Teens dreaming of lucrative tech careers should seize on the opportunity to hone their artificial intelligence skills by immersing themselves in the growing number of AI-powered code generation tools, says billionaire Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang.

“You just have to figure out how to use the tools maximally,” Wang said on a recent episode of the “TBPN” podcast that aired on September 17.

When asked for his best advice for young people, Wang said, “it’s impossible to understate the degree to which I’ve been radicalized by AI coding.”

AI coding, also called “vibe coding,” involves using artificial intelligence to generate original software code simply by typing out commands and instructions. AI coding apps, like Replit and Cursor, allow you to write code, or even develop a new app, without any coding or computer engineering expertise.

“It’s actually, in some ways, this incredible moment of discontinuity where, if you just happen to spend, like, 10,000 hours playing with the tools and figuring out how to use them better than other people, that’s a huge advantage,” said Wang, who co-founded Scale AI in 2016 and helped build it into a tech unicorn that was most recently valued at $29 billion.

Wang compared the current moment of rapid technological advancement to the early days of the computer revolution, when people like “the Bill Gates’ of the world” capitalized on being early adopters of computers and software.

Indeed, the Microsoft co-founder has said he spent his teen years sneaking out of his parents’ house at night to spend hours learning to write software code, thanks to a fortuitous arrangement he had with a local Seattle company that gave him free computer access.

Wang believes this era’s teens would be wise to follow Gates’ approach by spending as much time as possible learning to use AI coding tools: “That moment is happening right now — and if you are, like, 13 years old, you should spend all of your time vibe coding,” he said on the podcast. “That’s how you should live your life.”

AI’s coding ability will match Wang’s ‘within the next five years’

Wang — who has an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes, and was poached by Meta in June to serve as the tech giant’s new chief AI officer — is serious about AI’s coding potential. Even with his massive success and standing in the industry, even Wang believes that “literally all the code I’ve written in my life … will be able to have been produced by an AI model within the next five years,” he told “TBPN.” [<-would tighten this to:

Wang has an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes, and was poached by Meta in June to serve as chief AI officer. Despite his massive success and standing in the industry, even Wang believes that “literally all the code I’ve written in my life … will be able to have been produced by an AI model within the next five years,” he told “TBPN.”

The idea of AI programs potentially being able to replicate the work of even the best coders in the world is already feeding concerns about software programming remaining a promising career choice. Companies are already increasing their use of AI coding programs, and in some cases using them to replace human programmers.

But Wang and others in the industry still believe in the value of teens learning programming skills, especially in concert with familiarizing themselves with relevant AI tools that can potentially help maximize those skills. 

“As coding becomes easier, more people should code, not fewer!” Andrew Ng, co-founder of the Google Brain research lab, wrote in a LinkedIn post in March, adding: “One of the most important skills in the future will be the ability to tell a computer exactly what you want, so it can do that for you.”

Ng called this “the best time yet to learn to code,” noting in the post that workers with strong coding skills will be able to use AI coding tools more effectively than anyone else, making them desirable to employers who are already seeking out employees with AI skills. And, while anyone can use AI tools to generate code and create new apps and startups, entrepreneurs “who understand the language of software through their knowledge of coding” are able to communicate what they want AI to build “much more precisely” than anyone else can, Ng added. 

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Five years ago, I quit my unfulfilling 9-to-5 job as a higher education administrator and began selling digital products on Etsy. 

Today, I make an average of $14,000 per month in passive income from seven income streams, including my Etsy store, my blog, real estate investments and stock appreciation. I also recently became a self-made millionaire.

It wasn’t an easy road, and I definitely had a few missteps along the way. But I learned how to find my niche, run a business and build the life I want doing what I love.

Here’s my best advice for starting a successful side hustle:

One common mistake people make is trying to juggle so many income streams that they start to lose focus. But most people I know who’ve built a profitable business didn’t start out creating their income streams all at the same time.

I’ve met many new side hustlers who start dabbling in stocks, launch a Shopify store and then look at real estate — all at the same time. This usually results in burnout, overwhelm and even debt. 

Instead, build one solid stream, master it, then move to the next. 

When I first started my side hustle, I made a few bucks here and there, but nothing to write home about.

It wasn’t until nine months after my launch that my Etsy store started making thousands of dollars a month and eventually allowed me to quit my full-time job. 

Success doesn’t happen in a single viral post or overnight launch. It comes from showing up, adjusting and staying in the game long enough to see your knowledge and efforts compound.

When I started learning about business, I tried to DIY everything myself. I would watch free content on YouTube and Instagram, and read books from the library. But after I bought a course about how to sell on Etsy, things started to shift. 

Looking back and knowing myself more, I think “learning the hard way” took too long. I would try to learn, struggle alone, not see any progress, then lose motivation. I didn’t want to keep learning because I wasn’t seeing any results. 

But when I invested a small amount of money into a course and a community of people working on the same thing, I was able to learn, struggle, get help and achieve small wins. My motivation would go up, and I would want to repeat the cycle. 

I’ve met many business owners who have a lot of money, but they don’t have time. It’s important to be strategic in creating the life you want. 

For example, you can sell goods at local farmers’ markets on the weekends. But before setting up that side hustle, it’s important to figure out when those markets are open and ask yourself if you’re willing to give up weekends to sell your products. 

Of course, you can hire employees to help you eventually. But that will also cut into your profits, and might not be possible in the beginning.

The most successful people I know have a growth mindset. They believe that their abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. 

Because of this foundational belief, they aren’t afraid to step into unknown territories and learn. On the other hand, people with a fixed mindset don’t believe in their ability to grow and learn, so they never try, which leaves them feeling stuck. 

Building multiple income streams and becoming a millionaire isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s about staying focused, learning as you go, and not giving up. 

You’ll make mistakes (I’ve made plenty), but with the right mindset, each mistake teaches you something that gets you closer to your goals. Keep going, tweak what’s not working, celebrate the wins, even the small ones, and remember: Progress beats perfection every time.

Rachel Jimenez is an entrepreneur, professor and mom of two. She has a passion for helping others achieve their personal, professional and passive income goals. She runs an Etsy store and a blog, Money Hacking Mama, where she shares financial wisdom and practical advice for women navigating their careers, businesses and life.

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As the cost of attending college continues to rise, so do home prices in college towns across the U.S.

The most expensive college town, ranked by median home-sale price, is Santa Barbara, California, where homes sold for a median price of $1,964,170 from January to July of this year, according to a Redfin analysis published last week.

In the analysis, Redfin defines college towns as cities where at least 10% of the population consists of students enrolled at a four-year accredited university, located at least 30 miles away from a metropolitan area with a population of more than 1 million people.

Boca Raton, Florida, home to Florida Atlantic University, and Northern Arizona University’s college town of Flagstaff, Arizona, rounded out the top three most expensive college towns, according to the report.

These are the 10 most expensive college towns ranked by median home-sale price.

• Notable college: University of California, Santa Barbara
• Median home sale price: $1,964,170

• Notable college: Florida Atlantic University
• Median home sale price: $822,701

• Notable college: Northern Arizona University
• Median home sale price: $695,902

• Notable college: Oregon State University
• Median home sale price: $568,507

• Notable college: Utah Valley University
• Median home sale price: $517,224

• Notable college: University of Oregon
• Median home sale price: $501,571

• Notable college: Brigham Young University
• Median home sale price: $474,745

• Notable college: University of Michigan
• Median home sale price: $464,495

• Notable college: University of New Hampshire, Manchester and Southern New Hampshire University
• Median home sale price: $456,096

• Notable college: Washington State University
• Median home sale price: $452,137

While most college students are more likely to rent during their time in these places, home prices in college towns can give a general sense of how expensive local rental costs are, said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather in the report.

″[Housing costs] in some college towns have climbed so high they’re increasingly out of reach for students, faculty and staff,” Fairweather said. This can force faculty and staff to live farther from campus and may even discourage some professors from accepting jobs there.

For students who have to pay tuition, additional housing expenses can lead to increased debt or require them to live further from school, Fairweather said.

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It’s been a terrific year for stocks so far. Despite some turbulence in the spring, the S&P 500, a measure of the broad U.S. stock market, is up more than 12% since the year began.

It’s a runup that has some market watchers wondering if investors have gotten out over their skis. In a speech in Rhode Island on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell fielded a question about how central bankers factor market prices into their decision making.

“We do look at overall financial conditions, and we ask ourselves whether our policies are affecting financial conditions in a way that is what we’re trying to achieve,” Powell said. “But you’re right, by many measures, for example, equity prices are fairly highly valued.” 

Powell doesn’t just mean that stock prices are flirting with record highs. He means that stocks are looking overvalued — a sentiment that sent markets slightly lower.

“Probably the oldest tenet in investing is ‘buy low, sell high,’” Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA, previously told CNBC Make It. While a long-term, diversified approach is typically recommended for everyday investors, the professionals are also attuned to the market’s cycles. They typically hope to buy when stocks are cheap and sell when they’re expensive.

It’s impossible to know which “measures” Powell is looking at. But often, when experts value stocks, they generally they look at price-to-earnings ratio. The popular valuation metric, also known as P/E, currently shows that stocks are, indeed, pricey. In fact, the S&P 500 currently trades at a 41% premium to its 20-year average, according to CFRA.

To determine how attractively a stock is priced, Wall Street analysts don’t just look at the share price. Instead, they compare the price with one of the company’s underlying fundamentals, such as sales, cash flow or, most popularly, earnings.

Because investors reap the rewards of corporate profitability over time, they’re willing to pay more than the company brings in, in order to own a piece of it, in the form of stock. This amount is expressed by dividing the share price by the company’s earnings per share to get the price-to-earnings ratio.

If a stock sells for $10 and is projected to realize $2 in earnings per share over the next 12 months, it has a P/E of 5.

In a vacuum, that doesn’t mean much. But it’s a great way to compare one investment to another, or to compare an asset or an index to a historical average.

Looking at the S&P 500, stocks in the index currently trade at 23.8 times their projected earnings over the next 12 months. Over the past two decades, the index has an average P/E of 16.8. That means stocks are about 41% more expensive now than they have been over the past 20 years.

Applying the same logic, you could say that the S&P’s P/E high ratio means that U.S. stocks are more expensive than international firms, whose S&P indexes trade at a P/E of 15.7. You could also say that a small-company index, such as the S&P SmallCap 600, with its P/E of 17.1, trades at a discount to the large-company S&P 500.

None of that is to say that the S&P will go down tomorrow or that foreign stocks or smaller-company stocks will outperform over the next year. Historically, the market operates in cycles, with different asset classes taking turns in the proverbial lead.

Over the long run, the fast-growing names that lead the market lose their luster, and prices come down, while under-loved, “value” stocks return to the fore, Charles Rotblut, vice president of the American Association of Individual Investors, previously told CNBC Make It.

He doesn’t advise making wholesale changes to your portfolio based on short-term conditions in the market, but says it’s worth paying attention to where things stand in a cyclical market and making sure you’re adequately diversified.

“We know over the long term, there are periods where growth outperforms and there’s periods where value outperforms, so we do see that pendulum swinging back and forth,” Rotblut says. “I don’t think this time is any different.”

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If Olipop co-founder and CEO Ben Goodwin had to start his career over from square one, he would not prioritize learning to use artificial intelligence or any other technical skills, he says.

For 40-year-old Goodwin, soft skills are the real driver of success and building those would be his first priority.

“Things that have been really important for me have been believing in myself, emotional regulation, things like storytelling, getting as good as possible at leading people as quickly as possible,” says Goodwin, adding that he’s been able to supplement his technical skills by hiring the right talent. ”[There are] a billion people who are better at Excel than me.”

Goodwin, alongside co-founder David Lester, launched the prebiotic soda brand Olipop in 2018 to offer consumers a “healthier” alternative to the many popular sugar-packed drinks on the market. The company made $852,000 in gross revenue in its first year of business. Fast-forward to February 2025, Olipop was valued at $1.85 billion after raising $50 million in a Series C funding round.

Though Goodwin also serves as the company’s lead formulator, making him hands-on in creating new Olipop flavors, he says empathy, having a clear vision for the brand and connecting with others are the traits and skills he’s needed most to help drive the business forward as CEO. 

’When I think of the arc of all the stuff where I actually can provide long-term value … It’s just keeping us really locked on target for the vision of the mission, making sure standards are being set correctly, and just providing that connection and leadership glue,” says Goodwin. “Almost all of this is interpersonal.”

That’s why, though AI-relevant technical skills are in high demand and many employers and business leaders view them as a nonnegotiable as more work becomes automated, those skills are simply not as important for Goodwin, he says.

“I actually have been avoiding AI,” he says. “I don’t need anything else to chip away at my critical thinking skills. I’ve not been investing in [my own] AI skills.”

Goodwin isn’t the only CEO touting the importance of soft skills — and the reason actually has everything to do with AI. As workplaces become more automated, employers are placing a lot of value on those interpersonal skills that humans can still master far better than any AI programs, according to Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman. LinkedIn’s “Skills on the Rise 2025” report also shows that people skills are becoming more in-demand on the job search platform.

“You’re going to want to be creative. You’re going to want to be [good at] critical thinking. And you’re going to want to be flexible,” Garman told CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” on Aug. 8. “I think the ability to learn new things and adapt is going to be just as important as any particular skill that you learn.”

You probably already exercise these people skills — empathy, adaptability, critical thinking, networking and leadership — in some capacity at work or in life, and you can strengthen them with some intentional practice and self-awareness, according to experts like leadership strategist Talia Fox.

For example, the next time you have a conversation with someone, practice active listening and try to ask deep, insightful questions to build emotional intelligence, Fox told CNBC Make It in March 2024.

You can boost your critical thinking the same way, research shows: Ask thoughtful questions and step out of your comfort zone. Grabbing lunch with a colleague you don’t usually speak to or attending a work conference can build adaptability and networking skills.

Professionals with these qualities are highly desirable in Goodwin’s eyes, he said, as they help create an “energized and inspired workforce.”

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