More than 100 years ago, IQ (intelligence quotient) established what it means to be intelligent. Then came along EQ, which broadened the meaning with emotional intelligence.

Both were helpful frameworks for the time and context which they emerged, but now our world in-flux demands something new: AQ (agility quotient), which I define as the ability to handle change, uncertainty, and the unknown. As an executive coach to founders and CEOs, I’ve found that AQ is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a non-negotiable orientation toward life.

In my new book, “AQ: A New Kind of Intelligence for a World That’s Always Changing,” I break down the four AQ Archetypes. Identifying yours can help you understand the skills you have at your disposal for handling stress, solving problems, and tackling crises.

This is you if…

• You know what habits work for you and you stick with them.
• In your personal relationships, you value people who have known you for the longest time.
• You will take calculated risks if there is a solid plan in place.
• When faced with an unexpected challenge, you initially feel worried: How can I fix this situation?

Neurosurgeons are motivated by excellence: They hold every aspect of their life to the highest of standards, moving with diligence, conscientiousness, and hard-won expertise.

Strengths: The Neurosurgeon is steadfast and determined. Once they commit to something, they never give up until they’ve succeeded. Neurosurgeons are also a steady and stabilizing force for everyone in their lives, and a source of incredible expertise at work.

Challenges: The Neurosurgeon’s perfectionism can become a fear of failure. They see the world with more skepticism than optimism, and this leads to them saying no to change more than they say yes. They are slow in times of turmoil.

Antidote: The Neurosurgeon must learn to befriend discomfort. They grow by forcing action and decisions at a faster pace than what is typical for them, extending the boundaries of their comfort zone.

This is you if…

• You regularly try out new habits and try to improve what works for you.
• At work, you need lots of space and freedom in your schedule.
• You will take risks if it creates more autonomy for independence.
• When faced with an unexpected challenge, you initially feel annoyed: This wasn’t part of my plan!

Novelists are motivated by freedom: They are unafraid to deviate from the past; thus, they thrive in situations where they are allowed to change directions whenever they want. Freedom gives them the agency to write their own story.

Strengths: The future-­forward Novelist is at the leading edge of their field and up-­to-­date on the latest news. There’s always a bold goal, a big insight, or an exciting book to discuss. Their enthusiasm for proactive change is inspiring to those around them.

Challenges: The Novelist uses change as a way to avoid difficult situations. In hard times, they’d rather pivot than persevere to the finish. Also, when unwanted change rocks the Novelist’s world, they can become overwhelmed and lash out.

Antidote: The Novelist only grows once they learn how to let go of their plans and expectations. When change happens, they must work hard to fight their natural inclinations and embrace reality. Peace comes for the Novelist once they can see the silver lining in unwanted change.

This is you if…

• The wilder a situation gets, the calmer and more focused you become.
• You’re so skilled at in-the-moment responses that you can often neglect planful, future-oriented endeavors. You figure, Everything is always changing. Why waste time with plans that won’t stick?
• You’ll take risks when you have the capacity to deal with the outcome.
• When faced with an unexpected challenge, you initially feel calm: Life is always in flux anyway.

Firefighters are motivated by impact: The Firefighter is an expert at fixing what others believe to be unfixable. Doing work that really matters is a necessity, and they thrive on seeing the tangible results of their efforts.

Strengths: The Firefighter excels when most people would feel stressed out, anxious, or paralyzed. They have an upbeat attitude and a calm demeanor. They see possibility in impossible situations and aren’t deterred by setbacks and surprises. In fact, these shocks keep the Firefighter’s mind sharp and alert.

Challenges: All the time spent fighting fires leaves very little room to be intentional and strategic about the future. Because they do well in emergencies, the Firefighter can tolerate high levels of stress, and sometimes may create chaotic situations, because that’s where they feel comfortable.

Antidote: The Firefighter must push themself to become as adept with proactive change as they are with unwanted change, making the time on a quarterly or annual basis to draw up big­-picture plans.

This is you if…

• You believe that imagination is more important than knowledge.
• You believe that risks are essential to innovation and progress.
• You truly believe that you can do anything you put your mind to.
• When faced with an unexpected challenge, you initially feel accepting: This isn’t what I wanted, but I can make it work.

The Astronaut is motivated by passion: Astronauts follow their passion, whether personal or professional. Their vivid interests and curiosities inform every action and decision. Their intense enthusiasm drowns out any fear, so they hardly register big shifts that can unravel other people.

Strengths: The Astronaut is fast. They are quick to evolve and pivot, moving more swiftly than the other Archetypes. Another gift is authenticity. They are unapologetically themselves, with a unique approach to their life. This combination of speed and passion creates a bold and decisive personality

Challenges: The Astronaut can be so absorbed in their passion that they overlook the boring and tedious details needed to embark on their grand adventure. They may feel like they’re making great strides mentally, but that progress isn’t always reflected in the real world. The Astronaut’s goals may stall from poor follow­through or difficulty rallying others behind their vision.

Antidote: In order to make the most of their natural agility, the Astronaut must learn how to slow down to translate their bold aspirations into digestible and logical components. To find success, they must buckle down to complete the tasks and responsibilities that aren’t their passion but are still necessary.

Even if there were parts of your archetype’s description that didn’t feel 100% like you, don’t dwell on them. The purpose of this exercise is not to match your paradigm perfectly but to give you a thematic lens for self-observation.

These archetypes are intended to be maps, not photorealistic portraits, and like the best maps, they allow for many possible routes. The primary goal is to spend time appreciating you.

Liz Tran is an executive coach to CEOs and leaders and the founder of an AI coaching startup, Inner Genius. She is also the author of the new book ”AQ: A New Kind of Intelligence for a World That’s Always Changing.” Her work has been featured by The New Yorker, The New York Times, TODAY and Bloomberg.

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Even billionaires are worried about their children’s futures, says Patrick Dwyer, managing director at Miami-based boutique wealth management and planning company Aligned by NewEdge Wealth.

Dwyer’s ultra-wealthy clients — primarily people who range in net worth from $100 million to over $1 billion — are specifically concerned that their kids, primarily between 22 and 35 years old, won’t be able to sustain careers in traditionally stable and lucrative industries like technology, law and medicine, he says.

The U.S. job market is currently tough for young people in general, regardless of personal or family income. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has steadily grown for three years, reaching 9.7% in September 2025, according to Federal Reserve Data. Last year was the weakest hiring year in the U.S. since 2009, excluding the pandemic-affected year of 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The job market stress has reached the ultra-wealthy, says Dwyer, even as many of them likely have enough money to cover their kids’ living expenses for many years. ”[They’re] realizing that if they don’t pass on more meaningful wealth to their children, or their children are not able to accumulate wealth … their kids could have [less] agency over their lives than they did,” he says.

DON’T MISS: How to read people and master your body language to be more influential at work

To be clear, the difficult hiring market likely doesn’t signify a major threat to the ultra-wealthy’s financial status. Most people with such a high net worth aren’t in danger of losing their homes or canceling lavish vacations, says Citizens Wealth chief investment officer Michael Hans, who defines ultra-high net worth as between $10 million and $20 million. But the rich typically want to spend their money efficiently and keep their children from having to make lifestyle tradeoffs, Hans says.

Some workplace experts point to artificial intelligence as a potential culprit for the tight job market. Others say a wider form of economic uncertainty, including growing costs of living and home ownership, is causing established workers to cling to their jobs, reducing opportunities for younger workforce entrants.

“Folks are kind of just sitting still,” Nich Tremper, a senior economist for payroll and HR platform Gusto, told CNBC Make It on Dec. 8. “They’re not looking for new roles, they’re not leaving their current roles. Without those new jobs available, it’s hard for an entry-level employee to get their foot in the door and start their career.”

And without any concrete answers or ironclad predictions about the labor economy’s future — nobody actually knows how many jobs AI will replace, or when, for example — some billionaires are proactively reconsidering how they guide their children in a turbulent job market, Dwyer says.

Many of Dwyer’s clients followed a specific path to become ultra-wealthy, he says: They went to competitive schools, landed internships at prestigious companies and moved up the career ladder by leveraging connections over time. Today, lots of them — at least, in Dwyer’s estimation — fear that their children won’t live better or wealthier lives by comparison.

″[Our clients] are recognizing this is not the same game they had to play,” he says, adding: “Families have to rethink … what it means to support their children. And we’re not talking about spoiling your kids. We’re talking about: What if your kid needs retraining at 33?”

One result: Rather than pushing their kids toward a similar career trajectory, Dwyer’s clients are increasingly encouraging, and in some cases paying for, their children start their own companies in emerging industries and embrace entrepreneurship in their 20s and 30s, he says.

Entrepreneurship is often considered a risky endeavor with low pay, intense working hours and a high failure rate, at least in the early years of starting a business. Small-business advocates typically advise against entrepreneurship as a solution for career instability or the desire for a steady income.

But children from ultra-wealthy families have enough of a financial safety net to launch and fail at multiple startups, and — if they learn enough from those experiences — eventually build a successful one, Dwyer notes. Some of them specifically want their kids to develop a strong work ethic and grow to embody traits like resilience and adaptability that are increasingly important in the modern workforce, says Dwyer.

“These young entrepreneurs, if you sit and talk to these 25- or 26-year-olds, they understand marketing. They understand finance. They understand how to build a business,” Dwyer says. It’s really something that is worthwhile … and I think they will be increasingly sought after in the marketplace.”

Update: This story has been corrected to reflect that Michael Hans is chief investment officer at Citizens Wealth. It has also been updated to clarify that Hans defines ultra-high net worth as between $10 million and $20 million.

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For years, bedtime was the most stressful part of my day. No matter how early we started or how carefully I planned, evenings always felt chaotic.

I’ve heard the same story from many of the parents I’ve worked with, and it’s understandable. Bedtime is a major emotional transition that most of us were never taught how to navigate.

But as a conscious-parenting researcher who has studied over 200 kids, I’ve noticed a clear pattern: The happiest, most emotionally well-rounded children have parents who follow a predictable routine that lowers anxiety and strengthens connection. Here’s what they do differently.

Many parents head into bedtime expecting resistance, and children can sense that tension almost immediately.

Parents who experience smoother evenings aren’t attached to how long the routine takes or how perfectly it unfolds. When you soften your grip on the outcome, your child’s nervous system will follow.

Remember, if bedtime takes 90 minutes instead of 30, but your child falls asleep feeling safe and calm, that’s still a win.

Stalling, clinging, tantrums and irritability at bedtime can be signs of separation anxiety. Parents who understand this slow down the final moments of the evening. They offer physical closeness or quiet presence before saying goodnight.

Even 10 to 20 minutes of intentional connection can make a difference. From there, you can set clear but warm boundaries: “I’m here with you now. After two books and a cuddle, it’s time to turn the lights out.”

Many bedtime battles are simply about pressure. When children feel they’re expected to “fall asleep” on command, their nervous systems shift into alert mode, making rest harder.

Parents with the easiest nights stop making sleep the goal. They focus on creating calm conditions. This makes it more likely for our bodies to settle naturally.

To a child, bedtime can feel like an abrupt ending. You can ease this transition by emphasizing what comes next: “We’ll finish this in the morning,” or, “We’ll snuggle again when the sun comes up.”

This helps children experience bedtime as a pause, not a loss, reducing anxiety and resistance.

Some parents also create this bridge by ending the night with a simple point of connection. They might ask, for example, “What are you most excited for tomorrow?”

Safety is the signal that tells a child’s nervous system it can finally stop bracing and start resting. Without it, even the tiredest body stays alert.

You can reinforce safety by saying things like: 

• “Today was hard. Tonight was hard. And I’m still here.”
• “You didn’t have to be perfect today. You just had to be you.”
• “I’m here. You can rest.” 

Finally, and this might be the most important one: Emotionally attuned parents regulate themselves. Evenings are when you are most depleted and therefore most likely to react from stress rather than intention.

So pause before engaging. Take a few deep breaths. Ask yourself whether you’re carrying stress from the day into the moment. Settle yourself first, then support your child.

Reem Raouda is a leading voice in conscious parenting and the creator of the BOUND and FOUNDATIONS journals, now offered together as her Emotional Safety Bundle. She is widely recognized for her expertise in children’s emotional well-being and for redefining what it means to raise emotionally healthy kids. Find her on Instagram.

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When Amanda DeRise’s father sent her a listing for a 140-year-old six-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, in 2024, her first thought was that it needed a lot of work. Her realtor even called it a “money pit.”

But Amanda, 32, and her husband, Vincent, 34, saw potential in the home.

Amanda and Vincent decided to start saving for their future home in 2021, but quickly realized a new build or freshly renovated property would be out of their budget, Vincent says. It’s why the listing Amanda’s father sent her seemed to be perfect for them, she says.

The location would also allow Amanda to take the local ferry into New York City for work.

The couple’s realtor told them the house was for sale by an older man who had raised his family there and did not want to sell it to an investor.

“I wrote a nice letter to the older man stating that we want to take care of this house and bring it back to its former glory,” Amanda says.

The three decided on a sale price of $550,000 — $90,000 under the asking price. The DeRises closed on the house on Halloween night in 2024 with a 15% down payment of $82,500. They obtained a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 7.125% rate and a monthly payment of just under $3,900, including taxes and insurance, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

The next step: Renovating the property piece by piece.

Amanda and Vincent moved into the house in November 2024 and started renovations just a few weeks later, which included taking down the second floor to the studs, adding central air and modernizing the house while preserving its charm.

They say the house was in pretty bad condition when they first bought it. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls, the windows needed to be redone and the siding needed updating.

During the renovation, the couple wanted to make sure some of the original features of the house were restored. They had the original window trim replicated, kept what they think is an original light fixture in the dining room and used a lot of furniture left by the previous owners.

They have made changes to the layout, though, such as combining two of the bedrooms to create a larger primary bedroom.

Amanda and Vincent estimate they’ve spent about $172,000 on renovations, which they’ve funded through personal savings, a 401(k) loan and selling equity from a former employer, they say. So far, the most expensive parts of the renovation have been the siding and the windows, which totaled around $70,000.

In addition to income from their 9-to-5 jobs — Amanda is an administrative assistant at a fintech company and Vincent is a director of revenue operations at a SaaS company — the couple earn money from TikTok’s Creator Fund. They started sharing their renovation journey on TikTok in November 2024 and currently have 41,000 followers, with several of their videos getting over 600,000 views.

Amanda says sharing their journey on TikTok helped them get a brand deal to get free paint for parts of the house.

Living in the house while renovating it was the hardest part of fixing it up, Amanda says. The couple slept in the living room while they renovated the second floor.

“We had moments where windows were being blown out as we’re living in here. The home was always a construction zone because it was pretty major projects going on,” Vincent says.

They could have rented an apartment during this period, but didn’t want to spend additional money, Vincent says.

To stretch their budget as far as possible, the couple not only lived in the home but also downgraded their car and canceled subscriptions such as YouTube TV.

Although they are getting ready to welcome a their first child, the couple says the renovations are still not done and won’t be for several years. In fact, Amanda says the joke is that they probably will never be done. “There will always be something to do,” she says.

The couple has yet to renovate the house’s third floor, which includes Vincent’s office and the attic. The kitchen also still needs work, which Vincent and Amanda hope to complete in the next few years.

“I don’t want to make it feel like a modern kitchen,” Amanda says. “I definitely want to keep the charm of an older home.”

However, the couple say they are enjoying the process, especially the items they’ve found inside the house. Their findings include a Stan Musial 1948 rookie baseball card, handwritten letters from the 1930s, a purse with old shopping receipts from 1925 and a vintage breast pump.

The discoveries have the couple thinking about what they could put into the walls for future owners to find.

“We have just been collecting some random items, some of our own that we plan to put maybe in the floorboards in the attic or, while we’re renovating more rooms, put them in the walls,” Amanda says.

Vincent says he was originally against buying the house because of the work it needed, but thought it would be a good investment given the town and its location.

In 2025, Netflix closed on a deal to buy Fort Monmouth, a former Army base less than 10 miles from Atlantic Highlands. The company plans to build a $900 million campus that will include 12 soundstages, backlot areas and production facilities, NBC reports.

“One thing about the home is that we always knew it was going to be a good investment. It’s an exciting place to be,” Vincent says. “There’s a lot of renovations happening across the county and the town, so we always just thought that this home would be the right type of investment, especially because we believe we’ll be here for a very long time.”

Going forward, “We’re excited to continue to make this home our own,” Amanda says.

“Maybe someone in 100 years looks at some of the work that we’ve done around the home and sees our touch to it,” Vincent adds.

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There are two ways to get back to the level of home affordability Americans had for much of the last decade, according to Realtor.com. Neither looks realistic anytime soon.

In 2019, the mortgage payment for a median-priced home took up about 21% of median household income. Today, it accounts for more than 30%, reflecting sharply higher home prices and mortgage rates that have nearly doubled since January 2022, according to a recent analysis from the real estate listings platform.

Barring a sharp drop in home prices, Realtor.com calculates that getting monthly payments back to 2019 levels would require one of two things:

• Household incomes rising 56% to a median of $132,171, up from $84,763 today
• Mortgage rates falling to 2.65%, down from 6.15% as of Feb. 6

Neither option appears likely in the near term. Real median household income has risen only about 17% over the past 20 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Mortgage rates are more likely to ease from their current 30-year fixed rate, though most forecasts still have them hovering near 6% through 2026.

Even at that level, affordability gains may be limited. The National Association of Realtors projects that home prices will rise about 4% in 2026 as renewed demand runs up against stubborn supply shortages.

“The U.S. housing market continues to grapple with a persistent mismatch between housing supply and buyer demand,” Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, tells CNBC Make It. “If buyer demand strengthens without a corresponding increase in supply, renewed price growth is likely.”

A chronic shortage of homes continues to weigh on housing affordability. There is a nationwide housing shortfall of nearly 4 million homes, Realtor.com estimates, a gap that helps explain why lower mortgage rates or stronger wage growth alone may not be enough to deliver substantial affordability gains.

“You don’t really solve an affordability crisis by subsidizing demand through artificially cheap financing,” says Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel. For costs to go down, the supply of homes has to better meet demand, he says.

Supply has been slow to catch up in part because zoning rules and lengthy permitting processes often limit how much new housing can be built or where it can go, according to a separate Realtor.com report from 2025.

Expanding housing supply through additional construction and policy changes remains critical to easing affordability pressures, particularly in supply-constrained markets, according to NAR.

At the federal level, lawmakers have introduced bipartisan proposals aimed at zoning, permitting and construction bottlenecks, though most remain in early stages.

More change is happening at the state level. Texas and California have passed laws to loosen zoning rules and streamline permitting, but the impact has been mixed so far.

The timeline for closing the housing supply gap also varies sharply by region, according to a 2025 Realtor.com report. At the current pace of construction and household formation, the report estimates the supply gap could close within three years in the South and six and a half years in the West. The Midwest would need roughly four decades. In the Northeast, the gap would not close at all under current trends.

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