Today, Dick Van Dyke is officially 100 years old. Born on Dec. 13, 1925, the “Mary Poppins” actor took Hollywood by storm with his singing and dancing, and became an Emmy, Grammy and Tony award-winning legend.

Now, Van Dyke has earned a new title: centenarian. Over the course of his life, the performer has shared the practices he follows to stay in the best of health.

“When you reach 100, a lot of things don’t work too well,” Van Dyke told The New York Times last month. But “sometimes I feel like I’m 15 again.”

In his recent book, “100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life,” published last month, Van Dyke explores his secrets for longevity even further.

Here are three research-backed staples in his routine that he credits for his 100 years of life.

1. He moves his body often

Even at 100, Van Dyke goes to the gym three times a week, he told the New York Times. When he makes his way to each machine, sometimes he dances as he walks, he said.

On his off days from the gym, he practices yoga and stretches. Van Dyke said his doctors are amazed at how he’s still able to touch his toes.

Similar to Van Dyke, many Japanese centenarians — particularly in the blue zone, Okinawa, Japan — start their mornings with exercise. Typically they do a low-intensity workout that airs on the radio, called radio taiso, which is about three minutes long.

The exercise also promotes a sense of community because participants tend to practice it alongside friends, colleagues or family.

2. He has an optimistic outlook and doesn’t turn down opportunities that excite him

“I’ve decided people are born with a certain personality and a certain outlook, a certain perspective,” Van Dyke said in a sit-down interview with Al Roker for the TODAY show this November. “I tend to look on the good side of things.”

Keeping a sense of playfulness in his life helps him experience a lot more fun, he said in his interview with The New York Times. Just last year, Van Dyke starred in Coldplay’s music video for the song “All My Love.”

In the Directors’ Cut version of the video, Van Dyke spoke about how his career aligned with his desire to remain a kid at heart. He said he’s “one of those lucky people who got to do for a living what I would have done anyway.”

Often, the happiest centenarians pursue jobs that are fulfilling to them and don’t retire. “Think how lucky I am,” he said. “I got to do what I do — play and act silly.”

3. He values quality time with loved ones

Towards the end of the “All My Love” music video, Van Dyke welcomes his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren into frame to dance with him. The scene is a symbol of just how much he treasures spending time with his loved ones.

Van Dyke is always looking for ways to get his grandchildren and great-grandchildren to enjoy their time at his house, so they want to come back and visit, he told The New York Times. He wants his backyard to resemble a theme park, and mentioned that he’s planning to add a zip line next.

“Just hearing them all out there squealing gives me such joy,” Van Dyke said.

A decades-long study conducted by researchers at Harvard found that the key to happiness and longevity is social fitness, or maintaining healthy, long-lasting interpersonal connections.

As far as his plans for his birthday today, Van Dyke’s itinerary is very relaxed when squared with the major accomplishment of turning 100. Still, it aligns with spending quality time.

“He doesn’t want to do anything,” his wife Arlene Silver told People last week. “He wants to be in his room watching Jeopardy! reruns with me.”

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Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has unveiled the final tally for her 2025 charitable donations, which totaled $7.17 billion in gifts to roughly 225 organizations, she wrote in a blog post published on Tuesday.

“This dollar total will likely be reported in the news, but any dollar amount is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into communities this year,” Scott wrote.

Scott’s 2025 giving brings her total donation amount since 2019 to $26.3 billion, based on her past public announcements of her charitable giving. This year’s donations went to a wide range of nonprofits including several historically Black colleges and universities, and organizations focused on issues including poverty, social injustice and climate change.

Scott’s updated philanthropic tally puts her behind only fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in terms of lifetime giving, according to Forbes. Forbes still estimates a $29.9 billion net worth for Scott, who became one of the world’s wealthiest women following her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to teaching your kids about money

Following her divorce, Scott signed The Giving Pledge, committing to giving away the bulk of her wealth in her lifetime. She tasked a team of advisors with helping her step up her philanthropic giving by identifying “organizations with strong leadership teams and results” across a wide range of areas of societal need, she wrote in a 2020 blog post.

Specifically, she wanted to pay “special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates and low access to philanthropic capital,” she wrote.

In her Tuesday essay, Scott wrote about putting her giving into perspective, citing data from Giving USA, which reported in June that Americans donated more than $590 billion in charitable giving in 2024. Much of the country’s philanthropy — whether monetary or otherwise — happens on a relatively small scale, Scott wrote.

“Over 70% of Americans reported giving both labor and money to people they know, and half reported doing the same for strangers,” wrote Scott, adding: “It’s easy to focus on the methods of civic participation that make news, and hard to imagine the importance of the things we do each day with our own minds and hearts.”

Scott mentioned multiple examples of generosity she received before she became wealthy, helping inspire her more recent philanthropy. She wrote about a “local dentist who offered me free dental work when he saw me securing a broken tooth with denture glue in college,” and her college roommate at Princeton University “who found me crying, and acted on her urge to loan me a thousand dollars to keep me from having to drop out in my sophomore year.”

That roommate, Jeannie Ringo Tarkenton, went on to found Funding U, a student lender that offers loans to low-income students without requiring a co-signer, Scott noted.

Scott highlighted those examples while encouraging civic participation in myriad forms, from financial gifts to random acts of kindness: “Respect, understanding, insight, empathy, forgiveness, inspiration – all of these are meaningful contributions to others.”

Scott’s blog post did not break down how or why she chose any of the hundreds of organizations she supported in 2025. A long-standing aspect of her giving does stand out in contrast to many other billionaire philanthropists: Her donations typically come without any strings, meaning organizations are free to use the money however they see fit.

Her goal has been to “de-emphasize privileged voices” like her own, “and cede focus to others,” she wrote in a 2021 blog post.

“People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating,” Scott wrote in that post. “This is equally — perhaps especially — true when their work is funded by wealth.”

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After 41 draws without a winner, the Powerball lottery jackpot has climbed to $1 billion — the seventh largest in the lottery’s history.

Even if you don’t match all six numbers, smaller prizes of $1 million and $50,000 are still in play.

If you somehow beat the odds and win a large cash prize, what happens next can be just as important as the win itself. That’s because decisions you make in the first few days can leave you vulnerable to losing or mismanaging the prize.

Here are five common mistakes experts say to avoid, starting the moment the ticket is in your hands.

Until a lottery ticket is signed, “the person who physically holds a winning ticket” can claim the prize, according to the South Carolina Education Lottery, one of the state lotteries that administers Powerball.

Participating state lotteries generally direct players to use validation tools — self-check terminals, mobile app scanners or official lottery websites — rather than relying on store staff. That guidance exists in part because store clerks have been caught stealing winning tickets.

To prevent fraud, you’ll want to sign the ticket in ink right away, state lotteries advise. It also can’t hurt to have a photocopy or photo of the signed ticket, since it can help if your ticket is lost or misplaced, according to the South Carolina Education Lottery.

You signed the ticket, but where do you put it? Because a winning ticket functions much like cash, you don’t want to keep it in your pocket, wallet or lying on a desk in your home, says George Gagliardi, a certified financial planner in Lexington, Massachusetts.

“Holding the winning ticket before claiming it is akin to walking around town with $100 million in your wallet,” he says.

The official ticket needs a secure location. A common recommendation is to lock it in a bank safe deposit box or a personal fireproof safe or lockbox as soon as possible.

Announcing a big lottery win can invite financial requests, scams and unwanted attention, says Gagliardi. It’s often safer to keep the news within a very small circle of trusted family members.

Some state lotteries require winners to go public when they claim the prize, which is why it can help to consult a financial advisor, a lawyer and an accountant before coming forward, State Farm advises.

They can walk you through payout options and, in some states, help set up a trust that allows you to claim the prize anonymously.

Winners are often given between 90 days and a year to claim a prize, depending on the state.

Rushing to claim it can prevent you from building the advisory team you’ll need to manage immense wealth. Without a lawyer, accountant and financial advisor experienced in large windfalls, you risk making costly decisions about taxes, investments and spending, State Farm reports.

Powerball winners must choose between two payout options: a 30-year annuity worth the full listed jackpot amount or a lump-sum cash payout that is roughly half the advertised prize. For a $1 billion jackpot, the annuity would pay about $33.3 million per year, according to USAMega.com.

Each option comes with tradeoffs. The annuity provides guaranteed installments with a larger total payout over time, while the cash option gives you immediate access to a sizable sum that can be invested right away.

Your age, estate planning needs and comfort with investment risk can all shape which payout structure makes the most sense. Consult a trusted financial professional who can help you make decisions based on your individual financial situation.

It can also help to slow down before making a choice, since “you will be in an emotional state for a while, and one wants to make decisions logically, not emotionally,” says John Loyd, a certified financial planner in Texas.

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Being a star employee doesn’t necessarily mean being the first one in the office and the last one out.

Some of the best performers Harley Finkelstein knows are strict about their working hours; they just use their time really well.

“You don’t have to work 80 hours a week to perform well, to be a high performer,” the Shopify president said on a recent episode of the “Aspire with Emma Grede” podcast. “I know people that work 40 hours a week that are some of the greatest performers ever. They’re just incredibly efficient with their time.”

Finkelstein talked about his own work schedule looking different at various points in his life, saying work-life balance is “very dependent on your particular circumstances.”

“There’s a period in [my] life before I was married, before I had kids where I was able to work 80 hours a week all the time, and when I had newborns, I wasn’t able to work 80 hours,” he said.

Technically, Finkelstein doesn’t like using the term work-life balance.

“I think this idea of work-life balance is a little bit of a misnomer where I think actually what we’re all searching for is some sort of harmony,” he said. “I think everyone needs to kind of find their own version of it.”

For Finkelstein, that means, “There are some Saturdays where I have to work and there are some Thursday afternoons that I go for a walk with my wife.”

Other business executives have taken issue with the concept of work-life balance too.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also favors the idea of work-life harmony over work-life balance.

“I used to always think that you need to find that balance between what’s considered relaxing versus what is working,” he said in 2019. “What I’m trying to do is harmonize what I deeply care about, my deep interests, with my work.”

Likewise, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has called work-life balance a “debilitating” phrase and said people should think of their work and personal lives as more of a “circle.”

“I don’t love the word ‘balance’ because it implies a tradeoff,” Bezos said at Italian Tech Week in October. “I like work-life harmony because if you’re happy at home, you’ll be better at work. If you’re better at work, you’ll be better at home.”

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Artificial intelligence may transform hiring across several industries — but a few skills can help most people safeguard their future careers, according to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

″[AI] will eliminate jobs. That doesn’t mean that people won’t have other jobs,” Dimon told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” on Sunday. “My advice to people would be critical thinking … learn EQ [emotional quotient, also known as emotional intelligence], learn how to be good in a meeting, how to communicate, how to write. You’ll have plenty of jobs.”

Dimon’s prediction comes during somewhat of an AI reckoning across the American workforce. Some experts say AI is a factor behind a rising unemployment rate for young people, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warning in May that the technology could erase up to half of all white-collar jobs over the next five years.

Other CEOs see changes on the horizon, too. “It’s very clear that AI is going to change literally every job,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that published on Sept. 26, adding: “Maybe there’s a job in the world that AI won’t change, but I haven’t thought of it.”

For his part, Dimon has previously emphasized the value of leaders with soft skills. Effective leaders have the ability to ask good questions and learn from competitors, clients and their own mistakes, he told LinkedIn’s “This is Working” video series in July 2024.

“If you don’t have an accurate assessment of the real world out there, what’s changing, what the ideas are, you will eventually fail,” said Dimon.

Some other experts and business leaders generally agree with Dimon’s sentiment. Critical thinking, or the ability to analyze information and form takeaways, is a particular key to success in the age of AI, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman told CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” on Aug. 8. While AI can perform a variety of administrative and skill-based tasks, it can’t currently make nuanced judgements, research shows.

“You’re going to want to be creative. You’re going to want to be [good at] critical thinking. And you’re going to want to be flexible,” said Garman. “I think the ability to learn new things and adapt is going to be just as important as any particular skill that you learn.”

Similarly, strong communication skills and emotional intelligence are an essential part of succeeding in a modern workforce, some experts say. Being able to effectively relay your ideas and interact with colleagues comes with relatively obvious benefits. Just being perceived by your colleagues as a good communicator can help you form relationships, be more likeable and gain influence at the office.

You can improve how you interact with others by mentally preparing before conversations, asking thoughtful questions, taking accountability for your mistakes, giving others credit for good ideas and participating in small talk with your colleagues — but being a great communicator is often about listening, according to Harvard University associate professor Alison Wood Brooks.

“Successful conversationalists and successful employees go a step further” than a perfunctory head nod and making eye contact, Wood Brooks told CNBC Make It in July. “Listening to somebody’s answer then probing for more information is a superhero move, and a shockingly low number of people think to do it. You should show [you’re listening] by saying [you are] out loud.”

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