Leading happiness expert’s morning routine includes a 4:30am wake-up and a high-protein breakfast

The most successful people have morning routines that set them up for greatness. Data shows that the way you structure the start of your day can have significant effects on your energy, creativity and happiness.

Arthur Brooks, a professor who teaches a class about managing happiness at Harvard and author of a happiness column for The Atlantic, has a set of practices that he can pick and choose from each morning to boost his mood for the rest of the day.

“I have used all of my background in behavioral science, and everything I’ve learned about biology as well, to put together a morning protocol that is enhancing of my well-being,” Brooks said on his podcast, “Office Hours with Arthur Brooks.”

Here is Brooks’ morning routine, and what he says we can all do “to start your day in the best possible way.”

Arthur Brooks’ 6-step morning routine

To get a better understanding of himself, Brooks determined his baseline emotional state using a tool in psychology called the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). After taking the test, people are placed in one of four categories depending on how intensely they lean towards positive or negative emotions.

Brooks would be considered a “mad scientist,” who experiences high positive affect and high negative affect. “I feel things very intensely, and that’s great on the positive side. But I need to manage the negative side,” he said on the podcast.

To avoid allowing the intensity of his negative emotions to affect his quality of life, Brooks has created this six-step morning routine:

Wake up before dawn: Research shows that getting up before the sun rises can improve your creativity, focus and memory, he said. Brooks wakes up at 4:30 a.m. nearly every day, and has experienced positive effects on his mental health as a result.
Engage in physical activity: “Fifteen minutes after I wake up, I’m in the gym,” said Brooks who has a gym in his home. He exercises for an hour a day, seven days a week, and alternates between cardio and resistance training.
Get metaphysical: Taking a page out of the Dalai Lama’s book, Brooks practices his version of analytical meditation each morning, by attending Mass or praying a Catholic meditation in his car, “calibrating the work of the soul,” he said. If you aren’t religious or into meditation, you can gain similar benefits from journaling for 20 to 30 minutes, Brooks added.
Delay coffee intake: “I love coffee for sure, but I don’t drink it when I first wake up,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I don’t have my first cup of coffee until 7:30 in the morning.” He finds that it prevents him from having a 3 p.m. slump later in the day.
Eat a high-protein breakfast: Brooks eats between 175 and 200 grams of protein each day, so he gets about 60 grams of protein for breakfast by eating unflavored, non-fat Greek yogurt with whey protein, walnuts and berries. “It makes me feel great. It keeps me full all through the morning and fueled up,” he said.
Enter a flow state: Instead of using the energy that his morning routine gives him to check emails, take phone calls or read the paper, Brooks starts working right away. “When I do that, I can actually get two hours of super high-quality creative work,” he said. “I’m in the flow for the rest of the day.”

Though Brooks encouraged listeners to try his morning protocol, he also suggested altering it to fit their personal experiences.

“Experiment on yourself,” he said. “This is the result of my experiments. You need the result of your experiments.”

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The world’s ultra-wealthy primarily live in these 10 cities—only 3 are outside the U.S.

Nearly a fifth of the world’s richest people live in just 10 cities worldwide, according to recent data from wealth intelligence platform Altrata.

The city with the most ultra-wealthy people — those with a net worth above $30 million — by a large margin: New York. It’s home to 21,380 such residents, up 23% from 2024, according to the report, which contains data through June and was published on September 30. The report didn’t specify whether that increase comes from ultra-wealthy people moving to New York, extant residents joining the ranks of the ultra-wealthy or both.

New York is one of the world’s biggest financial hubs, meaning it may be close to work for many of the ultra-wealthy. Banking and finance is the most popular industry to work in for affluent people across all generations, according to the report.

Hong Kong, the city in the No. 2 spot, also has a growing population of ultra-wealthy people: approximately 17,215, up nearly 23% in the first six months of 2025, the report found. Like New York, Hong Kong has a booming finance industry. IPO valuations on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange jumped roughly eight times in the first half of 2025, up to $14 billion, according to a July CNBC report of data from financial markets platform Dealogic.

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Beyond other global financial hubs Tokyo and London, the rest of Altrata’s list exclusively features cities in the United States. That’s not particularly surprising: The U.S. is home to more than three times as many ultra-rich people as the next-closest country, China, said the report.

The ultra-wealthy hold an outsized proportion of wealth compared to their some of their peers: People with a net worth of more than $30 million make up 1% of the global millionaire population, but hold nearly a third of their overall combined wealth, Altrata found.

The population of ultra-wealthy is growing, too, the report said. At the time of its publishing, an estimated 510,810 people in the world had a net worth of more than $30 million. That number could rise to nearly 677,000 by 2030, Altrata projected.

Here are the report’s top 10 cities with the highest populations of ultra-wealthy people:

1. New York

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 21,380

Percentage increase from previous 12 months: 23.4%

2. Hong Kong

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 17,215

Percentage increase from previous 12 months: 11.5%

3. Los Angeles

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 11,680

Percent increase from previous 12 months: 24%

4. San Francisco

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 8,270

Percent increase from previous 12 months: 24.9%

5. Chicago

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 7,530

Percent increase from previous 12 months: 21.7%

6. Tokyo

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 6,940

Percent increase from previous 12 months: 8.4%

7. London

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 6,660

Percent increase from previous 12 months: 9.7%

8. Dallas

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 6,530

Percent increase from previous 12 months: 23%

9. Washington, D.C.

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 6,460

Percent increase from previous 12 months: 23.6%

10. Houston

Number of ultra-wealthy people: 5,900

Percent increase from previous 12 months: 22.0%

Mark Cuban tells his own kids to learn this AI skill: It’ll help you land ‘jobs left and right’

High school and college students everywhere need to take advantage of a “unique opportunity” that could help them land a job almost anywhere, according to billionaire serial entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban.

Spend “your excess time” learning as much as possible about how to use popular artificial intelligence tools, Cuban advised during an episode of the “TBPN” podcast that aired on Aug. 20. Then, once you’re in the workforce, you’ll be able to help your employer and colleagues — especially those who are struggling to use AI tools and agents effectively — become more efficient and productive, he said.

“You don’t even have to be a software engineer,” Cuban said, adding that he tells his own kids, who are in high school and college: “Learn all you can about AI, but learn more on how to implement them in companies … Companies don’t understand how to implement all that right now to get a competitive advantage.”

For Cuban, learning about AI means experimenting with the many free tools on the market, he said — developing your skills for prompt engineering and customizing models for specific business scenarios. “Every single company needs that. There is nothing intuitive for a company to integrate AI, and that’s what people don’t understand,” said Cuban, adding: “That is going to be jobs left and right.”

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There are more than 34 million businesses in the U.S., and most are small businesses that don’t necessarily have the massive budgets of tech giants to implement AI into their day-to-day business operations. Many of those smaller companies could turn to younger, less expensive hires to implement their AI strategies, Cuban predicted.

Even the the larger companies throwing money at AI tools are still trying to figure out the best ways to implement that new technology into their established business processes, according to a recent EY survey. The results have so far been mixed: 95% of companies had not yet seen any measurable revenue return from their AI investments, according to a July report from Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers.

The businesses that have had more success implementing AI, so far, are smaller, early-stage startups run by young entrepreneurs capable of customizing AI models to their specific businesses, the MIT report found.

The AI boom reminded Cuban of his own experiences selling software in his 20s, before every company relied on computers in the workplace, he said. “When I was 24, I was walking into companies who had never seen a PC before in their lives and explaining to them the value and having these guys going, ‘Well, son, I got this receptionist right there … I’m never going to need that s— ever,’” he said.

If Cuban were a teenager again now, he’d start a side hustle helping teach businesses how to use AI effectively, he told CNBC Make It in October 2024. “I would go to businesses, particularly small- to medium-sized businesses that don’t understand AI yet,” he said. “Doesn’t matter if I’m 16, I’d be teaching them as well.”

Cuban isn’t the only one offering similar advice: Use free AI tools at least 10 hours per week, and consider paying for some subscription-based models to constantly refamiliarize yourself with what they do well and what they’re not yet capable of, Wharton professor and AI researcher Ethan Mollick told CNBC on Oct. 7.

Employers “need to ‘crowd’ the best AI users and take ideas from the crowd and turn them into products that people use right away,” Mollick said, adding: “My No. 1 piece of advice is to pay $20 a month for [Anthropic’s] Claude or [OpenAI’s] GPT or [Google’s] Gemini and use it for everything you can use it for legally.”

‘There’s a big difference between being frugal and being cheap,’ says money coach—how she spends

Michela Allocca used to think saving money meant spending as little as possible.

“In my early 20s, I really didn’t know what to do with my money, so I just hoarded as much as I possibly could,” Allocca tells CNBC Make It.

The Chicago-based personal finance consultant and author of “Own Your Money” says that mindset led to decisions she regretted later, such as buying cheap clothes that didn’t last, turning down trips or experiences she could afford or taking public transit when it would have been safer to call an Uber.

“I started to associate spending money with being a bad thing,” she says. “It was me avoiding spending to the detriment of my own life.”

Her perspective has shifted over time. Now 30, Allocca says she focuses less on cutting every cost and more on spending with purpose — what she calls “buy less, but buy better.”

She’s selective about where she spends, but also willing to splurge on things that make her daily life easier or more enjoyable, like a quality mattress and bedding. “You sleep in your bed every night. If you don’t have a good night’s sleep, the rest of your day sucks,” she says.

Another high-value purchase is her Breville espresso machine, which typically sells for about $700. “I really value my morning coffee — I like the ritual of it,” she says. Because she uses it daily, she has no regrets about the price.

“There’s a big difference between being frugal and being cheap,” Allocca wrote in a recent LinkedIn post comparing frugality and cheapness. “Frugality means spending on what I value, and cutting where I don’t.”

How she lives frugally

Allocca also plans her life around affordable routines like reading, cooking and taking walks around Chicago. When she does want to socialize, she often invites friends to do those same activities.

“If I’m going to go on a walk, I’ll invite a friend,” she says. “If I’m going to grab a coffee, I’ll see who else is around. It’s obviously less expensive than going out [to a bar or restaurant], but I get the same emotional experience out of it — there’s so many ways to connect with people.”

She’s taken a similar approach to her wardrobe. In her early 20s, Allocca says she’d buy “the cheapest version of everything,” often chasing trends or stocking up on lower-quality pieces that didn’t last. “Every year I found that I was replacing clothes, or I felt like I had nothing to wear,” she says.

Now, she keeps a small, neutral-colored wardrobe built around a few high-quality essentials she can mix and match, like a $238 pair of jeans she recently purchased that will last her for years. “I’m less concerned with price and more concerned with quality and how often I’ll wear it,” she says.

A healthy balance

Allocca says even healthy financial habits can slip into extremes. While avoiding spending can feel rewarding, it can easily turn into an all-or-nothing mindset.

“There’s a lot of parallels between diet culture [and] consumption and spending,” she says, adding that too much focus on restriction can make it hard to build sustainable habits over time.

To avoid that trap, she budgets each week and reviews her transactions regularly, a practice she says helps her stay aware without becoming obsessive.

“When you write your expenses down, you’re formally acknowledging that purchase,” she says. “You realize how much money you’re actually spending — and more often than not, it’s more than what you thought.”

She still makes the occasional spending mistake, but doesn’t see it as failure. “I’m a person, I exist in the same world as everybody else,” she says. “Sometimes I buy things that go against my own rules or values — but that’s life.”

Her philosophy, she says, is to aim for progress, not perfection. “As long as you’re getting your basics right and spending within your means, the occasional splurge is fine.”

Borrowers won’t owe federal income taxes on student debt forgiven in 2025

Student loan borrowers who recently became or will soon become eligible for loan forgiveness through income-driven repayment plans can breathe easy knowing they won’t receive a tax bill for their discharged loans.

The Department of Education clarified on Oct. 17 that borrowers who become eligible for loan forgiveness in 2025 will not owe federal taxes on the forgiven amounts, even if their loans aren’t officially discharged before the end of the year. That applies to borrowers who earned loan forgiveness by making qualifying payments for 20 or 25 years on the income-based, income-contingent or Pay As You Earn repayment plans.

The clarification brings relief to borrowers who were recently notified of their forgiveness eligibility but may still be waiting for their balances to be zeroed out. The announcement comes as part of an agreement between the Department of Education and the American Federation of Teachers, a union, which are battling in court over income-driven repayment plan application backlogs and processing delays.

Borrowers who have had their student loans forgiven haven’t had to pay federal taxes on the forgiven amounts due to a provision outlined in the American Rescue Plan of 2021. But that provision is set to expire at the end of 2025, and some borrowers feared if they didn’t see their loans forgiven by the end of the year, they could face a tax bill in 2026 when their balances are discharged.

“The date a borrower becomes eligible to have their loans cancelled under the IBR, Original ICR, or PAYE plans constitutes the effective date of their loan discharge,” the agreement says.

Though they won’t be charged federal income taxes, borrowers in several states may owe state income taxes on forgiven loans.

How to ensure tax-free forgiveness

It’s important to note that the continued forgiveness processing does not apply to borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education repayment plan, which is currently blocked by federal courts and set to be completely eliminated by President Donald Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill.”

Borrowers on the SAVE plan who already or may soon qualify for loan forgiveness should switch into the IBR, ICR or PAYE plans before the end of the year, says Winston Berkman-Breen, legal director for Protect Borrowers, which is representing AFT in the lawsuit.

The Department of Education will not file a 1099-C form with the Internal Revenue Service for borrowers who meet forgiveness eligibility requirements in 2025, the agreement says.

“If [borrowers] do receive a 1099 or other indication that they are being taxed for the canceled amount based on eligibility set in the 2025 tax year, they can file a complaint with their state attorney general to get assistance in determining if the tax form is accurate,” Berkman-Breen says.

Some borrowers who previously applied for the IBR plan may have been rejected on the grounds that they lacked evidence of financial hardship, which was previously required to enroll in the plan. The Department of Education advises those borrowers to reapply. However, it may take time for those applications to be processed as the department is updating its systems to remove the financial hardship requirement.

Additionally, the department is still working through a backlog of over 1 million IDR applications as of the end of August, according to a Sept. 15 court filing. It’s unclear whether the ongoing government shutdown will further impact IDR application processing.