A checkup is a chance to see what’s going well — and to spot new opportunities. That’s true for both healthcare and finances.

As Americans use high-deductible health plans alongside health savings accounts (HSAs), many are finding ways to leverage these accounts for potential long-term gain. Millennials now hold 32% of all HSA accounts and last year, almost half of their contributions were kept as savings.

Empower research shows that while half of Americans say they understand what an HSA is, only 24% have set aside money in one.

— The Editors 

📚 Retail pulse: Barnes & Noble plans to open over 60* new stores this year, after opening 57 in 2024, as part of a brick-and-mortar comeback. Read more about the resurgence of bookstores on The Currency^TM.

🍳 Growth assessment: Cal-Maine, the largest U.S. egg producer, is acquiring Echo Lake Foods for $258 million.* The deal comes after Cal-Maine's net sales more than doubled in Q3, driven by rising egg prices, which were up 60.4% in March compared to 12 months earlier.

🎬 Streaming snapshot: Netflix is eyeing a $1 trillion* valuation and doubling its revenue by 2030. U.S. consumers spend an average of $69* a month for four streaming services.

🎓 Loan reset: Repayments on defaulted student loans will resume on May 5 after a five-year hiatus* due to the pandemic. This will affect over 5 million borrowers. The average student loan repayment is $393 a month.

In the past year, Uber's Lost & Found Index logged* 1.7 million phones as the most-frequently forgotten item, alongside more unusual items like a Ghostbusters ghost trap, dentures, and a unicycle. At the same time, the median price of an Uber and Lyft ride in the U.S. increased 7.2%* year-over-year to $15.99. Nearly three-quarters of consumers said they’d consider cutting back on rideshare use if prices continue to rise.

AI joins the team

Microsoft’s new Work Trend Index reveals that 82%* of business leaders say they’ll use AI agents to expand workforce capacity within the next 12 to 18 months. Nearly half (45%) say expanding team capacity with digital labor is a top workforce priority this year, just behind upskilling (47%).

As AI gets its own workplace checkup, careers in AI command annual salaries above the U.S. median of $61,984,* with AI engineers averaging $134,188,* data scientists $118,399, and AI researchers $99,578.

Home tech tune-up

Smart TVs are doing more than streaming — think workouts, scheduling, and home automation — with ownership now at 80% of U.S. households, up from 66% in 2020. TV prices are trending lower, with the average cost down 9% year-over-year.

Bot-side manner

Samsung’s generative AI (GenAI) companion, Ballie,* is a mobile robot on wheels designed to navigate the home, share information, manage tasks, and even provide a check on everything from fashion choices to sleep patterns. Ballie is set to launch this summer.

The GenAI market is projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2032. Empower research shows that 21% of Americans would use AI to recommend money moves to plan for retirement, and 25% would use it to help pay bills on time.