When serial entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban became a millionaire, he had a simple goal: Don’t spend all his newfound riches at once.

Upon selling his software company MicroSolutions for $6 million in 1990, Cuban — who took home roughly $2 million, after taxes — quickly called a broker, he told social media personality Jules Terpak in a video interview released Monday.

“I want you to invest for me like a 60-year-old. I don’t want you to invest like I’m young, because I want to live off this for a long time,” Cuban, now 66, recalled telling the broker.

Cuban, the son of an automobile upholsterer near Pittsburgh, didn’t grow up rich. He also knew wealth could be fleeting — he nearly went broke at age 27, after starting MicroSolutions — and dedicated himself to living more like a frugal student, he said.

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Early in his career, that meant living with five roommates, sleeping on the floor and driving a 1966 Buick LeSabre. After becoming a millionaire, it meant living somewhat below the stereotype of his newfound means.

“By the time I sold [MicroSolutions], I had just bought the worst house in the best neighborhood, but I wasn’t big into that,” said Cuban. “I wasn’t big into cars. I wanted to live like a student and just have fun.”

His frugality had exceptions: While celebrating the sale with his friends, Cuban bought a $125,000 lifetime pass at American Airlines, he said on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast in October. He also indulged in another aspect of living like a student, he told Terpak: getting drunk and partying.

“I bought this lifetime pass so I could go to any city, anywhere [and] party like a rock star,” said Cuban. “I literally would [say] I want to get drunk with as many people as I could.”

Cuban’s strategy of prioritizing low-risk investment strategies essentially became a non-factor in 1999, when he sold his second tech company, an audio streaming service called Broadcast.com, for $5.7 billion.

Becoming a billionaire helped him feel like, “OK, I’m set,” he said, giving him breathing room to take on more risky investments. He’s known to take bold chances as an investor on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” and has said that taking smart risks is essential to becoming wealthy.

His mindset today is much closer to most experts’ investing advice for young people. Younger investors can generally afford to take bigger risks with higher potential gains than older investors, because they have more time to ride out market fluctuations and recover from any potential losses before they’re ready to retire.

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, for example, specifically encourages young people to get comfortable with taking risks. Even experimenting with pocket money can help you learn the realities of the stock market, she said last month while speaking at the Fortune Global Forum 2024.

“Learn by doing — with small amounts of money, or even on platforms where you don’t actually have to use real money,” said Friedman. “As you get more engaged and more educated, you can start to take more risks … and then get more confidence.”

As for Cuban’s habit of living like a student, his party-heavy days are largely behind him, he tells CNBC Make It. He remains committed to not overspending, relatively speaking: He doesn’t own yachts, have butlers or hire house cleaners — though he did buy a $40 million jet upon becoming a billionaire, setting a record for largest single e-commerce transaction in history.

He now spends most of his time with his family or running his pharmaceutical startup Cost Plus Drugs, an online pharmacy that aims to make prescription drugs more affordable, he says.

“I think less about making money and more about direction and f—ing things up to benefit as many Americans as I can,” says Cuban.

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If you enjoy teaching and are looking for a side hustle — or full-time job — that you can do from home, you might want to consider tutoring. 

Demand for online tutors has surged in recent years, driven by pandemic disruptions to in-person learning, declining test scores in core subjects, and increasingly competitive college admissions.

While the need for online tutoring services “might not be as intense” as it was during the height of the pandemic, “it’s still strong,” Kathy Kristof, founder and editor of SideHusl.com, tells CNBC Make It. 

“Tutors can earn anywhere from $15 to more than $150 an hour, depending on the subject that they teach,” she adds. 

Tutoring is a popular because it allows you to “set your own rates and availability,” says Kristof. There’s no shortage of subjects to teach, whether academic or non-academic, and a variety of platforms to choose from. “It really is a great side hustle,” she says.

On Outschool, a marketplace for virtual classes for children, for example, one tutor offers sessions on Dungeons & Dragons, while another teaches tambourine and hand drum lessons.

That said, “there’s especially strong demand” for tutors in STEM subjects and for helping students prepare for standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, Kristof notes.

Alicia Carpenter, a tutor and president of Forum Education, a New York-based tutoring agency, says Forum has seen an increase in requests for writing and analytical reading support post-pandemic. “The aftereffects of remote schooling and isolation have created a real writing skills crisis, affecting students from grade school all the way through college,” she explains.

Among the platforms Kristof recommends is Wyzant, which she describes as “well-established” and capable of attracting “millions of visitors” each month. That makes it easier to find clients. 

Other popular platforms include Varsity Tutors and Udemy, where you can create and sell pre-recorded courses.

Steve Menking was working as an equities trader at SMB Capital with no background in education before he became a full-time tutor in 2014. The years he spent on Wall Street prepared him well to tutor high school and college students in subjects such as accounting and calculus, he says. 

He’s built a thriving career with two main income streams: contracting with Forum Education and running his own online business, Menking Tutoring LLC, which he launched in 2020.

In 2023, Menking earned more than $500,000 through private tutoring, a number he’s on track to match in 2024. His current rate is about $1,000 an hour.

His advice for aspiring tutors? Find a niche subject you excel in. For example, if you work in marketing, you might specialize in English tutoring or helping students craft college admissions essays.

Before committing to one platform or agency, Menking recommends exploring multiple options to see which offers the best rates and access to students.

After leaving finance, Menking submitted his resume to dozens of tutoring agencies in New York and created a profile on Wyzant. He initially set his rate at just under $100 an hour but increased it as he gained experience and referrals. By 2017, he was charging $150 an hour.

The “most important” skill for successful tutoring, Menking says, isn’t a degree in education — though that can certainly help. Instead, “what’s helped me the most is a willingness to understand how different people learn.”

“You can upskill in a number of subjects with books, podcasts and other resources, but what sets the best tutors apart is their ability to actively listen, be patient and genuinely care about helping someone learn the material,” Menking adds.

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As a kid growing up in “the boondocks” of North Carolina, Jon Collins-Black was fond of digging in the dirt to look for rocks and arrowheads. 

With an active emerald mine not too far from where he lived, Collins-Black was drawn to the idea of finding something of value hidden away, just out of sight. 

“I’ve always had a spirit of adventure,” Collins-Black tells CNBC Make It. “I’ve always been looking for stuff.” 

So it should come as no surprise that Collins-Black is the man behind the the world’s latest treasure hunt, having hidden chests full of millions of dollars worth of gold, crypto and rare valuables across the United States. 

He first struck gold – metaphorically speaking – back in 2013 when he invested $50,000 in Bitcoin at the price of $125. A little over a decade later, a single bitcoin is now worth more than $100,000. That windfall gave him the financial freedom to spend his time how we wanted.

“I kind of had this niggling idea of, ‘What’s stopping me from doing my own treasure hunt?’” he says. “And it was like, ‘Nothing. In fact, I have the financial means to do it. I can do it however I want to.’” 

Having once been a treasure-hunter himself — trying in vain to find the gold hidden by Forrest Fenn in 2010 — Collins-Black set out to assemble five chests and hide them across the country. 

“I grossly underestimated the time it would take me,” he says. “At the time I was like ‘Oh, I could probably pull this off in 18 months.’ And now it’s almost five years later.” 

Collins-Black spent roughly two million dollars obtaining the valuables, which include multiple bitcoin, plenty of gold, a rare, holographic Pokémon card and a glass once owned by George Washington. 

He wanted to put together prizes that would inspire treasure hunters to go all-out to find them, but not valuable enough that anyone would put their safety at risk. Five people lost their lives while searching for Forrest Fenn’s treasure before it was eventually found.

“There was a question in my mind about how much I should spend on the treasure, because I didn’t want to make it too crazy,” he explains. “I knew from the Forrest Fenn experience that people can get a little excited, sometimes too excited, and they can make bad decisions as a consequence.”

He would go on to hike hundreds of miles across the country finding the perfect hiding spots for his treasures. Collins-Black details the contents of the five chests— and the clues hunters will need to find them — in his new book, “There’s Treasure Inside.”

Collins-Black doesn’t know how long it will take treasure seekers to find what he’s hidden, but he “deliberately picked items that I think are going to go up in value” over time as people keep looking. 

“My thinking was: If it takes five years to find these treasures, it’s going to be worth more then,” he says. “So maybe some people stopped looking because they gave up, but other people are going to be even more motivated because they’re looking for a $3 million or $4 million or $5 million treasure.”

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This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

At just 30 and 27 years old, Quinn and Brittney Sturgis, a married couple serving in the Air Force, are on track to retire in their early 40s — if they choose to.

“We’re not necessarily focused on trying to hit a certain number by a certain age to completely retire,” says Quinn, an Air Force pilot. But financial independence “is a major goal of ours — to be able to not work if we don’t have to.”

Both officers are stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, earning just over $263,000 in combined salary and paid military benefits. Roughly a quarter of their income is automatically stashed in investment accounts.

By taking advantage of paid scholarships and training offered by the Air Force during college, as well as housing and food allowances and other military perks, they’ve built up $473,000 in savings. That, combined with a lifelong pension paying 40% of their salaries after 20 years of service, puts them on track for retirement in their early 40s.

“We’re super grateful for the opportunity the military has given us,” says Brittney, a Medical Service Corps officer who helps oversee a hospital of 2,500 personnel at the base. Unlike many college graduates, “we’ve been able to pursue a lot of different things without having to worry about debt,” she says.

Of course, military service comes with trade-offs. “Sometimes your life is going to be dictated by things that are out of your control,” Quinn says. One of those is frequent moves — commonly every three or four years — for new assignments.

So far, they’ve been able to stay in one place since having their 1-year-old son, Theo, which has made life easier as they adjust to parenthood.

But, “if we got orders to move, we’d be excited,” Brittney says. “The opportunity to experience new places is one of the things we love most about this life.”

Born in Agoura Hills, just outside Los Angeles, Quinn admits he lacked direction after high school. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life,” he says.

Looking for a fresh start, he moved to Texas in 2012 to live with his uncle, a civilian pilot, who encouraged him to explore aviation. Taking his advice, Quinn visited a flight school and took his first flight with an instructor.

While working a part-time job at a fast food restaurant and attending community college, he joined the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps, a program that prepares college students to become military officers. After a year and a half, in 2014, he transferred to the University of Texas at Austin to complete his degree in economics while continuing his military training.

It was there that he met Brittney, a public health major who was also in the Air Force ROTC program, which requires at least four years of service after graduating. Born and raised in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, Brittney grew up in a military family — her parents are Army reservists and her grandfather, a Filipino immigrant, earned his U.S. citizenship through service in the Navy.

A self-described “nerd,” Brittney excelled in both academics and athletics in high school, earning a spot in the National Honor Society while “getting familiar with the military lifestyle” through Junior ROTC.

Brittney and Quinn bonded through ROTC in college and married in 2019, after graduating and commissioning as officers.

For Quinn and Brittney, the Air Force provides stability and financial support that allows them to focus on their demanding careers and growing family.

One huge benefit is that they each receive untaxed housing and food allowances, which significantly help with household expenses. In fact, about a third of Quinn and Brittney’s gross income comes from these benefits.

Their combined housing allowances — adjusted based on location — total $6,732 per month, easily covering the $4,220 mortgage payment for their three-bedroom home, purchased with no money down using a Veterans Affairs loan for around $620,000 in 2022.

They also receive $317 each per month for food, and Quinn earns an additional taxable $700 per month in pilot pay, an incentive for the demands of aviation training and operations.

Both receive full health-care benefits, which proved to be vital in 2021, when Brittney was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. “I never thought I’d face something like this so young,” she says.

The Air Force’s health-care system covered all her treatment — from surgery to radiation — allowing her to focus on recovery. Today, she is healthy and continues to receive ongoing care as needed.

Education is another benefit they’ve maximized through the Air Force’s tuition assistance program. It covered much of their college costs, and earlier this year, both Brittney and Quinn earned master’s degrees — hers in public health and his in business administration — while studying part-time.

Child care is another major perk. Theo attends the on-base daycare, which costs just under $1,000 per month. Comparable daycare in the area can cost “upwards of $2,000” per month, says Quinn. Plus, having Theo on-base “makes balancing work and family so much easier,” says Brittney.

Here’s how Quinn and Brittney spent their money in October 2024.

• Savings and investments: $5,854 toward retirement accounts and a 529 college savings plan for Theo
• Housing and utilities: $4,521 includes their mortgage, property taxes, Wi-Fi, water, electricity, gas and trash service
• Discretionary: $2,620 on charitable donations, clothes, pet supplies, household items and a new vacuum
• Travel: $2,371 on trips to Disneyland and Alaska
• Food: $2,217 on groceries and dining out
• Transportation: $1,668 for car payments
• Child care: $971 on daycare for Theo
• Insurance: $373 for auto, home and life insurance
• Subscriptions and memberships: $178 on car washes, cloud storage, wine subscriptions, Roku, Spotify, Disney+, YouTube Premium and Amazon Prime
• Phones: $104

When it comes to savings, “we always pay ourselves first,” says Quinn. Nearly $6,000 is automatically contributed to various retirement accounts each month.

This includes about $700 into each of their respective Thrift Savings Plans, the military’s version of a 401(k). The Air Force matches up to 5% of their base pay under the military’s Blended Retirement System, providing an additional boost to their savings.

The rest of their contributions are split between individual Roth IRA accounts, a taxable brokerage account and a 529 college savings plan. As of October 2024, they had accumulated just over $473,000 in retirement savings.

Quinn and Brittney use 15 credit cards to maximize rewards points and travel discounts, but pay off their balances in full every month. As members of the military, they have benefited from perks like waived annual fees for premium cards, allowing them to enjoy travel benefits and other rewards at no additional cost.

While achieving financial independence is a goal, the couple is OK with “spending extravagantly on the things you love — as long as you cut costs on the things you don’t,” says Quinn. For them, that means splurging on experiences like Michelin-starred meals or trips to Disneyland with Theo.

Quinn and Brittney view financial independence as a way to create flexibility for whatever they want to do later in life.

For Quinn, the path ahead could include transitioning to a civilian aviation career. “Flying for a commercial airline is a very common path for military pilots,” he says. While it could be lucrative, he values the freedom to step away if it doesn’t work for his family.

Brittney could see herself pursuing non-profit work in the public health sector. “Being done with the military doesn’t mean stopping work entirely,” she says. “It’s about finding something fulfilling without the financial pressure to earn.”

Ultimately, they want to keep their options open. By saving and investing now, Quinn and Brittney are setting themselves up for the freedom to choose what comes next — whether that’s continuing to serve, trying out new careers or traveling with Theo.

What’s your budget breakdown? Share your story with us for a chance to be featured in a future installment.

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From Black Friday to the end of the year, it can feel like there’s a constant pull to spend, spend, spend on an endless number of parties, gifts and events. Without careful oversight, it can be easy to go overboard.

As a money editor and certified financial planner professional, spending too much is something I think and talk about a lot. I’ve previously overdone it on the holidays myself, and tapped out is not a fun way to start a new year.

Luckily, I’ve also learned a number of strategies to make it easier to budget during a spendy period.

Here’s what I tell my friends when they ask how to avoid overspending around the holidays.

We’re in the thick of the holiday season, and you may be looking for strategies you can put to use immediately. Here are four things you can do right now to maximize your budget without overspending. 

1. Set a hard boundary

Take a look at your budget to determine the absolute most you can comfortably spend on gifts and events this season. Then be vocal about it.

Let your friends and family know when you can’t afford something. It’s OK to say, “I’m choosing to focus on X, Y and Z this year, so I won’t be able to attend that event.”

2. Prioritize

Now that you know how much you have to spend, list out all of the possible ways you could use that cash. What are your top priorities? Consider everything between today and New Year’s, from your work gift exchange to brunch on Jan. 1.

Knowing you want to save up for something at the end of the season can help you determine what you’re able to say yes to now. You can even prioritize within a plan. Yes, you’ll buy tickets to see the Nutcracker, but no, you can’t make it for dinner out beforehand, for instance.

3. Use cash

Take out the amount you determined above in cash and stick to that for the next month.

For many people, seeing their money physically dwindle is a tactile reminder of the budget they want to stick to. When you’re out of cash, you’re done spending.

4. Unsubscribe

If holiday discounts and after-Christmas sales are your weakness, try unsubscribing from retailers’ email lists or filtering them directly into spam. Avoiding the sale altogether may help you avoid temptation. 

It’s never too early to start planning, especially if you know there are certain times of year you’re likely to overspend, such as on a summer vacation or around the winter holidays. As the new year rolls in, here are three ways to make it easier on yourself going forward.

1. Start a sinking fund

This time of year can be expensive because everything piles up at once. One way to combat that is to save up throughout the year so you have a larger budget for the last few months.

Look back at how much you spent this year. Make sure to include everything — not just gifts, but Uber rides, holiday tips and any other related expenses. If that’s a comfortable amount, divide by 12 and set that amount aside every month.

It’s much less daunting to save $100 a month than to spend $1,200 all at once. 

2. Buy gifts throughout the year

If gift giving is a non-negotiable for you, start picking up gifts whenever you see something someone on your list would like.

I always exchange Christmas and birthday presents with my best friend, so whenever I see a potential gift for her, I grab it. That helps me spread out the cost throughout the year. 

3. Choose an alternative to gift giving

If gifts are eating into your budget, consider suggesting a few alternatives to your family and friends. There’s a good chance you’re not the only one in search of a more affordable option.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Do a Secret Santa-type exchange instead of buying presents for each person
• Offer gifts of service, such as babysitting while your friends take a night — or weekend — for themselves
• Thrift gifts instead of buying everything new
• Skip the gifts all together in favor of a group activity, such as a theater performance, trip to a museum or nice dinner out

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