Money isn’t everything. As Sahil Bloom discovered, the high-paying career, the job title, the house, and the car — all the things he thought he needed to be successful — didn’t make him happy. 

“I had spent years with my head down, embracing the long hours, believing that the idyllic land of success was well within reach. At every step along the way, I told myself that I was just one bonus, one promotion, or one fancy bottle of wine away from arriving in that land,” Bloom writes in his book “The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life.” 

“Then, one day, I realized I had achieved all of it, and all I could think of was: Is this it?”

Not long after he had this unsettling realization, he decided to ask a dozen 80- and 90-year-olds a few questions, including: What advice would you give your younger self? What do you regret? What’s brought you lasting joy and fulfillment? 

“No one mentioned money,” Bloom writes. “Your wealthy life may be enabled by money, but in the end, it will defined by everything else.” Namely, “time, people, purpose, health.”

Drawing on the wisdom of elders, his own experiences, scientific research, history, and successful people, Bloom’s debut book redefines wealth and helps readers design a “dream life” that truly fits them. (His upcoming “The 5 Types of Wealth Planner,” out in November, translates those ideas into practice.)

CNBC Make It chose “The 5 Types of Wealth” as our October book club pick because we know our readers are striving to be happier, smarter, and more successful — whatever that looks like to each one of them.  

If you haven’t read Bloom’s book, or just want a refresher, here are some key takeaways ahead of Wednesday’s discussion in our private LinkedIn group.

Bloom breaks his book down into sections about:

1. Time wealth: Another catalyst for Bloom was the night a friend told him, “You’re going to see your parents 15 more times before they die,” given the distance between them and frequency of visits. Becoming aware of the limited time you have is the first step in “investing in your time wealth.” Next is directing “your attention to the things that truly matter (and ignoring the rest),” Bloom writes. And finally, “it is achieving control over your time — how you spend it, where you spend it, and whom you spend it with.”
2. Social wealth: One of the best decisions Bloom says he and his wife made was to move across the country to be near their families and closest friends. “Proximity to people you love is worth more than any job will ever pay you.” Social wealth is about that small circle of your most meaningful bonds, the larger circles of community you feel a part of, and “the lasting respect, admiration, and trust of your peers that you receive on the basis of earned, not acquired, status symbols.” 
3. Mental wealth: This type of wealth is all about embracing the curiosity that comes naturally to children. “It is through curiosity that you go on the journey to uncover and live by your purpose, unlock new insights and lifelong growth, and seek out the space necessary to think, reset, wrestle with questions, and recharge,” Bloom writes. It’s about finding what creates meaning for you, and knowing that your purpose doesn’t necessarily have to be tied to your career. 
4. Physical wealth: The 80-year-old father of a friend told Bloom: “Treat your body like a house you have to live in for another 70 years.” Physical wealth is about investing in your body and health through “regular movement, proper nutrition, and thoughtful recovery,” Bloom writes. “If you take care of it today, it will take care of you for years to come.”
5. Financial wealth: Money isn’t everything, but it is something. Bloom covers a few basics about how to generate income, manage expenses, and invest for the long term. Most importantly, however, he urges readers to stop chasing “more” and to start pursuing “enough.” He quotes Mark Twain: “It isn’t what a man has that constitutes wealth. No, it is to be satisfied with what one has; that is wealth.”

We’re all familiar with setting goals. But Bloom encourages readers to set both goals and anti-goals, “the things we don’t want to happen on our journey to achieve our goals.”

“For example, if your long-term goal is to become a CEO, your anti-goals might be spending more than 10 days away from your family per month, allowing your health to suffer from stress and travel, and loosening your moral standards to achieve profit targets,” Bloom writes. “You want to achieve your goal, but not if it means having these three negative outcomes.”

For every goal you set, consider the worst possible outcomes you want to avoid as you pursue it. 

Ultimately, “The 5 Types of Wealth” is about measuring your life and making decisions based not just on financial wealth, but all the types of wealth. “You have it within you to go and craft the priorities you truly care about, and then go and take action to build your life around those things,” Bloom says. 

For him, it was worth it. “I’m sure I gave up money by leaving the track I was on, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m the wealthiest man on the face of the earth,” he writes. “Now it’s time for you to do the same” — but in your own way. 

Ready to dive in? Start reading, request to join our LinkedIn group, and come chat with us and Bloom on Wednesday, October 29, at 10 a.m. ET, at our next CNBC Make It Book Club discussion. 

Any questions for the author? Drop them in the comments of this LinkedIn post (you’ll need to join our private group first, which you can do here). Or email them to us in advance at askmakeit@cnbc.com, using the subject line “Question for Sahil Bloom.”

Have suggestions for future picks? Send them to us at askmakeit@cnbc.com, using the subject line “Make It book club suggestion.”

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Often in relationships, opposites truly do attract. Differences can add novelty and spark, and they’re often what draw us to each other at the beginning.

But as a psychologist who studies couples (and as a husband), I can say with confidence: Long-term relationship health depends less on how different two people are and more on what they actually have in common. Shared ground is one of the most important ways for partners to build a rhythm together, and that rhythm can determine how long a relationship lasts.

Here are five things people in the happiest relationships share in common with their partner.

You don’t need to have the same favorite comedian or comedy movie to share a sense of humor. What matters is that you laugh together — and regularly.

Healthy couples usually find the same kinds of things funny in everyday life. They often use humor to their advantage: turning frustrating moments into something manageable, and building a shared bank of inside jokes and references.

Over time, that humor becomes a lighthearted but powerful reminder of everything they’ve endured together.

The healthiest couples tend to approach hard conversations in sync. For some, that means talking things through as soon as problems come up. For others, it means giving each other space to process before regrouping.

Either approach works. What matters is that both partners are on the same page.

No one feels caught off guard or ignored, because they’ve aligned on when and how to revisit tough issues. Shared expectations like these are the only way two people can trust each other not to disappear when things get hard.

Not every couple is made up of two perfectly matched extroverts or two homebodies. But usually, healthy couples are in sync when it comes to how much social interaction feels right.

They rarely argue over whether to go out or stay in because they have similar limits. They’re often on the same page about how much energy they want to spend at parties, dinners, or family events.

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And when they do want different things — say, one wants to see friends while the other needs to recharge — they handle it without guilt or frustration. There’s no dragging each other along, no passive-aggressive comments, no punishment for needing different things.

This sense of balance keeps their social life from becoming a recurring source of tension.

Another thread that runs through strong relationships is shared curiosity about art and culture. Happy couples don’t need to have identical playlists or favorite authors, but they do value exploring together.

They’ll go to concerts, try new restaurants, or watch films neither has seen before. Even when their tastes differ, they’re still curious about each other’s opinions.

That openness means cultural experiences are never met with a dismissive “Why would you like that?” Instead, they’re a source of connection and even healthy debate.

This one is straightforward, but often overlooked: Healthy couples stay genuinely interested in one another.

There’s no “chasing,” no games, no imbalance in who’s keeping the affection alive. The attention just flows both ways. They keep flirting, keep complimenting, and keep asking each other questions, even when they already know the answers.

This pervasive and loving sense of curiosity is what makes them feel both seen and wanted. No one has to vie for the other’s affection; they love each other freely and frequently. Opposites may attract, but shared values and curiosity are what help a relationship last.

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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When Rick Senko started re-selling used items on eBay, he was “flat broke” — a recently unemployed single father who was desperate to earn enough money to support his 5-year-old son.

That was 2008, and the first item he sold — a cell phone he bought for $35 on Craigslist and flipped on eBay for $75 — felt like discovering a “glitch in the Matrix,” says Senko, now 41 and based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Realizing he could turn a tidy profit by flipping used items online, he went all in. He studied brands and sales trends, exploiting market inefficiencies and often working up to 20 hours a day “just going to the flea market, going to the thrift store, making relationships, studying my craft, learning, listing [items] every single day,” he says.

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What started as a way to make ends meet slowly grew into a reselling empire, bringing in millions of dollars a year in sales as one of eBay’s top sellers. In 2023, Senko started a wholesale business called Technsports that sells up to 5,000 items of used clothing per day to other professional resellers. Technsports brought in more than $6.5 million in 2024 revenue, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Technsports is profitable overall, with a profit margin of roughly 50% per item sold, Senko says.

“I have not taken a day off in almost 20 years,” says Senko. “It is not lost on me how fortunate I am. But it also took a tremendous amount of work, a tremendous amount of commitment, and a tremendous amount of sacrifice to get from where I came from to now selling millions of dollars per year and living a very, very fortunate life.”

After becoming a father at age 18, Senko worked as a CVS photography lab supervisor for five years to make ends meet for himself and his son. He attended a vocational school to earn a computer repair certificate, which landed him a better-paying job at Circuit City in Fall 2008.

Two weeks later, Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Senko found himself out of work and unable to find a new job during the Great Recession. Then, his cellphone broke. “I didn’t have a lot of money, so I went onto eBay to get a pre-owned [phone],” says Senko.

He saw one on eBay listed for $75, and then spotted the same model of phone on Craigslist for $35. It was a “lightbulb moment” that seemed too good to be true, he says: “I would double the money. I would get a phone for free, and then I would get my original $35 back.”

Senko bought the Craigslist phone and sold it on eBay for $70, he says. He used the profits to buy another phone on Craigslist, which he flipped on eBay to double his money again. “I’ve been doing that ever since, for almost 20 years. Rinse and repeat,” says Senko, adding: “You don’t need a lot of money to start. You don’t need a lot of knowledge to start. You just need to start.”

He initially focused on electronics — from phones to video games, broken or functional, any low-priced item that he could resell within days, he says. As he learned more about which items sold better than others — and where to find in-demand stock — his earnings grew considerably, topping $100,000 in 2010, he says.

Around that time, he began shifting his focus to pre-owned clothing, which requires far less “customer support,” he says. “A T-shirt is not going to break in the mail.” Clothing required a level of research that Senko was willing to do, he notes: While most people understand that electronics can be valuable, “not everybody knows a particular Polo Ralph Lauren shirt could be worth more [than a gaming console] … Oftentimes those [clothes] are discarded in a pile on the floor at the flea market.”

Senko started leaving home before dawn and spending most of each day picking through piles of used clothing at South Florida thrift shops, consignment shops, flea markets and garage sales, he says. Reselling gave him freedom and control over his schedule, and tapped into his competitive desire to win at all costs, he adds.

Over time, Senko built relationships with sellers at flea markets and thrift stores to ensure he got the first crack at picking through new stock. He listed and sold roughly 250 items per day, or tens of thousands of products each year, and hired up to five contract employees at a time to help him photograph items, list them online and handle shipping.

In 2023, he brought in more than $2.5 million in eBay sales, documents show — up from $500,000 in 2017. But he had a feeling that he’d hit a ceiling of how many items he could list and sell per day, he says.

So, that same year, Senko decided to switch up his business model. Rather than buying select pieces and selling them each individually online, he began buying clothes in bulk and selling them wholesale to other resellers willing to spend time carefully sifting through each batch. Clients sometimes buy up to 1,000 items per week, he says.

“They process it, they fulfill it and they sell it one at a time on eBay,” Senko explains, adding: “The most valuable asset for my business became the inventory. I’m more profitable selling more items at a smaller margin.”

The lesser time commitment also helped Senko fulfill a promise to his wife, who he met during his brief time at Circuit City, he says: that they’d work as hard as they could until his son graduated high school, and then pursue an early retirement. ”[We wanted to] be able to take a 50-year vacation,” says Senko.

He and his wife finally took time off last year to travel the country, visiting places like New York, California and Las Vegas. “We are starting to enjoy the fruits of the labor,” he says. But he’s reluctant to actually retire, he notes: “To say that I am mentally on the 50-year vacation? Not even close.”

Senko says it’s difficult for him to shut off his competitive drive, especially when he knows there is money to be made and that he has the means and expertise to do it. And if he keeps working on Technsports, he could try to ensure that his current level of financial stability lasts for the rest of his life, he says.

“I get after it every single day. Because when you unlock [that] ability to multiply money, to take $5, put it onto eBay and sell something and get $25 back, how in the world can you rest?” he says. “Did I work a lot? Absolutely … I needed to grow the business. And, ultimately, I needed to be the best.”

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This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Six-Figure Side Hustle series, where people with lucrative side hustles break down the routines and habits they’ve used to make money on top of their full-time jobs. Got a story to tell? Let us know! Email us at AskMakeIt@cnbc.com.

When Rashan Brown hosted his first spoken-word poetry event at a bar in Brooklyn, New York, in June 2021, he broke down in tears.

As he read aloud a piece about a childhood friend who was shot and killed in 2020, he was hit by a wave of grief. “I had been through 22 years of schooling, but I was never taught how to properly grieve anyone,” Brown says. “Being on stage, when I’m crying, everyone’s like, ‘Let it out bro.’ That feeling, that experience. I realized, this is the way that I can express myself.”

Brown — then an eighth-grade science teacher, who wrote poetry on the side — wanted to create an event that didn’t charge poets to perform. He contracted a small staff including a DJ and two videographers, convinced 10 local poets to perform by messaging them on Instagram, and paid $3,000 in total to host the event, he says. His friends scanned $10 to $20 tickets at the door, and sold poetry-themed hoodies, hats and posters that Brown had previously made.

Today, Brown is a product manager at ESPN, who now runs a monthly poetry showcase series — called Poetry me, please — on the side. Poets from across the country apply and are randomly selected to perform at events in New York, or at pop-up showcases in other cities worldwide. Brown also manages other poets under the Poetry me, please brand, and has performed his own poetry in the White House, at NFL games and while opening for Rupi Kaur.

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Between event revenue and performance income, Brown’s poetry side hustle brought in $148,000 in 2024, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Most of that money comes from ticket sales, Brown says. For an upcoming Nov. 29 event at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre, which seats 3,250 people, tickets currently range from $37 to $147 each.

The events have slim profit margins: Poetry me, please, made $500 in 2024 profit, which Brown says he reinvested into the business. And the side hustle is time-intensive. During May and June, his busiest months, Brown works up to 80 hours per week writing material, scouting opportunities for his poets and researching the online poetry community before showcase events, he says.

In less busy months, he spends 10 to 20 hours per week on the side hustle, he adds.

Brown’s responsibilities at Poetry me, please have shifted over time, he says. He spends fewer hours negotiating with venues and solidifying his own reputation as poet, and more on developing the business’ newer revenue streams — like managing other poets, he says.

Here, Brown discusses how his skillset, work ethic and a little serendipity helped popularize Poetry me, please:

CNBC Make It: Do you think the success of your events-based side hustle is replicable?

Brown: I want to say yes. There is something about standard operation procedures that can be applied [to other side hustles], like finding and booking talent, and keeping their names with a description of their strengths in a database for the future.

I also feel like I’ve gotten a lot of “right place, right moment” opportunities. For example, in 2020, I wanted to announce to the world: I was a poet. I hired a cinematographer and a photographer, recorded two poems and posted them on social media.

Around that time, the rapper Lloyd Banks was looking for poets on Instagram to perform an original poem for a trailer for his new album. The video dropped on YouTube right before the first Poetry me, please event in 2021.

What kind of personality traits and skills do you possess that have helped propel Poetry me, please forward?

I’m very passionate and people believe me when I speak. If I tell you I’m going to do something, it’s going to get done, and I think that’s a big part of the support that I get. In one of our first showcases, I said we were going to perform at the Apollo [Theater, in New York] someday. We rented it out for the first time in 2023.

I’m also very analytical, and I think I’ve become more this way because I am a product manager. For example, when we rented out the Apollo for the first time, ticket sales were slow at first — but I never had a doubt that we wouldn’t sell out the theater. The data always shows that 40% of our sales happen two weeks before the event.

That data helps me also figure out how to mitigate risks. If an event doesn’t work out, I can figure out how much I’ll be in the red, and how to quickly make that money back.

You mentioned you spend up to 80 hours per week on your side hustle during busy months. Do you struggle with burnout?

I feel like any time I’ve gotten really sick, it’s because I’ve overworked. I’ve learned either you can take a rest, or your body is going to make you take a rest.

In January 2024, I tore my patella tendon in my left knee playing basketball. I had surgery. It was one of the roughest things I’ve ever been through. In the middle of February, I get an email saying, “Hey, we’re honoring Black men [leaders and entrepreneurs] in an event at the White House. Would you like to attend?”

I didn’t think it made sense to go. I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t fly because my leg needed to be straight, so it didn’t make sense to go — but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. My publicist and I decided to pitch for me to perform.

I sent them two videos, one of me performing [a poem called] “Capital B.” I said, “I would love to come. All I need is three minutes.” They agreed, so I rented an SUV, and my cinematographer drove me and a small team down to Washington, D.C. I laid in the back and had my leg stretched down the middle of the car.

The event went great, but afterward, I was so tired. I was mic’d up all day, and I could hear myself wheezing in the audio. I ended up going to the ER that night. The doctors found blood clots in my lungs, a rare side effect from my surgery.

I used to hate laying down when I knew I could be on the computer working. But since the surgery, I’ve given myself more grace to just watch TV or exercise more regularly. I prioritize stillness more often.

Your identity as a Black man is present in a lot of your poems. Do you have any advice for young Black men wanting to pursue a business idea?

My general advice is to lean into your passions, don’t take no for an answer and be the best you can be. A lot of times, people are nervous to let their passions fully engulf them.

I would tell young Black boys — or people with businesses — that identity is important, and you should let it shape your creativity. There are specific things that I do to lean into my identity. They come in small quirky things. We start every show with a Black woman. That’s important to me, because I was raised by a single mother.

But your identity doesn’t have to be everything. Poetry me, please is for everyone. It doesn’t matter what race you are, what type of content you perform. When you go to a show, we want it to feel very cultural.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Rashan Brown’s childhood friend was shot and killed in 2020.

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In 2023, in an advisory entitled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” former surgeon general Vivek Murthy wrote that “social disconnection was far more common than I had realized.”

And the problem persists. According to 2025 Pew Research Center data, 24% of 18- to 29-year-olds feel lonely or isolated all or most of the time, while 20% of 30- to 49-year-olds report feeling the same.

It turns out that’s even more true for adolescent boys. More than a quarter, 26%, of 11- to 17-year-old boys in the U.S. report feeling lonely, according to a recent report by nonprofit Common Sense Media.

“Kids are increasingly lonely,” says Dr. German Velez, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Columbia University Medical Center. “And that’s something that we’ve known for a while.”

Here’s why, and what parents can do about it.

As for what is contributing to the increasing isolation and loneliness among adolescent boys, there’s “a constellation of things,” says Michael Robb, head of research at Common Sense Media.

For one, there has been a “distancing from cultural activities,” says Velez. For example, in 2023, “roughly 1 in 4 Americans reported eating all of their meals alone the previous day,” according to the 2025 World Happiness Report. That’s a 53% increase since 2003.

Sharing meals, he says, is the type of activity that not only allows young people to bond with friends and family, it also creates positive memories.

Group activity, like sports, is one thing boys tend to point to as something that helps to ease their loneliness, Robb adds. But, “kids are not going outside as much as they used to.”

A third of children, 34%, do not play outdoors on school days and 20% don’t play outdoors on weekends, according to a recent study published in the journal “Wellbeing, Space and Society.”

In his 2024 book “The Anxious Generation,” social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains that with the rise in popularity of terms like “stranger danger,” more access to alarming stories on the news and severed trust in the community at large, parents have become increasingly afraid to let their children play outside independently.

What young people see online likely factors into their loneliness as well.

Between the time spent on social media and the time spent on video games, a majority of adolescent boys, 73% regularly encounter masculinity-related content, according to Common Sense Media. This could include themes of building muscle, making money and fighting.

This content — typically in the form of podcasts, YouTube videos and TikToks — helps to reinforce a “version of masculinity that prides itself on being very strong and stoic,” Robb says. “Not one that shares its emotions or feelings.”

That can convince kids to keep to themselves instead of opening up to others and creating intimate bonds. It can “build up an emotional wall that might make kids feel more isolated over time,” he says.

To help kids avoid or overcome loneliness, parents can put an emphasis on time together.

“It’s about kids having a better option” than being online, Velez says. That means spending meaningful time with loved ones. And especially protecting the windows in which boys are with family and friends.

When it comes to ensuring kids aren’t consuming online content that is either causing loneliness or at the very least exacerbating it, Robb cites a phrase used by one of his colleagues: “Get curious, not furious.”

Robb suggests starting a conversation with your kids and teens about algorithms and what they’re seeing in their social media feeds — and Velez agrees.

Asking them how they feel when they see masculinity-related content, for example, can help kids and teens start to form their own opinions about why what they’re seeing might be harmful.

Haidt also recommends enforcing strict rules around screen use at home, such as forbidding any type of screen in the bedroom, and giving kids numerous open windows during the week to play independently with their friends.

“Everyone knows that’s when kids get together at the park, they play baseball, football, whatever. Maybe they just stay at the school playground,” he says.

Playing together without the presence of screens is “the most fun kids can have.”

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