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.

In 2008, during what would come to be known as the Great Recession, stories like Nicole Brewer’s were all too common.

At 27, she’d recently bought a condo on the South Side of Chicago with little money down and a loan that would likely stretch her mid-$30,000′s salary thin. Then the market research firm she worked for did layoffs, and she lost her job.

Amid a financial crisis, finding another one proved difficult. After collecting unemployment benefits for five of the allotted six months, Brewer, like many of her peers, was growing desperate.

“I remember I got scared and I was like, ‘OK, what are you going to do if your unemployment runs out? You don’t have a job,’” she tells CNBC Make It. “That’s when I started looking at opportunities. I said, ‘I’ll think outside the box, look at some teaching jobs abroad.’”

Brewer found a gig teaching English at a primary school South Korea, a move that would satisfy some wanderlust while she waited for the U.S. economy to bounce back.

But that’s where her story gets a little less common. After three years in Korea, Brewer took a college-level ESL job, this time in Nizwa, an ancient city in Oman about a 90-minute drive from Muscat, the nation’s capital. She’s been there ever since, living happily and traveling — and currently earning a salary of just over $40,000 a year, plus some side-hustle income.

“I have had such an incredible experience living here. I never even imagined that I would be here for 10-plus years, because I just felt comfortable here,” Brewer, 43, says. “My mental health has definitely been great here.”

A move abroad can be daunting — especially for someone in a precarious financial situation. But for Brewer, who’d moved to a new country with just two suitcases, things were surprisingly seamless.

“Fortunately at that time, being recruited to work for the education department in Korea, they helped set you up,” she says. That meant covering the cost of her flight and assigning her a liaison from her school who helped her find an apartment and transition into working life in Busan, a city of just over 3 million people.

Back home, things were still rough. The renter she’d found to take over payments on her Chicago condo lost his job too and soon fell behind. The bank foreclosed on the property.

That may have made life difficult for Brewer had she chosen to return to the States on her original timeline. But it didn’t take long for her to realize that expat life suited her.

Her home base in Korea, along with a modest cost of living, allowed her to see parts of the world she would have likely otherwise missed, including trips to India and the Philippines. “I was able to live comfortably and still travel a bit,” she says.

After three years, Brewer was looking for a change of pace, and initially thought she might like Dubai. While researching the region, she came across a posting for a job at a university in Oman. “After seeing that posting, I ended up researching on my own and I was like, ‘Wow, this is a very beautiful country,’” Brewer says.

She gave it a chance, boarding a plane in 2012, once again with two suitcases and plans to figure things out when she got there. Other than brief stints in Germany and South Africa to complete an accelerated masters program in international humanitarian aid, she’s stuck around.

Brewer’s main gig is still teaching English, a job which pays her about $3,400 a month, even when school is not in session. Over the years, she’s picked up some side hustles, too, as a freelance travel writer and part-time travel advisor. Those brought her an extra $3,400 in 2024.

Brewer is still an American citizen and pays income taxes in the U.S. And even though she doesn’t necessarily blend in with the locals — she doesn’t speak Arabic or practice Islam — her Yankee status comes with a certain level of respect. “I like to call it ‘passport privilege,’” she says.

Overall, she says, being a Black American woman doesn’t come with many of the burdens while living abroad as it might have back home. “I wouldn’t say that I deal with much or any racism, because I think it’s more so, you’re American — we take pride in having an American who loves living in Oman.”

Even though it took a while for Brewer to adjust to the conservative Omani lifestyle — and casual dating is still a struggle — she says she consistently feels welcomed by the Omani people.

“They welcome me. They say, ‘Oh, hello, sister,’ when I get in taxis. They call me sister like I’m one of them because I respect the culture,” she says. “It’s been very great. I wouldn’t have stayed as long as I had if it wasn’t a good life here.”

Despite the region’s reputation for opulence, Brewer’s day-to-day life in Oman is unostentatious and, by U.S. standards, inexpensive. Here’s how she spent her money in January 2025.

• Travel: $2,630 on flights and hotels for a trip to Bali, Indonesia
• Rent: $650
• Food: $348 on groceries and dining
• Cab fare: $277
• Discretionary: $133 on clothing, donations and various fees
• Health and wellness: $65 on spa treatment and prescriptions
• Netflix subscription: $15
• Phone: $10

Brewer’s two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment came fully furnished, and she pays 250 Omani rials — or roughly $650 — a month in rent, utilities included. She spends about $70 or $80 a week on groceries. Insurance, a major line item in most American workers’ budgets, is covered by her employer.

Living relatively modestly for most of the year allows Brewer to devote significant funds toward her life’s passion: travel. More than half her January spending went toward a trip to Bali during her school’s winter break.

She generally takes two or three big trips a year, and her location in the Middle East makes it easier to travel to some parts of the world than if she had stayed in the U.S. Trips to Namibia and the Seychelles, she says, are much more affordable with Oman has a home base.

“I’m able to travel to Europe, of course, as well, because it’s right there,” she says.

Even given her relatively low cost of living, traveling the world on a teacher’s salary means Brewer has had to put some financial goals on the back burner. Although her credit cards are paid off, she still carries about $24,600 in student debt from her time as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan.

And while she has about $22,000 invested across stocks and cryptocurrency, it’s hardly enough for her to feel like she’s on track for major financial milestones, like retirement.

“I do feel like sometimes maybe I beat myself up because I feel like I should have more in savings, considering how long I’ve been abroad,” Brewer says. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Maybe I could have not gone to this destination and have a little more money padded in my savings.’ But the reality is, I’m grateful for every trip that I have been on.”

In the coming years, Brewer hopes to ramp up her savings enough to fund a semi-retirement of sorts in Portugal.

“In the perfect scenario, I would have a hostel. It would be a place where I can live, as well as have additional rooms to be able to rent out and make an income from the property,” she says.

For now, though, she has no plans to leave what she says is a fulfilling and peaceful life in Oman.

“It’s not an easy life to be on the other side of the world from your family, especially when emergencies and family situations come up,” she says. “You have to take the good with the bad. But overall, I do have a peace of mind living here because it’s so safe and people are really kind-hearted.”

Conversions from OMR to USD were done using the Bank of Muscat’s conversion rate of 1 USD to 0.3877 OMR on Jan. 1, 2025. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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

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A six-figure household income doesn’t necessarily make you rich — in many cases, it just means you’re middle class.

The upper bound of what’s considered middle class for households exceeds $100,000 in every U.S. state, according to a SmartAsset analysis of 2023 income data, the most recent available from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report, which crunched the numbers for all 50 states, is based on Pew Research’s definition of middle class: two-thirds to double the median household income.

On that measure, Massachusetts has the highest threshold for middle-class salaries, overtaking New Jersey from last year’s rankings. A household there needs between $66,565 and $199,716 to be considered middle class, with the upper boundary increasing by nearly $11,000 from the previous report.

Even as more households earn six-figure salaries, many middle-class earners are feeling the squeeze. While inflation-adjusted wages have risen since 2022, those gains have been largely offset by increasing costs since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Housing and food, in particular, have become more expensive. From January 2020 to December 2024, home prices climbed 52%, according to the Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, while food prices rose 30%, based on Consumer Price Index data. Over the same period, overall inflation grew 25%.

Rising costs help explain why two-thirds of middle-class Americans said they were struggling financially and didn’t expect their situation to improve in a 2024 survey from the National True Cost of Living Coalition.

Since then, year-over-year inflation has hovered around 3%, still above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target but far below its June 2022 peak of 9.1%. But although price increases have slowed, the cumulative effect of the past few years has eroded many Americans’ spending power. As a result, a six-figure income may not stretch as far as it once did.

Below, see what’s considered middle class in your state.

• Low end of middle class: $41,471 
• High end of middle class: $124,424 
• Median household income: $62,212 

• Low end of middle class: $57,748 
• High end of middle class: $173,262 
• Median household income: $86,631 

• Low end of middle class: $51,538 
• High end of middle class: $154,630 
• Median household income: $77,315 

• Low end of middle class: $39,129 
• High end of middle class: $117,400 
• Median household income: $58,700 

• Low end of middle class: $63,674 
• High end of middle class: $191,042 
• Median household income: $95,521 

• Low end of middle class: $61,934 
• High end of middle class: $185,822 
• Median household income: $92,911 

• Low end of middle class: $61,104
• High end of middle class: $183,330 
• Median household income: $91,665 

• Low end of middle class: $54,235 
• High end of middle class: $162,722 
• Median household income: $81,361 

• Low end of middle class: $48,869 
• High end of middle class: $146,622 
• Median household income: $73,311 

• Low end of middle class: $49,750 
• High end of middle class: $149,264 
• Median household income: $74,632 

• Low end of middle class: $63,542 
• High end of middle class: $190,644 
• Median household income: $95,322 

• Low end of middle class: $49,956 
• High end of middle class: $149,884 
• Median household income: $74,942 

• Low end of middle class: $53,532 
• High end of middle class: $160,612 
• Median household income: $80,306 

• Low end of middle class: $46,313 
• High end of middle class: $138,954 
• Median household income: $69,477 

• Low end of middle class: $47,617 
• High end of middle class: $142,866 
• Median household income: $71,433 

• Low end of middle class: $46,884
• High end of middle class: $140,666
• Median household income: $70,333

• Low end of middle class: $40,741
• High end of middle class: $122,236
• Median household income: $61,118 

• Low end of middle class: $38,815
• High end of middle class: $116,458
• Median household income: $58,229 

• Low end of middle class: $49,150
• High end of middle class: $147,466
• Median household income: $73,733

• Low end of middle class: $65,779
• High end of middle class: $197,356
• Median household income: $98,678 

• Low end of middle class: $66,565
• High end of middle class: $199,716 
• Median household income: $99,858 

• Low end of middle class: $46,117
• High end of middle class: $138,366
• Median household income: $69,183 

• Low end of middle class: $56,718
• High end of middle class: $170,172
• Median household income: $85,086 

• Low end of middle class: $36,132
• High end of middle class: $108,406
• Median household income: $54,203 

• Low end of middle class: $45,692
• High end of middle class: $137,090
• Median household income: $68,545 

• Low end of middle class: $47,198
• High end of middle class: $141,608
• Median household income: $70,804

• Low end of middle class: $49,722
• High end of middle class: $149,180 
• Median household income: $74,590 

• Low end of middle class: $50,904
• High end of middle class: $152,728 
• Median household income: $76,364 

• Low end of middle class: $64,552
• High end of middle class: $193,676 
• Median household income: $96,838 

• Low end of middle class: $66,514
• High end of middle class: $199,562
• Median household income: $99,781 

• Low end of middle class: $41,508
• High end of middle class: $124,536
• Median household income: $62,268 

• Low end of middle class: $54,725
• High end of middle class: $164,190 
• Median household income: $82,095 

• Low end of middle class: $47,198
• High end of middle class: $141,608
• Median household income: $70,804

• Low end of middle class: $51,012
• High end of middle class: $153,050 
• Median household income: $76,525 

• Low end of middle class: $45,175
• High end of middle class: $135,538
• Median household income: $67,769

• Low end of middle class: $41,421
• High end of middle class: $124,276
• Median household income: $62,138

• Low end of middle class: $53,435
• High end of middle class: $160,320
• Median household income: $80,160

• Low end of middle class: $49,211
• High end of middle class: $147,648
• Median household income: $73,824

• Low end of middle class: $56,642
• High end of middle class: $169,944
• Median household income: $84,972

• Low end of middle class: $45,198
• High end of middle class: $135,608
• Median household income: $67,804

• Low end of middle class: $47,869
• High end of middle class: $143,620
• Median household income: $71,810

• Low end of middle class: $45,083
• High end of middle class: $135,262
• Median household income: $67,631

• Low end of middle class: $50,515
• High end of middle class: $151,560
• Median household income: $75,780

• Low end of middle class: $62,274
• High end of middle class: $186,842
• Median household income: $93,421

• Low end of middle class: $54,135
• High end of middle class: $162,422
• Median household income: $81,211

• Low end of middle class: $59,948
• High end of middle class: $179,862
• Median household income: $89,931

• Low end of middle class: $63,064
• High end of middle class: $189,210
• Median household income: $94,605

• Low end of middle class: $37,295
• High end of middle class: $111,896
• Median household income: $55,948

• Low end of middle class: $49,749
• High end of middle class: $149,262
• Median household income: $74,631

• Low end of middle class: $48,272
• High end of middle class: $144,830
• Median household income: $72,415

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City living can offer a number of benefits over a more rural or suburban area. Cities often boast more job opportunities, higher pay and, in some cases, better health outcomes. Not to mention walkability and easy access to entertainment.

Living in a major U.S. city often comes at a high cost, though. Jobs in places like New York and Los Angeles may pay better, but those cities come with exorbitantly expensive living costs that can make it difficult to get ahead, even with relatively high earnings.

But if the benefits of city life are worth it to you, you don’t necessarily have to pay New York or L.A. prices to get many of those amenities. Smaller U.S. cities like Indianapolis, New Orleans and Baltimore offer the benefits of city living at a lower cost.

In Indianapolis, a single adult needs to make $85,197 a year to afford basic expenses, with room for leisure spending and saving, according to a new SmartAsset analysis of the 100 largest U.S. cities. In San Jose, California, that figure rises to $147,430, the highest in the country.

The personal finance website used data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator to estimate basic living costs for each city, then applied those costs to the commonly used 50/30/20 budget to determine how much a resident would need to earn to live there.

The 50/30/20 budget prescribes putting 50% of your income toward your needs, 30% toward wants and 20% toward savings and debt repayment. 

Here are the 10 largest U.S. cities with the lowest salaries required to live comfortably, according to SmartAsset. Median household income data is from the latest U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $85,197
• Median household income: $66,629

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $85,446
• Median household income: $67,015

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $85,571
• Median household income: $56,821

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $86,445
• Median household income: $55,580

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $86,611
• Median household income: $67,907

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $86,694
• Median household income: $62,322

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $86,736
• Median household income: $55,708

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $86,736
• Median household income: $59,189

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $87,818
• Median household income: $65,016

• Annual salary needed for a single adult: $87,984
• Median household income: $59,579

With necessary living costs like rent and groceries remaining elevated, it’s becoming more difficult for Americans to follow the 50/30/20 budgeting standard.

Rent prices in February 2025 were around 27% higher than the same month in 2020, according to Federal Reserve data. And prices for groceries have risen similarly over the last five years.

Although housing tends to be one of the biggest line items on Americans’ budgets, it can be difficult to trim costs, especially as an adult living alone. Your budget may look more like 75/15/10 — and that’s OK. Experts recommend doing your best to make any kind of progress toward your saving and investing goals, even if it’s slow.

But if you are looking for ways to save more, money experts say to focus on “needle movers,” such as your salary or housing costs, rather than little things like whether you’re buying a coffee a few times a week.

If you choose to get a roommate, for example, you can take the money you save on rent and invest it, Rachel Camp, a certified financial planner, previously told CNBC Make It.

“If I don’t buy a latte every day, it will save me a good $2,000 a year,” she said. “If I could afford a $2,000 apartment by myself, but split it with a roommate and pay $1,000 less, that’s $12,000 a year. That’s where those big savings can really happen.”

Additionally, increasing your income by negotiating a raise or picking up a side hustle can help if you feel like you can’t trim your costs any further.

“There’s a limit to how much you can cut, but there is no limit to how much you can earn,” self-made millionaire and money expert Ramit Sethi said previously.

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Actor Anthony Mackie probably isn’t buying his kids the latest designer clothes or $200 sneakers, even though he has the means to do so.

“I keep my boys humble. Like, my boys have never had a pair of Jordans. My boys don’t do all that internet fly s—. I could be the biggest star in the world. Do not let me catch you being stupid,” Mackie said during a recent podcast episode of “The Pivot.”

The 46-year-old “Captain America: Brave New World” star doesn’t want his four sons to value money and material goods over character, he said. Mackie started teaching each of his kids to be well-mannered and responsible at age 2, he added.

“I raise my boys to be young men … they will always be respectful,” said Mackie. “They will always say, ‘Yes ma’am. No ma’am.’ They will always say ‘Thank you.’ They will always open the door for a lady. They will always make sure that their mother is taken care of and provided for.”

Mackie’s parenting style echoes his own upbringing: He was born in New Orleans as the youngest of six kids. His father was a carpenter with a roofing business who dropped out of 8th grade to pick cotton with his grandfather, Mackie said at Morehouse College last month.

As a teenager, he worked for his father’s business during the summers. He wants his kids to develop similar values and work ethics, he said on the podcast.

“I try to keep my boys outside of [my celebrity]. I don’t want my boys affected by it, or even acknowledge the idea of what Hollywood is and what it means to the general populace,” he said. “I want them to find their own path.” 

His parenting approach echoes comments made by some other celebrities who’ve said they wanted their children to develop strong work ethics, despite their wealth.

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Barbara Corcoran, a self-made real estate millionaire and co-star of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” insisted that her kids work summer jobs and save their money, she wrote in a December 2024 Q&A to her Patreon community, “Barbara in Your Pocket.”

Mark Cuban, a billionaire entrepreneur and fellow “Shark Tank” panelist, also expects his children to earn their success, rather than relying on his money and status to get ahead in life. ”[My wife and I] are really consistent in that, ‘You have to accomplish these things on your own,‘” he told NBC’s “Today” in 2022. “You don’t want to be ‘Mark Cuban’s son or daughter’ your entire life.”

Similarly, actor Ben Affleck and his 13-year-old son Samuel recently attended a sneaker convention and saw a pair of $6,000 Dior Air Jordan 1 sneakers. “They’re tough!” Samuel said in a video posted to the convention’s TikTok. Affleck’s response: “That’s a lot of lawns you’ve got to mow there.”

Affleck later told Access Hollywood: “He’s like ‘We have the money.’ I’m like, ‘I have the money. You’re broke!’”

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We’ve all done it. You’re in a meeting, on a date or even texting a friend, and two words slip into the conversation: “I think we should go with option A.” “I think we should see this movie.” “I think we should leave at 7.”

While “I think” can be harmless sprinkled in here and there, if you use it too often and in the wrong context, it can weaken your message, diminish your presence and undermine your confidence. 

“I think” is an example of minimizing language: words and phrases that soften your statements and make you seem less sure of yourself. Other common minimizing language includes “just,” “sorry” and “maybe.” 

While these words may seem polite, they can dilute your credibility and make your ideas easier to dismiss, especially in a professional context.

Instead of “I think,” swap in “I recommend.” Compare these two statements:

• “I think we should move the deadline.”
• “I recommend moving the deadline.”

The first feels hesitant, while the second feels authoritative and action-oriented. Even if the message you want to convey is exactly the same, your words carry more weight when framed as a recommendation rather than what can be interpreted as a passing thought.

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Here are a few examples of this swap in action at work and in life: 

• Instead of: “I think we should go with the second proposal.“
  Try: “I recommend we go with the second proposal.”
• Instead of: “I think we should prioritize this project.“
  Try: “I recommend prioritizing this project.”
• Instead of: “I think you should try this restaurant.“
  Try: “I recommend trying this restaurant.”
• Instead of:  “I think you should change your reservation.“
  Try: “I recommend changing your reservation.”

The shift is subtle but powerful. Saying “I recommend” instead of “I think” makes you sound more confident and decisive, gives you more influence, and ensures you’re seen as someone whose opinion matters.

There are times when it feels like you really should use “I think.” Perhaps you’re not confident in your recommendation, or you purposefully want to soften your message.

While it’s certainly a path you can take, you can still use “I recommend” in these situations — with a twist.

Preface your recommendation with an indication of what you’re drawing on to give it. For example:

• “Based on what I’ve seen, I recommend…”
• “Looking at the data, I’d recommend…”
• “From my experience, I’d recommend…”

This keeps your statement strong while acknowledging some uncertainty and leaving room for further discussion.

Any time you try to disrupt a pattern that’s deeply ingrained in your everyday conversations, it takes practice. Here are a few strategies you can try to break this particular communication habit:

1. Listen for it. Start noticing how often you say “I think,” and in what contexts it tends to pop up. It may surprise you how many times a day you use this phrase. 
2. Enlist help. Ask friends or peers to call it out when they hear it to help keep you accountable.
3. Pause before you speak. Speaking more slowly and adding pauses is already helpful when trying to appear more authoritative and confident. Now, you can also catch yourself when you’re about to say “I think” and give yourself enough time to swap it out.
4. Observe your writing. “I think” often creeps into our written communication too, especially quick messages over Slack or Teams. Take a second pass at your writing before hitting send to make sure you’re keeping things concise and using strong phrases like “I recommend.”

Confident communication isn’t just about what you say, it’s about how you say it. By swapping “I think” for “I recommend,” you’ll sound more authoritative at work — and come across as more self-assured in everyday life.

Lorraine K. Lee is an award-winning keynote speaker and CEO of RISE Learning Solutions. She’s also the best-selling author of “Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influencer, and Catapult Your Career,” which was named a must-read by the Next Big Idea Club. She teaches popular courses with LinkedIn Learning and Stanford Continuing Studies. Past clients include Zoom, Cisco, LinkedIn, ASICS, McKinsey & Company, and many others.

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.