joining us now is sharon epperson to talk about your money, your future and your tax return. have you filed yet? >> no, i have not yet filed but i will by april 15th. >> what are mistakes you want to avoid for those last minute filers. >> the mistake you you make waiting until the last hour, common mistakes the way you enter the information but you don't want to leave money on the table. some of the simple things you think you should do maybe you don't have to. itemizing your deductions most people think she should do that but some don't have enough for it to make sense and the standard deduction may be best. the other thing people do, take the state refund and claim that as taxable income on your return. if you didn't take a state deduction, you don't necessarily need to do that. the other thing, they overlook the carry forwards and that's important if you had investment losses and want to carry over losses into this tax year, you can do that. you want to make sure you do. if you don't meet the april 15th deadline, i will, but if you don't, then you file an extension. make s

sharon epperson. >>> proctor and cutting. that's where we begin market focus. the world's largest advertiser wants to to gilletteji gillette razors to accelerate growth. $80.60 to close. activist investor nelson peltz an active fight for influence at dupont institutional sh services or iss recommended that shareholders give the billionaire investor seat on the company's board. this is peltz fund to push the chemical maker to split into two company sh4.5% to hire today at $74.81. container store, as much as 25% lower. after the close, the company's quarterlies and revenue came in well below estimates. the retailer blamed weather among other factors. shares as you can see way off initially after the bell. before the close, the stock was up 1% to $21.69. watch that one tomorrow. tough day for the drug maker acorn pharmaceuticals. investors got a chance to react to announcement that the company will restate its earnings from the final three quarters of 2014. and that its first quarter fili 2015 probably going to be delayed. this is some of the previously announced

sharon epperson joins us with more on the report and how a simple change in savings could go a long way. i mean if people's daily expenses are just too high it is not unreasonable to expect that that is why they are not saving right now, right? >> it is not unreasonable to expect that and that is why we are looking at 57% of american workers who have saved less than 25,000 dollars for retirement and what is startingle is those who said they could save more. seven out of ten workers said if they could save $25 more and they could and that could make a difference. >> an if you compound it and save 25 and that little bit over 10 or 20 or 30 years could add up. >> and a lot said $25 is a lot for me and it can add up and you can do it if you give up a couple of things. and by the end of the year $25 is that much for you and you put that in a roth ira and by the age of 67, over 48,000 dollars could be saved in contributions and you add a 4% return, not asking too much, hoping your s that much annually 110,000 dollars extra. so a little bit can go a long way. >> but how do you free up the extr

sharon epperson joins us from new york. thank you. >> good to be here. >> tell us the craziest tax deductions out there we're not aware of. >> if you have a dog, you can't claim a tax deduction for the fami pet but if this dog is guarding your business if you have a small business then you may be able to deduct the cost of the food and the vet bills as a business expense if it's an ordinary and necessary business expense. that's something people don't think about. the other one is swimming pool. swimming lessons generally not tax deductible but in the past the irs approved swimming pools being built for those whose doctor has prescribed having the swimming pool as a medical necessity due to some health concern. dry cleaning another expense that comes up if you're traveling for work. you may have to have your clothes dry cleaned. that could be a business expense, an ordinary necessary business expense and then cat food. you wouldn't think that's a deductible. again, for the family pet. it's probably not. but there has been a

here's cnbc's sharon epperson. >> reporter: their six-week trip through europe couldn't have come at a better time. >> it's certainly a lot more fun to have more money in your pocket. that's for sure. >> reporter: today, paris is on sale. that's because for the first time in over ten years the euro is nearly equivalent to the dollar making their getaway more than picture perfect. compared to last year they're paying 25% less on almost everything. with the extra savings, judy is splurging buying two pairs of shoes instead of one. >> there you go. >> reporter: according to a new survey by tripadviser, average travel costs for a week at popular european destinations have dropped 11%. and americans are taking notice. at liberty travel liz is already seeing a 17% spike in european vacation bookings. if i want to take a vacation to europe this year how much more would i be saving than last year? >> vacation to europe inclusive with air fare would have been about $3,500. this year you're talking about $2,500 per person which is a considerable savings. >> reporter: if you've always wanted to

joining us now is personal finance correspondent sharon epperson to talk about your money, your future and your tax return. have you filed yet? >> no, i have not yet filed but i will by april 15th. >> what are mistakes you want to avoid that typically happen for those last-minute filers. >> the mistake you you make waiting until the last hour, you often have common mistakes just the way that you enter the information. so that's one thing to do. but you also don't want to leave money on the table. some of the simple things you think you should do maybe you don't have to. itemizing your deductions most people think she should do that but there are some who don't really have enough in terms of itemized deductions for it to make sense and the standard deduction may be guest. the other thing people do, take the state refund and claim that as taxable income on your return. if you didn't take a state deduction, if you took say a sales tax deduction instead you don't need to necessarily do that. the other thing, they overlook the carry forwards and that's important if you had investment losses

. >> we met officer epperson at the kern valley state prison in california. armed 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? >> yeah. >> 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

joining us personal fitness correspondent sharon epperson. >> the irs says about 3 in 4 americans get money back each year. the average refund in year is $2900. you can spend, save, or invest. >> pretty much savings and just putting money away for rainy day. >> pay off credit cards. >> we're trying to become entrepreneurs. we need extra cash for the business. >> i don't he a specific plan right now. >> it's better to have a plan on how you'll spend it, save it, or invest it. >> what should people do? >> well, one of the things you want to think about when you are first figuring out whether to save it or spend itting look at what you have to spend it on. what the big expenses are. for a lot of people, it's debt. put some money toward that. this winter, a lot of unexpected expenses for people with the snowstorm. damage to homes. >> how do you figure out what percentage you should save and what percentage you should maybe splurge with? >> i like to look at the 60% solution. the income in general, you can use it for the refund check as well. no more than 60% of that refund should go to co

you're wo how to manage your finances better, there is an app for that, joining us now is sharon eppersoni know a lot of people download apps, but this is a portion of the population that are weary about that. >> think of how many people are on their phone for just about everything. about half of consumers use an app to get some knowledge about their finances. and those that are using them, do feel more comfortable and more financially secure. >> so gaining control of your finances is tough, it probably starts with a good budget. what kind of tips are you giving people? >> i think the one that everyone points to is minute.ct.co it is one of my favorite apps. don't spend this much because this is how much you allotted to spend on this category. it's very good for that, but some people say it is too much. there is so much information there, it is kind of overwhelming with the pie charts. i want to know ouch, if i'm saving this much, how much can i spend today. and another app, particularly in the millennial generation just want to know what they can spend >> what what about apps for guiding

sharon epperson here with a retirement reality check. the reality isn't so good. boomers are really unprepared. >> they're unprepared they're not saving enough. oath 60% of them are saving something for retirement. 40% have no retirement savings. in terms of having $250,000 saved or more. only 19% are doing that. a lot of them are undersaving, what they're relying on is social security becat saved enough on their own. they're not looking at ira's or 401(k)'s really. >> are there certain changes they've been making that perhaps are going to help them or not? maybe they're not making any changes. >> they're not adding to their savings. >> people want to know what they should be investing in for retirement rather than how much should they be saving. that's really critical for people. particularly boomers who may not have saved enough. they're not working with someone to help them along the way. and the only thing that we're finding is that they're thinking it's still going to be enough. it might be if they have a different style of living. the realities with medical

cnbc's senior personal finance correspondent sharon epperson joins us now with more. this has been sort of a, welcome sharon this has been sort of a sacred wisdom here you should pay down your mortgage and go into retirement debt-free. you say no. yo why? >> no one wants a big debt into retirement but the question is liquidity. are you going to be poor by paying off your mortgage a retirem savings and emergency account and have you paid off higher interest debt like credit card debt? if you haven't done those three things rushing to pay off your mortgage probably doesn't make sense. start paying down higher interest debt not deductible in all but a very few cases like credit cards, like auto loans and so forth. and then flood the zone with 401(k) ira, roth deposits. >> as you near retirement, you could put int those accounts. there's catch-up provisions with the 401(k) put up to $21,000 if you're 50 or older. that's a lot of money you can stash away for retirement. >> and yet, mortgage debt has risen dramatically over the past 20 years, presumably because loans have b

joining us right now is sharon epperson on the difference between the good and bad when it comes to debt the thing to think about with good debt, that is something that will improve your life in some way, thinking about going back to school or getting college degree, student loans, buying a new home, mortgage, that's good debt. but debt that's going to stay with you, make your poor, keep recurring and all of that, that is considered bad debt and that's like credit cards and things like that. >> that's a big difference between some of these things and maybe you should think of it from an instant gratification, if it's something i want right now. >> that's the best way to think about it. i'm enriching my life because i really need these shoes but that's probably not true. but when it comes to getting that college education, that is something you really need. if you want to make sure you return on investment is going to be strong here, you don't want to burden yourself with too much debt and same with buying a home, you don't want to buy it more than you can afford. when you need to take ou

joining us now is sharon epperson. >> what are last minute mistakes that you can avoid that will end up costing you money. >> you don't want to leave my money on the table. make sure you can get every tax break together. and everybody thinks you can itemize. but sometimes the standard deduction is best for you. check to see if your home is paid off and if you live in a state that doesn't have intox tax, you may be kay with a -- be okay with standard deduction. and think about the state tax refund if you do get a refund you don't need to declare it all. you feed to figure out how much is taxable. and that is something to consider. and the last thing is the investments that didn't so well and the ability to carry forward and that is something people need to know. >> the losses that you took and realized in the tax year 2014. >> and past years too. >> if you can't get it done you can file for an automatic extension but that doesn't mean you don't have to pay what you owe. >> exactly. >> i remember the words an extens t is not an extension in time to pay. and if a take an extension or no

sharon epperson to explain and give us some answers when we continue. financial noise financial noise doug. you've been staring at that for awhile, huh? listen, td ameritrade has former floor traders to help walk you through that complex trade. so you'll be confident enough to do what you want. i'll pull up their number. blammo. let's get those guys on the horn. oooo looks like it is time to upgrade your phone, douglass. for all the confidence you need. td ameritrade. you got this. 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. your mom's got your back. your friends have your back. your dog's definitely got your back. but who's

sharon epperson joining us with suggestions. good evening, sharon. if i'm lucky enough to get a refund what are refunds running on average and what should people do with it? >> probably lucky enough because at least three out of four americans every year seem to be getting a tax refund and this year to the tune of some near $2900. you have a couple choices, of course. you could save it spend it or invest it. when it comes to saving there's a lot of things to think about and a lot of things to think about when you think about spending it too. you want to make sure you spend it wisely. >> if i want to save it, what should my prioriti be? >> when you're thinking about saving it you are usually thinking about saving it perhaps for a longer term and maybe that's something that you want to put it into your child's college education. you may also want to save it to look into ways to improve your life and your health. so some of that savings may be earmarks so you could have down the road different type of insurances as well. and then there are long-term sav

joining us is sharon epperson to talk about your money, your future and tax refund. >> the irs says three americans get money back each year, and the average refund this year is about $2900. that's a lot of money you can either spend, save or invest. >> pretty much savings and putting money away for a rainy day. >> paying off the credit cards. >> we're trying to be entrepreneurs, so we need extra cash. we're going to save it up and use it toward the business. >> i don't have any specific plan for it right now. >> many taxpayers see their refund as a windfall but diseit better to have a plan. >> what should people do? >> one of the things you want to think about when you're figuring out, should i save it or spend it, is look at what you have to spend it on. look at what your big expenses are. for a lot of people, it's debt. you might want to put some of the money toward debt and pay it down. this winter, a lot of unexpect ed maintenance projects from the storms. >> how do you figure out what percentage you should save and what percentage you should maybe splurge with? >> i look at the 60%

sharon epperson nbc news new york. >> get out and spend some money. >> great. >> got to go to europe.'s fine. >> perfect stuff. your promising a perfect day. >> as good as it gets. cherry blossoms at peak cool morning, beautiful, clouds sky this afternoon. highs near 70. nothing to complain about. everybody will have their best ten-miler ever because it's the 9 1/2 miler. >> it has been shorted because dealing with a pedestrian accident. more of that coming up at 9:00 a.m. >> thanks for joining us. have a great sunday, everybody. >>> good morning. ready to launch. hillary clinton set to officially announce she's running for president today, as president obama gives her a big stamp of approval. republicans, ready for the attack as saturday nht licks off his own 2016 coverage. >> buckle up, america, because the clintons are back. >>> gunning for green. tiger woods making a big run at the masters purt ersers putting him back in a familiar spot -- the leaderboard at augusta. but can any catch 21-year-old jordan spieth? >>> daring diamond heist. a group brazen thieves caught on camera stea

with my panel now, evan newmark, sharon epperson and. good to see you.lines? >> it all started with germany. i'm sure you talked about it at length. the dax has been on a huge run, gave up the ghost a little bit last night. the concerns now are about china. the posturing with the greece thing, it's squaring people into the weekend. that will be resolved one way or another. the underlying factors that have been concerning to me are still there. you can talk about this the weakness in the transport since the fall is something that i've talked about and something that continues to be worth monitoring. >> michael santoli. >> the transports are on the negative side. we were on the verge of a breakout with the banks the other day. to me, the way it looks is a downward adjustment. i think if you looked at the chart we're in the lower part of the upper end of the trading range right now. >> the lower part of the upper end. >> that's how modest this looks right now. >> i like that. >> i feel like it's a little bit of an adjustment. obviously can go well further f

that has our sharon epperson very skeptical. >>> still to come elon musk's spacex just minutes away froms is bringing an apparently much needed espresso machine to the italian astronaut on board there. that's for real. she's been drinking instant coffee all this time. i don't blame her. this rocket is also doing something that's never been done before, or at least they'll try to do that. that story and a live launch still to come in a few minutes here on the "closing bell." rozen yogurt franchise. and now you have 42 locations. the more i put into my business the more i get out of it. like 5x your rewards when you make select business purchases with your ink plus card from chase. and with ink, i choose how to redeem my points for things like cash or travel. how's the fro-yo? just peachy...literally. ink from chase. so you can. doug. you've been staring at that for awhile, huh? listen, td ameritrade has former floor traders to help walk you through that complex trade. so you'll be confident enough to do what you want. i'll pull up their number. blammo. let's get those guys on the horn. oo

rush to pay off your mortgage before you retire in key question for baby boomers and our sharon eppersony not be your best financial move. would you let your life insurance company track your every move if it meant you would get a discount on your policy. the man behind the plan will join us. scott, back to you. >> thanks so much. oil prices rebounding today after diving 6% yesterday on higher than expected inventories and record saudi out put. everyone wants to know how long oil prices will remain under pressure. we are continuing our energy summit this week and welcome in john dowd, four-star energy fund manager at fidelity beating more than 90% of his peers over the last five years. welcome. >> good to be here. >> you must have an opinion on whether you think we've put in a bottom or near a bottom or about to retest some lows or find new ones? >> so i'm constructive op oil prices. the bear case is based on rapid inventory builds and high inventory levels, but the story of the past year when we were seeing a lot of nonopec production growth and sluggish demand, appears to be reversing.

>> sharon epperson puts us to the test. >> few more spins before five lucky viewers win a grand prizest. but we're not members. we don't have to be to use their new snapfix feature. angie's list helped me find a highly rated service provider to do the work at a fair price. come see what the new angie's list can do for you. to prove you can wear anything while pouring our jane's wearing martha washington's inaugural gown thicker formula bleach. freedom from splashing, revolutionary whitening. the liberating line of clorox splash-less bleach. some until morning.t wait so i'm one of many nurses at cigna with answers, anytime, day or night. i'm lauren, and i've got your back. waking up to fatigued skin? sleep on this. new garnier miracle sleeping cream. like a lightweight mask of continuous hydration. it works while you sleep so you wake up to refreshed younger looking skin. miracle sleeping cream from garnier. today hair is a beautiful thing. hey, mom! hey, sweetie! hey, honey! hey, mom! because today there will be no tangles... with all the latest cleaning technology for your home at lo

sharon epperson has those details. >> millennials are ramping up their retirement savings and pilingth iras. new data out from fidelity investments shows the percent of millennials making a contribution to an i.r.a. has jumped 26% in the first quarter this year alone compared to a year ago. that's almost four times the increase in i.r.a. contributions for all age groups. youngest group of i.r.a. investors overwhelmingly put their money into roth i.r.a. accounts potentially enabling them to benefit from decades of tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals in retirement. average millennial's i.r.a. contribution was $24,050. a 340 a 30-year-old who starts one this year and contributes $2,450 every year could have the potential balance of $208,177. increasing the contribution to the maximum amount for 2015 could more than double that nest egg to a balance of $478,000. then they're not paying any taxes on that money when they take it out in retirement. >> so the picture for len millennials isn't as bad as sometimes portrayed? >> it is not as bad as portrayed. a lot of them able to save and

mike santolli sharon epperson and jon najarian.welcome to you as well. mike santolli obviously in 15 years' time in real terms the nasdaq needs to close much higher from leer. still, what is the significance of what we have just done? >> it is really a lagging indicator of how far this whole market has come. i don't think today's nasdaq to be honest really resembles the other one that much. so i think it is encouraging because of the can. kind of companies that are working right now, large organic growth companies but i don't really think that it is a signature moment for investors. >> we are up 7% year to date on that index. half of that coming from pharma and biotech. sharon at least those are areas where we see significant top line growth and now a lot of deal making. >> a lot of attention paid from retail investors from markets to these records. it is a far different nasdaq than it was 10 15 years ago but it is something that gives the individual investor another reason to say, hey, i need to be in this market or i am going to

. >> sharon epperson. >>> the berkshire hathaway chief investing in another company.'ll tell you which company that is next. also, you probably heard of reefer madness in the 1936 film and a cautionary tale about the dangers of pot. it's now a cult classic. well, there is refund madness and it's related to that surplus of tax revenues in colorado tied to legalization of marijuana. we'll explain. stay tuned. ♪ ♪ [ radio chatter ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] andrew. rita. sandy. ♪ ♪ meet chris jackie joe. minor damage or major disaster, when you need us most, we're there. state farm. we're a force of nature, too. ♪ ♪ so what's going on today? news alert! message! email! calendar update! most of us admit to being overwhelmed by information at work. that's why ibm created verse. it uses powerful analytics to uncover hidden patterns in your email, calendars and social feeds. it continuously learns how you work. and helps you prioritize the people and projects you need to focus on. there's a new way to work and it's made with ibm. >>> welcome back. with a market alert on this oi

our senior personal correspondent sharon epperson is here and she has more on that.ow i'm not in this generation that i'm talking about. not just their parents. millennials that range from 18 to 29 years old are faring better than all other age groups and that is according to a new bank rate study out today and an important factor, job security. 32% of millennials report higher job security than a year ago. only 23% of employed americans overall feel more secure about their jobs. now, job security is probably giving them the means to save more. 30% report that their savings are in better shape than the past 12 months and that's more than double the percentage of those 50 or over in their parents age group. taking a look at their overall financial situation. 33% report that their overall financial situation has improved in the past year while only 19% of those 50 or older say their finances are in better shape than a year ago. lagging behind in one very important category. their net worth. the age group that fared the best were the 30 to 49 year olds. nearly 30% of th