In 2022, Dave Blancett, 72, and his wife Maria, 71, were living in Cape Coral, Florida, when Hurricane Ian hit. “We had storm surge. We lost our roof. We lost our pool cage,” Maria tells CNBC Make It.

Hurricane Ian was one of the deadliest storms in Florida’s history and caused an estimated $112 billion in damage across the state.

The considerable damage to their home made the Blancetts consider moving and they soon turned their sights on a “hurricane-proof” community called Babcock Ranch.

The community suffered some fallen trees and damaged roofs during Ian, but the homes there never lost power or water, and there was no flooding. After learning how little disruption the major storm had caused at Babcock, the couple visited the town in 2023 and put down a $125,000 deposit on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house.

Babcock Ranch is a planned community of 10,000 residents near Fort Myers that claims to be the first solar-powered town in the United States.

The land was originally a privately-owned 91,000-acre ranch — an area about five times the size of the island of Manhattan.

“When I first met the Babcock family, I explained what I wanted to do with the property,” Syd Kitson, CEO of Kitson & Partners and Founder of Babcock Ranch, tells CNBC.

“Now, I couldn’t pay as much as everybody else, but what I told them was we were going to take that 91,000 acres and preserve 80% of it. And then we were going to build the most sustainable new town that’s ever been developed.”

In 2006, Kitson and his investors bought the land for about $700 million. As promised, the team preserved 73,000 of the 91,000 acres and sold them to the state of Florida for $350 million.

The remaining 18,000 acres would house Babcock Ranch.

“We set out to create the most sustainable, the most resilient, and the most innovative new town that’s ever been developed,” Kitson says.

Kitson and his investors spent years surveying the land to figure out the best way to go about making the town “hurricane-proof.” To start, they decided to build the community 30 feet above sea level on preserved wetlands which would help to reduce flooding during a storm surge.

“We are working with Mother Nature and not against Mother Nature because if you work against Mother Nature, you’re going to fail every single time,” Kitson says.

“In order to be the most sustainable new town in the United States, the first thing we knew was we had to have a renewable energy source,” Kitson says. The town partnered with Florida Power and Light, an electric services company, to install 687,000 solar panels that provide Babcock Ranch with 150 megawatts of energy.

“We’re the first solar-powered town in the United States and we’re very, very proud of that.”

Every house in the community was built with reinforced roofs and impact-resistant windows to withstand hurricane winds up to 150 mph or a Category 4 storm. And the towns power lines were installed underground.

In Babcock Ranch, all homes, commercial buildings and centers are required to be built to a minimum of bronze Florida Green Building Coalition standards.

Babcock Ranch also has a K-12 school, retail shops and a sports facility.

The town’s first downtown area, Founder’s Square, broke ground in 2016, and some of the model homes opened in 2017. The first residents moved into Babcock Ranch in 2018.

Today, more than 4,000 houses have sold, ranging in price between $300,000 to over $4 million.

By 2035, the community will complete its planned 19,500 residences and six million square feet of commercial space.

In April 2024, Dave and Maria moved into their brand new, never-lived 2,400-square-foot home in the gated community of Edgewater Shores at Babcock Ranch.

The couple bought the house for $835,457 with a down payment of $309,370 and have a monthly mortgage payment of $4,897. They pay about $1,648 a quarter in HOA fees.

The home’s total cost covered capital improvements designed for both luxury and protection, featuring a pool, outdoor kitchen, and a Kevlar storm shutter over the pool cage.

“I like to say that we moved 30 miles inland and 30 feet up. The area here had been tested by Hurricane Ian,” Dave says.

That October, just about six months after the Blancetts moved to Babcock Ranch, Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, but the couple didn’t feel nervous about it at all.

“It is a much safer environment in a hurricane with all of the climate-resistant things that the developers did,” Maria says. “When Milton came through we were not worried at all. This beautiful lake that you see behind our home, the level never rose to where I was nervous compared to the lake behind our home in Cape Coral that actually rose within feet of our door.”

Hurricane Milton was classified a Category 3 hurricane. Its impact caused a tornado outbreak that produced at least 19 confirmed tornadoes and hurricane-force wind gusts, according to the National Weather Service.

“We had seven people, four dogs and four cats staying with us,” Dave says. “With all the power lines being underground, we didn’t lose power.”

The Blancetts weren’t the only ones sheltering others during Milton. The entire community was designated a shelter by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Babcock Ranch sheltered around 2,000 Floridians in the town’s school and the sports facility.

“These people were incredibly appreciative,” Kitson says. “They were frightened because they didn’t know [what was] going to happen to their own homes, but they were just happy to be in a safe environment.”

After surviving two hurricanes at Babcock Ranch with virtually no damage, Kitson says he hopes the community will inspire others.

“What I like for Babcock Ranch to ultimately be is an example as how to do it right and to be a blueprint for other communities throughout the country,” he says. “And very candidly, I hope they even do it better than we’ve done it.”

The Blancetts say their experience with Hurricane Milton compared to what things were like for them during Ian, makes the gamble they took on this innovative new town well worth it.

“I don’t think we’re going to be planning on moving from Babcock Ranch or into a new house, for that matter, for several years,” Dave says. “We feel very safe here and so do all of our friends.”

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Cakes Body is a small operation. The e-commerce retailer, which makes nipple covers, has roughly 30 employees who work remotely across the U.S.

Even so, the team recently enjoyed a full month of paid time off around the holidays — and co-founders Taylor Capuano and Casey Sarai hope to make it a twice-yearly occasion.

The twin sisters, 32, kicked around the idea after each went on maternity leave for three months in 2024, yet their business grew nearly eight-fold from $10 million in annual sales to $75 million in annual sales.

“We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this level of growth without a team that was very dedicated,” Capuano the company’s chief creative officer, tells CNBC Make It.

The extended break and continued growth “requires a lot of trust in your team. We only have A-players,” she adds. “So it feels very natural to be giving them time off.”

Capuano and Sarai say hiring the right people allows them to do more work in less time.

One of the biggest things they look for in a new hire is someone who is proactive.

“The thing that stands out to me about our team is nobody needs to be managed,” says Sarai, the company’s CEO. The business does have managers but has a pretty flat hierarchy, she says, “and that’s why they can move things along so quickly.”

Put another way, the two look for “someone who’s going to make your problems their problems,” Capuano says.

She gives an example of when Cakes launched on TikTok Shop in early 2024.

“Most brands couldn’t win on it because they couldn’t even set up the platform, because there were so many bugs and headaches and challenges,” Capuano says. “The woman that really like dug in and made it her problem — she was actually doing legal contracting for us for 10 hours a week.”

When she learned the company was having trouble getting on the platform, “she just rolled up her sleeves” and “cracked the code on it,” Capuano says.

That employee successfully got Cakes Body set up on TikTok Shop, and Capuano says that allowed the business to make $15 million in sales for the year.

Given her hiring strategy, it makes sense that the best career advice Capuano ever received came from her father, who said: “If taking out the trash is going to help the salesperson sell more, your job is to take out the trash.”

“It was just the lesson of: Do what has to get done,” Capuano says. “And that can be extremely valuable to the organization.”

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If you didn’t file a tax return for 2021, it might be worth doing so — you could be leaving money on the table.

The Internal Revenue Service has been sending out Covid-19 stimulus check money worth as much as $1,400 to around 1 million tax filers who didn’t receive them. Since the credit was originally self-claimed, the IRS is now automatically sending these payments to ensure eligible taxpayers get what they’re owed.

Called the Recovery Rebate Credit, the tax provision helps people claim missed stimulus payments from 2021. If you were eligible but didn’t receive the funds, you can still claim it. But there’s a catch: You must file a tax return by April 15, 2025.

Payments will be automatically deposited using the banking information listed on the taxpayer’s 2023 tax return or sent by paper check.

The stimulus check, part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, was the final payment issued to provide financial relief during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It provides up to $1,400 per person, with the exact amount dependent on adjusted gross income and phased out at higher income levels:

• Single filers: You qualify for the full $1,400 if your AGI in 2021 was $75,000 or less. The credit begins to decrease for incomes over $75,000 and is fully phased out at $80,000.
• Married filing jointly: You qualify for the full $2,800 (for two people) if your combined AGI in 2021 was $150,000 or less. The credit begins to decrease for combined incomes over $150,000 and is fully phased out at $160,000.
• Dependents: Families can receive $1,400 for each dependent in 2021, regardless of age, but the amount is subject to the same income phaseout limits as the primary filer.

Originally announced in December, the IRS has been automatically sending payments to taxpayers who qualify, including those who filed tax returns with blank or $0 entries for the Recovery Rebate Credit data field, but were still eligible for the credit.

That leaves eligible people who haven’t filed a tax return yet. April 15th is the last day to claim the credit, as, generally, the IRS only allows you to file for refunds or credits within three years.

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Everybody worries about cognitive decline as they age. Some changes are natural and to be expected, but more severe cases can lead to dementia, a chronic condition that affects memory, language, reasoning abilities and even the ability to perform certain daily activities.

While not all forms of dementia are entirely preventable, research has shown that certain modifications to your lifestyle and diet can reduce your risk or delay the onset.

As a neurologist, I encourage all my patients to make adjustments and incorporate habits in their daily lives for better brain health. Depending on the person, that might mean reducing alcohol intake, quitting smoking, walking daily or reducing processed food intake. 

I try to practice what I preach, too. Here are three things I do every day to keep my brain sharp and reduce my risk of developing dementia:

As someone who suffers from migraines, I try to keep my days very regimented to avoid flare-ups, though it’s not always possible when I’m on call. 

I aim to drink plenty of water, get good quality sleep, and eat three meals per day. I try to set a healthy “tone” in the morning with a nutritious breakfast that often includes multigrain and high-fiber bread, Greek yogurt, nuts and berries.

The fiber in multigrain bread and the probiotics in yogurt support a healthy gut microbiome, which is critical in optimizing brain health. The gut and the brain have close connections. For example, the gut produces a significant amount of serotonin and dopamine in our body, which affect our mood and emotions. A healthy gut microbiome also decreases inflammation, which may in turn lower the risk of neurodegenerative disease.

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Berries and nuts are packed with essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that support memory and cognition. Higher intake of flavonoids, found in nuts and berries, have been associated with slower cognitive decline in older patients. In addition, nuts are a good source of fiber and can slow down digestion, make someone feel fuller for longer and slow down the rise in blood sugar. Eating nuts may decrease the risk of diabetes, which is associated with higher risk of cognitive decline. 

When I have time to eat at home with my family, I often incorporate eggs during breakfast to provide a good source of protein. Some studies have linked egg consumption with a lower risk of dementia. 

As a hip-hop dancer and choreographer — who once upon a time worked as a professional backup dancer — I’m a huge advocate for dancing. 

It’s an excellent aerobic exercise for your heart and brain that requires coordination, rhythm, spatial awareness and creativity. Learning choreography also requires mental engagement and memory. It stimulates multiple parts of your brain and strengthens neural connections with the rest of the body. 

In one study that looked at multiple cognitive and physical activities (including swimming, bicycling and climbing stairs), dancing was the only physical activity associated with a lower risk of dementia.

Although I’m no longer a professional dancer, I still dance with my wife and kids at home and try to freestyle and choreograph to new songs to make it more fun.

Many people may avoid dancing because they think they’re uncoordinated or don’t have a sense of rhythm. But you don’t have to get on stage. Just find your groove alone or with a few people you feel comfortable with.

The good news is that if it’s newer to you, dancing will probably challenge your brain and body even more than those who already boogie routinely. And the more your brain is challenged, the better it is at combating cognitive decline.

Learning to speak another language benefits your attention and working memory, and can change the structures in your brain. It can increase gray matter in different brain regions, build new neural pathways and enhance existing neural connections.

Research shows that the ability to speak two languages fluently is associated with a higher cognitive reserve. The more robust your cognitive reserve, the less susceptible you are to cognitive decline when the brain is disturbed or changes structurally over time. This might be one of the reasons why bilingual individuals show a delay of four to five years of dementia symptom onset compared to monolingual individuals.

I currently use Duolingo daily to practice my fourth and fifth languages — French and Spanish. I find the app’s approach engaging because it gamifies the process to make it more fun. The important thing is to find the language learning tool that suits you best, which will motivate you to practice consistently.

Baibing Chen is a double-boarded certified neurologist and epileptologist practicing at the University of Michigan. Find him on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Want to earn some extra money on the side? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Start a Side Hustle to learn tips to get started and strategies for success from top side hustle experts. Sign up today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off $97 (+taxes and fees) through April 1, 2025.