Unlike most Americans, Marsai Martin started working a steady job — as a child actor — at age 9.

Martin, now 21, co-starred in ABC’s television show “Black-ish” from ages 9 to 18. The experience of joining a workforce so young warped her perception of what success looked and felt like, she tells CNBC Make It. She only recently started to include her own health and happiness as part of the equation, she adds.

“I thought that success was one of those things where you’re always running … and you get no sleep, and that’s success because you’re working all the time,” says Martin, who partnered with fintech company Chime’s “Mama I Made It” YouTube series on August 27 for financial awareness. “You’re busy and you can’t eat because you’re always moving around.”

She spent her teenage years trying to emulate the behavior of the ultra-busy adults around her, she says. She made sure her planner was always full, blocking out time for practicing her lines, staying up-to-date on the entertainment business’ news and journaling everything that came to mind — anything to make sure she was staying busy, a spokesperson says.

Martin even added activities like brushing her teeth or taking her daily vitamins to her calendar, so she could feel like she had a schedule to manage, the spokesperson added.

But Martin didn’t feel successful, she says. Rather, she felt drained and unfulfilled. “I was like, I don’t like this at all. I’m not happy,” she says, adding that she was “constantly questioning: ‘Is this my life? Is this what I have to do?’”

Help us help you: Take our survey on work, money and life goals

There’s a difference between occupying your time with projects you love, or work that challenges you, and over-packing your schedule to the point of burnout. Plenty of seemingly successful people have learned this the hard way, from Bill Gates to Beyoncé.

As Martin grew out of her teenage years, her definition of success expanded to include finding happiness, learning new skills and nurturing her financial and mental health, she says. That’s a generally healthy evolution, some experts say: You should always balance your career ambitions with your health and happiness, Peloton vice president of fitness programming Robin Arzón said on a March 2024 episode of Wharton psychologist Adam Grant’s “ReThinking” podcast.

“Hustle requires the confidence to define what the ladder looks like, what the definition of success looks like,” said Arzón. “And my definition of success includes my own self-care practices … I’ve long understood my own energy to be a currency, and I think about how I’m spending it or saving it very much how somebody might think about their finances.”

If you work a standard 9-to-5 job, try treating your weekends like a vacation, author and happiness researcher Cassie Holmes advised the “Everyday Better with Leah Smart” podcast in a November 2024 episode.

Take a pottery class, relax on the beach, go on a nature walk — do whatever relaxes and recharges you that you usually don’t have time for. “Some people are like, well [the weekend] is when I get my chores done,” said Holmes. “Why don’t you carve out Saturday? And then Sunday, you can do all the stuff that you have to do.”

When your career dictates how successful you think you are, your identity and self-worth can become reliant on your job, entrepreneur and bestselling author Tim Ferriss told CNBC Make It in June. Finding new interests that you can practice regularly can give you a renewed sense of purpose and boost your mental health, he said.

“It just needs to be consistent. Like, a couple times a week — one time a week, even — so that you have some type of way to make progress in an area that is not your primary lane,” said Ferriss.

Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work. Learn from three expert instructors how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.

Like millions of fellow 18-year-olds across the U.S., Zach Yadegari spent his summer preparing for college.

Unlike most other freshmen, Yadegari doubts he’ll linger in academia for very long. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Cal AI, a calorie-tracking mobile app he launched from his parents’ home in Roslyn, New York, in May 2024 — and the app’s success to date makes him think he’ll take it full-time well before his class’ graduation date, he says.

Cal AI’s users upload a photo of their food, and the app’s artificial intelligence-based software gives them an estimate of the total calories. The app, which Yadegari says has a 90% accuracy rate, launched in May 2024. It’s free to download in the Apple and Google Play app stores, and a subscription costs $2.49 per month or $29.99 per year.

Cal AI has 30 employees, and brings in roughly $1.4 million in gross profit per month — after the Apple and Google Play app stores take their respective cuts — according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. That includes nearly $274,000 in monthly net operating income, a measurement of profit before accounting for taxes and interest.

Help us help you: Take our survey on work, money and life goals

Yadegari started undergraduate classes at the University of Miami’s business school in August, but doesn’t plan to stay for more than a year, he says. On social media, he touts living a lavish startup CEO lifestyle: He parties “almost every night” in an off-campus mansion he shares “with all my friends,” he said in an Instagram video posted on August 23.

In the video, an advertisement for a mobile app development online course that Yadegari co-launched, he then drives off — purportedly to class — in a Lamborghini with a “CAL AI” license plate. The rest of the video features one man floating in a pool, another doing pushups and a third smoking a cigar while promising that “society lied to you, and money does buy happiness.”

After college, Yadegari dreams of a career in serial entrepreneurship, he says. Technically, he’s already achieved the moniker: As a high school freshman, he built a gaming website called Totally Science that helped students play online games on their schools’ WiFi networks, bypassing internet blocking protocols. He sold the website for roughly $100,000 to gaming company Freeze Nova in February 2024, documents show.

“I think that entrepreneurship is really cool because at the end of the day, age doesn’t really matter much,” says Yadegari. “You’re either good or not good at what you do, and then the market will decide [the] results.”

Inspired by his love of online games like Minecraft, Yadegari’s mother sent him to a summer camp to learn software coding at age 7. From there, Yadegari “started binge-watching YouTube” for tutorials on coding different types of programs, direct messaging other coders and content creators he saw online to ask for tips, he says.

After launching Totally Science, Yadegari tried to create a viral mobile app “because everyone has a phone in their pocket,” he says. His ideas kept flopping, until he focused on a personal problem: He’d started working out “to impress the girls at my school,” and every calorie-tracking app he downloaded made him manually input all his food, which he found tedious, he says.

He talked about it with his friend Henry Langmack, who he’d known since coding camp, and two friends he met on social media platform X — Blake Anderson, 24, and Jake Castillo, 30. The group decided to try building an AI model that could analyze photos of food and “do all of the work for you,” says Yadegari.

Yadegari and Langmack coded the app, and the group spent $2,000 on a social media marketing test run, says Yadegari. The response was positive enough for Yadegari and Anderson, a serial entrepreneur in his own right, to fund Cal AI’s operating and marketing costs for six months until the app stores’ delayed payment schedules caught up.

Cal AI brought in more than $28,000 in revenue for its first month, and then $115,000 for the next month. The co-founders started hiring employees, with Yadegari and Langmack conducting interviews while staying in a San Francisco “hacker house” for the month of July 2024.

Once the summer ended, Yadegari worked 40 hours per week on the app — writing code and brainstorming potential new features with Cal AI’s designers and developers — while managing his schoolwork at Roslyn High School, he says. His parents were supportive of his efforts, and he maintained a 4.0 GPA, he says.

“My parents are really happy with everything with Cal AI, especially my mom. She actually uses the app,” Yadegari says. “Overall, they’re really proud.”

A mobile app may seem like a relatively low-upkeep business idea, but Cal AI’s expenses nearly match its revenue.

The company spends almost $770,000 per month on advertising and marketing alone, for example. Other costs include payroll, software costs, and legal and accounting services. The co-founders do pay themselves some dividends from the app’s proceeds, including one recent $100,000 payment to Yadegari.

The company must also maintain a good reputation in the Apple and Google Play app stores. Cal AI may save users some time compared to its more traditional counterparts, but it’s not magic. Customer reviews show numerous complaints about the app’s accuracy: Users still need to manually input any information the app can’t detect, and correct anything it gets wrong.

Some customers have “misconceptions about Cal AI and what AI can do,” says Yadegari, adding: “Some of our users expect it to have X-ray vision, where if you take a picture of a bowl of food and you hit things at the bottom of the bowl, it’s going to pick it up. It won’t.”

Yadegari hopes to make Cal AI “the biggest calorie-tracking app,” which would likely mean topping industry leader MyFitnessPal’s self-reported 270-plus million users. The startup’s app has 8.3 million downloads as of July, according to a spokesperson, and Cal AI plans to close the gap with more hiring, marketing spend and rollout of new features, Yadegari says.

For the first time, he’s the CEO of a company with adult employees whose families rely on their paychecks — a responsibility he tries to not take for granted, he notes. “I can’t just go away for a few months and neglect things, like I could have with previous projects,” he says.

Yet for all of his long-term goals, Yadegari only plans to run Cal AI for two more years: After that, he’d like to sell it or hand the reins to another CEO so he can start a new company, he says. He’s “not entirely sure” what his next venture will entail, beyond involving AI — but he hopes to “dedicate most of the rest of my life” to it, he adds.

“Ideally, it really shapes the future and is part of my legacy,” says Yadegari.

Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work. Learn from three expert instructors how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.

Bernadette Joy has heard the arguments against renting. It’s throwing money away. You’re getting killed on inflation. Homeownership is a cornerstone of the American Dream.

Joy, a financial coach and author of “Crush Your Money Goals,” was a longtime believer in the latter point. “I definitely grew up with the philosophy that homeownership was the way to go,” she says.

And when her career began to flourish, she went for it. She and her husband owned four homes between 2010 and 2022, typically owning two at a time — one to live in and another for rental income.  

But three years ago, Joy and her husband sold all of their property and went back to renting. And she says it’s made her richer, not only because she invested the proceeds of the sales into her portfolio, but also because she was able to better focus on her businesses without the stresses and time commitment of managing multiple properties.

“In 2021, when we grew our first million dollars of net worth — that’s when we first started to think about downsizing and going back to renting,” Joy says. “And then it only took us another three years to make our next million dollars.”

For now at least, Joy says renting is cheaper, more flexible and more compatible with her lifestyle, all making it a better fit than life in a too-big house or as an intermittent landlord.

“I could buy a house in cash today,” Joy wrote in a recent article for Bankrate. “But for the last three years, I’ve chosen to rent instead.”

Joy knows that the math can often work in a homeowner’s favor over the long term. When you sign a 30-year mortgage, you effectively lock in a fixed payment, whereas renters, over time, are subject to inflation. If property values go up, homeowners’ stake in their property appreciates while renters often get charged more.

Monthly mortgage payments help a homeowner build equity in their property, while landlords pocket rental payments. And if you can get on the other side of that equation, having other people pay you rent can help you build wealth that much quicker.

Having been there and done that, Joy chooses to rent for a few key reasons.

Homeownership comes with hidden costs

If you’re currently renting and considering buying, you may be playing around with mortgage calculators and figuring out how much home you could get by converting your rent to a mortgage payment. But be prepared to pay quite a bit more, Joy says.

Of course, there are property taxes and home insurance — some calculators include those. But then there’s the cost to make the place look the way you want it, says Joy. “I spent all this money on renovations and furniture,” she says.

On top of that, expect things to go wrong, and in expensive fashion, Joy says. “We had to pay for trees that went down in our yard and roof leaks and plumbing issues and electrical issues,” she says. “People really underestimate all of those costs.”

Being a landlord can be a headache

But what about people who “house hack”? If you buy a second property and rent it out, you can cover your mortgage and even give yourself some extra income toward buying your next big investment.

Joy says that being a landlord often wasn’t worth the hassle. When she and her husband tried to rent their home as an Airbnb, they soon discovered that, given the expenses, turning a decent profit required a headache-inducing amount of work.

They not only had to manage the bookings, but also hire people to turn over the property between stays, Joy says. Things that were broken by guests needed to be replaced. And that’s before the emotional costs; Joy recalls an incident when she was out of town dealing with a family emergency and began receiving messages from an Airbnb guest who didn’t know where to put her shampoo in the bathtub.

“I remember telling my husband, ‘We’re selling this property,’” Joy says. “The emotional labor that was attached to making sure it was rented out enough was not worth it.”

Upon crunching the numbers, Joy realized she could earn more money (and worry less) by selling the property and putting the proceeds into a portfolio of index funds. She does the same thing with the money she’s saved from downgrading to a one-bedroom apartment from her old four-bedroom house.

Renting can fit a more flexible lifestyle

As it turns out, the current digs, at about 700 square feet, are a little tight, Joy says.

“We definitely need to have our own bathrooms,” she says. “But that’s the nice thing about renting. We’ll be here for eight more months, and then we’ll go back to a two-bedroom.”

That sort of flexibility can be hard to come by for homeowners, Joy says. For one, those who are hoping to sell at a short-term profit may be in for a rude awakening, she says. “Real estate doesn’t always go up,” she says. Indeed, the median home sale price currently sits below its 2022 peak, according to Federal Reserve data. And those who bought homes in 2007 likely didn’t see their home recoup its value until roughly 2013.

And for those homeowners who locked in a favorable mortgage rate over the past few years, the prospect of relocating at a higher rate can make moving difficult, Joy says.

“I see so many clients right now who need to move, or want to move, and they feel like they can’t because now to buy a new home, they get a lot less house for a lot more money and at a higher interest rate,” Joy says.

For Joy and her husband, renting, at least for the time being, means having the flexibility to live in a space that suits their needs.

“I’ve seen a lot of people who are stifling their own income prospects or ability to change their careers because of the mental load of, ‘Well, what do I do with this house?’” she says. “My income has grown in the last three years because I’m able to be mobile and I’m not spending all this time and energy maintaining this four-bedroom house.”

Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work. Learn how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.

Powerball’s jackpot has climbed to $1.8 billion ahead of Saturday night’s drawing at 10:59 p.m. ET.

No one has won since May, making it the third-largest jackpot in U.S. history, and it could climb past $2 billion if there’s no winner and the prize carries over to Monday night’s drawing. That would be only the second time Powerball has reached $2 billion. 

The last jackpot over $1 billion was claimed in April 2024. The largest since then was a $526.5 million win in March.

To claim the prize, you need to beat odds of 1 in 292,201,338 and match all six numbers, including the red Powerball. Smaller prizes are also available, including $1 million for matching all five white balls without the Powerball.

Winners can choose between two payout options: the full jackpot paid out as annual installments over 30 years or a lump-sum cash payment worth about 45% of the advertised prize.

Whichever option you take, 24% is withheld for federal taxes immediately. The prize would almost certainly place you in the top 37% federal bracket, meaning you would owe the remainder when filing your 2025 tax return.

Most participating states also impose their own income taxes, which range from 2.5% to 10.9%. Eight states do not tax lottery winnings at all: California, Florida, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.

Based on a top federal tax rate of 37%, here is what the total after-tax payout would be in each state and Washington, D.C., for both the lump sum and the 30-year annuity, according to USAMega.com.

• Lump sum: $500,014,980
• Annuity: $1,090,289,400

• Lump sum: $488,445,380
• Annuity: $1,065,089,400

• Lump sum: $520,674,980
• Annuity: $1,135,289,400

• Lump sum: $484,313,380
• Annuity: $1,056,089,400

• Lump sum: $462,909,620
• Annuity: $1,009,469,400

• Lump sum: $466,132,580
• Annuity: 1,016,489,400

• Lump sum: $520,674,980
• Annuity: $1,135,289,400

• Lump sum: $477,784,820
• Annuity: $1,041,869,400

• Lump sum: $473,611,500
• Annuity: $1,032,779,400

• Lump sum: $479,768,180
• Annuity: $1,046,189,400

• Lump sum: $495,882,980
• Annuity: $1,081,289,400

• Lump sum: $489,271,780
• Annuity: $1,066,889,400

• Lump sum: $473,570,180
• Annuity: $1,032,689,400

• Lump sum: $487,618,980
• Annuity: $1,063,289,400

• Lump sum: $495,882,980
• Annuity: $1,081,289,400

• Lump sum: $461,587,380
• Annuity: $1,006,589,400

• Lump sum: $442,166,980
• Annuity: $964,289,400

• Lump sum: $446,298,980
• Annuity: $973,289,400

• Lump sum: $485,552,980
• Annuity: $1,058,789,400

• Lump sum: $439,274,580
• Annuity: $957,989,400

• Lump sum: $484,313,380
• Annuity: $1,056,089,400

• Lump sum: $481,834,180
• Annuity: $1,050,689,400

• Lump sum: $471,917,380
• Annuity: $1,029,089,400

• Lump sum: $477,702,180
• Annuity: $1,041,689,400

• Lump sum: $520,674,980
• Annuity: $1,135,289,400

• Lump sum: $431,836,980
• Annuity: $941,789,400

• Lump sum: $471,917,380
• Annuity: $1,029,089,400

• Lump sum: $430,597,380
• Annuity: $939,089,400

• Lump sum: $485,552,980
• Annuity: $1,058,789,400

• Lump sum: $496,709,380
• Annuity: $1,083,089,400

• Lump sum: $494,849,980
• Annuity: $1,079,039,400

• Lump sum: $481,420,980
• Annuity: $1,049,789,400

• Lump sum: $438,861,380
• Annuity: $957,089,400

• Lump sum: $495,304,500
• Annuity: $1,080,029,400

• Lump sum: $471,173,620
• Annuity: $1,027,469,400

• Lump sum: $469,438,180
• Annuity: $1,023,689,400

• Lump sum: $520,674,980
• Annuity: $1,135,289,400

• Lump sum: $520,674,980
• Annuity: $1,135,289,400

• Lump sum: $520,674,980
• Annuity: $1,135,289,400

• Lump sum: $448,364,980
• Annuity: $977,789,400

• Lump sum: $473,156,980
• Annuity: $1,031,789,400

• Lump sum: $520,674,980
• Annuity: $1,135,289,400

• Lump sum: $431,836,980
• Annuity: $941,789,400

• Lump sum: $480,842,500
• Annuity: $1,048,529,400

• Lump sum: $457,455,380
• Annuity: $997,589,400

• Lump sum: $520,674,980
• Annuity: $1,135,289,400

Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work. Learn how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.

Homebuyers are getting a bit more relief as mortgage rates continue to slide.

The average 30-year fixed rate fell to 6.5% on Thursday, down from 6.56% the previous week and well below the 2025 peak of 7.04% in January, according to Freddie Mac. Rates have been on a mostly downward trajectory since late May.

Mortgage rates tend to follow the 10-year Treasury yield, which has fallen in recent weeks. Demand for Treasuries has remained relatively stable as the job market shows signs of cooling and the Federal Reserve is expected to cut rates in September. More demand pushes Treasury prices up, which lowers yields and in turn brings mortgage rates down.

“We have seen that the employment sector has weakened, and there is other weaker economic data,” says Melissa Cohn, regional vice president of William Raveis Mortgage. “At the same time, the rate of inflation has remained fairly stable in spite of the impact of tariffs. That is a perfect recipe for lower rates.”

Cohn says “rates don’t fall in a straight line” and “upward bumps” are to be expected as markets respond to economic and political news. Still, the recent decline means homebuyers could save money on monthly homeownership costs.

Here’s a look at how 30-year monthly mortgage costs vary at different interest rates, based on a U.S. median home price of $410,800.

7.04% (Jan 2025 peak)

• 20% down payment: $2,195
• 15% down payment: $2,332
• 10% down payment: $2,470

6.5% (current)

• 20% down payment: $2,077
• 15% down payment: $2,207
• 10% down payment: $2,337

Compared with the peak rate in 2025, monthly mortgage costs have declined by $118 per month with a 20% down payment. For a 10% down payment, it’s savings of $133 per month.

Of course, the mortgage payment is only one part of the equation. Homeownership also comes with other recurring costs, such as property taxes, homeowners insurance, HOA fees and maintenance.

While the recent drop in rates may not create enough savings on its own to make a home purchase affordable, it can still make a meaningful difference in monthly budgeting.

To see how different mortgage amounts and rates would affect your monthly payment, try CNBC Make It’s mortgage calculator.

While mortgage rates can be hard to predict, the housing market has softened, which could make it the right time for buyers who can afford to purchase a home. 

National median home prices are down 0.2% since the start of the year, according to Realtor.com. 

Meanwhile, major forecasts — including from Fannie Mae, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Association of Realtors — expect 30-year mortgage rates to remain largely flat in the mid 6% range through the end of 2025.

Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work. Learn how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.