Despite the hurricanes, gators and humidity, Americans keep moving to Florida.

The state’s population saw the second-largest numerical increase from 2023 to 2024 and grew at the fastest rate of any state in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. 

The Sunshine State has long held a reputation for being affordable, mild in climate and full of fun for all ages. Some of those factors have helped it become a top choice for retirees. Florida has one of the oldest populations in the country with nearly 22% of the state’s residents aged 65 years and older, compared with just 17% of the national population, according to Census Bureau data.

Young people are increasingly calling Florida home, too. The state saw the largest net increase of young high-earners in 2022, according to a SmartAsset analysis of the most recent Internal Revenue Service data. Nearly 1,800 millennial-headed households earning at least $200,000 a year moved into the state in 2022. 

“I’ve gotten to do a lot of fun things and live a different life than I was living in New York,” Chabely Rodriguez told CNBC Make It in 2023, while the 29-year-old was living in Tampa, Florida and earning over $210,000 a year. ”[I] have a lot more space and have my money go a lot farther and enjoy life a little bit more down South.”

Here’s a glimpse of what life is like for young Americans living in Florida.

Liz White moved to Naples, Florida from Philadelphia in 2021 when she was 31-years-old. Not only did she move from a relatively young city — Philadelphia has a median age of just under 36, compared to Naple’s median of just under 68 years old, per Census data — but she also moved into an actual retirement community. 

Her rent stayed roughly the same at about $2,000 a month, but she got more space in her 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment in Naples, White told CNBC Make It. Her parents wound up buying the apartment and allowed White to live there full-time. They stay with her when they’re in town.

“The rules can be a lot, but I just love the slower pace of life here,” White said of living in the community in 2022. “Being able to park and not have to fight for street parking is awesome.”

In addition to making friends with her older neighbors, White has found local peers who are closer to her own age.

“Because the area here is so much older, many of us young people just naturally seek each other out,” she said earlier this year. 

Living in a pretty retirement-centric area has been worth it, though: “I feel like everyone waits to get to a point where they retire by the beach, and I’m doing that while still working a full-time job,” White said. “It’s like I have the best of both worlds.” 

A Pittsburgh native, Brooklyn Karasack moved to Florida in 2019 to be closer to her then-boyfriend. Though she didn’t stay with him, she loved living in Florida and decided to make a home for herself in St. Petersburg. 

Karasack now owns a condo and continues to enjoy her life in the Sunshine State working as an internal audit manager and making her own clothes in her free time. The 27-year-old’s $108,000 a year salary plus income she makes from selling her clothes and posting them on social media is “enough money to live happily here in Florida,” she previously told Make It.

“I think my money goes a long way to afford the necessities and a lot of fun as well.” 

That fun includes thrifting items she’ll turn into unique outfits and attending music festivals with her friends. While she’s lived in Florida basically her entire adult life, Karasack says she seems to get a better deal there than her friends who live in pricier places like Denver and Chicago.

“I think my rent is definitely much lower than what they’re paying, and I think my money goes a little bit further than theirs.”

Owning her home is one example. While she has a few friends in Florida who have also purchased their homes, Karasack said her friends in those more expensive cities are mostly renting.

While the generally warm climate draws many residents to Florida, the state certainly has its share of bad weather, namely, hurricane season. While homeownership may be somewhat more attainable there, its regular hurricanes can spell high home insurance costs as well as a good chance you’ll have to deal with storm-related repairs in many parts of the state.

White’s condo in Naples flooded during Hurricane Ian in September 2022, shortly after her parents completed their purchase of the home. The family opted to renovate the condo rather than put it back up for sale and White rented another apartment for nearly a year while the family repaired their condo. It was a challenging time, but White said it brought her closer to her neighbors.

“It’s been really good to have that sense of community and have people to grow you with different perspectives in life,” she said. “It’s also made me more open to meeting new people and not sweating the small stuff.”

Karasack had to evacuate her home in St. Petersburg earlier this year during Hurricane Milton. Though her condo was fortunately undamaged, she said it was stressful being a homeowner during that time.

“The only time that I wish I’m still renting is whenever things go wrong,” she said.

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In 2022, actor Tom Holland decided to try a “dry January” and give up alcohol for 31 days, but the challenge was harder than he’d expected.

“I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how much I was struggling without booze in that first month — and it really scared me,” Holland said on an episode of the Rich Roll podcast in October. “I decided, as a sort of punishment to myself, that I would do February as well as January.”

The second month turned out to be even more intense for the Spider-Man star.

It “was no easier. If anything, it got a little bit harder,” the 28-year-old said during the podcast. “I was starting to kind of panic, thinking, ‘Damn. I have a bit of an alcohol thing.’”

This pushed Holland to stay sober even longer, especially after having a conversation with his doctor about the state of his liver. His struggle with giving up alcohol coupled with the damage it seemed to be doing to his body prompted him to commit to yet another alcohol-free month.

Once March rolled around, he “started to feel a little bit better, but was still really struggling.” So, he set a goal to stick to his sobriety until his birthday.

“I said to myself, ’If I can make it to June 1st, which is my birthday, and I can do six months without booze, I will have then proved to myself that I don’t have a problem. I’m just young and enjoying a drink.”

Holland was successful, and by then was enjoying his sobriety so much that he didn’t want to drink again until the year was over.

“I started sleeping better. I was handling stressful situations better. My relationship was better. My relationship with my family was better. My relationship with my work was better,” he said.

“By the time I’d crossed that annual mark I was done. I was like, ‘I’m never gonna drink again because this is the best version of myself.’”

Though Holland didn’t consider himself “a bad drunk,” he said, as an actor, “you always have a reason to be drinking. Or, I felt like I always had a reason to be drinking.”

And he didn’t limit himself with how much he was drinking: “I wasn’t the type of person that could nip to the pub for a pint,” he said. “I wanted to lock the door behind me.”

But once Holland committed to his sobriety, his support system kept him honest. “A real ally” of his is Robert Downey Jr. who has appeared on the big screen alongside him many times, and has been sober for more than 20 years himself.

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Starface World president Kara Brothers has interviewed dozens of prospective employees since she joined the cult-favorite skincare brand in 2021.

In those conversations, the 39-year-old executive is assessing candidates for an important soft skill: emotional intelligence.

Research dating back decades has found that emotional intelligence — the ability to manage your own feelings and the feelings of those around you — is the strongest predictor of success in the workplace. 

Yet, measuring it can be tricky. Unlike technical skills or experience, emotional intelligence is built on intangible qualities like empathy and self-awareness, which don’t always fit neatly onto a resume.

To gauge a candidate’s emotional intelligence, Brothers relies on tough, introspective questions during interviews. One question in particular, she tells CNBC Make It, often leaves candidates stumped:

“In your last workplace, what really held you back?” 

The goal, Brothers explains, is to uncover how adaptable and coachable someone is. “We all have an ego, but does your ego impede your ability to work effectively?” she says. “I’m trying to figure out if you’re aware of when you’re at your best or where you might hold yourself back in professional relationships.”

The question can trip up candidates who want to “put their best foot forward” without spotlighting their flaws, Brothers points out. Still, she says the best responses strike a balance between honesty and accountability.

“For example,” Brothers says, “Someone might say, ‘I realized I wasn’t at my best leading a Monday morning strategy meeting, so after reflecting and getting feedback, I decided to scrap the meeting altogether and replaced it with a weekly email update, which was more effective for everyone.’ That’s a full 360-degree understanding of yourself and how your actions impact those around you.”

This level of self-awareness, Brothers adds, translates well to navigating workplace challenges and collaborating with diverse personalities.

You don’t have to wait for your next job interview to start building your self-awareness.

A simple, three-step exercise can help you cultivate this skill, Juliette Han, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist told CNBC Make It last year:

1. Reflect on your interests and skills, so you can specifically define your strengths and the job responsibilities you’d enjoy. What are you good at? What do you like doing?
2. Ask for feedback from your managers and co-workers. The way they describe you and your work can help you learn a little more about how other people see you.
3. Use all of those takeaways to figure out which skills you want to hone or incorporate more into your work.

Building self-awareness takes time, but the payoff can be substantial. “You can have all the technical skills and charisma in the world,” Han said, “but if you’re completely oblivious of yourself, how you come across and interact in the world, it’s a lot harder to build strong relationships … and deepen the friendships you need to truly succeed.”

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It’s probably not your first instinct to seek a tween’s advice when making decisions about your career.

But it may be rewarding to do so, especially if you want to start a business or launch a side-hustle. That’s according to Nikhil Kamath, a 38-year-old self-made billionaire and co-founder of Zerodha, an online stock brokerage platform.

“Don’t go to the previous generation to figure out what you should be doing 20 years from now,” he told LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky in a recent episode of “The Path” video series. “Go look at what the kids are doing. Go look at what a 16-year-old boy is doing [and] what he might want in 10 years.” 

Kamath got his start in business in the ninth grade, buying and reselling cell phones to his classmates before dropping out of high school. He later got a job working at a call center, teaching himself how to trade stocks in his free time, which inspired his career in finance.

Kamath co-founded the Bangalore-based Zerodha in 2010 alongside his brother. The trading platform has since grown to more than 10 million users, making it one of the largest in India and helping Kamath reach a $3 billion net worth, according to Forbes.

In 2021, he co-founded a venture capital firm called Gruhas, which supports entrepreneurs in industries like artificial intelligence and cleantech — both of which are top of mind for younger generations.

“A lot of the advice you might get from someone who’s 50 or 60 and in positions of power” may be out of touch with the needs and wants of your audience or consumers, Kamath told Roslansky, adding that young people are the ones who “define culture going forward.”

As young people navigate the world, they are often curious and have a fresh perspective that could inspire innovative ideas for your business, Kamath explained. And tapping into their social media habits could potentially help you shape your marketing strategy. 

Nearly half of teens are online “almost constantly,” according to Pew Research Center’s 2024 Teens, Social Media and Technology report, which analyzed the online habits of American youth between the ages of 13 and 17. They frequent YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat the most, often setting fashion, dance and lifestyle content trends on the platforms.

Moreover, it’s estimated that Gen Alpha, or those born between 2010 and 2024, will have $1.7 trillion in direct spending power and a $5.46 trillion economic footprint by 2029, according to research-based advisory firm McCrindle, which says this generation of consumers is being widely overlooked.

“Every organization, every brand, every product is just one generation away from extinction,” CEO Mark McCrindle told CFO Brew in May. 

Many executives have seen success using young people as inspiration: His own and other college students’ social habits inspired Mark Zuckerberg to launch Facebook in 2004. And Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann created the platform with his childhood love for collecting things in mind. 

Of course, you can get valuable business advice and inspiration from older people who’ve already navigated their way through entrepreneurship. But if you really want to know if your ideas are good, ask a kid, Kamath insisted.

“Look forward, look younger for inspiration, not older,” he said.

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Whether it’s for an article on topics like how to deal with your student loans or a personal question like whether continuing to have pet insurance is worth it, I’m constantly thinking about money.

When it comes to actually managing my money, I do my best to take the advice my colleagues and I gather from a variety of experts and folks who’ve successfully accomplished goals like paying off debt and retiring early, but I’m far from perfect.

One of my favorite pieces of advice we’ve shared on CNBC Make It, though, is that you don’t need to follow a strict budget. 

“Research shows in budgeting, and we see the same thing with a much broader body of research in dieting, that that kind of restriction doesn’t work,” Dana Miranda, a certified personal finance educator, told Make It earlier this year.

This validates my personal aversion to tracking every dollar and reminds me that money is supposed to let you have fun and live well — as long as you’re doing so within reason. 

As such, I use three main tools to keep an eye on my spending and work toward my financial goals. They help me stress less and feel empowered to make my day-to-day financial decisions. 

While I don’t set and stick to a strict monthly budget, I do try to set myself up for success ahead of each month by filling out a money calendar. I use Google Drawings to do this digitally, but ultimately it is a version of a pen and paper spending plan.

Each month I copy over my routine expenses and automatic payments like my student loan payment and streaming subscriptions. Then as costs for things like social events or home supplies come up, I add them into the calendar so I have a general idea of how much money I need or want to spend each week. I set weekly goals for how much money I want to have left over at the end of each weekend and try to adjust my spending decisions accordingly.

For example, if I know I’m going out to dinner with a friend one week, I’ll mark that on the calendar and aim to avoid other takeout or non-grocery food purchases that week to save my cash for the social outing. Planning this way helps keep my careful and carefree spending in balance.

In 2023, my primary bank, Ally, introduced a feature called “buckets” in its app for savings and checking accounts. The feature functions like virtual envelopes to help you earmark money for certain goals. 

This year, I started using the spending buckets feature in my checking account to keep even better track of my money in tandem with my calendar. When my paycheck hits my account, I start shuffling money around to various buckets: debt payments, insurance premiums, beauty treatments and more. 

When transactions hit my account, I can direct them to come out of the corresponding buckets. It’s a pretty simple way to see where my money needs to go and how much I have left for spontaneous or more nebulous spending categories like groceries and clothes.

A sinking fund is money you set aside for a planned, one-time expense. I’ve been using sinking funds since before I knew the term, like when I was a kid saving birthday money for a new video game.

As with in my checking account, I use the buckets feature on my savings account when I’m planning more than a month or so in advance for bigger-ticket costs. When I have a trip coming up or an annual expense like my dog’s check-up at the vet, I make a bucket in my savings account for that purpose and it functions as my sinking fund. 

At any given time, I may have two or three sinking funds going toward different goals. From November through December, for example, I was planning a trip to Puerto Rico and setting aside money to buy Christmas presents for my family. 

Full transparency: I don’t always hit the full amount I need before I have to make the purchase. But having as much money as possible set aside for a specific goal helps me avoid pulling money from another source like my emergency fund or taking on more credit card debt. 

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