As the Earth spins inexorably forward, more elder millennials like me cross the great divide: We turn 40.

I was among the first of my generation, defined as those born between 1981 and 1996, to face the prospect of getting old, or at least being no longer young. What would it mean for us? Mortgage payments, pre-menopause, a midlife crisis — if we could even afford one?

When does midlife begin, anyway?

When I was in my late 30s, I took this question to the oldest person I knew: Shirley Hodes, my grandmother-in-law. She was then on the cusp of turning 105 in an assisted living facility outside Asheville, North Carolina.

Her answer delighted me: “I think ‘middle-aged’ is when you start collecting Social Security.”

I laughed, thinking about how Suze Orman recommends waiting until you’re 70 to begin collecting Social Security benefits, if you can. “So, even 50?” I asked. “Fifty is not ‘middle-aged’ yet?”

“Oh goodness, no!” she replied. “Absolutely not. At 50, you’re just starting to live.”

This strikes me as the mindset of champions. And your mental approach to aging can matter a surprising amount when it comes to wellbeing and longevity, studies indicate.

“There’s a connection between mindsets and health behaviors,” Eric S. Kim, a psychologist and researcher affiliated with Harvard University’s Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, told the American Heart Association News in 2022.

Negative beliefs about aging can be “a self-fulfilling prophecy,” while positive beliefs can prompt you to form and keep good longevity habits, said Kim. In other words, building and maintaining strong relationships, taking on new challenges, and figuring out how to cope with life’s ups and downs can all help you live, and stay healthy, longer.

Your mindset doesn’t guarantee longevity: Eating fresh, healthy foods, exercising and managing stress all matter. So does luck.

Still, it’s important to “keep your sense of humor, give something of yourself to others, make friends who are younger than you, learn new things and have fun,” Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor Dr. George E. Vaillant told the Harvard Gazette in 2001.

Hodes, who turned 108 this fall, is a great role model on this score. She’s always loved books and theater, learning new things, and cultivating relationships. She worked full-time for about 20 years after her youngest child went to college. After retiring at age 70, she audited classes at her local college, camping out in the front row so she could see and hear everything.

When she moved into an assisted living facility, she made it her business to get to know the other residents. “It keeps me interested!” she told me last year. “I sit with new people, make conversation, ask questions, get them to open up.”

No matter your age or your circumstances, she’s told me more than once, “you have to concentrate on the positive.”

Inspired by her vibrant example, I’ve decided to keep thinking of myself as young-ish for a while longer. Now that I know I’ll just be starting to live when I hit 50, I have something great to look forward to.

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It’s the season of giving, and billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott just announced she’s handed out more than $2 billion to 199 different organizations this year.

That brings the total amount donated by Scott since 2019 to $19.2 billion, based on her past public announcements of her charitable giving. Forbes still estimates a $31.6 billion net worth for Scott, who became one of the world’s wealthiest women following her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon in the divorce settlement.

Much of this latest round of donations went to organizations focused on alleviating poverty, Scott wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

“Roughly 75% of them are non-profits that support the economic security and opportunity of people who are struggling,” she wrote, adding that the organizations offer services ranging from access to affordable housing, healthcare and financial counseling to child development and post-secondary education.

Other organizations that received gifts from Scott focus on areas like “human rights and natural resources conservation,” she wrote.

In 2019, not long after her divorce settlement, Scott signed The Giving Pledge and committed to giving away the majority of her wealth in her lifetime. Since then, she’s routinely ranked on Forbes’ list of the most generous billionaires, giving away roughly one-third of her net worth, according to the publication’s most recent list, published in February.

One goal of her philanthropy is “to de-emphasize privileged voices” such as her own, “and cede focus to others,” she wrote in a 2021 blog post.

“People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating,” she wrote at the time. “This is equally — perhaps especially — true when their work is funded by wealth.”

In that same vein, Scott has tasked her investment advisors with identifying “funds and companies focused on for-profit solutions to these challenges” she tries to address through her philanthropy, Scott wrote on Wednesday.

In doing so, Scott would be following in the footsteps of other notable billionaire philanthropists who have embraced what’s known as “impact investing.” That includes the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Strategic Investment Fund, which focuses on the global health space, and Walmart heir Lukas Walton, whose Builders Vision investing and philanthropy platform shifted 90% of its billion-dollar endowment into impact investments in 2022.

For Scott, the goal is make a difference by investing with funds and companies offering solutions to societal issues before she takes her returns and donates them to non-profit organizations. 

“When I make gifts, rather than withdrawing funds from a bank account, or from a stock portfolio that increases the wealth and influence of leaders who already have it, I’d like to withdraw them from a portfolio of investments in mission-aligned ventures, with leaders from the populations they are serving, or from generally undercapitalized groups like women and people of color,” Scott wrote.

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Savannah James, wife of NBA star LeBron James, is an entrepreneur, and along with close friend April McDaniels, the co-host of the “Everybody’s Crazy” podcast and co-founder of Let It Break, a personal development group for women.

Just like the average person, celebrities sometimes spend their money on things they later regret — James is no exception.

Her worst money mistake was “investing in something without having real knowledge about any of it, and basically losing out on that capital,” she told CNBC Make It in an interview last month.

It was “a substantial amount that I’m still stressed out about. The fact that I’m talking about it right now is giving me the heebie jeebies.”

One of the biggest culprits of the worst investments is lack of research, according to a client survey conducted by Charles Schwab in 2023.

To avoid impulsive decisions when investing, do your research and determine the key steps you’ll take before jumping in, Mark Riepe, head of the Schwab Center for Financial Research, told CNBC Make It in 2023. This could mean “exposing yourself to other opinions that may disagree with you,” he said.

“Look at what those other people are saying — maybe you read analyst reports challenging your opinion.”

Doing extensive research can allow you to make better choices, especially when an investment’s value declines, Riepe explained.

“If you write out your thesis — I’m buying for these reasons, and I’m aware of the following risks — then you can see how things play out and be patient through volatility.”

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Over 15 years, I interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs and their parents to learn how they were raised.

On the whole, these families are very happy with how their kids turned out. The parents say their grown children are not only accomplished and financially successful, but generous and kind. But looking back now, so many of the parents told me there were several things they wished they had known while their children were growing up. 

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These aren’t the same as their regrets. Still, the parents shared with me that, with this knowledge, they might have focused on different things or stressed less about what would become their children’s bright futures. 

Here are the four things they would go back and tell themselves as young parents.

Most of the parents I spoke to believed that a college degree was essential for a successful career. 

Entrepreneur Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, launched the company while he was a student at the University of Houston, and dropped out to run it. Today, WordPress is just one part of Automattic, the global software company that Mullenweg leads. 

Thomas Vu’s parents wanted him to be a doctor. Instead, Vu dropped out of UC San Diego to join the first intern class at Electronic Arts. He went on to become the lead producer of League of Legends, head of creative for Riot Games, and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated hit show “Arcane.”

In hindsight, they say they didn’t need to worry so much. Their kids didn’t get a degree, but in the end, it did not matter. They pursued and accomplished their dreams, and their skill, dedication and conviction were more than enough. 

Acclaimed director Jon Chu’s parents told me that, as early as 10, he was taken with storytelling and making movies. They worried that his passion might be a distraction from a real job and responsibilities. But it’s hard to argue with the international blockbuster success of Chu’s most recent film, “Wicked.” 

Now, they realize that Chu putting in those 10,000 hours doing what he loved, and was good at, was worth it. A lot of the parents I interviewed feel the same way. They recognize that their children’s passion helped them succeed in their careers, even if their children’s lives don’t look quite like they envisioned. 

Many future entrepreneurs played sports intensively and none of them went pro. Their parents told me they worried that all the time their children were spending on the playing field instead of the classroom was a waste of time.

Eric Ryan, the founder of Method, Olly, and Welly, told me he was a terrible student, but he loved sailing. There he learned valuable skills like resilience, grit, perseverance, and confidence, all of which turned him into the entrepreneur he is today. His parents didn’t need to worry that all his hours on the water would prevent career success — quite the opposite.

Many of these entrepreneurs and leaders credited their parents with teaching them the value of a dollar. So I was surprised that a lot of the parents said they wished they had been more open about their own family finances and had used it better as a teaching tool. 

Some parents told me they wish they had brought their kids into financial decision making, whether that was budgeting, purchasing big items like a car, or investing in the stock market. Others told me that they wished they’d had their kids set up a bank account or get a credit card in high school. 

For example, they wished they had been more upfront when they were getting a new car, discussing leasing versus buying, how expensive a car to get, the trade-offs with other things they want. They believe that teaching their children about how to spend money would have helped when they started their companies.

Many parents of the highly successful adults that I spoke to said that they were careful not to scold or punish their kids when they failed. However, many also told me they wish they had gone a step farther. 

The parents wished they had known to celebrate the failures as much as the successes, because they realized that you only take the kind of creative risks that lead to innovation if you understand that failure is how you learn and grow — and that your defeat should be fuel for your next success. 

They saw that their children’s failures were more important to their development than their easy wins. 

This is something I would also tell myself as a young parent. Now, Billie Jean King’s mantra is one I return to often, and impart to my own grown kids: “It’s not failure, it’s feedback.”

Margot Machol Bisnow is a writer, mom and parenting expert. She spent 20 years in government, including as an FTC Commissioner and Chief of Staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, has spent the last 10 years speaking to parent groups about raising fearless, creative, confident, resilient, entrepreneurial children who are filled with joy and purpose, and is the author of “Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams.” Follow her on Instagram @margotbisnow.

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Not all side hustles require you to fill up your gas tank or form an LLC.

The right virtual gig can help you make extra money from the comfort of your own couch, say side hustle experts. Most options only require a laptop — cozy blankets and college degrees optional — and some can pay up to $270 for only 30 minutes of work.

The average American has about five hours of free time per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — so it helps to know which side hustles are worthy of your time. Gigs like artificial intelligence training and virtual assisting can take longer to start, but they usually pay more than other low-effort side hustles, even if you can only commit one night per week, says Nick Loper, founder of the Side Hustle Nation blog.

“There’s a whole world of low-paying survey apps, and you can get paid to play mobile games,” Loper says. “For a little bit higher earning power, you’re probably going have to fire up your laptop.”

Here are four remote side hustles you can start right now:

Online surveys

Some websites and apps will pay you to answer survey questions, typically so they can use or sell the data they collect for customer and market research.

Some, like Swagbucks, allow you to take surveys, play games or participate in cashback shopping, and get paid through gift cards, PayPal or a check. But you don’t earn very much money per activity, meaning other options provide a better per-hour rate, says Kathy Kristof, who runs the side hustle review blog SideHusl.

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Kristof’s recommendation is research firm Prolific, which pays participants a minimum of $8 per hour to fill out surveys for AI firms and universities, according to its site. But there’s currently a waitlist to join, and sites with higher payouts do typically have more rules and barriers.

Research platform Respondent, for example, only allows you to take surveys that need responses from someone in your demographic range or with your level of professional experience. Current listings include a general survey about sexual wellness, which pays $40 for 20 minutes of participation, and a CEO survey about generative AI that pays $270 for 30 minutes.

The average Respondent project pays $75, according to its website.

Virtual tutoring

You can virtually tutor on any subject, from academic classes to music lessons or even social skills. Platforms like Outschool or Wyzant typically allow you to set your own rates, meaning the amount you make can vary depending on your experience and topic expertise.

You might need to take some time to figure out which skills are in-demand during your available hours, and use that knowledge to start building a loyal clientele. Bar exam tutors on Wyzant typically charge between $40 and $90 per hour, and elementary math tutors charge between $30 and $50 per hour, according to the platform.

Wyzant keeps about 25% of each transaction, and Outschool keeps 30%, according to their websites.

Steve Menking, a former equities trader at SMB Capital, found success charging $150 per hour on Wyzant back in 2017 for tutoring in subjects like accounting and calculus, he told CNBC Make It last month.

For extra cash: If you create your own teaching materials, like worksheets or lesson plans, you can sell them on Teachers Pay Teachers, an Etsy-style online marketplace for professional educators.

AI training

AI trainers evaluate the accuracy, precision and effectiveness of chatbot responses. At some tech companies, that’s a full-time job — but everyday people can sign up on websites like Remotasks and DataAnnotation Tech to chip in during their free time.

To get onto DataAnnotation Tech’s platform, you to take an hour-long assessment on your ability to decipher AI responses. If accepted, you can get paid about $20 an hour through PayPal, according to the website.

Some tasks can take longer, depending on their difficulty and your own experience, and you’ll have to take more unpaid assessments if you want to work on higher-paying projects. The tasks themselves tend to take a fair amount of mental energy, says Loper.

“The onboarding process is a little tedious. They put you through the ringer to make sure you’re human and can form sentences,” Loper says. “But [I’ve heard] it’s like if you passed high school English, you ought to be able to pass this test.”

Virtual assisting

Especially around the holidays, many businesses need help managing their increased workloads, says Loper. Enter virtual assistants, who remotely handle administrative business tasks like managing email inboxes, scheduling meetings, organizing Excel docs or working customer service.

Platforms like Belay and Time Etc connect virtual assistants to employers, and pay a minimum of $17 per hour once selected after an application process, according to their websites. You can find similar jobs posted directly by employers on job search websites like Robert Half, LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter, and you can advertise your virtual assistant services in Facebook groups or on freelance platforms like Fiverr.

The amount of time required probably depends on the specific job and the employer’s preferences.

“Solving other people’s problems” with your own skillsets can always be lucrative, Loper says. “I’ve hired people for content writing, for podcast editing, for video editing, website technical improvements and even. Pinterest marketing strategy. You can find support for graphic design, for editing and proofreading.”

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