seeing the future when it comes to your health. reporter meg terrell had her dna mapped. find out what she learned. reinventing retail. can a new concept save the traditional brick and mortar store with a very untraditional idea? "on the money" starts right now. >> announcer: this is "on the money." your money, your life, your future. now, becky quick. for the first time in nearly a decade, the federal reserve bank is raising interest rates. it's not a big move and it was widely telegraphed, but it's important, nonetheless. we'll get to what it means for your money in just a moment. first, economics reporter steve liesman explains just how a fed rate hike works. >> reporter: it was the pre-dawn of the modern age. twitter didn't exist. there was neither iphone nor ipad. the year, 2006. it was the last time the federal reserve raised interest rates. so it's not embarrassing to ask,

the federal reserve controls outright only one interest rate in the economy. the one banks use to lend to each other overnight, or the fed funds rate. the prime rate is tied to the fed funds rate and many consumer loans and credit cards are tied to the prime rate. with a higher rate, the fed tries to slow down the economy. with a lower rate, it tries toy s toies toy s toies to stimulate the economy. that's what the fed did with excessive cuts during the financial crisis of 2007. it slashed rates to the zero, with a bin for nearly seven years. raising rates this time will be complicated. when they were lowered to zero and the economy was still in the doldrums, the fed tried to stimulate growth by buying long-term bonds, pumping $4 trillion of cash into the banking system. even with a higher fed funds rate, that money will stay in the system until the fed decides to decrease its balance sheet, which it could do, for example, by selling some of the assets it bought to help keep interest rates low. but that could be a while.

the future rate hikes, which are likely to be slower and more gradual than a previous rate hike cycle. that means consumers shouldn't be too worried about soaring interest rates anytime soon. >> so, what does an interest rate increase mean to you and your money? joining us right now, senior personal finance correspondent, sharon epperson, and real estate reporter, diana olick. sharon, the first question people have is trying to figure out what it means for credit cards. how quickly do those rates rise? >> you know, steve talked about the fed funds rate and the prime rate. credit card rates tied to that. so you're definitely going to see an impact. now is the time that you should start opening those bills and actually reading what the rate is on them, and trying to figure out if you can pay that down as quickly as possible. it really only affects you if you are carrying a balance month to month, which you shouldn't be doing anyway. but if you are, you may want to look and find right now if they're still offering zero percent balance transfer offers, you want to take advantage of that and get that -- all that credit card debt moved over to one of those. >> a lot of that went up overnight, though? as soon as the fed acted?

>> diana, obviously, interest rates, people start thinking about mortgage rates, a home purchase is usually the biggest asset that anyone makes, if you buy a home, if you sell it. if you're doing that right now, what does that mean? >> actually, right now, market rates are lower than they were on wednesday when the fed rates raise. a lot of people don't understand that mortgage rates don't exactly follow the fed funds rate. they follow longer-term bonds and actually have more to do with the federal reserve buying bonds. while. that said, an improving economy will probably mean rates will inch a little bit, but remember, we're at 4% on the 30-year fixed. and that's just a half percentage point away from the lowest on record. >> lock it now, i guess, is the message, right? >> absolutely. it's a good time to lock in, if you can, right now. and if you're home buying, it may affect some people on the edges, if rates do rise a little bit, but really, home prices are much bigger factor now than

>> sharon, the one good piece of news for consumers is that maybe they could start to get the money in their savings account? has that paid off yet? because for years we complained about low interest rates, because it meant you have zero in your savings account. what happens now? >> well, they don't have to immediately raise the rates on your deposit, so it may take a while, but we may slowly start to see an increase there. right now we're looking at rates on average for savings account at less than 0.1%. if you do some shopping around, you may get a whopping 1%, but you've got to go online at a place like bankrate.com or somewhere to compare rates to get the best rate. >> and we talked about the mortgages, if you have a home equity line of credit, what happens to your monthly payment? how quickly do those rates tend to rise? >> reporter: yeah, those are a whole different story, because they do follow the fed rate. so home equity lines of credit will start to get more expensive. you want to watch the rates as they start to go up. the good news is we haven't seen a lot of action in home equity lines of credit recently. but we are starting to see

gain equity in their homes. so you want to be careful. you want to watch that rate as it's moving higher and thinking about refinancing into a fixed if you have a lot on a home equity line. >> sharon, we think about the other types of loans, things like auto loans and student loans. how are they impacted by this move? >> the good news, if you have a student loan or a federal student loan, it's not going to be impacted. that's a fixed rate that's set for the life of the loan. if you have a private student loan, though, that has a variable rate, you'll see an impact there. you really need to pay attention to that and try to pay that off as quickly as possible. the other thing, with auto loans to keep in mind is, a quarter-point increase is not really going to mean that much. you will see an increase, but on a $25,000 alone, we're talking about an extra $3 or so a month. it's not going to have a terrible impact. and again, shop around and you may find a rate that's one of the lowest out there. >> what about my retirement accounts? should i be reshuffling anything, to take advantage of these higher rates? >> so you never want to do that just because of rates. you want to do it because of whatever your goals are, but you'll see some volatility in

over the next several months. to what you own. that alw the case, but especially now with your bond funds, you want to know what's inside there. the good news is the cash portion of your portfolio, if you have it in a money market fund, you'll start to see those rates slowly increase. we've already seen that since october, almost a doubling of that rate on average. that's the good news for the cash portion. >> sharon, diana, thank you both. now here's a look at some other stories making news as we had into a new week "on the money." volkswagen is hiring a big name to help handle claims and design a remediation plan for its diesel emissions scandal. ken feinberg, who had administered plans after the world series attack and the bp oil spill, will oversee a program for the owners of 600,000 diesel vehicles that emit up the to 40 times the legal level of emissions. no word yet on the size of the fund. the markets couldn't make up their minds after the fed's decision to raise rates this week. stocks climbed on wednesday after the decision, and gave all that back after the price of oil

the s&p 500 and the nasdaq followed along during the week. stocks fell again on friday. martin zrelskrelly is free on bail this week. he has been widely criticized and became symbol of agree after acquiring the rights to a life-saving drug and immediately increased the price from $13 a dose to $750. up next, we're "on the money." do you want more days off? some companies are offering unlimited vacation, but is it too good to be true? and later, looking into a crystal ball and seeing your future when it comes to your health. would you do it if you could? right now as we head to a

stock market ended the week. unlimited vacation. the idea is you can take as much time off as you want, as long as approves. but is it too good to be true? josh reeves is ceo of gusto. that's a payroll software company that has an unlimited employees. cynthia shapiro is an author and executive. welcome, both of you, to the program. josh, your company has had unlimited vacation time for almost four years. how much time do most people take off? >> we don't actually track the exact time, but when we do talk to folks, it ends up being usually in the range of four to five weeks. >> wow. how much time did you take off last year? >> right about that range. i actually got married earlier this year, so it was my wedding in new zealand. >> hey, congratulations. >> thank you. >> cynthia, my mom always told me, if something sounded too good to be true, it probably was. is that the situation here, or is this really something that works out for employees?

becky. those of us in the know are afraid that this is part of the great shrinkage of employee benefits. it's been happening in america for the last 25 years. they bought out everyone's pensions and everyone was so happy, early retirement, they put a nice glossy spin on it. and then the new people coming in got no pensions. then they went after work hours. and health insurance benefits. and now, i'm afraid, that what this would eventually do is eliminate vacation time altogether for people. >> you know, i can see that argument, but i would guess that in a situation like josh's company, where it's a smaller company, that may not be the way that it came about. josh, why did you put this policy into place? >> in our case, it's less about the unlimited. no one's taking five months off. a better name might be flexible pto. but the whole idea is that so many companies today operate where it's a here's what we're telling you you're allowed to do. and in many ways, that employer/employee relationship

it's much more about trust, but then also leading by example. so, the example i set is actually really important in the organization and in giving that context. otherwise, these types of policies can absolutely be used incorrectly. it's not just about saying it, you have to back it up. >> cynthia, does that make sense? the idea that in a small company where the ceo is actually taking that time off, it may work. but is it the bigger companies you're worried about? >> companies don't have to do -- get away -- get away from the accrued vacation. they can do paid time off whenever they want. >> right. >> if somebody works for really long hours for six months, they can say, take the next month off. they don't have to remove the accrued benefit of vacation time, because psychologically, employees don't tend to take vacation time when they don't understand or they're not feeling secure about the parameters. and vacation time is already at its lowest point in the last 40 years.

is there anybody who's abused the situation and taken off too much time or is there a situation where you see people who just have not used their days? >> wherever we hire someone in the onboarding process, when they're talking to their manager, we call them a people in power, the chance to discuss, are they in that correct range of what they think is right for them? we absolutely track early check-in if people are not taking enough. i think that's one thing that's really important to emphasize. this isn't a formula. there's no right or wrong approach for each business. it has to be authentic to their values. in our case, we care so much about people taking time off, you know, on people's one-year anniversary, we buy them a free plane ticket anywhere in the world, and that expires by their second-year anniversary, because we want them to take that step back, think more holistically about how they're working. they come back a healthier person and a healthier teammate as a result. >> josh, cynthia, thank you both for joining us today. >> thank you. money." the test you may not want to take. the big step in science that

when it comes to your health. but is it really a good idea? and later, a store with media in mind.

if you could look into a crystal ball and find out if you'd be facing any major health do it? the technology is here and it can be done at a cost. but the answer for many people is not clear-cut.

say yes. here's her story. >> imagine taking a medical test that could provide a glimpse into your future. you might learn something about a risk you could avoid. but you also might get handed information you can't do anything about. the risk of a rare and curable cancer or early onset alzheimer's. would you do it? i did. >> hi. nice to meet you. >> earlier this year, i had my genome sequenced, and the biggest question going into it was would i be ready to learn something scary? however unlikely, the results could be life changing. >> we're kind of on the out canning edge here. it's perfectly legal, it's perfectly ethical, but it's something you should understand that's kind of novel and you're one of the first to get yourself sequenced in the world. >> i got my genome mapped through a program called sequencing company lumina. for $2,300, i would receive a personal guide to my own dna. it's pricey, which is part of the reason healthy people aren't doing it a whole lot yet. but it's a rapidly growing

transforming cancer care and diagnosis of rare diseases. it turns out getting your genome sequenced is a lot like any other medical test. with this program, you go to a doctor's office, give a family history, get a physical exam, and then get blood drawn. where it's different is what we can draw from the results. >> in about 1% to 2% of people, we think that you will -- we think that you will find that you're caring a mutation that is a serious, dominant mutation. meaning you only need one copy. and it's for something you could theoretically treat or prevent. >> my results would also have kbrixs not just for me, but possibly for my future children, revealing variants i carry that i could pass along. because these things can be so scary, they have the option to mask different outcomes in your results. but i was in this for the whole shebang. >> i think i want to see it all. >> so what did i find out? they returned the results to me through my geneticist.

sleek ipad app so i can explore them myself. i didn't have any of the scary things i dreaded so much, but i do have something to think about. it's called factor five. >> it means your blood actually clots a little bit faster than people who do not have this mutation. >> reporter: so what do i do with that? turns out a lot of the things i should be doing anyway. maintain a healthy weight, exercise, don't smoke, and take walking breaks on larong car and plane rides. it's something to be aware of, but not something that will change my life. and with my genome on my ipad, i can explore all sorts of things about my dna, a tool that will only get better as we discover more about our genes. >> and that risk that's six times as great as another person's may not be as scary as it actually sounds. dr. green told me that i started out with a risk of 1 in a 1,000 for clotting so six times that risk is just 6 in 1,000, still relatively small. >> did you feel a feeling of relief when you found out you

scarier things that didn't lead alzheimer's. >> i really did. i said, do i have anything really bad? and they said, no, but you have something interesting that you should think about. up next, a look at the news for the week ahead. and reinventing the story behind one store

experience back to life. for more on our show and on

website, otm.cnbc.com and you can follow us on twitter twitter @onthemoney. here are the stories coming up that may impact your money this week. monday marks 78 years since the premiere of "snow white and the seven dwarfs." that was the first-ever full-length feature film. tuesday brings the full and final read of the gross domestic product for the third quarter. also on tuesday, we'll get a report on november's existing home sales. wednesday brings durable goods orders, as well as the number of new home sales for last month. thursday is a half-day for the markets, which close early on christmas eve. and merry christmas, everybody, the markets are closed on friday for the holiday. the shopping season is upon us. and for many, that means using your phone, your tablet, or your computer to shop. and while brick and mortar stores are struggling for foot traffic, one retailer has a strategy it hopes will change that story. >> reporter: the store is called

retail by reinventing itself every three to eight weeks. >> lots of retailers will change their store fronts, their window displays. but here you actually have the base of the store constantly changing. >> reporter: it takes the point of view of a magazine using the merchandise to tell its story. >> today it's set up like a home. so you come in and there's like a foyer and you settle in, just like you would coming to somebody's house. it's amazing. it's an experience as opposed to just finding something to buy. >> with everything that's going on with online, we have to create exciting environments for people to get out of their homes and come shopping. >> every time you come back, you might see like all new stuff you haven't seen before. >> it becomes a platform of discovery to learn about new brands and it's an amazing opportunity for small businesses like mine to be able to reach new audiences. >> joining us now to talk about this new retail concept is

she is the founder of story. how did you come up with this idea? >> first, i'm a fourth generation retail entrepreneur. i grew up in my mom's store, a gourmet food store, and had an accidental career as a retail consultant working with bigger brands like gap and kraft and jcpenney and smaller companies like tom and guilt and kind of just thought, you know, there was all this innovation happening online, and we're the same people who live offline, so why aren't we thinking differently both about the consumer experience and the business model? >> the idea of how you pay for it's got to be really expensive to change out the entire store every certain number of weeks. how do you do it? >> we have two revenue streams. advertisers, we have sponsors, and magazines tell stories by pictures. so we've had hp and ge and american express and target all sponsor a story, but they're contextually relevant to a

our sponsorships start at $400,000. and we also make money from retail sales. so there are sponsors who access a consumer in a relevant channel and it also enables us to do these creative things. >> is it something where you're making more money from the sponsorship, or you're making retail store? >> it really depends what the story is, what the time of year is, what the activation is. we really think about it as experience per square foot. what i mean about that, when we teamed up with general electric and did a making things story, what made the most sense for that is 75% of our square footage was enabling you to make things. 3-d printers, laser cutters. but when we did home for the holidays this year with american express open, it was about shopping small. so we had 2,400 products and 320 different small businesses. so it's really about what's the best way to bring that story to life. >> you don't sell anything online, right? in this era of so much about being mobile and online shopping, none of that? >> no, we do not.

>> it's one of those things, when you're screaming and no one else is screaming, people can hear you. and in 2011, there were not many people opening up new brick and mortar stores. it was before the trend in businesses like rent the runway and birch box and harry's opening up physical stores. so at that time, this idea of doing it -- so we got a lot of attention. and we're also creating value, equal value, i would like to think, for consumers, small businesses, and big brands in a very strategic way. so i think people are just ready for something new in the physical world, not just the digital world. >> rachel, thank you so much for joining me. >> thanks for having me. >> that is the show for today. i'm becky quick. thank you so much for joining me. next week, record-high temperatures could bring record-low revenue for businesses that depend on the snow and the cold. what's behind the warm weather and the cold cash? each week, keep it right here. we're "on the money."