hi everybody. welcome to "on the money." i'm becky quickly. important now warning about social security. is it safe? will it last and why that is not the only retirement issue to worry about. the silicon valley entrepreneur has a now low tech idea. >> i saw 24-year-olds making millions but also fundamentally changing the world. >> approximate ups and downs of being your own boss. what you need know if you are a freelancer or know someone who is and the new trend in big city housing is small apartments. when we say small we mean tiny. what is it? and why are yos big bucks more? "on the money"it starts right

now. >> "on the money"is your life, your future. now becky quickly. >> look at what's making news into a new week. third month of in a row a disappointing retail sales number. the commerce department says they fell by .6 percent in part of lower gas prices and harsh rewinter weather. stocks didn't seem to mind. they bounced back thursday with the dow climbing 250 after its biggest two day decline since january. but the market fell friday. stocks reacting to the strengthening dollar making u.s. product more expensive overseas and hurts companies relying on exports. if you plan on flying any time soon get ready for a lot of company. just what you waned when you were flying. airlines are expected to carry more passengers this spring than in seven years. 134 million passengers in march

and april up almost 2% from the same time last year. good luck finding any elbow room. there is an invisible three-headed monster out there maybe threatening retirement of millions of americans. future costs are all looming large and no one seems to be paying much attention to them. except for david walker. he is the former u.s. comptroller general joining us right now. thank you. >> great to be with you becky. >> we've within talking about the in year for eoyou have been talking about it for years before that. the things coming up i but the turns out the part of the social security, the disability trust fund is looking like it could run out next year. >> according to trustees it is supposed to go to zero, the so called fund in 2016. in reality what they would probably do is just reallocate the payroll tax revenues from the retirement portion to the disability portion rather than solve the problem. washington has a tendency to put band aids on open wounds rather

than trying to do what needs to be done. >> how bad is the situation right now and how would you fix it when it comes to social security? >> government uses words that don't mean the same as websters diction anywhere like trust funds. you can't trust them. what's in there is government debt. in reality there is enough government debt in there such that we can pay benefit os an combined basis until 20033. >> we have a situation where the retirement is gradually raising from 67 to 65. what else needs to be done. >> we're going raise the taxable wage gap. it's about 18,500 and probably up go to something less than 2,000 dollars. not eliminate it. not raise the tax rate because that is very regressive. maybe additional changes to the retirement eligibility age based on increase in life expectancy. the new tables have gone up two years for men and women since

last time they did it. but gradually phase that in. you have to keep in mind people in certain occupations like, you know, can't work that long. >> desk job or something like what i do. >> intellectual capital like we work in, no problem. but manual labor, my grandfather's worked in the mines and steel mills are. it is not the same. so we're going to to have to have a stronger minimum benefit because too many rely on that and maybe provide less replacement rate for upper middle and upper income individuals that. will solve the problem and we with move to tougher things. >> it sounds so easy. why is it so hard to get anybody to pay attention to this? >> leadership. we have a great partisan divide and an even bigger ideological divide. many democrats don't even want to talk about social security/medicare reform. they want to wait until we're at the cliff's edge. many, many republicans don't want toechb consider the

possibility of raising the taxable wage base cap because they call that a tax increase. what they need to understand is the longer we wait the mor dramatic the change, both on the spending side and revenue side. we need to get the power of compounding to work for us. making tough choices sooner rather than later. >> what about medicare? what is the problem the is in m times worse and we're going to have to solve medicare in conjunction with the broader healthcare. we've overpromised on healthcare. the affordable care act promised too much. didn't do enough with regard to controlling healthcare costs and the biggest single challenge that we face in government is healthcare costs, given known demographic trends and the fact they are still going up faster than inflation and faster the economic growth. we also have to rationalize how much university healthcare is appropriate, affordable and sustainable. how can we p more for outcomes

rather than activities. you can't write a blank check nor healthcare. it's 18% of gdp and growing. i doesn't work. there are a number of things we must do but this is a heavier lift. and we will get it done. we'll have to but it is going to be tougher choices. >> that is just the federal problems. we also have the state pension plans and we've heard about many of them. new jersey, illinois, that are in really tough shape. how big a of a problem is this? and is there a fix for this hole too. >> it is a huge problem. and it's not just pensioned, underfunded pensions. the pensioned are generally funded. it is a matter of how well-funded they are. and retire plans the fact that state and local governments may generous promises to retirees and they retire early and they're generally unfunded. we have restructure these in a way fair to workers and to retirees. and there is a way to do that. we can have new plans for new workers on the pension side. we can eliminate the abuses with

regard to current workers such as double dipping and working a lot of overtime near the end into one's career to pad your pension. we can also end up capping the indexing. allow for indexing for inflation but have a reasonable relationship for how much you make in retirement versus the person who has the job that you retire from. so with regard to healthcare we have an even bigger option. we have the afford shl care act now. you can let people be covered under the affordable care act. depending on income they may get subsidies and then convert to a defined contribution premium support approach based upon years of service and those changes will save many, many billions of dollars. and absence of restructuring it means higher taxes over time. and many cases the states with the biggest problems are already overtaxed. >> really appreciate you joining us. >> great to be with you becky. >> up next we're "on the money."

ev old is new again. meet the technology entrepreneur whose breaking barriers in selg valley and betting than an old fashioned single blade razor is the future of shaving. and later the incredible shrinking apartments. why they are getting even smaller and why one city is making a huge pet on the tiny movement. and look how the stock market ended week as we go into brea

tristan walker is one of the young entrepreneurs at the top of his game in silicon valley after stops at foursquare and venture capital giant andreessen horowitz the new york city native started his own start up called the walker and company brands. the latest and a single blade razor. more than 900 million in funding he's disrupting the %. >> thanks for having me.

>> you are from silicon valley. spent a lot of time in the technology world. and yet your first product is a razor. which means very low tech. what is special about this razor. >> bevel is the first shaving system designed for folks with coarse and curly hair like me. prone to shaving irritation r b. we sell online. and that is where the technology starts. i like to describe as this duck analogy. very beautiful above water but legs are flapping beneath it. there is a lot that goes on behind the engine to offer the best experience all the way down to the supply change. >> something i never even thought about. you need a different razor if you have different type of hair that comes out. >> absolute it. up to 80% of black men and women have this issue. and 30% of men and women oaf other races. multiblade razors today cut the

hair beneath your skin and if your curly hair it can lead to these issues. it's a problem and saps confidence among other things. and no one's tried to fix it until now. i felt there had to be a better way. i was frustrated and bevel was founded out of that belief. >> what is next? this is the first line. you made a point of saying this is one of many many. >> balker and company is all about developing a suite of brands that solve problems for people of color. bevel is the first manifestation. we've e rradicated the shaving issue. and the other issues. we talk about the prevalence even of miskarcarriage and how n hair products lead to some of that issue. that is a problem and all of these really need to be fixed. >> business world like any world i think can be fairly insular. the type of place you learn about growing up there.

how didn't learn about silicon valley growing up. how did you break? >> by luck. applied to stanford when i was 24 anded that good fortune to led me in. and i wanted to learn as much as about silicon valley as possible. and i knew i wanted to be a part of that. and i tried everything i could to be a part of it. and fortunately i've been blessed with an opportunity to do so. >> and huge storied head lines about how they aren't a lot of women in silicon valley. not a lot of minorities in silicon valley. it is a problem that silicon valley to me it seems seems it is trying to take on and pay attention to it. >> i agree. when i think about this problem there are two big ones. number one, a lot of folks talk about the access problem. i like to talk about the awareness problem. t the fact that i just did not silicon valley existed is a big problem. secondly, assuming the awareness problem gets fixed, one issue that we have to deal with -- and this is an issue everyone has to

deal with in any business is -- implicit bias. and rad indicating that within your company. one thing in my company if we need to hire blow employees i ask before you can fill roll think of folks of color or women who can excel. and let's lead to a majority, minority employee base. majority women all fantastic leaders and that's something i'm going to continue because we're serving a diverse base. >> i don't know your plans for company if you quantity keep this independent but i could see someone saying we need this. what would your approach be if someone like that came knocking. >> a couple of things. woe want to build a company with legacy as those. there is no reason we can't do the same. it would be my biggest joy to have walker and company outlas me. i think this is a company that needs to exist. we're serving an incredible

demographic that will be the fastest -- well diseait is the fastest growing dem graphic in the country. we're serving a demographic that is the majority of the world. our opportunity is significant and for us to give u on that run would be a a shame. >> tristan thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. appreciate it. thank you. >> up next we are "on the money." think small. a new way of living that is hitting big cities all across the country. could would you manage to live in 400 square feet or less? and later learn how

>> all of them studios, ranging from 380 to 470 square feet. storage space above the bathroom. and generously sized closet. kitchen. it's all a little more compact than a bigger apartment. >> that was the project developer of the high micro apartment complex in new york. it is a project complex that the city hopes will alleviate the demand for renters. hard to imagine living in less than 400 square feet. research suggests it is the trend for folks everywhere. joining us mimi hoang. >> there were issues prevent

aing apartments of less than 400 square feet. it's been waived for this. >> this is a pilot project. it's raised for this project and the hope is if it's successful the city would rezone to allow it. >> i live in the suburbs. i'm used to living in quite bit more space. how do you live in 375 square feet? is it possible? >> it is entirely possible. i would say this is not for everybody. but the fact is that more and more people are living alone and that is due to the fact that we are studying more, particularly women. we are marrying later. and we are also unfortunately divorcing more. so in manhattan almost half the population lives by themselves. this project is in response to a change in demographics. >> when i looked at what we just saw from the video footage it's beautiful. it looks more spacious than i might have imagined. but have you or anybody you know actually tried do this? >> my partner at n architects

whose also my husband we lived in a 375 square foot apartment for five years. >> both of you? >> both of us in the same space. the as good test for marriage. but that was our market research on maximizing space and going ve vertical with storage. we chose it because we wanted to be in the heart of manhattan. so it is a lifestyle choice for some people who are very enticed by urban living to be close to amenities and cut down on community. >> it -- commute time. >> it's not necessarily cheap. because you are talking about the prime locations. how much do you end up paying an apartment like this. >> the develop is going to be 40% affordable and the rest is market rate. so whatever market rate will be by the time we finish, that will set the price. >> i have been surprised. as you said it is not for everybody.

you might expect it in the heart of manhattan. but i've been surprised it is picking up in like boston, seattle and even in the "new york times" suggested tennessee. >> and texas. >> texas too. >> although micro in texas is 500 to 600 square feet. but that is small by their standards. where there is a housing shortage in dense cities and just overall general desire to live in cities. >> do you think part is response to the housing bubble bursting back in 2008 and people feeling maybe they had been putting too much into housing? >> yes and also people feeling as if they don't necessarily need mcmansions. and they don't necessarily need to own so much because it could all go away. >> mimi, thank you so much for joining us today. >> you're welcome. >> up next "on the money," a look at the news for the week ahead and how to be your own boss and keep your finances sh. is it a dream or a nightmare?

for more on our show and our guests go to otm.cnbc.com and follow us on twitter "on the money." we'll be e getting production figures for february. tuesday housing shorts for february. and plus tuesday when irish eyes are smiling, watch for parades,

leprechauns and shamrocks. and wednesday the two day meeting on monetary policy. and spring finally begins. yay. the number of americans who work for themselves has grown by more than a million people in the last three years. there were more than 50 million at the end of 2014 according to the bureau of labor statistics. after that the number grows significantly. joining us is sharon epperson to talk about the impact of freelance work on your future d money. >> about one-third of u.s. workers are freelancing to predt workers will increase enough in number to make up half of the labor force in the next five years. >> we're talking upwards to 45, 50 million people all

freelancers, consultant, independent contractors. that is not going change not only their life but the way corporate america works. >> why the huge number of people who are self employed like this? because they want to be in because the other jobs aren't there. >> i think a combination of both. and we talk about how much of the u.s. workforce is under employed and in order to get up to what they need to be making, others are saying this is a more entrepreneurial economy. soing ing to figure that out they may have their other job and trying to figure out how to become better in the future and freelancing to do that. >> and what is the biggest thing to before making the transition? >> one thing it's great to know you can be yn boss and set your own deadlines but to be a successful boss of yourself, you also have to be a successful marketer and get the word out about b what you are doing and what you are able to do. and this is a skill set you may not have developed as well in a

traditional job. >> some of the more practical considerations. what should freelancers know before they jump in full barrel is this. >> there are financial considerations you really need to make. you have to manage your own finances and taxes as well. so a rule of thumb i think is easy when i was doing a lot of freelances, you know, you think about your tax bracket and put about that percentage of what you are getting. whatever check you get into a separate account so you have that money already set aside. health insurance is a big consideration you have to now do on your en. and you can go to healthcare.gov and tryi to find options. and there are other place to find options. and retirement. retirement options for self employed and freelancing are so wide. much more than the traditional 401(k). but a solo 401(k) allows you do put in even more money. >> you are your own boss it gets tricky sometimes that maybe you combine personal and business expenses.

>> that is the worst thing you can do. big no no. make sure you have a separate checking account for business and a separate business credit card. you want to keep them separate because those business expenses are going to be tax deductions down the road. so you want to make sure that you understand what some of those potential expenses are that you are going writeoff. >> shash sharon thank you. that is the show for today. i'm becky quick. thank you for joining me. next week are they a technological breakthrough or a menace to air safety. are drones a danger? have a great one. and i'll see you next week.

>> our exclusive interview with the only father figure in gordon's life. hi everybody. welcome to "access hollywood", hollywood", i'm shaun. appearing heart broken n.e. motional pain and clearly under the influence of alcohol, nick gordon bare his soul to dr. phil and i watched it unfold alongside the only man nick called dad. stepfather jack walker junior. >> my pain is horrible. my heart hurts. >> he has said to me many times that he's going to kill himsel himself. and he's tried. >> wow! the quite emotional to watch that. >>