When I moved from Japan to the U.S. in the 1990s, it wasn’t always easy to get the ingredients I knew and loved. But there were some staples that were easier to come by, like whole grains and beans. 

From there, I built my favorite breakfast: brown rice, beans, “natto” (fermented soybeans), “nukazuke” (pickled vegetables), wrapped with nori (seaweed) and topped with roasted sesame seeds. I have it with a bowl of miso soup and hojicha green tea.

I call this meal my “yakuzen zakkokumai,” or medicinal multigrain rice. It is a healing, restorative start to my day. As a nutritionist, I recommend it to my clients, too. 

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The meal is filled with nutrients like iron, iodine, potassium, calcium, magnesium and B, C and K vitamins.

The brown rice, beans and seaweed are all good sources of fiber. Thanks to the fermentation process, natto and nukazuke are also rich in probiotics. Fiber and probiotics are both helpful for your overall gut health and digestion. 

The nori and green tea both contain polyphenols, naturally occurring compounds in plants that are rich in antioxidants, help fight illness and inflammation, and manage blood sugar levels — the whole grain rice helps with that, too. 

The tofu in my miso soup, and beans in general, are good sources of protein and essential amino acids, without the cholesterol and environmental impact that meat, dairy or poultry can have.

I batch cook everything at the start of the week and keep stores of homemade natto, nukazuke and miso soup on hand. 

I typically use organic California short grain brown rice, but when I want to treat myself, I’ll order Morika (my favorite grain shop in my hometown of Nara, Japan) ancient rice from The Rice Factory.

The vegetables in my nukazuke are often seasonal, but I love eggplant, cucumber, napa cabbage, daikon and Japanese turnip. I’m a fan of Suzuki Farm, which is run by Japanese farmers in Delaware, and I often source ingredients from them.

Here is how I make the different elements of my breakfast:

1. I place my brown rice and bean mixture (typically 3 cups of brown rice per 1 cup of beans) into my rice cooker, followed by a 2 x 2 inch square of kombu seaweed. 
2. Using the brown rice setting, I let the rice and bean mixture cook for two hours for better flavor and texture.
3. I place cooked rice in an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator. I repeat the process two to three times a week. 

1. I will soak one pound of soybeans overnight, plus boil them for an additional three to four hours the next day.
2. I put a half pound (the other half goes into the fridge for miso or other recipes) of cooked soybeans into flat airtight containers, add my natto starter and place them into the oven with the light on for 20 to 24 hours. 
3. I put the container into the refrigerator for an additional 10 hours to stop further fermentation and set the natto’s deep flavor. 
4. For the nukazuke, I will mix my lightly salted veggies into “nukadoku” (fermented rice bran paste), add rice brain or sea salt as needed, and marinade for two to three days in the refrigerator. 

While I enjoy the fermentation process, you can also purchase prepared natto and nukazuke at the grocery store or online.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups water 
• 3 x 3 inch piece of kombu
• 3 to 4 pieces dried shiitake                                                            
• 1 sweet onion                  
• 1 medium potato
• 1/2 sweet potato  
• 1 carrot
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
• Additional veggies of your choosing 
• 2 tablespoons of white miso paste 
• 1 package of firm tofu                                                                         
• 1 tablespoon dried wakame seaweed
• 1 tablespoon dried goji berry (optional) 
• Handful of thinly chopped scallions (optional garnish)

Steps: 

1. Wipe the kombu and shiitake with a damp paper towel.
2. Dice the potatoes, chop the fresh ginger and slice the sweet onion (finely) and carrot.
3. In a medium pot, add water, kombu, shiitake, onion, potato, sweet potato, carrots and goji. Bring to a boil at high heat and cover with a lid.
4. Simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
5. In a small bowl, combine the miso paste and 1/2 cup of soup from the pot until the miso paste completely dissolves.
6. Add tofu, wakame and miso mixture into the pot over medium heat. Continue simmering for about three minutes. Then it’s ready to serve.

Once everything is prepared, it takes about five minutes to assemble breakfast in the morning. If I’m heading out the door, I’ll make some nori-wrapped rice balls, for the perfect to-go breakfast, snack or lunch. 

Michiko Tomioka, MBA, RDN is a certified nutritionist and longevity expert. Born and raised Nara, Japan, her approach focuses on a plant-based diet. She has worked in nutritional roles at substance recovery centers, charter schools and food banks. Follow her on Instagram @michian_rd.

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It’s officially the time of year when you get around to that thing you’ve been putting off. And for millions of Americans, that means coming to grips with their finances.

If you’ve been avoiding funding your 401(k) or opening a brokerage account, you’re not alone. Nearly half of U.S. adults — 48% — report owning no investable assets, according to a 2024 survey from Janus Henderson.

And for many, the reasoning behind the procrastination is simple: Investing is (seemingly) too complex.

It’s a pattern of thinking that, if not overcome, could cripple many young people financially, says Amos Nadler, founder of Prof of Wall Street and a Ph.D. in behavioral finance and neuroeconomics.

“It’s a bias that we call ‘complexity aversion,’” he says. “And it’s the biggest barrier to building wealth for people who are not in markets or who have never invested before.”

Here’s how this cognitive bias could be costing you money.

On a very basic level, people who put off doing essential financial tasks have the same fears as those who can’t bring themselves to start an exercise routine — they don’t want to make a mistake or feel foolish.

Just as someone might say they don’t know the first thing about how all that fancy gym equipment works, a financially avoidant person might say, ”‘Man, this is over my head,’” says Nadler. ”‘I’m just not a numbers person.’”

Feeling this way about money is tied closely with another common cognitive bias known as risk aversion. Essentially, not only are you afraid you’ll screw up, but you fear that you’ll lose out on money you put time and effort into accumulating. And because fear of losing what you have can outweigh the joy of building wealth, you stay put.

The impulse is, “I’ve worked hard for it, and I’m risk averse. I’d rather just have the cash,” Nadler says. “I know inflation is eating away at my cash, but the market so volatile, so I’m scared.”

But the need to start investing — especially among young people — extends beyond the need for your money to keep up with inflation. By procrastinating on this particular financial project, you’re losing what many experts call your most valuable asset: time.

The longer you’re in the market, the more time your money has to grow at a compounding rate. For every year you delay getting started in the market, you potentially shave thousands of dollars off your future net worth.

Play around with an online compounding interest calculator, and you’ll likely discover that sitting on the sidelines for even a few years can have a massive effect on your long-term gains.

Consider a 20-year-old who invests $200 a month into a retirement portfolio that earns an annualized total return of 8%. By the time she’s ready to retire at age 67, she’ll have $1.25 million saved. If she starts at age 25, with all other conditions the same, her total drops to about $830,000. And if she puts things off until age 30, she’d retire with $547,000.

So, how do you get started? You could always open a brokerage account or self-fund a retirement account, such as an IRA. Doing so requires just a few easy steps.

But if your employer offers a workplace retirement account, such as a 401(k), opting in may be an even easier way to get started. Designate a percentage of your salary to contribute to the account out of each paycheck and select one or more mutual funds for your portfolio.

These plans commonly hold low-cost, highly diversified options, such as index and target-date funds, which give investors exposure to large swaths of the market.

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A lot can change in 16 years.

In 2009, a drug conviction landed Coss Marte a seven-year prison sentence. This year, Marte expects to bring in as much as $12 million selling cannabis legally.

Marte, 39, is the founder and CEO of Conbud, one of the first businesses fully-licensed to sell recreational cannabis in Manhattan, and the first in the city’s Lower East Side. After first opening its doors in October 2023, Conbud added a second location in the Bronx last April.

Marte’s business currently brings in roughly $800,000 in sales per month, including nearly $100,000 in profit, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Marte projects a final tally of roughly $7 million for 2024, he says.

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After being granted an early release from prison in 2013, Marte launched a fitness business called Conbody, based on his workout regimen from behind bars. Then, in 2021, New York legalized the sale of recreational cannabis and expunged all past convictions for marijuana-related offenses.

A year later, the state announced that entrepreneurs with past marijuana convictions would be eligible to receive the first licenses for selling recreational weed. Given his experience running Conbody and the requirements laid out by the state for retail licensees, Marte saw a golden business opportunity, he says.

“I was following this law, and what they required was two years of a net profitable business and a conviction on your record,” says Marte. “Now, how many people have that to qualify for a cannabis license? Not many.”

Marte grew up on the Lower East Side, surrounded by an illicit drug trade that ensnared him at age 13, after he saw other teens making money that way, he says.

“When I was a kid, people would ask me: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ And I would say: ‘I want to be rich,’” says Marte. “The first opportunity was through the world of drugs. So I started dealing weed.”

In prison, doctors told Marte that he was overweight with dangerously high cholesterol. He started working out intensely, using body-weight exercises that he could do in his cell. Upon his release from prison, Marte connected with Defy Ventures, a nonprofit program offering entrepreneurship training and business mentoring to the formerly incarcerated.

With a $10,000 grant from Defy, Marte launched Conbody — which now brings in around $1 million in annual revenue, he says — in 2014.

Eight years later, Marte paid $2,000 to apply for a retail cannabis license. He put roughly $50,000 of his own savings into Conbud, mostly from Conbody and paid speaking engagements, he says — and raised nearly $1.2 million in additional seed funding from friends and family, who are now part-owners of the business.

Marte owns 51%, as New York requires the “justice-impacted” license-holder to retain majority ownership.

Conbud’s startup funds paid for a $400,000 security deposit at the Lower East Side retail location, construction costs, payroll and inventory, says Marte. The business opened its doors in October 2023, and brought in roughly $250,000 in revenue per month — until authorities shut down hundreds of unlicensed operators selling cannabis illegally last year.

The New York crackdown was a helpful development for licensed retailers like Marte, who face an uphill battle establishing long-term industry footholds.

The state’s Office of Cannabis Management has touted its commitment to prioritizing “social and economic equity” while growing the legal cannabis market, but critics worry that smaller shops will eventually get squeezed out by larger corporations with nationwide reach.

Curaleaf, for example, is one of the largest dispensary owners in the U.S. with annual revenues over $1.3 billion. The company began adult-use sales in Queens, New York, in 2023.

Even the simple cost of doing business — particularly rent and labor costs — is high, leaving Marte with a relatively slim 13% profit margin, he says. Should cannabis become legal on a federal level, Marte could access federal tax deductions for payroll and other business expenses, and expanded banking options with lower fees.

“So, that 13% will [eventually] grow to 25% profit margins,” he says.

Both Conbud and Conbody almost exclusively hire workers who have been “justice impacted,” meaning either they or a family member were incarcerated for a past drug conviction, says Marte. Collectively, he employs 72 people who fit that criteria.

Marte himself left prison with $40 and a bus ticket, only to “end up on my mom’s couch” while trying to figure out how he could make a living with a drug conviction on his record, he says. Without his own second chance, he’d likely never have found himself in this position, he notes.

“It’s a big, big community that’s growing with us,” says Marte. “I feel blessed, man.”

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While each job interview will be different, certain questions come up time and time again.

“Why do you want to work here?” and “Tell me about yourself?” are the two most commonly reported interview questions, according to an analysis by Final Round AI of nearly 200,000 interview reviews on Glassdoor at 179 American companies with more than 10,000 employees.

Preparing answers to common questions can help set the tone for the conversation, make a positive impression and boost your confidence during the interview.

Here are the three most reported interview questions according to Final Round AI and how to answer them according to experts:

Having a thorough and thoughtful answer to why you want to work at a company can help a recruiter assess how good of a fit you are for the role and differentiate you from someone who just wants any job on a list of jobs they’re applying to.

“Go the extra mile” and research the company beyond its homepage by exploring its mission, recent news, and employee reviews to uncover specific details that resonate with you, career coach Emily Liou told CNBC Make It in 2022.

Then consider finding a personal connection, such as sharing values with the company’s mission, to show you’ve thought deeply about the role, and finish by focusing on the impact you hope to make, illustrating how your skills can help solve a problem or contribute to a key initiative, Liou said.

“Tell me about yourself” is a common icebreaker in interviews, but it can be particularly challenging.

“If you have a long-winded, boring answer, it can bring a quick end to the interview,” Jeff Hyman, an executive recruiter told CNBC in August. “You don’t want to launch into a long summary of your life story and resume.”

Instead, Hyman said, focus on delivering a concise elevator pitch that highlights your strengths, relevant experience and enthusiasm for the role. You should tailor your response to the job you’re interviewing for, emphasizing the skills and experience most relevant to the position, William Vanderbloemen, the CEO of executive search firm Vanderbloemen Search Group, said in 2023.

Tell your hiring manager something they won’t know from your application, and provide specific examples of projects or accomplishments that had a measurable impact. Avoid overusing “we” and focus on your personal contributions to showcase your individual strengths, executive coach Vivian Garcia-Tunon said in 2019.

A good grasp of your strengths and weaknesses will help hiring managers gauge your self-awareness and ability to recognize areas for improvement, career coach J.T. O’Donnell said in 2020.

To start, O’Donnell said, seek feedback from former colleagues and managers about your strengths and areas for improvement, and then assess which traits are consistently mentioned.

When discussing strengths in an interview, back them up with specific examples of past successes, O’Donnell said. When discussing weaknesses, consider mentioning a weakness that won’t hinder your ability to perform the job — focusing 10% of your response on explaining the weakness and 90% on describing the steps you’re taking to improve it, career advice content creator Erin McGoff said in CNBC Make It’s How to Ace Your Job Interview course.

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Having a glass of wine a day has been often touted as a healthy choice for your heart. While there are warnings against using other substances like cigarettes, alcohol in moderation is typically considered fine — but that may be changing.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourages people to avoid large amounts of alcohol, and suggests sticking to two or fewer drinks daily for men and one or fewer drinks a day for women.

Yet, the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s newest Advisory suggests that even small amounts of alcohol could be harmful and may increase your risk of developing cancer.

“Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States – greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. – yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” the Surgeon General’s Advisory states.

His Advisory points to studies that have found a clear link between alcohol consumption and a higher risk of developing seven types of cancers including breast cancer.

“We now know that there is no safe level for alcohol consumption, and that alcohol is a known carcinogen,” says Dr. Faiz Bhora, a professor of surgery and regional chair of surgery at Hackensack Meridian Health and Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

“Its mechanism of cellular damage has been well established. It causes oxidative stress and impairs DNA repair, amongst other mechanisms that lead to cell cycle dysregulation and cancer formation.”

The Surgeon General is calling for manufacturers of alcoholic beverages like beer and spirits to update warning labels to include cancer risk. Currently, beverages containing alcohol mainly warn against consumption by pregnant people and driving under the influence.

“It’s more social and political pressures that are preventing us from doing the right thing, which actually would be to put a warning label on a substance that is clearly toxic,” Bhora tells CNBC Make It.

“Shares of alcohol manufacturers including Molson-Coors and Anheuser-Busch initially dipped more than 1% following the advisory,” CNBC reported.

Even prior claims that there are positive effects of having a glass of red wine a day are in question. Previous studies that have shown a small amount of alcohol daily can lower risk of cardiovascular disease are being called out for their methodology, according to The New York Times.

“One would be hard pressed to find benefits from alcohol consumption,” Bhora says. “Perhaps stress reduction with impairment of some emotional faculties [but] I’m not even sure if that is necessarily a good thing.”

“We’ve always heard these tales of 80- and 90-year-olds living healthy lives and sort of attributing it to a glass of wine or scotch. I’m not sure that there is any true scientific correlation to that,” he adds.

Alcohol consumption is deeply ingrained in our culture, Bhora says, and “people use it as a crutch for social interactions [and] for emotional reasons.” Yet people are now “very comfortable refusing alcohol at a restaurant or a party for health reasons, and I think that is an avenue that should be encouraged and supported as a first step.”

For starters, Bhora suggests “moving away from the concept of one drink every day is good or safe,” he says. Try to only drink alcohol on weekends if you’re cutting back on your intake and slowly eliminate it from your diet completely if you feel inclined to, Bhora says.

“When a lot of my friends and colleagues who have either stopped drinking alcohol or reduced consumption significantly, [they] have found it liberating,” Bhora says.

“They no longer need it for social interactions, have much more clarity of thought, and in many cases, actually end up being a lot more productive.”

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