Americans earning a regular salary may have trouble living comfortably in all 50 states.

The median annual wage for individuals was just below $62,000 at the end of 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it takes a salary of at least $80,829 for a single adult to live comfortably in West Virginia, the most affordable state, according to a recent SmartAsset study.

SmartAsset defines “comfortable” as earning enough to follow the 50/30/20 budget method, which recommends putting 50% of your income toward essentials like rent and food, 30% toward discretionary spending and 20% toward debt repayment and savings. It used the latest estimates from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage calculator to estimate individuals’ cost of necessities in each state.

On the other side of the spectrum from West Virginia, residents in Hawaii need to earn a minimum of $124,467 a year to live comfortably, SmartAsset finds. That’s the highest of any state and one of two states — along with Massachusetts — where individuals need to earn at least $120,000 a year to afford a comfortable lifestyle.

Here’s how much money it takes for a single adult to live comfortably in every U.S. state 2025.

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $85,280
• Change from 2024: 1.74%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $100,298
• Change from 2024: 3.65%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $101,587
• Change from 2024: 4.36%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $81,078
• Change from 2024: 2.04%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $119,475
• Change from 2024: 5.12%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $105,955
• Change from 2024: 2.58%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $105,165
• Change from 2024: 4.77%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $97,469
• Change from 2024: 3.54%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $97,386
• Change from 2024: 4.37%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $99,590
• Change from 2024: 2.79%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $124,467
• Change from 2024: 9.48%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $96,429
• Change from 2024: 8.67%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $98,010
• Change from 2024: 3.06%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $86,570
• Change from 2024: 1.81%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $86,902
• Change from 2024: 4.24%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $87,610
• Change from 2024: 3.49%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $83,574
• Change from 2024: 3.56%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $85,322
• Change from 2024: 3.48%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $96,595
• Change from 2024: 5.35%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $108,867
• Change from 2024: 5.78%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $120,141
• Change from 2024: 3.55%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $87,235
• Change from 2024: 3.40%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $91,728
• Change from 2024: 2.80%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $86,320
• Change from 2024: 4.32%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $86,819
• Change from 2024: 3.32%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $92,851
• Change from 2024: 9.57%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $87,318
• Change from 2024: 4.32%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $99,216
• Change from 2024: 6.19%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $103,085
• Change from 2024: 5.09%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $108,992
• Change from 2024: 5.82%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $87,402
• Change from 2024: 4.53%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $114,691
• Change from 2024: 2.64%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $93,766
• Change from 2024: 4.55%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $82,285
• Change from 2024: 2.17%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $84,781
• Change from 2024: 5.05%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $84,282
• Change from 2024: 4.81%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $104,666
• Change from 2024: 3.54%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $95,306
• Change from 2024: 4.37%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $101,338
• Change from 2024: 0.50%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $92,144
• Change from 2024: 4.33%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $82,160
• Change from 2024: 0.87%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $91,478
• Change from 2024: 5.87%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $90,771
• Change from 2024: 4.30%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $99,466
• Change from 2024: 6.17%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $99,632
• Change from 2024: 4.04%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $106,704
• Change from 2024: 6.74%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $109,658
• Change from 2024: 2.97%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $80,829
• Change from 2024: 2.59%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $87,194
• Change from 2024: 3.66%

• Income needed for a single adult, 2025: $87,942
• Change from 2024: 0.33%

While the 50/30/20 budget can be an effective tool to manage your money, it can also be difficult to follow if you have high fixed costs. And though data suggests wage growth nationwide is actually outpacing price inflation, many Americans don’t feel that way.

About 7 in 10 Americans feel stressed about their finances, according to a CNBC/SurveyMonkey online poll conducted in April. Plus, President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to push prices up even further.

Boosting your income by switching jobs or getting a side hustle may be easier said than done, but it can help give you some breathing room in your budget, especially if you’ve already cut out as much discretionary spending as you can.

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Growing up in Nara, Japan, I always loved eating “wagashi,” or traditional Japanese sweets. My favorite was pudding and cakes made with “anko,” which is sweet red bean paste.

But when I moved to the U.S. and became a nutritionist, I couldn’t believe the dessert selections at the grocery stores. They were too rich and sugary for me. So I started making recipes inspired by my childhood.

Now when people ask me how they can get rid of their sweet tooth, I tell them they don’t need to. By being more mindful and making small adjustments, sweet treats can actually be a healthy and even medicinal part of your diet.

Here are some my go-to desserts when I need a sweet fix:

There are two types of Japanese sweet potatoes that I like: “satsumaimo,” which has a purple skin and a pale yellow flesh, and “murasaki imo,” which has purple skin and flesh. You can typically find both at American supermarkets.

Japanese people are crazy about baked sweet potatoes, called “yaki imo.” I bake a medium-sized sweet potato in the oven for about 60 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can adjust the cooking time depending on the size. These sweet potatoes are so concentrated in flavor that they don’t need much else to be delicious.

I also make sweet potato wagashi from steamed or baked sweet potatoes, dried fruits, chestnuts, cinnamon, matcha and a bit of sea salt. These ingredients are packed with nutrients!

I’m a huge fan of adzuki paste, or “anko.” You can find it at Asian supermarkets or online. Typically, anko is made with a lot of sugar, so when I make my own, I use alternative natural sweeteners like dates, goji berries, cinnamon or persimmons.

To prepare anko, I soak red beans overnight, drain them, then combine all my ingredients — beans, a 2-inch piece of konbu seaweed, dried fruits, chestnuts, cinnamon and sea salt — in a rice cooker and set it on the brown rice setting.

It can be used in a variety of desserts, including “an-pan,” a soft bread with anko filling, “ohagi,” a rice cake covered with anko, “zenzai,” a sweet adzuki bean soup, and “dorayaki,” an anko-filled pancake.

Adzuki beans are also frequently used medicinally and ritually in Japan. We like adding them in recipes meant to promote health, peace and wealth. They are high in fiber, protein, magnesium, potassium and vitamin B.

The dried fruit aids digestion and overall gut health, and the cinnamon can help boost metabolic and immune function. When it comes to beans as surprising desserts, I’m also a big fan of edamame paste, called “zunda.” It pairs perfectly with tofu mochi, which is made with tofu and rice flour.

Dates are naturally sweet and high in vitamins, nutrients, fiber and magnesium. Dark chocolate provides us with antioxidants that are great for heart health and fighting inflammation. 

The way I prepare it is simple: Just cut down the middle of a dry Medjool date and stuff it with a small piece of dark chocolate and a walnut. That’s it! You can try different combinations of fruits and nuts, too.

Berries are filled with polyphenols, which are antioxidants found in plants that can help defend against inflammation and boost cell health.

I don’t add any sugar to my jam. Depending on the season, I use a handful of frozen or fresh organic berries (usually a combination of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries) mixed with apple sauce, a slice of organic orange with the peel still on, a little bit of dried goji berries, flaxseed and cinnamon powder. Sometimes I will add a dash of rum for a little kick.

I start with medium heat. After the mixture starts to boil, I immediately reduce it to low heat, then let it simmer for about 40 minutes with the lid on. I’ll occasionally stir it to keep it from burning. Then I turn off the heat and let it sit for about an hour with the lid on.

You can keep it in the fridge for about a week or two. I like serving it with dark chocolate, vegan matcha cake or chia seed pudding. This jam tastes heavenly when spread on a slice of whole wheat bread, too.

I call this my “Que Sera, Sera” pudding. Just like the song, “whatever will be, will be,” so add whatever you want to personalize it. I enjoy this dessert because it is packed with protein, fiber and omega-3 fatty acids.

My go-to recipe:

• 3 tablespoons of chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds 
• 2 cups unsweetened soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup choice of dried fruit — goji, mango, date, apricot or any of your favorites
• 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon, matcha or unsweetened cacao powder
• A handful of frozen or fresh berries or roasted walnuts (as optional toppings)

Put these ingredients in a mason jar, combine well, and place into the refrigerator overnight.

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.

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Even the happiest couples encounter conflict. But what they fight about reveals a lot about what’s missing in the relationship.

As a psychologist who studies couples, I’ve found that there are a few similar topics that come up again and again. And the first step to resolving the conflicts is to know what those topics are.

According to a YouGov poll of 1,000 American adults, and based on my research, here are the most common reasons couples fight — and the psychology behind each one.

A sour tone or attitude — a slightly raised voice, a sarcastic comment, an eye-roll mid-conversation — is by far the most common reason couples fight. To the person exhibiting it, it might not seem like a big deal. But to the partner on the receiving end, it hits a direct nerve because it signals contempt.

In marital research, contempt is one of the most reliable predictors of divorce. Unlike overt criticism or stonewalling (shutting down emotionally), contempt disguises itself with non-verbal gestures and body language.

How to move past it: Resist the impulse to strike back. Fighting fire with fire never works, so try naming the effect instead: “That felt condescending. Can we try again?” This gives your partner the chance to course-correct, and it doesn’t instantly escalate things.

If you’re the one delivering the tone, check in with yourself before saying anything more. Are you feeling unheard? Frustrated? Overwhelmed? Pinpointing what’s fueling the contempt is the first step to expressing yourself without hurting the relationship.

Arguments about family relations often reflect fundamental misalignments and unmet needs.

One partner might feel unsupported or sidelined, especially if their spouse seems to default to defending their side of the family. In situations involving children, arguments usually boil down to value clashes — where each partner feels like their core parenting beliefs are being dismissed.

Neither partner is “right” or “wrong” in these scenarios. In fact, they’re more than likely seeking the exact same thing: someone who’s on their side.

How to move past it: A good place to start is to reassure one another. For example: “I love my family, but you’re still my partner. How can we find a solution that meets both of our needs and values?”

Then talk about your limits as a team: what to do when a line is crossed, or how to show solidarity in front of others (even when you disagree privately).

People often assume that arguments about chores are about the chores themselves — the dishes left in the sink, the laundry piling up, the trash that never gets taken out. But if that were true, these issues would be quickly fixed with a simple chore chart.

Rather, the real problem is the uneven distribution of labor. According to research, one partner in a relationship usually shoulders the bulk of domestic work. But they aren’t just folding the clothes and cooking the meals, they’re also managing appointments, coordinating the bills and keeping mental tabs on everyone’s well-being but their own.

This “invisible load” goes largely unacknowledged, and that lack of recognition is usually where the fighting begins.

How to move past it: This dynamic can often be changed if the load is named out loud. Even just saying, “I didn’t realize how much you were holding, thank you,” gives your partner the acknowledgement they’ve been needing to hear. 

From there, work together to redistribute tasks in a way that feels sustainable. Fairness won’t look like a 50/50 split every day, but it should feel like something you both have a hand in.

This is one of the trickiest arguments to navigate. In many cases, by the time couples are arguing about how they talk to each other, the original issue has already been lost in translation.

For example, one partner is upset about an unfair distribution of chores, or they’re frustrated with how their in-laws treat them. But when these concerns are brought up, research shows they can quickly go off the rails when the other engages with them ineffectively — or with hostility. 

If the conversation is met with defensiveness, criticism or stonewalling, the fight will shift its focus from the initial issue. Instead, it becomes a matter of how poorly the conversation is going.

How to move past it: One simple strategy successful couples use is the “five second rule”: They have a designated word or phrase that signals: “We’re spiraling, let’s take a time-out.” This gives a much-needed pause, without the negative effects of storming out.

When you return to the conversation, try to see eye-to-eye before continuing to air out your grievances: “I want to understand why you’re upset, and I want you to understand the same for me. You share your side, then I’ll share mine.”

Mark Travers, PhD, is a psychologist who specializes in relationships. He holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the lead psychologist at Awake Therapy, a telehealth company that provides online psychotherapy, counseling and coaching. He is also the curator of the popular mental health and wellness website, Therapytips.org.

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The European startup scene was recently shaken by a LinkedIn debate with some venture capitalists applying pressure on founders to embrace a culture of overwork to compete on a global stage.

The “996” work culture reigns supreme in China and has been adopted by various tech giants including Jack Ma’s Alibaba and Bytedance’s TikTok, but the system has also been the subject of much protest in recent years. Tech workers in Europe told CNBC in 2021 that they’re turning down job offers, rejecting interviews, or even quitting their roles, upon learning of TikTok’s 996 work culture.

Sebastian Becker, general partner at Switzerland-based VC company Redalpine added to the debate on LinkedIn by addressing the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has called for removal of the legal work limit of eight hours per day in Germany in a bid to increase efficiency, while keeping the 40-hour week.

Becker said Merz’ proposal doesn’t go far enough, as “40 hours a week won’t cut it.”

“In Silicon Valley, 60-70 hour weeks aren’t the exception — they even have a term for it: 996 — 9am to 9pm, six days a week… we can have the same amount of smart, ambitious people, but if we’re consistently being outworked, we won’t win,” Becker said.

Index Ventures Partner Martin Mignot in London explained on LinkedIn that 996 originated in China and has “quietly become the norm” at startups internationally.

Part of the reason behind this most recent push is that there’s a persistent view that Europe’s tech and startup scene is lagging behind the U.S. and China, both of which have produced tech giants and are known for intense work cultures.

However, Suranga Chandratillake, general partner at Balderton Capital, told CNBC Make It that these views are outdated as Europe has produced deca-corns in recent years— companies worth more than $10 billion including Klarna, Revolut, Wise, and Checkout.com. The continent has yet to produce a trillion-dollar tech firm like Nvidia.

“The European tech market and ecosystem is keeping up today with the U.S. and Asia… back in the 1980s the European tech scene was behind the tech scene on the West Coast of the US, but that’s not the case now,” Chandratillake said in an interview.

The calls for Europe to adopt the 996 work culture sparked a wave of backlash. CNBC spoke with seven European startup founders and VCs on why they disagree.

The obsession with China’s 996 or Silicon Valley’s 24/7 work culture emerges from a glorification of hustle culture in the startup landscape, founders and VCs said.  

“It’s about a fetishization of overwork rather than smart work…it’s a myth,” Chandratillake said. “California is very good at telling stories and there’s a lot of mythmaking around the concept of what startups look like…. there is hard work involved but if you really spend time in that ecosystem, you will discover that lots of people work really hard, but there are also periods where they don’t work.”

Nina Mohanty, a Silicon Valley native and founder of London-based Bloom Money, said there are actually “lasting effects and unintended consequences” to adopting an aggressive overwork culture,

“You only have to think about Revolut and the culture that they have is probably the closest that we’ve seen in Europe to the 996 culture, and they struggled,” Mohanty told CNBC. “Their churn rate was incredibly high within their team, and they even struggled to get their banking license, and their culture was actually cited as one of those reasons.”

For its part, Revolut told CNBC it operates in a “high-growth, high-performance environment.”

“In line with this, we’ve evolved how we support our people: through value-based behaviours, structured development, and a culture that’s collaborative, challenging, and built for scale,” a spokesperson from Revolut said.

Noa Khamallah, general partner at Don’t Quit Ventures, pointed out that there’s “no need for 996” and that these values are often at odds with both the European mindset and regulation.

“Europe’s most successful companies — from Spotify to SAP to ASML — didn’t achieve dominance through overwork but through sustainable innovation cultures,” Khamallah said.

He offered the examples of Silicon Valley’s Uber and Meta, both companies that expanded into Europe and faced massive regulatory pushback.

“These examples reveal how Silicon Valley’s ‘move fast and break things’ ethos often breaks against European values around worker rights, privacy, and sustainable business practices,” Khamallah said.

An always-on culture decreases retention and creates a revolving door of talent, Sarah Wernér, co-founder of Husmus, told CNBC.

“Overwork today is a productivity crisis tomorrow,” Wernér said. “Personally, I hope my competitors are doing 996. It makes poaching great people a lot easier when they decide they’ve had enough.”

Dama Sathianathan, a senior partner at Bethnal Green Ventures said it’s unhelpful to “prescribe” working hours, especially if it means putting workers’ wellbeing at risk.

“Optimizing labor doesn’t always lead to better productivity, or help with differentiating from other companies long-term, if you’ve made work devoid of meaning,” Sathianathan explained.

Meanwhile, the youngest generation at work are less likely to put up with overworking and tend to prioritize work-life balance.

Jas Schembri-Stothart, founder of Luna, a health and wellness app for teen girls, said 996 will drive young talent away from European startups.

“People may tolerate overwork for a while, but eventually it leads to churn and even resentment, especially with Gen Z and younger millennials, there’s much less tolerance for toxic hustle cultures,” Schembri-Stothart said.

Founders insist that instead of increasing working hours, startups need more funding and resources to position themselves as key players in the global startup scene.

“What Europe really needs isn’t more hustle-porn it’s more aggressive funding,” Wernér said. “With the right level of capital, our startups can hire enough talent to work intensely without breaking themselves. If a team of 10 is burning out to keep up with a 50-person U.S. VC or Chinese government-backed startup, the problem isn’t their stamina, it’s their cap table.”

In fact, since 2015 Europe’s tech startups have missed out on nearly $375 billion in growth-stage funding, with founders losing out on a potential $300 billion in European investments, according to Atomico’s State of European Tech report published in 2024. Additionally, one in two companies raising funding turn to the U.S. for capital rather than Europe.

“What European startups really need is access to the right resources — funding, talent, and support — to grow, innovate quickly, and scale effectively,” Schembri-Stothart said. “The venture landscape in the U.S. is a different ballgame altogether, and it’s tough to compete with that without a stronger ecosystem here.

Founders acknowledged that the startup life requires intense hustle and grind, but it’s a more nuanced picture than just adopting 996.

Timothy Armoo, co-founder and former CEO of Fanbytes, an influencer marketing firm that he sold for eight figures in 2022, told CNBC that he’s a “huge supporter” of this new 996 push, but admitted that timing is key.

“I think there are seasons but I also think that if you are a first-time founder or if your primary goal is basically wealth creation, I’ll be very candid, if this is your season, and you’re stepping back, then you’re not serious about it,” he said.

Armoo said there are no excuses because AI allows entrepreneurs to be maximally efficient as it can reduce certain time-consuming manual tasks.

Meanwhile, Bloom Money’s Mohanty, said that when she’s not sleeping, she’s working. “I think early stage teams tend to almost unknowingly or without actually saying it, work the 996 life, because when you are early stage, you just have to hustle harder with less, and especially if you’re the founder, you’re always on and always working, and it can be very, very difficult to turn off.”

Schembri-Stothart draws the line at exploiting her team to produce more work. “It’s my choice to work at the weekend, but I’d never expect that on my team, it’s definitely not glorified to push your teams to breaking point.

Silicon Valley tech exec Dion McKenzie warned that expectations of a 996 culture could make VC funding even more out of reach for early-stage startups.

“My fear is that as these new norms and trends become the status quo and benchmarks for getting funded, it excludes so many brilliant founders that value their mental health and/or can’t commit to a 996 due to caregiving responsibilities or being a parent,” Mckenzie said.

Artists who want to share their artwork often face a tough choice: keep it offline or post it on social media and risk having it used to train data-hungry AI image generators.

But a new tool may soon be able to help artists deter AI companies from using their artwork without permission.

It’s called “Nightshade” and was developed by a team of researchers at the University of Chicago. It works by “poisoning” an artist’s creation by subtly changing the pixels of the image so that AI models aren’t able to accurately determine what the image is depicting, according to MIT Technology Review.

While the human eye isn’t able to detect these small changes, they aim to cause a machine-learning model to mislabel the picture as something other than what it is. Since these AI models rely on accurate data, this “poisoning” process would essentially render the image useless for the purposes of training.

If enough of these “poisoned” images are scraped from the web and used to train an AI image generator, the AI model itself may no longer be able to produce accurate images.

For example, researchers fed Stable Diffusion, an AI image generator, and an AI model they created themselves 50 “poisoned” images of dogs, then asked it to generate new pictures of dogs. The generated images featured animals with too many limbs or cartoonish faces that only somewhat resembled a dog, per MIT Technology Review.

After researchers fed Stable Diffusion 300 “poisoned” images of dogs, it eventually began producing images of cats. Stable Diffusion did not respond to CNBC Make It’s request for comment.

On the surface, AI art generators appear to create images out of thin air based on whatever prompt someone gives them.

But it’s not magic helping these generative AI models create realistic looking images of a pink giraffe or an underwater castle — it’s training data, and lots of it.

AI companies train their models on massive sets of data, which helps the models determine what images are associated with which words. In order for an AI model to correctly produce an image of a pink giraffe, it would need to be trained to correctly identify images of giraffes and the color pink.

A lot of the data used to train many generative AI systems is scraped from the web. Although it’s legal in the U.S. for companies to collect data from publicly accessible websites and use it for various purposes, that gets complicated when it comes to works of art since artists typically own the copyright for their pieces and sometimes don’t want their art being used to train an AI model.

While artists can sign up for “opt-out lists” or “do-not-scrape directives,” it’s often difficult to force companies to comply with those, Glaze at UChicago, the team of researchers who created Nightshade, said in an Oct. 24 thread on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“None of these mechanisms are enforceable, or even verifiable. Companies have shown that they can disregard opt-outs without a thought,” they said in the Oct. 24 thread. “But even if they agreed but acted otherwise, no one can verify or prove it (at least not today). These tools are toothless.”

Ultimately, the researchers hope Nightshade will help artists protect their art.

The researchers haven’t released their Nightshade tool to the public yet, but they’ve submitted their work for peer review and hope to make it available soon, Glaze at UChicago said on X.

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