This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

In 2021, Venus Wang found herself at a crossroads: newly divorced, unemployed, with less than $10,000 in cash savings and the primary parent to her child.

The divorce was a “wake-up call in my life,” the 37-year-old tells CNBC Make It. “I remember the personal identity shift was a very big thing for me — to transform from someone else’s wife to a single mom.”

She had been out of work for a year while caring for her daughter. Before that, she’d built a stable six-figure career managing procurement at a big tech company. Now, she needed to rebuild not just her career, but her financial future.

Wang reentered the workforce overseeing software quality and operations at Google. But within a year, she realized she wanted more than stability — she wanted growth. That push led her to pivot into artificial intelligence, betting on large language models before they were mainstream.

In just a few years, her work in AI nearly tripled her income, rising from $300,000 to nearly $1 million. Today, as a principal product manager at a major tech company, Wang has built a seven-figure investment portfolio and is on track for financial independence — something that once felt impossible when she was starting over.

Wang was born and raised in Kaifeng, a small city in central China, where she felt pressured to follow a set path. “There was a lot of expectation put on me from teachers, family and later from my boss at work,” she says. They wanted her to live life “in a certain way, by a certain age” and that they had “a certain criteria of what success looks like.”

But Wang wanted to choose her own path: “I didn’t feel like I had enough of the freedom to live the life that I wanted, which pushed me to have this idea of moving abroad and living in a different environment,” she says.

In 2013, she moved to the U.S. to earn an MBA at Duke University​. The transition wasn’t easy, especially when it came to language. “When I first arrived in the U.S., my English was bad, it was terrible,” she recalls​. But she worked at it. “Gradually, as I practiced more, it just got better over the years.”

Life in the U.S. was different in other ways, too. “People here are very independent,” she says. Back in China, her life revolved around family and community, with expectations tied to relationships and tradition. But in the U.S., she found more freedom to make her own choices, both professionally and personally.

After earning her MBA in 2015, Wang landed a six-figure job as a sourcing manager for the hardware division of a tech company in Seattle, laying the groundwork for the career she would later use to rebuild her finances.

Wang left her job in 2020 after relocating to New York City for her husband’s work. She had already planned to take a year off to raise her daughter when the pandemic hit in early 2020, keeping her at home full-time as the world shut down.

Then, in 2021, her marriage ended. Suddenly, Wang was a single mom, unemployed and facing an uncertain future.

“When we were splitting up, I took a really hard look at my personal finances,” she says. “I had less than $10,000 in cash and roughly $40,000 in my IRA. And that’s pretty much it. It was pretty shocking for me to come to that realization. … I started to realize that up until that point, I had managed my personal finances really terribly.”

Wang relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and reentered the workforce, overseeing software quality and operations at Google, ensuring reliability for products like Google Drive and Gmail. The role paid around $300,000, providing the financial stability she needed to support her daughter and rebuild her savings.

“I had to make a really drastic change in terms of my mindset,” says Wang. “This is not only just about me anymore. This is also about me taking care of my daughter’s future as well.”​

After nearly a year at Google, Wang started feeling stagnant. “I started to realize that I was not pushing myself enough, I didn’t feel like I was growing enough,” she says​. 

Instead of staying in her comfort zone, she set her sights on Google’s AI technology, recognizing its potential and impact. In 2022, she transitioned to a team working on large language models, helping oversee the development of tools like chatbots and AI assistants.

Over the next three years, Wang took on three different roles in AI, leaving Google in 2024 to join a startup for about a year before returning to a major tech company.

“I’m always looking for areas where I can be a student instead of being the teacher,” she says, believing that continuous learning drives long-term growth.

The moves helped her nearly triple her annual income from $300,000 to $970,000, including equity and bonuses, within three years. In the fast-growing AI industry, experienced professionals are scarce — and that scarcity drives up salaries. “The market is very competitive,” she says. “Everyone is trying to get the best talent.”

While the salary is a major perk, Wang finds the work itself just as rewarding. “When I walk into the office, I know I’m working on something really important to the future of this technology and that most excites me,” she says.

With a disciplined approach to saving and a focus on long-term financial goals, Wang maintains a frugal lifestyle despite her high income. Here’s how she spent her money in October 2024.

• Savings and investments: $52,118 towards brokerage account, HSA, Dependent FSA
• Rent: $3,458
• Discretionary: $2,322 for travel, clothes, flowers, life coach session
• Transportation: $642 for EV payment, charging station
• Food: $589 on groceries and dining out
• Subscriptions and memberships: $323 for Audible, cloud storage, Lululemon Studio Mirror, gym
• Insurance: $312 for health, dental, vision, car, renters
• Utilities: $174 for Wi-Fi, heat, electricity
• Phone: $32

Wang’s biggest financial priority is investing for the future — both her own and her daughter’s. In 2024, she contributed an average of $35,000 per month to her investment accounts, though it varied month to month.

By October, she had already maxed out her 401(k) and an individual retirement account, so most of her $52,118 in contributions that month went into a brokerage account, with about $1,000 allocated to her health savings account and dependent flexible spending account.

Her disciplined approach has helped her build a seven-figure portfolio — a level of savings that makes early retirement a possibility. “I am getting to a point where I can retire early if I want, but I choose not to because to me, my work is very fulfilling,” she says.

Despite earning nearly $1 million per year, Wang keeps her expenses low, choosing to rent a 2-bedroom apartment rather than buying one in expensive Palo Alto. “When I run the math, the amount of interest I would end up paying would be way more than the rent I’m currently paying,” she says. “I would rather put the money toward investments and let it grow.”

Wang still shops secondhand, reselling items when she’s done with them, and rarely indulges in luxury purchases. “I try to live frugally because I know that long-term financial security matters more than short-term luxuries,” she says. 

Despite her disciplined approach to spending, Wang has allowed herself small indulgences as her income has grown. She spends more on travel, fitness and no longer stresses over grocery prices the way she once did.

“I used to go into grocery stores, look at the price tag and think [about whether] I should get raspberries versus strawberries, but now I can get both,” she says.

For Wang, financial independence isn’t about quitting work — it’s about the freedom that comes with wealth.

“I believe that financial independence is actually not so much about finance,” she says. “It’s more about the independence part, where you feel that you have this freedom to be able to make the choice in your career, in your life, that you like. And that’s more valuable to me.”

Wang says even if she retired early, she would still learn about AI because it’s interesting to her.

“I can go into the office every day and ask myself, ‘Am I working on something that’s important for this company, am I working on something that’s important for my career growth and am I learning new things every day?’” she says. “If I can answer those three questions as, ‘Yes,’ I think that’s a fulfilling career for me.”

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The amount of space a $300,000 budget buys you in the U.S. housing market can vary wildly depending on your location.

In Hawaii, $300,000 covers just 443 square feet, about the size of a 53-foot-long domestic shipping container. But in West Virginia, the same budget stretches to 2,185 square feet, offering four times as much space.

That’s according to a recent GOBankingRates study, which analyzed median home price per square foot to show how far $300,000 goes in each state. The study used home price data from the Federal Reserve of St. Louis and housing cost indexes from the Missouri Economic and Research Information Center to calculate how much homebuyers can afford in each state as of January 2025.

A $300,000 budget buys less than 1,000 square feet of space in seven states, most of which are known for high housing costs, including New York and California. Nationwide, $300,000 typically buys a median of 1,511 square feet, which holds true in about half of all states, according to the data.

But unfortunately, $300,000 is less than what most people need to buy a home. The median U.S. home price is $419,200, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Even with a 20% down payment — about $83,840 — buyers would still need to finance approximately $335,000 to buy a typical home.

In expensive markets like Los Angeles, where median home prices can exceed $1 million, a $300,000 budget might not even cover the down payment. As a result, buyers in these high-cost areas are often forced into much smaller properties or to look to surrounding suburbs where prices might be more manageable.

The study also looked at what $400,000 and $500,000 can buy, with square footage comparisons for each state. Here’s how far various homebuying budgets go in all 50 U.S. states, listed alphabetically.

• $300,000: 1,876 square feet
• $400,000: 2,501 square feet
• $500,000: 3,126 square feet
• Price per square foot: $160

• $300,000: 1,137 square feet
• $400,000: 1,516 square feet
• $500,000: 1,895 square feet
• Price per square foot: $264

• $300,000: 985 square feet
• $400,000: 1,313 square feet
• $500,000: 1,641 square feet
• Price per square foot: $305

• $300,000: 1,781 square feet
• $400,000: 2,375 square feet
• $500,000: 2,968 square feet
• Price per square foot: $168

• $300,000: 641 square feet
• $400,000: 854 square feet
• $500,000: 1,068 square feet
• Price per square foot: $468

• $300,000: 1,245 square feet
• $400,000: 1,660 square feet
• $500,000: 2,075 square feet
• Price per square foot: $241

• $300,000: 1,143 square feet
• $400,000: 1,524 square feet
• $500,000: 1,905 square feet
• Price per square foot: $263

• $300,000: 1,388 square feet
• $400,000: 1,850 square feet
• $500,000: 2,313 square feet
• Price per square foot: $216

• $300,000: 1,244 square feet
• $400,000: 1,658 square feet
• $500,000: 2,073 square feet
• Price per square foot: $241

• $300,000: 1,691 square feet
• $400,000: 2,254 square feet
• $500,000: 2,818 square feet
• Price per square foot: $177

• $300,000: 443 square feet
• $400,000: 590 square feet
• $500,000: 738 square feet
• Price per square foot: $678

• $300,000: 1,351 square feet
• $400,000: 1,802 square feet
• $500,000: 2,252 square feet
• Price per square foot: $222

• $300,000: 1,591 square feet
• $400,000: 2,121 square feet
• $500,000: 2,651 square feet
• Price per square foot: $189

• $300,000: 1,733 square feet
• $400,000: 2,310 square feet
• $500,000: 2,888 square feet
• Price per square foot: $173

• $300,000: 1,776 square feet
• $400,000: 2,368 square feet
• $500,000: 2,960 square feet
• Price per square foot: $169

• $300,000: 1,894 square feet
• $400,000: 2,526 square feet
• $500,000: 3,157 square feet
• Price per square foot: $158

• $300,000: 1,721 square feet
• $400,000: 2,295 square feet
• $500,000: 2,869 square feet
• Price per square foot: $174

• $300,000: 1,587 square feet
• $400,000: 2,116 square feet
• $500,000: 2,645 square feet
• Price per square foot: $189

• $300,000: 986 square feet
• $400,000: 1,314 square feet
• $500,000: 1,643 square feet
• Price per square foot: $304

• $300,000: 1,629 square feet
• $400,000: 2,172 square feet
• $500,000: 2,715 square feet
• Price per square foot: $184

• $300,000: 593 square feet
• $400,000: 790 square feet
• $500,000: 988 square feet
• Price per square foot: $506

• $300,000: 1,706 square feet
• $400,000: 2,275 square feet
• $500,000: 2,843 square feet
• Price per square foot: $176

• $300,000: 1,668 square feet
• $400,000: 2,224 square feet
• $500,000: 2,780 square feet
• Price per square foot: $180

• $300,000: 1,855 square feet
• $400,000: 2,473 square feet
• $500,000: 3,092 square feet
• Price per square foot: $162

• $300,000: 1,704 square feet
• $400,000: 2,272 square feet
• $500,000: 2,840 square feet
• Price per square foot: $176

• $300,000: 1,583 square feet
• $400,000: 2,111 square feet
• $500,000: 2,638 square feet
• Price per square foot: $190

• $300,000: 1,685 square feet
• $400,000: 2,246 square feet
• $500,000: 2,808 square feet
• Price per square foot: $178

• $300,000: 1,254 square feet
• $400,000: 1,672 square feet
• $500,000: 2,090 square feet
• Price per square foot: $239

• $300,000: 1,153 square feet
• $400,000: 1,537 square feet
• $500,000: 1,921 square feet
• Price per square foot: $260

• $300,000: 969 square feet
• $400,000: 1,292 square feet
• $500,000: 1,615 square feet
• Price per square foot: $310

• $300,000: 1,577 square feet
• $400,000: 2,103 square feet
• $500,000: 2,629 square feet
• Price per square foot: $190

• $300,000: 787 square feet
• $400,000: 1,049 square feet
• $500,000: 1,311 square feet
• Price per square foot: $381

• $300,000: 1,401 square feet
• $400,000: 1,868 square feet
• $500,000: 2,335 square feet
• Price per square foot: $214

• $300,000: 1,678 square feet
• $400,000: 2,238 square feet
• $500,000: 2,797 square feet
• Price per square foot: $179

• $300,000: 1,529 square feet
• $400,000: 2,038 square feet
• $500,000: 2,548 square feet
• Price per square foot: $196

• $300,000: 1,793 square feet
• $400,000: 2,391 square feet
• $500,000: 2,988 square feet
• Price per square foot: $167

• $300,000: 1,017 square feet
• $400,000: 1,356 square feet
• $500,000: 1,695 square feet
• Price per square foot: $295

• $300,000: 1,604 square feet
• $400,000: 2,139 square feet
• $500,000: 2,673 square feet
• Price per square foot: $187

• $300,000: 1,171 square feet
• $400,000: 1,561 square feet
• $500,000: 1,951 square feet
• Price per square foot: $256

• $300,000: 1,550 square feet
• $400,000: 2,067 square feet
• $500,000: 2,584 square feet
• Price per square foot: $194

• $300,000: 1,493 square feet
• $400,000: 1,991 square feet
• $500,000: 2,488 square feet
• Price per square foot: $201

• $300,000: 1,617 square feet
• $400,000: 2,157 square feet
• $500,000: 2,696 square feet
• Price per square foot: $185

• $300,000: 1,647 square feet
• $400,000: 2,196 square feet
• $500,000: 2,746 square feet
• Price per square foot: $182

• $300,000: 1,033 square feet
• $400,000: 1,377 square feet
• $500,000: 1,721 square feet
• Price per square foot: $291

• $300,000: 1,006 square feet
• $400,000: 1,342 square feet
• $500,000: 1,677 square feet
• Price per square foot: $298

• $300,000: 1,290 square feet
• $400,000: 1,720 square feet
• $500,000: 2,150 square feet
• Price per square foot: $233

• $300,000: 1,057 square feet
• $400,000: 1,409 square feet
• $500,000: 1,762 square feet
• Price per square foot: $284

• $300,000: 2,185 square feet
• $400,000: 2,913 square feet
• $500,000: 3,641 square feet
• Price per square foot: $137

• $300,000: 1,360 square feet
• $400,000: 1,813 square feet
• $500,000: 2,266 square feet
• Price per square foot: $221

• $300,000: 1,486 square feet
• $400,000: 1,982 square feet
• $500,000: 2,477 square feet
• Price per square foot: $202

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Kids who communicate well, handle emotions effectively and build healthy relationships aren’t just naturally skilled at social interactions. They’ve learned these skills from their parents or trusted adults.

I’ve worked with thousands of kids and families, often helping them navigate tough moments. People skills — like empathy, communication, boundary-setting and conflict resolution — are crucial during life’s biggest challenges. They also shape how kids handle everyday stress, friendships and family dynamics. 

Here are six things that parents who raise kids with strong people skills do on a regular basis:

Rather than shielding their kids and avoiding difficult topics like illness, death or big life changes, these parents build trusting relationships by approaching tough conversations with openness, honesty and compassion.

They use simple, clear language and invite questions, teaching children that it’s okay to talk about uncomfortable topics and to seek support. 

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Parents who create a home environment where kids feel safe expressing their thoughts and emotions raise children who have an easier time communicating and advocating for themselves. 

These parents are comfortable naming and showing their own emotions in front of their kids, including joy and playfulness in difficult times. 

When their children feel frustrated, sad or overwhelmed, they don’t dismiss those emotions or say things like, “Don’t cry,” “It’s not a big deal,” or “You’re okay.” Instead, they validate their child’s experience:

• “It’s okay to cry. I’m here with you.”
• “I see you’re feeling upset.”
• “Your feelings make sense.”

This teaches kids that all feelings are okay, helps them learn and practice coping strategies to regulate their emotions, and allows them to feel safe expressing themselves. 

When conflicts or challenges arise, these parents don’t force quick apologies. Instead, they guide their children to consider the other person’s feelings, asking questions like:

• “How do you think your friend feels about what just happened?”
• “Does your sibling seem okay right now?”
• “What do you think would help them feel better?”

This helps kids develop perspective-taking skills, gives them a better understanding of what’s within their control, and shows them how both their actions and external factors impact others — ultimately making their apologies more meaningful and their relationships stronger.

Rather than immediately stepping in to fix conflicts or ease discomfort, these parents empower their kids to navigate challenges themselves. Instead of dictating solutions, they ask:

• “What do you think we could try to make this better?”
• “Would you like some ideas, or do you want to try something first?”

They help their children recognize when they need to set a boundary, teaching them to express limits clearly and respectfully:

• “I don’t like that. Please stop.”
• “I need some space right now.”
• “I’m not comfortable with that.”

By combining problem-solving with boundary-setting, parents help their kids develop the confidence to advocate for themselves and work through social challenges. They also recognize that not every situation has a clear solution or a quick fix — and in those moments, they focus on providing support. 

Instead of pushing their kids into new interactions and hoping they’ll figure it out, these parents set kids up for success by preparing them ahead of time and giving them opportunities to practice.

They help their kids feel more confident by:

• Talking about what to expect before a new event, like a medical procedure or birthday party: “We’re going to the doctor for a check-up. They’ll measure how you’re growing, listen to your heart and lungs, and look inside your ears, nose, and mouth.”
• Role-playing tricky interactions, such as advocating for their needs. “Let’s practice what you might say if someone keeps asking why you can’t eat the cupcake.”
• Teaching them how to set boundaries in social situations: “If someone is pressuring you to do something that feels unsafe or unkind, what can you say?”

Play isn’t just about having fun. The parents I’ve seen raise socially and emotionally skilled kids aren’t afraid to be silly, but they also understand that play is a child’s natural way of processing emotions, working through challenges, and building relationships. They:

• Engage in play to help kids work through tricky situations or feelings: “Whoa! Lets get those mad feelings out in a safe way. Can you pretend to be a bear or imagine blowing out birthday candles!?”
• Prioritize unstructured play time for kids to feel connected and build their own creativity, cooperation and confidence: “You have my undivided attention right now. What would you like to play? I want you to be in charge of the game.” 
• Use playful moments to prepare for new experiences and teach boundaries, empathy and communication: “Teddy needs a check up! Can you play doctor with him?”

By valuing play, these parents establish connection and trust while helping their kids develop social and emotional skills that are critical for their growth and development — and will serve them for a lifetime. 

Kelsey Mora is Certified Child Life Specialist and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor who provides custom support, guidance, and resources to parents, families, and communities impacted by medical conditions, trauma, grief, and everyday life stress. She is a private practice owner, mom of two, the creator and author of The Method Workbooks, and the Chief Clinical Officer of the nonprofit organization Pickles Group.

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Throughout her career, Elizabeth Gore, 47, has had a passion for entrepreneurs. “I really had a fever, which I still do, about small business,” she says.

Gore grew up in Texas and got her bachelor’s in animal sciences at Texas A&M University, initially thinking she would work on her family’s cattle farm. A college internship for a senator on Capitol Hill convinced her to pivot, and she ultimately worked at the United Nations Foundation for nine years helping building initiatives like Girl Up. It was there that she “got really obsessed with how critical small business owners are to the world,” she says, working with them in various capacities.

In 2017, after leaving the UN Foundation and working with entrepreneurs at Dell as their entrepreneur in residence, she co-founded a company herself: Hello Alice, a tech platform which helps entrepreneurs gain “access to capital like grants, loans, credit,” she says, as well as offering business planning tools and mentorship.

To date, Hello Alice has helped 1.5 million small business owners and contributed $52 million in grants, says Gore. Here’s how she built her career.  

At the UN Foundation, Gore started seeing the power of assisting small business owners through small loans.

“I was looking at the developing world, and particularly women,” she says. The theory was, “if they were able to make their own income, they could pay for family health care and their kids could go to school.”

As an entrepreneur in residence at Dell, she helped new companies through the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network, which ensured “that our female customers had the technology they needed to scale,” she says.

That experience taught her “how critical small business owners are in our country,” she says. “They are the largest job producers” in the U.S. But it also taught her about some of the challenges they face.

“I was shocked at how hard it was [to start your own business] in the U.S.,” she says, adding that that was particularly true “for women, people of color, our veterans,” who might not have the same types of resources other communities do to get started. In 2024, female-founded companies got just 2% of VC capital, according to Pitchbook.

Gore started running into her future Hello Alice co-founder, Carolyn Rodz, at various events and conferences. Rodz, who’d come from a financial and entrepreneurship background herself, was also passionate about serving small businesses.

Rodz saw the challenges the community faced “as less of a problem and more as this big opportunity,” says Gore. Around 2014, while attending a conference, the two started mapping out their new tech platform, which could address some of the challenges small businesses in America face. They ultimately launched Hello Alice in 2017 as a business that could “fuel and fund itself,” says Gore.

The company has since raised $28 million in multiple rounds of funding, says Gore. Their biggest profit area is a business health score tool they license to banks, fintech companies and others, says Gore, which they launched in April 2023.

To use the platform, entrepreneurs sign up for free and receive a tailored dashboard with grant listings, educational content and networking opportunities. Hello Alice also sends email alerts about new grants, funding programs and relevant resources based on the user’s business profile.

Down the line, Hello Alice hopes to adopt AI to help run their platform by analyzing business data in real time, providing personalized recommendations and anticipating challenges through predictive analytics.

Beyond giving entrepreneurs tools to grow, Hello Alice “advocates on behalf of our small business owners” to ensure policymakers create legislation that supports them, she says. “We are really passionate about showing that they are literally the beating heart of this country.”

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Most couples think they know each other well, but real intimacy is a lot more than just being able to name your partner’s favorite food or TV shows.

As a psychologist, I’ve found that people in the happiest, most successful relationships see in their partner what others can’t or would normally overlook.

If you can answer these five questions below about your partner, your relationship is built on a highly coveted level of understanding and connection. (And if you don’t know the answers? It’s the perfect excuse to start asking.)

We all have those moments that stick with us for life — something a high school teacher said in passing, a compliment from a stranger or a minor rejection that still stings years later.

These events might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but they can radically alter the way we see ourselves, and they rarely come up in casual conversation.

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If you know about one of these small core memories in your partner’s life, it means you’ve had the kind of deep conversations that reveal the invisible threads of their personhood.

When life gets hectic, everyone has their own way of mentally checking out. Some fantasize about quitting their job and moving to a remote island. Others scroll real estate listings for cities they’ll never move to, or envision alternate versions of their life.

This is so much more than just a quirky habit; it’s a window into how your partner copes with stress. If you know the answer, it means you understand their inner workings, and that’s a rare kind of closeness.

We all have social scenarios that make us feel uneasy. Maybe your partner dreads small talk at parties, or they hate ordering at a restaurant in a group setting.

Knowing what makes your partner uncomfortable means you can be a source of support in situations where they might otherwise just grin and bear it. This is a sign that you’re truly attuned to their subtle mood changes — something that the untrained eye wouldn’t notice.

Whether we like it or not, we inherit certain habits from our upbringing — some good, some bad. For example, maybe your partner has a hard time accepting compliments because they never got any growing up.

If you know what habit your partner struggles with, it means you’ve had the vulnerable conversations about the family dynamics that shaped them into who they are today. These are the kinds of details most people don’t get the chance to learn, or simply don’t care to.

Everyone has accomplishments that they’re secretly proud of, but refrain from announcing to the world.

Maybe your partner once helped a stranger in a way that changed their life, or they pushed through a health, family or finance-related struggle that no one knows about. 

If you know about any of their unsung victories, it means your partner feels safe enough to share their most humble, meaningful moments with you. That kind of trust is invaluable in a relationship.

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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