hi, eaveryone. welcome to "on the money." i'm becky quick. our conversation with the man who runs one of the country's largest rail networks. what it's like to have warren buffett as your boss. punts, passes, and profits. he's the chairman of a discount brokerage firm, and he also has another job on the sidelines. how he handles work life balance. where will the first trillionaire find riches? and lessons in money for your graduate. "on the money" starts right now. here's a look here's a look at what's

making news as we head into a new week on the money. america's economy has hit a bump in the road. the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the strength and size of the economy, grew at a pal tri 0.2% in the first quarter. that slow down at least in part due to the strong dollar, cold wlrks and weaker oil prices. if you're wondering when interest rates will go up, the federal reserve's open market committee didn't provide a whole lot of clarity this week. the fed acknowledged the recent slow down evident in gdp's numbers, but it said it was temporary. the fed meets again in june and again in september. stocks ended april with a thud. the major indexes down by more than 1% on thursday. the markets rebounded, though, on friday. big earnings news this week. apple beat expectations, as did exxonmobil. ford fell short, and so did twitter after an accidental early earnings release. and former federal reserve chair ben bernanke is a busy man. he just took his second job if

two weeks. this one as a consultant to investment giant pimco. here in omaha, it's all about birk shire hathaway and warren buffett. they own 100% of the rail giant bsf, who had been underperforming. now buffett says things are looking up. >> they've improved dramatically. if you look at the figures in the first quarter in terms of train ve loss si, even in terms of earnings, you'll see a big, big change relative to the union pacific, which is our yardstick. so it's turned around even faster than i thought it would. >> that's good news for burlington northern checktive chairman matt rhodes. the company is the nation's second largest freight rail system and hauls half of all the freight in the united states. that's nearly $70 billion worth of consumer goods and commodities. that gives him a pretty good view on how the economy is doing. we sat down with him to find out what he thinks. >> the overall economy is fine.

it's not great. i think we're in a weird transition. the oil -- the energy renaissance had such a spillover effect. it was creating a little bit of heat out there in terms of inflationary things, people were paying people a lot of money. they were in turn buying ford pickup trucks and buying new houses, doing house redos and everything else. the drip effect of the energy renaissance was really strong. we take that away, and now that impact of lower oil prices should result back into the consumer's pocket. we're in that transition where we really haven't seen that consumer take those savings and apply them to consumption. >> you know, you've been owned -- burlington northern has been owned by berkshire hathaway for five years now. this is the five-year anniversary. i wonder what's different about being owned by berkshire hathaway. >> it's been a great five years. we're a much larger company. we were warren's largest purchase when he bought us.

we're still now his largest entity. the company has averaged about 30% more in revenue and about double that in operating income. it's been a great marriage for us. being a part of berkshire hathaway allows us some flexibility that we otherwise probably would not have had. i told my team when we first did this that it'll take us ten years to review this and then we'll look back and say, you know, were we a better company in this structure verse being a publicly traded company. i think the answer will be yes. >> part of what you get to do is spend a lot of money on capital expenditures, on beefing up the tracks, on making improvements, through good times and bad. this year you've committed to spending $6 billion. last year was $5.4 billion. those are kind of mind-numbing numbers. >> they are. but also, the operating income, you know, if you go back to 2009 where it was about $3.7 billion, last year was $7 billion. we doubled operating income. you know, we're in what i call a

virtuous cycle. we haul more freight. we make more money. we spend more on the railroad. we expand the railroad, haul more freight, make more money. as long as we're doing all that, it's fine. if one of those elements doesn't work anymore, then we have to re-evaluate that. >> we're kind of obsessed with drones here on "on the money." i will admit, i think drones are a terrible idea in most instances. however, you got approval from the faa very recently to be using drones to check out the track maintenance. that, to me, seems like a much better idea. what have you actually started doing? why did you make the proposal? >> we're just now experimenting with it. the faa's been very good to work with. they want legitimate opportunities for people to bring it to them. we brought this opportunity with a couple suppliers. we see drone application of track maintenance as well as bridge inspections, things like that. we're really excited to be able to lead the technology for our industry. >> there was just a story about drones bothering aircraft,

coming within close contact of aircraft landing at a major airport in the last week or so. that's a terrible idea. in your case, you're only operating the drones over land you already own. >> right. so we have this private railroad, 32,000 miles. you know, air space somewhat private for us. it's not close to any airports. we're going to maintain a lot of operating discipline on how we use it. i don't think we'll be close to interfering with any flight patterns. >> so on this one, i think it's a good idea. i will admit, most of the time i think it's a terrible idea. this one i'll sign off on. matt, one of the issues that's very important to americans is they know that more and more train loads are coming through their communities, communities built on the lines. they're concerned about what they've seen in terms of explosions from crude oil derailments. they are asking many more questions. what can you tell people who have concerns about this who live on or near railroad tracks? >> so without a doubt, we have been pushing to build a safer, more reinforced tank car.

we're going to get a -- as we speak today, the federal rule making is coming out. it'll be 300 pages. we'll have to evaluate what that means. but at the end of the day, the railroads are inherently safe. i am very comfortable with our safety record. we get the commitment that we make with communities. we operate through your community. we have to operate safely. and that's where we're going -- that's our commitment we'll continue to live by. >> all right. matt, thank you for your time today. >> you bet. thank you. up next, we're on the money. winning on wall street and on the gridiron. the ceo who followed his dream to coach college football. and later, the new space race and the power of possibility. what will get tourists to the moon? as we head to a break, take a look at how the stock market ended the week. i'm one.

i'm one. i'm one. i am one of the ones who discovered always discreet underwear for sensitive bladders. it makes me feel secure, confident and i feel protected. i mean i feel comfortable to move in them they move with me.

i love always discreet underwear because of the fit. the fabric is very soft. i can wear whatever i want to wear. always discreet made me a very happy woman. join over 500,000 women who've discovered always discreet underwear. for more stories and your free sample go to alwaysdiscreet.com so bladder leaks and feel like no big deal. for you and your brother?house ♪ ♪ woooooah you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. zillow

welcome back to the berkshire hathaway shareholders meeting in omaha. from football to finance and back, that is joe moegly's journey. he's the former tdameritra tdameritrade ceo. he returned to the gridiron in 2009. that was 25 years after he left college coaching for a career on wall street. he's head football coach at coastal carolina university, seeking his fourth straight big south championship. joe, thanks so much for being here today. >> delighted to be here. >> i've known you for a long time. the idea that you have been so successful in business and so successful on the gridiron, too, what are the skills that translate between those two worlds? >> yeah, becky, i think in both football or in the business world, i think the most important decisions any leader makes is about people. number one. number two, in both world, you have to be able to handle yourself under stress. in both, you have to have -- whether it's a game plan or a business plan, it's got to be sophisticated enough to handle the complexity of the market or

the opponents but yet simple enough that many people can execute well. >> i'd guess you also have to be pretty nimble and quick on your feet and willing to change. >> you always have to be able to adapt and adjust. that's very true in the business world. that's certainly true in football as well. >> when you stepped down as ceo of t.d. ameritrade, you spent a little time figuring out how to get to this next step. >> i did. >> you ended up as a volunteer coach at nebraska. >> what i learned was before i decided i wanted to go back to football, i really spent a lot of time soul searching. i did go through that process. when i had an opportunity to serve at nebraska for a couple years, one of the things that i did, i tested that hypothesis. do i truly believe i still have the skill sets? is this something i really want to do? after i was at nebraska about half a season, i knew it was what i wanted to do and believed i had the skill sets. >> what convinced you it was what you wanted to do? is it a love of the game? >> i love the strategy of the game.

it's like advance masters chess but with 22 people functioning at once with a lot at stake, number one. number two, i think both in the business world and in football, what i've gotten the greatest satisfaction from is always having an impact on the people i work with. with the football thing, there's something special about helping an 18 to 22-year-old boy become a man. i don't think the satisfaction you can derive from that, frankly, gets matched in any other field or endeavor. >> it sounds incredibly satisfying and gratifying. however, it also sounds like a lot of hard work. this is not just running around, having fun, throwing footballs around on the field. >> i've been asked a few times, which is tougher, the business world or the world of football? there's nothing i've ever done that's more competitive than in-season football. for example, a typical college coach, when you begin practice in august, you go four to five months, seven days a week, 75 to 80 hours a week. you don't get a day off that entire time. and your entire career is dependent upon what you end up doing on saturday.

i get tremendous reward and stimulation and satisfaction from being a coach and representing coastal carolina and working with our guys and our kids, but it's a grind. it's hard work. it's a grind. but i love what we do. >> joe, let's get back to your other job, the other hat that you wear. we're looking at national figures that show people have an average of about $2500 in their retirement accounts. is that a crisis when it comes to the future of this country? >> i think it is. a typical family spends more time planning a family vacation than they actually plan worrying about their finances. somebody in that family, somebody in every family in this country, has got to take responsibility for the financial welfare of their family. they've got to understand taxes. they've got to understand budget. they've got to understand what savings and investment really, really means. i think this is still a process of education. we need to be able to make sure that the typical family in this country becomes financially literal. i think that's what we need to

do. >> i've heard that you have two photos in your office here in omaha. one is of vince lombardi. one is of warren buffett. what's the connection? >> i never had a chance to meet vince lombardi, but he was an italian guy that grew up in new york city that wound up going to fordham, all of which is like me. he's also one of the greatest coaches that ever lived. what differentiates warren from other portfolio managers or other people is his love and passion for what he does. there are two things i think that really make a great leader, and the one is you have to have the skill sets, the success in that particular field. the other one subpoeis you've g be passionate about what you do. certainly that's warren. certainly that's vince lombardi. >> and certainly that's you in two different industries. thank you for joining us today. >> great to see you, becky. thanks for having me on. up next, we're on the money, taking a look at the economics of space exploration. it is star talk with neil de gross tyson. and later, balancing a checkbook, learning about credit. what every high school and college graduate should know

before they go into the world. their money and their future. s kids, now what? let's build a new, smarter bed using the dualair chambers to sense your movement, heartbeat, breathing. introducing the sleep number bed with sleepiqtm technology. it tracks your sleep and tells you how to adjust for a good, better and an awesome night. the difference? try adjusting up or down. you'll know cuz sleep iq™ tells you. only at a sleep number store where you'll find the best buy rated mattress with sleepiq technology. know better sleep with sleep number.

space has been space has been called the final frontier, but it is one long stop on the journey for astrophysicist neil degrasse tyson and communicating science to the public. we've certainly been entertained along the way. neil degrasse tyson is the host of "star talk" on nat geo. thank you so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. thank you. >> so this new show is really an

incredibly successful podcast that's now coming on to cable. >> it was a podcast and radio show, yeah. has been for five years. >> and what i love about this -- >> and i have to boast. a couple months ago, it was the number-one downloaded podcast on itunes in all categories. >> i completely believe it. >> before we pat ourselves on the back, my first thought was, wow, there really is this deep appetite for science out there that's being served. in many ways, i see myself as a servant of people's cosmic appetite. >> we have a huge cosmic appetite. if i could throw out a couple questions at you. >> bring it on. that's how i roll. >> all right. we know that if you look at the moon, we can't go there anymore. >> don't get me started on that. >> india and china have sites for this. >> indeed. >> should we have one too? >> i don't see why not. when i was a kid and i heard, oh, we now have the longest bridge or the fastest plane or the deepest tunnel, i said, how childish that is, i was thinking to myself.

why don't we just have the best version of something rather than the longest, the biggest. if you do the biggest, the fastest, the farthest, you have to innovate to get there. you don't do that unless an engineer comes out with a new patent to take you to a place intellectu intellectually, physically, structurally that's never been reached before. and those then become the engines of the invention of tomorrow. the engines of tomorrow's economy. >> the real space exploration, at least in this country, is coming from the private sector at this point. >> not really. that's the headline. >> sure. >> but space exploration by any rational definition is here's a place we've never been before, let's go. >> and we're not doing that. >> typically when you do that, that's really expensive. if you've never been there before, there are dangers you haven't quantified yet. if you're a business person, what's the first thing you're going to ask? what's my return on investment? that's a pretty fast conversation with venture capitalists if you're going to tell them, give me money to do

what no one has ever done before in space. it's a five-minute meeting. they're out the door minutes later. generally the way that plays out is governments do that first. the first europeans to the new world were not the dutch east india trading company. it was columbus, paid by spain. he had some investors as well, but it was a national initiative. once he drew the maps and knew where the trade winds are and the friendlies and hostiles were, then commercial enterprise can come in because you've quantified the risks and can establish an roi on that activity. the ideal future would be, you know, tourism and other things that are sort of self-driven that drive their own economic profits rather than tapping into a tax base. but you need the government to advance it. the first trillionaire there will ever be is the person who exploits the natural resources on asteroids. asteroi asteroids. >> because that's where the water is. that's where the basics of life -- >> well, there's all the

ingredients. on earth, we have what's called rare earth elements. a lot of talk about that lately. why are they called rare earth? because they're rare on earth. in space, they're not rare. you pick the right asteroid, metallic asteroids that have a high concentration of all the metals we cherish the most. it's the first trillionaire. people say we have problems on earth, let me only look down and solve them, when there's this vast universe of limitless resources and energy. i look at words fought over access to resources. that could be a thing of the past once space becomes our backyard. >> thanks so much for spending the time with us. >> i'm just sharing the universe. >> thank you, neil. up next, a look at the news for the week ahead. and they're heading out into the world, but would your graduate get an "a" in money? lessons in dollars and cent when is we come right back.

man: you run a business. could be any kind of business. and every day you've got important decisions to make, like hiring. where are you gonna find those essential people you need? with ziprecruiter, it's simple. we post your job to over 100 job boards with just a single click, so you can reach millions of qualified candidates. then we'll give you the tools to help you manage, screen, and rank your applicants, all so you can find the right one.

try zip recruiter for free today. for more for more on our show and our guests, go to our website, otm.cnbc.com. here are the stories coming up that may impact your money this week. media companies disney cbs and comcast will all be reporting quarterly earnings. on monday, mcdonald's will announce its turnaround plan after six straight quarters of the declining store sales. on tuesday, we'll be getting the ism nonmanufacturing index for april. that tracks the services sector. wednesday is the last day to bid on a lunch with apple ceo tim cook on charitybuzz.com.

and friday is the big number of the week. that's when we get the closely watched jobs report for april. the national deadline for high school seniors to choose their college of choice just passed, and that means parents and students have made their deposits to secure their place in the fall. but guess what? the payments don't stop there. our senior personal finance correspondent sharon epperson joins us now to talk about what your college-bound children should know about your money and their future. >> becky, of course college is an exciting time. it's full of new discoveries, new subjects, new friends, and a new sense of freedom, but it also requires students to take on more financial responsibility. >> students are being launched into college ill equipped financially because parents feel like it's almost a taboo subject. >> but financial adviser michelle perry higgins says the money talk is one of the most important discussions parents can have with their college-bound kids, becky. >> all right. so sharon, what should parents be discussing when they actually have that financial talk with their kids?

>> well, the first subject should be the cost of the education and who's paying for what. parents may be paying for the majority of it, but is some coming from student loans? will the student have some responsibility about paying for some of it? and in terms of the student figuring out what their financial responsibilities are, they need to have a budget. and if parents don't have a budget, it's kind of hard to talk to your kids about how to set up one. also, the credit card talk. a lot of parents remember being flooded with credit card offer when is they walked on to campus that. that's not really the case anymore because you have to be 21 or older or have your own income to get a credit card offer or co-sign with a parent. if you're going to get a card for your kid, you're probably going to be on the hook for that. you need to know what that entails and think about whether you want to try to get them a debit card or prepaid card instead. >> what about if your child is getting ready to graduate and leave college? what should they know at that point? >> a lot of students that are saddled with student loan debt, on average $30,000, they're going to have to figure out how they can pay that back on time and as quickly as possible so they don't accumulate so much

interest on that debt. so one thing to know is if it's a federal loan, you know, they have the six-month grace period, but you want to pay at least the minimum that you can. if you're in school with student loans, if you can pay any little bit of that while you're in school, that's actually the best thing that you can do because, again, you're going to lower the amount you're going to have to pay over the life of the loan. also think about income base for payment plans. the hope is within six months, perhaps as soon as you graduate, you get that first job, you start working a couple weeks later, at least that's what your parents are hoping. but that may not happen. if you have a low-income job or no income, you can perhaps qualify for some of these income-driven repayment plans. look at studentaid.ed.gov and you can find out more information. >> and when your graduate comes home, what should you tell them besides start looking for your own place? >> you want to set some type of time limit, some type of discussion on how long the game plan is and what the ground rules you're going to set up. what are the expectations, what are they going to be expected to

do in the home to kribtd in some way, even if they don't have an income that is substantial. is there something they can do to contribute to the household that would help. and then, also, you want to make sure that you create a financial plan. again, having that budget is very important for you and for the child. as you create that financial plan, make sure you don't jeopardize your own financial future as a parent. >> sharon, thank you very much. >> sure. that is the show for today. i'm becky quick. thank you so much for joining us. next week, the business of love online. we'll be talking to eharmony founder neil clark warren. each week, keep it right here. we're "on the money." have a great one, and we'll see you next weekend. female announcer: sleep train's interest free for 3 event!

ends sunday. it's your last chance to get three years interest-free financing on beautyrest black, stearns & foster, serta icomfort, even tempur-pedic. plus, get free delivery, and sleep train's 100-day low price guarantee. but hurry! sleep train's interest free for 3 event ends sunday. ...guaranteed! ♪ sleep train ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪

>> narrator: in this episode of "american greed"... one crafty con man makes some serious green in green energy. rodney hailey exploits a government program promoting biofuels. >> i think mr. hailey was surprised at how easy it was to make an extraordinary amount of money by doing essentially nothing. >> narrator: after selling fake energy credits, hailey takes spending into overdrive. >> on 6/1/2010, he gets a deposit from conoco phillips for rins he sells, for $231,000. the next week he buys a lamborghini for $230,000. >> narrator: it's a wild shopping spree backed by stolen millions. >> the obvious question comes up when you see all these cars pulling in your neighborhood. it's like, "what's this guy doing?" >> narratond