NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Thu, 27 Feb 2025
Learn what’s causing egg prices to rise so dramatically, then explore ethical investing and how to manage savings wisely. Are ESG investments really as ethical as they claim to be? What’s the smartest way to put extra savings to work? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola discuss ethical investing and savings strategies to help you make informed financial decisions. They begin with a discussion of the rising cost of eggs with NerdWallet senior news writer Anna Helhoski, who explores the surprising reasons behind skyrocketing prices. They break down how the ongoing avian flu crisis, supply chain disruptions, and shifting farming regulations are affecting egg availability and pricing, as well as why some cage-free eggs are now cheaper than conventional ones and what consumers can do to save on groceries. Then, Smart Money listener Maddie joins Sean and Elizabeth to discuss how to balance savings and investments. They cover how much to keep in a high-yield savings account, whether investing is a good alternative to paying off student loans, and how to plan for future financial goals like college savings. User NerdWallet’s free calculator to understand how much life insurance you need: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/how-much-life-insurance-do-i-need In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: ethical investing, ESG investing, socially responsible investing, greenwashing in investing, best ESG funds, how to invest ethically, socially conscious investing, investment funds for social good, sustainable investing, high-yield savings, savings vs investing, financial security, best high-yield savings accounts, student loans vs investing, public service loan forgiveness, financial literacy, emergency fund, how much to keep in savings, Roth IRA vs 529, college savings plans, best 529 accounts, investing for the future, financial independence, socially responsible funds, investment strategies, passive investing, long-term investing, financial planning, personal finance tips, how to manage savings, how to start investing. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [email protected]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend.
Chapter 1: Why are egg prices rising so dramatically?
Ouch. That hurts almost as bad as these exasperating puns, Sean. And yes, I'm egging you and these puns on because that's what a supportive co-host does.
Thank you so much. Here's another wild stat. The cost of a dozen increased 15% from December to January. It's up for the year, too. In January 2024, eggs were $2.52 on average, which means the price of a dozen has nearly doubled since then.
I know all too well, eggs are a staple in my refrigerator, so I've been experiencing the hike in real time. For those wondering the why of it all, there are a few factors at play, but the key driver is the ongoing H5N1 or avian flu crisis. Now, in the last three months of 2024, more than 20 million egg-laying chickens in the U.S. died due to bird flu, including cold birds.
To find out how we got here and what's being done to battle the avian flu and the prices you pay at the store, we have our news colleague, Anna Helhosky, here to talk us through it. Hey, Anna.
Glad to be here, although I don't have great news to share. Because if you think eggs are spendy now, just wait. The Department of Agriculture expects prices to increase another 20% in 2025.
No, that's not the news any of us is hoping to hear.
Yeah, I heard that Waffle House added a 50 cents per egg surcharge to customers' bills.
Right. Prices aren't just high at the grocery store. Restaurants who buy their eggs at wholesale rates are seeing their costs skyrocket too.
It's not just the scramble you order at brunch. It's anything that needs to be made with eggs, like baked goods, pasta, my protein shakes.
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Chapter 2: How is the avian flu impacting the egg industry?
That's one way to meet customers where they are. But the avian flu has been going on for a while, right? So why are eggs getting more expensive now?
You're right, bird flu isn't new, and it's impacted egg costs since 2022. The previous high for a dozen eggs was $4.82 in January 2023. Prices have dropped since then, before steadily creeping up over the last year. The big spike was, as you mentioned, quite recent. So what's happening now is bird flu is spreading at some of the worst rates we've seen.
We've lost more hens in the last five months than in all of 2022. It's bad out there. All of this means that there are more chickens being depopulated and fewer eggs coming to market.
So it's your basic supply and demand issue, and we are short in supply of eggs.
Exactly. And bird flu is hitting every single state. Data from the Centers for Disease Control in January showed more than 1,500 outbreaks since January 2022. And more than 162 million birds of all kinds have been affected. That's a lot of birds. So Ana, is it impacting all types of chicken eggs? Yeah, that's a good question.
Without getting too much in the weeds, there are different types of eggs and they're priced differently based on grading, location, and whether or not they're organic. So your conventional white egg comes from caged chickens and those are commodity eggs. When we talk about average egg prices, those are commodity eggs.
And anything that's not a conventional egg is considered... A specialty egg.
The next level up are cage-free eggs. And that doesn't mean chickens are running around outside. They're still inside, but they can stretch their wings and walk around. Then you have free-range eggs, which are laid by hens who are outside and have a bit of a larger space to move. And then pasture-raised eggs are laid by hens who roam even more freely.
Those are likely to be your most expensive eggs.
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Chapter 3: Are cage-free eggs cheaper than conventional ones?
Without getting too graphic here, what happens when bird flu is discovered amongst a flock?
Well, farms are testing chickens regularly. And when H5N1 is found, those chickens are culled or depopulated within 24 hours, which are nicer sounding ways to say selectively killed. I won't go into what that actually entails because this is a family show.
Thank you.
You got it. Sounds so bad for the chickens. But what happens to the farms? That's a lot of loss.
Well, when birds need to be killed due to disease, poultry producers are compensated by the federal government. The USDA says that policy is critical to incentivize farms to report outbreaks and then reduce spreading. The USDA doesn't pay for the birds that die from the flu itself, though, just the hens that are culled.
But culling hasn't fully worked to slow the spread, right? I saw the Trump administration is planning another approach.
Yeah, the National Economic Council and the USDA are planning to use, quote, enhanced biosecurity measures and medication, end quote, to control the spread. There's also conditional approval by the USDA for an avian flu vaccine, which is generally backed by the poultry and dairy industry.
I'm curious if the Trump administration's federal workforce changes are impacting these efforts.
So in the midst of shrinking the size of the federal government workforce, the U.S. Department of Agriculture accidentally fired multiple employees who were working on response to the avian flu outbreak. Last week, the USDA said it was able to rehire those workers.
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Chapter 4: What measures are being taken to control the avian flu?
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We're back and we are answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode, we're joined by Maddie, a listener with some questions about how to get started ethically investing, how to manage their savings and more.
Maddie, welcome to Smart Money.
Hi, I'm happy to be here.
So before we get into the substance of our conversation, I want to remind you that everything we're going to talk about is just for educational and entertainment purposes. And while I may be a certified financial planner professional, I am not your CFP. Got it? Understood. Perfect. Let's start by hearing a little bit about your finances. Can you describe how you manage your household finances?
Like what's been good? What has been challenging?
I would say the last 10 years of my life have definitely been marked by some pretty severe financial anxiety. I think I've always had financial anxiety and felt sort of financially insecure. I think my strategy was avoidance. Last semester, I taught a financial literacy course for the first time in a while.
And now that I am a little older and have a family, I was sort of able to engage more with the material and learn alongside my students. and realized that I really could be doing better. So basically, I have a decent amount in student loans, and I also have money in savings. And so my question is, do I try to invest that money, or do I try to hold it just in case?
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Chapter 5: How can ethical investing align with personal values?
And you said you have a decent amount in savings. How much do you have?
We have about 60K in savings. My husband and I, we're definitely savers. And we are very cautious with how we spend our money. And we approach money the same way, which is really locky. While we have had that mindset, neither of us really came from money. And so we didn't have a lot of savings to begin with. But we got very lucky.
And you might not think that this is lucky, but we bought three houses in three years.
Wow.
That is lucky.
It sounds a little chaotic, too.
It was chaotic and there were capital gains tax involved because we did like buy and sell and then buy and sell and buy and sell. Or no, we just bought the third one. Basically, it was in Durham, North Carolina, and the market was crazy. And we were just extremely lucky to be in that place in that time and profit off of these investments so quickly.
So we honestly thought of that as winning the lottery. And because I have the student loan debt, we just held on to it in a savings account. I just barely switched it over to a high yield savings account so that money can grow a little bit while we wait to make these decisions.
However, now that I am teaching this class, I do want to start taking some action and not just have a lump of money sitting in savings.
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Chapter 6: Should you invest or pay off student loans first?
Well, sometimes having a lump of money in savings is a great thing to have just sitting there, not being put to use, just being there as savings. So that's good that you have that. And congratulations on what you've been able to do with the money you got from your housing situations. But I want to focus a little more on your debt. So you mentioned that you only have student loan debt.
Is that correct?
Yes, and we have a mortgage from our current house, but we are really good about paying off our credit cards every month. So it's just the student loans and our mortgage right now.
And do you know what the current balance is of all of your loans?
My student loans are now at $78,000. They were at $67,000 under Biden's SAVE Act. But because that got held up in federal courts, interest has no longer been paused. So I have $67,000 principal and the rest in interest. So $11,000 in interest. Then the mortgage is about $160,000 left.
So you mentioned that you are in public service loan forgiveness, and that's a program we can get into that in a little bit, but you generally have to be in it for 10 years before your student loans are forgiven. How many years do you have under your belt?
I do have 10 years in education, but three were working as a substitute. And those years would count towards my public service loan forgiveness, but I was in graduate school at the time. So my loans were in forbearance.
Well, first of all, Maddie, I want to say that you're very brave and you're doing a great job. Oh, thanks. And you're on the right track. I think being cognizant of what your blocks are when it comes to money and being aware of where you need to improve are like great steps. So with that said, my question for you right now is what is your relationship with money?
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Chapter 7: What are the best strategies for saving for college?
I am really enjoying learning more. That's how I found your podcast. I love teaching this class, financial literacy, because it feels like I'm giving kids secrets and I get to tell them all of the mistakes I made and hope that they don't make the same ones. So I know I'm really annoying my husband. because I'm insisting that we start taking some action.
And all of the anxiety and the guilt are sort of now being buried under my excitement to just do better and take action and move forward.
I'm interpreting your desire to take action and improve your finances as a way to work through that guilt and anxiety that you have.
For sure. Yes. And that's awesome. And on that note, we are going to answer some of your questions, Maddie, to hopefully help you get on the right path and make your own decisions that's best for you and your family. All right. Please tell us what is your first question?
Okay, nerds. So I want to start with asking about ethical investing. As I'm thinking about growing my wealth and making decisions with this lump of money I have in the bank, I really do want to make decisions that align with my values. When I was teaching financial literacy last semester, I did an activity. It's called a Socratic Smackdown.
You take a topic and you divide the class into four groups and they debate from different perspectives on that topic. The topic this time was socially responsible investing. I did not know a lot about socially responsible investing when I started this Smackdown with the kids, but through their research and through their arguments, I learned a ton.
And I think my question is, number one, is it worthwhile? Is it just greenwashing? Number two, is there such a thing as ethical investing? And number three, in late stage capitalism, Is there a point investing ethically or should I just be looking out for myself?
Ooh, those are some heavy questions. Elizabeth, I know you wrote about investing for many years. Do you want to take on ESG generally, which stands for environmental, social, and government investing, sometimes also called socially responsible investing? They're basically synonymous.
Yeah, so for listeners who are maybe unaware of what it is, essentially it's just about investing in companies that align with your personal and your ethical beliefs. So for example, maybe you don't want to invest in companies that contribute to the military industrial complex, or you don't want to contribute to companies that have a history of polluting the environment.
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