Washington-born couple Cassandra Tresl, 33, and her husband, Alex Ninman, 34, were living in the Czech Republic with her grandfather when their daughter was born in 2020. They faced a crossroads: move back to the United States or stay abroad?

The couple had moved in with Tresl’s grandfather around March of that year after learning they were expecting, using her grandfather’s place as their home base while traveling around Europe before Tresl was due to give birth.

Tresl says they had told friends they’d move back to the U.S. after their daughter was born, but when they started looking at how expensive it would be to buy a house and pay for childcare, they decided to look to Italy instead. 

“I really thought that if I had a kid, I would go back to the States,” Tresl says. “And then it ended up not happening, because I realized how much more expensive it would be if we did go back.”

They decided to explore options in Italy after Tresl remembered seeing stories about towns across the country selling one-euro homes in order to attract foreign investors to buy the houses, rehab them and drive up the dwindling population numbers.

Tresl first wanted to determine the actual cost of purchasing one of those homes to see if it was an option for the couple, since they didn’t want to spend more than 20,000 euros, or about $23,627 USD, on the purchase.

Many of the one-euro properties come with a catch. In some towns, the one-euro purchase is symbolic and the real prices are in the thousands. In others, the bids start at a single euro, but the final price is usually higher. And once buyers get their properties, they generally have to complete the renovations within a certain timeframe.

“I started to look online for houses for sale in Italy. Since we were in Europe and we’ve been to Italy, it wasn’t a problem to go there and check out some of these houses. I’m also not the type of person that would have ever done anything like this sight unseen,” Tresl tells CNBC Make It.

In 2021, the couple went on a house-hunting tour in Italy and viewed 15 homes across Abruzzo and Tuscany. They ended up purchasing a two-floor, two-bedroom house just under 1,076 square feet, with a third bedroom in the basement and an attic, in Abruzzo.

They knew renovations would be costly, so Tresl says they picked their home largely based on the price — and the fact that the terrace has a view.

“I’m a spreadsheet type of person, so I had all the pros and cons of all these houses and it came down to Abruzzo being a much better value in general,” she says. “In hindsight, there are a lot of other reasons why I’m glad that we landed here, but at that point in time, I knew nothing else besides the price and that I wanted the best deal.”

The couple closed on the house in February 2022 in an all-cash deal for 11,500 euros, or $13,150 at the time, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

“I loved the price and the terrace,” Tresl says. “People think that it’s super easy to just throw a rock in any direction and find a house with a garden in Italy, but it’s just not the case. We do have a terrace, and we have a really nice view, and that was a nonnegotiable for me.”

The price also allowed the couple to buy the property outright, which “alleviated a lot of stress in multiple areas of my life,” Tresl says. “If my income fluctuates or money gets tight, at least we don’t have a mortgage and our family has a secure roof over our heads. This financial freedom was actually one of the main factors that made this move and decision possible.”

Tresl, Ninman and their daughter briefly returned to the Czech Republic to develop a plan for where to live, since their Italy house wasn’t habitable at the time — it needed a lot of work since it had been empty for 30 years, Tresl says. They decided to rent an Airbnb in a nearby town in Abruzzo for a little over a month while their house was renovated.

Because the house had been empty for decades, the walls needed resurfacing, some electrical work needed to be redone, the windows and doors needed redoing and the bathroom and kitchen needed to be gutted. Ninman did most of the work himself, but the couple hired out to do the plumbing, Tresl says.

In total, the couple spent around 12,000 to 15,000 euros, or $14,207 to $17,758, to renovate the home, they estimate.

As part of the renovation, the couple made the terrace bigger, added a bathroom downstairs and turned the basement into a proper guest suite. They finished most of the renovation in the fall of 2022, but redid the basement and attic in 2023.

Tresl says she wanted the house to have an eclectic design, so she visited thrift stores and flea markets to source vintage pieces.

“I wanted natural materials and to combine both warm and cold. I have a lot of color in the house in terms of paint because I felt like the house was small, so I wanted to make it a happy house,” Tresl says. “Everything I picked out, I have a reason for it. I wanted to set a goal for myself that everything I look at reminds me of where I got it from.”

Although the couple doesn’t have a mortgage, the house isn’t completely free to live in. Here’s a breakdown of the couple’s house-related expenses, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. All expenses are rounded.

• Internet: 12 euros (about $14) per month
• Property taxes: 61 euros (about $72) annually
• Water: 91 euros (about $108) every two months
• Electricity: 217 euros (about $256) every two months
• Garbage: 286 euros (about $338) annually

The couple also has a pellet stove that they use in the winter. It can cost an additional 42 euros a week, or about $200 a month, for heating, Tresl says.

Since moving to Italy permanently, Tresl left her tech job and started creating content for her travel blog and newsletter. She also works for another travel blogger as an operations manager. Ninman left his job as a butcher when the couple moved out of the U.S. and now manages a second property the couple owns and rents out on Airbnb.

In addition to their primary residence, Tresl and Ninman acquired a second property in Italy in 2024, which they rent on Airbnb for up to 85 euros, or about $101, per night.

Located in the countryside of their town, the single-story two-bedroom, one-bathroom house sits on its own land and has a private garden. The couple bought it for 17,000 euros, or about $20,083.

Tresl says she’s been asked before why the couple doesn’t make it their primary residence, but she says she loves being in the center of her town. “It’s really nice just to be able to walk anywhere from our house,” she adds.

Now that the couple has two properties in Italy, they say they are staying put — most likely until they are empty nesters.

“My husband and I have talked about probably moving out of Italy once we know what our daughter is doing and if she decides to go to school somewhere else,” Tresl says. “It will free us up to do whatever, but that’s not something we’re thinking about for at least another 10 years because I want my daughter to have stability.”

They visit the U.S. about once a year, and although it will always be home, Tresl says it feels more foreign each time she returns. 

“I feel like an outdoor cat having to go back in or vice versa … It just feels odd. I grew up in the ’90s and I feel like my childhood was so different compared to what I witnessed on my last visit. It’s a huge part of why I love being in Italy right now, because my daughter, I feel, is getting a much more wholesome experience and a genuine childhood,” she says.

Conversions from euros to USD were done using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 euro to $1.18 USD on Feb. 9, 2026. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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What bachelor’s degrees are most attractive to employers hiring recent graduates?

The Winter 2026 Salary Survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, or NACE, collected responses from 150 member organizations from Oct. 8 through Nov. 30, 2025.

Here are the 10 most in-demand bachelor’s degrees, according to NACE’s report, along with the percent of responding firms that said they have plans to hire graduates with each degree from the class of 2026.

10. Human Resources: 40%

9. Marketing: 44%

8. Logistics/Supply Chain: 44.7%

7. Information Sciences and Systems: 48%

6. Electrical Engineering: 51.3%

5. Business Administration/Management: 58.7%

4. Accounting: 58.7%

3. Computer Science: 60%

2. Mechanical Engineering: 61.3%

1. Finance: 61.3%

Recent grads have faced challenges finding work in today’s low-hire job market. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the U.S. economy only added 181,000 jobs in 2025, far lower than the 1.46 million added in 2024. And some companies are reining in entry-level hiring in particular.

This may be the toughest entry-level job market in five years, according to edtech company Cengage Group’s 2025 Graduate Employability Report. The report found only 30% of graduates were getting jobs in their field and more than 75% of employers reported hiring the same number or fewer entry-level employees in 2025 than the year prior.

But NACE’s report also found that annual base salary projections for 2026 college grads show an increase across nearly all major categories of study included in the survey.

Only social sciences show a projected decrease in starting salary from 2025. The rest — computer science; engineering; mathematics and statistics; business; agriculture and natural resources; and communications — all show increased projected starting salaries from last year.

Computer science, which has the highest overall average salary, for example, has a 2026 projection of $81,535, up 6.9% from $76,251 last year.

“We’re seeing that most employers anticipate upping their salaries, which is especially good news given that hiring is expected to be flat for the class of 2026,” NACE president and CEO Shawn VanDerziel said in a press release.

Starting salaries have a significant impact on workers’ pay further into their careers. An October National Bureau of Economics Research working paper found that each additional $1,000 students earn in their first job after graduating translates to another $700 in yearly earnings five years out from college.

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Habits shape how we work, how we manage stress, and how we relate to others. They determine whether we move closer to our goals, or repeat the same mistakes.

The same is true in our romantic relationships. Our satisfaction, stability and sense of connection are directly related to the behaviors we default to every day. 

As a psychologist who studies couples — and as a husband — I’ve seen how some of the most powerful relationship rituals also happen to be the simplest. Here are five habits that reliably show up in the happiest, most resilient relationships.

Humans are biologically wired to focus on the negative. This bias helped our ancestors survive by scanning for threats. But in modern relationships, it often leads to pessimism, criticism or chronic dissatisfaction.

Over time, a glass-half-empty mindset trains partners to look for problems rather than moments worth appreciating. That’s why what researchers call “capitalization,” or how partners respond when the other shares good news, is so important.

Studies show that when people respond with enthusiasm (i.e., asking questions, expressing interest, celebrating wins), couples report higher relationship satisfaction and stronger emotional bonds.

Feeling like your partner is “your person” matters a lot, but no one can realistically meet all of another person’s emotional, social and psychological needs.

Happy couples invest in friendships, family relationships and community connections, both together and independently. It prevents the relationship from becoming overburdened by unrealistic expectations.

When partners feel socially supported beyond the relationship, they’re less likely to feel resentful, trapped or emotionally depleted. The relationship becomes a place of choice, not obligation.

Variety is called the spice of life for a reason. Even strong relationships can begin to feel stale when the novelty disappears. This is especially true for couples who live together and work demanding jobs; the cycle of work, home, sleep and repeat can become monotonous over time.

This is why happy couples actively seek out what researchers call “third spaces,” or environments that exist outside of home (the first place) and work (the second place). It could be a favorite café, a climbing gym, a walking trail, a trivia night, or a class they take together.

The primary purpose of the third space is intentional exploration. When you regularly introduce new third spaces into your routine, you inject a sense of novelty and adventure without needing to travel or make any major life changes.

Consistency and support are foundational in healthy relationships. But over time, some couples begin to over-rely on one another — for emotional regulation, decision-making or daily logistics. This can slowly lead to codependence.

Happy couples counteract this by practicing independence. They maintain solo hobbies, spend time alone, or handle some responsibilities individually.

This independence is vital for maintaining a sense of self. More importantly, it enables something many couples underestimate the value of: the chance to miss one another.

Waking up next to the same person every day can create the illusion of deep familiarity. Many couples assume that physical closeness naturally begets emotional closeness, but this is not the case. People grow and change in little ways more often than we realize.

Happy couples always remain curious. They remind themselves that they’re both constantly evolving. By making time to ask questions, they also begin to notice all the new dreams, wants and needs in their partner. This protects them from one of the most common relationship pitfalls: distance despite proximity.

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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Michele and Marvin Velazquez had an unusual source of inspiration for starting their business: their less-than-perfect engagement story.

The Orange County, California-based couple, both 46, are the founders of The Heart Bandits, a custom proposal planning company. Their love story is the foundation of their business, which brings in seven figures a year in total income.

Michele, an Air Force veteran who worked in event planning, first met Marvin, an MIT-educated engineer, through work. After two years of dating, Marvin proposed to Michele in April 2010 following a sunset cruise in Marina Del Rey.

“He dropped to his knee and proposed, and it was over very quickly,” Michele tells CNBC Make It. “I was happy, obviously,” she says, but she told her now-husband afterwards that it wasn’t exactly her dream proposal: She would have preferred something a little bolder, like a flash mob.

Marvin admitted that he had struggled to come up with a good proposal plan. “He said, ‘Oh well, you know, there’s not really resources out there for guys,’” Michele recalls. That sparked an idea for her: What if they started a service to help other couples achieve their dream proposals?

Michele and Marvin officially launched The Heart Bandits a few months after their engagement. Today, they say they plan approximately 500 proposals each year, and estimate that they’ve worked with 9,000 couples so far.

Michele has aspired to be an entrepreneur since she was a child, she says, so she was “always looking for gaps in the market and different ways that I could start a business.”

For the first few years, the couple built The Heart Bandits on the side while they both worked their full-time jobs, Michele says.

To attract clients, they posted flyers in local parking lots and even turned their car into an advertisement with custom decals. Michele also promoted The Heart Bandits on online message boards like Yahoo Answers.

“Any time a guy would post, like, ‘How should I propose?’ I would answer, ‘Oh, we have a proposal planning business. You should check it out,’” she says.

That’s how she landed The Heart Bandits’ first client, a soldier who wanted to plan a virtual proposal in Houston while he was deployed overseas in Afghanistan. Michele and Marvin set up a video projector in a hotel room full of flowers so that he could propose to his then-girlfriend.

It was a “heartwarming” story, Michele says, so she pitched it to the Houston Chronicle, which covered the story in an article. Media became a key element of their business strategy: Every time The Heart Bandits planned a unique or particularly compelling proposal, Michele reached out to local publications.

At the time, “I didn’t know what I was doing,” she says, “but I just wanted it really bad, so I was doing whatever I could do to make it happen.”

Approximately three years after starting The Heart Bandits, Michele decided she was ready to quit her full-time job and focus on growing the business. Marvin followed suit and left his job in 2015.

Before their two children were born, Michele and Marvin traveled frequently to visit popular proposal destinations. Today, they largely plan proposals remotely, leaning on their wide network of international vendors.

According to Michele, New York City is their most popular location for proposals, followed closely by Paris. They’ve also planned proposals in Puerto Rico, Singapore, Australia, Mexico, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands, she says.

The Velazquezes say they initially charged just $300 to plan a custom proposal, but after working with a business consultant, they decided to raise their rates, which Michele says was a “game-changer” for their revenue.

The company’s current prices aren’t listed publicly, but Michele says they charge a flat fee ranging from $1,649 to $2,149 for a custom proposal, depending on how much effort is involved, on top of costs like materials and vendor fees. If those exceed $8,000, she says, they charge 20% of that budget instead of a flat fee.

The lower end of the price range is for clients who “already have the vision in mind, and they just need execution,” Michele says, while the higher end covers brainstorming the idea, creating the plan and being on-site to make sure everything runs smoothly.

The Heart Bandits also offers pre-designed proposal packages, custom date planning and proposal planning masterclasses, but these services account for much smaller shares of the business, according to Michele.

The Velazquezes run The Heart Bandits from their shared home. “That’s the beauty of our business,” Marvin says: It’s not a “brick-and-mortar” operation, which keeps overhead costs low.

The Heart Bandits brought in seven figures in total income in 2024 and 2025, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It, and the business made mid-six-figures in gross profit both years, after paying vendor costs.

They typically reinvest part of that profit in the business to ensure that they’re keeping up with the times: for example, hiring social media content creators to optimize the business’s online presence.

Looking back, Michele says the proposals they planned in The Heart Bandits’ early days are “funny compared to now.” For one such proposal, she and Marvin hiked up to the top of Hollywood Hills and “made a cute little picnic ourselves.”

“We made handmade signs, and brought In-N-Out because the client really wanted it. We chased ants away,” she recalls.

The bar for proposals has gotten higher since then, according to Michele. Today, she says, “we’re bringing in fireworks” and arranging helicopter rides. “It’s changed so much,” she says.

Marvin partially attributes that shift to the rise of social media: Many clients are focused on “picture-worthy” proposals, he says, rather than intimate ones.

The proposal planning industry has changed, too. At the start of their business, when Michele approached other wedding vendors about potential collaborations, “those people would laugh at me,” she says. “They said, ‘This is stupid. There’s no money to be had here.’”

Now, some of the same vendors that once rejected her have created proposal planning services of their own, according to Michele.

Plenty of competitors have popped up in recent years, but the Velazquezes are hoping to stand out by demonstrating the value of their 16 years of experience. “I know what to do if it rains. I know what to do if a park ranger asks you if you have a permit,” Michele says.

The best business lesson they’ve learned from running The Heart Bandits for 16 years is “to evolve with the times,” she says.

“The world has shifted,” she adds. “If we didn’t shift with it, we would have been left behind.”

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In my decade of advising Fortune 500 companies as a behavioral researcher, I’ve found that one of the most effective ways to stop a manipulator is one key phrase: “That’s interesting. Tell me more.”

Manipulative people thrive on emotional reactions, confusion and ambiguity. This simple phrase helps neutralize that and change the power balance in the conversation.

With “that’s interesting,” you’re acknowledging what’s been said without validating or challenging the claim. You’re simply signaling: “I heard you, and I’m not rattled.” This removes the emotional hook that many manipulators rely on.

With “tell me more” (or other variations: “What makes you say that?” “What led you to that conclusion?”), you are cutting away any confusion and ambiguity, in favor of curiosity. “Why” questions can feel accusatory and often trigger defensiveness. Stick with the more open-toned “what” statements in order to keep the exchange from escalating further. 

If you find yourself in situations where you are being gaslit, guilt-tripped or coerced, here is how to best use this simple but subtly powerful phrase.

Gaslighting is when someone makes you question your memory or perception of reality.

• They might say: “I never said that. You’re remembering it wrong.”
• You can reply: “That’s interesting. Tell me more about how you remember it.” Then you could follow up with, “That’s not how I remember it.” Or, if applicable, “Let’s ask someone else who was there.”

This works because you’re not having to defend your memory in the moment. You invite the other person to clarify and provide detail. 

Gaslighting loses power when it has to stand on specifics. When someone has to explain their version clearly, inconsistencies often surface, and the psychological pressure shifts off you and back onto the facts.

We’ve all been there. Someone uses obligation or emotion to pressure you to do something you don’t want to do. 

• They might say: “After everything I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me?”
• You can reply: “That’s interesting. What makes you say that?” Then follow up with, “I appreciate what you’ve done, and this is still my decision.” Or, “I can care about you but still choose differently.”

This works because the focus shifts from your supposed guilt to their reasoning. When you ask them to articulate their logic and explain themselves, the emotional pressure and leverage often weakens. 

Subtle coercion shows up when a manipulator ties cooperation to your loyalty or care.

• They might say: “If you really cared, you’d agree with me.”
• You can reply: “That’s interesting. What makes you think that?” Then follow up with, “Caring doesn’t always mean we have to agree on everything,” or, “I can care and still see it differently.”

This detaches your values from their request. You’re not arguing about whether you care, you’re asking how they arrived at that conclusion. That creates psychological space and that’s when manipulation loses traction. 

Manipulators rely on emotional reactions. The moment you slow the exchange down and get curious, their leverage weakens. Calm questions protect your clarity and your boundaries, and shift conversations towards facts instead of feelings. 

In difficult conversations, composure is often more powerful than confrontation.

Shadé Zahrai is an award-winning peak performance educator, behavioral researcher, leadership strategist, and author of “Big Trust: Rewire Self-Doubt, Find Your Confidence, and Fuel Success.” Recognized as one of LinkedIn’s Top 50 Most Impactful People, she supports leaders at some of the world’s biggest brands, including Microsoft, Deloitte, Procter & Gamble, and JPMorgan.

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