thanks to join us to explain is senior personal finance correspondent sharon epperson. it's great to see you. >> good to be here >> a lot of people would wait until the end of the year, wait for the charitable donations and write them off on their taxes. what do we need to know? >> the standard deduction for single and for married couples was doubled. many people may choose not to itemize your taxes the tax policy center did some research on this and they said about 21% of taxpayers were able to claim the deduction under the prior law. they expect this number now to drop to 9% >> oh, wow >> so we could see a significant decline in those, making those charitable contributions because they know they may not get the tax break. but, of course, we also note that is not why you should be giving to a charity and the majority of people do give to charity in the last few days of the year some charities telling us 60% of donations come in at that time >> i always thought people were doing it at the end of the year not just because of the holidays, but to get under the wire for ta

senior financial correspondent sharon epperson has tips on what you can do to take control of your finances and save some money before the end of the year this is stuff we should be doing throughout the year, but what should we be doing now as we get closer to december 31? >> let's talk about the concerns that people had going into 2018 and it starts with unexpected expenses four out of ten folks say that's what i'm worried about a lot of people were worried about making ends meet and health care, of course as we close out 2018 how do you rectify this if you're still concerned about it in terms of the unexpected expenses you need that emergency fund the great news is that we have seen interest rates rise on savings accounts and so this is the time to shop around, make sure you're getting the best rate that you can for your savings for that emergency fund. you also want to take a look at budgeting. there's no way to make ends meet if you don't know what's coming in or going out. you can do it on the phone and who can help you to figure out how to keep to that budget as we close out this year

joining us with incite on what it means for all of us is cnbc shar shar sharon epperson. when you laer it is having the worst december since the gat depression what does it mean for someone that is close to retiring to someone thats years away? >> it is hard to stay a on invest on. if you're 60 or older now is aa time to a look and make oure you at least two years of cash on hand so can retire when you want to. you don't want to cash out completely but make sure you're not overinvested. if you're in your 20s you're just starting out. you need to focus on how much you're investing. make sure you're saving as much as you can and put it into the retirement a into themarket. if you're in between in your 40s and 50s this ie the t to rebalance what you have. not aime the panic baa time to take stock of where you are. inkwewhat is the real effect o the averageso p interest rates are going occupy. they plan on raising interes rates further. if you need the savorings i was talking about making sure eou haugh cash on hand. check around and make sure you get the highest savings rate

. >> exactly >> sharon he epperson, thank you so much. >>> up next, a very special bike that uses a custom fuel. >> i've never filled it with pe the trone totally up it would be a very expensive fill pethe trone totally up it would be a very expensive fill he trone totally up. it would be a very expensive fill pe trone totally up it would be a very expensive fill trone totally up it would be a very expensive fill petrone totally up it would be a very expensive fill >>> here are the stories coming up that may impact your money this week. on tuesday, we'll get housing starts for november. on wednesday, existing home sales for last month will be released we'll be getting a statement from the federal reserve's open market committee after a two-day meeting. it is widely expected to raise interest rates then on friday, we'll get the durable goods numbers for november we'll see how fast the economy is growing with the third quarter gd p number being reare leased, as well. folks, dig into your closet because it's also national ugly christmas sweater day. >>> he's the co-founder of hair care compan