Billionaire Jared Isaacman made history in space — again.

On Thursday, Isaacman spent 10 minutes floating in the vacuum of space outside of a SpaceX capsule. Isaacman, the billionaire CEO and founder of payment processing company Shift4 Payments, is part of the first-ever all-civilian spacewalk — three years after he led a 2021 SpaceX mission as commander of the world’s first all-civilian mission to reach orbit.

Both private space missions were funded for undisclosed sums by Isaacman, who boasts an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion, according to Forbes.

“I decided I was going to go to space when I was 5 [years old]. I was pretty calculated about it at that point, it just took me a little while to get it into motion,” Isaacman told CNBC Make It in 2021.

Isaacman, 41, is an accomplished pilot who set a world record in 2009 for the fastest around-the-world flight in a light jet. He’s a longtime advocate for the expansion of the private space industry, which he says could lead to “a world where everybody can go and venture among the stars.”

Here’s how he went from teenage entrepreneur, running a business he founded in his parents’ New Jersey basement, to a billionaire floating in space.

As a teenager, Isaacman’s computer skills helped him land an IT consulting job at a payment processing firm, causing him to drop out of high school. Within months, the 16-year-old decided to create a rival company, simplifying his clients’ experience by having business owners fill out their applications online.

He used a $10,000 check from his grandfather as seed money and set up shop in his childhood home’s basement. ”$10,000, you know, you needed to build a couple of computers,” Isaacman said. “That wasn’t expensive. And, you needed some phones, and that was enough to get you going.”

His first employees included his friend Brendan Lauber, who was Shift4′s chief technology officer until last year, and Isaacman’s dad, a salesman who had previously worked for a home security company.

Shift4 went public in June 2020, and has a market value of $7.4 billion, as of Friday afternoon. It’s based out of a 75,000-square-foot headquarters in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, and the company has over 2,000 employees across the country.

“There’s just no way, at that age, you could ever imagine” the company becoming worth billions of dollars, said Isaacman. “One of the best times at a startup is when you’ve got the eight people in the basement eating Chinese food and everybody kind of shares knowledge, and you share in your successes and failures together, and you learn together.”

Working constantly to get his business off the ground, at such a young age, left Isaacman on the verge of early burnout. A lifelong plane enthusiast, Isaacman started taking flying lessons in his 20s to burn off some steam.

In 2009, Isaacman set a world record, flying around the word in a Cessna Citation CJ2 in just under 62 hours — about 20 fewer hours than the previous record-holder. Three years later, he founded Draken International, a company that trains student pilots for the U.S. Air Force. He sold it to investment firm Blackstone Group in 2020 for “a nine-figure sum,” according to Forbes.

As the private space industry grew, Isaacman watched opportunities to take his flying hobby to greater heights, he said: “Probably starting in 2007, I started banging on the door of SpaceX and some of the other [private aerospace companies] just expressing my interest that, you know, ‘Hey, if it ever comes to be, look me up.’”

The chance came in 2021, when he spent three days in orbit commanding a four-person crew. During his five-day trip this week, he got to don a spacesuit and leave the capsule.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m super lucky in life,” Isaacman told Bloomberg, ahead of the spacewalk. “You know — teenage basement startup, just trying to buy pizza on the weekend, and it’s turned into quite the empire.”

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If you’re seeking a retirement destination that offers a high quality of life in the U.S., you may need to venture off the mainland, according to WalletHub’s list of the best and worst places to retire.

Hawaii is home to the top two retirement destinations with the highest quality of life, per WalletHub’s analysis. Pearl City ranks No. 1, followed by Honolulu at No. 2.

While Florida is home to the two best overall U.S. cities for retirees, when it comes to quality of life specifically, the first Florida town on the list comes in at 17^th place.

WalletHub ranked the quality of life of in 182 highly populated cities according to several factors, including the share of the population over 65, weather, violent crime rate, the availability of activities for seniors and walkability.

To compile the ranking, the personal finance site analyzed data from a number of sources, including the Tax Foundation, the Council for Community and Economic Research and the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Quality of life metrics focus on aspects like the share of elderly residents, poverty rates among seniors, community support and environmental conditions,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo tells CNBC Make It. “Together, these metrics help identify cities that offer a supportive, enriching environment for retirees.”

Here are the top 10 cities in the U.S. to retire for the highest quality of life, according to WalletHub.

1. Pearl City, Hawaii
2. Honolulu
3. Scottsdale, Arizona
4. Columbia, Maryland
5. Fremont, California
6. Glendale, California
7. Madison, Wisconsin
8. San Jose, California
9. Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky
10. San Diego

Pearl City is located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, about 11 miles from downtown Honolulu. It has a population around 45,000, and a little over a quarter of residents are over the age of 65, according to the latest available Census data.

In Pearl City, and Hawaii overall, retirees who enjoy spending time outdoors can take advantage of warm weather year-round, as temperatures typically fluctuate between the low 70s and low 80s, according to the National Weather Service. The state also offers an abundance of natural beauty, including white sand beaches and crystal-clear water.

However, the weather is also a potential con of living in Hawaii, since the islands are susceptible to tsunamis, hurricanes and other natural disasters.

DON’T MISS: How to master your money and grow your wealth

Another downside is that living in Hawaii doesn’t come cheap. In Pearl City, homes list for a median price of $795,000 and sell for a median of $1.1 million, per Realtor.com.

Renters don’t fare much better. The median rent for a one-bedroom dwelling in Pearl City is $1,856 per month as of Sept. 10, according to Zillow, which is about 16% higher than the national median.

However, for retirees who can swing the costs, they may find a sizable community of peers their own age. Pearl City tied with Scottsdale, Arizona, for the highest percentage of residents over the age of 65, per WalletHub’s analysis.

While lists like these can be a helpful starting point when deciding where to retire, it’s ultimately up to you to figure out which features are most important.

You may prioritize being close to your family and easy access to medical facilities, while someone else may prefer to move somewhere with a lower cost of living.

Additionally, it can be difficult to picture yourself retiring in a location you haven’t spent time in.

Many retirement experts recommend visiting your potential retirement destinations at different points of the year so that you can get a sense of what the town is like during various seasons, familiarize yourself with the local community and begin to understand what it may be like to live there long term.

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Every few months I or one of my friend declares that we’re “done with the dating apps.” The endless swiping can make people feel disposable and conversations on Tinder or Hinge often just die in the app.

Instead, we spend the next few weeks hopping from bar to bar, in an attempt to manifest the sort of meet-cute you only see on the CW.

This is exactly what you shouldn’t be doing, says Blaine Anderson, an Austin, Texas-based dating coach and founder of Dating by Blaine.

“Bars and clubs are bad places to meet people,” she says. “You have nothing in common with them besides the fact that you are in the same location.”

Other dating and relationship experts agree that bars tend to be the go-to venue for singles, but often don’t net meaningful connections. There are better ways to meet a potential partner, they say.

Drinking is so engrained in American culture that two people being at the same bar probably doesn’t mean much, says Grace Lee, a New York City-based dating coach and founder of A Good First Date.

“Meeting people at a bar is probably the least-interesting common denominator,” she says. ’What were the steps you needed to take to get where you are? You like to drink. Maybe you live in the area. And you have enough money to buy a drink. The bar is quite low for going to a bar.”

For most people, bars are a place to unwind, but they don’t reflect a pillar of their personality, says Lisa Marie Bobby, a relationship psychologist and founder of Growing Self Counseling & Coaching in Denver.

Singles engage in a less-than-sober conversation with a strange and then are surprised to learn they don’t have much in common outside of the cocktail lounge or that the connection doesn’t extend beyond that specific setting.

“If you’re showing up in bars but don’t want to build a life around substance use, you’re not going to meet someone you like,” Bobby says.

There are more effective strategies that can result in your finding a match.

Start by puzzling together a schedule that reflects your values, interests, and passions, Bobby says.

“If you are living a life that you feel good about and you are putting yourself in those situations, you are going to meet people who are fundamentally fairly compatible with you,” she says.

If spending time outdoors is important to you, join a hiking group. If trying new cuisines is an experience you value, attend food festivals.

You also shouldn’t attend events or club meetings with the sole goal of meeting a romantic interest, says Lee.

“Let’s say you go to a lecture at the historical society about a certain topic you’re really interest in —everybody in that room is going to be important,” Lee says. “By making a connection with someone you are suddenly connected with their universe of people. You’re not there to meet ‘The One.’ You’re there to meet interesting people who you have a lot in common with. That could lead to something else.”

This is how a majority of singles meet their match, according to a new survey by The Knot. Almost two-thirds, 62%, of couples met through a friend or had friends in common.

It’s also important to put yourself out there more than feels natural, Anderson says: “Dating, in general, is a numbers game on or off the apps.”

It’s also a waiting game, something we’ve become less accustomed to.

“So much of our lives have become very convenient,” she says. “We can press a button and food arrives at our door. Amazon delivers the next day. Everyone is used to instant gratification and they treat dating the same way.”

If you’re pursuing activities that reflect your core values and are open to meeting new people, you’re more likely to meet a match than if you just post up at your favorite dive bar — and less likely to re-download that dating app.

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Grace Carr has been studying, working or volunteering at the same hospital for almost as long as she’s been alive — and at 97 years old, she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. 

Carr started training to become a nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital (now known as St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus) in Allentown, Pennsylvania during World War II in 1944. She was just 17 years old.

“As long as I can remember, I wanted to be a nurse and work in a hospital,” says Carr, who as a child spent hours playing “doctor” with her brother and wrapping her dolls in bandages. 

For the past eight decades, Carr has been an almost constant presence at “The Heart,” as the hospital is affectionately called by staff.

Carr left her nursing job at the hospital in 1989 and spent the next three years working at a hospital-affiliated doctor’s office, retiring when she was 65. She started volunteering at the hospital in 1993 after her husband, Edward Carr, died. 

She has volunteered for more than 6,000 hours so far, coming in every Wednesday to offer patients water, cheer them up with flowers, take them to tests and procedures and bring specimens to the hospital’s lab. 

“We call her Amazing Grace,” says Beth Fogel, the hospital’s volunteer engagement specialist, who has known Carr for 20 years. “From the time she shows up in the morning until she leaves in the afternoon, she’s like an Energizer Bunny, always eager to help and so much fun to be around.” 

Carr says she always planned to volunteer at the hospital as a retiree. “I couldn’t imagine my life without it,” she says. “I love the people there, and my health is good, so I’m happy to help however I can.”  

Carr grew up in Freeland, Pennsylvania, a small coal town about 50 miles from the hospital. She left Freeland after finishing high school to train at the Sacred Heart School of Nursing, living in a dorm with other student nurses on the hospital’s campus.

While she was studying, Carr served as a cadet nurse. The government subsidized her nursing school tuition as part of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, a program that aimed to prevent nursing shortages during the war.

She was paid $15/month during her first year, $20/month the second year, and $30/month in her final year. 

In 1947, Carr graduated from the Sacred Heart School of Nursing and married Edward, her high school sweetheart who had recently returned home from serving in the military during World War II. 

She was then hired to work the night shift from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. on the medical-surgical floors at Sacred Heart, which she did for nearly 20 years while raising four daughters and a son.

“I look back on it now and I don’t know how I did it. I got very little sleep,” she says. “But I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I loved helping people and felt grateful to be doing something I loved.”

Burnout is high in the nursing profession, and Carr acknowledges that she has experienced fleeting waves of stress and exhaustion throughout her career.

“When you work in a hospital, you see both the best and worst life has to offer,” she says. “It was really, really tough watching someone suffer or die from a medical ailment and knowing we couldn’t do more to help them.”

But Carr says the more joyous occasions — such as the birth of a baby or a surgery going well — along with the meaningful relationships she built helped her persevere through the challenges.

All five of Carr’s children, and nearly all of her 12 grandchildren, were born at Sacred Heart.

Her son-in-law, Vincent Burns, was also born at the hospital — Carr met him hours afterward in the newborn nursery. “That little boy later married my oldest daughter, Janet, and now he’s in his 70s,” she says. 

Moments like that have inspired her to continue working at Sacred Heart. “It has given me a greater sense of purpose in life,” she says.

Carr’s passion is infectious: Her daughter, Grace Loring, worked in the pediatric ward at St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus for 35 years before retiring.

“At first, I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up, but watching my mom’s dedication to and passion for nursing inspired me to go into healthcare,” Loring says. 

She picks Carr up at her house in Allentown every Wednesday for her volunteer shift and drives her to and from the hospital. 

The secret to finding a job you love is “quite simple,” according to Carr: Work with people you like. 

At Sacred Heart, Carr has formed close friendships with many of her coworkers, including some of the nurses she started her career with. “We still get together at each other’s house for coffee or dinner and catch up,” she says. 

Carrs’ career advice is supported by an 85-year study from Harvard researchers, which found that positive relationships are what keep people happy throughout their lives. 

This applies to our jobs, too: The study found that the unhappiest jobs tend to be the loneliest and involve more independent work than interpersonal relationships. 

“Positive relationships at work lead to lower stress levels, healthier workers and fewer days when we come home upset,” two of the researchers, Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, write in their book “The Good Life.”

When Carr isn’t volunteering, she enjoys reading, gardening, visiting with family and watching “Law & Order.” 

But in the past three decades, her favorite pastime hasn’t changed: delivering fresh flowers to patients and catching up with her friends who work at the hospital.

“For me,” Carr says, “nursing isn’t a job, it’s a calling.”

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In this year’s World Happiness Report, which ranks 143 countries across measures of life satisfaction, the United States came in at No. 23. This is the first time in the report’s 20-year history the U.S. has not ranked in the top 20.

While Americans older than age 60 ranked No. 10 for happiness, those younger than 30 ranked 62nd.

A growing body of research reveals that youth mental health is deteriorating. In 2021, 42% of U.S. high school students felt persistently sad or hopeless, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. And 22% seriously considered committing suicide.

Experts say a wide range of factors could be affecting today’s youth including social media use, climate change, and lack of class fluidity.

Renowned psychotherapist Esther Perel names a different culprit: relationships, or lack thereof.

“I think people are more lonely because they are less adept at being in relationships as that involves conflict, friction and differences,” she says. “An enormous amount of people are cutting off friends and family members like never before.”

Perel believes young Americans’ emphasis on being their most authentic selves comes at the expense of forming connections. In reality, you learn a lot about yourself through friendships, partnerships, and generally relating to other people.

Many psychology terms popularized by social media are about protecting yourself from people or experiences that might be harmful to your mental health.

“Therapy speak of a certain kind has the word ‘self’ in front of everything — self-awareness, self-realization, self-fulfillment, self-care, self-image,” Perel says.

This overcorrection has led to young people sacrificing community because they don’t want to compromise their comfort.

“Today, being true to myself is more important than preserving my relationships,” Perel says.

Service-oriented apps also make reliance on community less necessary. Being sick and unable to pick up a prescription used to require some help from a friend. Now, you can just get your medicine delivered. If your partner can no longer drive you to the airport, you don’t ask a neighbor for last-minute help. You schedule a car on a ride-haling app.

For older generations, exchanging favors over time contributed to the formation of a thriving, in-person, social network. Today’s young people aren’t making these small investments.

Only 32% of Americans 30 and younger say they have five or more close friends, according to 2023 data from Pew Research Center. For those those 65 and older that number jumps to 49%.

“Relationships demand obligation,” Perel says. “Communities demand obligation. Communities are not just there to serve our needs. Your community gives you belonging in return for your obligation to the wellbeing of others.”

Being a positive presence 100% of the time is not a realistic expectation to have of others or a prerequisite for you engaging with them. In fact, it can keep you from forming valuable connections.

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