Where you retire could change your savings needs by as much as $1.49 million, according to a new analysis by GOBankingRates.

In Hawaii, you need around $2.21 million to retire at 65 and cover essential living expenses — including housing, groceries, transportation, utilities and health care — for 25 years. That’s the highest minimum required in any U.S. state. By comparison, West Virginia requires just $712,913, the lowest amount needed to cover these same basic costs.

The estimates are based on average annual living expenses for each state, using the most recent data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. After subtracting average Social Security income from the annual expenditures, GOBankingRates divided the remaining amount by 4%, following a common rule of thumb for safely drawing down retirement savings. It’s worth noting that these figures reflect the bare minimum needed to retire and don’t account for discretionary spending like travel or entertainment.

While housing is the biggest factor driving cost differences between states, significant variations in health care, utilities and transportation also play a role. While these estimates offer a helpful starting point for savings, they’re averages and may not fully account for other factors like inflation, lifestyle changes or unexpected expenses.

Here’s a look the expected total needed for retirement at age 65 in each state:

• Annual cost of living: $53,357
• Savings you need to retire: $773,000

• Annual cost of living: $74,147
• Savings you need to retire: $1,292,753

• Annual cost of living: $67,778
• Savings you need to retire: $1,133,522

• Annual cost of living: $53,477
• Savings you need to retire: $776,005

• Annual cost of living: $86,946
• Savings you need to retire: $1,612,716

• Annual cost of living: $61,709
• Savings you need to retire: $981,803

• Annual cost of living: $67,117
• Savings you need to retire: $1,116,998

• Annual cost of living: $60,207
• Savings you need to retire: $944,248

• Annual cost of living: $61,529
• Savings you need to retire: $977,296

• Annual cost of living: $54,980
• Savings you need to retire: $813,559

• Annual cost of living: $110,921
• Savings you need to retire: $2,212,084

• Annual cost of living: $61,289
• Savings you need to retire: $971,288

• Annual cost of living: $57,383
• Savings you need to retire: $873,646

• Annual cost of living: $54,859
• Savings you need to retire: $810,555

• Annual cost of living: $54,319
• Savings you need to retire: $797,035

• Annual cost of living: $52,095
• Savings you need to retire: $741,455

• Annual cost of living: $55,821
• Savings you need to retire: $834,590

• Annual cost of living: $56,181
• Savings you need to retire: $843,603

• Annual cost of living: $68,199
• Savings you need to retire: $1,144,038

• Annual cost of living: $59,426
• Savings you need to retire: $924,720

• Annual cost of living: $88,268
• Savings you need to retire: $1,645,764

• Annual cost of living: $55,460
• Savings you need to retire: $825,577

• Annual cost of living: $57,263
• Savings you need to retire: $870,642

• Annual cost of living: $52,576
• Savings you need to retire: $753,472

• Annual cost of living: $53,477
• Savings you need to retire: $776,005

• Annual cost of living: $56,482
• Savings you need to retire: $851,114

• Annual cost of living: $55,761
• Savings you need to retire: $833,087

• Annual cost of living: $60,147
• Savings you need to retire: $942,746

• Annual cost of living: $66,997
• Savings you need to retire: $1,113,994

• Annual cost of living: $68,980
• Savings you need to retire: $1,163,566

• Annual cost of living: $55,821
• Savings you need to retire: $834,590

• Annual cost of living: $74,147
• Savings you need to retire: $1,292,753

• Annual cost of living: $58,645
• Savings you need to retire: $905,192

• Annual cost of living: $55,340
• Savings you need to retire: $822,572

• Annual cost of living: $57,023
• Savings you need to retire: $864,633

• Annual cost of living: $52,816
• Savings you need to retire: $759,481

• Annual cost of living: $66,096
• Savings you need to retire: $1,091,462

• Annual cost of living: $57,023
• Savings you need to retire: $864,633

• Annual cost of living: $67,538
• Savings you need to retire: $1,127,514

• Annual cost of living: $57,203
• Savings you need to retire: $869,140

• Annual cost of living: $55,460
• Savings you need to retire: $825,577

• Annual cost of living: $54,078
• Savings you need to retire: $791,027

• Annual cost of living: $55,641
• Savings you need to retire: $830,083

• Annual cost of living: $65,795
• Savings you need to retire: $1,083,951

• Annual cost of living: $68,559
• Savings you need to retire: $1,153,051

• Annual cost of living: $60,387
• Savings you need to retire: $948,755

• Annual cost of living: $68,259
• Savings you need to retire: $1,145,540

• Annual cost of living: $50,954
• Savings you need to retire: $712,913

• Annual cost of living: $59,666
• Savings you need to retire: $930,729

• Annual cost of living: $57,323
• Savings you need to retire: $872,144

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For four years, actor Hugh Grant employed a fake talent agent named “James Howe Ealy” to handle his business affairs. It was actually just Grant himself using a different email account and once putting on a “pretty bad” Scottish accent over the phone. 

This story is one of many I’ve heard of people who made the same powerful decision I did early in my career: creating a fake assistant.

Today, I run a successful business generating about $18,000 in monthly passive income, according to my calculations from a recent month’s deposits, and I work just four hours a day. But back in 2009, I was a college dropout with $50,000 in student loans, trying to build a social media marketing business from scratch.

I knew I needed help managing my growing workload, but I couldn’t afford to hire anyone. That’s when I discovered the fake assistant method.

It might seem unconventional, but looking back, it was the best business decision I ever made.

In the early days of my business, I noticed a few patterns. Potential clients would try to schedule calls at all hours, haggle over prices, or expect immediate responses to every email. I was drowning in administrative tasks instead of focusing on revenue-generating work.

Saying “no” felt impossible as a new entrepreneur, but I needed boundaries. “If only I had an assistant,” I thought.

I suddenly realized that because most of my work happened digitally, it didn’t matter whether I replied to emails from prospective clients as myself or as someone else.

If I had someone else to reply to emails, I could start setting a new standard, charging more money, and holding myself accountable to growing my business. That’s when I hired my fake assistant, Olivia.

I created a professional email address for Olivia. Then I started cc’ing her on all client communications to handle tasks like scheduling calls and sending invoices. 

This small change had an immediate impact. When clients wanted to schedule a meeting, instead of the back-and-forth eating up my day, Olivia would step in: “Amy’s calendar is booked for the next two weeks, but I can offer you Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET.”

The results were remarkable. Clients respected my time more, readily accepted my rates, and treated my business more professionally. 

This method isn’t about deception — it’s about creating systems that allow your business to grow. 

You might be thinking the obvious: “But Amy, you’re still doing all this work yourself. What’s the difference?”

Here’s what I learned about how even a fake assistant who’s actually you can transform your business:

• It helps set better boundaries. Having an assistant gives you a buffer to protect your time and energy. When a client wants to schedule a last-minute call, your assistant can politely decline without making it personal. When you’re replying as yourself, you might feel a sense of obligation and find it harder to say “no.”
• It positions your business more professionally. Clients treat you differently when they observe efficiency in action. That’s what a great team can do for you. And even a temporarily fake one can help, leading to better rates and more respect for your time.
• It forces you to create efficient, transferable systems. When you’re acting as if you have an assistant, you’re creating, testing, and refining processes, workflows, and infrastructure that someone could easily step into and replicate on your behalf. This preparation made it infinitely easier to onboard and train real help when I could finally afford it.
• It prepared me to delegate. By the time I hired a real assistant, I had a clear understanding of exactly what I needed help with, how to delegate effectively, how to manage my time, and how to run my business smoothly. 

If you’re considering this method, here are some pro tips:

1. Don’t use it as a crutch. The goal is to build systems that will help you grow, not create extra work. Keep it simple and professional.
2. Remember the end goal. This is a stepping stone to hiring real help, not a permanent solution. 
3. Track your time in “admin mode.” When you realize how much time these admin tasks take, you’re getting a tangible idea of what level of assistant you need to hire in the near future and for how many hours.

Hiring Olivia meant more than just having a cheerful, organized persona with an email address. It was my first step toward building a scalable business. Today, I have real team members helping me manage my YouTube channel, books, and coaching business.

The fake assistant method taught me very real and crucial lessons about valuing my time, setting professional boundaries, and creating systems for growth. 

It also helped me discover firsthand that sometimes the best business decisions are the ones that seem a little unusual at first.

Amy Landino is a personal brand coach and the award-winning creator of AmyTV on YouTube. She is an instructor in CNBC’s online course How to Earn Passive Income Online. Follow her on Instagram.

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Podcasts are all the rage, and they’re poised to become even more popular in 2025. As many as 141 million Americans are projected to listen to podcasts in 2025, according to data from Emarketer. That’s up from 135.4 million in 2024.

For those making podcasts, the venture is not without its challenges. “In the beginning, everyone’s excited to start their podcast,” says Angelique Rewers, CEO and founder of small business consulting firm BoldHaus. “And then they realize what a grind it really is.”

That’s why for anyone considering picking up a side hustle in 2025, podcast assistant could be a good one to consider. Here’s what the gig could look like and how to dive in.

Podcast assistants take on any of the various tasks of producing a podcast.

They could be responsible for researching and booking guests, answering emails, editing audio and posting the finished product, marketing the show across social media and traditional media, writing up show notes, finding brand deals, etc.

Many podcasters are also “starting with video,” says Nicaila Okome, host of the “Side Hustle Pro” podcast, about the trend of posting your podcast on YouTube. Hosts now need video editors, too.

Depending on the tasks you take on, the gig can also be called podcast producer or, if you’re more specialized in your services, podcast editor, podcast marketing strategist, or other titles.

Consider what kind of skills and experience you have, then start researching how best to offer your services.

“You can easily go onto Fiverr and Upwork and see what people are charging,” says Okome, “and then develop your packages from there.” On Fiverr, professionals often list their rate per project, while on Upwork they often list their rate per hour.

Both sites feature project opportunities, and Okome also recommends going on Facebook groups dedicated to podcasts to see what kinds of job offers people are posting. You can look for openings on sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter or Google Jobs as well. Projects differ in length. Some are one-time and less than 30 hours altogether, others are weekly and ongoing.

One podcast producer on Upwork is charging as much as $100 per hour.

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When I moved from Japan to the U.S. in the 1990s, it wasn’t always easy to get the ingredients I knew and loved. But there were some staples that were easier to come by, like whole grains and beans. 

From there, I built my favorite breakfast: brown rice, beans, “natto” (fermented soybeans), “nukazuke” (pickled vegetables), wrapped with nori (seaweed) and topped with roasted sesame seeds. I have it with a bowl of miso soup and hojicha green tea.

I call this meal my “yakuzen zakkokumai,” or medicinal multigrain rice. It is a healing, restorative start to my day. As a nutritionist, I recommend it to my clients, too. 

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to earning passive income online

The meal is filled with nutrients like iron, iodine, potassium, calcium, magnesium and B, C and K vitamins.

The brown rice, beans and seaweed are all good sources of fiber. Thanks to the fermentation process, natto and nukazuke are also rich in probiotics. Fiber and probiotics are both helpful for your overall gut health and digestion. 

The nori and green tea both contain polyphenols, naturally occurring compounds in plants that are rich in antioxidants, help fight illness and inflammation, and manage blood sugar levels — the whole grain rice helps with that, too. 

The tofu in my miso soup, and beans in general, are good sources of protein and essential amino acids, without the cholesterol and environmental impact that meat, dairy or poultry can have.

I batch cook everything at the start of the week and keep stores of homemade natto, nukazuke and miso soup on hand. 

I typically use organic California short grain brown rice, but when I want to treat myself, I’ll order Morika (my favorite grain shop in my hometown of Nara, Japan) ancient rice from The Rice Factory.

The vegetables in my nukazuke are often seasonal, but I love eggplant, cucumber, napa cabbage, daikon and Japanese turnip. I’m a fan of Suzuki Farm, which is run by Japanese farmers in Delaware, and I often source ingredients from them.

Here is how I make the different elements of my breakfast:

1. I place my brown rice and bean mixture (typically 3 cups of brown rice per 1 cup of beans) into my rice cooker, followed by a 2 x 2 inch square of kombu seaweed. 
2. Using the brown rice setting, I let the rice and bean mixture cook for two hours for better flavor and texture.
3. I place cooked rice in an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator. I repeat the process two to three times a week. 

1. I will soak one pound of soybeans overnight, plus boil them for an additional three to four hours the next day.
2. I put a half pound (the other half goes into the fridge for miso or other recipes) of cooked soybeans into flat airtight containers, add my natto starter and place them into the oven with the light on for 20 to 24 hours. 
3. I put the container into the refrigerator for an additional 10 hours to stop further fermentation and set the natto’s deep flavor. 
4. For the nukazuke, I will mix my lightly salted veggies into “nukadoku” (fermented rice bran paste), add rice brain or sea salt as needed, and marinade for two to three days in the refrigerator. 

While I enjoy the fermentation process, you can also purchase prepared natto and nukazuke at the grocery store or online.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups water 
• 3 x 3 inch piece of kombu
• 3 to 4 pieces dried shiitake                                                            
• 1 sweet onion                  
• 1 medium potato
• 1/2 sweet potato  
• 1 carrot
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
• Additional veggies of your choosing 
• 2 tablespoons of white miso paste 
• 1 package of firm tofu                                                                         
• 1 tablespoon dried wakame seaweed
• 1 tablespoon dried goji berry (optional) 
• Handful of thinly chopped scallions (optional garnish)

Steps: 

1. Wipe the kombu and shiitake with a damp paper towel.
2. Dice the potatoes, chop the fresh ginger and slice the sweet onion (finely) and carrot.
3. In a medium pot, add water, kombu, shiitake, onion, potato, sweet potato, carrots and goji. Bring to a boil at high heat and cover with a lid.
4. Simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
5. In a small bowl, combine the miso paste and 1/2 cup of soup from the pot until the miso paste completely dissolves.
6. Add tofu, wakame and miso mixture into the pot over medium heat. Continue simmering for about three minutes. Then it’s ready to serve.

Once everything is prepared, it takes about five minutes to assemble breakfast in the morning. If I’m heading out the door, I’ll make some nori-wrapped rice balls, for the perfect to-go breakfast, snack or lunch. 

Michiko Tomioka, MBA, RDN is a certified nutritionist and longevity expert. Born and raised Nara, Japan, her approach focuses on a plant-based diet. She has worked in nutritional roles at substance recovery centers, charter schools and food banks. Follow her on Instagram @michian_rd.

Want to make extra money outside of your day job? Sign up for CNBC’s online course How to Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips to get started and real-life success stories.

Oftentimes it’s the well-meaning, seemingly neutral comments parents make that can fuel a child’s insecurity. 

In her upcoming book “The Words That Shape Us,” educator and consultant Lily Howard Scott wants to help curb some of those potentially harmful remarks, especially when it comes to communicating with young kids. 

“One misconception that I hear sometimes is [age] zero to five doesn’t really matter — that kids really come online when they can talk to you in a fluent way,” Scott, who was an elementary school teacher for 10 years, says. “What the research reveals is that really nothing could be further from the truth.” 

A child might not respond like they’ve absorbed what you’re saying, but they usually have, and tend to internalize those comments.

“The way we talk to young children becomes the way they talk to themselves,” Scott says. 

To raise confident kids, here are three types of phrases Scott says to avoid. 

“Avoid broad stroke language that connects the child’s core self with their behavior,” Scott says. 

For example, instead of telling your kid, “You’re irresponsible” say “That was an irresponsible decision.” 

This decouples their choice from their character and signals that even though they made a mistake they can learn to do better going forward. 

It is understandable to be excited when your child takes up similar hobbies or shows similar aptitudes as you. However, it’s best not to use language that “affirms children for how much they are like you,” she says. 

Even a simple comment like “Oh, you’re a math person just like me,” can send the message that your love is conditional on them being an extension of you. It’s better to celebrate their skills and interests without linking them to your own. 

“Avoid language that celebrates product over process,” Scott says. 

Let’s say your child got an A on their vocabulary quiz. You can praise the grade, but also be sure to mention the work. 

Saying something like “I’m so proud of all the studying you did” can show you not only value the outcome, but the effort.

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