Trump says 'not planning' fire Fed Chair Powell after reports suggest Powell ouster coming 'soon'
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office late Wednesday morning, Trump said he is "not planning" to fire Powell, though reiterated his view that rates should be lower and the Fed chair is doing a "terrible job."
Trump's comments came just about an hour after a slew of reports suggested the president was inching closer to firing Powell.
Bloomberg reported that the president was likely to remove Powell "soon," quoting a White House official, and CBS News reported that Trump indicated to lawmakers he would do so while polling House GOP members Tuesday night about whether he should go through with it.
The New York Times reported that Trump even showed those lawmakers a draft of a Powell firing letter in the Oval Office Tuesday night. But Bloomberg and The New York Times also both noted in their reports that Trump has not made a final decision.
Following Trump's comments on Wednesday, markets erased some of the losses suffered after the initial reports Trump would fire Powell in short order. Trump also said Wednesday he had not drafted a letter regarding Powell's firing.
These signals of a possible firing come after Trump on Tuesday told reporters that Powell's handling of a $2.5 billion renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters 'sort of is' a fireable offense.
Any final move by the president to oust the Fed chair could lead to a legal war with Powell, who has argued he can't be removed by law.
The president also appeared in his latest comments to narrow his choices to replace Powell. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is an "option," but not the top choice, 'because I like the job he is doing,' he said.
The Washington Post and Bloomberg reported this week that National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett is rising as an early front-runner in the race to replace Powell, although former Fed governor Kevin Warsh is also under consideration. Fed governor Christopher Waller is another possibility.
Bessent, though, is 'probably not that much of an option," Trump said Tuesday, citing what he views as his good performance as Treasury secretary.
"He's a very soothing force."
Trump has been hammering Powell for months over what Trump viewed as a refusal to ease monetary policy for political and personal reasons, referring to Powell publicly as 'dumb,' a numbskull,' a 'stubborn mule,' 'stupid,' a 'moron,' and a 'fool.'
Trump nominated Powell for the Fed chair seat during his first administration, and his current term is scheduled to run until May of 2026.
Read more: How much control does the president have over the Fed and interest rates?
Trump's allies in recent weeks have used another tactic to turn up the pressure on Powell: They have invoked a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed's headquarters as a way to question the chair's management of the institution and whether he told Congress the truth about the project during testimony in June.
Trump said Tuesday that "the one thing I wouldn't have guessed is he would be spending two and a half million dollars to build a little extension onto the Fed."
When asked if it was a fireable offense, Trump said, "I think it sort of is, because if you look at his testimony ... he's not talking about the problem. It's a big problem."
One House Republican, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, posted on X Tuesday night: "Hearing Jerome Powell is getting fired! From a very serious source" and later added: "I'm 99% sure firing is imminent."
CBS also reported that some members of the House Financial Services Committee, which acts as oversight for the Fed, were planning to meet with Powell on Wednesday night, and that some want to reinforce his independence.
Top administration officials have sent mixed signals about how far Trump would go with Powell.
Hassett said Sunday on ABC News's "This Week" that whether the president has the legal authority to fire Powell before his term is up next May "is being looked into" and that "certainly, if there's cause, he does."
But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg Tuesday that the president "said numerous times he's not going to fire Jay Powell" and compared Trump's public pressure to former college basketball coach Bobby Knight "working the refs."
"President Trump seems to prefer the Bobby Knight school," he said.
Bessent also said Tuesday, "there's a formal process that's already starting" to find Powell's replacement. He also hopes Powell decides to leave the Fed board when his term as chair is up. His seat on the Fed Board of Governors is not up until 2028.
Trump, too, has sent mixed signals in recent months about whether he would seek to remove Powell, musing about it publicly before assuring he wouldn't do it.
Wall Street is paying close attention to the drama unfolding in Washington, D.C.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday that the independence of the Federal Reserve is "absolutely critical" and warned that "playing around with the Fed can often have adverse consequences."
A firing by Trump could potentially open a new legal war with Powell, who has argued that his removal is 'not permitted by law.'
The only language in law pertaining specifically to the removal of Fed board members can be found in Section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act. The law states that each member of the board shall hold office for 14 years "unless sooner removed for cause by the President."
The statute doesn't have any language that specifically addresses the chair of the Board of Governors, nor does it detail what exactly constitutes "for cause." The term has been interpreted in legal rulings to mean "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance."
But Powell and the Fed could still have the backing of the Supreme Court, which made it clear in a May decision it might protect the central bank even as it allowed Trump to fire the board members of two other independent agencies: the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The central bank, the court said, 'is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States.'
What Trump is trying to challenge is a 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent limiting the power of the president to dismiss independent agency board members except in cases of neglect or malfeasance.
If that precedent eventually falls, a Powell firing may be easier to legally justify at the Fed.
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Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How life insurance builds generational Black wealth
What if the secret to generational wealth only costs you one date night a month? In this episode of Financial Freestyle, Ryan Smith, vice president of Atlanta Life Insurance, reveals how life insurance isn't just for when you die - it's a powerful financial tool while you're still alive. Ross Mac and Ryan Smith break down the myths and spotlights why life insurance might be the most overlooked $70B side hustle in America. Listen and subscribe to Financial Freestyle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac on Yahoo Finance is dedicated to promoting economic prosperity for all. Through expert insights, practical advice, and inspiring success stories, we empower you to build and grow wealth. Join us on this transformative journey toward financial freedom and inclusive economic growth. If you have the opportunity to give your family tax-free, um,Seven figure sums and even many of demise. Like that seems like that would be sort of life-changing across generations, right? And you can often do that um for the cost of one date night per month, right? Or sort of one pair of shoes. Welcome to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance, and I'm your host, Ross Mack. Now look guys, no matter where you are on your journey of building wealth, you can never stop learning, and that's why each and every week I'm giving you guys gems on gems and today's no different because we're talking to one of my really, really good friends, Mr. Ryan Smith, vice president of Atlanta Life Insurance. My guy Ryan, how are you living, baby? I'm good, but it's good to see you. How are you? Man, it's, it's remarkable to have you on here, to the people, to the, listen, let me let y'all in on the secret. I was a young intern at Morgan Stanley. It was very rough around the edges. I was probably like 19 years old, and Ryan was like, Yo, who's this kid and how they let him even get an internship? He pulled me and said like, look young fella, you got to tighten up. And for that, I'm gonna always be grateful, man, it was uh a pleasure to look out for you, man. I saw sort of the potential, just had to get the rules of the game too. I appreciate you, but look, man, obviously I know you and I look at you as one of the big homies and you've done a lot, but to the world, who was Ryan Smith? Who is Ryan Smith? Ryan Smith is a kid from the South side of Chicago. Um, grew up, my parents are still there, um, have 4 siblings, one of my sisters is still there. Um, but the reality is sort of good, the bad and the ugly are growing up in the South Side, it made me who I but also, um, started thinking through how to sort of maximize the good in that community, how to minimize the, the bad and the ugly, and also understanding sort of the common trends that exist in communities like the one.I grew up in, right? And so whether that's in Chicago, whether that's in DC, whether that's in Atlanta, whether that's in Los Angeles, sort of name your city, you often find it sort of these similar neighborhoods that are deprived of opportunity, um, but full of talent. And so I wanted to think through, um, how to unlock that talent, how to create more opportunity, and ultimately decided that my path would be building and investing in large scale minority owned with the belief that they would employ um from those communities and invest in those communities, um, and love on those communities in the way they deserve. And so that's the journey I've been on, um, and it's, it's been fun and it's been rewarding. I love to hear it, man. I love obviously what you're doing. Um, but the reason we're here right is because after you went into private equity with right alongside uh one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Isaac Johnson, you ended up buying the oldest black owned life insurance company. Walk me through that, help me understand one, why was that a great target company to buy, and then, you know, let's actually talk about what you're doingnow. Yeah, so like you said, right, I backed my way into sort of this insurance industry, um, which is huge, it's multi-trillion dollars, um, but had not paid that much attention to it been what now, 2014, um, had the opportunity to evaluate an acquisition opportunity which was an insurance company actually based in Chicago called Equirust, um, which is an annuities provider that began sort of the full on immersion into insurance. Um, frankly, that company is a weed oil machine run by a gentleman Eric Holloman and so discovered the that insurance products can be, right? So if you think about annuities, you think about sort of solving what's called longevity risks. People outliving their money. There's a lot sort of discussed about sort of the retirement crisis and people not having enough saved and annuities sort of help that all I have to say, um, looked for another opportunity to sort of, uh, do it again, became aware of Atlanta Life Insurance Company. And so for context, 120 years of existence, 120 years of service, founded by a man born into slavery who went on to become the first black millionaire in Atlanta, and he did that by serving and to serve. He served his community, providing them with life insurance at a time, um, that other corporations and other entities wouldn' sort of fast forward 120 years later, we shorten the next 100 years, and the mission remains the same. It is ensuring that people have financial protection and also an opportunity to grow their wealth. Um, and so we do that through an insurance perspective, but also with a belief and commitment to we do best when our policyholders do best, and for that reason, uh, we promote holistic wellness. So not only financial but and mental, and so often sort of in the community sort of engaging, uh, the communities where the policyholders or not, um, and ensuring that they're living sort of their best and their longest lives. And so it's uh, it's been sort of emerging of all my different passions into uh this current role, and it's uh it's been fun, it's been an honor, so enjoying the journey. That's awesome, man. Look, when I holistically about right building true generational wealth, a huge component of it is life insurance, right? And I think about the easiest way to build generational wealth is one, you just gotta be selfless by actually having life insurance, which you could then pass on to the next. So let's start really digging into it because I'm learning a lot more obviously through you and your company, but like first off, like what's the biggest misconception when it comes to lifeinsurance? It's a number of things. Oftentimes people overestimate the cost of it, right? And so to your point about sort of building generational wealth, if you have the opportunity to give your family tax-free, um,7 figure sums and the many a demise. Like that seems like that would be sort of life changing across generations, right? And you can often do that um for the cost of one date night per month, right? Or sort of one pair of shoes. Uh, and so people often overestimate sort of the value that you can get from a life insurance and then too there's often sort of this question, uh, about sort of how much somebody needs, right? Um, butWe actually have a calculator where you can actually input sort of all these sort of key variables throughout your life on wealth and and it can actually suggest the amount to you and sort of show you where you rank relative to others. Uh, but another piece that people miss is life insurance doesn't only sort of provide uh, when you've passed away. And I think that's sort of a significant difficulty of the conversation about life insurance. People don't want to think about their mortality, um, and think about passing along, but the reality is life insurance can do a whole lot for you while you're here. So, when it comes to the living benefits of life insurance, can you pleaseEducate the on that. Yeah, so, in the most basic sense, so if we talk about sort of permanent life policies, we've heard them referred to as whole life policies, universal life policies, um, and sort of index universal life policies, right? And so if you think about sort of theComposition of those entities. One, it is sort of ensuring that you have life insurance and a death benefit need any a demise, but the other piece of it is what's called cash value, right? And so every time you're paying premium, you're creating value um that can earn an interest rate, right? And there areof ways this interest rate can sort of be calculated, right? If it's whole life, um, it's typically sort of one rate if it is indexed to an index, um, it can often be sort of market driven, right? And so you get some elements of market returns with some downside protection and then there are other sort of variations of that sort of variable universal life, and that is sort of the asset component that people refer to, right? And so as you sort of accumulate that cash value over time, um, that is now sort of your asset to, uh, do things with, right? And so you can pull from that and sort of repurpose those dollars for other things, um, is, is really sort of what people are talking about in terms of utilizing that asset and so you getSomething that is giving you a variety of different purposes. Everything from your death benefit to what I'll call a savings vehicle that's earnings with a meaningful rate of return that also has safety and grows in a tax divert and sometimes tax-free manner. And so they call it the and asset sometimes, right? Because it just does a bunch of things. And then if we think about sort of one product, um, if you sort of take some of those funds out depending on the way you do a sort of dollar earnings perspective, you can still earn interest on that while also repurposing sort of those dollars into whether it be paying for school, paying for a wedding, funding a business and things of that sort and insurance can almost be like a Swiss Army knife um that can aid you throughout life and multiple capacities, right? And if we think about this relative to like a 529 education plan, right? So oftentimes you have children, uh people recommend you get your 529, which I'm perfectly fine with. I have one for my daughter, um, but you can alsoGet your child a permanent life policy, take the benefit of them being young and thus premiums being cheaper, and then just put the power of compounding on their side from the very beginning, right? And so if you think about this sort of illustratively, for $100 a month, when your child turns 18, they could have cash value of call at $300,000 right?And that $300,000 can be used to fund education. It could be to fund their business idea. It can do a variety of things. Uh, and all while still having that death benefit in place, so you're ensuring sort of, um, a generational sort of wealth transfer, um, and sort of the continuity of wealth, um, through sort of the, the future generations to come. That's heavy. We gonna, we gonna, we definitely got to get more into that. Look guys, we're gonna take a real quick break, but when we come back, we're gonna let you know even more about the different types of life insurance policies you can get, especially at Atlanta back to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance. I'm your boy Ross Mack and look guys, much like many other people, right, your favorite personal finance guy is either gonna be me, Ross Mack or Dave Ramsey. And as a result, right, a lot of people might listen to Dave Ramsey and one of the things he says is like, at the end of the day, all you need is insurance. And so, Ryan, I really wanna get your opinion on it. Theeasiest way to think about it is term life policies versus permanent policies, right? And literally, term life insurance products are called term because they are in place for a certain term, right? Sometimes that's 10 years, sometimes that's 20 years, sometimes it's 30 years, sometimes it's more, um, but it sort of depending on the features of this you are still alive, if you have a 30 year term policy and you are still alive at sort of year 30 and day one, then that policy can turn out. And so when you think about your question, if you think about Dave Ramsey, his perspective is often sort of just get a term policy and invest the I don't take issue with that on its face, right? It's just the completion of the, the, the mission, right? And so, yes, get a term policy. We sell term policies, but then what typically doesn't happen is people don't invest the rest. They spend the rest or they just don't right? And so, rather than with a permanent life policy, you get the sort of investment component as a part of your product. With a term policy, there is a secondary action that you then need to take to generate the investment return that you would get, um, and a sort of permanent policy, right? And so,It's a preference thing, right? I am a believer andPermanent policies sort of providing the best value, but I also understand the value of term policies and personally I have both. Um, and sort of, yeah, and so when we talked about sort of giving your family a seven figure sum upon your demise and that being the cost of one night out, that is probably a term policy. Uh, and if we think about sort of meeting everybody where they are and sort of with their variety of term policies are appropriate for many people. And so when we talk about sort of the life insurance protection gap.A key way to sort of ensure that we start getting people life insurance policies and the appropriate amount will often include term. And so again, I don't take issue with Dave Ramsey's perspective. Um, I do take issue when he attacks, uh, other forms of life insurance cause they all have their value, they all have their sort of method and approach, uh, and so two things can be true at once. You know, the one thing that is not often talked about, right? So say I, you know, I get married at 30.I get a 30 year term policy, right? So, I got, you know, million dollar term policy, $2 million.03 million dollars, whatever it is, but that's only for 30 years till I get to 60. At the end of the day, right? Actuaries, the people that are, you know, coming up with how much I should pay and you know, the people that are crunching the numbers for the goal is one for them to make money, right? And my understanding is less than 2% of term policies actually pay out. And so when I do,Get married at 30, have kids, and I turned 60, I then have no life insurance. And so if I want to get life insurance, now at the age of 60, that premium is considerably different than when I was at 30 because well now I'm closer to, you know, when I do pass away. And so another thing that, you know, I, I didn't take into account when I got my first term policy was, oh, it's cheaper, let me just do this, but the idea is thatWhen I turn 60, I now gotta take a brand new, you know, uh, gotta, gotta do a new physical and got to screen all my health, etc. And so now, as you can get older, right, and so like obviously I'm understanding now I'm doing more research, there's a lot of creative ways where you canYou know, maybe bump up the premium as you start to make more money or something, but like the idea of having a permanent policy does seem more attractive, especially as you can kind of customize it. So, talk about some of those customizable things that the average person doesn't even know about. Yeah, so again, right, like this isn't a mutually exclusive thing. You can have more than one life insurance policy. You can have more than one type of life insurance policy. Um, but as a general matter to the point you just younger you are when you get life insurance, the better, right? And the presumption is that sort of you are healthier at call it 20 or 30, then you will be at 60. And so when you think about sort of pricing a life insurance policy at 60, like that is when some elements of age uh sort of start to reflect themselves and and people find themselves having some health issues or just frankly you probably have more life behind you than you do in front of you, right? And so those are all considerations when it comes to pricing. Um, but one way people think about term is sort of matching it to a liability, right? And so to your point about 30 year term, getting it at 30.A lot of times it's because you have a 30 year mortgage, right? Or you have a child that was just born and you're trying to ensure um that you can support them until they are able to sort of financially support themselves on their own, um, but then there are a number of ways to sort ofAnd shortest you have coverage, the one of the easiest and and sort of why I advocate for permanent life policies because they're permanent, right? And so we don't have this issue. And so you go through your underwriting when you buy the policy, the policy, uh, assuming all goes well is issued, and now you don't have to worry about that so long as you sort of pay your but if we want to sort of think about this from a term perspective too, there's a weird, there's a way to sort of layer different term policies to cover different sort of amounts, different stages of life, different liabilities, different cash flows, uh, and some sometimes people do that. And so like there are myriad ways that you can can utilize life insurance and have it sort of address your needs, your life and then something that we take pride in here is, is sort of building a product that grows with you, right? And so if you think about sort of the normal expectation in someone's life, it's that sort of over the course of time, you earn more and more money, right?And so what that could mean for 21 year old Ross is that I can only afford sort of X amount of premium per month. But then 25 things start going better for me and sort of that same percentage say that was 1% of sort of my earnings, that equals a different number andSo that allows me to sort of have more premium, have sort of more cash value accumulation, etc. and so on and forth. And so at 30, at 35, at 40, so you have this permanent policy, you're paying your premiums, you can raise your premiums and thus accelerate sort of the growth of your cash what you now have is a product that literally grows with you, uh, and adjusts to the stage of life you're in, um, and becomes this asset for you, uh, that you can always have. I love it,man. Look, for the interest of time, I got one more question, but we could go all day, um, not even gonna lie, cause this is uh super for me, butWhere can people find out more information about just general, you know, life insurance questions? Yeah, so we understand that uh there are tons of sort of misconceptions, tons of unknowns, and so for that reason, we launched a financial literacy and insurance literacy called wealth and equity, and it can be found at wealth and And so on there you can learn about financial literacy, you can learn about life insurance, you can literally see video testimonies of the impact and the ways um that life insurance has impacted different people's lives, um, and so and and also to the point of people being unsure how much they need. You can literally go there, sort of put in the details of your unique circ like or situation, uh, and actually get an estimate of sort of how much life insurance you should have based on your unique circumstances. And we think that's sort of a huge equalizer and sort of bridge builder um for those who have concerns about it and furthermore we, you can get a quote and so you can understand sort of one, how much you need and how much that can cost, and then it's your choice on whether or not you and then one other thing I want to talk about, right, isI alluded to this earlier. So Limra, which is sort of the research body for life insurance, um, does a study every year. It's called the Barome study. Their most recent study said that 102 million American adults life insurance or need more life insurance. So relative to sort of what they have, like, for example, they may have a group benefits policy that covers one or two extra salary, that's drastically different when we talked about the figures of sort of needing 10X or 20X. Um, but if we think about sort of what that means from a dollar perspective, they say the gap is call it like.$25 trillion. Um, and if we think about what that means from a premium opportunity, that's $70 billion. If you think about, and that's on an annual basis, so $70 billion of premium on an annual basis. If you think about how life insurance is often sold, it's sold through so every sort of life insurance policy that you sell, um, you're able to generate commission and sort of you just heard the size of the opportunity, $70 billion a year in that's a significant sort of economic opportunity, and I'm all supportive but people sort of getting their real estate licenses and having side hustles, like there needs to be more consideration to this life insurance opportunity cause you're doing good, so you're getting people a product they need. You're protecting them, you're protecting their family, you're giving them something depending on the product that can be an asset. uh, and it can be a significant sort of income generation opportunity for and so, uh, I, I try and sort of tell more, more and more folks about this opportunity because it is vast, it can be lucrative, and you're literally, um, doing a good service by people by ensuring they have these things, and so, uh, go, go tell a friend. Well, that's a million dollars worth of game. People, let's give a roll welcome and thank you to my dog, Ryan Smith of Atlanta Life. And that's it for this episode. People make sure you tune in each and every week. Tell your mama, your auntie, and your cousins to tune in, subscribe, leave a comment, and share with somebody they love. Appreciate you, content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. 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Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's approval rating drops to second-term low as support from independents craters
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump's approval rating has dropped to 37%, according to a new Gallup poll, the lowest mark of his second term as independent voters have increasingly soured on his presidency. The poll, taken July 7 through July 21, was conducted on the heels of Trump's July 4 signing of his "Big, Beautiful Bill" into law and as he's faced an intense backlash over his administration's refusal to release files in the government's case of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It marks a 10-point drop from the 47% approval rating Americans gave Trump's job performance at the beginning of his term in January. The poll, a phone survey of 1,002 Americans, has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points. More: Trump tussles with Powell during Federal Reserve visit but backs off firing threat Only 29% of independent voters said they approved of Trump's job performance, a 17-point decline from the 46% the president enjoyed among independents at the start of his second term. The 29% approval rating among independent voters is the lowest Gallup has tracked with the group in either of his two terms. Trump has maintained strong support from Republican voters ‒ dropping just one point from 90% in January to 89% ‒ while backing from Democratic voters has slid from 6% to 2%. Trump's approval rating slides on issues including economy An average of recent polls from Real Clear Politics found Trump with a higher approval rating of 52%, compared to 46% of Americans who approve of his job performance. Although Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" legislation marked a major legislative victory for the president, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS this month found 61% of Americans opposed the megabill, which includes cuts to Medicaid and food stamps and an extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts estimated to add $3.3 trillion to the debt over 10 years. Trump has also lost support on his handling of most issues. Only 37% of Americans approved of his handling of the economy in July, down from 42% in Gallup's February poll. Trump's favorability rating on immigration decreased from 46% to 38%, his handling of foreign trade from 42% to 36%, his handling of foreign affairs from 44% to 41%, and his handling of the Middle East from 40% to 36%. More: Trump says he hasn't considered pardoning Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell Trump's lowest approval marks are for his handling of the war in Ukraine, 33%, and the federal budget, 29%. More: Trump signs order pushing cities and states to remove homeless people from streets Trump's average approval rating in Gallup polls between April 20 and July 19, was 40% ‒ significantly below the 59% average for all post-World War II presidents elected from 1952 to 2020 at the same point in their first terms. Yet it was a notch above the 39% first-term second-quarter average Trump had in 2017. The latest Gallup poll is a potential warning sign for Trump and Republicans more than one year away from the 2026 midterms, when Democrats hope to win back control of the House of Representatives and Senate. Yet Trump has proven in the past that he has the strength political to overcome poor polling. Trump's lowest approval rating, 34%, came at the end of his first term in January 2021 after he refused to concede the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Trump's approval rating reaches low point of second term
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Homeowner tips to save on utility bills as summer heats up
2025 is on track to be the hottest year yet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Angi co-founder Angie Hicks joins Mind Your Money with Allie Canal to share tips and tricks to save on your utility bill. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Mind Your Money here. Well, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, last month was the third warmest June on record. And that trend is expected to continue. NOAA says there's less than a 1% chance that 2025 will not end up as the warmest year on record. And with the high heat comes high utility prices, as Americans pump up that air conditioning. So, what changes can you make in your home to help lower the bill? Joining me now is Angie Hicks, the co-founder of Angie. So, let's start simple here, Angie. What are some quick, affordable upgrades homeowners can make today that could immediately lower their utility bills? One of the easiest things they can do is to make sure that they're keeping curtains or shutters, blinds, window coverings closed in the heat of the day, especially where the sun's shining in, because we've all walked in that room where it's super hot because you've got that afternoon sun coming in. Keep that sun out. It's going to keep the room cooler. And then also ceiling fans. You might already have some in your house. Make sure they're running counterclockwise. And if you're considering adding them, that could be a nice addition, maybe in a bedroom where you want it to be a little cooler, for example. And Angie, I hate to say it, but this one hits close to home. Most people don't think twice about their HVAC filters. How often should we actually be replacing them, and how big of a difference can that make? It does. What it's going to do is just replacing that filter is going to make the air conditioner just run much more efficiently. So, anywhere from monthly to once a quarter. You should look and see what your, your, uh, your system recommends. And then just put it on the calendar so you remember to do it. Super easy, you know. I, I do mine myself. Everybody, I think you can probably do it yourself, and it's not an expensive item to pick up at the hardware store. And when it comes to overall appliances, when does it make sense to upgrade, and how could switching to maybe Energy Star rated models actually save over time? That's right. So, yeah, so if you're going in the market to be replacing an appliance, be sure you're looking for that Energy Star rating, because that will help. You're going to get a newer model. It's going to be more efficient, and it's going to save you a little bit each month. Uh, you know, keep in mind, your heating and cooling is your largest user of electricity in your house. Uh, you know, so being, being very careful and paying attention to those is really important. That question about when to repair, when to replace, common question. So here's a good rule of thumb. If your appliance is halfway through its useful life, so most of them last, let's say 15 years, so if you're eight years or more, and it's going to cost half as much to repair it as it will to replace, you're better off going ahead and replacing. Okay, and I want to stick on that topic, because what should homeowners know before deciding to maybe replace their windows or upgrade insulation? And are there rebates or maybe tax incentives that consumers should be aware of so that they can take advantage of that? Yeah, those are common things that you can get rebates for. So you do want to be checking, uh, either federal rebates, if your state offers them, be checking on that. Windows, insulation are very common items. And then also, another thing to consider doing is a lot of times we think about weather stripping in the winter. We're like, hey, I don't want my house to be drafty. Same problem in the summer. If it's 95 and humid, and you've got airflowing through around your windows and doors, let's seal those up. And that's something that can be relatively inexpensive. I mean, again, if you're a good DIYer, it's something that you can do yourself, uh, or you can hire a handyman that can come in and help you. Uh, but that is something that will help keep those drafts away and help you, you know, you're not wasting that nice cool air you're paying for. And what about some good hygiene tips? Are there any overlooked habits or home maintenance routines that can make a big seasonal difference without costing a dime? Yeah. One of the things that I would suggest, and it's often overlooked, is the fact that a lot of us like to disguise our air conditioning unit outside. I mean, I know they're not the prettiest thing, but that actually is harmful to the air conditioner. You want good airflow around your air conditioner. So, trim back landscaping. Make sure it's free and clear around that because it's going to pay off in the long run. And then also think about, if you don't have a programmable thermostat, it might be something you want to consider, especially if you like to adjust your thermostat to, you know, go warmer when you're not going to be home, and then go lower when you're going to be there. Uh, it helps you remember because sometimes we forget those things. Uh, so that's another item you could add to the list. Related Videos July Fed meeting and interest rates: What it means for your money Sign in to access your portfolio
