CNBC Make It

When Jen Glantz’s boyfriend asked to move in with her in 2017, she said no. They’d been dating for a year, and both of their New York City leases were about to expire. They would save so much money if they lived in just one place, he said. But Glantz panicked. Their lives felt so boring, says Glantz. They were on track to follow the traditional relationship playbook. Next they’d get married, then they’d have kids, and before they knew it, their iron-clad routines would guide them straight to a retirement home. Instead, Glantz argued, they should do something different. They decided to sell 90% of their belongings and moved to a new city every month (sometimes staying longer and occasionally repeating a destination). For two years, they found short-term rentals through Craigslist, Facebook groups, and Airbnb. They lived in 10 cities total, including Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and Austin. Now they’re back in Brooklyn. They’re married and have a daughter. But the lessons they took from this adventure still inspire how they live today, says Glantz. See what their experience was like — and what lessons they learned along the way: ⬇️

The day Lisa Collum started her side hustle in 2011, she went to OfficeMax and bought five binders with the last $99 in her checking account, she says. She filled them with copies of her fourth- and fifth-grade writing curricula, sliding pages reading “Top Score Writing by Lisa Collum” into the front plastic covers. As she sold them, the five binders became 10, then 20. Within five years, she was selling hundreds at a time from her living room’s makeshift assembly line, with her 8-year-old operating the three-hole-punch. Today, Collum is the CEO of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida-based Top Score Writing, which sells K-12 writing curricula and consulting services to schools and teachers across all 50 U.S. states. The company brought in nearly $1.9 million in annual profit in 2023, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Here’s how she built her business.

When we picture spoiled kids, many of us think of tantrums over not getting what they want, being told to follow rules or simply facing any sort of inconvenience. But spoiled behavior isn’t just about entitlement or parents giving in — it’s about unmet emotional needs, inconsistent boundaries and a lack of connection, says Reem Raouda. As a conscious parenting researcher and coach, Raouda has studied over 200 kids, and she’s found that spoiled behavior can sometimes indicate unmet needs. Here are the five signs of highly spoiled children — and how parents can try to undo this behavior.

Most people assume their bills are non-negotiable and set in stone. But here’s the truth: Almost everything is negotiable, says millionaire Rose Han — companies build a cushion into their pricing because they expect some customers to ask for a better deal. Most people just never bother. Whether it’s your internet bill, credit card APR, insurance premium, or bank fees, you’d be surprised how often a simple phone call can get your costs lowered. Even if you don’t get an immediate discount, you can often secure a better rate, an upgraded service, or hidden perks just by knowing what to say, says Han. This was one of the key strategies that Han used to help pay off $100,000 of debt. She was able to transform her approach to her finances, which set her up to make her first million at 32. She shares how to do it: ⬇️

Shahezad Contractor, 44, is the founder and CEO of Cousin’s Burger, a halal restaurant chain with eight locations across the Northeast. The Cousin’s brand is known for its smash burgers, but also includes a pizza and barbecue restaurant. The business brought in over $4 million in total revenue and was profitable in 2025. See how he built his business into what it is today: cnb.cx/4tlFStj

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett’s top piece of advice for young people looking to grow their wealth is not about money or investing — it’s about who you spend time with and what you choose to do together. If you want to be successful, it’s “enormously important” to surround yourself with smart people, Buffett said at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting when asked the advice he’d give to young investors. Equally important, he added, is to choose a job or path that you not only genuinely enjoy, but the people around you enjoy as well — something you’d still do even if you didn’t need the money. Here’s why the advice is so important, according to Buffett.

Kylee Harris took Outward Bound's Reset challenge avoided her screen and social media for a day. It changed her life.

If there’s one thing Bernadette Joy learned on her journey from being $300,000 in debt to becoming a self-made millionaire, it’s this: she wasn’t broke because she didn’t make enough money at the time — she just felt broke because she overspent on things that weren’t aligned with her health and wealth goals. Joy does spend money on things she likes. She loves a good K-pop concert and a well-deserved vacation. But she also knows that swapping unnecessary spending in some areas frees up money for things that truly matter. Here are six things Joy thinks Americans waste too much money on — that she used to overspend on, too — and what she does now instead.

Jennifer Hyman says she learned one of the most important lessons of her career as a 22-year-old intern. It’s simple, the CEO of Rent the Runway — which has a market cap of $95.93 million, as of Wednesday morning — told students at a recent Stanford Graduate School of Business event: “Be likable.” While interning at Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Hyman came up with the idea for hosting honeymoon registries, where people could contribute funds toward couples’ post-wedding luxury vacations, she said. But pitching the company’s president wasn’t an easy sell: He didn’t say no, but didn’t immediately embrace the idea or give her resources to pursue it, either. Instead, Hyman had to persuade her colleagues to help her build a website, a reservation system and, essentially, a new business. Having a good idea wasn’t enough to win those colleagues over, she said — she needed to be likable.

Steve Barsh didn’t set out to become a property manager. He just wanted to rent out his vacation home. In 1999, three years after Steve Barsh sold his software company SECA, he and his wife Amber Salzman bought a $820,000 three-bedroom condo in Old Town, a historic mining neighborhood in Park City, Utah. They stayed there on vacations, renting it out after they returned home to Philadelphia, Barsh says. After two years, Barsh — frustrated at coughing up 40% of the rental earnings to pay a local property manager — started managing the short-term rentals himself, he says. Today, the 59-year-old owns and runs property management company Parker Chase Properties, which brought in $1.27 million in revenue from bookings on VRBO, Airbnb and travel software platform Hospitable in 2024, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. (Barsh is an investor in Hospitable, according to the company.) He pockets 40 to 50% of his side hustle’s revenue as profit, he estimates. See how Barsh built his side hustle, what lessons he learned that made his side hustle successful, and how others can follow in his footsteps at the link in bio.