sharon epperson has more. >> reporter: kyle davidson has been on many adventures but one most meaningfule after he left living social, online deals for its subscribers. >> i wanted to refocus the core business, refocus their strategy a little bit and decided, as a result, to craft deals on snowboarding, skiing, rafting, wine tours and other trips when his job came to an end he embarked on a new adventure, launching his own business, creating an online marketplace designed specifically for consumers seeking active excursions. he hired a bunch of freelancers to work with him, mostly members of his old team. >> i hired a lot of my staff, we hired 23 freelancers and we call them group leaders. they are our guides on our trips and every single one is a freelancer. >> reporter: there's been a dramatic increase in the number of people working for themselves over the past decade. about 53 million americans are doing freelance work today. that's about one-third of the entire u.s. workforce. according to a recent study commissioned by the freelancers union. >> the whole landscape is changing. the

. >> we met officer epperson at the kern valley state prison in california.ed only with pepper spray and a baton, he's the lone officer responsible for supervising the inmate kitchen staff. >> i have six, seven inmates back here now. i've got one sitting on the line. granted, i got four, five cops outside that door. that door's locked. there's only one dude out there with the key. you have to trust them to a certain extent. they have no reason to assault me. unless they're totally pissed off or i disrespect them. >> among the inmates epperson places his trust in is the number two cook, carter hill. >> tell me what your sentence is. >> murder. >> you're here for murder? what's your sentence? >> 51 to life. >> you know, it's interesting. sometimes there's this dynamic in prison when you're interviewing somebody, if there's a corrections officer and an inmate together, they'll pretty much watch their ps and qs. they'll tell you into the camera what the other guy wants to hear. but when we met carter hill, we got some real brutal honesty that day in the kitchen.

here with us is sharon epperson. >> it is the season of giving and americans are doing just that. about 95% of households give to charities. this type of generosity is not only from the rich. it is across the board. >> we hear very consistently that it is an important element of their financial planning regardless of what affluence level they have. >> it amounted to over $300 billion last year alone, accounting for 2% of gdp last year. >> how do you find a reputable organization? >> when you decide what mission you want to support, go to one of these websites. guide star. it has a lot of information about accounting and it has the actual irs form that you need to be a tax-exempt organization. then charity watch goes a little bit deeper into the finances of the company. and it really looks at how much money actually it takes to raise every $100 that you give. in order to get your money -- >> yeah. >> that's the key point. that's the key point because you want to know when you're giving money how much it cost them to spend on that. >> what if you're not sure which charity to give to

joining us is sharon epperson on the real bargain days to shop and they almost never involve standingside in the cold. that's the good news. >> that's the great news. >> if it is not black friday, when is it? >> the sunday before thanksgiving. do you have your act together? i do not. if you know what is on your list, that is a great day or even the day before thanksgiving. >> why? >> a lot of folks think cybermonday is a great day, too. if you want to g on-line, shop thanksgiving day. >> is that because retailers are trying to get you in early in the season. >> so much competition. always been a lot but now that you can figure out what you want on your smartphone it is even more steep. they are offering great deals earlier and earlier. the onus is on the consumer to have their list, and budget together to shop and take advantage of the deals. >> i know we are smarter because we can look at the smartphones and figure out the best price right there. what are red flags to let you know if you are getting a gooel good deal or not. >> start on the internet a shop. look at the deals availabl

sharon epperson is joining us right now with what you need to know about your money and your future.>> how are you doing, becky? >> good. >> a lot of people don't understand that hiring managers spend five minutes or less looking at a resume, trouble probably less. it is important you come with your best foot forward and understand that you are presenting yourself, you are marketing yourself to this potential employer with this piece of paper, with the on-line resume, with your linkedin profile. it has to be a fwrat reflection of your qualifications and what you can do and what you have done and what you can potentially do for the company. >> if i have, let's say, less than five minutes, what do i do to make sure my resume stands out sdplit has to be in chronological order, formatted consistently with bullet points, tailored to a specific industry. there are other things to perfect the resume. one thing is to make sure that you summarize what your qualifications are at the top. let folks know what you have done, how many people you have managed, what kind of budget you have, what you

our personal finance correspondent sharon epperson joins us right now on what you need to know aboutour money and your future. hey, sharon. >> how are you doing, becky? a lot of people don't understand hiring managers will spend five minutes or less looking at a resume. >> i bet it's even less. >> probably less. so it's really important that you come with your best foot forward and that you really understand that you're presenting yourself, you're marketing yourself to this potential employer with this piece of paper, with the online resume, with your linkedin profile so it has to be a great reflection of your qualifications and what you can do and what you have done and what you could potentially do for the company. >> if i have, let's say, less than five minutes, what do i do to make sure that my resume stands out? >> one things that are given, it has to be in chronological order, needs to be foremated consistently, with bullet points, tailored to a specific industry. but there are other things to perfect the resume. one of the things is to make sure you summarize what your qualifi

personal finance correspondent sharon epperson is joining us with more on what budding entrepreneurs need to do before getting started. sharon, it is kind of shocking information. why are so many baby boomers getting into entrepreneurship? >> because they need to keep working or they have a source and wealth of expertise to bring to the table. >> there have to be pitfalls. what are some of the challenges they may warn you about? >> even though they have run businesses within a corporation, running your business is far different. you need to have a well-thought out business plan that needs to include the income statement and needs to include cash flow analysis. you really need to have a well thought-out plan that includes your target audience, how to market these things. and in the small business administration, very good on their website about giving you tools to help you get there. >> what are some of the steps if you're thinking about jumping in on this, what are the first things you should consider, what are the first things you should do? >> one of the main things you need to do

. >> sharon epperson is here and joins us with more on what they need to do before getting started. why are so many baby boomers getting into entrepreneurship? >> because they want to keep working or they need to keep working and they have a wealth of experience, resources and expertise to bring to the table. >> yeah, there has to be some pitfalls. what are the challenges you would warn people about. >> even though they may have managed big departments and run businesses within a corporation, running your own business is far different. you need to have a plan. a well thought out business plan. it needs to include the income statement and cash flow analysis. you need to have a well thought out plan that includes your target audience and how you're going to market all of these things and the small business association is really good about giving you tools that can help you get there. >> what are some of the first steps if you're thinking about jumping in on this? what's the first things you should consider and what are the first things you should do? >> figure up your start up costs.

joining us right now, personal twin correspondent sharon epperson on the real bargain days to shop. they almost never involve standing in line outside in the cold. that's the good news. >> that's the great news. >> if it's not black friday, though, when is it? >> well, it is actually the sunday before thanksgiving. that early. do you have your act together? i certainly do not. but if you know what's on your list, that's a great day to go. or even go the day before thanksgiving. >> why? >> a lot of folks think cyber monday's a great day too. no, actually, if you want to go online, shop on thanksgiving day. >> is that because the retailers are really trying to get you early in the season? >> there's so much competition. there's always been a lot of competition. but now when you can figure out what you want right there on your smartphone, the competition is even more steep. so there are often great deals earlier and earlier. the onus is on the consumer to get their act together, have their list together, their budget together to then be able to shop and take advantage of those deals. >

let's bring in sharon epperson for now with the panel. another survey confirming what we already think we know that millennials want no part of this market. >> the survey said over time about 50% of millennials say they don't want any access to being in the market. they have about less than 30% of money in equities and what it shows us is that a lot of the millennials are locking at other issues con fronting them with their money. they're saving and putting that money to work in other ways, paying off student loan debt, maybe perhaps trying to get that first home. they're looking at short-term needs that are really eating up the money and not putting it in the market. now, some add vivisers say it's maybe not such a bad thing if they're using it effectively but the key is to realize they money they want to invest and need decades from now, make sure that it's put to work in equities and people in four years we will have about 9 trillion $that's controlled by millennials and inherit $26 trillion by 2060 and that's why so many investment fi

sharon epperson with the details.meriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you have enough money to live life on your terms? i sure hope so. with healthcare costs, who knows. umm... everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor.... can get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. you are gonna need a wingman. and with my cash back, you are money. forget him. my airline miles will take your game worldwide. what i'm really looking for is -- i got two words for you -- re-wards. ♪ there's got to be better cards than this. [ male announcer ] there's a better way with creditcards.com. compare hundreds of cards from all the major banks to find the one that's right for you. it's simple. search, compare, and apply at creditcards.com. first round's on me. >>> we continue with what i think is a cool series. weekly beat the street with the actively managed fund managers that outperform t

sharon epperson is here. welcome. tim seymour.ny will join us finishing on the floor in just a moment. so listen, tim. i want to start with you on the market here. any main messages today? anything that people go home and put their dollars to work on? >> one thing to be clear, you talk about equity's the only game in town but we have had days where equities suffered with volatility, what we got out of last week between the bank of japan, the ecb an enthe fed and payroll numbers, end of this week, there's very little until friday. the dollar in this range, you can see a lot of actually risk assets continue to rally and going into the year end, there's asset that is we do think have underperformed and talking about homebuilders today. >> oh yeah. >> we think emerging markets are good if the dollar is under control. a lack of volatility is good for markets. be careful. it's just around the corner. >> you know, sharon, i'm thinking about rule off the top last hour saying the big potential to see for now is opec meeting and that's some

and as you vote, karen epperson will be here to explain the benefits and drawbacks.'s a new ruling here that says if i take my 401(k) balance, i have $550 in my balance, do i have to roll it all in? >> whatever money you want to roll over into your pension, the new ruling is saying from the guarantee corporation is the money rolled over is going to be guaranteed. that's a big change. a lot of folks want to have a pension if they can get one because of the lifetime income guarantee you're going to get. the fact that you're able to roll the money over from the pension and from the 401(k) to the pension will allow you to do that. the other thing that it is not subject to is what the normal pjbc limits are, about $60,000. the only part that is guaranteed up to $60,000. the other thing that is really important is that that money that you rolled over, the 401(k) money you rolled over is going to be guaranteed no matter what. so if the pension does fail, you are still going to get that money that you rolled over from the 401(k). so those are some of the pros. >> basically,

sharon epperson, cnbc business news. >> a lot of folks would still like to be staff, though. >>> new this morning, we have just learned that the earthquakes new stadium will be called avaya stadium. avaya is headquartered in san jose miles from the stadium. and as bob redell showed us earlier, the 18,000-seat stadium is currently under construction there on coleman avenue next to san jose manetta international airport. it will be ready and open for business march of next year. >> a price match by walmart offers cut rate prices the problem is, some gamers are gaming that system. walmart said it would match playstation 4 prices from other retailers, including online sellers like amazon so some amazon users took fake screen captures from third party amazon sellers into the walmart stores with much much much lower prices. cashiers were not verifying the online deals and the scammers were getting the consoles for about a quarter of the retail price, about $90. in fact cnbc says it's expanded to other products not just playstations. walmart not saying how many customers broke the rules. >>

sharon epperson for the story on the it costly college planners.ay $100,000 to pay $80,000 to go to yale. >> many parents are willing to pay this price. since 2008 the number of college planning services has quadrupled to more than 8,000. some of the costliest say 90% to 100% of their clients get into one of their top three college choices. a complete package from initial consultation beginning in junior year of high school through the college application process can run as much as $100,000 for guidance from one of the top college planners. getting help with the college application process can cost as much as $50,000. these services are definitely for a select crowd. >> the higher ed landscape as it sits right now, the populations that are best served in a way are families from low socioeconomic back grounds because they will qualify for a lot of pro bono work but will also qualify for a very generous financial aid package from some of the best schools. and then, again, of course, the most affluent. >> some say it is largely the middle class margin

highs and we are joined around the panel by susan ox and james pathacucos in the house and sharon epperson. larry, what did you make of this press conference? >> number one, the length and probably destroy cable television news and nobody batched it. more serious vein, i don't think the president recognizes or wishes to admit that the votes yesterday were for a change in direction of economic policy, of health care policy, immigration policy, of all the policy. i don't think he understands that and i also think even though i'm an immigration reform guy, if it's done right, if he goes ahead and uses executive action to legalize and deport and whatever, he is going to create such a rat's nest of arguments and screaming. it will block out any hope of any deals and he knows that. he knows this. >> we heard that, jared. >> less than a third of americans want a change. right? two thirds of americans didn't turn out to vote. those that voted many of them wanted the change and many americans so disaffected and so underpaid, so overwhelmed by debt and all the -- they're not even voting. >> what doe

40 mercantile owners leslie and katrina with cnbc's senior personal finance correspondent sharon eppersonnity center, too. people come in there, they want to talk, they want to learn about the products that they're seeing, and they're excited to hear about the artists behind it. >> well, it seems daunting. i would think you guys just threw it up in several months and now you've got a store that's up and running. what did you find were the biggest hurdles that you didn't anticipate for folks at home who are saying, i want to start a business, but i don't know what i need to do? >> well, you really need a good support system. we found it was more role, whose role is what. so, we really had to establish roles and respect each other's roles, because you really need to know what you're responsible for from the beginning. >> so you need a great partnership. that's critical. >> what about funding? how did you guys start that? >> you have to make sure you have enough capital to keep going, because when you start, you have to pay for all that inventory. >> right. >> so it was a long-term s plannin