’s Honey, RetailMeNot, or anything. My kids know, don’t come to me and say you want anything if you don’t have a coupon code with it. These are things that are basic, that you should be doing all the time. But now, they make a huge difference. I was watching a story on NBC Nightly News and a woman was talking about having lost her job, dealing with inflation, rising prices, groceries, and having to have less fresh vegetables and taking out meat some days out of the week for her son.

And I thought, “That may be where you have to go, but there may be some other, those seemingly little things, that could make a difference. Like is that canned good really cheaper?” Maybe you don’t have time to go to a farmer’s market. Or maybe you don’t have time to go somewhere and look for less expensive, fresh produce or something. And maybe it could be healthier to cut some meat out of your diet some days. But you have to figure out what you’re willing to give up and see what concessions you can make so that you don’t have to give up the things that are really, really important to you.

We don’t know how long this inflationary period is going to last, but we do know it’s going to probably be painful, but we can make it less painful by doing some of these simple things.

The other thing I would say, I’m sure many people who you reach that are entrepreneurial and have the passions and their job is fine, but they really love X. Figuring out how to monetize that passion is so powerful. Again, takes a little bit of extra time to go online and look up a seminar or go to a workshop. It can be free. It’s not something you have to pay for, but figuring out another income stream is my point, is another key way to deal with this inflationary period. So, your wages from your traditional job may not rise as fast as the prices are going up for things you have to pay for. How do you deal with that? You need more money. You may need more income. You may need another job, a side hustle.

How early should we really be thinking about things like CD accounts and Roth IRAs? I feel like you’re going to tell me “yesterday.”

My son was 16. He had a summer job and he wanted to spend a lot of it on various types of very expensive sneakers. And some of that money, again, even at 16, the 60% Solution, you have gross income. Let’s work it out. He had to save some of it. And the long-term money, the money he saved long-term, he put in a Roth IRA at 16 years old and I had to be there too, and all of that. You have to do it with a parent, but yes, you should start a Roth IRA immediately, immediately. If you’re listening and you’re eligible to do so, you qualify based on your income to contribute to a Roth IRA, which is probably most people that you’re reaching, you should absolutely do it.

There are several reasons why I think it’s the best thing ever in terms of long-term savings. One is, that it is for long-term savings. It is for long-term savings. It is for long-term savings! That said, any contribution that you put into a Roth IRA is yours to take out anytime you want. So, if you don’t have an emergency fund and you have one place that you’re saving, that might be the best place to put it. You don’t want to touch that money, but if you have to, you could take it out. But it also provides you the discipline of having your money somewhere that is designed to grow long-term.

So, within that Roth IRA, maybe the majority of it is invested in the stock market, but some of it, you just leave sitting in cash so that if you do need to take it out, it’s yours to take out whenever you want to, as long as you’ve held the account for five years. The other reason why I love it is that the money that’s in a Roth IRA, as it grows, and when it does become those long-term savings that you then want to take out after every penny that’s in that Roth IRA is your money. It doesn’t go to Uncle Sam, because that money is money that is after-tax, so you don’t have the same tax hit that you’d have on a regular IRA. So, it’s that after-tax money that you’ve already put in, paid taxes on it already, you don’t have to pay taxes when you take the money out. So, that’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

As that money grows, it’s also growing tax-free. So, there are a lot of great ways to do that. And some people may think, “Okay, I can put up to $6,000 a year in a Roth IRA, does this lady not understand that I don’t have $6,000 at the end of the year to put anywhere?” Fine. Put $60 in a Roth IRA. I mean, just start somewhere and eventually work it up, work up to as much as you can put in based on that, again, 60% solution of trying to put 20% of your income into something that’s longer-term, Roth IRA would be a great place to put that.

What are some smart ways we can increase our financial literacy? How do we address our lack of knowledge, and what tools out there are available for people?

So, I’m going to start, I have to, CNBC’s Invest In You. So, you see a stock ticker on TV, a person is talking to this economist and this person, and some of it, I get, some of it, I don’t really get. Are they really talking to me? Invest in You is talking directly to you. It is about asking, how do you manage your money? How do you grow your money? How do you protect your money? And it’s all about your money. So, that is a great resource. If you Google CNBC Invest in You, and then whatever topic we’re talking about, whether it’s student loans or budgeting. I think that will be a great place to go to get some information.

And quite frankly, you have to read, you have to research it, and find out what you want to know more about, be familiar with the terminology and know what a Roth IRA is, know what a Roth 401k is and if that’s offered at your job. Understand the different options that you have for paying back student loans well before you’re told, “Okay, now, no, I’m serious this time. I’m really serious. You’re going to have to start paying them back.” Eventually, that message will come out. You want to be ready.

If there’s some way that you actually had extra money after you’ve done the savings I’m talking about and all that, because you don’t have to pay back your federal student loans, but you say, “I’m still going to pay something back, just a little something.” If you’re doing that right now, you are brilliant, because every single dollar that you put toward that is going to your principal, because you don’t have to pay interest on Federal student loans right now. So, those people that are still paying down their student loan debt are going to be so much further ahead.

And it’s such a small percentage of people who are doing this. And I know the relief is needed desperately by many people, but some may be taking that extra vacation because they now don’t have to pay their student loan debt. And I’m not saying this is the majority. And I know, I don’t want people to get angry and say, “Why are you saying this?”

I’m saying it because if you have even a little bit, not what you normally would have to pay, but maybe a portion of that, and you are still paying back something, all of it is going to reduce your principal. And that is so, so important to make sure that your overall debt is not going to prohibit you from doing the other major things that you want to do, like we were talking about earlier, like buying a home.

It’s no secret that there’s a lot of wage inequality across gender, racial, and ethnic lines. When taking a new job, do women and people of color need to factor that into bargaining? What are the best ways to ensure we’re entering the job market on an even playing field? Should we be bold?

Strong, smart, bold. Bold, bold, bold. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. You absolutely have to be bold, but you can’t be bold unless you come with the goods. So, know your worth. Understand why you deserve to be paid what you’re asking to be paid, and make sure that you are going to be able to deliver on what’s expected of you when you get that pay. So, I think it’s really important to ask, really important to negotiate and negotiate hard. I mean, this is a time when some companies, many companies thankfully, are stepping up and saying, “We need to do better.” Okay. Prove it. Pay me more, give me a job and a title that I deserve because I am worth it. And I am going to deliver beyond your expectations. So, you should be actually paying me more, but I’ll be okay with this.

I think it’s very important to go in aggressively. I say that, and I also say though, you have to be prepared. So, in your preparation, you need to be able to know backward and forward that you can do that job, without a doubt. And if you don’t know how to do it right now, you’re going to figure it out and you’re going to make sure that you do it to the best of your ability. You also have to know that if you go in hard for this job, at your current job or the new job, and asking for more money, if they say no, what will you do then? If they say no, as in, “No, you can’t have this job,” or “No, you’re not going to get this promotion.” What’s plan B? Always think about the ‘what if’ before an employer or potential employer gives you the ‘this is what it’s going to be.’

And I think the final thing is, when you do actually make that happen, protect it. Protect it. Don’t just spend it. Don’t put it, again, all under the mattress, but protect it. So, how were you living with the money that you had that was 20% less before you got the 20, 25% raise? Which you’re just dancing about, which you should, congratulations.

But if you were able to kind of make it work a little bit before and you don’t have tremendously more expenses, then you need to be saving that. You need to be managing that, protecting that, investing in things that are going to be long term, whether that’s in the markets, whether that’s in making sure now that you have proper insurance for things, all of those things are important. So, yes, if you are going for a new job, be bold.

You can translate the words to Brazilian music from Portuguese to English, but it might never have the same context. That’s because there’s an inherent poetry and passion in the way Brazilians express themselves — especially in matters of love — that are best felt, whether you understand the language or not. Sessa operates in this unique margin, with beautiful lyricism and music that harkens back to the when Brazilian bossanova music swept the world over beginning in the late 1950s.

Now as Sessa (one of our Artists to Watch this month) prepares to release his second album, Estrela Acesa, on June 24th, his latest tunes are just as gorgeous as his first wave of songs. On “Cancão Da Cura,” a deliberately picked acoustic guitar nestles alongside Brazilian percussion as Sessa is backed by an expansive arrangement of female singers as they sing “Ao som dos tambores, eu vou devorar voçe” (“While the drums play, I will devour you” — see what I mean?)

“This is a breakup song, a song about the impossibility of love, framed in the context of an invented ritual for healing the bruised bodies of lovers ‘spoiled by the whims of love,’ as Carlos Drummond de Andrade, one of the most important Brazilian poets, would put it,” Sessa says in a statement. “On an exploded meaning level, it also captures some of the main themes in the album: songs of healing, making music, combining sounds as a way to make sense of emotions, of being alive.”

For anyone who’s ever been affected by Brazil or Brazilian music, this is a must hear tune. And for those who haven’t, enjoy this ride.

Listen to “Canção da Cura” above and check out the album artwork and tracklist for Estrela Acesa below.

1. “Gostar do Mundo”
2. “Canção da Cura”
3. “Sereia Sentimental”
4. “Música”
5. “Helena”
6. “Pele da Esfera”
7. “Dor Fodida”
8. “Irmão de Nuvem”
9. “Que Lado Você Dorme?”
10. “Ponta de Faca”
11. “Você é a Música”
12. “Estrela Acesa”

Estrela Acesa comes out on 06/24 via Mexican Summer. Pre-order it here.

The Walt Disney Company is under siege now from the Republican party, who keep trying to punish it for expressing an opinion about politics. But you wouldn’t know they were suffering from their recent quarterly report. Indeed, despite some extremely bizarre and troubling attacks from figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, they actually wound up adding even more subscribers to their streaming services than they already had.

As per IndieWire, the mega-corporation ended its Q2 period with a whopping 205.6 million streaming subscribers across their four services, namely Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Disney+ Hotstar, which includes Indian content. Of those, the family-friendly Disney+ saw its subscribership rise to 137.7 million, up 7.9 million from the previous quarter. (As for their parks, which were shuttered during the height of the pandemic, their revenues more than doubled from the previous year, when they were tentatively opened, with lots of social distancing and other safety measures.)

So good news for Disney — especially considering one of their big streaming rivals, Netflix, ain’t doing too hot. Over the last several months, the streamer that started it all has seen a massive dip in subscribers, which may be why they’re rushing to get a cheaper, ad-supported version up and running before year’s end. Maybe the problem is they’re not the streamer that houses the family-friendly anti-classic Million Dollar Duck.

(Via IndieWire)

It’s not often that you can go to a festival designed by the theme park artists behind Universal’s “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter,” Disney’s “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge,” and the impending Avatar and “Super Nintendo World” theme parks. For his Second Sky Festival 2022, Porter Robinson is teaming up with designers Nassal and B Morrow Productions once again to create an immersive experience. You see, with Second Sky, Robinson and company seek to build out an intentional experience that’s made to feel like another world altogether. It’s why last year’s edition sold out in less than a day and 2022 looks to be just as promising.

The two-day festival will be taking place over Halloween Weekend on October 29th and 30th at the Oakland Arena grounds in the Bay Area. The full lineup was announced today and it featured the North Carolina-based Porter Robinson headlining the affair, along with performances by trap and bass music star RL Grime and a set from Robinson’s Virtual Self b2b with trap producer G Jones. Rounding out the lineup are the very in-demand Fred Again, Swedish rapper Bladee, Scottish super-producer Hudson Mohawke, Japanese pop singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, LA’s dreamy hyper pop duo Magdalena Bay, and Manchester’s Salute.

A pre-sale starts at 10 am on Friday, 05/13 PDT which fans can register for here. All tickets go on sale four hours later at 2 pm PDT on 05/13 at the same link. Check out the lineup poster below.

The Warriors and Grizzlies have found themselves embroiled in the most heated second round series in this year’s NBA Playoffs, as the two teams have traded hard fouls, accusations of dirty play, and verbal jabs through the media.

On Wednesday night, Golden State will look to finish the Grizzlies off in five games after somehow escaping with a win in Game 4 on Monday despite trailing for the first 47 minutes of action. To do so, they’ll have to close things out on the road, where a hostile Memphis crowd will be looking to will the Ja Morant-less Grizzlies to a win to force things back to the Bay over the weekend.

After pulling the Houdini-act in Game 4 to put the Grizzlies on the brink of elimination, the Warriors are feeling a little frisky, particularly Stephen Curry who led the fourth quarter comeback after a dreadful shooting start. After shootaround on Wednesday afternoon in Memphis, Curry authored the latest bulletin board worthy material from this series, responding to Kendra Andrews’ ask about the game plan for Game 5 with a simple “Whoop that trick.”

That, of course, is the rallying cry for the Grizzlies, and it’s clear Curry is feeling a little spicy coming into Wednesday night’s closeout possibility. We’ll see if that results in a masterful Curry performance to back it up in a win or if the Grizzlies and their fans will have a little extra fuel when it blasts over the PA system after a Memphis win to extend their postseason dreams.

After the success of South Park’s COVID specials, a third movie based on the hit adult animated comedy is heading to Paramount+ next month. South Park The Streaming Wars will premiere on June 1st on the streaming service. It will be the third installment of a planned 14 (!) movies ordered by the platform. A fourth movie is expected to air this summer.

Specific plot details are under wraps, but here is the official synopsis: “In South Park The Streaming Wars, Cartman locks horns with his mom in a battle of wills while an epic conflict unfolds that threatens South Park’s very existence.” You can probably expect some sort of tasteful joke about Paramount in there.

The long-running series was renewed for another five seasons on Comedy Central through Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s $900 million deal (!) with ViacomCBS. This keeps the series running through 2027. So if you are a fan of the loud-mouthed fourth-graders, you are set for a long time!

South Park’s specials Post Covid and Post Covid: Covid Returns aired last year, tackling the future of the COVID pandemic in the fictional land of South Park. The series has been on air since 1997 and just wrapped up its 25th season earlier this year.

Check out the quick teaser trailer above.

The fear of unskippable ads in menus or gameplay has led to a lot of concern over recent reports that Microsoft and other gaming companies are searching out ways to implement advertisements into some of their games. Those fears were only increased when Electronic Arts CEO, Andrew Wilson, said in a recent earnings call that he feels in-game advertisements can have a place in gaming “if done right.”

We want to ensure that the player experience is the best possible player experience that we can provide. And that’s why you’ve seen us kind of test various models over the course of time, some have continued and some we have stopped on the basis of really upholding the best possible player experience we can.

What we’ve seen generally though in entertainment media and even in games, particularly in mobile games right now, you see that there is a place for advertising when done right. And there is a portion of the community that when given the choice will participate in advertising where it benefits their gameplay experience..

While Wilson does mention the “player experience,” it’s hard to not bristle at the idea of advertisements taking on a larger role inside games. For example, Wilson mentions the ads that exist within mobile games right now, and as someone who plays mobile games, many of them do have unskippable ads that interrupt gameplay. EA, in particular, has a negative history involving forced advertisement in its games, such as when ads had to be taken out of UFC 4 because they would appear in the middle of a fight. One of EA’s competitors, NBA 2K, caught major flack for trying to cram unskippable ads into NBA 2K21.

To play devil’s advocate, ads have existed in games for a long time in more subtle formats. Sports games feature them on billboards or will have awards named after them, and we’ve seen racing games use billboards and decals of real-world brands plenty of times. Then again, these were all subtle. If we start seeing huge, unskippable ads in the middle of games, there will be a whole lot of extremely unhappy players. History tells us players don’t want this, and while Wilson can speak to the player experience all he wants, that isn’t going to quell the fears.

The director of the polarizing movie Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, just landed a new project at Peacock, and it sure sounds like a doozy. Jason Woliner’s untitled series promises to be a “mind-bending” show, with Seth Rogan signed on to executive produce.

Lionsgate Television EVP Scott Herbst said, “This show is unlike anything else you’ll see this year. This is one of the most bizarre, out-of-the-box shows I’ve ever worked on, and I can’t believe we’re even getting to make it.” The show’s premise is….still not clear, but will allegedly “mix fact and fiction to tell a bizarre and incredible tale,” according to Deadline. So, like Borat!

Woliner has reportedly been working on the project for over a decade. He has also directed episodes of Nathan For You, which is a similarly “out-of-the-box” show, so this should be good!

Lisa Katz, president of scripted content at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, added, “We can’t wait to dive in with renowned filmmaker Jason Woliner, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and our partners at Lionsgate for this truly unique series that begins with betrayal and quickly becomes an epic, hilarious, action-packed journey. We know Peacock audiences will be hooked by this unpredictable mystery that examines a complex man on a remarkable journey.” The series is expected to stream on Peacock later this year.

In a stunning legal blunder, the far-right personality known as “Baked Alaska” (real name: Anthime Joseph Gionet) may have completely blown up a plea deal during a hearing for his involvement in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Gionet, who literally filmed himself inside the Capitol during the MAGA insurrection, was set to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count by admitting he “willfully and knowingly paraded, demonstrated, and picketed.” However, the situation quickly went south when Gionet, instead, declared that he’s innocent.

Via NBC News:

But the deal went out the window at a hearing on Wednesday after Judge Emmet G. Sullivan asked Gionet whether he was pleading guilty because he was, in fact, guilty.

“I wanted to go to trial, but the prosecutors if I [went] to trial they would put a felony on me, so I think this is probably the better route,” Gionet said. “I believe I’m innocent… but they’re saying if I go to trial they’re going to hit me with a felony.”

After hearing Gionet declare himself innocent, Sullivan set a trial date for March 2023. “If Mr. Gionet wants to go to trial, he’ll get a fair trial, like anyone and everyone else who has appeared before me, regardless of the charges,” Sullivan said. “I’m not trying to trick you… Don’t plead guilty to please me.”

Despite Gionet seemingly shooting himself in the foot and locking himself in for a trial where he’s on video saying, “Occupy the Capitol, let’s go. We ain’t leaving this bitch,” federal prosecutors said they would leave the plea deal open for 60 days should Mr. Alaska change his mind.

(Via NBC News)