CNBC Make It

Jon Stross has been building technology to help people get new jobs for over a decade, but he’s not convinced today’s hiring tools are all that effective. Stross is the president and co-founder of Greenhouse, the hiring platform, and has seen a lot of tech and AI advancements in hiring since his business launched in 2012. Despite some of their benefits, the integration of AI into modern hiring practices isn’t working, he says: “All the AI stuff isn’t actually helping. In some ways, it’s exacerbating it.” Here’s how new tech can enable bad hiring practices, according to Stross.

Talking to a child about money may sound unnecessary, or even daunting. But kids can typically grasp concepts about money as early as age 6, experts say, and research shows that they form permanent money habits as early as age 7. Learning how to manage money and plan for their financial future can help ensure their future financial and overall well-being. That’s why parents need to start teaching their kids financial literacy early, says Alexa von Tobel, the Harvard University-trained founder and managing partner of venture fund Inspired Capital.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's recent letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders includes some parenting advice based on his own estate planning tactics.

Have you ever ended a friendship over money issues? We asked people in New York City and Los Angeles and here’s what they said. Find out how many Americans say they’ve ended a friendship over money: https://cnb.cx/4eNLV20

In 2012, Claudia Chee graduated from college and got a job at Google. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is consistently ranked as one of the most expensive places in the U.S., and her parents always said that renting was a waste of money. So after Chee finished school, she says it just made sense for her to live at home while she got on her feet. Even though she planned to get her own place at some point, Chee ended up living at home for 12 years. When she moved out this past December, she had $400,000 saved and invested from both her 9-to-5 income and earnings as an entrepreneur. While it wasn’t the path Chee anticipated, she says it was one of the best decisions she ever made. Here’s why she doesn't regret it.

Crush Your Money Goals founder and self-made millionaire Bernadette Joy is an introvert. Here's how she successfully promotes herself and her work online.

Ryan Hogue started his first side hustle on Amazon in 2017 for $0. At the time, he was working two jobs and freelancing, and was excited about the potential to make some passive income by selling print on demand t-shirts with Amazon Merch on Demand. The Amazon side hustle ultimately allowed him to leave his day job in 2020. What began as one experimental side hustle has grown into 10 income streams that now bring in $49,000 a month in passive income. Here are some of his favorite $0 side hustles and his best advice for getting started in 2024.

Jason Nelson has always loved playing music. The 30-year-old, Hillsborough, New Jersey, native started playing piano and saxophone in elementary school and continued playing in various school bands through high school. While getting his degree in marketing at Rutgers University, Nelson started playing pop covers for his friends and fellow classmates at parties and even outside on campus. In late 2018, a year and a half after he graduated and after he started a career in marketing at Barnes & Noble College, a friend asked Nelson if he would play piano during the cocktail hour at her sister’s wedding in March 2019. The bride also wanted him to play saxophone as the couple walked down the staircase for their grand entrance. Nelson had so much fun playing sax alongside the DJ, he ended up playing the entire reception as well — despite only getting paid for the cocktail hour and entrance song. “I just remember being up there with the bride, the groom, all the bridesmaids,” he says, “playing along to pop songs and being like, ‘wow, I can do this.’” Nelson has since built a bustling career as a live performer, playing piano and saxophone at “an average of 80 events a year,” he says, mostly weddings. In 2023 alone, he grossed more than $176,000. Here’s how he built his musical business.

Steve Adcock left his corporate job in 2016 at age 35, having saved about $900,000. These days, the 42-year-old remains work-optional, and his net worth has grown to about $1.3 million. It’s safe to say that over the course of the last couple of decades, he’s gotten a lot of things right when it comes to his money. There is one thing, however, he says he wishes he knew in his 20s that could have made him wealthier, faster.

David Niles will go to great lengths, or depths, to save food from going to waste: Sometimes, the 63-year-old goes dumpster diving near his home in Brooklyn, New York. The far more sanitary digital version, Niles says, is an app called Too Good To Go, where retailers like restaurants and bakeries sell “surprise bags” of leftover food at discounted prices, usually between $3.99 to $9.99 apiece in the U.S. He’s spent nearly $10,000 to pick up almost 2,000 surprise bags on his bicycle over the past four years, he says. Too Good To Go, a Copenhagen-based company founded in 2015, brought in just under $162 million in revenue in U.S. dollars last year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It — primarily by taking a cut of each surprise bag purchase and collecting annual membership fees from retailers. In the U.S., the company typically takes $1.79 per bag and charges an annual membership fee of $89, a company spokesperson says. Publicly, Too Good To Go’s mission is to help reduce global food waste, a problem that costs the world $1 trillion per year, the World Bank estimates. The company has yet to enjoy a profitable year, instead reinvesting its cash flow into expanding geographically, adding new retailers to its app, building new support offices and acquiring other startups, says CEO Mette Lykke.