As a kid, Jack Cowin shoveled snow, delivered newspapers and sold Christmas cards for cash. By the time he reached his 20s, it was burgers instead of cards. Fast forward to today: The 82-year-old is a billionaire, thanks to his fast food empire.

Cowin is the founder and chairman of Competitive Foods Australia, the company that operates Burger King as “Hungry Jack’s” in Australia. He is also the largest shareholder of Domino’s Pizza in Australia, and backs a plant-based meat substitute company called v2food.

Before founding Hungry Jack’s, Cowin opened a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Australia in 1969 — his first of many. Then in 2013, he sold off his KFC franchise of 55 stores in a deal worth about $71 million, according to a representative at Competitive Foods Australia.

Today, his business is worth over $3 billion and brings in over $300 million a year, Cowin told CNBC Make It.

Growing up in Canada, Cowin realized early on that he wanted freedom in life. His father was an employee at the Ford Motor Company and was required to travel frequently for work.

“He had a phone call one day, you’re going to Brazil, or you’re going to Mexico, or things like this … When you work for a big corporation, the corporation decides where you’re going to be, [and] what you’re going to do,” Cowin said.

“And as a kid, I wanted to have the freedom to do what I wanted to do. I think I saw that relatively early, because [I saw that] dad’s on the treadmill of here, there and everywhere,” he said. He didn’t want to be at the “whims and beckon call of a corporation.”

So as a child, Cowin spent his time outside of school mowing lawns and delivering newspapers. “I never had to ask for money as a kid,” he said. “I was a sales guy from very early, like 8 or 10 years old.”

By the time college rolled around, Cowin was going from farm to farm selling “trees, shrubs and nursing stock,” he said. He was so successful at it that he was making $8,000 a year while his university professors were making only $5,000 a year, he said.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1964, and went on to get a job selling life insurance he said he was very good at.

“I had a reputation of being someone that could sell,” he said.

By the late 1960s, Cowin had begun to settle down in Canada with his wife and his first child when he one day received a phone call from a couple of high school friends.

His friends had landed a job with the American Kentucky Fried Chicken company and were sent to Australia to do some market research about whether they should expand into the country.

“Since my father had been there [for work], and I was the only guy … that knew where Australia was on a map … they phoned me up and said: ‘You should be down here. You should come and see this.’ So without a moment’s notice, I’m on a plane and I fly to Australia,” Cowin said.

Cowin landed in Australia in February 1969, and spent three weeks there helping his friends conduct research — ultimately finding that there was indeed a market for fast food in Australia.

“At that stage of the game, the restaurant business in Australia was fish and chip shops, Chinese restaurants and fancy white tablecloth restaurants,” he said. Meanwhile, McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and other fast food restaurants were all rising in popularity in North America.

“So at the end of the three weeks, I pay $1,000 as a deposit on a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise [and] if the American company is going to open a store, then I was going to have a 10 store franchise,” he said.

Six months later, he received a phone call saying that the American KFC company agreed to expand into Australia and Cowin had the opportunity to own his first franchise location. But he didn’t have the funds, so he started raising money.

Imagine this “kid comes into your office and says he wants to borrow $10,000, which is probably about $100,000 today or more … he’s got no experience in the business, no interest on your money … how long before you throw him out of your office for wasting your time?”

“The biggest break I’ve had in my life was … I got on my bike and I got 30 Canadians to lend me $10,000 each, so got $300,000,” he said. “Otherwise I’d still be shoveling snow in Canada. I hadn’t had the finances back then.”

By December 1969, Cowin moved his family to Perth, Australia, where he opened his first KFC franchise. “It was like drilling oil and hitting oil on your first wildcat well, because it was a booming success,” he said.

“Then, you open two more, you get into the hamburger business, you get into the pizza business, you get into the food manufacturing business, and today, that business is a $3 billion business and makes $300 million a year.”

Today, Cowin owns 98% of his company while the other 2% is held by some of his original investors and shareholders, he said. “That original $10,000 is $40 million at book value [today]. So everybody’s got their money back, and those that stayed in have done increasingly well,” he said.

When asked what his secret to sales is, he said, “I think the secret is, whatever you do, do it well … The people that lent me the money really backed me as the investment. I was the investment.”

″And an expression [I have is] when you can’t tell the difference between work and play, you’re in the right place … I’ve never really worked a day in my life because I’ve enjoyed it.”

Correction: This story was updated to make it clear that Jack Cowin opened a KFC store in Australia in 1969.

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Nationally, median household income rose by 4% between 2022 and 2023, per the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. Unfortunately, though, incomes weren’t growing everywhere.

The median household income in Marysville, Washington, a city just outside of Seattle, dropped by nearly 18% during that time — from $104,433 in 2022 to $85,708 in 2023 — according to a SmartAsset analysis of Census Bureau data. Marysville residents experienced the largest annual decline in median income out of over 600 U.S. cities with populations of at least 65,000, SmartAsset reports.

In three other cities — Champaign, Illinois; Madera, California; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana — median incomes dropped by at least 17%. 

Here are the cities that saw the fastest declines in median household income between 2022 and 2023, according to SmartAsset:

It’s likely a number of high-earners left Marysville, which contributed to the decline in median household income. The share of local households earning at least $100,000 fell from 54% in 2022 to about 41% in 2023, SmartAsset finds. The share of households earning at least $200,000 grew, but only slightly.

“High-earners generally have more means to leave and seek out opportunities elsewhere,” Jaclyn DeJohn, director of economic analysis at SmartAsset, says. “This can cause major changes in the earnings of a particular community.”

Despite the drop in earnings in Marysville, the median income of $85,708 there is still above the national median of $80,610.

An individual earning that much in Marysville could feasibly live well, given that it takes a $61,545 annual salary for an individual without kids to afford basics, including rent, food, health care and transportation, in Snohomish County, Washington, where Marysville is located, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator.

In the state of Washington overall, the median household income in 2023 was $93,440, bolstered by higher-earning cities like Seattle and Bellevue, where median incomes are over $100,000.

Though median incomes fell at similar rates in Champaign, Madera and Baton Rouge, residents there already lagged the rest of the country in pay. In each of those places, the median household income was below $70,000 in 2022 and fell below $60,000 in 2023.

Part of that may be attributable to age, DeJohn says. In Champaign and Baton Rouge, for example, the working age population — those ages 20 to 64 — fell by 1 to 3 percentage points between 2022 and 2023, according to Census Bureau data.

“This could indicate that people may be dropping out of the workforce, or taking smaller incomes for more flexibility, in order to take care of children [or] growing families,” she says. “Similarly, workers may age out into retirement, and many retirees bring in a lower income than when they were in their prime working years.”

Residents in the Midwest and South broadly earn less than other regions in the country, and Louisiana has the second-lowest median household income at $57,650.

While Illinois and California tend to be higher-earning states, Champaign and Madera are pretty far from major cities in those states where high incomes tend to be more concentrated. Illinois, for example, has a median household income of $87,820. But that’s brought up by Chicago and its metro area, where the median income is $74,474, nearly $30,000 more than what folks earn in Champaign.

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Meredith Tabbone lives in Chicago, but for the last five years, she’s spent countless hours and nearly half a million dollars to build her dream home in Italy.

It all started in early 2019 when Tabbone learned about a town in Italy, Sambuca di Sicilia, that was auctioning off abandoned properties starting at 1 euro, or roughly $1.05.

At the same time, Tabbone, who works as a financial advisor, was deep into researching her family history. She had just traced her great-grandfather back to the same Sicilian town before he started a new life in America.

The coincidence was “too good to be true,” and she took it as a sign to place a bid.

A few months later, Tabbone became the owner of the 1-euro home. She also bought the building next door and got to work managing a local crew on the massive renovation.

Today, Tabbone, 45, uses her Sicily property as a vacation getaway, and she says it feels like a primary residence. The home includes two primary bedrooms, two guest bedrooms, a kitchen with modern finishes, a large dining room with a gallery wall of photography, a library, a living room, a dry-heat sauna and two terraces, including one with a pizza oven and outdoor dining area.

In all, she spent roughly $475,000 on her Italian dream home.

While bids for the Sicilian properties started at 1 euro, Tabbone placed a bid of 5,555 euros for her building. With taxes and fees, she spent 5,900 euros (roughly $6,200) to take ownership of the property.

She visited her new home for the first time in June 2019. The condition of the property was “dire at best,” Tabbone tells CNBC Make It: no electricity, no running water, asbestos in the roof and “probably two feet of pigeon poop on the floor.”

After seeing the space, she also bought the vacant home next door through a private sale with the owner for 22,000 euros (just over $23,000). 

Combining the two properties meant a bigger renovation budget: Tabbone initially planned to spend 40,000 euros to renovate 620 square feet, but that grew to 140,000 euros to cover 2,700 square feet.

By the end of her renovation in October 2023, she spent roughly 425,000 euros, or $446,000. Because the project was delayed by the pandemic and spread out over several years, she was able to pay for it all over time without taking out loans.

Tabbone’s goal with her Sicilian property was to build a vacation home where she could also host visiting friends and family.

To start, Tabbone’s renovation team made structural changes like breaking down several walls to open up common areas, leveling the floors across the two buildings, adding steel beams to protect against earthquakes, and adding two terraces.

It was Tabbone’s first renovation project ever. She was inspired by her father, who was an architect and died when she was 15. She now calls the home Casa dell’Architetto in his honor.

Tabbone says her vision was to design a space that is “simple, but significant,” in a nod to “Mad Men’” character Don Draper.

The finished project is “a thousand times better” than her original vision, she says. “It’s modern, but it’s still cozy. And it really showcases all of the best features that were already in the home,” like original archways, a trough in the kitchen and a unique staircase.

Now that her home is complete, Tabbone plans to spend four months out of the year in Sicily. She also uses it as a gathering space to host dinner parties with friends she’s made in Sambuca.

“It’s an amazing community” of expats and locals, she says.

Tabbone says her Sambuca property is more than a vacation spot. “What this home really means for me is a bridge between my past and my future,” she says. “It was a chance to really reconnect with my father’s lineage. But it also speaks to my future because it’s something that I’ve created for myself … where I can think more about enjoying my life and having a better work-life balance.”

Tabbone doesn’t plan to sell the house and has already promised it to a cousin if she passes away first. “After that, it’s going to be donated to the village,” Tabbone says.

Though Tabbone splurged on her home away from home, she says what she’s gained from the experience is invaluable.

“There’s a real sense of community here, so I definitely think people are very happy here,” she says. Plus, “I’ve started to think differently about how I’m building my business, and maybe not having the focus of my life be about work, [but] about just personal fulfillment in general,” she says.

Overall, she adds, she feels it’s “important to preserve old buildings like this” that can’t be recreated with modern materials or building sensibilities. “The attention to detail, the quality of the items, the ability for these buildings to last for centuries. It’s just not done anymore,” she says.

Conversions from EUR to USD were done using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 EUR to 1.05 USD on Oct 18, 2023. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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Gen Z is in a bind: it can be hard to find a job and even harder to find a job that pays the bills. 

And in a world of rising rent prices, this can be bad news for your budget.

In fact, nearly 6 out of 10 Gen Z renters (18- to 25-year-olds) are “rent-burdened,” according to a recent Zillow analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data. This means that more than 30% of their monthly income goes to housing expenses. 

Housing expenses in the analysis were not not limited to rent, Zillow Economist Kenny Lee tells CNBC Make It. Researchers included both up-front costs — such as application fees, broker fees and security deposits — and recurring costs, such as utilities, pet fees and parking fees. 

While financial experts recommend limiting housing expenses to no more than 30% of income, this can be challenging in a number of cities where younger renters shoulder the heaviest load.

Here are 5 cities where the highest number of Gen Z renters are rent-burdened:

• Percentage of rent-burdened Gen-Z renters: 73%
• Median percentage of income paid to rent: 47%

• Percentage of rent-burdened Gen-Z renters: 72%
• Median percentage of income paid to rent: 42%

• Percentage of rent-burdened Gen-Z renters: 71%
• Median percentage of income paid to rent: 43%

• Percentage of rent-burdened Gen-Z renters: 69% 
• Median percentage of income paid to rent: 43%

• Percentage of rent-burdened Gen-Z renters: 68%
• Median percentage of income paid to rent: 43%

If you’re significantly rent-burdened at the start of your career, it can warp your budget strategy and throw a wrench in your long-term financial plan by restricting the amount of money you can put away for retirement or preventing you from paying down student loans or saving up for emergencies.

But what if the only entry-level jobs in your chosen field — let’s say, screenwriting — are all in Los Angeles? What if your dream job in aviation technology only has openings in their Miami office? 

This is common in this economy, says Lee, since many of the best-paying jobs for Gen Z are located in cities where the rent is most burdensome.

“The current situation puts young renters in a tight spot when choosing where to live,” says Lee.

Over the long term, Lee says the most expensive cities could see rents come down with the construction of new, affordable housing. In the meantime, you’ll have to find ways to trim your cost of living on your own. Here are three steps young professionals can take to keep rent down if they find themselves moving to an expensive city.

1. Negotiate your rent

Rent prices are not as fixed as your leasing agent or landlord may suggest. 

By looking up the fair market rent of a potential apartment, proposing a longer lease or offering to pay your rent in cash, it’s possible to convince a landlord to offer you a favorable deal.

It’s to your advantage to start negotiations from a friendly place, John Barlett, the executive director of the Chicago-based Metropolitan Tenants Organization, recently told CNBC Make It.

Bartlett advises renters to take note of things you and a potential landlord might have in common. This begins the conversation on positive footing when the discussion of rent pricing begins, he says.

2. Find a roommate

“A lot of renters have been relying on finding roommates to split the cost of housing,” says Lee.

Aside from the traditional methods of finding roommates through personal connections or online listings, there are several other options to split the cost of rent, such as co-ops and communal living.

Group living arrangements can help you build a social life and make new friends while maintaining your own private space, especially if you decide to live in a larger city. “You’re never lonely,” Ishan Abeysekera, a resident of a 33-person community in Brooklyn, recently told CNBC Make It.

3. Look in the winter

To minimize rent costs, try looking during off-peak seasons, experts say. 

“Months like December and January are not as hectic, and you can find cheaper rentals, often $50 to $150 less a month,” said New York City realtor Gary Saharov in a 2018 interview with CNBC Make It. That’s savings of about $62 to $188 when adjusted for inflation. 

High season is typically during warmer months, and most apartment hunters looking to move want to do so during this time, said Saharov. As a result, avoiding summer crowds can offer significant savings. 

Lee agrees. If you can be patient with the housing market and wait for demand to wane, you may be able to find more affordable rental opportunities, says Lee. Cold weather and low demand can drive rental prices down among landlords who are looking to fill apartments so that they don’t sit empty all winter.

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Forget a Kitchen-Aid mixer. Snoop Dogg surprised his daughter, Cori Broadus, with a $1 million gift ahead of her upcoming wedding, the rapper said during a recent appearance on “The Jennifer Hudson Show.”

Snoop Dogg explained how he would take advantage of the gift if the roles were reversed. “If it was me, my wedding would have been $100 [thousand], and $900 [thousand] would have went in my pocket,” he said.

Although a seven-figure wedding gift isn’t in the cards for most of us, Snoop Dogg’s suggestion for handling a financial windfall — spending 10% on fun and saving 90% for the future — checks out, financial experts say. 

“Snoop Dogg’s comment highlights the importance of prioritizing long-term financial stability over immediate gratification, which is solid advice,” says Maria Castillo Dominguez, a certified financial planner and founder of Valoria Wealth Management. 

That goes for anyone who comes into any unexpected sum of money, she says, no matter the size of the windfall. 

If you receive money unexpectedly, it can be tempting to envision yourself spending on a whole new lifestyle. In reality, you’d be better off putting money toward your long established goals, experts say.

So before you do anything with your money, experts advise that you first give yourself a moment.

“Take a pause before making any decisions,” says Catherine Valega, a CFP and founder of Green Bee Advisory. “Don’t do anything rash,” such as buying your “long-lost cousin a new car when they come out of the woodwork to ask for it,” if word gets around that you’ve come into extra cash.

Once you’ve composed yourself, Dominguez suggests asking yourself a simple question: What have I been wanting to do if I had more money? For many, it’s buying a home, paying off your mortgage, starting an emergency fund or getting out of credit card debt. 

By carefully thinking through your next steps, you can make the most of your extra money.

“Setting clear goals and even consulting a financial planner can help ensure the windfall works for you over the long term,” says Dominguez. With the right guidance, a windfall can be an opportunity to generate even more money for yourself and build happiness that lasts. 

A financial planner can take your specific situation and design an individualized plan for your extra cash. 

“Everybody should work with a financial planner,” says Valega. “We know how to prioritize your extra funds.”

Whether it’s in the form of a tax refund, a holiday bonus or an unexpected lottery jackpot, a windfall can provide a huge boost to our bottom line when we least expect it. And the ability to use that money to make a better life for yourself is cause for celebration, says Dominguez.

After you’ve identified your goals, using a portion of your extra money to treat yourself is within reason. Having a plan for your money can help make sure you keep your celebratory spending reasonable, she says. After all, treating yourself shouldn’t infringe on the success of your long-term plans. 

“It’s important to strike a balance,” Dominguez says. “Celebrating life’s milestones is valuable, but aligning spending with overall financial goals ensures sustainability.”

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